Javier Vallhonrat - Acaso



Série Acaso de Javier Vallhonrat

Julie Blackmon

Da série Domestic Vacations
O site de Julie está aqui.

People are just no good

da série: People are just no good

Robert Wyatt - Sea Song



You look different every time you come
from the foam-crested brine
It's your skin shining softly in the moonlight
Partly fish, parly porpoise, partly baby sperm whale
Am I yours? Are you mine to play with?
Joking apart when you're drunk
You're terrific when you're drunk
I like you mostly late at night - you're quite all right

But I can't understand the different you
In the morning when it's time to play
at being human for a while
Please smile!

You'll be different in the spring, I know
You're a seasonal beast
Like the starfish that drifted with the tide, with the tide
So until your blood runs to meet the next full moon
Your madness fits in nicely with my own, with my own
Your lunacy fits neatly with my own - my very own

We're not alone...

Contact Sheet : Alessandra Sanguinetti: The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of Their Dreams

O meu fascínio por Alessandra Sanguinetti entusiasma-me para comprar estas 48 páginas. Neste momento o melhor preço que encontro (para usado claro) é na Alibris por $175. O custo normal desta publicação é de $10. Estas situações tornam-se um pouco revoltantes para quem compra, mas demonstram que o investimento em bons livros vale por duas vezes.

A Contact Sheet é publicada pela Light Work.

WINNERS of the Px3 2008 PHOTO COMPETITION

Martin Parr vence PHotoEspaña 2008



MADRID.- El fotógrafo inglés Martin Parr, retratista de la clase media trabajadora, ha obtenido el máximo galardón de PHotoEspaña 2008. El festival de fotografía también ha premiado la carrera del veterano Ricard Terré y a Germán Gómez como fotógrafo revelación. El público ha reconocido a la exposición de Will Eugene Smith en el Teatro Fernán Gómez con del premio M2 El Mundo como la mejor muestra de la 11ª edición del festival.

"Me considero un fotógrafo muy político. Muy serio y conservador desde el punto de vista fotográfico, pero que trata de dar la vuelta al lenguaje publicitario y a las hegemonías", destacó Martin Parr en la presentación de los premios. El galardón distingue "sus trabajos sobre la forma de vida de la clase media trabajadora, primero en Gran Bretaña y más tarde en EEUU y toda Europa, durante los años 70 y 80".

El fotógrafo nacido Surrey (Reino Unido) hace 56 años tuvo como musa las consecuencias que sufrió la 'working class' con las drásticas medidas del liberalismo radical impuestas por Margaret Thatcher. Las imágenes de Parr son gritonas, con perspectivas poco convencionales para mostrar una realidad grotesca. La sátira y el humor no dejan de mostrar un estilo de vida y unos comportamientos comunes.


Premios nacionales

Los otros dos galardones que premian trayectorias profesionales están dedicados a fotógrafos españoles. Ricard Terré (Barcelona, 1928) ha obtenido el premio Bartolomé Ros por "reflejar una mirada moderna sobre la España tradicional", según reconoce el festival. Terré es un retratista en blanco y negro que, como él mismo ha explicado, "siempre ha captado el mismo objeto (el hombre), bajo las mismas circunstancias (los problemas siempre son iguales) y con la misma técnica de fotografía". El trabajo de Terré siempre ha estado más cerca de la intuición que del oficio y su obra está marcada por el carácter poético y subjetivo.

El asturiano Germán Gómez ha obtenido el premio Revelación por su serie 'Condenados', "un homenaje al sufrimiento de Miguel Ángel", según ha reconocido el autor. El festival destaca "una obra que supone la apoteosis del cuerpo herido".


Descubrimiento y solidaridad

El suizo Yann Gross ha merecido el premio Descubrimientos por su porfolio 'Horizonville', "un lugar de paso hacia los lugares más turísticos, pero donde nadie se para", según ha explicado el autor, de 27 años. "Me recreé en una zona industrial a 130 km de mi casa donde todos sueñan con la cultura de EEUU que no conocen y sólo han visto por la televisión", ha afirmado el fotógrafo de los 'cowboys' suizos.

El primer galardón OjodePez, otorgado a los fotógrafos que destaquen los valores solidarios, ha recaído sobre la británica Olivia Arthur por su largo proyecto acerca de las similitudes y diferencias culturales entre las mujeres de Oriente y Occidente. Su trabajo 'Más allá del velo', según ha contado la autora, muestra "la vida cotidiana de las mujeres en Irán lejos de los extremos que se les atribuye". "No son tan diferentes", zanjó la fotógrafa, de 28 años.


