The Online Photographer: Random Excellence

Random Excellence

Monday, 12 December 2011

Random Excellence: Lindsay McCrum

Photo by Lindsay McCrum

I've been accused of featuring too many female photographers in my "Random Excellence" posts (which, as longtime readers know, means randomly encountered, not that their excellence is accidental). But I can't help what I feel like showing and commenting on. I'll continue to let those chips fall where they may.

This is from Lindsay McCrum's new book Chicks With Guns. She works in both black-and-white and color and, of course, some of the pictures are better than others—the book's cover shot is certainly one that virtually anyone would be proud to have taken. I think I liked LUG denizen Kyle Cassidy's 2007 book Armed America (it's out of print already) better; with Kyle's book, the photographer's stance toward his subject seemed neutral, ambivalent, inscrutable, which made the pictures a sort of tabula rasa for the viewer's own preconceived notions about firearms and their possessors. In Lindsay's book it seems more like an idea that never quite gets buried far enough within the pictures. More like just a theme than anything revealing. A minor cavil.

This woman (where I went to college, only women could call other women "chicks") looks pleased with herself, like a self-satisfied child playing dress-up. But there's just enough of a hint of menace in that expression to suggest that those six-shooters are real.

There's a website, too. For Lindsay's book, I mean.

Mike
(Thanks to John Igel)

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2011 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Mark: "I bought this a while back and while I do understand Mike's thoughts that it feels like more of a theme rather than a fully embedded concept, I think it is more than that. The stories that accompany and explain the background of each sitter, strengthen the 'theme' into a reason for each person owning and using guns, from hunters, to law enforcement, to sportswomen, to those that have them for personal safety. It's never going to be groundbreaking work, but I really like the photos—they work as a series and that's the main thing when producing. Also, it's pretty good quality reproduction in the book too."

Featured Comment by HT: "Wired has some more photos from the book if anyone is interested."

Posted on Monday, 12 December 2011 at 01:47 PM in Photographers, current, Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (30)

Thursday, 10 November 2011

Random Excellence: Robert Phillips

Robert's portrait of Thomas Struth, another leading photographer of the Düsseldorf School, taken last July. (Struth has several famous photographs of people in museums looking at artwork, including the one on the cover of the Stefan Gronert book which you can see in the Featured Comments two posts down from this one.) He had only ten minutes for the shoot.

Here's Robert's website.

And by the way, Ed Kuipers reports that Andreas Gursky: Works 80-08 is the best Andreas Gursky book currently available (here's the U.K. link). The only one I have is this one, which is good, and which is still available new from several sellers for reasonable prices even though it's out of print. A number of Gursky books (of which there are many) have gone way up in price and are no longer easily attainable unless you have big bucks to spend. Not four million dollars, though.

Mike

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Featured Comment by Hans Muus: "I always enjoy TOP—the photographs, the discussions, the width of its scope in general. An education permanente in photography. And then there are the photographers I would never have heard of, of save for TOP. Enter Robert Phillips, just after recently having immersed myself again in Struth and Gursky. I know art (photography) is not a contest, and that at different moments and in different moods different photos speak to me most. That being said, right now the work of Phillips appeals to me more than any of the above. Maybe it is its unpretentiousness, and the sensitivity for context, I dunno. Made me a very happy viewer this morning. Thank you, Mike, for once again pointing the way."

Mike replies: Thank Robert, not me! And by the way, you're allowed. Just because some photographer sells a print for a lot of money doesn't mean you have to like it or even engage with it if you don't want to. I used to quite often make an attempt to "engage" with art I didn't understand, to figure out what I could get from it, and in many cases that's greatly enlarged my horizons. But I also became comfortable long ago with the idea that art is personal and also that what has meaning to us changes at different stages of our lives. In fact I think one of the great distractions of things like record prices for artwork is that it makes everyone think they have to engage in some way with the artwork, or that it has to engage them. Not so. I'm perfectly comfortable with the fact that I'm not moved by Frank Stella or Francis Bacon. Just the way I am and who I am. An expensive picture is just another picture; deal with it accordingly. There's nothing wrong at all with liking Robert Phillips more than Andreas Gursky if that's who you are and where you find yourself. Being honest with ourselves might even be the first prerequisite of joining the audience for art.

