There are two must-read blog posts, both filled to the brim with links, about Haiti and photography there. dvafoto have this post, with some thoughts about photojournalism and its role. And Pete has a huge post, telling you where to look if you want to donate, see photos, see in-depth coverage, get some background, …
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dvafoto have a great interview with photographer Jeremy M. Lange about his project “The War At Home” - make sure to check it out!
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The above photo, taken by Sandy Carson, is the winning image of Picture Black Friday. Congratulations, Sandy! Stay tuned for further updates about the runners-up etc. very soon!
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There is a brand-new photography MFA program I have become involved with, the Hartford Art School Limited-Residency MFA Program. Limited residency here means that unlike in other MFA programs, the photographers work independently, meeting with their advisers and teachers for an intensive on-campus session in the Summer (in Hartford), plus for off-campus sessions in the Fall and Spring. The latter will happen in locations such as, for example, New York City or Berlin/Leipzig (there will be others, yet to be confirmed) - places where there is a strong photography presence, and there will be direct interactions with practitioners there, as well as with advisers and teachers who will travel along.
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Today, I came across a post that made me remember my earlier comments on photo books: Alberto Hernandez’s Hybrid Novels (found here). “A hybrid novel can be seen as a hybrid image-text novel, not a children’s book, graphic novel/comic or gift book but a book where written text and graphic devices such as illustration, photography, information graphics or typographic treatments may interject in order to hold a readers’ interest, adding interactiveness to the book and also giving the printed page a multidimensional visual surface.”
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Great video interview with Roger Ballen over at Lens Culture
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Unless You Will is a new(ish) magazine, now presenting its third edition: “Sometimes a photo can evoke high feelings of emotion or nostalgia and in a roundabout way it becomes a means of expressing ourselves as photographers. UYW strives to showcase photographers who add layers of meaning and capture these feelings.” Not new, but re-designed and vastly improved (away from a cluttered Flash site to a simple and classy look): Fraction Magazine, now out with its issue ten. Check them out!
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One of my finds of a trip to Troubadour Books (which might be the closest you can get to being inside Borges’ Library of Babel; see a couple of posts about Troubadour here and here) is a book called “The Art of Retouching and Improving Negatives and Prints” (ThARINP), which, and this I learned just now, is available at the Internet Archive (Needless to say, I prefer my 1948 copy). ThARINP tells you how photographers Photoshopped portraits before they had computers.
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I’ve noted that information about independently produced photo books and zines (publications by small publishers or self-published work that is not available via Amazon.com or chain book shops) is often hard to come by. When I go to shops specializing in photo books - such as Dashwood in NYC - the sheer number of such publications I have never heard about always makes me a little sad, because I know there are so many publications I never heard about. (updated below)
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Via Mrs Deane comes Photobibliothek, a German-language page (based in Switzerland), which, however, is easy to use even for people who don’t speak German: Simply click your way through the images on that page (the names and years are obvious). There also is the Artist Book Database, which is very simple to use.
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A couple of days ago, Carmen Winant emailed me about a collective show in memory of Larry Sultan. I suggested making the call public, and the California College of the Arts agreed to it. Find the call for submissions below. This is a great opportunity to honour a photographer who will be sorely missed.
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Daniel Gordon’s collages cover the somewhat disturbing part of the spectrum - probably not safe for work.
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The current edition of Visura Magazine features Larry Fink’s The Beats - something you don’t want to miss.
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Chris Hedges wrote an article about two photography books (Peter van Agtmael’s “2nd Tour Hope I don’t Die” and Lori Grinker’s “Afterwar: Veterans From a World in Conflict”) entitled The Pictures of War You Aren’t Supposed to See. In response, Jim Johnson wrote a very smart post (where I found Chris’ original article), noting that “Hedges neglects at least two crucial matters. The first is whether war photographs might have the effect he supposes. […] the second […] is whether even if photographs had the requisite effects it would or could matter to the underlying reality of war and collective violence.” Two important posts, which touch upon many aspects of what war photography might be able to do, what its limitations might be, and what those limitations might arise from.
