Here’s something I’ve wanted to write about for a while: Is the Dominance of the Gallery System Photography’s Biggest Handicap? This is certainly not how I would have phrased the question, but there are a few things to talk about here. (more)
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I wrote a piece for The Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy blog about Why We Want to Look Death in the Face - check it out!
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“Photographers should write more. And I don’t mean blog more, I mean writing, actual writing. The type of writing that takes at least an hour or two to complete and then is edited the next day.” - Bryan Formhals
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Unfortunately, I missed this year’s photo festival in Hyères. You can all about the festival by watching Everything you need to know about Hyères in 2’6”. And who won? Well, you can either watch this video or read this tweet (the video is more fun).
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Let’s face it: Photographers are a pretty conservative bunch of people. While we all know that photographer X might have taken thousands of images, what do we get to see? The same old well-known ones. While we all know that the archive of agency/foundation/… Y contains thousands and thousands of images, what do we get to see? The same old well-known stuff. It gets even more depressing when you look at photobooks. Some publishers have been working with photographers, reissuing older work, but what do we get? Well, we either get an exact reissue, or we get one of those compilations of ten volumes in a limited-edition box for only $500 that I made fun of on April 1st (there are a few exception, of course). This is a huge lost opportunity, both for the artists/archives and for people who love looking at photography. (more)
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“The point I am making is that we need to consider our subject matter more carefully. […] But if we think of what is going on in our world, there seems to be many subjects which are avoided, because we all need that echo of familiarity to help us have the confidence to make a body of work. We want to emulate the impact that these images had on us, and this can be as restricting as it can be liberating.” - Martin Parr
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As you probably heard already, Foam are celebrating their tenth anniversary looking forward (instead of back), asking What’s Next? The website is a collaborative effort, with the idea being to crowd-source (to use the lingo) the discussion and invite everybody to contribute. Part of the site is a suite of questions (you can also submit your own), to hopefully shed light on different aspects of photography: what might we expect to see next, or at least where might things be going? Over the next few months, I want to tackle some of the questions here, as a way to bring them into the blogosphere, a medium ideal for this kind of approach. (more)
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Go and visit The International Center for Fictional Photography, “the brain - or demon - child of a determined group of young artists intent on no good.” There’s tremendous potential to expand this, maybe (hopefully) even bringing it into the physical world (even “just” a book would be great).
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When LIFE.com contacted me to ask whether I would be interested in being a guest editor of a photo gallery of course I was, especially since I was given the freedom to pick the theme, and I had full control over the edit. LIFE’s photography archive is huge, containing some very important photography, and I had always thought about creating new contents from older archives. After a bit of thinking and looking I decided to do a set of images called Portraits of Power, which is now up. The basic idea is to show how people project power in photographs, using powerful - and now mostly obscure - people from about seventy years ago. Read the text along the images to see what I am after.
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Terrible news from Libya: Today, photojournalist Tim Hetherington was killed while covering the fighting in Libya. Three other photographers reportedly were wounded, one of them very severely. PDN has an obituary, including a slide show of some of Hetherington’s work. (more)
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On September 11, 2001, Artist Laurel Nakadate put on a Girl Scouts uniform and took photographs of herself while the World Trade Center towers were burning and then collapsing in the background. The resulting photographs (I can’t find the one where she is saluting) are not particularly profound or interesting. But neither is taking a crucifix, submerging in your own urine (any yellow liquid will probably do as long as you call it “piss”), and then taking a photograph of it. All it takes to take the latter into an important piece of art, while the former still languishes in the kind of obscurity it probably deserves, is… no, not an art critic. It take an American Senator. In the case of Piss Christ, the photograph of the submerged crucifix, it was ultraconservative Senator Jesse Helms who used Andres Serrano, the maker of Piss Christ, as an example of what’s supposedly wrong with using tax payer dollars to support artists. Needless to say, Serrano’s work immediately became important art, because that’s part of the art business works. (more)
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Five years ago, a huge debate erupted in the US over a photograph taken on September 11, 2001, by Thomas Hoepker. The photograph showed five people relaxing on a sunny Summer day, the Manhattan skyline with a gigantic plume of smoke from the fallen World Trade Center towers as a backdrop. You can find the photo, with the photographer’s point of view here (there are also links to various other pieces, including an email one of the photograph’s subjects sent in). I had to think of that photo and the reaction it caused when I came across the photo above (the image above is cropped, the original can be found here, and it comes via). In the background, you can see the smoke from fires in San Francisco, which had just been hit by an enormous earthquake, on April 18, 1906. In the foreground, you see, well, people lounging, and there are two women turned towards the camera. They are a bit blurry, but one is very clearly smiling - her camera smile, one must assume. One might wonder why these observers are all so relaxed, just like the ones in Hoepker’s photograph. Needless to say, a picture tells a story, but it might just be the story we want to hear or see. But whatever it is, there is something in photography that can make us do all kinds of things, which includes smiling for the camera even when we’re standing in front of a city on fire. I don’t think this means we’re callous, I’m tempted to think that we are being seduced in ways that we might regret later. That also is the power of photography. Update (25 April 2011): A reader email me and reminded me of this Weegee photo, which has the drowned man’s (supposed) girlfriend smiling at the camera. Regardless of who the woman is her smile feels very much out of place (and look at the spectators in the back - what are they looking at?).
