I have noted an increase in what I call Lord of the Rings photography. This kind of photography is one of the ugly spin-offs of digital photography. It’s fairly easy to spot, because people or landscapes suddenly don’t look like normal people or landscapes any longer but, instead, like characters or scenes from any one of those effect-ridden, yet ultimately utterly forgettable Hollywood movies (like Lord of the Rings). I don’t know what planet you live on, but the one I am sharing with lots of other people is not populated by old people with Grand Canyon-style features or girls who look like they’re out of Carnegie-Mellon University’s robotics lab.
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“The New York Times Magazine cover is the Charlize Theron of magazine publishing: Famous people become ugly in the name of art. Former Virginia governor and centrist Democratic Presidential hopeful Mark Warner learned the dangers of posing for The Times Magazine this week when he landed on the cover, photographed by Alexei Hay. […] Reached by phone the afternoon of March 14, Times Magazine editor Gerald Marzorati said he hadnÂ’t heard any complaints about the image. Shortly after, however, Mr. Marzorati called back to say that heÂ’d learned that the colors changed during film processing. According to Times Magazine photo editor Kathy Ryan, Mr. Hay used an infrared chrome film, originally designed for 70-millimeter movie cameras, that changes hues when processed in the darkroom.” - story
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My provocation about statements lead to quite interesting results. As it turns out, most of the people who did not agree with me simply didn’t understand what I was saying (whether on purpose or not). Just to make this clear, I did not say that there are no photographers with a preconception about what they want to shoot. In the light of my own photographic projects - all of which are based on very clear a priori ideas - this would be absurd. What I did say was that I believe that there are many photographers who do not have such preconceptions (and I got lots of emails from those); and that lead me to ask why we can’t accept something like “I just wanted to take beautiful photos of rubble piles”.
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The current issue of Artnews discusses photography prominently, and despite its flaws (especially its almost autistic focus on technology) the editorial is worth a read.
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I don’t have a formal photography or art-school education, and sometimes, it shows. When I look at a piece of art or at photography, there is not intellectual judging involved, at least not in the beginning. I look at a photo, and when it appeals to me, it appeals to me, and when it doesn’t it doesn’t, and that’s it as far as I am concerned. It is typically only after a little while that I start to see technicalities.
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“From the despoliation of the Pacific north-west to the brutal murder of Smiths songs, the Deutsche Börse photography prize has something to outrage everyone, says Adrian Searle”
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“A 1904 Edward Steichen photo of a moonlit pond has shattered the record for the most expensive photograph ever sold at auction. The print, ‘The Pond-Moonlight,’ went for $2,928,000 at Sotheby’s in New York last night, more than doubling the previous record.” (story)
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Reported earlier: “Philip-Lorca diCorcia is being sued by an Orthodox Jewish man that he photographed in 2001, as part of his Heads series.” - as reported here, here, and here. “A judge has dismissed an Orthodox Jew’s lawsuit, finding that a photograph taken of him on a street and sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars is art - not commerce - and therefore is protected by the First Amendment, even though his religion forbids such images.” (story; also see the ruling)
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“The House of Representatives passed H.R. 683, the Trademark Dilution Revision Act of 2005 as an amendment to the 1946 Trademark Act. […] My concern about H.R. 683 is that it seems to open a door for suing a photographer on grounds that amount to defamation of a trademark.” Richard Weisgrau. People working in the movie business will be quite familiar with this problem, so it’s hardly new or something that exclusively photographers have to deal with.
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“Alien Skin SoftwareÂ’s Exposure software can take your new digital files and make them look old again.” (product pitch “review”) How sad is this? 200 bucks? Last time I wanted the look of Kodachrome I took a roll from my fridge and used it. That didn’t have any “immediacy”, but it sure was a lot of fun.