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I suppose some of April Gertler’s collages (there is no link to the “collage” category, so make sure to look at the other bodies of work, too) are not strictly collages, since they use more than cut-up images and glue. So purists can call them “mixed media” - the rest of us can just enjoy the work.
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Looking through Jeffrey Meyer’s collages will keep you busy for the rest of the day. I’m not sure I like everything, but some very good stuff.
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John Stezaker’s might be the “simplest” collage art: He combines two images, to create a new one. Even though I don’t think this approach always works, it usually leads to startling effects.
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When artist Dash Snow died last year, I was wondering what it was that made his art so great. I never received an answer to that (go figure!). Various people mentioned that his collages were the best work he did. What that actually says I don’t know, maybe you can figure it out.
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“At first glance the new issue of Germany’s Brigitte looks just like a normal fashion magazine. Attractive, perfectly made-up young women show off stylish clothes from labels like French Connection, Escada and H&M, glancing flirtatiously over their shoulders, pouting their lips or staring pensively into the distance. But something about the photos looks different. A prominent tummy here and noticeable wrinkles there reveal that these are not size-zero Amazons straight from the catwalk, but real women. As of the January issue, which hit the newsstands Saturday, Brigitte will use only amateur models in its fashion shoots.” - story
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Mark Boellaard’s collage art is deceptively simple, often just using a few new elements on top of an image to achieve often startling effects.
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Ofer Wolberger is well known online, in part because of his wonderful blog. In addition to photography, his website also contains sets of collages, divided into Anatomy of a Collage and Collage Portraits.
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I have long been fascinated by collages, and I thought I’ll have a week showing only collage work. Collages, of course, usually involve photography (so there’s a connection with the usual focus of the blog), and at least in principle they’re easy to make. All you need are a bunch of images, scissors and some glue. That doesn’t fully explain why collages might be the most underrated art form, though. After all, to take a photograph all you have to do is to aim your camera and press the shutter. There definitely is something peculiar about collages, and I’ve collected some artists to feature this week. The selection is in no way supposed to be definitive - I’m sure there are artists that I missed. Regular (“pure” photography) posting will resume this Friday - with new photo book reviews. In the meantime, enjoy the strange worlds of collage art!
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Not to be missed, right here.
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Remember how I talked about Mark Steinmetz’s South Central, the third book of the (actually not a) trilogy that also includes South East and Greater Atlanta? You can’t really get South Central any longer - or so I thought. Not so, several readers told me via email (thank you!): Light Work still has some signed copies!
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One of America’s finest social documentary photographers, Milton Rogovin, is celebrating his 100th birthday today - Happy Birthday!
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Just before the Christmas Eve Mass 2009, a woman with apparent mental problems jumped a barrier and tried to reach Pope Benedikt who was moving towards the altar at St. Peter’s Basilica. Bodyguards managed to tackle the woman, but in the ensuing scrum, the Pope ended up falling to the ground. It was probably inevitable that video footage of the event would make the news - taken by someone a few rows away from the event. Stills from the low-resolution movie were used in news articles to show the event, and I was struck by the similarities with the famous Zapruder film.
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A while ago, I was wondering why there weren’t more collectives of photographers working together. Today, I came across Dream Boats Collective - four photographers, based in four different cities, pooling together resources.
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Here’s an interesting post by DLK Collection, with a lot of statistics and this general intro: “According to our tally, we wrote in-depth reviews for a total of 173 photography shows at galleries and museums this year. With the notable exception of the tireless Vince Aletti of the New Yorker whom we doubt we can ever match, we likely reviewed more photography shows in the past 12 months than any other publication on the planet.” (I personally wouldn’t compare Mr Aletti’s typically rather short reviews with DLK’s way more detailed ones, but then that’s just me). Clearly, DLK have made an invaluable contribution to the photo-blogging scene, and I’m looking forward to more to come!