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For those who are still in need of a great read for the weekend, there is Rob’s interview with Dan Winters. It comes in three parts: part 1, part 2, and part 3.
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M. Scott Brauer posted an interesting story about the dissemination of photography, using Russell Watkins’ photos of spiderweb-covered trees in the aftermath of flooding in Pakistan as an example. Apparently, those photos have been very widely featured, unlike, it seems, the underlying - actual - story. Watkins writes in a blog post “But how many of the people that have seen these images are being pulled in by them enough to stop and think about the far bigger problem that the images are just a symbol of? Of course its hard to say. […] I wrote in my previous post about how photography can be said to explain everything and yet reveal nothing. And now I find myself realising that I may have taken some photographs that illustrate precisely that characteristic.” (more)
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By now you might have heard of Sean O’Hagan raising a ruckus about the Deutsche Börse Prize and the Photographers’ Gallery. Apparently, there has been some debate about the gallery, which I haven’t followed. If what I see is correct, it’s about whether or not the gallery’s curators are doing a good enough job picking photography. O’Hagan uses this as a backdrop to complain about the Deutsche Börse Prize: “I have already written on this subject with regards to the Photographers’ Gallery, and stand by my conclusion that it should rebrand the Deutsche Börse as a conceptual photography prize.” (more)
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Colin Pantall has a convincing answer: “that is the mark of any great photography - it escapes the photography ghetto and becomes relevant to the wider world.”
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Make sure to find some time to read David Bailey in conversation with Andrew Graham-Dixon.
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I know I should let Mrs. Deane discuss home-made cameras since they know so much more about it then I do. But I couldn’t “walk” past Cary Norton’s Legotron. (via)
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This article about “Photojournalism in the Age of New Media” is well worth the read, since it delves into the actual journalism aspect of things, in other words the need to verify information. Key quote: “the high velocity of social networks that makes verification so problematic means that conflict imagery is often left open to misinterpretation and, subsequently, reactionary violence. ‘With images, there’s a huge danger of producing false impressions or false information with bad analysis,’ said Jake Naughton, who does outreach and production at the Pulitzer Center.” I am slightly tempted to think that the article puts a slightly tilted angle on verification, though, ignoring that whoever assembles the stories - and does the verification - in essence creates the story (which might or might not be biased or outright wrong for whatever reason). I’d argue that verification needs to work both ways: Just like organizations verifying images they grab online, the resulting stories must then be subjected to verification by the general public, something which, after all, is straightforward in this age of the new media. Various recent cases seem to have shown that the organizations mentioned in the article are not so eager about the latter, though.
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A few days ago, US District Judge Deborah A. Batts ruled that Richard Prince had violated Patrick Cariou’s copyright when using some of the images from the Yes Rasta book to produce Canal Zone. Much has since been written about this ruling, here are a few of the reactions/takes: Rob Haggart/A Photo Editor, Ed Winkleman, Donn Zaretsky, Paddy Johnson. In a nutshell, photographers for the most parts are giddy that Prince lost, whereas the non-photo art world is appalled by the ruling. (more)
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The other day, I was speaking with Brian Ulrich, doing a new interview for an upcoming book of interviews. As is widely know, Brian has spent about a decade on what is to become a book later this year, photographing - to sum it up in a somewhat simplified manner - the landscape of consumption in the US. I first met Brian about five or six years ago, and from talking with him I know a little bit about the evolution of all that work, with all its many complex elements. (more)
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Benjamin (Duckrabbit) sent me the link to this recent piece, which transforms regular images into a scary story (c.f. Jens Liebchen’s Stereotypes of War).
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After a short break, it’s round 6 of my ongoing series of conversations with Michael Itkoff, this time about art fairs and art bubbles. Find the full piece here.
