My fascination with icebergs and very cold places has probably a lot to do with my liking of Vancouver photographer David Burdeny's work, but I find his other series equally beautiful and interesting.
"Antartica/Greenland 2007" Series
"During 2007 and into the spring of 2008, I made several long journeys to the upper and lower extremes of our planet to photograph the shorelines, monolithic ice forms and landscapes of Greenland, Iceland and Antarctica. Most of these places are arduous to reach, beyond the borders of domestic transportation routes, accessible only by small aircraft or boat. All are endangered to some extent – threatened by tourism, climate change, industry and the hunt for oil."
Toshio Shibata is a Japanese photographer using large-format photographs to explore large-scale civil engineering works in nature.
Many seem to want to interpret his work as some kind of commentary about the conflict between man and his environment... I see a work on textures, shapes and space with a primary emphasis on aesthetics and athmosphere. The civil works become giant abstract sculptures, geometric installations that subtly interact with their surroundings through waterfalls, moss, slow decay of concrete.
From an intersting interview on Eye Curious: "I try to eliminate the reality, time and any sense of specific place."
I first became acquainted with Japanese photographer Masao Yamamoto's images over a year ago and his work has been growing on me ever since. Minimal yet never boring or empty, his pictures have just the right amount of material to get my imagination going. I love their simplicity and dreamy quality, that I find lacking in many of the contemporary works I see.
With a background in oil painting, he manipulates his prints using paints, dyes, tones (like tea), as well as rubbing and tearing to age them prematurely - making each one a unique object. He describes his images as physical memories and as such focuses on very small prints that can be carried around and held in the palm of the hand. He also organizes them in stories/installations that bring new meanings through subtle interactions. While I think it is an interesting concept and even though I like the images very much, I have to say that I am not a fan of small prints - I can't help but feeling it partly removes the images from the emotional impact they truely deserve.
Quite an interesting study on a species seldom mentioned, although it arguably plays a significant role in the early life of many human beings.
Excerpt from the artist's statement: "Humans routinely direct the course of evolution in domestic animal species through selective breeding. In companion animals breeding is driven more by marketability than function. Like designer dog breeds, the teddy bear is a creature whose shape is dictated by social trends and the changing definition of ‘cute.’
Genus Ursulus: Teddy Skulls is a pseudo-scientific study of the morphology of skulls of teddy bears. Morphology refers to the form and structures that differentiate one breed from another but also give a sense of the story of the individual. The genus name Ursulus comes from the Latin ‘small bear’. Using a variety of store-bought teddy bears as ‘species’ source material, I am reverse-engineering what their skulls look like and the differences and similarities between ‘breeds.’ "
Found on the always interesting This is That blog.
I love Anthony Cannon Walker's "Adventures of the kimono cowboy in the Far-West" series.
From his website: "When friends were visiting me in Tokyo, they saw two ladies dressed in kimonos sitting across from us in a cafe.
One of my friends said: "Wouldn't the world be so much nicer if everyone wore their traditional clothes all the time?"
And I replied, "But that would mean that we would have to dress as cowboys day in and day out."
How do our outward appearances affect the way that we meet and connect with other people? Is it possible to 'meet' the place that you live in?"
Great talk by amazing war photographer James Nachtwey. He seems so incredibly calm for someone who has seen so much. Or maybe seeing it all has just made him entirely numb.
Cedric Delsaux is a French commercial photographer who attracted a lot of attention with his really cool Star Wars themed series. He integrated characters of the saga in typical parisian suburbia - empty parking lots, projects, public buildings and other urban battlegrounds - infusing a sense of intergalactic mystery and adventure to what would otherwise be totally depressing places. It's pretty much the literal illustration of the day dreams of most kids who grew up with Han, Luke and Chewie. As an adult and a photographer I find still being able to see the world around us as an enchanted place priceless. Takes a lot of hard work to preserve that kind of freshness - a wild imagination and not too much reading the news probably help too. As good old Nietzsche said: "A man’s maturity: that is to have rediscovered the seriousness he possessed as a child at play".
I love the moods of Aaron Hobson's "Cinemascapes" works. It's essentially a series of great, dark panoramic self (sometimes multiple) portraits. Each image is a story in itself and there's usually a lot more going on than what you see at first glance. I am totally jealous of his locations, too - he is based in a small Adirondack Mountain town near the Canadian border which pretty much seems like rural decay paradize.
Aaron tells me that he works with pretty basic equipment - an almost decade-old digital camera - and as an amateur photographer myself I find it very comforting to see that one doesn't need the latest or most expensive gear to create amazing images. Inspiring.
From his website: "Cinemascapes are a hybrid between autobiography and fiction, with Hobson himself always in the star role. They are at times, haunting and scandalous, other times inspiring, but always come across as closely personal. Reflective of his 30 years of experiences, emotions, and challenges throughout his life, Hobson creates cinemascapes that not only viscerally and visually grab the conscious mind, but also linger in the viewer's imagination and memory.
Creating panoramics from 4-5 sequential vertical images allows the viewer’s eye to explore shifting focal planes and become immersed into a scene full of unsuspecting details and hidden plots more than a single frame could suffice. Each image seemingly captures a moment in time that poses many questions, not the least of which is what's going on here?"
"Cryopreservation Unit, Cryonics Institute, Clinton Township, Michigan. This cryopreservation unit holds the bodies of Rhea and Elaine Ettinger, the mother and first wife of cryonics pioneer, Robert Ettinger. Robert, author of “The Prospect of Immortality” and “Man into Superman” is still alive."
"Nuclear Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility Cherenkov Radiation. Hanford Site, U.S. Department of Energy
Southeastern Washington State."
"U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Contraband Room. John F. Kennedy International Airport Queens, New York."
"An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar" is an exciting photo project by New York-born Taryin Simon. She has been pretty much building her own photographic cabinet of curiosities, seeking rarely seen subjects from the domains of science, government, medicine, entertainment, nature, security, and religion in the United States, using a large-format camera whenever possible.
"Aspiring" is a great series of aspiring Baltimore models portraits taken in their own living place by american photographer Jay Parkinson. People's homes obviously reflect their personalities and I love this kind of portraits as they usually look much more intimate and authentic than the studio ones.
From his interview with Conscientious' Jorg Colberg:
"One thing that I think makes all of these photographs interesting is that these models all have the confidence to get in front of a camera and give it their best and, on top of all that, let me into their homes so I can capture them in what should be their most comfortable place in the world. But often, this translated into a very vulnerable appearance. I specifically contacted only models that had done only one or two shoots, and sometimes no prior shoots. I wanted to capture them in the very beginning of their efforts to realize their dreams. Every aspiring model also has
some sort of notion of how a professional model should pose in front of the camera, but actually getting your body to do that does not translate well on the first or second shoot. Professional models are professional models for a reason -- they've had the experience to simply know what to do and how to pose. I provided very minimal to sometimes no direction for poses in these shoots. I wanted the poses undeveloped and immature to document a sort of tension between their dreams and reality."
Interior Camouflage - For Artist in Studio during Open House, 2004
Police Camera - Moslem Quarter, Jerusalem, 2006
I like Dutch artist Desiree Palmen's Camouflage and Streetwise series.
From the artist's website:
"Concern about the increasing use of identity based electronic information systems and the frequent use of surveillance cameras is one of the impulses for Desiree Palmen to create her work, which uses camouflage, as its main focus. In photo works, videos and site-specific actions, she explores the possibilities of letting people 'dissolve' into their surroundings or to let them disappear against the background. The manipulation of clothing plays a crucial role. A shirt covers the body and then extends to cover the tabletop, confusing the contour of the body of the person wearing the shirt with the table itself. In another work, a suit is painted in such a way that when the model is in a very specific position, he/she disappears into the background. Palmen then takes pictures of these situations she creates from the ideal viewing perspective for her audience. In the actual situation, if the viewer moved one step away from this ideal view, then the function of the camouflage seizes to exist.
In recent work, she looks more specifically at the social implications of surveillance as she attempts to mislead the eye of 'Big Brother'. Beginning from the perspective of police-installed cameras in so-called dangerous streets of Rotterdam, she then creates camouflage that models wear while performing actions in the street. The models become invisible for the target audience: the surveillance personnel, while also attracting the awareness of people passing by. In her photo and video work, she uses the same surveying methods of the security systems as she reveals that being visible and invisible are both aspects of the same oppressive phenomenon." Arno van Roosmalen / Tentagenda / March 2002. Translation: Laurie Halsey Brown.
This reminded me of the 2003 Tachi laboratory of the University of Tokyo's experimental "invisibility cloak" - which was actually simply a projection of the image behind the cloak (taken with a camera) projected back onto the front:
The Bride King of Vicus (North of Peru, 1,800-1,300 years before present) with Gold Ear Ornaments (Quimbaya, Columbia, 1,000-800 years before present) and a Gold Pectoral (Muisca, Columbia, 2,100-1,900 years before present). Self-portrait, 2005
The Cowrie Bride, Yoruba. Self-portrait, 2005
The Silver Berber Bride, Morocco, early XXth Century. Self-portrait, 2005
Born and raised in Japan, she moved to France in 1995 and has been focusing on a mesmerizing series of selfportraits - more than 150 to date - dressed as brides of various cultures throughout history. She is an amazon warrior, she is an inca goddess clad with gold, she is an ancient african deity hiding behind a tribal mask... Her works are not selfportraits per se - the images are not about her, but rather portraits of different identities that create an universal, timeless persona. She is in her own world beyond cultures, time and space, and I love the textures of her simple yet complex images. She's my buddha of photography.
Born in Kyoto in 1954, fashion photographer Kaoru Izima is also the founder and editor-in-chief of former fashion magazine "Zyappu" (the Japanese pronunciation of derogatory term "Jap"). Zyappu was the first and only magazine in Japan to feature all its text in western characters instead of the traditional kanjis, and also where he initiated is series 'Landscapes with a Corpse". He invites Japanese (and sometime European) actresses, singers and models to imagine and stage their own fantasied perfect death, while - let's stay practical - choosing which designer clothes they would like to wear. The "beauty of death" is so much romanced and deeply ingrained in Japanese culture that this seems done without any irony or conscious sense of morbidity - or at least, not in a shocking, socially unacceptable way. In Japan he's just fashion; in the West he's probably perceived as a rebellious artist using luxury brands to make metaphysical statements about death and consumerism...
Still, it's the film-like quality of the images that really appeal to me. Each scene usually alternates multiple viewpoints - long shots with the body seen from afar on a road, a bridge, or an empty street, and close-ups from different angles reminiscent of forensic photos. The lack of obvious elements about what happened keeps making me look closer in search for hidden clues.
I love Mona Kuhn's portraits. Born in São Paulo, Brazil, of German descent, and currently living in Los Angeles, she explains she shot all the images of her Evidence series in a community in France, where she resides each summer. You often hear how important having the trust of the people you photograph is and I can totally see it here. These are some of the most subtle and relaxed portraits I've seen - each image seems to tell a story of its own, and I find the natural settings and the quality of the light very refreshing. She explains more about a work in a video interview on her website here.
I like Rosemarie Fiore's retro video games project: "These photographs are long exposures taken while playing video war games of the 80's created by Atari, Centuri and Taito. The photographs were shot from video game screens while I played the games. By recording each second of an entire game on one frame of film, I captured complex patterns not normally seen by the eye."
"Lady in the Water" photographed by Toni Frissell and first published in Harper’s Bazaar in December 1947, is one of my all-time favorite. I can't help but stop every time I see it. It was shot at Weeki Wachee Spring, Florida, which has a tourist attraction called the Weeki Wachee mermaids, where young women swim around in the lake. People can watch from an underwater viewing area, where the photo was taken.
It also served as the cover of Bill Evans and Jim Hall's 1962 great Undercurrent album on Blue Note Records.
“In exploring the shared language and poetic sensibilities of all animals, I am working towards rediscovering the common ground that once existed when people lived in harmony with animals.”
Gregory Colbert is one of the artists whose works I admire and love most. Born in Toronto, Canada in 1960, he began his career in Paris in 1983 making documentary films on social issues. Filmmaking led him to fine arts photography and for the next ten years, he did not exhibit his art or show any films. He traveled to India, Burma, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Dominica, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tonga, Namibia, and Antarctica to film and photograph interactions between human beings, including himself, and animals - elephants, whales, manatees, sacred ibis, Antigone cranes, royal eagles, rhinoceros hornbills, cheetahs, and many other species.
In 2002, he presented his work, the Ashes and Snow exhibition, for the first time at the Arsenale in Venice. It was the largest solo exhibition ever mounted in Italy. In spring 2005 the show opened on the Hudson River Park's Pier 54 in New York City in the first-ever nomadic museum. The exhibition and the museum have since moved to Santa Monica, California, Tokyo, and Mexico City. Ashes and Snow exhibition has no final destination, and many new species are added as the project evolves.
Japanese architect Shigeru Ban did a great job designing the nomadic museum. Filled which huge prints and movies projected on giant screens, it feels both monumental and intimate, thanks to deep shadows and natural textures of wood and granite, and evoques as much an exhibition space as it does a sacred temple.
Walking through it is a quasi mystical, out-of-time experience. He obviously goes to great lengths to share his contemplative vision of a spiritual, pure, unstained world where all animals look like serene, ancient gods. The works are very sensual and primal in a sense. I appreciate that the photographs and videos have not been manipulated by digital technology. Animals and humans were really there, everything you see really took place.
He has also recently started initiated the “Animal Copyright Foundation”, which aims at "renegotiating our contract with nature by collecting one percent of royalties from companies using images of animals in their ads, and distribute these funds to conservation projects around the world". He believes this could become the largest environmental fund in the world. It is common practice to compensate people for fair use of their images in advertising but this has not been the case for nature and animals. Whether you agree with the initiative or not, it is nice to see people proposing new pragmatic solutions to give back what we take.
There's something intriguing about American photographer Troy Williams’s images. His series "I Want to Know What Love Is, I Want You to Show Me" is "strongly influenced by late adolescence, a time when everything is very intense and fantasies are heroic and often based on slices of popular culture". He also mentions references to 1970s and ’80s TV shows and movies such as ET and Close Encounters of the Third Kind mixed with lyrical expressions of teenage romance such as love declared in graffiti or fireworks. I like the atmospheres - kind of reminds me of Gregory Crewdson's works - and I'll be sure to check out his new works in the future.
Aaron Hawks captures powerful, melancholic portraits of artists, sex workers and fetishists in hand-built sets he designs in his warehouse. Noir, intense, symbolic images in which I find a lot more depth that most nude works today.
Great images from New York photographer Amy Stein. I really love the "Halloween in Harlem" series but be also sure to check the three other excellent series on her website, Domesticated, Stranded, and Women and Guns, that are equally interesting and consistent in quality.
I like the stillness, the simplicity and the expressions of Ethan Aaro Jones's In Water series.
"As a young adult entering my twenties, I found myself full of questions and I began looking for answers in the photographs I was making of my peers. Still showing glimpses of their youthful innocence, these new adults are wading, beautiful and naked, in the chilly waters of Lake Ontario during cool, early fall mornings.
Photographing with my hands and camera resting on top of the water, I have brought the viewer into the situation as a witness to what I encountered with my peers. Each person walks into an aura of pure water and undergoes a transformation. This numbing bath causes social cover–ups and facades to be unveiled by the uneasiness of the water and the entire situation. This act makes the subjects vulnerable and exhausted, presenting a less comfortable yet more honest person.
The variety in physical and emotional responses among similar yet clearly different people defines the series. From statuesque arms to nervous fingers and goose–bump covered bodies, the subjects’ appearances display a powerful transition. This newfound tension causes some people to appear totally lost while others maintain their composure. Eventually, all of the subjects’ pretenses are left behind.
Through this singular experience everyone is similar. We are here together, not alone. The sense of trust and love, tension and anticipation, emergence and energy displayed in the portraits ultimately speak to the emotions involved for us all as we enter our twenties."
Ethan also has recently started Pause, to begin, a new photography competition currently accepting applications until April 1, 2008. The selected finalists will be announced online April 15, 2008. Ethan and David, the founders of Pause, to Begin, will hit the road in May, 2008 with Bruno Tore, a Portuguese documentary filmmaker, to visit the selected finalists and record the time they experience together.
I really like Derek Stroup's Candy and Chips series. Here he explains what lies behind his work:
"My recent digital photographs explore the relationship between language, commerce, and objects. These photos begin with candy purchased from my locall convenience store. I photograph them and then use Photoshop to remove all traces of language or other signs. The results are images that are simultaneously familiar and strange. I am curious about this moment of suspended recognition. With labels, we instantly assign these objects to their proper category in our mind. With labels removed, there is a moment when our categorical impulse is suspended. It is similar, but different from, the sensation of encountering a foreign language. In this work there is a clear discourse about branding, and the exposure of the apparatus that enables a manufacturer to assert their brand strength. But there is also a phenomenological discourse that interests me as much, if not more. With the words removed, we are returned to a physical encounter: an object of a certain size, a certain shape, a certain color, texture, and, of course, flavor. These are all small objects, attainable pleasures. They make a direct appeal to our senses. These photographs seem like pictures of sculptures—perfect objects that don’t exist anywhere in the world. All the work in this series oscillates between individual specificity and archetypal form."
No at lot of informartion about the interesting the artist besides the fact that his seems to be from Italy. In his Fritture series he gives consumer goods a whole new meaning by making them literally (almost) consumable. Ipod tempura, anyone?
German artist Martin Klimas freezes the last instants of falling objects right before they cease to exist - at least in their intended form. Interestingly - and ironically - they seem to briefly come to life as they are about to disappear, finally liberated from their porcelain bodies for a brief moment of freedom before turning to dust.
