The Online Photographer: Photographers, current

Photographers, current

Saturday, 04 September 2010

And Now for Something Completely Different...Well...

Christoph Bangert, Sgt. Mohammed Bashir, 22, Afghan National Army, Karamguzar, Imam Sahib District, Kunduz Province

You want to know what this guy is thinking? He's thinking, "What the hell kind of camera is that?"

At least he doesn't think the rollfilm packets are candy.

(For the explanation to these and other mysteries, be sure to read the write-up at the link.)

Mike
(Thanks to Lynn Burdekin)

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Original contents copyright 2010 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on Saturday, 04 September 2010 at 12:08 PM in Film and Darkroom, Photographers, current | Permalink | Comments (15)

Monday, 19 April 2010

'Thoughts On Landscape' Newly Available

I'm pleased to pass along the news that Frank Gohlke's little gem of a book, Thoughts on Landscape: Collected Writings and Interviews, is newly available from Amazon. Gohlke is one of the best writers who is also an accomplished photographer—his thoughts and essays are articulate and thoughtful, and he's even lucid in interviews, of which there are several present here. In fact, one of the best chapters in the book is "Lieben und Arbeiten" from a 1984 Colorado College interview, which contains the famous aphorism, "At its best...photography asks us to return to the world from art."

He's written very little: the contents here span from 1976 to 2007. Everything of his I've ever seen is here. Present are his fine 1977 essay on Ben Lifson, and of course "A Volatile Core," from Aperture 98, which begins like this:

Some facts: On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens in the Cascade Range of southwestern Washington state erupted explosively, two months after the first signs that a 123-year period of dormancy was ending. An earthquake caused the weakened north face of the mountain to avalanche into the Toutle River valley, instantaneously releasing the pressure on the upwelling magma below. The result was a lateral blast of incredible force that devastated 230 square miles of commercial timberland, recreational forest, and wilderness. Trees representing one billion board feet of timber were killed where they stood, flattened, or pulverized and blown away. Valleys were filled with debris, rivers were rerouted, old lakes were reshaped and new lakes created. Where before there had been a gleaming symmetrical cone 9700 feet high, there was now a gaping horseshoe-shaped crater whose rim was 1300 feet and whose floor was 3000 feet lower than the old summit. Perhaps two million animals of all species were killed, including sixty-five human beings. During the seven hours of the May 18 eruption the release of energy was estimated to equal one Hiroshima-sized bomb per second.

I have often been attracted to places where very little happened: plowed fields, front yards, quiet intersections; the things that took place in my photographs were non-dramatic, hardly events at all in the common understanding of the word. A tornado or a volcanic eruption is at the other end of the spectrum....

Even so, this is not so much as book for readers as for thinkers, and if you digested one chapter per month you might be taking it too fast. Not that it's difficult (it's not), just that it's contemplative and reflective. He has thought deeply about photography and landscape, and what he has to say makes the reader do the same. One could keep this volume for years and dip into it now and again with pleasure and avail. If you like to read about photography, recommended. Lord knows how long the print run will last.

Of course if you prefer the pictures I'm not going to argue.

Mike

Posted on Monday, 19 April 2010 at 11:33 PM in Books, Photographers, current | Permalink | Comments (21)

Friday, 09 April 2010

The Picture on the iPad

Photo by Richard Misrach

Richard Misrach is a photographer I've been aware of literally since art school. He's been working for many years and has created an extensive body of work, mainly of western (U.S.) landscapes. His first-ever commercially licensed photo, "Pyramid Lake (at Night)," from 2004, above, used to be his own personal screensaver—and now it's the official background photo for the iPad. It was taken by the light of the moon on an Indian reservation in Nevada.

Misrach had been in negotiations with Apple, but the rollout came as a surprise. "'I was in bed watching Inglorious Bastards [sic] when I got a call from Jeffrey Fraenkel, my dealer in San Francisco, and he said, "Do you know what's going on live here?"' Misrach told ARTINFO. 'I was totally shocked. Naturally my other galleries started calling and my family was all atwitter....'"

Nice work if you can get it! ARTINFO has the happy story.

And speaking of the iPad, I wonder if the device might become the default portfolio presentation device for photographers. Seems well suited. I've read all sort of accounts of inventive portfolio implementations over the years—including one photographer who used a service that made placemats! As in, for the dining room table. After discovering that conventional laminations scuffed and aged too easily under rough handling by clients, he found that the "placemats" wore like iron and were impervious to scratches and hazing, so a box of his photos so treated became his working portfolio. Another photographer had all his work reproduced as 8x10 transparencies which he mounted with black mat board surrounds. He would visit Art Directors and other potential clients with a portable light box in a briefcase. Showing his work wouldn't have been a casual experience, but must have made a memorable effect. This was innovative when I heard about it in the '80s, but I think it became a common enough method of presentation in subsequent years—the photographer I remember had custom-made his own lightbox-briefcase, but I vaguely remember a commercial version for sale at one point.

The iPad seems tailor-made for portfolio presentations to potential clients. Not sure it would work as a drop-off, though.

