Jed Perl, reviewing two recent books, writes about photojournalism.
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Find a wonderful article about John Stezaker, one of my favourite artists, here.
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Great interview with the people behind The Archive of Modern Conflict
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I just came across this video of Doug Dubois talking about the history and making of his family photography. Find twelve minutes and watch it. (via)
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This is an image from Alex Leme’s wonderful ongoing project Small Town. (via)
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I was going to write more on crowdfunding using Tomas van Houtryve’s post as a starting point. In the meantime, David Campbell added his voice, which is like pretty much everything David writes something you want to read. Between these two posts you get a pretty good idea about the shortcomings of some of the various proposals that recently have generated some attention. What is entirely missing, however, is recognition of the fact that crowfunding isn’t quite as new as it is made out to be. In particular, how about talking about The Sochi Project? (more)
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“For years now, I’ve been thinking (on a Woody Allen level of obsession) what it means to be an artist.” writes Phil Toledano in his statement for his new body of work Kim Jong Phil. The solution: an “eye-popping cocktail of delusion and narcissism.” Head right over and check out the masterpieces Phil had produced. For more, there’s the microsite.
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David Campbell has published a must-read article about the seemingly ubiquitous labeling of photography as ‘porn’. I agree with David about most of his points, especially the ones in his very last paragraph (c.f. this post I wrote earlier). I also agree that labeling every kind of photography as ‘porn’ is not so helpful. That said, I do think David misses one of the crucial aspects that motivates why people talk about “ruin porn” (or whatever else). In his list of what the term “pornography” has come to mean, what seems missing is what I see as the main reason why people talk about “ruin porn”. (more)
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“I talk to people all the time, particularly when I go and talk to students, and it’s amazing to me how many kids and people feel that they have to create work… they’ll look at the market and create work that fits for that market, and I think that’s a terrible, terrible mistake. And what happens then is what you just said, hundreds of thousands of people lose their job. Because what happens is they’re not being original thinkers, they’re just providing content that already exists in a slightly different form.” - Phil Toledano in a must-read interview
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Here is an interesting interview with Katy Grannan, which - unfortunately - doesn’t address some of the questions I would have had.
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Sometimes, things snowball, and with a little bit of luck it might happen to the right people, to good stories. This is what happened to Dalia Khamissy who caught the attention of Benjamin Chesterton, who happens to be an integral part of duckrabbit (I’m sure you know their blog), producing documentaries for the BBC. You can now listen to the story that originated from Dalia’s photography, and there’s a short movie about it, too, to be seen here.
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Very sad news: Milton Rogovin died today.
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“So much ruin photography and ruin film aestheticizes poverty without inquiring of its origins, dramatizes spaces but never seeks out the people that inhabit and transform them, and romanticizes isolated acts of resistance without acknowledging the massive political and social forces aligned against the real transformation, and not just stubborn survival, of the city. […] As a purely aesthetic object, even with the best intentions, ruin photography cannot help but exploit a city’s misery; but as political documents on their own, they have little new to tell us.” - John Patrick Leary
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“What really dismays me […] is how three major organizations could send out three of the best photographers in the business and, within the space of just over two weeks, proudly publish nearly the same photo-story.” writes Michael Shaw. There are quite a few interesting points to be made here, maybe I’ll be able to untangle the ones I see. (more)
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The slightly gossipy interludes aside, this is a fantastic article about Cindy Sherman, one of my all-time favourite artists. I’ve never thought of any of her photographs as being autobiographical or self-portraits, which, in part, is what makes the work so interesting for me.
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You might remember the kerfuffle around Shepard Fairey and his use of that Obama photo for the “Hope” poster. Well, it’s all over now: As Nieman put it, “the big copyright case ends with a juicy little irony that you can read generously (‘work together’) or more cynically (‘merchandise’).”
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Blake has an interview with John Maloof, who found the Vivian Maier negatives. If you’re curious about the background, head right over and read all about it.
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Those interested in attending a portfolio review might want to check out this handy list of such events. It gives you a price per review number for most events, plus the number of participants. While these are simply numbers, they’re very useful to have when making a decision on whether or not to attend a particular event.
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Talking about the war in Afghanistan, David Campbell writes: “Covering such a long-running conflict, the dynamics of which have not altered greatly in its nine years, necessarily produces a certain uniformity to the subjects conveyed. In Boston.com’s Big Picture gallery for November 2010 we see 43 high quality images that detail allied forces, Afghan civilians, Taliban casualties and American military families. There is also an inevitable regularity to the look of these images. […] I think we should ask hard questions about how to represent a war that has gone on for so long. I don’t think, though, that those questions are best pursued by a concern over the technologies of representation or the anxiety about aesthetics.”
