Over at (Notes on) Politics, Theory & Photography Jim discusses a very interesting case of how a photographer carefully choosing a certain viewpoint changes the overall picture - and its impact - quite a bit. And then, in the final story - which appeared in the most prominent newspaper in the US, the image was cropped, again changing the impact of the photo. It’s interesting how most people would probably find something like this not problematic, but then a photographer who edits out some feet in a photo taken at some high-school sports event in the middle of nowhere gets fired for altering his photography. Make no mistake, photographers have always used cropping and framing - after all, that is part of photography - but I think it’s worthwhile to keep this in mind when getting so agitated about “digital manipulations”.
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Someone emailed to me tell me about Robin Collyer who in the mid-1990s, did work similar to Gregor Graf’s and Matt Siber’s.
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“That Leni Riefenstahl was rather a monster is not really in dispute. And if it ever was, two new biographies provide enough information to nail her.” Thus starts a review of two new Riefenstahl biographies by Ian Buruma. As a true bonus, The New York Review of Books has also made available Susan Sontag’s famous 1975 review of Riefenstahl’s ‘The Last of the Nuba’; a fascinating read, despite, given some new revelations, some minor inaccuracies concerning some of the fact - back in 1975, Riefenstahl was still alive and quite actively working on distorting the facts.
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Those interested in the work of Elinor Carucci can find a good article about her work here. Update (24 May): Jim at (Notes on) Politics, Theory & Photography comments on Elinor Carucci’s work: “This sort of exhibitionism strikes me a wholly self-indulgent and completely uninteresting.”
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After reading this interesting article by Arthur Danto about the MoMA Jeff Wall show it occured to me what really confused me about discussions like this one (and many others I’ve seen recently): Reviewers and writers often spend considerable time on explaining why certain photography in fact isn’t really photography but, instead, painting or cinema. It’s almost like these reviewers and writers restrict photography to something that, in essence, is really quite mundane, and whenver a photographer falls outside of that mundane, then it’s not photography any longer. So we are told we are looking at a photo by Jeff Wall, but it isn’t really a photo, because a photo can’t possibly have the complexity that we see (some of the discussion of Andreas Gursky’s work falls into the same category). I can’t accept this, and I think part of it might be a generational issue: I never grew up thinking that photography’s role is restricted to the mundane.
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How a Photo Can Ruin Your Life sounds like one of those headlines from the local 10pm “news” (“This man now sporting a beard - tonight at ten”), but in fact it does address quite a few very serious issues: “The FBI has issued blanket requests to photo processing labs and computer repair shops in some cities to be on the lookout for pictures of kids in compromising positions, urging them to call the authorities whether they’re sure or not about a picture’s legality. The big national chains that have photo processing labs […] have company policies that compel them to notify the police about any criminal activity they see in customers’ photos. And when children are involved, they’re more than willing to err on the side of caution.”
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If you’re surprised to see this cover of the “New York Post” on this blog, you will be even more surprised by the following account, written by my friend Richard Renaldi. Richard had told me about the basics of the story a little while ago, and I had offered him to publish his account on my blog. This morning, I received an email with Richard’s side of the story, to be found below the fold (I added a few links).
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Over at Whats the jackanory?, I found this very interesting discussion with Martin Parr (about 44MB) - do yourself a favour, and check it out!
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I haven’t read Jim’s full piece, yet, but the abstract sounds quite interesting: “Vivid presentations may, by turning widespread social-political-economic problems into stories of melodramatic human interest, actually undermine the capacity of individuals and organizations to take remedial or preventive action.”
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I found the following over at Fotostoria. At the end of World War II, Hitler’s Ministry of Public Information and Propaganda order to produce photographic records of art works that couldn’t be moved to secure locations to avoid them being damaged during the war. This lead to photographs being taken of important buildings (churches, castles, …) and their interiors, using Agfa’s colour slide technology. Since the slides started to physically deteriorate, at the end of the 1990s, efforts were made to digitize and preserve them. The digital archive is publicly available.