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I’m hearing more and more complaints about pretty badly done digital postproduction of large-format photographs, often by very well-known photographers. Just this morning, I received another email with such a complaint. Those who follow this blog closely will remember a recent exhibition review where I bemoaned it myself. (updated below)
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I’m sure everybody else noticed this, too, but Greater Atlanta by Mark Steinmetz is the only book you can find in Alec Soth’s, 5B4’s and my list of the best photobooks 2009.
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A complaint I hear a lot about contemporary photography is that the sizes of photographs are inflated. I think a discussion about print sizes certainly can be - maybe should be - had, but it might disappoint all those bemoaning large sizes. I thought I’d write down some of my thinking about this; hopefully, someone will disagree and publish her/his thoughts.
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The first (and only) time I went to the New Museum, and of course I was snapping some photos with my little digital camera (mind you, not of the utterly forgettable art on display, but of the building). A “security” guard approached me and told me “You can’t take pictures here,” and I almost responded “Oh yeah? I just did.” But I ended up being a good boy and put my camera away. This experience will be familiar to many people taking photos, and a new post over at the Smithsonian talks in length about the various cases (the UK seems to have become a particularly bad place for photographers; see Michael’s new post).
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Incredibly sad news this morning: “Larry Sultan, a highly influential California photographer whose 1977 collaboration, ‘Evidence’ - a book made up solely of pictures culled from vast industrial and government archives - became a watershed in the history of art photography, died on Sunday at his home in Greenbrae, Calif. He was 63.” - full obit
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Marc wrote a response to my post about photo books, so this seems like a good opportunity for me to expand what I was thinking about a little.
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“A new collection of images by Manhattan photographer Yasmine Chatila is causing quite a buzz throughout the city. […] Seems as thought Chatila sees an open window as an invitation to snap what’s going on in front of it; she doesn’t get permission to take the photos.” PDNPule writes. Gasp! Oh, no, she didn’t! Well… Wasn’t there something just like this, about ten years ago maybe? Also b/w, a bit grainy, if I remember it correctly… Problem is I can’t remember the name of the photographer (anyone?), but I’m really certain it also had something to do with naked people shot through their windows. Which, unless I misremember things, would make these kinds of buzzes appear once a decade, almost as if they’re art-world cicadas… Update: Readers Don Hamerman, Mike Lim, and David Simonton reminded me what I was thinking of (thank you!), it’s Merry Alpern’s Dirty Windows (many photos here). Update: And here is a broader look at “Voyeuristic art photography”. I would probably add Alison Jackson to the list.
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Having just published my list, here is Jeff’s.
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It’s that time of the year again, so without further ado, these are the photo books that impressed me the most this past year. I’m listing them in no particular order, with the exception of the very first one: jpegs by Thomas Ruff. Cutting-edge work, challenging the way we think about photographs, presented beautifully in a large (but not too large) book, maybe in the best possible way (since I don’t think the work gains anything from blowing it up even larger and hanging it in a gallery or museum). It’s tempting to dismiss this work as too simple or too obvious or too cerebral, but I don’t think it qualifies for any of these dismissals.
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Todd Walker has a response to my post about photo books. Magazines as the answer to why photo book publishers shun experimentation? I’m not convinced at all. I’d like to think there are publishers (or photographers) who want to aim a little higher.
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I talked about doing something good while shopping for photographs the other day. Turns out, if you want to get a truly unique photo book and contribute to a good cause, there are options, too. Alec Soth just produced Allowing Flowers, designed to exclusively support CommonBond Communities, which is raising money to create “4,000 affordable living spaces that over 6,000 people can call home sweet home.” There an interview with Alec about the project (and more) here.
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I have been thinking about photography books a lot lately (for various reasons), and I have been noticing that there isn’t much of a variety in photo books, is there? Basically, you have monographs - bodies of work by one artist, and you sometimes have books about collections or museum shows. As much as I love looking at the books produced these days (not all of them, of course), it’s just amazing to see that there does not look as if there was a publisher willing to take a risk (at least not one of the big ones), willing to do something completely different. I know, it’s a tough and expensive business - but in principle, the medium photo book could offer so much more than, well, just monographs or books about collections/shows.