Exposiciones y editoriales

Los visitantes de la 11ª edición del festival han elegido ganador del premio Público M2 El Mundo, a través de las urnas colocadas en las 68 exposiciones, al Teatro Fernán Gómez. Fundación Banco Santander por la exposición 'W. Eugene Smith. Más real que la realidad'. El premio Fesitival Off, concedido a la mejor exposición de las 29 galerías madrileñas que han unido su colección al festival, ha sido concedido a la galería Moriarty por la muestra de Nicolás Combarro 'Línea de sombra'.

El total de los ocho premios otorgados se completa con el premio a la mejor publicación, divido en tres categorías. 'Marín' (Fundación Telefónica) y 'A Maysles Scrapbook' (Steidl y Steven Kasher Gallery) han ganado el premio al Mejor libro de fotografía nacional e internacional respectivamente. La editorial Twin Palms (EEUU) ha sido reconocida como Editorial destacada del año.

in http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2008/06/24/cultura/1214313666.html

Não sei meus filhos que mundo será o vosso



Faz por estes dias um ano, andava eu cheio de entusiasmos com a minha primeira "grande" exposição. Convidado e patrocinado pela EPSON, foi uma experiência que cedo não esquecerei.

Nesse dia, soube muito mais acerca de mim e acerca dos meus amigos. Aqui fica o texto de apresentação deste projecto escrito pelo Jorge Viegas.


‘’NÃO SEI, MEUS FILHOS, QUE MUNDO SERÁ O VOSSO’’

Na “carta” a seus filhos, Jorge de Sena, lançava a dúvida e a interrogação quanto ao futuro destes. Para Sena, o mote foram os fuzilamentos ocorridos em Espanha, eternizados por Goya e representavam a mais pura aniquilação do direito à liberdade, da condição humana e no limite à “honra de estar vivo”. Trata-se sem dúvida de um manifesto perfeitamente actual tendo em consideração os inúmeros actos contra natura, que a humanidade insiste em praticar, independentemente do método e forma.

O texto de Sena é, ainda assim e sobretudo, um hino à esperança, à crença ao amor pelos filhos “é possível, porque tudo é possível, que ele seja aquele que eu desejo para vós” é também um repto à responsabilização de cada um no processo de herança e transmissão do mundo em que vivemos ’’…e por isso, o mesmo mundo que criemos nos cumpre tê-lo com cuidado, como coisa que não é nossa…’’.

Paulo Carvalho (Seia, 1972) acompanha a inquietude de Jorge de Sena e une uma vez mais neste projecto a escrita e as imagens que recolhe cada dia.

As obras seleccionadas funcionam por si só e individualmente como testemunhos/representantes de dois eixos antagónicos que convivem no mesmo tempo e não raras vezes no mesmo espaço: Luz e Sombra, Presença e Ausência, Vida e Morte

O recurso ao díptico, acentua ainda mais esse interessante diálogo de opostos por vezes irónico e provocatório como se de uma competição se tratasse: Belo vs Apocalíptico.

As imagens impressas digitalmente com tecnologia Epson UltraChrome K3 e em papel Epson Fine Art, organizam-se explorando ora a cor, ora a forma, ora uma subtil ou evidente contradição ou uma estranha cumplicidade.
Os céus que nos mostra, ora reluzentes e abertos ora intimidadores, revelam a sua tensão com os tempos e as incertezas que o possuem.

Maria

da série "My daughter and I"
Ontem pela tarde.

Um outro Boris. Intimista.


"Mikhailov's wife and collaborator over several decades, Vita, is the recurring subject in Intimacy.In one work she grasps Mikhailov's penis and pulls him along against a backdrop of palm-trees: a snapshot that suggests the complexity of human relations but also, perhaps, intimates the inextinguishable possibility of ecstacy. In another photograph she is seen sitting nude on a stool, brushing her granddaughter's hair: a meditation on time and place that blends the aesthetics of a staged photo and snapshot, genre and verite, socialist-realist saccharine and kitchen-sink objectivity. In the third work, we see her bare legs pressed against a tree (perhaps in the aftermath of, or in preparation for, sex) and on the naked earth (a trysting spot in a park in Marbella) a strewn assortment of discarded condoms, the remains of innumerable "holiday romances".The works in Intimacy may be seen as a counterweight to Mikhailov's best-known series, Case History, a documentation of the lives of down-and-outs in Kharkov, Ukraine. As an examination of Mikhailov's private life, Intimacy is not at all about social confrontation, but the photographs display the same theatrical sense of exposure as the Ukrainian portraits. Many people have questioned Mikhailov's own role in the forced confessions of the body that make up Case History; but as Intimacy shows, the compulsion to document the "dissolution of beauty" (his words) is central to his work as a whole."in http://www.matthewbown.com/artists%26pages/mikhailov/index.html


There's no an interventionist God

da série There's no an interventionist God

Boris Mikhailov II


Born in the former Soviet Union he lived and worked for several decades in his hometown Kharkov, Ukraine. He received an education as an engineer and started to teach himself the practice of photography. Today he is one of the most successful and well-known photographers, who already was actively working in soviet times.