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Some of the presentations from the FOAM - What’s Next? symposium I attended last weekend have been made available online. If you have half an hour to spare, start off - just like the audience members themselves - with the following two. (more)
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Amsterdam photography museum FOAM is celebrating their ten-year anniversary in style, asking What’s Next? Aside from the website where everybody is invited to contribute answers to some of the questions that might be in people’s minds (you can also submit a question) there was an expert meeting, a one-day conference, bringing together artists, journalists, writers/bloggers, editors, and other experts to talk about and discuss what could be next. (more)
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After fifteen years Elisabeth Biondi is leaving New Yorker Magazine. On its blog, the magazine published a couple of very interesting posts that you might want to check out (if you haven’t done so already): Elisabeth showcasing selected highlights and photographers talking about an image done for the magazine. Alles Gute für die Zukunft, Elisabeth!
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There’s a war of images going on - along with the actual war. You probably already noticed. “Operation Odyssey Dawn” - the bombing of Libya - started with the now almost obligatory photographs of cruise missiles launched from US warships far away. Here is a gallery of the first images. Have a look at the credits - many of the images are courtesy of the military (as far as I could tell - sampling whatever was on display at Detroit airport yesterday - most US newspapers featured one of those images on the front page). In addition, you got the photojournalists on the ground, taking the usual photographs: Burning tanks, fighters striking poses, etc. And then you have the photography amateurs, meaning civilians and soldiers alike. Everybody is taking photographs, everybody is trying to shape the message. (more)
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Mitch Epstein was announced the winner of the 2011 Prix Pictet: Growth for his American Power project (find my review of the book here). Congratulations, Mitch!
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“Rape is horrifyingly widespread in conflicts all around the world,” writes The Economist, with a focus on Congo. Besieged is a collaborative project by photographers Ying Ang, Agnes Dherbeys, Sarah Elliott, and Benedicte Kurzen, intended to put a spotlight onto this situation. Find the whole pitch here.
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A Dutch friend send me the link to a speech given my Pim Milo, a Dutch writer (Dutch language only). In his speech, Milo argues forcefully against photographer donating prints to charity auctions. His reasoning is simple and quite interesting: It’s not that he has any problems with charity auctions (quite on the contrary). He has problems with photographers doing themselves a disservice. (more)
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First, there is this interview with Hans-Christian Schink, done by Marc Feustel. Plus, there is an interview with Nina Berman by Jonathan Blaustein, which you definitely don’t want to miss.
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I was going to write something about the recent mini-flurry of photography produced via Google Street View, but Lisa Kereszi just beat me to it, writing on the Daylight blog.
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There is a lot of talk about photojournalism. Is it dead? What’s going on? What can be done? I think recent events in the Middle East should have made it very clear even to the naysayers that we need credible photojournalism. Of course, there is much more to photojournalism than going to places where things are happening very visibly. There also is the kind of photojournalism where someone explores a subject that’s not on the front pages, to inform us about something we might want to know about. Needless to say, the big problem is money. Who will actually pay for the it? A new attempt to fund photojournalism has just been launched, in the form of emphas.is, a website dedicated to crowd-funding photojournalism. I do not know whether emphas.is is the - or maybe even just a - solution to fund photojournalism. But I believe it has tremendous promise. I decided to feature some of the projects here on this site to help spread the word. One of the first projects featured is Aaron Huey’s Pine Ridge Billboard Project. Find Aaron’s pitch here.
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The work of Nadav Kander has always fascinated me. My curiosity only grew when seeing Obama’s People and later working on the review of Yangtze, The Long River. I finally approached Nadav and asked him whether he had a moment to talk about his work. I’m grateful he did. Find our conversation here.
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Blind Spot Conversations 02: Richard Benson and Arthur Ou (via)
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“This year Foam Amsterdam celebrates its 10th anniversary. For us it is a time to reflect, not about the past, but about the future of photography. To do this we have asked ourselves the question: ‘What’s Next?’” Head right over and contribute your thoughts about the questions already posted. Conscientious is a media partner of What’s Next?, and you can expect to see more about it here.
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I’m not sure I agree with everything in this article by Vladimir Vyatkin on World Press Photo, but it’s well worth the read. Key quote: “Blind and indifferent documentation has become the new fashion in journalistic photography, with distorted pictorial forms providing basic stylistic guidelines. The point is to shock the viewer, brushing aside the humanistic nature of classical photography.”
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And more collage art: Ashkan Honarvar’s often disturbing creations.