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Over at i heart photograph, Laurel links to Adriaan van der Ploeg’s series of gamers (“LMIRL”), which, of course, isn’t the only such series. I had earlier linked to Shauna Frischkorn (see a sample above), Todd Deutsch, and Philip Toledano.
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Thinking about it, photography really is like candy, isn’t it? You got the intensely sweet stuff that you tend to overindulge in and that’s really not good for you (think cotton candy), the classic stuff that many people tend to forget about (think Necco Wafers) or the simple classic stuff that will never go out of fashion (think Peeps), you got hard candy and soft candy, etc. etc. etc. But that kind of photography would be what candy? Maybe, just to get the (a) ball rolling, a lot of the Düsseldorf school stuff would be salty licorice, quite the acquired taste, yet ultimately really good for you. Anyone?
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The April 2007 issue of Modern Painters magazine is a must-buy for everyone interested in contemporary photography. It features an article about Andreas Gursky (and many of his new photos), which you might or might not find interesting (at least it’s a thought provoking), and an interview with one of my favourite Chinese photographers, Wang Qingsong.
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Two very interesting interviews, the first one with Stephen Shore, the other one with Wolfgang Tillmans.
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You know, given all the fuss people are making about how easily digital photos can be manipulated and how important it is to get the actual photo (see a recent case here, with some background here), I wonder how we should now treat cases like the alteration of the iconic Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange (that page gives you both versions, and note that it’s pre-digital and quite hard to see). Most people will probably not change their mind about Migrant Mother, and there are good reasons why. Maybe that can teach us something about how to treat contemporary cases?
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The new (Spring 2007) issue of SeeSaw Magazine is out, and it features my conversation with David Maisel.
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Following up on an older post and some of the reactions it generated (I found this here): The main problem with many of these comments is not that people like macro photos of flowers or HDR photography.
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Andrew Glickman sent me an email about the appeal in the lawsuit against Philip-Lorca diCorcia, which had been dismissed earlier. You can find the appellate court’s decision here.
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“An appeals court has ruled against family members of an Oklahoma National Guard member whose open casket was photographed by Harper’s Magazine. […] ‘While it could be argued that publication of [the photo] without prior authorization was in poor taste … it does not constitute an actionable claim under any of the theories advanced by plaintiffs,’ the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on March 23 in Showler v. Harper’s Magazine.” - story
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I never thought I’d ever buy an issue of W magazine, but then I once bought one of “Vanity Fair” (for the articles - to use that old excuse). As you might have probably heard, the most recent issue of W contains a spread shot by Alec Soth, and you should really buy the magazine for those pages. The photography is simply exquisite. On his blog, Alec just posted answers to some of the questions about the work - an excellent example of how a blog can transform the interaction between a photographer and photo enthusiasts, or - probably more precisely - how a photographer, happy to interact with photo enthusiasts, can contribute to making the medium even more popular through his blog.
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A little while ago, someone sent me an email and asked me whether I could tell him what made a photo great. I wrote back that I had been thinking about it (so far, so good) and that I was in the process of writing an entry about it (well…). In principle, it’s probably the easiest question to ask. We know a great photo when we see one. But then describing what it is that makes it great is an entirely different matter. And, of course, different people pick different photos. So I thought it would be quite silly if I wrote an entry about this all on my own and pretended I was some kind of authority. Instead, I emailed as many friends, fellow bloggers, and photographers as possible - looking through my ‘contacts’ - and asked them instead, the idea being that, in the end, it is probably the sum of what every single person has to say that will answer the question “What makes a photo great?” - or maybe not (which would make it all the more interesting). Find behind the fold what people wrote back. I am most grateful for each and every answer I got, and I hope you’ll get as much of a kick out of this as I did.
