From the series Between Two Lakes.
You know, print might be dying*, but it's still really nice for any photographer to get a good cover:
Michael graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a B.A. in Photography in 2004.
*I say this tongue-in-cheek. Print will be around for a few more years yet.
As always, "random" means randomly encountered.
Prints from the Nat Fein estate, including the famous "The Babe Bows Out," can be purchased from vintagephotos.com.
From Friedman's series "Pleasures and Terrors of Kissing." You can see more of the work at Fraction Magazine (Issue 7), and there's an interview with the photographer at Michael Werner's Two Way Lens. There's a lot going on in a number of these pictures, you you might want to stave off closure just a tad longer than usual.
Mike
One of my photo teachers at the Corcoran, Frank DiPerna, owned a print of this photograph. If I recall correctly, Frank felt that everybody who loved photography should have at least a couple of original prints of favorite pictures framed and hanging on their walls, and he brought this in, in its frame, to show to us. He loved it because he liked to go to the ballpark, and for him this shot had all the feeling of a summer day at the ball game.
It will be in Tod's upcoming show in NYC.
Mike
N.b.: As always, "random" as used here means randomly encountered.
Photo: Thierry Legault
Every now and then a photographer manages to capture a truly spectacular sight, and the image becomes instantly famous—so far, I've seen this one on the news, in newspapers, and in numerous places on the internet. Astronomical photographer Thierry Legault (he's authored several books on the subject, the most recent of which, The Art of Astrophotography, will be published in English translation in late 2009) took this "transit" photograph from a location in Florida, using a Canon 5D Mark II mounted to a Takahashi TOA-130 refractor telescope (effective focal length 2,200mm). Shooting through a Baader solar filter, the camera was set on ISO 100 with a 1/8000th shutter speed. Remarkably, the Shuttle Atlantis is traveling at 15,500 miles per hour, and the transit itself lasted only eight-tenths of a second, which gives you an idea of the depth of knowledge and preparedness required of the photographer. This transit was viewable from a swath of territory on Earth only three and a half miles wide.
The picture above, however, is a radical crop. Some great photographs are not designs that are composed merely for pictorial effect, but in this case you really must take a look at the full photograph at Thierry's website (fourth one down)—it's as stark and emblematic as any work of modern art, aesthetically perfect in addition to being a photographic report of something real and seldom seen.
Andrea Land, Elizabeth
- —Andrea Land (from her website)
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"Continue similar reductions in your list of interests until two or three subjects remains, all of which a.) fire your enthusiasm b.) lend themselves to images, as opposed to words c.) are continuously accessible.
"Let me give you an example. As a teacher I encounter a great number of photographic students who are active in college life, naturally emotional about many aspects of education, and who spend the greater part of their waking life on campus. But in the past 15 years, and over 1,000 students later, I have never seen a photographic project based on what it is like to be a college student. In fact, it is rare indeed to see a photographic student carrying a camera."
- —Bill Jay, from "The Thing Itself"
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Rereading this passage from Bill Jay's essay "The Thing Itself" yesterday (it was mentioned by Robin in the comments), I thought of Andrea Land. Who would think that there was a series of pictures to be made by photographing something so ordinary as young girls in their rooms, attempting to imply or signify their inner life? And yet Andrea has done it, by some synchronous alchemy of ability, intent, and insight. It is for her a subject that fulfills Bill's three conditions, a., b., and c. And yet I think very few people could do it.
Her pictures in "French Male Adolescent" might also be interesting, but I suspect they are a case where web representations fall too far below the threshold of acceptability to permit them to be adequately seen.
Emilio Morenatti, Afghan Niurkhan, 11, stands next to his tent in Afshar refugee camp in
Kabul, Afghanistan. Niurkhan who lost his parents two months ago during
fighting between coalition forces and Taliban militants fled his
village in Helmand province to seek shelter in the refugee camp in
southern Kabul. (AP Photo)
Emilio Morenatti is based in Pakistan and covers Central Asia for the AP. You can see a blog of his recent work at the Denver Post. Emilio was named 2008 Newspaper Photographer of the Year by PoYI.