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It’s that time of the year again, and if you’re thinking that there surely must be some affordable photography around to get for someone, here are a couple of suggestions. Why not combine buying original art works with doing something good? collect.give is a new site whose photographers “have pledged to donate 100% of the profits from their print sales to worthwhile causes they support.” And there is Fraction Magazine’s print sale - see the individual posts on their blog - where “one hundred percent of the sale goes to the photographer.”
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There’s a great interview with Jon Edwards here.
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W. Eugene Smith was one of the greatest photojournalists of the 20th Century, but I think he would probably have a hard time if he was still alive and decided to enter World Press Photo, which just decreed that only “retouching which conforms to currently accepted standards in the industry is allowed.”
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Here’s part two of my personal selection of Ostkreuz work (find part one here).
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This just in via PDN’s blog: “Amsterdam-based World Press Photo has announced the call for entries for its 2010 contest, adding an interesting new rule: ‘The content of an image must not be altered. Only retouching which conforms to currently accepted standards in the industry is allowed. The jury is the ultimate arbiter of these standards and may at its discretion request the original, unretouched file as recorded by the camera or an untoned scan of the negative or slide.’ […] Now, the hard part: What does ‘Currently accepted standards’ mean?” Just like Daryl, I’d like to know, too!
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Today, I took the time to look at German photo agency Ostkreuz’s re-designed page, and I noticed that it is very easy to look through the different stories, on a photographer by photographer basis. So I thought I’d go through the lists and select my person favourites, stories with great images or stories that, well, tell an interesting story. Here’s the first part (the second part will follow probably early next week).
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I’m very impressed by Zed Nelson’s Love Me, a body of work centered on our idea of beauty and the various consequences, in particular since the work was done not just in one country, but across the world.
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Wonderful set of posts by Tyler Green about Edward Burtynsky’s ‘Oil’ at the Corcoran; here’s part 2.
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“Every year, Black Friday rings in the yearly holiday shopping season, with hundreds of thousands of people getting up before sunrise to queue for bargains and deals, and stores being besieged by their own customers. […] With Picture Black Friday, we’re hoping to get a wide array of images that tell the full story of this ‘Only in America’ event and not the image that is cultivated and packaged by the media to perpetuate the frenzy and sell more advertising. We will be accepting submissions for one week, beginning on Sunday November 29th through December 6th. We ask that photographers submit up to 5 of their best images of and about Black Friday. […] Our jurors will then choose from that selection the best image(s) and the chosen photographer(s) will be featured on the Conscientious photoblog as well as toomuchchocolate.org.”
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(© Ute Mahler/Ostkreuz) Twenty years ago, the Berlin Wall fell - an event for which there has been no shortage of coverage. The fall of the Wall also effectively meant an end for the GDR (East Germany), which soon would re-unite with West Germany to form today’s Germany. Berlin’s city magazine Zitty used the occasion to speak with Ute and Werner Mahler, two photographers who had lived and worked in East Germany, and who co-founded the photography agency Ostkreuz in the early 1990s. Photography from four East German Ostkreuz members has recently been published in Ostzeit. When I read the interview I thought it would be of interest for more people than just the Germans. In the interview, Ute and Werner talk about life as photographers in East Germany, and what photography meant for them - and their audience. However, there was no English version of the interview, so I approached Ostkreuz and Zitty and asked whether I could translate the interview and re-publish it here. My thanks to everybody who made this possible, in particular to Ute and Werner, but also to Ostkreuz’s Jörg Brüggemann, Andrea Schewe, Christoph Wilde, and Zitty’s Daniel Boese and Claudia Wahjudi. The original piece, an interview by Daniel Boese and Claudia Wahjudi with Ute and Werner Mahler, was published in Berlin’s city magazine Zitty, 23/2009.
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