Posted on Thursday, 10 November 2011 at 02:32 PM in Photographers, current, Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (15)

Wednesday, 09 November 2011

Random Excellence: Matt Buedel

Matt writes:

My fiancee's grandparents, Tony and Theda, have been married for almost 70 years and are still devoted to each other every day. They don't get out much any more, but they still live at home and have their independence. I remember the moment of this snap very well. Tony was on his way to retrieve his medication from the bathroom, and Theda stopped him as he passed her in the kitchen for a kiss. It was such a tender exchange.

We visited them recently to talk about whether we could have our wedding near their home so they could attend, and I overheard their "goodnights" while unable to sleep on the most uncomfortable couch in Ohio. Theda had just removed her hearing aid, and Tony asked for a kiss. She couldn't hear him. "Give me a kiss," Tony demanded a little louder. Her own voice rising, Theda responded: "Q-TIPS?!?"

This is a fine shot in the social documentary tradition. It's a formally beautiful photograph, the main subjects executing a practiced pas-de-deux amidst a dense backdrop of domestic detail. It's coloristically harmonious, with a strange sort of bleached blue-green palette, and the light is nice, if also a little strange-seeming—I don't quite parse it; maybe winter light from a window, or even a skylight. (Or a flash, I guess.) It's very balanced, from the green plastic basket atop the fridge to the plastic bottle in the opposite corner, the way Tony's shadow on the side of the fridge is set off by the light reflecting on the tiles over Theda's shoulder. I particularly like the way her fingertips seem to touch the edge of the frame, as if for balance against the slow swirl of visual movement. If the edge of the frame amputated those fingertips (or the top of Tony's head) it might throw the whole composition away.

But more than all that, the picture immediately convinces as a human moment. You can tell instantly it's genuine, taken as it happened, that these people know each other well and have done this dance before. Her expression is enigmatic, but his physical closeness, the way he tilts his head toward her, makes it make sense; you can sense their age, her concern, his stiffness and difficulty moving, their shared past. Her in a housedress, he wearing what looks like pajama bottoms—the casual intimacy of home, the proximity of sleep. Is that a hint of a walker in his right hand?

Just a lovely shot, one of the quotidian moments that pass us by every day, all our lives, that we'd never remember, particularly—and yet that seem precious, if it's two people we know, once we stop to look.

Matt Buedel is the crime reporter for the Journal Star in Peoria, Illinois, an enthusiastic amateur and sometimes semi-pro photographer, and a TOP reader. Here's a link to his flickr photostream, where I found several more gems like this one amongst the jumble.

Mike

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Featured Comment by Tom Buttimer: "Thanks for posting the picture and write-up. This is about life as we live it, quietly, respectfully, and pleasantly. No violence, yelling or arguing, just the day-to-day respect and love we all sometimes take for granted and would miss greatly if we found it suddenly gone. Thanks for making my day brighter."

Featured Comment by Jack Nelson: "I want a 'Q-tips me' t-shirt!"

Posted on Wednesday, 09 November 2011 at 01:11 PM in Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (9)

Tuesday, 11 October 2011

Not-So-Random Excellence: John Kennerdell

John Kennerdell, Ferry terminal, Dumai, Sumatra, Indonesia

This can't be called random...first of all because John is an occasional contributor to TOP (with his own Category in the right-hand sidebar), but also because this directly relates to our recent posts about a B&W-only sensor and my thoughts on "temptations." For not only does John do some outstanding B&W conversions, but he routinely crops to a square! He referred to these in a recent email as his "Fauxliflex" shots, which made me smile.

Both his Canon 5D's recently died, so this shot was taken with a Canon Rebel.

The reason John sent me the pic was to thank me for the write-up Carl and I did for photo.net about the Pentax 35mm ƒ/2.8 DA Macro.

The lens was developed in cooperation with Tokina, and Tokina sells its version in a different barrel design for both Canon and Nikon mounts. The lens is a true sleeper: an optical paragon, you might even say, and yet it flies almost completely under the radar. It's not even particularly expensive (less than half the price of the Pentax). But very few people know about it.

John wrote, "...You convinced me to try the Tokina version. I don't know if it's an optical twin [of the Pentax DA Macro —MJ] but in any case it's just wonderful. Certainly one of the two most impressive designed-for-digital lenses I've used (the other is the Olympus 50mm macro) and better both technically and aesthetically than the Canon 35/2, which itself is no slouch."

The shot at the top of the page was made wide open. The Tokina Macro 35 is a textbook example of the fact that there is a lot more to any lens than just resolution. It's one of the best lenses you can buy for digital photography, regardless of maker, regardless of price. Always assuming that you don't evaluate lenses like the blind men describing the elephant.

(If you want to purchase one from B&H, however, best hurry, because they're about to go on hiatus for more than ten days for Succos. You have until 7 a.m. ET tomorrow morning if you want anything you order to ship before the break.)

Mike

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Featured Comment by Jim Weekes: "Let me add to the kudos for that lens. When Carl and Mike first wrote about it I was in the process of changing from Canons to Pentaxes. I snapped up the 35 f/2.8 DA Macro for my 20D. It was and is incredible. I got a K-5 and it shone a little brighter on the upgraded sensor. It was so good that I kept my T2i because it weighs so little and got the Tokina version for it. It is just as good. It—the Pentax version—was one of two lenses I took to France for our 30-day stay, along with a 17–135mm zoom. I would say that 80% of my pictures from the Pentax were with the 35mm. If I was to try Mike's one lens and camera for a year it would be the K-5 and the 35mm."

Featured Comment by Miserere: "As a Pentax shooter and photography blogger who has read way too much about lenses, I am as confident as any outsider can be (I don't work for either Tokina or Pentax) that both these lenses share the same optical design and differ only in exterior body design and coatings on the glass surfaces. The Pentax version sports their famous SMC while Tokina uses its own coating formula. As for John Kennerdell, he'd make great photos with a Kodak Brownie, but I'm glad he likes the Pentax/Tokina 35mm."

Featured Comment by Emmanuel Huybrechts: "The Pentax version is much more compact and lighter and has quick-shift (instant manual focus override, so useful). Its price at launch was similar to the Tokina. I'm still kicking myself for not buying it at that time. I finally got this lens (the Pentax) this summer and it was an instant love. A perfect lens, except for the focal length itself. 35mm is in a kind of no-mans-land for me. Not wide enough, not long enough."

Mike replies: That was also what both Carl and I concluded, separately and together. We both want a similar lens in the 24–26mm ballpark. Neither of us are holding our breath.

Posted on Tuesday, 11 October 2011 at 03:25 PM in Lenses, Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (17)

Saturday, 24 September 2011

Random Excellence: The Lazy Aussie

The Lazy Aussie (Andrew McDonald), Falls

"I've just taken my first film shot for at least a decade, dragging the ole 1965 Autocord twinlens [TLR] from a damp shed. It works perfectly! I really never thought I'd shoot film again," writes the self-described "Lazy Aussie," Andrew McDonald of Perth. "I also tested a roll of Kodak transparency, and the colour was so magnificent I have already ordered more rolls. And the difficulty of using the stupid twinlens was almost pleasurable. It's a dumbarse machine that gives superb results only under the most stringent and ridiculous conditions. Love it."

The Minolta Autocord, from the instruction book (courtesy Butkus.org)

Mike

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Featured Comment by Adam Lanigan: "I have been absolutely head over heels for my Yashicamat 124G for the past year since picking it off off the 'Bay. I even took it on vacation recently to NYC (a return of sorts for the wife and I) and snapped barely a dozen digital shots, but filled 13 rolls of 400TX 120. Just getting through the development now (also a new venture for me) and I am in love.

Marcel

"Here's an early scan from that bunch...I met Marcel and his owner outside of a coffee shop early one morning. He very politely obliged me with a nice pose.

"Good on ya, Andrew! It's just such a pleasurable way to shoot."

