Posted in Photographers, Photography on February 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I find the work of German photographer Heidi Specker truly fascinating. It is the captivating contrasts of mundane objects in her compositions, objects creating patterns that would be usually ignored but become alive with her pictures. More images here, and don’t miss her books.
I am interested in the contrast between recorded reality and the effect of the image that I create. – Heidi Specker
Posted in Photographers, Photography, quotes on January 31, 2008 | 2 Comments »
This is why we start, this is why we keep doing it …, isn’t it?
In the moments when inspiration does not find our path, or when the jobs are scarce or the client complains too much … remember, it is all about the fun. Enjoy the moments when photography flows from inside …
More about Jacques-Henri Lartigue after the jump. Some pictures here, here, here and here.
Posted in Dialogues/Interviews, Photographers, Photography on January 28, 2008 | 3 Comments »
I am very pleased to post an in-depth interview with photographer Jennifer Loeber. Jennifer Loeber is a young photographer based in New York City. Jennifer’s portfolio reflects the exploration of an evolving artistic vision, from documentary series to portraits that have the quality to bridge both the subject and the viewer with a unique sense of intimacy. Her work was exhibited at a group show by the Humble Arts Foundation in New York City. Her latest series, Zeig Mal (Show Me), was featured in a profile on Gothamist.com and her first feature documentary, Fishkill Flea, is currently exhibiting internationally. Jennifer has also a personal blog.
Posted in Exhibits, Photography on January 26, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Via Gallery Hopper, I found the newest work of the great Michael Kenna, a series of New York City that was exhibited at the Robert Mann Gallery (images here) in New York. It is wonderful to see the unique “Kenna” style, with dark shadows, high contrast and clean lines. His work provides a distinct look of “perhaps” the most photographed city in the world. Few weeks ago I had the opportunity to see some of his prints and I have to say that if you ever get the chance to see a print from Michael Kenna prepare yourself to turn breathless. They are so amazing.
Posted in Exhibits, Photography on January 24, 2008 | 1 Comment »
It is my great pleasure to introduce a guest contributor, photographer and blogger Doug Stockdale [Singular Images], who is now in China. He provides in this post a very interesting snapshot of his experience while visiting the fine art scene in Sanghai, at the heart of the M50 district, where modern art and fine art photography is flourishing. It is good to learn more about this amazing country and get a first hand experience on how fine art photography is getting momentum there.
Posted in Humanitarian Causes, Photography on January 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is home to the deadliest war in the world today. An estimated 5.4 million people have died since 1998, the largest death toll since the Second World War, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
You can see the impressive multimedia photographic work by Marcus Bleasdale [from Agency VII] at MediaStorm. If you are interested you can purchase a DVD or a book of this heartbreaking work, and if you are generous you can donate at any organization mentioned in the article. It is really a shame for all humanity that this world is still experiencing never ending tragedies like this one in Congo … sadly, it is just one more among others.
Posted in Photographers, Photography on January 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Thomas Misik is a German photographer that photographs spaces where geometry, color and composition create an illusion of unpopulated areas isolated from their own context. His work shows the space as an art form, sterile, without human presence. Unfortunately, it is not easy to find much of his work online but found some interesting images via galerie-poller. The navigation is not very intuitive: click on the images until you see thumbnails on the right side, with galleries for different years. Click on the thumbnails to see larger images.
Posted in Photography on January 22, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Words and photography. Two different media that rarely intersect besides some areas like photojournalism. Usually we see and enjoy fine art photographs without words, with not even a single caption in most cases. Good fine art photographs make us wonder and so we recreate with our own mind our interpretation of the image. It is our understanding of the picture, not the photographer’s.
Now let’s go to the other side. Let the photographer communicate with just words, not pictures, and let these words make us wonder about the image so we can recreate with our own visual aesthetics a world of possibilities based on the text. From words to pictures? It sounds unusual, it is uncommon. Related with this I came across a very interesting project, “Photographs not taken“, where photographers talk about images they did not take but they hold in their memory.
“The Photographs Not Taken” is a collection of essays by photographers about the times they didn’t use their camera. This collection is a series of photographs not taken with a camera, but, instead, lived and remembered. – more here.
A good picture can trigger an emotional response. Also words can move us, poetry can make us feel, captions can change our visual interpretation of an image. Words and images are indeed complementary ways to communicate and they enrich each other to create a response in the viewer with enhanced awareness of the subject matter. I wonder why it is not more usual to mix both media, fine art photography with words, captions and poetry. The juxtaposition of both ways of communication could create something different, a new art form in a way, or at least enhance our understanding of the photograph and the emotions that the photographer likes to convey with the image.
[update: arneg in the comments referred to a great site Unphotographable, where the pictures not taken are indeed described with words. Very interesting indeed]
Posted in Photographers, Photography on January 19, 2008 | 2 Comments »
”Guy was the closest thing to a fine-art photographer that this business has produced.” – Albert Watson
I find very interesting the intersection between fashion and fine art photography, and both Guy Bourdin and Albert Watson, merge those genres like few have done. At the core of Guy Bourdin’s photographs there is a challenge to the very nature of commercial image making. Typical fashion images focus on beauty and clothing as their central elements. Guy Bourdin, on the contrary, presented fashion as an excuse to make beautiful photographs rather than the subject of his photographs. His main impact in photography resides on the fact that it is not fashion itself but the image that fascinates the viewer.