Mike
(Thanks to many tipsters)

Featured (partial) Comment by Eric: "Short answer for me is yes. Photos are just beautiful on this thing (my company is developing software for them so we have a few around here). They really pop. I'll still make prints, but just due to the sheer ease of portfolio maintenance the iPad is the way to go. The black Apple iPad case just seals the deal for me. Once you put the iPad in that it's as nice as a portfolio as I've ever used."

Featured Comment by JackM: "I have used a laptop for a portfolio presentation and hated the keyboard. The iPad is superior. Apple is already talking about a smaller iPad; I already want one bigger. But that is in part because I like placemat-sized portfolios. As much as I like the iPad for stills, it is even better for video. Prints in a portfolio have always been possible, but video in a portfolio required a screen. Now we have one. By the way, your blog looks much better on the iPad than on the iPhone."

Featured Comment by Marc Rochkind: "When I first started up my iPad, I thought those star trails were scratches. A few others have commented on this as well. Regarding the iPad for showing photos: It's easy to move photos from, say, Lightroom to the iPad, in case anyone is wondering. No need to go through iPhoto or anything like that. (You sync with iTunes, but you don't load the photos into iTunes. Once you set up the drop folder, the rest is automated.) There's no information I know of about color management on the iPad. I assume sRGB is what you use for a profile. Someone asked here yesterday, I think, about calibration. No way to do that at this point, and probably will not be a way unless 1) Apple has supplied suitable application-program interfaces (APIs) and 2) special hardware is made that interfaces to the iPad's connector. I think both are unlikely."

Featured Comment by Ailsa: "Interesting that Misrach thinks the decision to use his image may have been made at the last moment. The same thing happened to Ian Cameron, a photographer I know who's based in the north of Scotland. A few years ago he was up working very late one night, when his phone rang. It turned out to be someone from Apple HQ, asking for permission to use one of his images as wallpaper for the iPhone—which was being launched the next day. I get the impression Ian was pretty much able to name his price. He never told me how much he was paid for it, but I believe it was a pretty tidy sum. Here's Ian's website."

Posted on Friday, 09 April 2010 at 01:28 PM in Photographers, current, Random Snaps | Permalink | Comments (33)

Sunday, 28 March 2010

Random Excellence: Midcoast Studio

I was at my favorite local restaurant the other night when the owner, Siam (Sam) Saeng, seated another patron next to me at the sushi bar. Sam is what Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point refers to as a "connector"—a guy who knows far more people than most people do, and is adept at making connections between them. He introduced me to Madison Ford because he know we're both into photography.

Turns out Madison runs a studio in Detroit called Midcoast Studio, shooting mostly, but not exclusively, cars and motorcycles. He's away from his family now, living in a hotel, while he and his crew are doing three months of intensive shooting for Harley-Davidson, which is based in Milwaukee.

It was fun to talk to a big-time advertising guy. He told me he runs all medium-format digital backs, but that he'd just bought his first DSLR, a Nikon D3x purchased a few weeks back. He said he was looking forward to trying it, but hadn't had time yet to take it out of the box.

Another story he talked about was about a client he'd heard of in L.A. who felt they needed to hire a photographer all the way from England for a relatively simple job. Like there are no competent photographers in L.A.—or the United States!

I know all about that kind of thing, having worked in Washington, D.C.—our studio, like virtually every other studio in D.C., regularly lost work to New York guys. In fact, I knew one photographer who had two studios, one in the Carolinas and one in Grand Rapids, Michigan—his bread and butter was furniture—who kept an office at a major office building complex in New York City. The office was an empty room with a phone and an answering machine in it. He kept it for the Manhattan address and the 212 area code.

There's more than one way to be a "New York guy."

And I'll bet there's a photographer in England right now sitting at a sushi bar shaking his head and telling an acquaintance about some barmy client who had to hire a shooter all the way from L.A. "Like nobody in London can take a decent photograph!" It's all the same the world around—the guy from "away" always has a bit of an edge on the locals.

Mike

Featured Comment by Rick K.: "Way back in 1994 I was taking a photography class at the local community college in Royal Oak, Michigan (OCC). The highlight of the class, for me, was taking a tour of the Midcoast Studio. Seeing the lighting setups with the huge cycloramas, flying flats and the like, was awe-inspiring to me as a student. The friendliness of the photographers was greatly appreciated as they explained the ways and techniques of their craft and answered our sometimes unprofound questions. I hope they read this comment. Just my way of saying thank you to Midcoast Studio."

Posted on Sunday, 28 March 2010 at 03:21 PM in Photographers, current, Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (16)

Monday, 15 March 2010

Wildlife Photography...and 'Wildlife' Photography

Here are two interesting articles that came to my attention recently—and that are even more interesting when juxtaposed.

First is a story of remarkable persistence in the face of adversity, the tale from the Daily Mail Online of Greg du Toit and how he got his remarkable picture of two lionesses at a watering hole (the first picture at the link). I think you can tell this one's impressive even if you don't care for wildlife photography—and Greg suffered diseases, parasites, and lots of effort and frustration to get it. Not to mention fear: "There were times when I was shaking with so much with fear I had to stop what I was doing and breathe to get myself calm," he says.

'Captive wildlife' is an oxymoron
Then, consider this fascinating article from Audubon magazine about 'wildlife' photography's dirty little secret—animal models for hire. Although not exactly underground, the existence of these resources for photographers is certainly not well known the public, who often see impressive pictures of 'wild' animals that aren't really wild. Many are actually nearly as docile as pets, and run the gamut from pampered to abused.

Audubon doesn't spare itself in its exposé, either.

And it coins a rather odd locution—the "genuine wildlife photographer," meaning a photographer who only photographs wildlife that's actually wild.

Trainer Logan Saitch carries Jewel, a cougar "model" from the Triple D game farm.
Photo by Andrew Geiger.

I know I sound like a broken record, but photographs often don't stand alone. In order to know what you're looking at, you frequently need to be told—and the honesty and reliability of whoever's doing the telling is just as important with photographs as it is with written or spoken statements. The author of the Audubon article, Ted Williams, says as much: "Where there's no gray is in the need for honesty."

Mike
(Thanks to and Ryan King and David Bostedo)

Featured Comment by Chad Thompson: "I remember when I was a younger I found a wildlife photography book at my local library. It was produced by L.L. Bean. This one I believe. Anyway, upon reading I came to a 'tip' that included catching a trout and then tethering it to the bottom of the stream with monofilament. Once placed, just submerge the camera (in housing) and happily snap away. At that point I knew I could never view even the most innocuous wildlife photo ever again without thinking there was something, well, fishy about it."

Featured Comment by Greg du Toit: "Hi guys, it is Greg here! Always interesting to read how crazy people think I am—?

"I am a wildlife photographer by profession and like other wildlife photographers, I have to go to extreme lengths to capture my subjects. Disease and illness is just a part and parcel of the job. Take Nick Nichols for example. He is and has been a leading National Geographic photographer for decades and has contracted more diseases on assignments than I can list (far more than me—he has had malaria over 20 times). Growing up in Africa, tropical bugs and diseases are part and parcel of life, and getting bilharzia and malaria are commonplace.

"Also, what the papers omitted to tell is that these pictures are not just any old lion images! No, these are images of wild lions carrying out a precarious existence on Maasai-owned community land, outside a national park or game reserve. Very few of these lions are left in Africa and in 50 years time they might be all gone. I took it upon myself to capture images of truly wild lions carrying out an existence that is currently under severe threat! Yes, I could have used a remote trigger or a dry suit, but my plan from the start was never to be in the water, that is just how the project evolved. At the time of this project I was just starting out with a very limited budget and had only one body and one lens. All the images were shot on slide film.

"I do think I deserve just a little credit for being behind the camera and capturing an image of a truly wild beast in a day and age when other photographers are using remotes and captive bred animals? (Read the full story on my website).

"There is more about my story on a BBC World Service interview with Mathew Bannister."

Featured Comment by amcananey: "The direct link to Greg's account is here. (It can be a little difficult to find on his website.) A good story and great pictures. Some are even better than those included in the newspaper article and they definitely help you appreciate Greg's unique perspective from the water."

Posted on Monday, 15 March 2010 at 07:52 AM in Photographers, current, Photographic aesthetics | Permalink | Comments (50)

Wednesday, 10 March 2010

Harald Mante's 'Photography Unplugged'

A week and a day ago now, we published Jim Hughes' article "Fugitive Color," a meditation around Kodachrome. In the article, Jim talked about Harald Mante's new book from Rocky Nook, Photography Unplugged, which was published last September.

Here's the U.K. link. And of course it's available from Amazon Germany—it was originally published by dpunkt Verlag in Germany.

I was in the bookstore a couple of months ago and had just picked up, flipped through, and put back down yet another of those agglutinations of purty scenics, thinking sarcastically to myself (I'm often sarcastic with myself), "Sorry, but I need photographs to have a little more substance than that." Just as I was thinking that, I picked up Harald's book and thought, "Whoops! Well, maybe I don't, after all."

I flipped through it, then sat down and looked through the whole thing carefully, then came back the next day and looked through it again.

And then bought it.

The simple, straightforward layout serves the work.

It's true that Harald casts the book (in a brief note in the front matter) as a "Goodbye to Kodachrome," since most of the pictures were taken with Minolta cameras (as he told me in an email recently) and the famous Kodak film. But I really think that this book will appeal to anyone who works in color, whether film or digital.

Harald works in bold, elemental compositions, a strong and vivid sense of geometry and design, and, most of all, vivid and coordinated palettes of colors. This ain't Deep Stuff—the work really doesn't have a lot of "meaning" past the exaggerated sense it imparts of the joy of looking and seeing. There's a sense of playfulness, almost of fun. But I'm fascinated by the fact that the book doesn't seem to have any weak spots, and that, despite the photographer's relatively simple project, he doesn't repeat himself (much) or fall back on worn-out tricks and tropes. You won't come away thinking you've seen anything new, yet there's a lot of invention here and a surprising variety. It's consistent and strong.

The reproduction and book design are outstanding—I frankly wouldn't mind if every photographic book were laid out in a such a no-nonsense manner, one picture per page, no distractions; it simply serves the pictures. In fact, the only criticism I can muster of the book is its cover, which is somber and featureless. So many book covers are bright and inviting and promise more than the contents deliver. This cover is the opposite.

