Thursday, July 30, 2009

Exhibition: Robert Mapplethorpe, perfection in form - Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze

Exhibition: Robert Mapplethorpe, perfection in form - Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze"An exhibition dedicated to great American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, in the twentieth anniversary of his death, at the Accademia Gallery of Florence until September 27,2009."

From the Exhibition site, "From its very title, Robert Mapplethorpe, perfection in form, exhibition curators Franca Falletti and Jonathan Nelson intend to express the profound principle that associates the artist of photography with the great Renaissance masters and, in particular, with Michelangelo: the search for balance, the precision and clarity inherent to 'Form' that tends toward perfection by means of the geometric rigour of volumes defined by line and sculpted by light."
http://www.unannoadarte.it/mapplethorpe/

Related Link: http://www.mapplethorpe.org/

Related Link: Model combination: Robert Mapplethorpe and Michelangelo

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2009/jul/29/robert-mapplethorpe-michelangelo


Wednesday, July 29, 2009

A photography companion volume to Imperial by William T. Vollmann

By Charles McGrath for The New York Times "A companion volume ( to Imperial by William T. Vollmann), to be published next month by powerHouse Books, contains some 200 photographs he took while working on "Imperial," for which he also wore a spy camera while trying to infiltrate a Mexican factory, and paddled in an inflatable raft down the New River in California, a rancid trench that is probably the most polluted stream in America. The water, he writes, tasted like the Salk polio vaccine."

..."Imperial," which is about Imperial County in California, the vast, flat and arid region in the southeastern part of the state, bordering Mexico, is an extreme Vollmann production: brilliant in places, practically unreadable in others. There are lyrical passages, and others edging over into magenta ("And change came; just as the urine of dehydrated people is turbid and dark, failing in transparency, so the evening sunlight, as if heated to exhaustion by and with itself, now lost the glaring whiteness which had characterized it since early morning, and it oozed down upon the pavement to stain it with gold"), along with scientific chapters, complete with graphs, on salinization and agricultural productivity, and 175 pages of notes. A page early on has a title warning of "Impending Aridity."


Related Link: A Drive Through 'Imperial'

Imperial. Photogarphs by William T. Vollmann. Powerhouse Books,

Monday, July 27, 2009

Exhibition: Photographs by Rodolphe A. Reiss - The Scene Of The Crime - Musée de l'Elysée

From the Musée de l'Elysée, "As the investigators' artificial memory, the photographs were taken in a very formal style to document crime scenes and clues discovered as unemotionally as possible. They are all associated with Reiss's teaching or expert evaluations. They allow us to see unusual sites and environments and, paradoxically, are often formally very abstract."
"The boundary between reality and the imaginary remains unbroken here. Situated between the acts and their representation, these photographs are filled with unusual emotion due to the dramatic circumstances which they retrace."
Related Link- PDF Exhibition Document; The Scene of The Crime  Rodolphe A. Reiss (1875-1929)

Thursday, July 23, 2009

High Line Images

The High Line is located on Manhattan's West Side. It runs from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to 34th Street, between 10th & 11th Avenues.

http://www.thehighline.org/galleries/images



Related Link: The High Line Blog
http://blog.thehighline.org/

Related Link: Flickr Image Group - Friends of the High Line
http://www.flickr.com/groups/friendsofthehighline/pool/

NYT - Lens Blog - Essay: Icons as Fact, Fiction and Metaphor By Philip Gefter

Philip Gefter, "Photography After Frank", "As a witness to events, the photojournalist sets out to chronicle what happens in the world as it actually occurs. A cardinal rule of the profession is that the presence of the camera must not alter the situation being
photographed. The viewer's expectation about a picture's veracity is largely determined by the context in which the image appears. A picture published in a newspaper is believed to be fact; an advertising image is understood to be fiction. If a newspaper image turns out to have been set up, then questions are raised about trust and authenticity. Still, somewhere between fact and fiction — or perhaps hovering slightly above either one — is the province of metaphor, where the truth is approximated in renderings of a more poetic or symbolic nature."

