Conscientious

"Robert Rauschenberg, the irrepressibly prolific American artist who time and again reshaped art in the 20th century, died Monday night. [...] A painter, photographer, printmaker, choreographer, onstage performer, set designer and, in later years, even a composer, Mr. Rauschenberg defied the traditional idea that an artist stick to one medium or style. He pushed, prodded and sometimes reconceived all the mediums in which he worked." - obituary

I admit I am quite fascinated by the phenomenon that is Flickr - for the most part, I suspect, because of all the things that might just happen there. The other day, I decided to have a look at what people were actually commenting on (using photos that have more than 30 comments), and then I got sucked into reading the comments. I realized that there were plenty of comments that made absolutely no sense to me if I tried too hard to understand what they actually meant, but that acquired a strange kind of beauty if taken by themselves. So I decided to compile some of them (usually picking the full comment, sometimes just picking a piece): Digital Fortune Cookies or The Poetry of Flickr. Enjoy!

Edgar Martins' Topologies is a product of Aperture Foundation's "First Book Initiative", which aims at publishing "new work by emerging artists", and it contains what one might call photographs of landscapes. I do not know what it is that often makes artists somewhat reluctant to call such photographs what they are: landscapes. I do suspect that using the word "landscape" might maybe pre-set the viewer's mind to something not desired. But then what effect does "topologies" achieve? After "typologies", we now got "topologies"?

Continue reading "Review: Topologies by Edgar Martins" »

I am extremely pleased to announce that Peter van Agtmael, one of last year's Photographers of the Year, has been picked as one of the winners of the Critical Mass 2007 book awards. Joni Sternbach is the other winner. Congratulations to both!

Photographing body builders isn't necessarily a very new idea, but this presentation of photographs by Joachim Ladefoged is well worth the visit (thanks, Adrian!).

[Strictly speaking, this isn't really a book review, even though you can treat it like one.] One of the things that I have been always interested in is how texts from antiquity made it into modern times, and I've always wanted to find out more about it. I thus got very excited when I came across The Archimedes Codex, a book that talks about the discovery and deciphering of a previously unknown text by Archimedes, who is widely believed to be one of the most important scientists to ever have lived on this planet (something I personally don't care all that much about, but that's just my personal bias).

Continue reading "The Archimedes Codex" »

Last night, I had the opportunity to meet Tod Gangler, the man behind Art & Soul studio. Tod produces color carbon prints, a incredibly complicated process that uses pigments, gelatine, and all other kinds of obscure materials - plus high-tech lasers to etch sets of negatives to be used (it's a contact printing process, and it uses three separate negatives for different colour layers).

Continue reading "Color Carbon Printing" »

At the Griffin Photography Museum, Jen Bekman will tonight be given the Rising Star Award as part of the museum's 3rd Annual Focus Awards, honouring her contribution to the promotion of photography (more info). Congratulations, Jen!

The upcoming New York Photo Festival is being widely anticipated as... well, nobody really knows, since it's going to happen for the first time - which, of course, makes it all the more exciting. Here's a nice introduction to the people behind the festival, plus some sample images from the different shows.

This found over at bloggy: "Due to our previous coverage of 'photography not allowed' policies, blogger and artist Mark Barry forwarded an email he just received from 303 Gallery regarding 2 images on Flickr from his set from the 2006 Armory Show. [...] 'this is simon at 303 gallery. i noticed you had an image of Maureen Gallace's work up on your flickr page - please be aware that 303 Gallery owns the copyright to the work and all public display of images, including web content. if you could kindly remove this image from your page, it would be most appreciated.'" Seems like some galleries are working very hard on making sure their artists won't get unnecessary publicity.

"The Robert L. Capp collection at the Hoover Institution Archives contains ten never-before-published photographs illustrating the immediate aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing. These photographs, taken by an unknown Japanese photographer, were found in 1945 among rolls of undeveloped film in a cave outside Hiroshima by U.S. serviceman Robert L. Capp, who was attached to the occupation forces. Unlike most photos of the Hiroshima bombing, these dramatically convey the human as well as material destruction unleashed by the atomic bomb. Mr. Capp donated them to the Hoover Archives in 1998 with the provision that they not be reproduced until 2008." - source (where the ten photos can be found)

"Michel Houellebecq, France's most shocking novelist, made his name with tales of dysfunctional, estranged relationships. Now his own mother, portrayed as a sex-obsessed hippy in one of his books, has launched a devastating counter-attack in a new memoir. [...] She calls her son an 'evil, stupid little bastard' adding that 'this individual, who alas came from my womb, is a liar, an imposter, a parasite and above all - above all - a petit arriviste ready to do absolutely anything for money and fame.'" - story