Jem Southam

The Painter's Pool, 29 Jem Southam

One of the most exciting parts of my day at Art Chicago was finding photographers whose work I was unfamiliar with. British photographer Jem Southam's landscapes are so fully realized that you step into them and want to spend an afternoon exploring. You can read about him and see more of the images in the series here. There is an interview with him here and Nazraeli Press has just published a book The Painter's Pool here. This is absolutely one to go into the collection.

Total sensory overload

Paul Ankomah, Wild Honey Collector, Techiman District, Ghana Pieter Hugo 2005

My head is spinning. My feet hurt and my back is killing me. I spent yesterday at Art Chicago,The Artist Project, Bridge Art Fair, and for good measure a stop at the MoCP for the Barbara Probst exhibit. I will be remembering and processing the experience for weeks, months, years. I'll be writing and sharing my experience over time because I am honestly too overwhelmed to be coherent at this point. Suffice it to say that yesterday I think I saw the work of 95% of the artists that I most admire, in the way the photographer determined it should be shown. I am now an evangelist for going to see exhibits whenever and wherever possible. It is quantitatively more enlightening and enjoyable than any reproduction.

The picture that blew me away was the Pieter Hugo at the Yossi Milo space. I didn't pull out a tape measure but I'm guessing it is 4 x 4 feet. I could have pulled up a chair and been mesmorized all day. The only pictures that disappointed were David Maisel's work at the AIPAD exhibit, but I blame that on poor prints since I've been told that they're gorgeous. I have never been a big fan or Loretta Lux, but seeing the actual prints has made me rethink my opinion. They are far more delicate and lovely than I had perceived through reproductions. Burtynski's, Callahan's, Gest's, Hido's, Jordan's, Parr's, Salgado's, Soth's, Stein's, Sugimoto's...the list goes on and on.

Layer that with the opportunity to talk with Alec Soth again and you know I was hitting the jackpot. As was my experience when I first met him, when he gave a lecture here for CoPA, he could not have been more gracious or charming. It doesn't make me appreciate his work more, it makes me appreciate it better.


Another layer was meeting Jon Gittelson (at his Artist Project space) and it almost makes up for not being able to get to Versionfest tonight. Gracious (again), charming (ditto) and the sense of humor that is so evident in his projects. If you haven't seen his Car Project in person you are missing a lot.


What made the whole day complete was that I was able to spend it and process it with my friend and teacher Sonja Thomsen. Her knowledge, enthusiasm, and stamina are a beacon that helps to light my way. Dean Jensen Gallery had 5 of her pieces up and they looked gorgeous. I am so proud of her and so grateful that she is my friend.

Fasten your seatbelts because I'll be posting about this for a while. Tomorrow I may write about What's Up With the ^%#*!!** White Frames?

Thomas Struth

Paint by Pixels Harry Bliss

The cover of this week's The New Yorker magazine shows a young couple looking at the LCD of a digital camera that has just captured an image of a painting. Coincidentally (or not) there is a short review of a show at the Marion Goodman Gallery of Thomas Struth's photographs of people looking (or not) at paintings. "Art provides an occasion to gather and gawk; Struth observes the tribal rituals with a sociologist's eye and a satirist's wit." An earlier (2004) article on the project at ArtNet Magazine provides a more thorough look.

For those of you keeping score that means we have a picture of people looking at a picture of a picture on a publication that mentions the opportunity to go look at pictures of people looking at pictures. I want to know if anyone at the opening was taking pictures... of people looking at pictures of people looking at pictures. Ok, I'm done now.

Titles

Alec Soth has posted on project and book titles. I agree with him wholeheartedly and have been finding myself titling a project before I even start. Do I limit my thinking by doing this? Do I limit the ultimate viewing when assigning titles? I am working on a project I named Main Street as a working title although the shooting has gone far wide of Main Street. But it gives me a verbal reference point, not to mention something to name the folders and write on the back up DVD's. I struggle with key-wording, however, because it seems final and title-like and I find myself resisting assigning such a tight (or loose) label to an image before I have lived with it for a while, since keywording is supposed to be done at the front end of the workflow.

There is more on words and images from a post by The Online Photographer dealing with captions in photojournalism. Accuracy as opposed to intent taking on a different role in this sphere.

Finally, an entertaining post from the blog by Leslie K. Brown that she refers to as a Geek post looking at bad wall text at exhibitions.

I find it curious that as much as we are committed to visual expression we are still tied (and occassionally tongue-tied) to language as a kind of bridge and even those who avoid/refuse/omit titles communicate something with their absence.