His work very much is influenced in the means of Concept-Art and Social-Documentary-Photography.

At the end of the 1960s he had his first exhibition. After the KGB found nude-pictures of his wife he was set off his job as an engineer and started to full-time work with photography. He shot a series of everyday-life scenes-documentation.

His most famous work during this period (1968-1975) was the "Red Serie". In these photographs he mainly used the colour red, to picture people, groups and city-life. Red is the color standing for October Revolution, political Party and the social system of soviet society. It is often said, that within those works critical elements toward the existing political circumstances can be found.

In his work Klebrigkeit (1982) he added explaining notes, or he is using diary-like writings. As an important part of contemporary art are considered his works "Case History". Here he examines the consequences of the break down of the Soviet Union for the people living there. Therefore he systematically took pictures of homeless people, who soon started trusting him. More than 500 photographs show the situation of people, who after the break down of the Soviet Union were not able to catch hold in a secured social system. In a very direct way Mikhailov points out his critique against the "mask of beauty" of the uprising post-soviet capitalistic way of life. It's one of the best works found within social documentary photography. in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Mikhailov_(photographer)

People are just no good

Da série: People are just no good de Paulo S. Carvalho

Boris Mikhailov


O retrato de Soth, remeteu-me para o trabalho do Boris Mikhailov.