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“Philippine police investigating the New Year’s Eve shooting death of a local councilman did not have to look further than the last photograph the victim took. That photo led to the arrest of two suspects.” - story
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Darren Campion: “Where Martin Schoeller seems to excel is in the disclosure of reptilian celebrity, the hollow, endless need. It remains difficult to tell though if this is genuinely a facet of his work or a value of that uniquely modern state, which allows whole identities to become volatile, something merely to be traded upon, so that the supposed ‘disclosure’ we see in this work, the firm impression of presence, is in itself just another part of the ruse.” Read the rest here.
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Originally an online magazines, Romka can now be had as an actually printed object. At five Euros it’s a steal!
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I never look much at what’s going on at auction houses, so I was more than just slightly surprised to see the following, in a post over at DLK: “Across the photography auction market for the entire year, the total sale proceeds taken together were $136,948,680, up by more than 83% from last year’s total of $74,612,997.” That’s some serious money!
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“The Southern District of New York issued an order denying AFP’s request to dismiss photographer Daniel Morel’s copyright claims, rejecting AFP’s argument that uploading pictures to Twitter/Twitpic granted third parties (including AFP) a broad license to exploit this content. The result is not surprising from a legal standpoint, but should allow photographers (and others who upload content into Twitter’s ecosystem) to breathe a sigh of relief.” - source (found via)
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There’s a project to build ten thousand year clock, a clock that will literally “run” for such a long period of time. The reason why I’ve been a bit fascinated by this is not so much the technology (a considerable challenge). There is another aspect that I seem to remember I read about somewhere (can’t find the link): The clock will have to obviously be a clock. If you assume that ten thousand years in the future there are still humans around (despite our best efforts to ruin our own living conditions on this planet), those future humans will have to be able to understand that the contraption is a clock. It sounds so simple, but once you notice how hard it often is to understand human artifacts made even “just” 2,000 years ago, you realize there is an actual challenge. This is where things get interesting, photography-wise. (more)
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If you haven’t visited e-photoreview this might be a good time to do so. It’s easiest to explain by simply pointing at an example of what the site does: Here’s an interview with Katharina Hesse about her photographs of Bangkok sex workers.
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Raising funds for photographic projects using crowdfunding (think Kickstarter) is becoming more and more common, and it will be interesting to see how well it will be able to establish itself. I’ve been looking into crowdfunding for a while now, trying to figure out the various parameters and how to deal with them. Basically, everything seems to come down to what one exactly has to offer - typically, there are tiered contributor levels (“Donate $10 and get a wet handshake, donate $20 and get a wet handshake plus a postcard, …”). On duckrabbit, David White raised some points about a couple recent Kickstarter projects: “In both cases, I am left wanting to know more. About the why’s, the how’s, the intended results and outputs, about how the money breaks down and is spent.” (more; updated below)
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Given there has been so much talk about the best photobooks, how about exhibitions? Here is DLK’s Top Photography Shows of 2010. I didn’t visit nearly as many shows as DLK, so I can’t make as educated a choice. But my personal notebook has grades ranging from A to F for each show I saw, which makes it easier looking for my personal favourite. This year, it was Simon Johan’s Until the Kingdom Comes at Yossi Milo. Oh, and here is Vince Aletti’s list.
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Abigail Simon is not so impressed by MoMA’s New Photography show: “A visit to the current edition of the annual New Photography series at the Museum of Modern Art leaves one with a peculiar sensation, as if one has spent lunch period sitting with the mean girls. The show is pleasant enough, and could not be clearer in its intentions (unless of course a photograph of the word REPRESENTATION spelled out in neon lights had been torn up and strewn around the floor). There are pretty colors and pretty girls, sky-high production values, and ‘insider’ jokes broad as any sitcom. What was not evident was any sense of newness, much less freshness”. (more)
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It is one of those coincidences that around the time I published my posts about German photography right after the war (part 1, part 2), I came across the work of Helena Schätzle, The time in between. Of course, I was curious to learn more about it, so I approached Helena and asked her whether she would be willing to talk about the work. Find the conversation here.
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The other day, I went to see an exhibition called The Tireless Epic at The Hague Museum of Photography. The show features the work of Miroslav Tichý, Gerard Petrus Fieret, and Anton Heyboer. You’re probably familiar with the first artist, but the other two might be a bit more obscure (there certainly isn’t much to be found online - not that that means anything). I had never heard of them. So I was curious to find out more. I found three creepy old men. Actually, that’s not quite correct, but that’s certainly how it was presented. (more)
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I was out of town last week, so I didn’t get to posting about Damon Winter’s iphone Afghanistan photographs. There are various issues one might want to talk about here. Duckrabbit and Tom White both have posts about the photographs, so head right over to read them.