Harald Mante with his new book. Photo by Ralph Bodemer, derwesten.de

All in all, this is joyful and enjoyable. Harald Mante was unknown to me before I saw this—apparently he's well-known as a teacher and writer on photography in Germany. It's distinctive, individual, and just very, very well done (I'm avoiding the term "eye candy," but I can see how this would get to be a guilty pleasure for many). I suspect 90% of the people who read TOP would truly enjoy at least a single trip through this tour of Harald's work, and a strong majority would get a lot of enjoyment out of repeat visits. I have. Whatever kind of equipment you use, if you like strong design and clear, vibrant colors—and you don't mind optimism and an affirmative outlook—a sparkling surf without the undertow—you'll like this.

Mike

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Featured Comment by Chris Lucianu: "Harald Mante has arguably been one of the most influential public teachers on color, composition, and photography design in German-speaking countries for nearly forty years. His monthly contributions in popular photography magazines were a fixture: eagerly awaited, often dreaded. His terse style and luscious palette were often sensed as a silent rebuff: 'less is more.' A study of the width and depth of his influence would be rather revealing."

Posted on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 at 05:28 PM in Books, Photographers, current | Permalink | Comments (13)

Saturday, 06 March 2010

Random Excellence: Petrut Calinescu

Photo by Petrut Calinescu

Petrut is a 34-year-old Romanian photojournalist based in Bucharest.

Consider the above just a sample, although I think it's a great shot—I love that water-on-the-lens blur on the middle figures with the figures on either side still sharp, with the figure on the left in shadow and the one on the right in sunlight; note also how the picture seems to have more visual "weight" on the left side because of a subtle angle and the reinforcing reflections in the water. (Sometimes, pictures just work.)

...But I digress. As I was saying, in his case I think his whole website is of interest and is well worth exploring at leisure on a Saturday. Not overly much of the usual "dire distress and poverty porn" so beloved of picture editors (and hence p-j's) worldwide; he seems to have a nose for interesting places and a nice balance of humanity with honesty. Some lovely stuff. Too bad he can't stay home more—his work that's most interesting to me is of Romania.

Larger versions of a few of the pictures here.

Mike
(Thanks to Dan Matiesanu)

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Featured Comment by John Camp: "Two famous American paintings. The first, by George Bellows, is "Forty-Two Kids" (1907) in the Corcoran; the second by Thomas Eakins (1885) from the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth."

Posted on Saturday, 06 March 2010 at 12:01 PM in Photographers, current, Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (8)

Friday, 05 March 2010

Milton is 100!

Milton at work in the darkroom. Photo © Diane Bush, c. 1982

Well, I blew this. Last summer or fall I was going to do a post about Milton Rogovin, the social documentary portraitist from Buffalo, New York. But then I thought, wait a minute, he turns 100 on December 30th—why not wait until then? So I wrote myself a little note to help me remember the significance of the 30th of December.

And then I missed it.

Well, Happy Birthday Milton R., a little late.

Milton was the subject of the film "The Rich Have Their Own Photographers," which was recently shown on PBS. (As far as I know, not available on DVD—please let me know if you know otherwise.) He has published numerous books, many of which are still in print; if you're new to his work, you might want to start with The Forgotten Ones. There's a small selection of Milton's recurring portraiture—he photographed a number of his subjects at different points in time—at Alec Soth's Archived Blog. (Do read the captions.)

He won the ICP's Cornell Capa Award in 2007, and was featured in the New York Times' Lens blog last summer, and of course has his own website.

All pretty cool for one of the youngest and newest centenarians.

Isn't that a wonderful portrait at the top of the page, by Diane Bush? I managed to find her, and I'm buying a small print of it for my now-growing collection. My kind of picture.

Some day I might even run across that note I wrote to myself last summer. Maybe in time to wish Milton Happy 102nd or 103rd.

Mike
(Thanks to Louis McCullagh)

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Featured Comment by Erlik: "And here's the trailer for the film on YouTube. Bigger than the dinky one on Telling Images. You can see the photographs better."

Posted on Friday, 05 March 2010 at 08:27 AM in News and Occasions, Photographers, current | Permalink | Comments (13)

Tuesday, 23 February 2010

Our New Header

Jesse Speer, Winter Gateway

I got some sixty submissions today when I asked for help in changing our header. To those who made submissions that weren't selected, thanks very much for your kindness! Sixty alternatives proved an embarrassment of riches—virtually all of them were better than I could have done, and thus would have served the purpose. There were some very interesting interpretations and variations.

The one I chose is by TOP reader Jesse Speer, a nature photographer and graphic designer from Bozeman, Montana, USA, who photographs mostly in the Rocky Mountains. His website is extensive, and gives you a good idea what he's all about. Lots more pictures as good as the one above.

Jesse tells me he's been reading TOP since 2007.