Alec Soth At the Jeu de Paume, Paris

Boris Mikhailov, Berlin, Germany, 2004

Alec Soth is a different breed to many of Magnum’s photographers. His three books, Sleeping by the Mississippi, Niagara and Dog Days Bogotá all bear -testament to his fragmentary, elliptical approach to photography. Following in the American photo-graphic tradition of Walker Evans, Robert Frank and Stephen Shore, his open-ended images capture his impressions of the places that he has explored and the people that he has encountered. Selected photographs from these three bodies of work in addition to his portraits, including some from Soth’s Magnum Fashion Magazine, have been brought together for the first time in a show at the Jeu de Paume museum in Paris.
Born and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Soth, 39, had his first book, about the Mississippi river, -published in 2004. It takes in alternative, simple l-ifestyles, such as a man living on a snow-bedecked houseboat, alongside the local landscapes, such as a mattress floating among reeds or a child’s toy boat on the tip of a riverbank. The importance of -religion in Middle America is seen through a statute of Christ on an electricity post, a portrait of a reverend holding a microphone outside a car, or a prayer room in a house. Undynamic lives are glimpsed through images of a woman resting in her sleeping bag or another of a woman sitting alone in a bar -decorated with Valentine hearts, or photos of interiors filled with old furniture and chipped paint on the walls.
For Niagara, Soth travelled to the towns near the Niagara Falls, juxtaposing the breathtaking views of the falls with romantic disappointments. His images show cheap motels, love letters from the broken-hearted, rings in a pawnshop, naked young couples, a red heart-shaped basin, a lonesome bride, and a wedding-dress hanging on a line. The spirit here appears to be largely that of disillusionment, an unglamorous tourism industry thriving on people’s unfulfilled dreams.
Dog Days Bogotá is composed of Soth’s most personal work. It is the culmination of photographs taken over a two-month period in Colombia while he and his wife were in the process of adopting their daughter. The book is a gift to his daughter and offers an outsider’s portrait of this city. Pictures of ramshackle architecture, stray dogs and young mothers are intermingled with representations of fear and violence – such as a murdered body, a gun on a police officer’s desk, and black grapes lying on a newspaper article about terror. Yet, through the image of pilgrims going to Cerro de Monserrate, the white church on the mountain summit, a glimmer of hope emerges. Eyemazing spoke to Alec Soth about his show at the Jeu de Paume.
Anna K. Sansom: How does the title of your show, L’Espace entre nous, meaning “The Space Between Us”, express your relationship to photography?
Alec Soth: It relates to something that I always say about portraiture: when I photograph somebody, it’s as much about a space between the two of us, and that relationship, as a portrait of that person. The same can be said about a place. When I photographed the Mississippi river, it was about how I encountered and moved across that space. You don’t get any definitive information about the place in my photographs. It’s more evocative of my experiences and encounters with the subject.
AKS: Your photographs reveal a particular relationship between you and your subjects. How do these pictures come about?
AS: All the pictures are made out of some kind of non-verbal attraction. I always say that it’s like seeing a person across a crowded bar. Why does that person catch your eye? They just do. I try to trust those instincts and respond to people whom I feel that chemistry with. Sometimes you get to know them well; sometimes it’s a very brief encounter. One thing that is true of all my work is that I’m not a photographer who spends two months photographing one family. I float over things. It’s like a bird swooping down and catching a fish; it’s not about living underwater with the fishes. I’m not proud of that. Some of my colleagues at Magnum say they are dedicated to living with their subjects, and I’m not that kind of person.
AKS: Are you very much in your interior space when you photograph?
AS: I was a very shy kid and afraid to speak to people. And part of the mechanics of the large-format -camera, putting a dark cloth over your head and working on technical aspects, is that it takes a long time. I’m not interested in penetrating somebody else’s inner life. I’m very much in my interior space. And as the subject is waiting for me, they move into an interior space themselves. There’s less posing and thinking. So and you have two people, each in their own space.AKS: What does the Mississippi represent for you and what sparked your interest in photographing the towns along it?AS: The Mississippi starts in Minnesota and it is pretty much in the middle of the United States; some people have called it the third coast. Like the East and the West coast, it functions as a corridor for the economy. It was once pivotal for the economy and many cities along its banks. But as river commerce faded, those towns faded. Part of the allure for me was that it is the forgotten third coast.
AKS: What childhood memories do you have of the Mississippi?
AS: I didn’t live on the banks of the Mississippi but, like so many boys, I played in the woods and had -fantasies about building rafts and all those Huckleberry Finn fantasies. The Mississippi is a natural link to that kind of dreaming.
AKS: Several of these images show empty beds and run-down interiors, hinting at nostalgia and disenchantment. What were your impressions of these -places?
AS: It’s always interesting to me how people react to my work. One of the things about showing it in Europe is that it tends to receive other reactions than in the US. Often Europeans interpret it as being a critique of America and funnily enough a lot of Americans think that too. But for me, this is actually an optimistic book. It shows that life is hard but that you can still pursue a dream, even if that sounds really corny and simplistic. There’s “Peter”, that fellow who lived in that houseboat for 20 years, who had chosen his own path and creative lifestyle, and the other fellow who decorated all his room with lights. They’re outside the mainstream, living small yet creative, beautiful lives.
AKS: Why are there so many religious images in this body of work, from statues, icons, reverends and Christian celebrations?
AS: In a way I didn’t choose it, it chose me. You can’t drive through Middle America and not notice religion. Religion is everywhere. I started the trip in the north in Minnesota, where it was cold, and then as I was driving south, the trees began to blossom and spring emerged. With that came Ash Wednesday and Easter with the themes of reawakening and spiritual renewal. There was the spiritual feeling of the clouds and the sky, and the river meeting the ocean. But I didn’t have an agenda.
AKS: Why did you decide to produce a book about Niagara Falls, contrasting the splendour of the falls with the romantic disappointments of young couples and love letters? AS: I decided to work on Niagara Falls before ever being there. Most Europeans don’t know Niagara Falls, but you say Niagara Falls to most Americans and they think about honeymoon, or your parents’ generation going on their honeymoon. Just like my book on the Mississippi is about wandering, Niagara Falls is about dealing with themes of love and romance. I think this is quite a dark book, incidentally, and it does get quite negative at times. I have quite complex way of reading it that most people don’t have.
AKS: Why do you think negatively about it?
AS: Most people who go to a waterfall for their honeymoon think it symbolises passion because of the surging force of water and have a vision of the magnificence of this waterfall. But married life is not a surging force of passion all the time. And surrounding this is the ordinary life we’re living. The book is kind of about my distrust of overwhelming passion.
I had a lot of negative experiences there. I was turned down for pictures a lot and some of the people I -photographed were living very destructive lifestyles. I was nearly arrested after someone called the police because I was photographing these two kids who were fully clothed but underage. The police thought I might be a paedophile. And as I was always crossing the Canadian border, I got into problems and found it hard to explain myself. The making of the Mississippi book was innocent for me and Niagara Falls was so much harder.
AKS: What did you seek to capture in Dog Days Bogotá, which is like a tribute to your daughter’s place of birth? Again, you captured a lot of religious imagery.
AS: I was exploring the place, trying to learn something about it. More than with my other projects, I was very aware that I didn’t know the culture and was an outsider. My experience was entirely shaped by the process of adoption. The photographs are a reaction to my being there at that space in time, and that is a key point to the religious imagery. Just like the pilgrims who climb that mountain there on Sundays to give praise and gratitude, I’m very grateful for the most incredible gift that I was given in Bogotá.
AKS: Your images juxtapose a sense of conflict through the images of the police and the gun lying on the desk of a military office against the portraits of young mothers and the views of the city from the hills. What did you want to evoke?AS: There’s no doubt that Colombia is a place that is dealing with a difficult situation. We were there not long after 9/11, and being in this country that has dealt with terrorism for a long time made me feel that I was looking into the future, that terrorism in the US was a whole new concept. A nightclub was bombed near where we were staying; every street had armed guards. What I was interested in showing is that it was such a beautiful place, rich in possibility, and how people were dealing with that.
AKS: What inspired you to photograph so many stray dogs?
AS: The dogs are very much a metaphor for me. There were a lot of street children and I didn’t want to -photograph them because it just felt wrong. The first thing my daughter said when we went to an opening [in the US for Dog Days Bogotá] was, “Do these doggies have a mummy?” She gets it, and it has to do with how some children, for one reason or another, are in that predicament. The dogs were just a different way to deal with that subject matter.
AKS: Would you describe much of your work as being metaphorical?
AS: Absolutely. I would like it to be more like poetry than an essay.
AKS: You’re including a room of portraits. What does it feature?
AS: It’s an ongoing, never-ending series including older and newer work, editorial and personal encounters. There’ll also be some portraits taken in Minnesota from my Magnum Fashion Magazine, Paris-Minnesota.
AKS: How do you feel about exhibiting all these different bodies of work together?
AS: I’ve seen these pictures so many times that in some ways they’re like old friends! It’s about putting the bodies of work up together and seeing how they respond to each other and the connection between them. That’s what I’m excited about. I’m asking myself: Does this look like the work of one photographer? Is this consistent? Right now I’m in the process of taking apart the way I do things. I feel this show marks the end of a phase, and that it’s going to sum up this period of development for me. Then I can move on to whatever’s next.AKS: What are you working on now?
AS: In my new work, I’ve just felt the need to try a radically very different way of working. It’s not about people or the social landscape at all. So in terms of “the space between us”, that space is now very far!
AKS: What feelings would you like people to take away from the show?
AS: Well, one thing that’s really different in the show from the books is that you get to see real prints with a lot of detail because they were taken with an 8 x 10 camera. What I hope people take away is the simple reality of a bed or a person’s skin or a street dog or whatever it is. Simple, everyday reality can be extraordinarily beautiful. It’s not me or the photograph doing that, it’s just the world as it is. I’m not afraid of the word beauty, the beauty of the world.
Text by Anna K. Sansom in http://www.eyemazing.com/

