Lassal / Dark – photography
That’s the only purpose of any form of art: that it adds something to people’s lives. People can also hate it. You don’t need to have consensus with the show, But you do need to produce a difference in the experience of the single individual.
Francesco Bonami
Francesco Bonami is the designated curator for the Whitney Biennial 2010
I always enjoy the last walk of the day with Hunter. Very often Tony comes with us or, the other way around, I go with them. It is a time to recapitulate the day, a time to brainstorm or just to joke around a bit.
Since it snowed Hunter is the happiest dog while chasing mice “down under”, towing huge frozen sticks back home or simply rolling in the snow until he looks like a little yeti. He is making our late night walks become longer and longer …
The light – which is the reflection from a construction site light onto snow – is quite amazing.
Fresh arrival!
Will check and write about it later … But I could not resist to announce, because it not only looks beautiful, it feels beautiful too.
If you are interested in photobooks and wondering about what their future might look like, you might want to go over to LiveBooks to check on the various comments collected there concerning this topic.
I think I am kind of late in this discussion, but just this morning I stumbled over one of the few comments comming from the photography-collector’s side and I found his argumentation for the following points quite intersting:
1.) For him as a collector the primary reasons for buying photobooks are reference and education.
2.) The purpose of photobooks are the photographs
3.) The purpose is also to collect multiple viewpoints (from artists, curators & critics …)
4.) Photography collectors are not very interested in the innovation in photobooks
In the early summer 2009 I launched my own publishing venture, called “The Little Hunter”, with the aim of getting some self published books out, in limited editions, with full controll over the process. It is important for me to have a possibility to present the work as I see it, at least once. And as I am a collector of photobooks myself, I very much see them as objects. And that is the way I think they will survive.
The research aspect in my oppinion will rely more and more on the digital world. Its main focus lies on acquiring information, which is certainly easier, faster and less expensive to do online. But as soon as emotions and desires kick in, there is no way anything digital will win over an actual object. At least that is the way it works for me – regardless if we are speaking about photography , photobooks, drawings, postcards … love&passion.
There was a very interesting feature on ARTE TV, called La BDs’en va-t-en guerre (“Comic Books Go War”, Italia, 2008, 64min by Mark Daniels).
The documentary shows how the “documentary comic” is being used to describe events that are usually covered by journalists/photojournalists. It tries to explain why this is important and relevant and that it appears to be easier to communicate and share views on human tragedies in this way, even considering the amount of time and engagement that is necessary to prepare a comic book.
The documentary introduces the most important artists of this genre like Keiji Nakazawa’s Gen d’Hiroshima, where the author shares his memories about how he witnessed and survived the fall of the atomic bomb when he was 7 years old, Art Spiegelman’s unforgettable Maus, and younger artists such as Joe Sacco (Palestine, une nation occupée, Gorazde), Marjane Satrapi (Persépolis), Ted Rall (Passage afghan), Emmanuel Guibert (Le Photographe) and Joe Kubert (Fax de Sarajevo), who convey testimonies through stunning visual stories, which are often just as brutal but nonetheless “easier” to look at than pictures from journalists.
This is certainly a very interesting topic which one could talk at length about, especially regarding the arguments claiming that we are getting “numb” towards a certain type of crisis documentation. For some stories – witness stories for example, where not enough photographic material exist or where the personal aspect is to be stressed – the documentary comic could be a way to go.
I wrote about The Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders here … and it was interesting for me to see an interview with Emmanuel Guibert on this documentary, telling about the work on the books and about his friendship with Didier Lefèvre.
“Comics go to war” will be reaired Jan. 31st on ARTE, if anybody is interested.
Under normal circumstances, I do throw packaging material away before it starts piling up on my desk or next to it.
There are two reasons why I still have the envelope from Little Brown Mushroom Books laying around. First of all because of the red drawing on the sender label that just made my heart smile – I am an architect after all. And secondly because … I still have not figured out what is sitting next to that guy under the staircase. And that is really bugging me.
I think I need your help with this, so I can finally empty my desk.
I will draw the coolest answers and post them here.
So be bold and creative and PLEASE explain me what that stuff could be … :)
Continue reading ‘The Staircase Mystery’
This morning, while going through the German Freelens Magazin29, I found an article about an intriguing large format camera. While I usually do not see myself talking about hardware, I will make an exeption for the Imago 1:1, a walk-in camera (begehbare Kamera in German) that makes 1:1 black and white single photographs (no negative) in the amazing size of 60×200cm (approximately 2×6,6 ft) of whomever or whatever is inside and presses the shutter. Large format selfportraits indeed.
