Recently in Spotlight Category

This post complements Edgar Martins' How can I see what I see, until I know what I know?. For these images Martins explains his thinking/work behind them. Click on the images to see larger versions. All images are © Edgar Martins - Jörg Colberg

Untitled, from the series 'Ruins of the Gilded Age' 2008 (Arizona, USA)
C-type print, 98x127cm & 40x52cm
Edition of 5
© Edgar Martins

The constructions in this image are restricted to some of the pipe work in the ceiling as well as the objects in the foreground which were simply increased in number and, of course, in some cases mirrored.
My starting point for this construction was a simple statement which I once read: 'only a bad architect relies on symmetry; instead of symmetrical layout of blocks, masses and structures, Modernist architecture relies on wings and balance of masses'.
My intention was to draw on references form Modernism Art, thus also alluding to the wider concerns in my work, particularly with respect to the impact of Modernism on the environment.

After being chosen as a co-winner of the photography part of last year's International Fashion and Photography Festival, Hyères, the fashion winner, Matthew Cunnington, approached Amira Fritz and asked whether she would be interested in taking photos of his collection. Amira agreed, and the resulting collaboration had them drive across the Bavarian countryside, casting local women as models.

In 1987, East German photographer Harald Hauswald published a book called "Ost-Berlin" (East Berlin) - in West Germany. An East German artist publishing in the West had to rub the leadership of East Germany, a Communist dictatorship, the wrong way. To make matters even worse, that same year, Berlin's 750th anniversary was to be celebrated. Kurt Hager, the minister of culture in the East German politburo, thus wrote a letter to Erich Mielke, head of the infamous Ministry of State Security (known as "Stasi" and "widely regarded as one of the most effective and repressive intelligence and secret police agencies in the world" at that time [source]), to sic the Stasi on the photographer. Harald thus became an enemy of the state.

"An estimated 20,000 children were born of rapes that occurred during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Fifteen years later, the mothers of these children still face enormous challenges, not least of which is the stigma of bearing and raising a child fathered by a Hutu militiaman. Over the past three years, photographer Jonathan Torgovnik has made repeated visits to Rwanda to document the stories of these women. The portraits and testimonies featured in Intended Consequences offer intensely personal and honest accounts of these survivors' experiences of the genocide, as well as their conflicted feelings about raising a child who is a palpable reminder of horrors endured." Presented here are images and testimonies, courtesy of Aperture Foundation.

(photo by Carmen Winant) Images of the human form have a long history in photographic practice, and with a few notable exceptions - Imogen Cunningham and Ruth Bernhard come to mind - it has predominantly been the male gaze upon the naked female body. This pattern has been preserved up until today in the form of the classic photographic nude, done in black and white.

Just like the blues, zydeco is a genuinely American style of music, but unlike the blues, it never gained much of an exposure - despite the occasional hit single or the occasional brief spark of interest because of some movie. Photographer Rick Olivier portrayed many of its practitioners for a book about ten years ago, and many of his subjects have since passed on. I saw his body of work in New Orleans just a little while ago, and I'm glad he agreed to sharing some of the photos and stories.

W. Eugene Smith has always been one of my favourite photojournalists, and with the LIFE photography collection hosted by Google, a large number of his images have now become easily accessible.

I had a first go at looking through the LIFE images (hosted by Google), starting with photos by Margaret Bourke-White. Amazing what you can find! Here are the iconic Fort Peck dam photos. Her images taken in Russia in 1941. The famous photos from the Buchenwald concentration camp. And there's so much more... It helps if you know what to look for, though. The main site is a bit bare bones.

The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art is currently showing "Photographs from the Memphis World, 1949 – 1964": "The Memphis World, an African American newspaper published from 1931 to 1973, chronicled the complexity and variety of its readers’ lives. The paper covered politics, education, religion, social organizations, the arts, civil rights, business, and sports. In marked contrast with the reporting in white newspapers, the World, like many black newspapers, celebrated the accomplishments and documented the challenges faced by the city’s diverse population."

In an attempt to add something new to the blog I decided to start a loose series of posts that I'll call "Spotlight". The idea is to present photography from a show or a book or some other body of work, which might not be that well known but which I think deserves to be seen more widely. I'll have to see how this works, but hopefully, it will become a regular feature of the blog.