Sotheby's auction

The Ascent of Attic Angles Edward Weston

Sotheby's is having a sale of photographs from the private collection of Margaret W. Weston this Wednesday and Thursday. The Edward Weston above is estimated to go for $700,000 to $1,000,000. You can view a short video presentation by Denise Bethel, Photographics Department Director that is instructive as well as a sales pitch. An early portrait by Ansel Adams alone is worth a look. Sadly, unlike Christie's, you have to register with Sotheby's to look through the entire catalog on your own.

New York Times Magazine

Brian Ulrich

Phillip-Lorca diCorcia

The New York Times Sunday Magazine has been on a roll with photos by fine art photographers accompanying stories for the last three weeks. Brian Ulrich yesterday, Phllip-Lorca diCorcia a week ago, and the Martin Parr spread I pointed out on Easter. These are 3 photographers who make compelling social and political statements with their artistic work, do their images raise the impact of the stories? The inclusion of this caliber of work certainly raises my desire to get the Sunday Times.

Follow up: I had to post this link to Alec Soth's blog. He has posted a letter to the editor of W Magazine complaining about using Alec for a fashion spread in the April issue. While you're there read down through the comments for full illumination. I'm wondering if the letter writer has been busy writing to the NYT as well.

Lighting Out For The Territory

Martin Johnson

Square America has another wonderful gallery of photographs up. Lighting Out For the Territory is a collection of slides from trips taken by Martin Johnson. Be sure to scroll all the way through to the bottom for more information, "For every photograph of Mount Rushmore or The Grand Canyon there were three or four shots of the empty (or not so empty) road taken through the windshield of the car." How many examples of "this looks like that" can you find?

Enigmatic

Werewolf, East Harlem NY Amy Stein

I find this portrait every bit as enigmatic as this one. Amy Stein's work is a remarkable balance of strength and tenderness, pathos and humor. I do not want to go down the road (with its attendant potholes) of ascribing this to a gender but I am so glad to see these images, done by a woman. She is having a solo show of her Stranded series on the Humble Arts Foundation site for the next month complete with an interview.

Exhibitionism

Diptych Mel Trittin

I will be part of the CoPA Second Annual Members Exhibition tonight and tomorrow. I am showing 3 photos from the start of my horse/horse mold project. I have had to be dragged into my first public exhibit and I hope to be able to stand back and observe how people look at my pictures. Because that's what I do, I observe.

I wish I had taken more time in writing my Artist's Statement which is a muddy, mumbling paragraph. Since I didn't, read this statement by Judy Linn which is delightful, smart and very closely speaks to what I am about.

Words and pictures by nature don’t agree. There is no good fit. I can’t say what I do or have done, but I know what I want, what I try to do. I can tell how I aim. I can’t say how I land.
When I began, I hated what I couldn’t control—all the annoying things I couldn’t see in the moment of taking a photograph, the crazy stuff that jumps into the edges of pictures. Now I like that part the best. But I do want to be accurate, although “accurate” is a slippery word. I don’t mean a quality of photography. I think Cezanne, Ingres, and de Kooning are all accurate. I don’t think Ansel Adams is accurate. If you look at a Hiroshige woodcut of a whirlpool, you figure it is a fanciful rendition because how accurate can a woodcut be? But if you go to see the whirlpool, you see that he is telling you exactly what it looks like.
I think when someone first looks at a photograph they automatically wonder, “What is it?” I want a photograph that easily answers that question. I want to be extremely obvious; obfuscation is bad grammar. Hopefully, the two-dimensional arrangements of shapes on the paper will be as lively and interesting as the three-dimensional world trapped inside the photograph. There should also be something there you haven’t seen before. Something should happen in the act of looking.
I want a photograph that makes me aware of what is physically in front of me, a photograph that gives me the pleasure of getting lost. It is like asking yourself a joke: not really knowing what the answer is, giving up, and then seeing the punch line and really laughing.

Judy Linn 2005

20 X 200: Art for Everyone

If the Christie's sale is a little too rich for your blood Jen Bekman has a new project brewing. Prints for $20. 20 X 200: Art for Everyone is in beta now but you can sign up for email notifications here. You can read more about the project here. Encouraging a market? Devaluing work? You tell me.

Dreaming

Alec Soth brought the Christie's photography sale coming up next week to my attention on his blog (he is dreaming of the Elliott Erwitt notebook). There are 359 items listed in the catalog. I want 300 of them, give or take a few. Browse through and think about bidding, or just dream of having one for your very own. Callahan, Eggelston, Sugimoto, Mann, Soth, etc., etc., etc. I have a feeling that the $5000 to $7000 estimate on Crytstal (above) is on the low side.