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“From seemingly out of nowhere, a new photography foundation has appeared and awarded two photographers with grants for $25,000. […] Looking for information about how to apply for the grants? Don’t bother. The secret nominations come from a group of 20 anonymous photo experts that changes each year.” (source)
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If you’re looking for photography magazines that are more than mere glorified advertizements for cameras, your set of choices is slim. Daylight Magazine is one of those very few magazines that you might want to check out. Their latest edition is now available, and it’s limited to 3,000 copies. Unfortunately, the website is a bit non-descriptive.
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Just in case you’re one of those people who can fork out the jumbo juice for nice photography, you might want to consider going to the Houston Center for Photography’s Print Auction: Your chance to buy some nice photography from famous, not-so-famous, and completely unheard-of people (where, for the sake of being nice, in the the latter category I’m just including myself). Speaking of nudes (again??!!), that Ruth Bernhard print is shockingly beautiful.
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Speaking of nudity, Spencer Tunick might be one of the (if not the) most overrated artist of our times. If you’re really curious what he would do if he had the money click here.
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Curiously enough, there aren’t all that many photographers who specialize in nudes to be found here. Have you ever wondered why? Well, finding photos of naked people on the internet isn’t really all that hard. Finding photo of naked people that are well done and interesting, however, is tremendously difficult (to make this clear: unlike many other people, when I say “an interesting nude” I do not in fact speak code for “a pretty girl with big [insert your favourite expression for certain female body parts here]”). I realize, though, that my photographic taste might be out of sync with that of many other people, so if you’re interested in the photographic nude you might want to check out the blog Art Nudes, which contains lots of links to usually quite well done (if not always all that interesting) photography of (predominantly female) naked people.
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I’m usually reluctant to link to articles in New York Times for a large variety of reason, some of which have to do with the links themselves. First, you have to register (which I, frankly, find annoying) and second, after a while, the articles disappear in their archives, which you can only read if you pay for it (ditto). But this article about an African photographer whose work the art world turned into a hot (well, actually only somewhat warm) commodity is quite interesting and - unlike many of the Times’ other stuff - not too wordy and meandering.
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“What are German virtues? What do I have in common with other Germans? What does the word home mean to me? What do other nations think of us? What is typically German? When is one a German?” (link) Needless to say, it is very German to ponder that question. But I think there’s quite a bit more to it than this, for a large variety of reasons - some of which are actually potentially of interest for Americans. Because, believe it or not, many of the identity problems faced by Germans are equally shared by Americans, with the difference being that America (or I should say the US) has chosen to solve the problems by creating a narrative that better not be questioned (but that’s partly falling apart now anyway). In any case, The Art of Being a German features works done by young photographers, with many very interesting and exciting results. My personal favourites are the work of Lisa Ajtay, Oliver Döbler (who actually realized a project that I was thinking about), Daria Fleige, Nadja Gölzenleuchter (excellent!), Rico Hofmann, and Sevilay Kirmaz (excellent!). Note how the whole project also neatly shows many different facets of German (and not only German) contemporary photography (incl. the usual Becherian suspects)!
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Case 1: A German man kills another man, who, as it seems, consented to being killed, and eats him. (story) A photographer takes photos inside the killer’s house, and it looks like fine art. Case 2: A war has been going on for decades; a photographer, working in the country of the war, takes a photo of the corpse of a dead fighter and sells large versions of the photo to art galleries. (background/interview) Case 3: A hurricane devastates large areas of a country, killing and displacing thousands of people. A fine art photographer travels to the area and takes photos, which end up in art galleries. (see this entry) I feel a bit uneasy about each of these cases (and there are many more), for a variety of reasons. I think what bothers me most about this all is that I don’t even really know what it is that causes me being confused. It’s maybe easiest for me to tell in the case of the dead Taliban. I think putting the photo in a museum is simply obscene (in the most basic sense of this word that, unfortately, has been abused all-too-often by bigots and fundamentalists). Maybe it comes down to asking the question whether it is appropriate to make other peoples’ misfortunes our object of aesthetic admiration. Am I the only one who is somewhat confused by this? (Please note I’m not arguing that photos like these should not be taken…)
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In the light of the beautiful Russian Pictorial Photography, shot with equipment that many people today wouldn’t even touch if you gave them one hundred bucks, the choice once again becomes clear: You can either obsess about finding the latest, greatest photographic equipment (which lens? and what latest digital gizmo?) or you can keep yourself busy trying to shoot beautiful photos.