For the record, I guess I should apologize for the "contest" casting of the original post. I should have just made it a straightforward appeal for help. Several readers objected to the "for spec" call for work. No offense—I just thought it would be more fun letting someone else do it than doing it myself again. I did try, initially, to work with a graphics firm here in Wisconsin, but basically my budget is just too small. What I paid Jesse is about all I comfortably could have paid, so this wasn't an attempt to get work for free or "on the cheap."

Anyway, thanks again for all the good submissions—I literally could have used any of them, and about ten were really excellent. And thanks again to Jesse, who says he's going to use the money to help pay for a new GF1 kit. Good man!

Mike

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Posted on Tuesday, 23 February 2010 at 04:26 PM in Blog Notes, Photographers, current | Permalink | Comments (50)

Viper, Parasite, Stalker...and National Treasure

Ron Galella's Mona Lisa

Roger Ebert on Andy Warhol's favorite photographer.

(Definitely the creepiest part of the essay: "'I think at the time Jackie became my girlfriend,' Galella muses. 'I wasn't married, I didn't have a girl friend....'" I'm just sayin'.)

Mike
(Thanks to John Clifford)

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Featured Comment by David Zivic: "I remember Galella from my youth and still love his results. His methods, which seemed humorous and entertaining at the time, are giving photographers a somewhat negative image today.

"I accidentally confronted Pierce Brosnan and his family in a restaurant and my camera was on the table. He stopped and considered his next move. I pushed the camera to the other side of the table. He gave that 'ladies first' motion and his wife and two young daughters walked right by me and into the restaurant. As he passed, my second favorite 007 put his hand on my should and said 'thanks man.' much better than a punch in the face or a restraining order. But of course that's not how I make my living."

Posted on Tuesday, 23 February 2010 at 08:54 AM in Photographers, current, Visual Culture | Permalink | Comments (2)

Saturday, 06 February 2010

A Message from Chris Duffy

I have just been sent a link to this website re the Duffy Documentary. Our server did indeed crash twice last weekend due to excessive traffic and in fact we had over 4,000 people trying to download the video over two days, which on a shared server was far too much to handle. I couldn't figure out why we had such a spike in viewing figures but all is clear now as this site obviously pointed gazillions of people to the documentary on the Duffy Website. We have now ported the video over to link from the VIMEO Server so hopefully the problem is solved. Thanks to all who have watched the film and apologies for any inconvenience to those who could not get it. It's working again, so give it a try...!

www.duffyphotographer.com > exhibits & links > BBC DOCUMENTARY

—Chris Duffy

-

Mike adds: Thanks for letting us know, Chris. For those who might not have been following along, Chris is the son of Brian Duffy. Chris is the one who has quietly done so much to revive interest in his father's groundbreaking work from the 1960s and provide a belated epilogue to the arc of his father's vivid and fascinating life story. We linked to the BBC video on duffyphotographer in a post last Saturday—with some trepidation on my part, because I know very well how "The TOP Effect" can crash servers—and many readers were frustrated because they couldn't get the video to load or download.

I'll repeat my recommendation—it's about an hour long but repays the time it takes to watch—a touching, irreverent, sometimes funny story.

Chris, I'd also just like to offer kudos to you for all your work on behalf of your Dad. A nice thing you've done.

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Posted on Saturday, 06 February 2010 at 11:49 AM in Photographers, current | Permalink | Comments (7)

Tuesday, 02 February 2010

'The Book Will Surely Prevail'

My friend and former teacher Joe Cameron, in his post "H.C.-B. in Ink" last Friday, mentioned Ralph Gibson:

But I also remember hearing the photographer Ralph Gibson suggest once that the deep rich black of printer’s ink came closer to conveying his ideas than the silver of printing paper. He was glad to sell 'original prints' to collectors but he implied that the book pages holding his images were truer to his vision.

As I often try to do when people are mentioned or referenced in our posts—I am forever casting lines into the water—I emailed the link to Ralph, saying, parenthetically, "I know you love books." Here's his reply, which came in yesterday morning:

Michael,

Apropos your invitation I will respond by adding that now, 20 years later, the digital revolution is coming of age in the truest sense. We are beginning to understand exactly what the net does and does not do... Obviously many forms of communication and research have been massively enhanced via electronic media. However it seems that the photography book is holding strong. Very strong indeed. Let's examine why this is the case.

I believe that the alchemy of light on film informs a kind of content that is not remotely duplicated by electronic imaging systems. These systems transfer information with great precision but a silver gelatin photograph transcends the subject and leads one into much higher levels of content. For this reason the photograph per se remains firmly positioned in the social aesthetic matrix.

The exact same is true of the photography book. Issues such as tactility, luminosity and rhythm on the printed page are not in any way equaled by the image on the digital display.

I don't want to sound like one of those cave-men who resented the invention of papyrus...I own several computers and love doing the layout and scans for my books as well as composing music and burning CDs etc. It's all great. I only want to state clearly that the book will surely prevail....

I only hope that these sentiments are shared by future generations.
Ever Onwards!

Ralph Gibson

Of major photographers, Ralph Gibson is even more closely identified than most with the printed page. He founded Lustrum Press in 1970 to publish his own work as well as a series of "process-oriented" technical books and monographs by other photographers, the most famous (or infamous) of which was probably Larry Clark's pioneering portrait of the drug underworld, Tulsa, reprinted in 2000 by Grove Press. Along the way, he helped make the reputations of a number of photographers who are well established now, such as Mary Ellen Mark.