Guy Bourding was a radical artist in his field, he lived outside the cutting edge and so he re-defined it. He is one of the few in fashion whose work will endure the passage of time, placing him in the pedestal of the most influent photographers of the second half of the 20th century. You can see more of his images here, and after the jump, and a reference from the New York Times.
Posted in Books, Exhibits, Photography on January 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This book [The photographer's eye] is an investigation of what photographs look like, and why they look that way. It is concerned with photographic style and with photographic tradition: with the sense of possibilities that a photographer today takes to his work.- The Photographer’s eye, by John Szarkowski, 1966.
The Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego (MoPA), California, celebrates its 25th year anniversary with a unique exposition based on the landmark exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, in 1964 and later published in the historical book “The Photographer’s eye“(1966), by John Szarkowski , the former Director of the Department of Photography at the Museum.
The exhibit at the MoPA (San Diego) starts tomorrow Jan. 19th and will be on display until April 20th, 2008. (more…)
Posted in Photography on January 17, 2008 | 6 Comments »
I guess that most of you agree with the main point in my previous post: “the print is the photograph”.
To some, it is such an obvious concept that it may not be worthwhile to mention. But, as much as we believe that the true photographic experience emerges from looking at prints, photographic editing is now mostly entirely driven by the use of computers, so most images never get printed. We even disqualify or select images from our own work by looking at the computer screen!
How many images do you print? Do you create photobooks? Do you create folios of printed work?
Posted in Photography on January 17, 2008 | 6 Comments »
I spent one day at Photo LA 2008 last weekend and I was immersed in a vast array of spectacular “printed” photographs. Close to 100 galleries exhibiting side by side contemporary photography with work of the masters. I had the opportunity to see prints of images that I remembered from photographer’s websites. I though I had seen the images before, but I was wrong. I hadn’t.
If you ever think that you have experienced an image by looking at it using the LCD of a computer, it is just because you forgot what it is to look at a master print. You have seen only a possibility, but you have not experienced the performance.
Photo LA 2008 reminded me something obvious but easy to forget in this computerized times: the print is the photograph. The rest is just a possibility.
I came across this short video from film director David Lynch. This is his message to people who watch movies on their iPods and cell phones. The same applies to all of us looking at images on LCDs resized to fit 600-800 pixels at 72 ppi.
Get real! … don’t you think?
In the comments section, “ahob” [don't know the real name] points to a recent post by photographer Mark Hobson, over at excellent blog “The Landscapist“, where he addresses this topic from his own personal work.
Posted in Photographers, Photography on January 16, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Johanna Warwick is another extraordinary photographer I discovered via the project Flash Forward [also at Flak Photo], organized by the Magenta Foundation in Canada. She has really excellent photography at her website, but the series that really got my attention is “The Weight of the World“.
This is a series that comprises 12 images of ceilings that act as a canvas replicating the perception of looking at the ceiling. The images, like broken prices of the whole view, are intermixed and create both a sense of unity and a feel of fragmentation. The combination of the images both replicates the experience of looking up while laying on the bed and create a sense of confusion that rather than being bothersome turns out to be quite pleasurable, like waking up from a dream. I think this work by Johanna Warwick is both extraordinary creative and very beautiful.
A very interesting interview with the artist was published at Function Magazine.
“I think it’s a very internal body of work. The pictures are portraying that internal space that we all have and I think for me they come from this time in our early 20s, where you’re trying to figure out what you’re doing and where your going and that sense of being lost, for me that’s where it came from, but I think it is something that applies to anyone in any time of life. We are always going to know that place. We are always going to know that feeling and that sense of being lost. To me that’s where it came from.”- Johanna Warwick
Posted in Photographers, Photography on January 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
As a part of his remarkable series of people “suspended in the air” [ see Sans titre and Hyper], Denis Darzacq has a very impressive set of images named “La Chute” (The Fall), where he uses street dancers to create the perception of people falling on to the streets. I have seen the prints and they are quite extraordinary. If you are located in the Los Angeles area, you have the opportunity to see the images in the new exhibit at de Soto Gallery..
Posted in Photography, Uncategorized on January 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Open for applications to any photographers that need access to funds to support a photographic objective. The grants will be between $1000-$5000 and the proposals should be sent between Jan 12th to Feb 11th, 2008. The grants and proposals cover a broad range of uses for the money. If you need money to push a project forward, you can give it a try. Read here for more info.
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These grants are intended to allow photographers to pursue a specific photographic ambition. It might be to attend a seminar, workshop, or course (those provided by any of the panel of judges are excluded), to print a show, to mount a show or display of ones work, produce a book, to travel to a location to pursue a specific photographic subject, or to print a limited edition portfolio. These are just some of the types of activities which will be funded. These funds are not intended for the purchase of equipment- [more details and rules here]