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“Celebrated US photographer of the American elite Annie Leibovitz is no stranger to glamorizing the rich and powerful, and despite a long-term relationship with Susan Sontag - one of the best theorists and intellectual minds on political art, photography, and representations of violence and suffering, Leibovitz seems bent on shirking off the criticisms of her companion even after her death. This month’s Vanity Fair cover is no exception, and in fact is one of Leibovitz’s most irresponsible and polluting pieces of art to date” - story
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Commenting on a photo by Joel Peter Witkin, which shows a reenactment of Theodore Gericault’s La Zattera della medusa with (a fake) GW Bush and others, David Schonauer writes that “WitkinÂ’s image is one-sided and ruthless in its sarcasm.” and asks “Is it fair for an artist to take on such subjects in such a way?” Jim Johnson responds by asking “Are we supposed to believe that ‘real’ or ‘true’ artists don’t have political views (or, that they at least carefully segregate any such views they might embrace the from their ‘art’)?” And indeed, it’s very hard to see why artists should be apolitical. Artists are citizens of a country, and as citizens they have the right - and some might argue the obligation - to make political statements. If some people do not agree with that political statement that’s part of the process, that’s the essence of democracy. As is the ruffling of feathers.
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The latest issue (no. 70) of Colors Magazine deserves to be check out (and it seems most of it is available online). It “is the work of two young Chinese artists, Chen Jiaojiao and Peng Yangjun. A creative duo from Fabrica, they came up with the concept, photos, design and text for the issue.” (when I first came across the new edition, the website had a bunch of problems - it looks like it’s fine now, but if it doesn’t load properly come back later - it’s worth the wait).
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I’m not the biggest fan of Charlie Rose. I find it quite irritating how he often appears to be patronizing his subjects (when he’s not treating them like they are mentally somewhat challenged, which he did with Henri Cartier-Bresson). But I think this show might be of interest for many people, since it contains a segment with Taryn Simon.
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After I had a discussion with my friend Dylan about whether b/w would make a return or not and/or what the future role of b/w would be, over at Tim Atherton’s blog (which you should check out if you haven’t done so already!) I found a link to an article entitled The New Color: The Return of Black-and-White. It’s quite an interesting read.
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“It is an image of war that the [British] Ministry of Defence (MoD) never wanted to see published: an intimate family photograph of a British soldier killed in Iraq which, taken with nearly 100 others, forms the official portrait of the conflict by the Turner Prize-winning artist Steve McQueen. As the finished work, For Queen and Country, was unveiled in Manchester last night, McQueen said it had been completed in the face of two years’ opposition from the MoD, which had offered only a limited glimpse of the conflict, refused him access to the families of British casualties and asked why he could not produce ‘a landscape’ portrait instead.” - story (also see this story)
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“The World Press Photo of the Year 2006 shows upscale young Lebanese men and women visiting a bombed-out Beirut neighborhood like disaster tourists - or at least that’s what everyone thought. Bissan Maroun, one of those featured in the photograph, told Spiegel Online the true story.”
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Time and again I’ve come across someone saying that there was something wrong if a photographer was spending a lot of time and effort on a single, staged photo. I’m sure you’ve seen this kind of criticism, it’s typically brought up when people talk about Gregory Crewdson’s work, and it’s bound to come up again now that there’s a big Jeff Wall show at MoMA (see this most recent article to get some background about Jeff Wall).
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There’s a long article about Jeff Wall in this Sunday’s edition of The New York Times Magazine.
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“A federal appeals court affirmed a decision in favor of artist Jeff Koons, saying he did not violate copyright law when he made a painting that incorporated part of a photograph. Photographer Andrea Blanch sued for copyright infringement after seeing Koons’s painting ‘Niagara,’ which shows a pair of women’s legs similar to a photograph Blanch shot for Allure magazine for a 2000 feature on nail polish.” (story) For this very relevant topic (which, I believe, will get ever more important) also see the article “On the Rights of Molotov Man” in the February 2007 edition of Harper’s Magazine, sadly enough not available online. However, available online, a comment on this case by art guru Edward Winkleman, who himself points to this excellent article (I hope I got all my linking bases covered now - and then, in a few months, Slate.com will produce another feature about this, which, needless to say, will ignore all online activity).