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Over at A Photo Editor (thank you for the shout out!), there’s a new post entitled Why We Love Bad Photography. I’ve always wondered why people love bad photography. But joking aside, what I consider to be bad photography is just that: photography that I think is bad. Does that make it bad? I think in many cases, I can give you some reasons why I like or dislike a particular photograph or body of work. But that doesn’t necessarily make it bad. (more)
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There’s this idea going around that photography is bad at telling stories. I don’t think that’s true at all - quite on the contrary! Good storytelling is more than the words on the paper, or the words plus music plus sounds on the radio, or the words plus images plus music plus sounds on the screen. Good storytelling lives from all the elements that are triggered in the reader’s or listener’s or viewer’s mind and that, in combination with what the storyteller had to offer, make up the story itself. Saying that photographs are bad at storytelling essentially is like saying that words (or maybe sentences) are bad at storytelling. I had to think of this when I watched Fritz Lang’s Die Nibelungen, a fantastic silent movie, which tells a story without most of the elements we take for granted in contemporary movies.
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This post over at Hippolyte Bayard made me think about the photograph as an object again. I’m not necessarily drawn to the process that created the tintype in the photo above - one of the many tintypes I bought on Ebay so far. But the process, along with a subject having his portrait taken, along with some lucky chance that had one of the many tintype photographers produce a stand-out image - the combination of all of that resulted in a little object that I managed to buy for a very small amount of money (a few bucks). And that little object - just like pretty much all the other ones I own (I “curate” my own collection by selecting what I think are good portraits) - possesses something that its scan lacks (I scanned all my tintypes): It has a real presence.
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“Facebook has a larger photo collection than any other site on the web. According to an extrapolation of photo upload data reported by Facebook, the site now houses about 60 billion photos compared to Photobucket’s 8 billion, Picasa’s 7 billion and Flickr’s 5 billion.” (source, via) (more)
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It’s a simple question that’s hard to answer. Colin Pantall asked a bunch of people and just posted the first set of answers. Update (16 Feb 2011): Part 2.
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Maybe Bill Sullivan should think about submitting his work to World Press Photo. You never know. In this day and age, taking photos of a screen already is photojournalism, even if the journalism bit is entirely missing. But joking aside, I think there is a lot of great work that can be done off a computer screen. And I want to use some of Bill’s work as example of what you can do. There are the self portraits with mirrors, for example, or the volleyball series. I especially like how the self portraits with mirrors really not just grabs images off the screen, but also contains an explicit element of our “me me me” culture, and the absurdity it creates. And that ties in with what has been my concern with this kind of work for a long time: The element of curation that is involved in such work for me has to offer something that adds significantly to collection of images (whereas the act of taking a photo off one’s computer screen, whether or not it involves some camera or whatever, is completely irrelevant for me).
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I have been thinking a bit more about the various issues that I discussed in my earlier post about the World Press Photo (WPPh) winners. There are a bunch of very interesting issues, which all meet eventually, don’t they? It’s all coming down to what images mean or say and how. I don’t want to get too esoteric right now (that’s for another time), but here are some of the thoughts I had. Whether or not they make sense, I don’t know. (more)
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The World Press Photo of the Year (WPPh) selections have been announced, and - just like every year - there is considerable debate about some of them. Perhaps not that surprisingly, the World Press Photo of the Year grand prize went to Jodi Bieber (congratulations!), and perhaps even less surprisingly, various people voiced their discontent. The WPPh announcements have become the Pavlovian ringing of the bell, haven’t they? (more)
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Photography has always been a very useful tool for government agencies, and this includes, of course, secret services. German artist Simon Menner got access to the archives of the former East German Ministry of State Security - widely known as STASI, an agency notorious for its ruthlessness. As it turns out, the STASI’s archives are filled with photography (btw, they had a very high demand for Polaroid film). Simon compiled some of the photographs, with some explanatory text added, to share them on this site as Images from the secret STASI archives. Given what these images were used for it’s somewhat hard to write “Enjoy!”, but the absurdity of some of these photographs (the above demonstrates a secret hand signal) might make you laugh regardless.
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Photographers and photography students occasionally ask me about how to promote their work (Facebooktwittertumblremailnewslettersblogs….). My answer is always the same: If you want to promote what you do, do it so it looks professional, it’s smartly done, maybe with a dose of your kind of humour, and it looks and feels as if it was coming from you. (more)
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I’m sure everybody has been following the events in Egypt, which yesterday took a very violent turn, when the regime, copying the tactics so successfully used in Iran recently, sent in a violent mob to attack those protesting against the corrupt, authoritarian regime. One of the best sites to get information about what’s happening (plus a lot of background) is Juan Cole’s Informed Comment. You’ve probably also heard of and/or seen the attacks of said mob on Western journalists (check out Nicholas Kristof’s brief report). Here is what happened to photographer Andrew Burton (via).
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“The best photographic portraits, like the best painted portraits, present us not with biographical information but with a soul.” - Susie Linfield, The Cruel Radiance, p. 40
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