March 2009 Archives

Stephen Shore

Mythic West of Dreams and Nightmares by Ken Johnson

Mr. Shore's mordant photograph pretty much sums up "Into the Sunset: Photography's Image of the American West," a resonant exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.

Almost every one of the approximately 150 pictures by about 70 photographers evokes that tension between myth and reality.

Ken Johnson

Julius Shulman

Also go to Julius Shulman.

Jim

Julius Shulman: 98 And Still Photographing by Susan Stamberg

In 1960, Julius Shulman took a photograph that to this day remains the paragon of architectural photography.

Case Study House #22 shows the dreamlike, cinematic Los Angeles that has been etched into our collective conscious.

Even at the age of 98, Shulman continues to take photographs with the help of his working partner Juergen Nogai.

The two met about 10 years ago, and Shulman came out of retirement to work with the like-minded Nogai.

Susan Stamberg

Renee Nobles

Remembering Mark by Renee Nobles

Mark was one of those people who everyone called a best friend because that's the way he treated each person he knew - like a best friend.

Renee Nobles

Mike Groll

Intrusions by James Johnson

Yes it is the photographer's job.

But there are jobs one might turn down, right?

James Johnson

Eddie Adams

Also go to Umbrage Gallery.

Jim

The Vietnam War, Through Eddie Adams' Lens by Margot Adler

The late photographer Eddie Adams took pictures of hundreds of celebrities and politicians — everyone from Fidel Castro to Mother Teresa to Arnold Schwarzenegger (whom he captured in a bathtub with a rubber duck) — but some of his most searing portraits come from his work during the Vietnam War.

Margot Adler

Jillian Edelstein

Jillian Edelstein's best shot by Leo Benedictus

I don't know anything about who the three boys were, but your imagination can make stories out of the picture.

I love it when photography works that way.

Jillian Edelstein

W.E.B. Du Bois by Carl Van Vechten

Also go to Carl Van Vechten.

Jim

Carl Van Vechten - Living Portraits

Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964), photographer, promotor of literary talent, and critic of dance, theater, and opera, had an artistic vision rooted in the centrality of the talented person.

He cherished accomplishment, whether in music, dance, theater, fine art, literature, sport, or advocacy. He began to make photographic portraits in 1932; in 1939 he discovered newly available color film.

For a quarter century, he invited friends and acquaintances, well-known artists, fledgling entertainers, and public intellectuals to sit for him, often against backdrops reminiscent of the vivid colors and patterns of a Matisse painting.

Among his subjects are a very young Diahann Carroll, Billie Holiday in tears, Paul Robeson as Othello, Althea Gibson swinging a tennis racquet, and a procession of opera stars, composers, authors, musicians, activists, educators, and journalists who made notable contributions to the cultural and intellectual life of the country.

Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Satre Stuelke

Also go to X-ray Photography.

Jim

Satre Stuelke - Radiology Art

In the summer of 2007, artist and medical student Satre Stuelke started the Radiology Art project.

Dedicated to the deeper visualization of various objects that hold unique cultural importance in modern society, this project intends to plant a seed of scientific creativity in the minds of all those inclined to participate.

Radiology Art

Kevin Fox

Frozen Water: Kevin Fox - Antarctic Fox

Having just returned from our trip, we're now going to tell the story in pictures and words, excursion-by-excursion, over the next several weeks.

We invite you to join us as we venture further south than the ship had ever gone, witness firsthand the Antarctic circle of life and death, and explore the penguin culture.

Kevin Fox

Clark Little

Liquid Water: Waves - Clark Little

Bupkes Betrays His Countrymen

5 Second Films

5-Second Films are exactly 5 seconds long, to the letter.

However, this does not include the two seconds of title in the beginning, or the one second of tag at the end.

If you have a problem with this, we can't imagine it would be fun to hang out with you, but we will because we're pushovers.

Most likely, we'll pay for dinner too or something disgusting like that.