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Have a look at these beautiful old Russian photographs. More samples and a bit of a background are provided here. (seen at lensculture blog)
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William Hannigan asks “Why is it that photography has been so tamed within mainstream magazines? When was it that risk […] became contrary to so many magazines in their understanding of what makes a magazine successful?”, to then show us a series of portraits, some of which are gimmicky but hardly risky.
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“Facing Australia is a nationally acclaimed photographic project, working to engage remote, regional and metropolitan communities & individuals through a creative community engagement process. […] Facing Australia creates composite male and female portraits based on current Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) census data. This census data is mined, establishing the proportionate age and ethnic profile of a chosen community. Individuals from that community are recruited, photographed and their images digitally layered to create a composite portrait of the census-determined male and female. […] Facing Australia is an ambitious project. It will create a series of faces representing a remote, regional and metropolitan location from each of AustraliaÂ’s states and territories.” They say “Facing Australia puts a face to the numbers, a face to the place”, but I’m really not all that convinced it adds anything to the numbers or places.
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While I do disagree with quite a few details in this article (for example, I’m not sure at all I’d agree at all with his assessment concerning “some of the world’s best photography”) the basic premise is quite correct: If you want to take a good photo you need a good eye and not a good camera.
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New Orleans, or what is left of it, is not deemed newsworthy any longer. The other day, I saw images from the Asian areas struck by the tsunami last year, and it struck me that poor Asian countries appear to be doing a pretty amazing job rebuilding their damage, something one might or might not be able to say about the richest nation in the world and ruined New Orleans. Check out Robert Polidori’s slide show of images taken in/around New Orleans (the photos taken in late September last year).
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“This is a picture I did not take of a train conductor who approached me and asked, ‘are you a terrorist?’ and then explained (while keeping his distance) that a few passengers were scared because they’d seen me taking a photograph of the train, and that he ‘had to check and see’ what I was up to. […] While this may not be a picture of a train conductor who was just doing his job, or of the scared Americans who believe that a man on a train platform with an antique camera and a cable release is a terrorist, it is a picture of the sad, desperate, hate-filled state of my country’s paranoia, which, with each televisable missive from that little house on the prarie of Pennsylvania Avenue, is turning its citizens into fear-based automatons that only respond to what’s on cable, (as long as it’s a station owned by Rupert Murdoch).” - Unphotographable
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It has become a bit of a tradition for me to list the photographers whose work impressed or inspired me the most over the past twelve months. As usual, the fine print first. This is not some kind of competition, but a simple reflection of my own personal interests. In addition, the only element of time is when I came across somebody’s work and not when it was taken. In any case, here they are, in alphabetical order: Edward Burtynsky has just expanded his work to covering China. When I walked through his big show in New York the other day, I thought there wasn’t a single weak photo in it - quite the feat for such a large show. Wang Qingsong is one of the many Chinese photographers whose work are now getting more exposure in the West. I have the feeling that many Westerners are still quite baffled by Chinese photography; and I certainly hope that we will be able to see more of it in galleries and museums outside of China. Stephen Shore’s Uncommon Places continues to fascinate me, and it’s probably one of the finest photo books in my little collection. There isn’t much that I can say about Brian Ulrich’s work other than that it’s utterly fascinating. While our consumerist society has almost become a cliché in itself, Brian manages to show us its weird and sometimes insane aspects in his photos taken in malls and thrift stores - two end of the the same spectrum.
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All those who’ve always wanted to argue for or against digital photography and whether or not one is allowed to use digital manipulations etc. can go nuts over at Edward Winkleman’s blog. Edward posed the question: “are digitally manipulated photographs equal in quality/stature to ‘pure’ photography in the fine art context?”