Vee Speers - The Birthday Party

@35

da série "There's no an interventionist God "

Hendrik Kerstens

It was unusual for Hendrik Kerstens to want to document the life of his daughter, Paula. As he notes on his Website (hendrikkerstens.com), he simply wanted "to be there" to capture "the fleeting moments that fade from memory all too quickly." What is unusual is the way this Amsterdam-based fine-art photographer goes about that task: by evoking the paintings of Dutch master painters, especially Johannes Vermeer. "It's a way for me to shake up the concept of time," he says. "I'm taking someone today with modern tastes and portraying her in the style of 17th-century artists." In doing so, Kerstens literally immortalizes his daughter, "as if to stop time and oblivion."

The project came about one day after Paula had returned from horseback riding. "When she took off her hat, I saw that her hair was held together by a hair net, and it reminded me of the portraits of the Dutch masters," Kerstens says. What fascinated him about those paintings, he says, "is the way [they can be] seen as a surface which can be read as a description of everyday life, as opposed to the paintings of the Italian Renaissance, which usually tell a story. Northern European painting relies much more on craftsmanship and the perfect rendition of the subject. The use of light is instrumental in this." Kerstens himself crafts his portraits with a Toyo 8x10 view camera.
Kerstens: "Some people have wondered whether it is right to make your child the subject of work like this. Some of the pictures contain some nudity. It is a responsibility we take very seriously. We have to live with Paula, and we have to face the consequences that these pictures will be around in 50 years, when she is older. Some people say that a girl of this age is too young to give permission to be photographed; but I think if you listen well to your child, you can know if she is giving permission. You have to be sensitive. As for Paula, she loves to be photographed." Aqui, o site do fotógrafo