5 Second Films

Meteotek Ies La Bisbal School

Teens capture images of space with £56 camera and balloon

Taking atmospheric readings and photographs 20 miles above the ground, the Meteotek team of IES La Bisbal school in Catalonia completed their incredible experiment at the end of February this year.

Telegraph

Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre

Also go to Incredible Hulks by Witold Rybczynski and Detroit's Beautiful, Horrible Decline.

Jim

Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre - The Ruins of Detroit

Today, despite a beginning of revitalization, a lot of the luxuous hotels, theaters, apartments, stores and office buildings built in the prosperous era remain vacant.

Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre

New York Times

Sex, Lies and Photoshop

Why magazines should let readers know if images have been retouched.

New York Times

Name Your Dream Assignment

Name Your Dream Assignment

Name Your Dream Assignment is a contest for photographers of all backgrounds.

We're looking for the most creative, inspiring photo shoot idea out there.

The photographer with the winning idea will win $50,000 to bring his or her dream assignment to life.

Name Your Dream Assignment

Tierney Gearon

T.A.: The Mom Photographer? The Dad Photographer? by v

"Mamahobbyphotog"..."Proudadphotog"...that type of thing...it haunts the genre.

But lots of folks have transcended the genre and made really powerful work.

I just can't think of the defining Mom Photog or Dad Photog pre Sally Mann/Gowin/Callahan.

So....contribute here if anyone can.

Timothy Archibald

Gregoire Alexandre

Gregoire Alexandre - Behind the scenes: Trick Shot

Yasuhiro Ishimoto

Marvin E. Newman & Yasuhiro Ishimoto

Marvin Newman and Yasuhiro Ishimoto are two of photography's most respected and successful artists, with multiple awards, publications and exhibitions to their credit.

Their work is to be found in major collections, both public and private - and while both are in their eighth decade - they are still actively involved in their careers.

They've also been close-knit friends for well over a half century.

Stephen Daiter Gallery

Ralph Amdursky & Charles Baker

The article isn't about photography, but the photographs are great.

Jim

Rethinking the American Dream by David Kamp

Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge into one of the several drab tenement neighborhoods that preceded his own, Hart later recalled, "I stared through the taxi window at a pinch-faced 10-year-old hurrying down the steps on some morning errand before school, and I thought of myself hurrying down the street on so many gray mornings out of a doorway and a house much the same as this one....

It was possible in this wonderful city for that nameless little boy—for any of its millions—to have a decent chance to scale the walls and achieve what they wished.

Wealth, rank, or an imposing name counted for nothing. The only credential the city asked was the boldness to dream."

David Kamp

Cottingley Photographs

nu-real : a timeline of fantastic photomontage and its possible influences, 1857 - 2007

Matt Milligan

A gifted eye for photography: cerebral palsy doesn't stop 13-year-old boy by Leslie Williams

Once the photos were processed, Matt says, his parents realized his photos outstripped their own.

Leslie Williams

Caravaggio

Caravaggio was early 'photographer'

Roberta Lapucci said the Italian artist - noted for his chiaroscuro (light and shadow) paintings - used "techniques that are the basis of photography".

BBC

Detroit Photographic Company

Detroit Photographic Company's Views Of North America, Ca. 1897-1924

The Detroit Photographic Company began as a photographic publishing firm in the late 1890s.

The founders, Detroit businessman and publisher William A. Livingston, Jr., and photographer and publisher Edwin H. Husher, obtained the exclusive rights to use the Swiss color photolithography or "photochrom" process.

This process permitted the mass production of color postcards, prints, and albums for sale to the American market.

In 1897 William Henry Jackson, the explorer and photographer well known for his photographs of the American West, became a partner in the firm, adding thousands of negatives to the inventory, some taken as early as the 1870s.

Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Ralph Amdursky

Also go to Kodak's Colorama; The End of the Line for Grand Central's Big Picture.

Jim

The Kodak Colorama

Scott Kelby

Also go to Sharpening Introduction.

