Crossroads Mongolia
I’ve been busy this week printing my Mongolia show for two concurrent events at Smith College.
The first of these special occurrences is Reinventing Eurasian Identities: Ghengis Khan Revisited. That’s a research project happening at Smith from March 23 to April 10. Basically, a gaggle of professors are going to sit around and talk about all things Ghengis for a few weeks. We’re going to watch movies, read books, and toss around some post-Soviet bull (or should I say Russian bear) about how things were, the way things are, and what might be. In the midst of this colloquium there is the March 27 to 29 conference, Buddhism in Mongolia: Rebirth & Transformation. For this more public event, Smith is bringing in the top shelf Mongo-Buddhists from around the world. Including my personal favorite Canadian tantric master Glenn Mullin. He is my top nomination for Westerner who is having the most fun being enlightened. This rare convergence of Mongolian hordes in Northampton could be equal to The Rolling Stones playing Toad’s Place in Central Mass. in 1988. It might be a moment to remember if each successive present moment were not so engrossing. Anyway, I’ll keep you posted as everyone’s felt tents (gers or yurts) unfurl.
For those of you who want something a bit more photographic from The Coruscating Camera, Check out Joel Sternfeld’s mostly wonderful Northampton Meadows landscapes from his new book, Oxbow Archive. Here’s a taste of the series.
I drove by this spot this morning on my way to teach. If your taste in landscapes roam to the even more transcendent, check out this beautiful under-highway scene from Mexico.
For more information about Lost Rivers, check out Mrs. Deane‘s Blog.
New Views in Portraiture
Good news from Amy Stein via subjectify. Jen Davis is getting her refreshing self-portraits and pictures of men in circulation. Her I Ask in Exchange series has many fine examples of the “female gaze.”
Steve and I, 2006 by Jen Davis
Rob, Brooklyn, 2007 by Jen Davis
My last post, and the one before that, was mostly about flesh and how beautiful it looks photographed. Jen Davis is proving my point with pictures of perfect visual poetry.
Over at LensCulture I found out about a show at the Russian Tea Room in Paris. Look Me In the Eyes: Russian Photographic Portraits has some wonderful examples of my favorite genre.
Seeing and Doubting
This week, every time I started to post, I’d open my blog and see the previous post with those reclining youngsters piled -up in their Amero-Euro privilege, with colorful sleeping bags and bean bags, and their luscious white skin and carefree gestures. I would immediately get blocked and think, I love those kids, I hate those kids.
I searched for an antidote to white leisure and found Jonathan Torgovnik’s powerful, somber, sincere, important pictures currently on display, and soon to be a book, at the Aperture Gallery in NYC.
Jonathan Torgovnik's Intended Consequences
This is a devastating series about the victims and children of the rapes that took place during the Rwandan genocide of fifteen years ago. My problem with these pictures is that they are so beautiful. The black flesh is even more radiant and luscious than the Martine Fougeron image of the colorful sleep-over. The patterned clothes of the Rwandan survivors celebrate life every bit as much as Fougeron’s youngsters celebrate pleasure. Torgovnik’s mothers and children are bathed in what could be (and maybe is) studio light. They remind me of Phil Borges’ cloying portraits of Tibetans and other endangered peoples. They are all umbrella lit and hand painted as if they were slightly distorted illustrations of some big-eyed fantasy.
Phil Borges in Africa
So, what is my problem? Do people of desperate circumstances have to look and be miserable? They can appear every bit as beautiful as a Vogue model, which coincidently usually look miserable, too.
I went to Colin Finlay’s show at the Hallmark Museum of Contemporary Photography. Now this is photojournalism of a more traditional stripe. Colin’s people really do look miserable.
Colin Finlay from Testify
There is often a text accompanying contemporary photojournalism exhibits stating how the photographer doesn’t expect to change the way things are. He is just documenting it. In this show, Finlay says that a gallery patron once handed him a check for thousands of dollars to try to help the people in his pictures. Well, if Colin can get several thousand dollars in the right helping hands, it might be better than helping this immediate person in need. It proves that a gallery can be a productive venue for helping people, not only its artists and owners.
So, what is my problem? My problem is me. I tell myself to stop doubting the artistic intentions of a Phil Borges, who probably is a most wonderful human being and has helped more people than most. I remind myself to swallow the envy of Colin Finlay’s choreographed chaos. He is attempting to document a “dance of death” equal to Sebastiao Salgado’s many painful, audience manipulating masterpieces. I try to open up to the impact of Jonathan Torgovnik’s sincere and penetrating families staring back at me. I choose to allow him whatever subtle fashion photography illusion he is exercising. All these artists are loaded with knock-out pictures, buckets of talent, and personal integrity. These adventurous documentarians, as well as up-and-comer artist Martine Fougeron, are great examples of what a thinking eye can see.
Thirty Under 30 and the Rest of Us
Martine Fougeron from PDN's 30
PDN’s 30 for 2009 has just been posted with this sweet gallery of fresh work. Here’s one of my favorites from a commercial perspective below.
Lucas Zarebinski from PDN's 30
If your first impression is that the 30 is a rather shallow bunch this year, look again. I just picked something light.
In the 2009 photography world, either you are an emerging photographer or you’re so last year. While editing my Mongolia work from last year for a show at Smith College, I’ve been posting pictures that most likely won’t be in the show. Here’s today’s favorite.
Night Games, Gobi, Mongolia, Frank Ward
I promise not to post from PDN for awhile, but there is one last thing. For those of us who participate in JPG Magazine, and they do owe me money, here’s a link to the latest news about their continued survival.
Sainshand Museum, Gobi, Frank Ward
New Technology, Old Ideas
First, in the “old ideas” category is the cover of today’s NYT Magazine courtesy of A Photo Editor.
Next, for the “new technology.” This link is courtesy of photographer and friend Gregory Thorp. Even though I don’t support the website of this image’s origin, I am fascinated by the advances of the computer/software/web that has spawned such curious techno-advances. Here, a simple sweep of the mouse changes the time of day.
Awards and Punishments
I spent a couple of hours this morning cruising through the the photo blog universe. Several photographers are winning awards and being celebrated. Some are getting punished for being bad. For instance:
According to PDN, Taylor got charged with citation #1050.9. That turns out to be the MTA rule that allows him to photograph in a subway station. Go figure.
Also on PDN is the document that outlines Annie Leibovitz’s future servitude.
High-lighting by PDN
Over at the Magnum blog there’s lots of opportunities to enter competitions and win big. My choice is the application to join Magnum. Yes, once a year you can send them pictures to see if you can make the grade. There’s not even an entry fee. I’ve noticed that any grant, award or honor that is really worth something usually doesn’t have an entry fee. I came across a program in San Francisco (I won’t give you the link) that had about a $500 entry fee just to have the honor of having your work looked at. One of the several prizes was a year of on-line representation from Photo-Eye. I have that. It costs $200. It is also a great gallery that, in my case, has been paying for itself, so save $300 and apply to them directly for acceptance.
Art for a Better Life (Really)
JR in Kenya
A Google Earth friendly exhibition of JR’s photographs are covering 2000 square meters of roofs in one of the largest slums in Africa. Photographs of the eyes and faces of the women who live inside provide a photo show for passing trains and rain protection for the families who live within Kibera in Kenya. This seems a near perfect marriage of art and daily life, except when you see this kind of thing as a tobacco advertisement on a barn roof in the Midwest. More pictures at lens culture.
Speaking of art and advertising, I saw this neat history of the Canon logo over at Horses Think.
Leibovitz Yard Sale
Annie Leibovitz is broke (almost). I was wondering why the latest issue of American Photo was totally dedicated to her. I thought AmPhoto was running out of ideas. They were probably just trying to raise money for the most successful photographer of her (my) generation. That magazine hasn’t had a good idea in a decade or two. It’s getting thinner with every issue. I assume they are also going broke fast. Anyway, it is more sad news about crazy times. I don’t even want to post a Leibovitz picture, but thanks to Robert Tobey for telling me about her.
Mongolia in Northampton
I’m gearing up for the March series of events at Smith College about Mongolia. There will be a Buddhism in Mongolia conference from March 27th to March 29th and a Kahn Institute short-term project on Chingiss Khan, affectionately labelled A Khan Kahn, is planned for late March to mid April. Top notch Mongolia-ists will be around, including Robert Thurman and Glenn Mullin. The most notable visitor may be Soyolma, who is Mongolia’s female artist of the year for 2008. Here’s Glenn Mullin’s video of Soyolma’s art.
Why does this concern The Coruscating Camera? Well, I’m trying to put together a Mongolia photography show. It turns out there are several students and alums from Smith who are photographers of Mongolia. As I am going through my Mongolia work from last spring and summer, there are several pictures from the Gobi that I like, but they have little to do with where they were made. Here’s one that could be from Cape Cod.
Pepsi on the Gobi
Museum Guard with Book
The above, from Ulanbaator, feels more Mongolian. I do have an odd aversion to pictures that are too obviously about place. I like pictures about people in place. For instance, this lady on the street in alligator pants seems fabulous.
These are some diaristic pictures from my two 2008 trips to Siberia, Mongolia and the Russian Far East. To see black and white work from Central Asia, look here.
Seeing Now
I’m fascinated with Paul Graham’s a shimmer of possibility at the MoMA. Photographing everyday life is nothing new. Graham is working with a narrative style that draws on graphic storytelling. This series, and more, were originally published in 12 sequenced volumes last year by Steidl. Here is an installation view from the MoMA followed by a view of the same show in Paris last year. It is a pleasure to see the static line of photographs broken up with appropriate dips and curves. I often find photography exhibitions too static and formal. Unless they are intended to be part of an “art” installation, photographs always end up in long rows with too many straight lines. Graham’s pictures, with their size and height variations, are a pleasure for the eye.
from the Museum of Modern Art exhibit
from Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire
Graham’s a shimmer of possibility is a view of America photographed with “affection and curiosity.” That’s a quote from the MoMA. Last week I took my photography students down to the flats of Holyoke where we wandered around with our cameras. I felt filled with affection for, and curiosity about one of Massachusetts’ most beautiful and most depressed cities. Here’s a picture from our field trip.
Shoe Tree, South Holyoke, Frank Ward, 2009
Sleepers Awake!
The freshly minted DEEPSLEEP Magazine from the United Kingdom is immensely promising. It is a group effort by “photographers who take their work seriously, but not themselves.” Submissions are invited by theme. The theme of the next issue is Alien (deadline May 1st). The first issue theme is “Invisible” and after perusing the nine essays within, including the work of Vanessa Winship, the themes are very loosely interpreted. Here’s a picture from Wang Wei’s Standard Room about hotel workers in China.
DEEPSLEEP, Lunatic, Social Documentary, Burn, SeeSaw, plus a few thousand more online portfolio and magazine sites are reinventing photography for photographers. As usual, nobody gets paid. Thanks to Colin Pantall’s blog for pointing me toward DEEPSLEEP. He also suggested the Joel Meyerowitz interview over at too much chocolate.
Documenting the Aftermath
Asim Rafiqui and The Idea of India
The Aftermath Project has released the portfolios of their 2009 winners. Asim Rafiqui wins $25,000 in support of his study of pluralism in India. This choice is a welcome surprise and supports a trend away from the disaster adventurism of other photojournalistic awards. Aftermath promotes the documentation of what happens in societies after war or other kinds of upheaval. In India’s situation, the centuries old conflict between multiple religious and ethnic groups has resulted in a pluralism of necessity. Asim Rafiqui’s delightfully scrambled compositions of contemporary India prove that there is life after, and in between, riots and other animosities.
Here are some of the other Aftermath winners:
David Monteleone, Russian Caucasus
Saiful Huq Omi, Bangladesh
Lunatic #3- Photojournalism Lives!
Markus Lokai’s Trolley Race celebrates the shopping cart in the latest issue of Lunatic Magazine. Top design makes navigating this new voice in photojournalism lots of fun. You can turn the pages by hand (mouse) if you want. I even like the ambient music, although you can turn it off on the bottom left of the page.
If this is a taste of the changing world of photojournalism, the future looks bright. I’m not sure if anybody gets paid, though.
Joerg Colberg Sees Smart
Marc Baruth, Staged Landscape, 2005
Conscientious, Joerg Colberg’s blog about mostly art, provides my daily dose of consummate perspicacity. This week he has blogged about Marc Baruth, has interviewed Mikhael Subotzky, and has posted the winning birthday tribute to Charles Darwin. I’m sorry I didn’t mention a half dozen of his most recent photographic discoveries. Regardless, in an effort to lure Joerg away from the internet, and to see if he can function in a non-virtual world, I’ve invited him to speak at Holyoke Community College in April. More news of his talk will be forthcoming.
Miguel Rio Branco by John Sevigny
Miguel Rio Branco, 1984
John Sevigny presents an impassioned argument for photographer Miguel Rio Branco’s stunning color work while questioning the chops of contemporary color’s best known practitioners. It is a provocative read even if his blood-red assault seems fired from the gun turrets of black and white photojournalism and 20th Century photo history. I agree with what he is saying and I agree with what he is arguing against. That’s what I love about photography, it is not bound by thought. Check out Guernica Magazine for the complete article. Thanks to Guernica for publishing a free thinker like John.
Luminous Shows Magnitogorsk
Andrew Garn, Dog, 2000
My inner romantic pulsed when I saw Andrew Garn’s Magnitogorsk portfolio on Luminous Lint. A factory town in Siberia, black and white film, echos of Margaret Bourke-White and Milton Rogovin– what’s not to like? Luminous Lint is a great place to visit and browse through megabytes worth of fine photography.
Women in Art
This video is from Lauren Greenfield at Smith
I appreciate the work of Lauren Greenfield. Thin and Girl Culture will be on display at the Smith Art Museum, Northampton, MA, USA until April 26.
From Lauren Greenfield's Thin
I have a problem with the Smith College Art Museum. I know that I should support the Museum because they have my pictures in their collection, but I can’t. They are one of the few college museums in the country that charge admission to the general public, including students outside of the Five College network. I know the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis is about to close its doors and it should be time to rally around sustaining our college art collections. In spite of what the media says, I think that Brandeis has had the Rose on the chopping block for awhile. In 2007, they auctioned off rare Tibetan art and artifacts along with their Nicholas Roerich holdings. I love Roerich’s paintings so I took it personally.
Maitreya by Nicholas Roerich, 1925/6
I’m partial to this painting because I’ve photographed on this spot. It’s on the way to the Lhasa airport.
OK, back to Smith Art Museum. Free admission is available if you have a Western Mass. library card and you pick-up the free pass at the nearby Forbes Library. They also have passes to Mass MoCA.
I’m not trashing Smith College. They currently have a great exhibit on display at the Kahn Center in the Nielson Library featuring the photographs of Sandra Matthews, Chester Michalik and Stan Sherer. They also have a couple of nice gallery spaces in their Art Department. Art has been the second most popular major at Smith for several years. So Smith is OK, art elitism is a drag.
More Chic Banal
My post from earlier today seemed so last century that I had to dive into some fresher contemporary work to breathe the fresh air.
Julia Fullerton-Batten
Julia Fullerton-Batten’s version of chic banal is alright with me. I like the way the above photograph re-imagines the Philip Lorca diCorcia diner that I posted a few days ago. This time the view is outside-in. Take a look at more of Julia’s pictures here.
Thanks to Exposure Compensation for the heads-up on Julia.
The Modernism Post
Modernism lives through the eyes of Rene Burri, the Swiss artist, and Magnum member, mostly known for his photojournalism. There is a new edition of his 2003 monograph which argues for his place in the 20th Century pantheon of great modernist photography. Burri’s urban rituals and factory dreams from the 1950s and 60s echo the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Andre Kertesz and other celebrated European modernists.
Rene Burri
For the love of photography I also have to give post modernism its due through a new book of an outrageous mix of works by Richard Prince.
This is a self-conscious, tongue-in-cheek, artist’s book about how he has a good time making art in spite of the bad times all around. Maybe Prince’s unconcerned approach to “concerned photography” is the best next step to find a way through the pains and pleasures of the world.
Thanks to Photo Eye Books and Galleries for the above suggestions.
The Coruscating Camera 