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/23/essay-4/


Related Link: Photography After Frank Essays by Philip Gefter
http://www.aperture.org/books/books-new/photography-after-frank.html

Related Link: A Sharpshooter's Last Sleep
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwpcam/cwcam3a.html

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Exhibition: Passing by China: Contemporary Chinese Photography - Eli Klein Fine Art Gallery

Eli Klein Fine Art Press Release - " Passing by China: Contemporary Chinese Photography, This exhibition brings together the work of ten emerging and established artists whose work has been displayed worldwide— Hung Tung-Lu, Lian Dongya, Liu Bolin, Liu Zheng, Maleonn,
Miao Xiaochun, Pan Yue, Wang Yiqiong, Yu Hang, and Zuoxiao Zuzhou. Using photography, these artists delve into the conflict between China's past and future and the plight of the individual caught amidst the transition."

http://www.elikleinfineart.com/html/exhibresultsFull.asp?type=All

Monday, July 13, 2009

Exhibition: A Journey through Light and Shadow - The Invention of Photography and the Earliest Photographs of Macao, China

Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop for The New york Times,"The earliest remaining
known photographs of China were taken by Jules Itier, a Frenchman who
traveled to China in the 1840s as part of a diplomatic mission sent by
King Louis-Philippe.

Itier passed through Macao in 1844 and the subjects of some of his
photographs — like the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral, once the largest
Catholic cathedral in Asia — look little changed today. But most of
his photographs tell the story of a very different Macao, the one that
existed before land reclamation and rapid urbanization.

His work is a highlight of an exhibit called "A Journey through Light
and Shadow — The Invention of Photography and the Earliest Photographs
of Macao, China," which will run until Aug. 23 at the Museum of
Macau."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/arts/10iht-jessop.html

Related Link: An Early Look at Macao - New York times Slide Show -
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/07/09/arts/design/20090709_MACAO_SLIDESHOW_index.html

Related link: Museum of Macau: A Journey through Light and Shadow
http://www.macaumuseum.gov.mo/htmls/globaltop/eng_top_temp.htm

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Exhibition - Photographer Anthony Friedkin - Gay, A Photographic Essay 1969-1972

"This retrospective exhibition of photographs about the Gay community
revisits work done by celebrated Los Angeles based photographer
Anthony Friedkin. This powerful and important set of vintage
photographs, over 35 years old, historically documents what was then
the emerging identity of the homosexual community, and the beginnings
of the Gay Liberation Movement. First displayed in a Los Angeles
exhibit in 1973 and later again in 1994 it's been over fifteen years
since these unique and beautifully printed vintage photographs have
been on view."

Related Link: DRKRM Gallery - http://www.drkrm.com/gallery.html

Related Link: Stephen Cohen Gallery -
http://www.stephencohengallery.com/Artist-Detail.cfm?ArtistsID=674

Thursday, July 9, 2009

The New York Times: Editors' Note: July 8, 2009

"A picture essay in The Times Magazine on Sunday and an expanded slide
show on NYTimes.com entitled "Ruins of the Second Gilded Age" showed
large housing construction projects across the United States that came
to a halt, often half-finished, when the housing market collapsed. The
introduction said that the photographer, a freelancer based in
Bedford, England, "creates his images with long exposures but without
digital manipulation."

A reader, however, discovered on close examination that one of the
pictures was digitally altered, apparently for aesthetic reasons.
Editors later confronted the photographer and determined that most of
the images did not wholly reflect the reality they purported to show.
Had the editors known that the photographs had been digitally
manipulated, they would not have published the picture essay, which
has been removed from NYTimes.com."

The Conscience of Nhem En



"The Conscience of Nhem En, explores conscience and complicity in the
story of a young soldier responsible for taking the ID photos of thousands of innocent people before they were tortured and killed by the Khmer Rouge.
Nhem En was 16 years old when he was the staff photographer at the notorious Tuol Sleng Prison, also know as Security-21 or S-21, where, from 1975 to 1979, 17,000 people were registered and photographed, then imprisoned and tortured, before they were killed."

http://www.farfilm.com/web/title_cne.htm



Tuesday, July 7, 2009

William Eggleston, In Full Color

From, William Eggleston, In Full Color by Claire O'Neill for NPR,
William Eggleston about his pictures, " I am often asked about the
meaning...I don't have any answers. They don't mean anything, they're
just pictures..."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106299805
Related Link: William Eggleston: Democratic Hellraiser?:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2009/06/the_colorful_world_of_william.html
Related Link: Gallery: The colourful world of William Eggleston:
http://www.npr.org/multimedia/pictureshow/2009/06/19b/index.html
Related Link: Official website of William Eggleston and the Eggleston
Artistic Trust.
http://www.egglestontrust.com/

Monday, July 6, 2009

Anima/Persona - The photography of Brigitte Lacombe


©Brigitte Lacombe
From Claire O'Neill' s article for NPR, "Frank Rich of The New York
Times puts it well in his introduction:
"There is art, and there is show business. In a young century
overdosing on glossy and voyeuristic celebrity exploitation
masquerading as photojournalism, it's essential to keep the boundary
distinct. That is the key to appreciating the photography of Brigitte
Lacombe, whose work often takes her into the realm of show business
but whose pictures strip the commerce away from the artists until we
are face-to-face with what some of the seminal figures of our time are
trying to say to their audience."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2009/07/janet_johnson_who_edited_photo.html?ps=bb2