Leaving you to your thoughts

Seating

I will be out of town for the next few days. While I'm gone have a seat and ponder this...Once Upon a Time.

Lists

Another blog you should be reading is Christian Patterson's Speak, See, Remember. He has offered up two lists on the do's and don'ts for young photographers. I see no reason to think that they don't include me. The first list comes from a panel discussion at the Aperture foundation, complete with Christian's annotations. Highly entertaining. The second list is something he referenced in the past from Vice Magazine. Highlier entertaining.

The Photographers Eye

" Visual textbook of how photographs function and why they matter."

The Online Photographer has come through again with a pre-print alert. This book by John Szarkowski is being reissued this spring. If you click on the book cover on his page he gets a small commission that helps support his site. Otherwise you can just go here. I have mine ordered.

Global Warming Part Deux

Hawthorn April 11, 2007

See this post. Enough said.

The young and the talented

David Robert Elliott

We had our monthly CoPA (Coalition of Photographic Arts) get together last night and had asked our Student members to bring work to display. It was so invigorating to see the work of these young, talented artists at the very beginning of their artistic careers. David Robert Elliott was showing work with the narrative style that I am particularly interested in. We had a wonderful discussion about titling our work. Is numbering verging on hubris? Are explanatory titles directive, patronizing, or even an excuse for muddy conveyance? It was great fun. He has his Senior Exhibition opening next Friday April 20th from 5-9 PM at the MIAD Gallery (273 E Erie St., Milwaukee) running through May 12. I highly recommend it.

Tell me why

Svende 2005 Billy & Hells

I shouldn't plunk down $140 for a 15 x 20 Lambda print of this. The Online Photographer did a Random Excellence post and I have fallen in love. The longer I look at her the more enigmatic she becomes. As you'll see from T.O.P. the print is available from German art edition printers Lumas. The About the Artist link makes me covet it more, not less (which is often the case).

Super saturate me

If you're looking for Easter eye-candy the New York Times Magazine offers up a slide show of images by Martin Parr in their style section.

Northeast Exposure Online

Only Begotten Thomas Gustainis

From Leslie K. Brown's blog there are links to Northeast Exposure Online, a web publication of the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University. April's Featured Artist is Thomas Gustainis and I particularly like the Little Urban Landscapes and Rooms images. Leslie introduces the work by stating "Thomas Gustainis's work often confronts and challenges our notion of what is real and fabricated, be it narrative, artistic genres, or the nature of photography itself. " Since my horse/mold project also deals with real and fabricated I was intrigued. I will take the time to go back through the archives to look at the work of photographers from throughout the northeast.

"Just one more picture."

Virginia at 5 Sally Mann

Sally Mann and her daughter Virginia talk about the Immediate Family project in 2 delightful videos courtesy of Newsweek. The images are being shown as part of the Family Pictures exhibition at the Guggenheim in New York.

Today's weather report

White Dress Riitta Paivalainen

Ravens Riitta Paivalainen

I spent a good part of yesterday out shooting, temperatures in the 60's. Today it is in the 20's with wind chills in the low 10's. This post from (the still regrettably named) i heart photograph seems to fit the bill. Swedish photographer Riitta Paivalainen (apologies for not having the appropriate accent marks) has made lovely, lyrical images with articles of frozen clothing.

Coincidence?

In the fall of 2005 CoPA (Coalition of Photographic Arts) sponsored an evening with Alec Soth just as he was riding the rocket to his critical acclaim. In the fall of 2006 we sponsored an evening with Sally Gall and she asked us to use one of the Blossom images for our promotional materials. I was pleased to open my April 9 copy of The New Yorker to see Blossom 15, one of her Central Park images, and a mention in the short list of gallery openings. Her show of Blossoms is at Julie Saul Gallery in New York until May 5. You can listen to a podcast of her talk on the MIAD site. We're in the process of firming up our lecturer for Fall 2007 and while I'm sure we had nothing to do with the further successes of our chosen photographic artist's we do seem to be on a roll of chosing winners.

What we remember

Meet me in Ataxia has pointed me to a terrific gallery of images from the outstanding vernacular photography site Square America. What We Remember (1957) is a fabulous collection of out of focus pictures that combine to create a strong feeling of nostalgia, conceivably whether you were born after (long after?) 1957 or not. Isn't that pretty much the definition of vernacular photos as art?

Roll out the barrel

Opening Day 2007. Ben Sheets takes the mound. Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack.