Articles

Photobooks

Kohei Sugiura: The Japanese Photobook as Object

Feb 3, 2012 – There’s a wonderful article about Japanese photobook designer Kohei Sugiura over at the ICP Library blog, talking, amongst others, about my favourite photobook The Map (Chizu) by Kikuji Kawada (my vdeo presentation is here).

Various

A little bit of housekeeping: New category Photobooks

Feb 3, 2012 – In an attempt to make the archives slightly more usable, I added a new category: Photobooks. So you can now easily access all the photobook related posts there.

Photobooks

New photobook presentations (Weeks 4/5, 2012)

Feb 3, 2012 – New video photobook presentations (now only YouTube links): Notes from a Quiet Life by Robert Benjamin, In The Car With R by Rafal Milach (order here - you don’t want to miss this one!), The Uncanny Familiar - Images of Terror by C|O Berlin, and Pau Wau Publications Vol. 1.

Contemporary European Photography

Julia Hetta

Feb 2, 2012 – As far as I can tell Julia Hetta’s photographs are all commissioned work. There are many gems here - make sure to look through the whole set!

Various

About the reader survey

Feb 1, 2012 – If you participated in my reader survey (which is now closed) let me first thank you for taking the time! I’m incredibly happy so many people participated. For those who didn’t have the time, the survey essentially was all about content. I started this website ten years ago, and I was curious about both what readers thought about existing content (specifically what they are interested in) and about possible future content (ditto). I’ve always believed that this website’s focus should be on providing content. Content (as opposed to mere PR, say) is what I am personally interested in, and the results of the survey indicate that there is indeed a larger interest in that. A first, direct consequence of the survey has already made an appearance: My first meditation on a photograph is a result of large numbers of people noting that they would like to see articles like that. There will definitely be more of those types of articles. There will also be more interviews. (more)

General Photography

Emphas.is now offering book publishing

Feb 1, 2012 – Crowdfunding platform Emphas.is just added a book-publishing option. Here is an example.

General Photography

Meditations on Photographs: A woman sits for a final photograph with her dying mother

Jan 30, 2012 – (The first in what probably is going to become a new feature.) If someone asked you what photography’s big deal was, all you’d have to say is that it has something to do with “the gaze,” and then show this photograph. Of course, photography is not just this image. There is a lot more - or, if you’re a curmudgeon (there seem to be many these days) a lot less. But there is a lot to be said for talking about the most outstanding examples of any art form to get an idea of their power - instead of focusing on the detritus. Thus, when talking about photography we’d probably want to talk about photographs of the human form, and out of all those we might want to talk about this particular photograph. Its title is “A woman sits for a final photograph with her dying mother,” and it was taken by Eduard Méhomé (the photograph can be found on page 41 of Life & Afterlife in Benin). Find the full article here.

Contemporary European Photography

Georg Aerni

Jan 30, 2012 – A good eye for symmetry requires a good eye for asymmetry. Just the right amount of asymmetry, just the right amount of confusion will make any symmetric photography much better: It truly brings a photograph to life. Georg Aerni’s Promising Bay is a perfect example.

Contemporary Photographers

Gustavo Sanabria

Jan 26, 2012 – I have a bit of a weakness for photographic depictions of messy places - such as those in Gustavo Sanabria’s Talat Noi.

General Photography

Photography and Trust

Jan 25, 2012 – As a photographer, you won’t get around bringing your desire to photography, just as a viewer you do the same thing. You have no choice. As I have argued before, photography must fail if that desire is denied. But desire does not automatically create good photography. An equally crucial factor is trust. As a photographer, you have to trust your photographs. You have to trust that they say what you want them to say. Or more accurately, you have to realize that your subconscious mind is bringing more things to photography than your conscious mind might realize. Continued here.

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Conscientious Extended

Longer articles and interviews about fine-art photography and extended interviews with its leading practitioners.

Meditations on Photographs: A woman sits for a final photograph with her dying mother

If someone asked you what photography’s big deal was, all you’d have to say is that it has something to do with “the gaze,” and then show this photograph. Of course, photography is not just this image. There is a lot more - or, if you’re a curmudgeon (there seem to be many these days) a lot less. But there is a lot to be said for talking about the most outstanding examples of any art form to get an idea of their power - instead of focusing on the detritus. Thus, when talking about photography we’d probably want to talk about photographs of the human form, and out of all those we might want to talk about this particular photograph. Its title is “A woman sits for a final photograph with her dying mother,” and it was taken by Eduard Méhomé (the photograph can be found on page 41 of Life & Afterlife in Benin - make sure to view the slightly larger version of this photograph first by clicking on the icon on the side before reading the rest of this article). (more)

By Joerg Colberg  |  Jan 30, 2012

Conscientious Extended »