Posted on Saturday, 24 September 2011 at 06:36 PM in Film and Darkroom, Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (25)

Tuesday, 20 September 2011

Random Excellence: Alfred Palmer

Looking almost surreal today, this carefully posed couple could be cutting a wedding cake rather than working on a bomber engine, even down to the "stars in night sky" background. Photo by Alfred Palmer, OWI/LoC, via The Atlantic.

When men were men and women manned the factories: Alfred Palmer and a few colleagues made Kodachrome color PR/propaganda pictures for the Office of War Information after the U.S. engagement in WWII. In that era, color pictures were of limited usefulness in PR (only books could reproduce them, with few exceptions). Most OWI photographs were in B&W.

Their intention is clear: this shot, for example, features the vintage caption, "Hitler would like this man to go home and forget about the war. A good American non-com at the side machine gun of a huge YB-17 bomber is a man who knows his business and works hard at it. Photographed in May, 1942."

The Atlantic In Focus has a selection of OWI photographs in color in a picture show.

Mike
(Thanks to M McAuliff)

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Posted on Tuesday, 20 September 2011 at 09:44 PM in Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (17)

Saturday, 03 September 2011

Random Excellence: James Mollison

Eight-year-old Ahkohxet lives with his tribe in the Amazon basin in Brazil.
Photos by James Mollison.

This project (there is a small selection with this short article on Yahoo! and a more extensive one here) reminds me of that project a few years ago showing families around the world with the food they consume in an average week. An outstanding idea for a photography project, uncontrived yet visually eloquent, with obvious sociological interest and a touch of voyeurism too (or is it just me who feels that seeing peoples' bedrooms is just a tad uncomfortably like an invasion of privacy? I feel the same way on real estate house tours). Too bad the book is currently unavailable; I'd buy it.

Mike

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Posted on Saturday, 03 September 2011 at 02:19 PM in Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (7)

Tuesday, 23 August 2011

Random Excellence: Carli Davidson

Photo by Carli Davidson

Completely freaky. Stop-action photos of pets shaking their heads, by Carli Davidson. As Subtraction put it, "What I really like about these images is the way they capture something hidden but that’s been right out there in the open forever, until technology came along and allowed us to see it." Not exactly a new idea (cf. Harold Edgerton et al.), but then again, I've never seen any dog and cat photos like these before. Wonderful. Weird. And wonderful.

What these remind me of more than anything are the amazing boxing photos by the old New York Daily News sports photographer Charles Hoff, documented in the 1996 book The Fights (note that according to one Amazon reviewer, a lot of the identifications in the book are mistaken). A different era and a different subject, and different technique, but he often captured human faces frozen in similarly distorted and unfamiliar aspects.

Mike
(Thanks to Dave Sailer)

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Featured Comment by Eli Burakian: "I just got back from Armenia two days ago and happened to meet Carli in the Moscow airport. She had overheard me talking about a photo project I was working on and showed me her photos on her ipad.

"Just thought it was a funny coincidence.

"Although she wouldn't tell me her secret on how to get the dogs to shake their heads, she did relay an interesting story.

"She's been doing this photography for a little while and wasn't getting much traction. She won a PDN contest and that propelled her to the top instantly and now there's amazing amounts of interest in her photography.

"Just a little reminder that you should keep on working on what you love, and eventually if you persevere, your break will come."

Posted on Tuesday, 23 August 2011 at 08:00 AM in Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (17)

Monday, 08 August 2011

Random Excellence: Ken Tanaka

Photo by Ken Tanaka

Scene description: This is a view of the seventh annual Lollapalooza music festival held in Chicago's Grant Park this past weekend (August 5–7, 2011) looking south from Monroe Street. In the foreground is Butler Field and in the distance (at those blue dots) is Hutchinson Field, both of which were shoulder-to-shoulder with pop music fans. In the center, lit in orange, is the famous Buckingham Fountain.

This year's festival sold out to a record attendance of 270,000. It's definitely a (very) young person's event, rather like a commercialized mini-Woodstock each year—complete with drenching rainstorms this year. Despite such massive crowds of high-energy young people, Lollapalooza is a remarkably well-managed, good-spirited, and orderly event, with very few reports of trouble. Gate-crashing was the biggest problem this year.

Tech: PhaseOne 645DM camera with PhaseOne P65+ digital back and Mamiya Sekor D 75–150mm ƒ/4.5 lens @ 90mm.

Mike
(Thanks to Ken)

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Posted on Monday, 08 August 2011 at 01:23 PM in Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (17)

Tuesday, 12 July 2011

Random Excellence: Matt Weber

Matt Weber, $1.15 Taxi Driver, 1988

The subject of Checker cabs (no, this isn't one) came up on Sunday, and reader Matt Weber mentioned that he had a number of pictures of Checkers in the "Cars and Buses" section of his website. As indeed he does.

I don't know how I've managed to miss Matt's site for so long. There's a lot of quiet but sensitive street photography from thirty years or so, and I'm finding a lot there that's good to look at. See if you can spot all the Checkers (not just the familiar shape as a burnt-out hulk), but don't make the mistake of neglecting to explore the rest of Matt's site.

I notice that with most photography, but especially with street photography, I tend to pick and choose—edit in my mind, you might say. There are always some pictures I dismiss, and that's as true of Matt's site as any other. But as long as there are also gems there to find that I really enjoy, I'm happy.

Mike

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Featured Comment by Mike Peters: "Matt has one of the deepest archives of classic NYC B&W street photographs ever. He's the real deal, a pure street shooter who lives a life dedicated to his passion for the city that he lives in, and the images he makes chronicling his time. More people should know of his work, and I'm sure they will in years to come."

Posted on Tuesday, 12 July 2011 at 12:31 PM in Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (7)

Friday, 03 June 2011

Random Excellence: Tombstoning

Photo by Alastair Sopp. Click the image to see a larger version.

I ran across this the other day while idly searching for possible illustrations for the "Film Falls Off a Cliff" post. It's a multiple exposure by U.K. pro Alastair Sopp of an unknown daredevil engaging in the very dangerous practice of "tombstoning," so-called because the diver enters the water upright and feet first. The picture was taken in Cornwall, and is described in an article in The Mirror.

Thanks to Alastair for his permission to post the picture here.

Mike

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Featured Comment by Charlie Eddington: "I went tombstoning once (in Cornwall). It is quite possibly the most exhilarating and the most stupid thing I've ever done. Fortunately I was with a local who knew where all the deep pools were."

Posted on Friday, 03 June 2011 at 09:55 AM in Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (19)

Thursday, 02 June 2011

Random Excellence: Pedro Meyer

Pedro Meyer, The Meyers, Mexico City, Mexico, 1940/2000

There are only three people in this image. Pedro Meyer is the man on the left and the boy on the right.

From his website (Self-Portraits > VI. The Imaginary Self).

Mike
(From Fred Ritchin, via Foam, thanks to Ed)

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Posted on Thursday, 02 June 2011 at 11:00 AM in Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (14)

Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Random Excellence: Ainslie Ellis, 1970

Ainslie Ellis's contact sheet of portraits of the late Tony Ray-Jones was loaned to the National Media Museum, Bradford (U.K.), by Anna Ray-Jones, for the museum's show "The Lives of Great Photographers." According to the notice in The Independent, the exhibition pairs "portraits of the masters with some of their most famous works, alongside illuminating snippets from their notebooks."

Mike
(Thanks to readers numerous, perspicacious, and erudite)

UPDATE: Amplify that last! I logged into the comment moderation page to find more than eighty comments responding to my earlier request for help in locating the source of this. For the sake of not clogging up the comments to this post I've elected not to publish them all, but thanks to everyone.

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Posted on Tuesday, 10 May 2011 at 11:37 AM in Exhibits, Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (13)

Friday, 22 April 2011

Random Excellence: Jaren Wilkey

Jimmer Fredette by Jaren Wilkey. Great shot, considering.

Good readin': TOP reader Jaren Wilkey, the Manager of Brigham Young University Photography and a member of UPAA (the University Photographers Association of America), gives a particularly lucid account, at the UPAA blog, of what it's like to shoot a sports celebrity portrait—in this case, BYU star Jimmer Fredette.

(At about 1:10 in the video, I chuckled at "I'm going to be lying right here in this nice little mud pile, 'cause that's...that's what a photographer does." Bro. Glad it's you and not me.)

As I often say, many "how-to" accounts of professional photography tell you all the details of typical shoots but leave out one crucial, critical element: time constraints. Jaren's text gives a vivid idea not only of what it's like to prep a shoot, but what it's like when the schedule is changed on you at the last minute and you only have 13 minutes with the subject—and it's threatening to rain.

(And by the way, if you really want to learn how to be an assignment pro, nothing beats assisting a guy like Jaren for a while on jobs like this.)

Mike

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Posted on Friday, 22 April 2011 at 03:21 PM in Random Excellence, Shooting techniques | Permalink | Comments (4)

Saturday, 09 April 2011

Random Excellence: Micha Theiner

Garbage floats on the Paranaque River. Photo by Micha Theiner.

Overcrowding in the Philippines: At Foto8, a video slideshow of selected pictures by Micha Theiner entitled "A Megacity to Call Home." Manila is one of the world's most populous cities, with 20 million people so far and growing by a quarter of a million more every year. Human overpopulation seems to be the elephant in the room that people just don't like to talk about, even though it lies behind virtually all of the planet's and our species' problems. And anything that's difficult to talk about will also be difficult to show photographs about.

If you haven't noticed, I'm on a bit of a documentary photography kick lately. It's very interesting to me how some ideas lend themselves to good or thought-provoking pictures and other ideas, not so much; some things can be shown directly and other subjects have to be symbolized or implied. It seems to relate to the way that some subjects make for superficially "successful" photographs to the point that they become clichés, and other subjects resist revealing their meaning to the camera's glance.

The picture above looks formally almost pretty—a geometric shape filled with a variegated texture set off with brightly colored accents—until you realize what it is.

Here's Micha's own site.

Mike

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Featured Comment by Max Pasion: "Many excellent Filipino photojournalists have tackled this subject before. As a Filipino, I am irked when photos by my colleagues back home about the conditions in their own country are overlooked, as it seems to me, in favor of those by Western photographers. I don't blame the latter as they are far more internet-savvy and have better resources and can get more people from around the world to see their images. I wanted to point you to a website or two to back my claim in the first sentence of this comment, but I cannot, which proves what I said in the third. But I know what I'm talking about as I used to shoot for Manila newspapers and have seen plenty of photographs and a number of photoessays on the twin subjects of poverty and overpopulation in my home country. Notwithstanding my sentiments, I will not begrudge Mr. Theiner the 'random excellence' accolade you've handed him as he deserved it."

Mike replies: I sympathize, but it isn't just Filipinos. The phenomenon of outsiders getting more respect than insiders has many dimensions. Sometimes, insiders tell the story with too much nuance, or are "too close to see clearly"; other times, they are directing their work too much at the home audience and not thinking of the curiosity of people in other lands. (Photography is still relatively parochial.) Whatever the specifics, I've seen the general idea play out many times in many ways. I certainly wouldn't mind seeing other photographers' takes on this subject, especially by Filipinos.

Posted on Saturday, 09 April 2011 at 02:16 PM in Photographers, current, Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (24)

Friday, 08 April 2011

Random Excellence: Mitch Epstein

Mitch Epstein, Gavin Coal Power Plant, Cheshire, Ohio, 2003

The website is a little tricky, but all the pictures there are well worth viewing. Twice. The backgrounder essay is also interesting. It explains, among other things, the otherwise somewhat incongruous picture of "Boots" Hern with her gun (no. 9 of 63 at the website link).

The book is currently in "Steidlimbo": first edition out of print, second edition patiently awaiting its turn on Steidl's only press. (I'll let you know.)

There's no way to contact Mitch Epstein, apparently, but he might be interested in the book Edison and the Electric Chair: A Story of Light and Death by Mark Essig, as an amplification of his picture of the electric chair known as "Old Sparky" (picture no. 56 of 63). The electric chair itself was a sort of macabre PR gimmick in the battle between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse for control of the electricity market in the 1880s in New York; Edison, a proponent of direct current (DC), promoted the electric chair to emphasize his competitive advantage over Westinghouse's alternating current (AC), which was apparently electrocuting innocent citizens by accident right and left in its early days. (Westinghouse won in the end anyway.)

Billboard at 5456 West Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio

Mitch Epstein calls himself an "energy tourist" in his essay, at least in the context of this epic project. He is of course a classic, committed documentary photographer in the grand tradition.

Mike

ADDENDUM: It seems a large proportion of readers are complaining about the website, but I'd still advise you to persevere to see the pictures. It's not that bad...and it's worth it.

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Posted on Friday, 08 April 2011 at 09:56 AM in Photographers, current, Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (15)

Wednesday, 30 March 2011

Random Excellence: Francis Harrison

Francis Harrison, Duty

Unlike hordes of expats who left after the earthquake, TOP reader Francis Harrison decided to stay in Tokyo with his Japanese wife and his job at Ricoh. As the initial jitters subsided a bit he began to document everyday life around him. He says of this shot:

Odakyu Line guard. Early morning rush.

Much is made in the foreign media of the epic courage of the Japanese, but what is courage? A better way to understand what is going on here is the concept of 'duty,' of being more afraid of the 'shame' of not manning your post than of death itself....

Mike

(Thanks to Francis)

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Featured Comment by Steve m p: "Never met Mr.Harrison, but having followed his online photographic career—I can say: that if there is just one man who will get the shot, it's Francis. He defines the meaning of dedication to the craft."

Featured Comment by Animesh Ray: "It is wonderful to see dear Francis recognized here on TOP. He has been an inspiration, instructing us through TrekEarth, and lately through Photoholik, by his tireless encouragement and insightful critique. All told, his is a hard act to follow."

Featured Comment by David H.: Most folks I know in Tokyo have a less heroic reason for staying in Tokyo and going to work: no choice. Can't just pull up and leave. Another major reason is that the situation in Tokyo and vicinity is not / was not nearly as dire as people overseas seem to believe. We are basically back to normal, and we were within a few days. The uncertainty was not earthquake related, but due to conflicting, ever-changing reports on the nuclear reactors...and even that is subsiding.

"Common among those of us, Japanese and non-Japanese, who were lucky enough to have been in the Tokyo area instead of up north during the quake, is a reluctance to complain about what has so far been minor inconveniences—power outages, transportation delays—for most of us. It seems a bit embarrassing that we got off so easy.

"To put what happened into some perspective, the death toll in the tsunami areas is more than 11,000 with more than 16,000 still missing. In Tokyo, the last figure I heard was 7 people dead. Kanagawa to the south, 3. Chiba, just north, 13 dead. Eleven thousand plus deceased up north, to approximately 23.

"Now if I can just convince my friends and family in the States that Tokyo is safe. At least until the long overdue Kanto quake hits."

Posted on Wednesday, 30 March 2011 at 06:15 AM in Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (16)

Tuesday, 22 March 2011

Random Excellence: Chema Madoz

Some of these conceptual still lifes by the Spanish photographer Chema Madoz will make you laugh, which of course means they can't be art. (I'm kidding.) Simple and elegant but very inventive; if you're in the mood, delightful.

A further sampling here; his site is here. All the books except this one are out of print.

Mike
(Thanks to Phil Aynsley)

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Featured Comment by Dennis Ng: "A master of the minor!"

Posted on Tuesday, 22 March 2011 at 09:07 AM in Books, Photographers, current, Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (19)

Friday, 18 March 2011

Random Excellence, Dog Lovers' Edition

Wayne Pinney, Sally on the Woodpile

Got a note from a reader named Wayne Pinney a little while ago:

Your blog entry of a few days ago concerning winter photography inspired me to hunt down my old Contax G1 (burried in the 'closet') with the idea that I am going to put it back to use and start firing away. To my surprise, the camera was loaded with a partially exposed roll of black-and-white film. I made quick work of the roll and dropped it off for processing. When I recieved the image disk a few days later, I was delighted to find a shot of my old rat terrior Sally. The remainder of the exposures were just failed attempts at being a 'serious photographer.' To the best of my recall, I just snapped this one when I heard Sal jump up on the woodpile. I wish the focus was better; but, focus aside, it might be the best photo I have ever taken. Every time I look at the photo it gives my dear old Sally back to me.

It was your blog post that inspired me to dig out the old G1 and discover this treasure. I can't thank you enough for the time you take in providing your blog. Sally had to be put down earlier this year due to disease. She was my buddy and was rarely more than ten feet from me.

"Every time I look at the photo it gives my dear old Sally back to me." I love that. It's what photography is best at, when you get right down to it.

A nice way to say "hope you have a great weekend." Enjoy the weather—where I live, the sun set later than 7 p.m. for the first time today, and it won't set before 7 p.m. again until September 17th. I'm gonna give my dog a hug and a long walk!

Mike
(Thanks to Wayne)

P.S. If you have a photo like this that's really important to you, don't forget that a good photo retoucher can work wonders with it. Here's my quick 'n' dirty effort with it:

It's a little easier to see at the file size of the picture as Wayne sent it to me (click on the image):

The key would be to not overdo it (my motto)—just take the unsharpness down a tad so that it doesn't call too much attention to itself, then don't make the print too big. —MJ

Posted on Friday, 18 March 2011 at 08:09 PM in Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (9)

Tuesday, 08 March 2011

Two Fabulous Shots

I'm not going to steal the thunder of either of the sites that published these two photos by posting the pictures here, but here are a couple you ought to see:

• The first has the tones I love in photographs—can't help meself—and I love pictures of legendary photographers and also—a separate thing—pictures of photographers photographing. A musician whose work I know never hurts, either (I have the album with the shot being made here on its cover). Okay, so I might have given this a touch less foreground. Picky picky. A photograph by Ted Barron, presented by the New York Times Magazine.

• The second is "street" shot*, sports shot, human interest photo, and decisive moment all wrapped into one. Spend a little time looking at all the faces and expressions in this wonderful photograph, the hands and feet and hats and drinks. And Mitch Davie, in the Gators tee: great grab. How can anyone not dig this? Just fun. Photograph by David Goldman, presented by the Seattle Times. Read the comment, too.

Mike
(Thanks to Archer Sully and Rob Pinciuc)

*Yeah, I know it wasn't taken on a street. Hold those cards and letters. It's "street" in that it's a candid of strangers in a public environment.

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Featured Comment by Dan Westergren: "I can't believe the camera that Robert Frank is using. I've been using one of those cheap pack film Polaroids with Fuji film learning how to extract the negative. How could the cover of one of my favorite albums have been shot with such a simple camera? Then I remembered (well really I Googled) The man on the cover of "Rain Dogs" is not Tom Waits. The photograph is by the Swedish photographer Anders Petersen. Too bad, I really wanted to see an album cover that had been shot with Polaroid pack film. Did photos from that shoot ever appear anywhere?"

Mike replies: Dan, the Frank shot is on the back cover of "Rain Dogs." See it here.

Question from Jeff: "Doesn't the shot for Waits' album back cover have people standing behind him?"

Mike replies: Look closely—Frank used the bystanders. The guy on the left in the album cover shot is at the far right in Ted Barron's shot. The guy right next to him is at the right on the album cover.

Posted on Tuesday, 08 March 2011 at 04:42 PM in Photographers, current, Random Excellence | Permalink | Comments (27)

Recent Posts

+ Sponsors

Resources

Random Excellence

Monday, 12 December 2011

Thursday, 10 November 2011

Wednesday, 09 November 2011

Tuesday, 11 October 2011

Saturday, 24 September 2011

Tuesday, 20 September 2011

Saturday, 03 September 2011

Tuesday, 23 August 2011

Monday, 08 August 2011

Tuesday, 12 July 2011

Friday, 03 June 2011

Thursday, 02 June 2011

Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Friday, 22 April 2011

Saturday, 09 April 2011

Friday, 08 April 2011

Wednesday, 30 March 2011

Tuesday, 22 March 2011

Friday, 18 March 2011

Tuesday, 08 March 2011

Portals

Search

Stats