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This is already a few days old, but it’s still interesting, and it will continue to be interesting: “Slate, the award-winning online magazine, announced […] that it will partner with Magnum Photos to launch Today’s Pictures, a daily feature offering readers a look at the best of past and current photographs from the internationally acclaimed photo agency.” (When modest people meet other modest people…)
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“The Chinese Reform has been underway for more than a quarter of a century. This historical social transformation is one in which all of Chinese society is moving toward urbanization. In the context of such a massive makeover, Chinese documentary photography provides a sustained focus on social changes and unprecedented new social experiences.” - full essay (thanks, Tom!)
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“Butlinﾂ痴 Holiday Camps are a unique British institution conceived by Billy Butlin for post-war Britain. He dreamt of a holiday centre for the great mass of working-class families, where they could have a good time irrespective of the unreliable British weather.” (source) “In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the John Hinde Studio […] produced a series of postcards to be sold at Butlin’s holiday camps […] With innovative use of colour and elaborate staging (the trademarks of a John Hinde postcard), it was the challenging job of two German (Elmar Ludwig and Edmund N臠ele) and one British photographer (David Noble) to execute the photographs to Hinde’s rigorous formula and standards. Each photograph is elaborately stage managed, with often large casts of real holidaymakers acting their allocated roles in these narrative tableaux of the Butlin’s quiet lounges, ballrooms and Beachcomber bars. Shot with large format cameras, and lit like a film set, the production of these photographs were an extraordinary undertaking.” (source) See some of the photos here.
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(Almost an entire week without posts here and then this? But it’s not what you think. Keep on reading.) Over the past years, we’ve witnessed the evolution of photography as a “serious” art form (whatever that might mean and entail in detail). Almost simultaneously, there has been a steady trend towards ever larger photographic prints. It is almost like that you are almost not being taken seriously if your photos are small.
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Story - And it’s not even a “real” photo but a “stolen” one! Tough times for purists!
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I’ve just come across a selection of very early colour photography, done in Britain. First is JCA Redhead (1886-1954), who “had access to supplies of scarce Kodachrome colour film” during World War II and “took many colour portraits of politicians, high-ranking military figures and celebrities as well as ordinary people involved in the war effort.” Check out the portraits of Yousuf Karsh and Margaret Bourke-White. Then, there is Walter Bird (1903-1969), who shot colour photos in the 1930s, using “a newly available colour process, Vivex. Vivex was a variant of the Carbro process, developed by Dr D A Spencer FRPS at the Colour Photographs (British & Foreign) Ltd factory in Willesden. Marketed between 1931-39, it enabled photographers, like Bird, to produce colour prints of high quality and rich intensity.” It can’t really get any more gorgeous than this. Lastly, there’s W J Pilkington (1912-2000), who, using “a one-shot colour separation camera, he produced colour photographs for commercial purposes, including recipe books, mail-order catalogues and book jackets.” Yes, this is a swimsuit photo, but it got more style and class than a whole decade of “Swimsuit Illustrated”.
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“We’ve seen them all hundreds of times. So why would anyone spend 8 [bucks/quid] to see Diane Arbus’s photographs again?” - this is an interesting question, isn’t it? Also see this article.
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“A New York federal court judge has rejected photographer Bill Diodato’s lawsuit alleging that the Kate Spade fashion accessories company illegally copied one of Diodato’s images for use in an ad campaign. The court’s decision was based on the principle that copyright protects only the expression of an idea, not the idea itself. The two photos in dispute were based on the same concept-a stylish woman’s legs, as they appear from beneath a bathroom stall-but the photos expressed that concept differently, the court concluded.” - story (my emphasis)
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“Polaroid will be discontinuing the manufacture of its SX-70/Time-Zero film within the first 3 months of 2006 due to the phasing out of components used in the production of this film.” (details) I’m a bit torn between thinking that this is indeed a loss and just shrugging my shoulders. I am glad that Polaroid managed to stay in business - it’s amazing to see how their technical ingenuity has been inversely proportional to their capability of doing business, and it’s no real surprise they’re getting rid of those product lines that don’t sell enough. I for one, was much sadder to see the instant slide film go. In any case, is the film such a loss? It’s true, it’s a unique film and all that, but then the “unique” here means that the photo might or might not bear some resemblance to the actual scene, with typically the latter being the case. As for those manipulations that you can do, that’s certainly nice. But still, I can’t escape the feeling that once you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all. I’m sure “toy camera” fans will disagree with me but if you really want bad unusual colours with smudges start up Photoshop. Yeah, I know (please don’t send email because of this) digital is not the same, bla bla bla. Maybe it’s really time people got over this whole silly debate about whether or not digital or film is better. It’s such a waste of everybody’s time!