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This time, the World Press Photo award didn’t go to a photo of a crying mother (see this post). When I saw the winner, I thought “Wait, I’ve seen that somewhere”, and in fact I have. Have a look at this photo by Lauren Greenfield. Funny similarity.
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Much can be said about the art of photographic portraiture, and - as always - it’s probably best to look at photos instead of spending a lot of time on theory (even though there should be - and, time and opportunity allowing, hopefully will be - time for that, too). This past weekend, the New York Times Magazine contained a section entitled Great Performers, which was/is noteworthy because of the photography. When you look at the images, you’ll see quite an interesting mix of portraiture, with some quite amazing work and some that is.. well, gimmicky and thus quite forgettable. Have a look!
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You’ve seen it here first (hey, this is a cutting-edge blog after all!), now at Slate.com: Can Photographers Be Plagiarists?
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“Nearly two decades after their first collaboration launched a 14-year-old Kate Moss into fashion super stardom, Corrine Day’s challenge was to present a fresh portrait of one of the world’s most photographed women.” - story (It would be quite interesting to discuss what is really meant by “fresh” here, and what misconceptions might have been involved here.)
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“The World Press Photo of the Year has followed some predictable patterns. Typically, the judges choose an image that symbolizes a crisis or disaster by showing a lone suffering individual. A look at the World Press Photo 50-year gallery of winners shows that certain motifs have won numerous times. Child (in distress, in danger or dead): 11 prizes; Mother with child: 7; Grieving woman: 6” - story
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Chris Jordan invited people to comment on his new work “Running the Numbers” over at the Large Format Photography Forum. You should probably look at the ensuing errr… “discussion” yourself (and if you want to comment, do it over there); for me, it was interesting (and sad at the same time) to see how many people would either write “fantastic” or something like “just predictable liberal dogma”. Are there any nuanced opinions left?
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On his blog, Todd Deutsch discusses photography books, especially self-published one. Check it out!
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Last month, I went to a photography show at the Netherlands Architecture Institute with dozens of contemporary photographers’ works shown (unfortunately, weirdly omitting many North American photographer who should have been in there, but that’s another issue). With a few exceptions, the prints were all huge (and by huge I mean literally huge), and I noticed how we’ve almost come to expect something like this from shows now. However, I also noticed that many of the photos did not work very well because they were too large (just for the record, Hester Keijser and Norman Beierle, who were with me, agreed; btw, Hester is the fabulous Mrs Deane).
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The “Photographers of the Year” part of this blog has become a bit of a tradition here. Even though it is quite popular to compile lists like this one, I have never thought of them as something that people should take too seriously, because - I’m sure - someone else’s list will look quite different. But since this blog is quite biased towards what I like or, at least, find interesting, I think there is nothing wrong with me picking the photographers whose work has impressed me the most over the past year (oh, and that’s really it: one juror, you can’t submit work, no prize - what kind of lousy competition is this?). So without further ado, here they are, in alphabetical order. As you will see, if you want to find out more about the photographers, there is an interview with each and every one of them (and that tells you something how I look for people to interview and not how I compile the list).
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Around this past Christmas, the Boston Globe featured a story about ailing veterans (bug me not) on its front page, and I found the image they used quite remarkable. Unfortunately, the version online is a bit small, and in print, the colours looked somewhat different, too. In print, the room has a reddish glow from the lights inside the room, and both the TV and the open door are brightly offset from that. The interesting thing about the image - at least for me - is that it is a confluence of individual images, with the veteran in his wheelchair, whose pose and obvious suffering strikingly resemble those seen in classic religious paintings, in the center, and left and right, almost like panels used in the past, you see a decorated Christmas tree, whose colourful cheerfulness feels out of place, and a TV showing an still that uncannily evokes the images produced by Richard Prince from cigarette ads (like, for example, this one). I couldn’t stop staring at the photo.