A spread from Ralph Gibson's 1973 book Déjà-vu. Photo courtesy CCP.

There was a show at the Center for Creative Photography in 2007 called "Ralph Gibson and Lustrum Press, 1970–1984" which chronicled Gibson's influence as a publisher.

Where his own work is concerned, Ralph Gibson works through the medium of books—with design, sequencing, and juxtaposition—such that his printed books are essentially single artworks. Ironically, though, his website has an archive of his work that is more comprehensive than the online gallery of almost any other photographer of his stature.

Mike

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Featured Comment by CK Dexter Haven: "I would be thrilled to have an email from Ralph Gibson. Certainly, one of my photographic 'heroes.' However, an actual letter from him would be just the cat's. Something about the luminosity of ink on paper that just can't be reproduced by pixels on screen."

Posted on Tuesday, 02 February 2010 at 09:59 AM in Books, Exhibits, Photographers, current | Permalink | Comments (17)

Friday, 29 January 2010

He Wasn't as Steady as a Tripod

"...Sparked me up, like the thing on the table with the bolts here...TZZZT!"

Now then—I really do mean to take tomorrow off, as I'm supposed to. (As you can probably tell, I get a little obsessive about staying glued to the computer.) But I'd like to leave you with a link to a film that I think might be perfect for your Saturday.

It goes on for about an hour, so you'll have to budget some time. It's about Brian Duffy, one-third of the "black trinity" of British photographers of the 1960s. (The others were David Bailey, best-known of the three because he was the model for the character played by David Hemmings in Michelangelo Antonioni's film "Blow Up" of 1966, and Terrence Donovan, who took his own life in 1996.) Duffy is perhaps best remembered for his mode of departure: he made a pile of all his prints and negatives and put a match to it, and walked away from photography for decades.

Recently, however, now 75 and in failing health, he returned to photography, and had his first show. The BBC did a documentary about it, and it's now online at his website.

I have to mention, I love the Klemperer story. But it's the creative arc that's revealed through the piece that's really arresting.

At any rate, you can watch for yourself. It's pretty terrific, especially if you have an iconoclastic streak. There's no direct link: to get to it, you have to go to the website > exhibits & links > BBC DOCUMENTARY. You can watch it online or download it.

Bob Stevenson told me about this; thanks, Bob.

Mike

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[Hopefully temporary] UPDATE: We appear to have whacked their bandwidth, hardly surprising with an hour-long video on a private website. That turns this post into naught but a tease. Sorry. But do keep this in mind, and check back. It's really worth seeing. —Ed.

UPDATE #2: A week later, Chris Duffy writes to say that we did crash their shared server, but the video is now on Vimeo. So, have another go—it should work now.

UPDATE #3: Sad to say Duffy passed away on May 31st, 2010.

Featured Comment by Andy Forbes: "I have been a fan of Duffy since the '60s. Rather than buy photography mags I used to buy the fashion mags that Duffy, Bailey and Donovan contributed to. The documentary style of fashion shoot they used was fascinating and totally different to the accepted style of fashion shoots at the time. There is a wonderful quote by Duffy from the '60s: 'Before 1960 a fashion photographer was tall, thin and camp. But we three are different: short, fat and heterosexual!'

"I was fortunate to be invited to the private viewing of the Duffy exhibition, which features in the documentary, at the Chris Beetles gallery last October. It was a great night and interesting to see how the players, models and fashion editors had weathered, some not so well as others! Bailey was there for a short while and it is obvious he has great respect for his old friend Duffy. The surviving photographs are wonderful—I went to the exhibition four times to drink it all in. The BBC documentary is a bonus and I recorded it when it was broadcast a couple of weeks ago and have watched it several times since and it shows Duffy is still as rebellious now as he was in the '60s.

"Duffy's son Chris is the man really responsible for all of this and has worked tirelessly over the last couple of years or so to bring Duffy back into the public eye and thank God he has, he really deserves his place in the history of photography and the period. Hopefully there is more to come."

Posted on Friday, 29 January 2010 at 10:19 PM in Photographers, current | Permalink | Comments (13)

Tuesday, 26 January 2010

Random Excellence: Umida Akhmedova

It seems to me that every country in the world only has a few really outstanding photographers identified with it. Frankly, the country of Uzbekistan was not in my consciousness before I saw Umida Akhmedova's pictures of it. The pictures—you can see about 50 of them here—are honest and unflinching, as all good photography must be, but they show a country breathtaking in its beauty as well as a proud people for whom the photographer obviously has much affection.

The impact on me of seeing her pictures is that it makes me wish to visit Uzbekistan or, at least, to learn more about the country and its people.