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Oksana Yushko is one of the winners of this year’s Conscientious Portfolio Competition. About her work, juror Susanna Brown wrote: “Oksana Yushko’s project Kenozero Dreams reveals both the beauty and banality of life for the inhabitants of Kenozero in Nothern Russia. We glimpse a place that has remained relatively unchanged for decades and an atmosphere of longing, of waiting. The landscape and portrait images are equally evocative, but for me the most memorable photograph in this series depicts two teenagers in a field, collecting flowers in the twilight haze. Dressed in modern clothes they carry out an ancient pagan rite. The boy’s gaze is transfixed, balancing a delicate wreath of flowers on his baseball cap he stares into the gloaming, and perhaps into his own future.” In this conversation, I talk with Oksana about her work.
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A little while ago, Benjamin of duckrabbit fame sent me an email, telling me about Ivor Prickett and his story about Abkhazia. I like Ivor’s work very much, and since there currently is so much talk about how photojournalism is presumably dead (or maybe not) and about the relationship between photojournalism, documentary photography and what we call “fine art” photography (for a lack of a better term), I approached him to talk about his work. Find the piece here.
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Peter of Sonic Blog fame just published a list of German photographers looking at Germany, what it means to be German, or other aspects of their own country. Have a peek!
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In response to my earlier post about variations of Nick Ut’s famous Vietnam War image, duckrabbit ask “When we see more, do we give more of ourselves?” That indeed is the crucial aspect, which is why I wrote “We need to add ourselves back in.” (more)
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It was to be expected that my post about the lack of German photography about the Nazi regime, the war and the Holocaust after World War II would ruffle some feathers in my native country. Today I came across this post, which tries to prove that I’m wrong (scroll down for an English version). I was delighted to see the post, especially since it gives me a chance to drive home may main point. (more)
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There are at least two accusations the art world has to deal with on a fairly regular basis: It’s “elitism” and “The Emperor is naked.” Now let’s assume that the group of people called “the art world” is actually as homogeneous as is assumed. Let’s assume that this homogeneous group is following a secret code of conduct, including, but not limited to, a master plan, a secret hand shake, and regular meetings in an undisclosed location that might or might not be a crypt and that - crucially! - might or might not contain at least parts of the skeleton of Mark Twain. Even if we make these assumptions, it should be pretty obvious that both accusations tend to be mostly rhetorical devices, whose overuse has rendered them so blunt that where they actually are appropriate they’re as effective as covering someone with kittens or puppies as a sign of protest (not that I would suggest such a thing; I’m opposed to any kind of animal abuse). (more)
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… of interviews with photographers and articles about photography: Ahorn Magazine’s new edition.
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Colin Pantall published an interview with Donald Weber about the photographer’s images of Russian police interrogations. I’m not sure I buy the photographer’s final answer, but that’s for another day maybe. (updated below)
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Alec Soth writes an open letter to The New York Times Book Review, asking why they review children’s book, but not art books.
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Picking up what I mentioned earlier, it goes without saying that the story of German photography and its curious omission to deal with the German past and/or history is more complex. Let me elaborate. (more)
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Great post by Blake Andrews about colour images on the web. Head right over and have a peek!
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The other day, Michael David Murphy had a post with an image and two variations (modification), and that had me thinking. The first, original image is Nick Ut’s well-known photo of soldiers and Vietnamese napalm victims. In a nutshell, it also stands for photojournalism, circa around the time it was taken. (more; updated)
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In this very cool presentation (made by Dutchdoc), Rob Hornstra talks about his work, and about the design and ideas behind his books. (found here)
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People ask me occasionally about photography like PL diCorcia’s Heads (which I think is one of the best series of portraiture done in whatever you call the first decade of the 21st Century) and privacy. My response typically is in line with what the artist says in this video clip. I usually add one more point: If you’re really concerned about privacy, why go after that tiny group of artists, instead of complaining about corporations and the government, whose surveillance cameras are much more ubiquitous - and you don’t even really know what they’re doing with the images they take of you? (video found here)
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Fabio Severo has an interview with Yannick Bouillis, the mastermind behind Offprint, here.
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There’s a very interesting interview with artist Vera Lutter from a few years back, to be found here.
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The Financial Times has an incredibly interesting article about Annie Leibovitz and the ways of the art-photo market. A must read.
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I’m sure you will have the less than four minutes it takes to watch photographer Michael Kamber talking about the increasing censorship of images from Iraq.
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