Jim

Photoshop Sharpening Essentials by Scott Kelby

After you've color corrected your photos and right before you save your file, you'll definitely want to sharpen your photos.

I sharpen every digital camera photo, either to help bring back some of the original crispness that gets lost during the correction process, or to help fix a photo that's slightly out of focus.

Either way, I haven't met a digital camera (or scanned) photo that I didn't think needed a little sharpening.

Scott Kelby

Dan Moughamian & Scott Valentine

Lighting Enhancement in Photoshop by Dan Moughamian & Scott Valentine

The techniques discussed here are used to control visual focus and balance and, in some cases, to add drama.

Most are surprisingly easy to create, while providing great visual impact.

Lighting layers, as we call them, are typically little more than brush strokes on a layer that rests above your target subject in the layer stack.

The layer is then blurred and blended in different ways to give the effect of additional lighting in the scene.

Dan Moughamian & Scott Valentine

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman: Monument Valley Girl by Victoria Olsen

Then there's the photograph on this page, made in 1979: a lone woman sits on a tree branch in a desolate precinct of Monument Valley, near the border of Arizona and Utah.

She—not the landscape—is the subject.

Who is she?

Why does she look as fresh as a cactus flower?

And what is this photograph doing in the same exhibition as the Curtis picture from 1904?

Victoria Olsen

Sherry Coppola

In Candid Photos, Mother to Mother by Victoria Olsen

She won a $2,400 grant for her project, "A Mother's Life."

She selected 20 women to spend nine months photographing aspects of their lives.

Each month, she assigned a new task, for instance, shooting a self-portrait, a scene from a child's perspective or their "working selves."

Victoria Olsen

Pieter Hugo

The True Stories Behind 5 Famous WTF Images by Robert Brockway

Most people have already seen the following images in the 'WTF' sections of social bookmarking sites, in threads dedicated to badass pictures or just circulated through their inboxes by the "funny" boss.

There is never an explanation for these pictures, because they seem to intrinsically defy explanation; they are just still moments in time of unbelievable scope, and epic badassery.

It seems hard to imagine what brought about the extraordinary circumstances these images depict, and that's the magic, really - letting your imagination run with these ridiculous situations.

Well, I decided to do some research on what the actual explanations were behind these famous pictures...because I hate magic, and I want to ruin it for you forever.

I drown witches, bitches.

Robert Brockway

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Also go to What's a Good Photograph?.

Jim

How to read a photograph by Ian Jeffrey

Understanding photographs has never been straightforward.

Not all photographs - including some of the best known - were taken with a clear idea in mind.

Even if they were, the idea was soon overlooked or forgotten.

An outline history of photography would be easy enough to write, taking into account a symbolist phrase around 1900, followed by abstract "graphic" photography in the 1920s, replaced in its turn by humanist documentary in the 1930s.

The would-be historian, however, would soon be puzzled by anomalies: false starts, anachronisms and examples of uneven development.

It is almost as if photography took place in a perpetual present in which, for instance, William Fox Talbot (the inventor of the negative-positive process in the 1840s) remains an interesting contemporary.

Under these terms of reference it is probably best to look at photographs one at a time, which is what I concentrate on in How to Read a Photograph.

Ian Jeffrey

Brooklyn Revealed

Brooklyn Revealed

This website would not exist without the enthusiasm, inspiration and generous support of New York City Councilman David Yassky.

It was his idea to create a virtual experience through which users would not only learn about how the streets of Brooklyn got their names, but could also share with the world their knowledge of Brooklyn's streets and neighborhoods.

Brooklyn Revealed

Scott Polar Research Institute

Freeze Frame

The Scott Polar Research Institute in the University of Cambridge holds a world-class collection of photographic negatives illustrating polar exploration from the nineteenth century onwards.

Freeze Frame is the result of a two-year digitisation project that brings together photographs from both Arctic and Antarctic expeditions.