Mike
(Thanks to Michael Seltzer)

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Featured Comment by Ian Loveday: "Yes, they are great pictures for an outsider to see (when or if I'll get to visit Uzbekistan I have no idea, but they certainly attract me). My point is...natives of a country (or region or city I suppose) can react badly to portrayals by (and to a large extent for) outsiders. I bought a book of photographs of China recently (China: A Visual Adventure, published by Carlton Books). Not a self consciously arty or prestigious book to be sure, but I liked some of the off-beat and non-tourist-cliché images it included, like wannabe punk rockers in Beijing. My Chinese wife was horrified. 'It must have been shot by a westerner,' she said. 'No Chinese photographer would publish pictures like that.'"

Mike adds: And don't forget it took a Swiss to do The Americans.

Posted on Tuesday, 26 January 2010 at 04:45 PM in Photographers, current, Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (33)

Friday, 15 January 2010

Carl Weese on the Lens Blog

I'm happy to pass along the news that longtime friend and frequent TOP contributor Carl Weese is the subject of the newest feature on The New York Times' "Lens" photojournalism blog, which this morning is presenting a selection of his 8x10" and 7x17" platinum/palladium pictures of drive-in theaters across the Continental U.S.

Have a look, and be sure to view the pictures in full-screen mode. (Large-format platinum prints are one of those media that in their natural state are pretty far from small JPEGs.)

Carl Weese, Self-Portrait in the Restroom at Jerry's Artorama

Big congratulations, Carl!

Mike

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Featured Comment by Mike Plews: "It broke my heart to see the Council Bluffs Drive In picture. It was the last drive in theater in the Council Bluffs/Omaha area. Lovely work. Thanks for doing it."

Featured Comment by Robert Howell: "Many good memories of drive-in theatres, especially the mid-summer sunsets behind the screen, and trying to sneak in with my girl in the trunk of a friend's car. Can't to this day figure how they knew we were in there. The only movie I remember seeing was The Illustrated Man, in a downpour. Now there's an image!

The last drive-in theatre in my hometown closed in 2007. This is an excerpt from a Canwest article on its history: 'In 1996, a tornado destroyed one of the theatre's two screens and ripped the roof off the concession building as staff were preparing for that evening's showing of the movie Twister.'

"The city is Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and it is a magic place. There were two drive-in theatres on one stretch of road just a few miles apart, both screens facing east. As a kid I enjoyed seeing these big images in the twilight, no sound, just the hum of my Dad's Invicta as we headed into town. Surreal. They had a lot to do with my becoming a photographer.

"Thanks Carl."

Carl replies: About how they knew you were in there—that's easy, actually. But first I must digress. The book I'd like to do won't lack for text. Dull people don't run drive-in theaters in the 21st century. At each theater I find still in operation, I get fantastic interviews. Ask one dumb question, and just make sure the tape recorder is going. The text I can assemble from these interviews will be a treat for anyone. So, back to getting caught. Human beings are heavy—even skinny teenagers. A car with two people in the trunk doesn't sit right, and the ticket booth people spot it in an instant.

Posted on Friday, 15 January 2010 at 12:30 AM in Photographers, current | Permalink | Comments (24)

Wednesday, 06 January 2010

A Gift Waiting at Every Corner: Notes from a Life in Photography

By Peter Turnley

When I review my life as a photographer, I feel blessed and fortunate to have experienced so many wonderful emotions, the most significant being the sense of being alive, powerfully alive.

These beautiful experiences began with a book by the master French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, a gift from my parents while I was hospitalized with a knee injury sustained during a high school football game. It was 1971, I was 16 years old, and that year in my hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana, I discovered photography. Cartier-Bresson’s work awakened me to the glory that existed in the common moments of daily life. Suddenly my primary mode of self-expression at the time, sports, gave way to countless forays into the inner city of my hometown with my camera. Photography expanded my world. It has always been, for me, a medium through which I can share my observations and responses to the world.

The one thing that is always clear in my mind is that the people and their stories, and the themes of life that I photograph, are always more important to me than the process of photography itself.

My formal education in photography began and ended with a two-week workshop taken during the summer before my senior year of high school. The Belgian Photographer Gabriel DeLobbe, who taught the course, encouraged me to be aware of my surroundings because "every moment you spend looking down is a moment you are denying yourself the gifts of life that are waiting to be observed." I soon found myself discovering great books of photography such as The Family Of Man by Edward Steichen, which became my bible in high school. The images of people from around the world impressed upon me the strong potential for photographers to highlight the subtle distinctions that we possess while underlining our common humanity.

Another great work, Bruce Davidson's East 100th Street, inspired my twin brother David and me to contemplate the notion of how much life could be discovered in the defined space of a single street. In Fort Wayne, in 1972, David and I discovered McClellan Street. Its residents became the subjects of a yearlong project, which also became our first-ever published work. McClellan Street was three blocks long, its residents primarily of Appalachian and Hispanic origin. The life of the street was always full of outdoor activity, which we documented using our one camera. While one of us was out shooting, the other babysat the neighborhood's children or struck up conversations with residents of the street. In 1975, the magazine 35MM Photography devoted many pages to our finished photo essay, an incredible boost for aspiring twenty-year-old photographers.

Continue reading "A Gift Waiting at Every Corner: Notes from a Life in Photography" »

Posted on Wednesday, 06 January 2010 at 06:40 PM in Photographers, current, Photojournalism | Permalink | Comments (30)

Monday, 04 January 2010

A Visual Interview with Peter Turnley

Peter Turnley is by any measure one of the most accomplished photographers of his generation. My interest in his work—and hence what you've read about him here on TOP—has centered around his personal work, in books such as Parisians and McClellan Street. The latter is a lyrical study of a hometown neighborhood he did with his twin brother David when they were teenagers, which proved to be their entry ticket into the world of big-time international photojournalism. These two sets of work, however, describe only a small part of the trajectory of Peter's involvement in photography. Things like his forty NEWSWEEK covers and a full profile on "60 Minutes" will have to stand in for the rest of his long resumé for now.

Recently, I got wind of the fact that Peter is now teaching photo workshops in various locations around the world—workshops that people like you and I can attend—and that reports from participants have been, in a word, glowing. So I approached Peter (through my friend Steve Rosenblum, who has collected some of Peter's work) and asked him about an interview.

Peter responded with grace, generosity, and energy. Over the course of several conversations and emails, we developed the idea of a sort of "visual interview," and Peter spent all of New Year's Day putting together a portfolio and a written statement just for you. Naturally, photojournalists and documentary photographers work—and think—in terms of sets of pictures that describe larger realities; the portfolio you're about to look at doesn't do any one story justice. It's not a "greatest hits," either. Rather, it's a linked sequence meant to sketch the broad range and reach of Peter's work and concerns over many years.

So get yourself a cup of coffee on this first Monday in 2010, and click past the break. You are in for a treat.
—Mike

Continue reading "A Visual Interview with Peter Turnley" »

Posted on Monday, 04 January 2010 at 07:50 AM in Photographers, current | Permalink | Comments (48)

Saturday, 02 January 2010

Jim Richardson's Twelve Days of Christmas

Photo: National Geographic

Jim Richardson's frame no. 10,525

Things are going to be a bit quiet on TOP this weekend while I work away on some stuff for next week. First full week of the New Year and all.

In the meantime, our friend Jim Richardson is holding a party over at his place. The picture above stands alone as a spectacular landscape—it was taken in the Scottish Hebrides. Its significance is that it forms the opening spread of Jim's feature "Edge of the World" in the January 2010 issue of National Geographic magazine.

Jim writes, "My story on the Hebrides is just out. I'm blogging over at Working Photographer about the process by which each of the pictures in the layout came into being. There will be twelve posts, one for each of the eleven pictures and a final homage to the pictures that didn't make it. These will run one a day."

The series started with this picture on the 31st. Very interesting insight as to how a magazine feature gets put together. Have a look—and don't forget to check back in the days ahead.

Mike

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UPDATE: Don't miss Jim's extended comment in the comments section. —MJ

Posted on Saturday, 02 January 2010 at 12:53 PM in Editing and Portfolios, Photographers, current | Permalink | Comments (29)

Sunday, 20 December 2009

Leaping Wolf Picture Called Into Question

Seems like everything needs an update these days. When I published our earlier item about José Luis Rodriguez' leaping wolf picture winning the world's largest nature photography competition, I didn't expect it would become controversial—I'm just mindful that some readers like wildlife photography, and I want this site to serve people of a variety of interests and tastes rather than just people whose interests and tastes are identical to mine. However, I regret to report that there are now allegations—as yet unproved—that the picture might be fraudulent. Not the photograph itself, but how it was represented.

According to an article in Suomen Luonto (Nature of Finland) magazine, the picture, which was represented to be of a wild wolf, might in fact be a picture of a tame captive wolf named Ossian. In any case, the evidence is pretty convincing that the picture was taken not in open conditions but at the Cañada Real Center Zoological Park near Madrid.

Why is the representation relevant? Because the BBC contest's rules state that "Images of captive animals must be declared. The judges will take preference to images taken in free and wild conditions." Apparently the picture was submitted as being of a wild wolf. (The panel of judges has issued no formal statement as of yet.)

The evidence as it stands thus far was apparently collected by several other Spanish nature photographers, who are concerned about the reputation of Spanish photography. "There are many of us who have strong ethics," said one.

As I often say, pictures are statements, and their truth depends in large part on the honesty of the photographer, in the same way a statement in a magazine, newspaper, or book depends on the integrity of the reporter or author. I hope, if these questions turn out to be valid, that this was just an honest mistake on the part of José Luis, and that the situation will soon be put right.

Mike
(Thanks to Thiago Silva)

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Posted on Sunday, 20 December 2009 at 12:18 PM in Legal and social issues, Photographers, current | Permalink | Comments (27)

Saturday, 21 November 2009

Home is Where You Are At the Moment

"I consider myself a reasonable craftsperson."

—E.E.

There's a nice article about the World's Greatest Living Photographer at the Financial Times. Just thought I'd pass it along.

Regarding his hatred of digital manipulation mentioned near the end of the FT.com article, remember Stephen Gillette's great comment about Elliott's anti-digital T-shirt? Still makes me chuckle.

I'm supposed to be taking today off, so I'll hush up now.

Mike
(Thanks to Chris Bertram)

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Posted on Saturday, 21 November 2009 at 12:32 PM in Photographers, current, Websites and links | Permalink | Comments (24)

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