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No, this is not an entry about the conference I went to last week (even though that was about Cosmic Voids). Instead, this is something that I have come across quite frequently, unfortunately way too often. For example, today I was looking for links to the work of Corinne Noordenbos, a Dutch photographer whose portraits of Alzheimer patient deserve wider exposure. I did my usual Google search and came back empty-handed (and lest I get emails, yes, I do look at more than just the first page of results). Maybe I should add another category here, namely the category of people I’d link to if there actually was at least a single web page to link to.
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“I was so drunk I could barely stand up […] My organs were so messed up from drinking I was in physical pain. I couldn’t zip up my pants because my stomach was killing me. I didnÂ’t even realize I wasn’t wearing underwear until the magazine came out. […] I had to explain to my grandmother that this was the definitive photographer of the 20th century.” - Chan Marshall about that infamous photo by Richard Avedon.
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This interview with Henri Cartier-Bresson is worth watching, and, I’m sure, every viewer will find his or her own reasons why (this is, of course, taken from Alec’s blog, but I wouldn’t have watched it (I have little - if any - patience with the medium of TV - if Alec hadn’t mentioned it again, in an email - thank you!).
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In a recent post, Alec Soth discusses why he prefers to see people in photos, instead of looking at deserted land= or cityscapes or architectural interiors (Alec, there are people in Gursky’s 99 Cent, though!). The reason why I personally disagree is neatly summarized by Simon Norfolk in the interview that I linked to just a couple of days ago, while discussing photos of radar installations: “I think people kind of gobble up the photograph. They become what the photograph is. For me, people just aren’t that important; it’s about this panoptic process, it’s about this kind of eavesdropping, it’s about this ability to look into every aspect of our lives. And I think if you put people into these pictures, I don’t know – it would draw viewers away. It would draw viewers into the story of the people.” (emphases from the original, not mine)
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There’s an excellent interview with Simon Norfolk over at bldgblog: “The thing that pisses me off about so much modern art is that it carries no politics – it has nothing that it wants to say about the world. Without that passion, that political drive, to a piece of work – and I mean politics here very broadly – how can you ever really evaluate it? At the end of the day, I don’t think my politics are very popular right now, but what I would like to hear is what are your politics? Because if you’re not going to tell me, how can we ever possibly have an argument about whether you’re a clever person, your work is great, your work is crap, your art is profound, your art is trivial…?” Also check out the feature over at lensculture, which also contains samples of a conversation with Simon. (updated entry)
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I usually do not advertise individual shows (because otherwise, I would be quite busy only doing that), but here, I am going to make an exception, because a) the exception proves the rule, b) the photographer (Brian Ulrich) is a really nice guy, and c) the work shown (Thrift) is quite dear to me (I am mildly obsessed with the mirror Universe of consumerism, thrift stores). The show is at Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago IL, from December 1, 2006 – January 6, 2007, with the opening reception (go and meet Brian!) on Friday, December 1st, 5:00 – 7:30 p.m.
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Seen on Metafilter: How extensively are professional modeling photos retouched? Highlights (if that’s the word to use): FluidEffect (under “portfolio”, then “before/after”), Brian Dilg’s work, Glenn Feron’s work (especially recommended for those males who still think those android women in magazines are real) and - yes, you will have nightmares tonight! - Becky Carter’s work.
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The November 30, 2006 edition of The New York Review of Books contains an article by author John Updike about Robert Polidori’s newly released After the Flood. Given my unease about the flood (no pun intended really) of fine-art photography from the region affected by Hurricane Katrina I was hoping that maybe someone like John Updike would be able to help me out a little bit. Unfortunately, I am not so sure that actually happened.
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If you’re curious who won the Hey, Hot Shot! competition this Fall, check out the list of winners here.
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