Related Link: http://www.brigittelacombe.com/
Related Link: Lacombe anima l persona by Brigitte Lacombe steidldangin:
http://www.steidlville.com/books/812-Lacombe-anima-l-persona.html

Napoleon III and Paris - Photography exhibition focusing on the changing shape of Paris during the Second Empire

Charles Marville (French, 1816–1879) Rue du Chat-qui-Pêche (from the Rue de la Huchette), ca. 1868 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Promised Gift of Howard Stein (L.2001.13)

www.metmuseum.org, "This dossier photography exhibition will focus on
the changing shape of Paris during the Second Empire, when the city's
narrow streets and medieval buildings gave way to the broad boulevards
and grand public works that still define the urban landscape of the
French capital. A prologue will introduce Napoleon III and his family,
and an epilogue will depict the ruins of Paris in the aftermath of the
Commune. Drawn entirely from the Metropolitan's collection, the
exhibition will feature portraits of the Imperial family by Gustave Le
Gray and Benjamin Delessert; views of old Paris by Charles Marville;
photographs of the New Louvre by Edouard Baldus and of the Opera by
Delmaet and Durandelle; and scenes of the destruction of Paris and
Saint-Cloud during the Commune by Alphonse Liebert and Pierre-Ambrose
Richebourg. The exhibition will also include works in other media from
various departments of the Museum. "

http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId=%7B47E49A38-646C-4D09-A142-4DEAD1FBCDCB%7D

Related Link: Napoleon III and Paris Gallery:

http://www.metmuseum.org/special/napoleon_paris/images.asp

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Napoleon III and Paris
June 9, 2009–September 7, 2009
The Howard Gilman Gallery

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Exhibition: In Focus: Making a Scene - The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center

"Photography, although commonly associated with truthfulness, has been
used to produce fiction since its introduction in 1839. The acceptance
of staging, and the degree of its application, has varied greatly
depending on the genre and the historical moment, but it has persisted
as an artistic approach. The photographs in this exhibition, drawn
exclusively from the J. Paul Getty Museum's collection, make no
pretense about presenting the world as it exists; instead, they are
the productions of directors and actors who rely on stagecraft and
occasional darkroom trickery to tell stories.

Spanning photography's history and expressing a range of sentiments,
the images in this exhibition are inspired by art history, literature,
religion, and mainstream media."

http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/focus_makingscene/index.html

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Exhibition - Photographer Anthony Hernandez: Technological changes created a new photography style

"Pictures by Anthony Hernandez of people waiting for the bus in Los
Angeles in the early 1980s were part of the re-evaluation of
photography that was going on around the world during that period,
according to artist Jeff Wall.

Until the late 1970s, street photography meant trying to make a
composition very quickly of strangers in public spaces. But Wall said
at about that time, he was among a new generation of artists that
included German artist Andreas Gursky in Dusseldorf who were working
with photography but were interested in taking the medium somewhere
new.

What Hernandez did technically was change from using a hand-held 35 mm
camera to a large format camera on a tripod. This both slowed down the
way Hernandez took street photographs and opened up his work, Wall
said."

From, Tech change created new photography style, by Kevin Griffin,
Vancouver Sun:
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Tech+change+created+photography+style/1757747/story.html

Related Links: Anthony Hernandez - Gallery:
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Gallery+Anthony+Hernandez/1757770/story.html

Related Link: Anthony Hernandez — Street life through a lens
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Anthony+Hernandez+Street+life+through+lens/1757761/story.html

Related Link: Vancouver Art Gallery
http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca

Friday, July 3, 2009

Wim Wenders for Leica Camera

A very nice black and white ad for Leica featuring and directed by the
director and photographer Wim Wenders. The camera in question, the M8
has had its share of issues, and detractors. However, just about every
review gets back to Mr. Wenders' observation that what distinguishes
this camera above all, is it's handling, the way it feels in your
hands and the relationship between, as Mr. Wenders says, "what you saw
outside and the inner image that proceeds each image."

For an in-depth review of the M8, Mr. Phil Askey for Digital
Photography Review: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/leicam8/

Link to Leica M8 product page:
http://en.leica-camera.com/photography/m_system/m8/

Thursday, July 2, 2009

CBGB Virtual Tour

I unfortunately never had the chance to go to CBGB. However, now I can
at least have a virtual tour of the famed club. Appropriately, the
tour starts in the bathroom.... this ain't no disco....
http://www.bravadousa.com/cbgb/pano/pano.html