Notice how effectively he removes himself from his pictures.
Tim Davis is one of the more fascinating photographers I've found out about recently. I learned about him from Jeff Ladd's book recommendations for us, posted last August. Jeff recommended Tim's book My Life in Politics
"Permanent collection" is equally fascinating in that it seems like such a dull idea on its face (and of course Elliott Erwitt came and went from the same territory long ago), yet the pictures themselves evoke thoughtfulness, perhaps arising from the photographs' insistence on the paintings' corporeality.
There's a book
Featured Comment by Gavin: "Just noticed that on Tim Davis's website in the 'Permanent Collection' area is a photo called 'Betty.' This is a photo of one of Gerhard Richter's paintings of his daughter, made from a photograph. The painting, unlike many of his other 'photo paintings,' is not distorted, and when you view it from a short distance looks like a photo. We seem to be going in circles."
Featured Comment by Calvin Amari: "The 'Betty' image is even more circular than suggested. The Davis photo, as noted, indeed is of a Gerhard Richter painting, which itself is derived from a photo (presumably taken by Richter himself). What sometimes is not fully apprehended is the fact that the subject, Richter's daughter, is not turned staring into space. Rather, she is looking back at one of her father's grey monochromatic paintings rather than at Richter himself. Hence the matryoshka-like nesting problem that Davis extended begins with a painting. (So far as I know, Richter's Grey Painting series, generally dating from the late '60s and early '70s, was not derived from photographs, but one can speculate about exposure problems....)"
I've you've ever looked with fascination out the window of an airplane coming in low, you'll be fascinated by the beauty, horror, and vast sweep of Alex McLean's aerial views.
I thought this one was apropos as a nod to the ongoing Road to the Final Four*, but it's not any better than most of his other pictures. His whole site is worth an extended viewing. I loved it.
His latest book is Over: The American Landscape at the Tipping Point
*An argument against efficiency: you could make basketball much more efficient by giving each team 90 points to start with and then limiting games to 5 minutes. I've always thought basketball could be greatly improved by playing separate 15-minute periods, best three out of five wins. Then, blowouts would only go on for 45 minutes, close games would get an automatic "overtime," and you'd have up to five exciting endings per game instead of just one.
This might not quite convince as a middlin'-sized JPEG, but I'll bet it's a gorgeous print. (When I look at Andy's work I'm imagining superbly crafted large-format prints on fiber paper, but I haven't asked him. I wonder if that is indeed what they are, or if I'm being fooled.) See if you can find some things you like in Andy's portfolio on Picasa.
You might also like his blog, Tao of Photography. Since posting about Josef Sudek the other day, I've had several nice and very interesting email exchanges with readers who are disabled. Regarding Sudek, I used to joke with Sally Mann that I'd use an 8x10 like she does, except that it's too big and heavy for me (Sally's about half my size). But seriously, an 8x10 outfit really is too much camera for me. So I think that, from now on, whenever I feel lazy about some obstacle or another that's standing in my way, I'm going to think of Josef Sudek using his 8x10 camera and doing all his darkroom work with one arm. That's seriously inspiring. As if his work weren't inspiring enough all by itself.
But I digress. I meant to mention that you might be interested in an insightful and well-written article that Andy Ilachinski wrote on Tao of Photography called "Learning to See from the Blind." Worth the read. (It's about a book called Seeing Beyond Sight: Photographs by Blind Teenagers
Do check out Andy's work. I'll bet you can find some you really like.
Every now and then, don't you just see a picture that makes you go, "Man, I wish I'd taken that"? At this point I feel like I've seen most pictures before—in the sense that most pictures belong to genres of many similarly-seen pictures (even if the photographers aren't aware of it)—but here's one I never saw before. (Although it reminds me slightly of this one.) Unfortunately I've lost track of who suggested Giuseppe to me. Whoever it was, thanks.
You can see more of his work here.
UPDATE: It was Dale Moreau. Thanks Dale!
Reader Federico Bervejillo thinks that Paolo Pellegrin's portfolio of movie star pictures in the Times "shows well the high ISO capabilities of the new digital cameras." Interestingly, the camera makes the credits, which read: "Equipment / Canon."
Freedom Rider Miller Green was a high school student in Jackson, Mississippi, when he was arrested on July 6th, 1961. Today he lives in Chicago. Contemporary portrait by Eric Etheridge. From the book Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders. Miller recently joined Eric as he gave talks about the book at public libraries in Cleveland, Ohio, and Flint and Kalamazoo, Michigan.
"In the spring and summer of 1961, several hundred Americans—blacks and
whites, men and women—converged on Jackson, Mississippi, to challenge
state segregation laws. The Freedom Riders, as they came to be known,
were determined to open up the South to civil rights.... Over 300 people were arrested and convicted of
the charge 'breach of the peace.'
"The name, mug shot, and other personal details of each Freedom Rider arrested were duly recorded and saved by agents of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission...what is clear, forty-six years later, is that by carefully recording names and preserving the mug shots, the Commission inadvertently created a testament to these heroes of the civil rights movement."
Featured Comment by Steve Rosenbach: "Thanks for highlighting this book, Mike. I was an 11-year-old in 1961, and I remember the Civil Rights struggles through the early to mid-1960's very well. We've come a long way, but books like this make sure we remember what it was like and what it took to get here.
"I generally like 'where-are-they-now' books, but this one is much more weighty and serious. The layout seems very good—here's a sample two-page spread:
"Beautiful B&W photography, and of course, the subjects of these photos are great and brave Americans, whom it is right to honor with such a magnificent book."
Featured Comment by Eric Etheridge: "Mike, thanks for the shoutout.
"For folks who are interested, there are more pictures, and material I gathered that I didn't have room for in the book, here: breachofpeace.com."
A brief but spectacular aerial tour of San Francisco, California. Regular TOP reader Paul De Zan shot these yesterday afternoon from his "faithful steed," using a Nikon D40 and 18–55mm VR lens. He says, "conditions were so good I didn't have to fly the airplane much."
By far my favorite photographer of the past six months or so is the lavishly talented Vanessa Winship, a British photographer who has worked mostly in the Balkans, mainly Bulgaria and Turkey. I've bought both her books, Sweet Nothings and Schwarzes Meer (Black Sea). The latter especially, available only from Amazon Germany, is just wonderful. (Enter "Schwarzes Meer" or "Vanessa Winship" in the search field.) The reproduction quality is very good, and the book is a treasure, a much better way than the web to see the work. You can get a pretty good idea of her work and her concerns from her website, however. I find myself returning to it again and again, although I feel an almost visceral desire to see her original prints at exhibition sizes. The website never seems to work quite right for me, so some patience might be required.
Winship seems to be a spiritual descendant of Koudelka. She's one of those rare photographers whose work obliterates the bulwarks between documentary honesty and exquisite personal art ("between chronicle and fiction," as she says). A big hat tip to Stan Banos, who first clued me in to this photographer and her superb work.
Featured Comment by Guy Batey: "An exhibition of prints from Sweet Nothings is on at Host Gallery in London at the moment. Even better than the book."
Featured Comment by Mike C.: "I know how annoying (and how beside the point) these "if you like X I'm sure you'll love Y" comments are, but I'm going to do it anyway...ff you like Vanessa Winship I think you'll love Marketa Luskacova, whose book published by Torst
"But now I'll go and have another look at Vanessa's work, which I agree is very good."
Featured Comment by Judith Wallerius: "Her pictures are wonderful. I was lucky enough to hear and see her speak at the Lumix Festival in Hannover, Germany last year. For her presentation she showed her pictures while reading personal texts about how she grew up, and it was incredibly poetic. You can see the whole lecture at the festival's website (short introduction in German, 40 min. video).
"The festival went over a couple of days and many of the photographers who were invited to speak also stayed to listen, and watch. At some point I approached her to tell her how wonderful I thought her work and presentation was. This is not something I'd usually do, partly because I'd wonder what it could possibly mean to someone as accomplished as Vanessa Winship when some random audience-member comes to tell her how great her photos are. But as I was really touched by her work I seized a quiet minute to tell her so, and I was lucky. The quiet gentleness so tangible in the photographs is there just as much when you meet her in person. She very gracefully accepted my compliments and we talked for a while, and I was happy to see that she is not someone impressed by her own success but instead reflective about her work, sometimes even unsure, trying to reach people with her photographs and searching to inspire others with what she does. She certainly inspired me, and telling from the stunned silence at the end of her presentation, everyone else in the audience, too.
"I remembered that encounter when I read the post in January about how it's not always a good idea to meet your heroes because they might be jerks. Definitely not true here. Of course I can't claim to know Vanessa Winship from one short meeting (and don't know what she's like in everyday life) but from all I can say the work rings very true of the artist that created it."
Tired of winter? Check out Chris Ramirez's new photo essay "Bone Fishing, Bahamas." (It's under "Recent Assignments" at ramirezpictures.com.)
I've been tempted to apologize for my remarks about Annie Leibovitz's "Romulus and Remus" picture a few weeks ago. I suppose I should—generally, TOP champions photographers and their concerns and interests; you won't find many instances of photographers and their work getting run down here. Still and all, my remarks might have been intemperate, but they were dead sincere. I genuinely was dismayed by that picture.
Several people have accused me, in the aftermath, of an intolerance for fantasy, which might be true. But there's good and bad in every genre, with the possible exception of the one where babies get dressed up as daisies.
Consider the brand spankin' new website of French advertising hotter-than-hot-shot Jean-Yves Lemoigne. A lot of his pictures qualify as fantasy, wouldn't you say? Curiously, though, a lot of the fantastic pictures either are or could be straight photographs of conceptual setups.(Not the pixelated nude girls that are pinging around the internet, I'll grant you that.)
He's also one of the few photographers I know of whose advertising work is at least as interesting as any of his other work.
The picture above was done for Sagem Mobile Phone. (Can't you just smell the carpet?)
Check out Jay Kuhlmann's fine documentary work from Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, and Warsaw. (See "Damascus Street Photography" if you look at only one set. There's a self-portrait of Jay in there, too, if you look hard enough.)
I think this is apropos the previous post (and Greg Smith's comment especially)—certainly when you see this picture flash by in the slide show at the website for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2008 at the National Portrait Gallery (London), it registers as what it's supposed to look like and not what it is. The text from the site:
The Second Prize was awarded to Hendrik Kerstens for Bag, 2007
Hendrik Kerstens was born in 1956 in The Hague, Netherlands. Winner of the 2001 Dutch Panl Award, Kerstens is a self-taught photographer who initially turned to a model close at hand, his daughter Paula. Since starting to photograph Paula in 1995 Kersten’s work has been exhibited in over 40 exhibitions across Europe and the United States. In his portraits Paula is always depicted as being austere, serene and illuminated with a characteristic ‘dutch’ light. In September he will open his first solo New York exhibition at the Witzenhausen Gallery. Kersten’s short-listed portrait was conceived in New York when he noticed the excessive amount of plastic bags given away in shops. As a humorous reaction to this environmental problem he photo- graphed the plastic bag in the style of a seventeenth century cap.
Cool, huh? At least if you've studied art history.
(This is also a good example of an idea that works but not necessarily because of the idea. What many people might have made of this concept wouldn't have been much of anything. Hendrik Kerstens makes the idea seem like a good one only because he pulls it off so well visually.)
_____________________
Mike (Thanks to Iñaki Arbelaiz)
Featured Comment by Craig Arnold: "The print on show at the National Portrait Gallery is very large and visually stunning. It was one of my favorites from this year's finalists."