The camera was developed and constructed in Munich, Germany, in the early 70s by two friends: Werner Kraus, a physicist and Erhard Hoeszle, a goldsmith. Imago 1:1 is 7m long, 4m high and 3,5m deep (approx. 23×13x11,5 ft) and does look more like a selfpreservation-module from a MadMax movie, or like something out of a submarine, than a camera. Continue reading ‘Imago 1:1 – truly large format selfportraits’
A week ago I won a paperback in Ebay, called The Niagara Story – Pictorial Guide to Niagara Falls, by Raymond F. Yates. This sixth edition from July 1953 (first one is said to be from May 1947) consists of 56 pages of descriptions, illustrations and photographs.
The book proposes three virtual trips, “for the benefit of those who wish to see both the scenic and historical sights at Niagara in a systematic and efficient manner, free from the necessity of retracing steps.” Undoubtedly written for the managers back then …
Thankfully they do include some tips for those who chose to actually go there. I found this one interesting: ‘Please don’t ask for the location of the Indian wigwams’. But my favorit tip is: ‘Don’t try to take pictures with the mist blowing in your lens.’
Together with The Niagara Story came a collection of old jumbo postcards – unfortunately without date – and a surprise set of 4 black and white photographs from an unknown person but with a description on each reverse. If that description is correct, then the pictures were taken the summer of 1939! That is the year my parents were born … Amazing.
The pictures per se are not that great, but the one I like the best is the one on the top right, which was definitively taken by someone who has not read or cared about the tip with the mist.
‘Lost Boy Mountain’ is said to be Lester B. Morrison’s first book. I found it by accident when I was looking through Alec Soth’s new blog ‘Little Brown Mushroom‘, which is a shared site between him and five other people – one of them being Lester B. Morrison, who also has some tips on a nice cave property for sale in Tennessee. Anybody into that? (I actually would be terribly interested, if I only had the money :)
Back to the book.
It has 24 pages including the title page which is of the same greyish paper an is about 14 x 21,5 cm (5.6 x 8 in) in size. It is staple bound, printed in coloroffset and it looks almost like a facsimile – with the smeared pencil writing all over the pages (it really shimmers in the light as if it were pencil, and not print).
Inside it starts right with the first Haiku (5-7-5 syllables) which combines the metaphors of wooden treehouses, caves and Lester between them … Echoing the Haikus, we find pictures of treehouses and caves, often joined together by pencil drawings. Altogether it contains 11 Haikus in pencil handwriting and 11 pictures/drawings of different sizes – all variations of the same theme.
‘Lost Boy Mountain’ comes as an edition of 1000 but unfortunately it is neither signed nor numbered. There is only a printed ‘LBM’ on the bottom of the last page.
I have to say, I really enjoyed this little book a lot. It’s multi layering gave me more pleasure than most of the ’straight’ photobooks I have piled up here in the last months. It only LOOKS like a big understatement, and the looks fit well to the overall idea of Haikus.
I bought 5 of the 1000 prints last December. So I have some nice presents for artist friends on the table now. If I ever come up with a contest on this site, I might choose it as a prize. It would be a worthy prize.
If you do not want to take the chance, hurry to purchase it on “Little Brown Mushroom”.
Little Brown Mushroom
Lester B. Morrison
Lost Boy Mountain
LBM
… I have to say that some questions do arise here … :)
Here comes post #2 about artists/photographers who are using drawings/illustrations alongside photography.
The photographs above are from Roger Ballen, an American photographer who has been based in South Africa since the late 1970s. The image on the left is called ‘Room Of The Ninja Turtles’ and is from 2003, the image on the right is from 2002 and is called ‘Crawling Man’.
Roger Ballen often adds different kinds of drawings to his settings before photographing them. While the drawings are often literally done on surfaces, such as walls, he sometimes uses objects like wires or similar (and their shadows) as a means to do a 3D drawing instead. When I saw the image on the top right, the first thing that came to my mind were Francis Bacon’s “cages”.
By including drawings into the picture, he adds an additional layer of texture and meaning to his images.
There is one video interview with him over at Lens Culture, which I found very interesting. It is called ‘Psychology, metaphor and controversy in the art of photography’.
You can find a slideshow with some of his work together with an audio interview here. And another audio interview together with a review about his photobook ‘Boarding House’ here. I ordered ‘Boarding House’ as soon as I saw it and I am looking forward to hold it in my hands!
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