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I’m filing this list of Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005 under “General Photography” because I’ve run into so many websites, which contain problems like the ones mentioned in the list, in particular problems with Flash. I especially like the sentence “most of the Flash that Web users encounter each day is bad Flash with no purpose beyond annoying people.”
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Here’s something for people with a lot of money: “Beginning Oct. 23, bidders can compete in an online auction to be the subject of a portrait by one of a dozen high-profile photographers.” - story
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Over at Gallery Hopper, Todd Walker disses Chris Jordan’s solo show at Jossi Milo. I basically disagree with almost everything he says, but you better read it yourself and make up your own mind.
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I’m sure you’ve seen the photo of Mr Bush writing his bathroom-break note at the UN somewhere in an email or at the political echo chambers. Here is some background about the photo.
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“In the eight days since Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana, most if not all of New Orleans’ professional photographers have moved to temporary homes in other parts of the country. Like everyone else who called the city home, their future is uncertain.” - story Amongst those photographers are William Greiner and well-known jazz photographer Herman Leonard. For the latter, a fund has been established.
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When reporter Holger Liebs manages to find “a snapshot aesthetic” in Wolfgang Tillmans’ latest work (Truth Study Center), the photographer snaps and says that not just anybody can shoot such pictures through scratched plane windows: “In the plane, I have to sit on the non-sunny side. I have to darken the area from where I am photographing, otherwise there will be a reflection on the glass. Then I use a very wide aperture with no depth of field so that the window is not in focus. I must not sit where I’ll be taking pictures into the jet stream, otherwise I get heat striae. When checking in, I name the precise seat number: third row from the back, seat A, for example.” (found here) Needless to say, this doesn’t really refute the simple fact that the photos do have a snapshot aesthetic. Also, only somebody who can ask for a special seat on the plane and who has basic knowledge of photography can do these photos, and that’s very clearly not just anybody.
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For those people who don’t know how to play with toys unless somebody tells them there now is the Toy Camera Handbook.
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I’m sure every digital photographer has seen his/her inkjet prints fade. What can you do about this? The “obvious” solution is, of course, to buy better material. But as always the devil is in the details, because it’s not all that obvious what material really is better. If you go to Wilhelm Imaging Research, you’ll find a lot of information about just that. There are some very interesting “general interest” articles in that middle column (“How long inkjet-printed photos last depends on who you ask, experts say.” - pdf file), and right next to that column you can find even more nerdy technical information for those obsessed with logevity of digital photography. Lest film friends rub their hands gleefully, here’s a little snippet of information that I found in German photo magazine Photonews (I don’t think the article is online so I’m just giving a very quick and incomplete summary). A German photographer decided to test how a high-quality inkjet print would compare with a high-quality analog (lambda) print. Working with a gallery, he printed the same photo using these two technologies, sealed the photos underneath UV protection and put them on the roof of the gallery, to be exposed to sunlight for a year. As it turns out the lambda print was completely faded whereas the digital print only showed some minor shift towards yellow. Obviously, nobody stores or displays his/her photos on the roof, but this is an interesting test - so film snobs beware! Digital technology is breathing right down your neck! I personally am actually not all that interested in this debate (so please don’t email about this), but I know there are lots of people out there who read this blog and who do care about it. Also, given the steady shift of technology towards digital this topic is somewhat relevant, especially with regard to how much to ask for a photo. Some photographers told me in the past that analog prints would always fetch more from collectors because they can’t be mass-produced - given that it now seems digital prints might last much longer I am tempted to think the photo market is up for a little change of mind.
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“Once used purely for propaganda, photography has exploded in China in the last decade. Experimental artists have gained international success by playing with ideas of truth and fiction, the old and the new, vanishing traditions and modern urban alienation.” - story
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Large numbers of people think that using Photoshop to do photography is just plain wrong, whereas many other people dive right in and, often, go nuts. I’ve always thought that all that matters is what you get in the end, which has some interesting consequences: For example, one could argue that all that fuss about “toy cameras” is really just wildly exaggerated when you can get the same images so easily doing some fiddling in Photoshop. Interestingly enough, most people wouldn’t accept such a digital photo while they’d heap praise on even the most boring “toy camera” photo. Well, it’s a hotly debated topic, and - as in physics - the large amount of heat leaves very little signal and quite a bit of noise. In any case, there is a fairly large community of artists who employ often quite elaborate digital or darkroom manipulations, and it appears this process - mostly done digitally - is getting ever more popular. The problem I have with this is that I can’t make up my mind about the results. I typically sway between thinking I’m either looking at the photographic equivalent of a Hallmark figurine (like this one, say) or at some pretty nice artwork. I don’t think it’s necessarily wrong to be unable to make up your mind, even though we live in times where you are supposed to have an opinion about everything. Let me link to some of those artists so that you can look at their images. Maybe you will be able to make up your mind. Note that some of them use darkroom techniques, while others use the computer. I’m not going to tell you who does what - maybe that way, you’ll see that it really doesn’t matter how you do photography but, instead, what your results look like in the end. Mia Friedrich, Lilya Corneli, Darren Holmes, Vladimir Clavijo-Telepnev, Stefano Bernardoni, and Balazs Borocz. Obviously, this list is far from complete. (slightly updated - 3 Sept.)
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Even though I know that the internet makes people voice their opinion quite strongly I am quite surprised about the negative (and - occasionally - outright dogmatic) responses to Thomas Ruff’s new work. We are to accept digital photography, but when somebody applies all those obvious digital tools, mirroring - as I noted - remixing of sound, then that’s suddenly so terrible?
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“How can the new generation of art photographers make their mark when almost anyone with the latest equipment can take excellent pictures?” - story The basic assumption of the article is wrong, though. Just because you can buy the latest equipment doesn’t mean that you can take excellent pictures. It still takes a good photographer to take a good photo.
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As much as I appreciate the Lomo LC-A, the camera that got me interested in photography, the way it is being marketed and sold is quite unappealing. And now, as - apparently - production of the camera has ended, they are selling the camera for $260 (also 260 Euros). You really have to be out of your mind to pay that much money for the camera. If you want one of those, get one on Ebay, and pay not more than $80-90 (tops).
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You can find indirect commentary on my post about photographers doing the same or very similar work (link) over at View from the Edge of the Universe. In my original post, I tried to avoid giving my personal opinion - to avoid getting in the way of the reader’s own thinking. I have since received some very interesting email, and pretty much everybody who sent me email wrote something along the lines that different photographers working on the same (or very similar) idea is a good thing because that way, you get to see different takes of that same idea and, thus, you experience each photographer’s personal influence (note how we’re here in “remix” culture territory!). To get back to Erik’s post, it seems like he wouldn’t agree with this. How else would you understand his statement that “there is something disappointing about the similarities in the work”? I personally think that if you approach photography that way, you will always be disappointed. And what would one say about a similar entry where, instead of showing photos that use that limited depth-of-field, one would show, for example, stark b/w portraits? Would we find it disappointing to see how similar (on the surface) photos by Richard Avedon, Steve Pyke, and Martin Schoeller (to name just three famous masters of portraiture) are?
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