Here you can discover the polar regions through the eyes of those explorers and scientists who dared to go into the last great wildernesses on earth.

Scott Polar Research Institute

Jonathan Hyams

Jonathan Hyams: Young and gifted

Initially his move to London proved tricky as his portfolio was dominated by his images from Africa and there was little work.

It was then that Jonathan met up again with a journalist he had worked with in Uganda - Rebecca Werne - to create a piece on homeless eastern Europeans in London.

That story was picked up by The Guardian newspaper and gave Jonathan his first national newspaper exposure in mid-2008.

Canon

Wilson Alwyn Bentley

Interview: Corey Keller on Brought to Light: Photography and the Invisible 1840 - 1900

More than four years in the making, Corey's "science show"--as we often heard it referred to during the planning stages--includes examples of early scientific (and pseudoscientific) photography.

SFMOMA

Cézanne

Where nature went by Dushko Petrovich

The rise and fall of landscape painting tells an interesting story about art's relationship to the outside world over the last two centuries, and the ways the genre might be resurfacing today suggest just how unsettled our own relationship to nature has become.

Dushko Petrovich

Science

Also go to The Color of Creativity by Jonah Lehrer.

Jim

Seeing Red: Tweak Your Brain With Colors by Brandon Keim

In the latest and most authoritative study on color's cognitive effects, test subjects given attention-demanding tasks did best when primed with the color red.

Asked to be creative, they responded best to blue.

Brandon Keim

Stephen Shore

Also go to the Fraenkel Gallery.

Jim

Images Separated at Birth? by Jori Finkel

But until now little attention has been paid to American photography's relationship to Hopper.

Jori Finkel

Love memory card

PhotoChaining

The PhotoChaining blog is a continuous project where people practice the art of leaving memory cards in public places to be picked up and used by others, who then do likewise.

PhotoChaining

Julia Smith

The Magic of Portraiture -- An Interview with Julia Smith by Robert A. Schaefer, Jr.

I love the magical aspects of producing an image; that an idea is shaped and finessed using a craft that results in an indelible image.

Julia Smith

Carolyn Cole

Carolyn Cole - Running In by Mark Edward Harris

While most of us have an instinctive reaction to run from danger, Los Angeles Times staff photographer Carolyn Cole more often than not runs toward it, camera in hand.

She's driven by a desire to report the news as accurately and as honestly as possible.

Her efforts haven't gone unnoticed.

Among her many accolades is a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the civil war in Liberia and much deserved Robert Capa Awards for Courage In Photography for her coverage of the Iraq War, the conflict in Liberia and the siege at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.

Mark Edward Harris

John Loomis

John Loomis - Double Header

Doubleheader is a series of images by John Loomis that document the transformation of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome from a baseball field to a football field.

John explains that "The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome is home field for the Twins, Vikings, and the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team, as well as dozens of other local youth and high school sporting events and Minneapolis community activities.

On Saturday, Sept. 30, 2006, the stadium hosted three important athletic events (two Twins vs. White Sox games that sealed the baseball playoff race, and a Minnesota vs. Michigan college football showdown) all within 29 hours."

File Magazine

Lou Jacobs, Jr.

Also go to Jerry Uelsmann.

Jim

Visual Landscapes - Jerry N. Uelsmann by Lou Jacobs, Jr. (PDF)

Samantha Chrysanthou

Winter Musings: Getting Into the Rhythm of Winter Photography by Samantha Chrysanthou

For many creatures, winter is a time of dormancy.

However, it seems for humans in the western world that winter is just as busy as any other season, especially during the holidays.

Well, with those holidays passing in a smeary blur of rum eggnog, we can settle in for the long dark of winter.

The subdued tones of nature's winter colours suggest a contemplative approach to photography.

We can use this time to reflect on and consider what is important to us in life and art.

All that is required is a shift in your mindset into the conserving rhythms of this frosty season.

Samantha Chrysanthou

Misie Crow

VisualJournalist