vrijdag 31 juli 2009

the E-books of Wolfgang Tillmans Photography

tillmans is acclaimed as a chronicler of his generation,and he has garnered international recognition as oneof the most significant artists to emerge in the 1990s.his distinctive work has been hugely influential for ageneration of younger artists.

at first tillmans documented the european club scenein a manner that captured its dynamic style with anaffecting sincerity, and he presented this work incarefully crafted spreads for british fashion andlifestyle magazines (such as i-D).he then increasingly presented subjects ranging fromstill lifes to portraits of friends and celebrities,subtly alluding to his interest in issues such ashomelessness, racism, and gay rights.despite his use of magazine layouts as an early vehiclefor his work, his provocative images always challengedthe superficial gloss of the fashion industry andsubverted notions of beauty and sexuality.

while certain works are notably singular and iconic,his use of a shifting scale for his prints and anever-changing rotation of images with each successiveinstallation demonstrates his desire to see all of hispictures as universally significant.in doing so, tillmans suggests that an unassuming imageof jars of jam on a counter-top carries equal weight andimportance as an image of a bolt of lightning or apolitical rally.by applying the same clarity of vision and intensity ofpurpose to every picture - whether an image of a place,person, situation, or an abstraction - tillmans offers avisually unified perspective on the diverse phenomenathat comprise the broad spectrum of lived experience.since the 1990s, tillmans's work has turned increasingly

Police helicopter, lees de recensie ...



the E-books of Wolfgang Tillmans Photography

tillmans is acclaimed as a chronicler of his generation,and he has garnered international recognition as oneof the most significant artists to emerge in the 1990s.his distinctive work has been hugely influential for ageneration of younger artists.

at first tillmans documented the european club scenein a manner that captured its dynamic style with anaffecting sincerity, and he presented this work incarefully crafted spreads for british fashion andlifestyle magazines (such as i-D).he then increasingly presented subjects ranging fromstill lifes to portraits of friends and celebrities,subtly alluding to his interest in issues such ashomelessness, racism, and gay rights.despite his use of magazine layouts as an early vehiclefor his work, his provocative images always challengedthe superficial gloss of the fashion industry andsubverted notions of beauty and sexuality.

while certain works are notably singular and iconic,his use of a shifting scale for his prints and anever-changing rotation of images with each successiveinstallation demonstrates his desire to see all of hispictures as universally significant.in doing so, tillmans suggests that an unassuming imageof jars of jam on a counter-top carries equal weight andimportance as an image of a bolt of lightning or apolitical rally.by applying the same clarity of vision and intensity ofpurpose to every picture - whether an image of a place,person, situation, or an abstraction - tillmans offers avisually unified perspective on the diverse phenomenathat comprise the broad spectrum of lived experience.since the 1990s, tillmans's work has turned increasingly

Police helicopter, lees de recensie ...



donderdag 30 juli 2009

an Interview with Bertien van Manen Photography

The rotating gallery features the work of a young emerging photographer as well as an interview with him/her, and will change every Wednesday. The gallery is based off ‘collective curatorship’, where the photographer from week 1 chooses and interviews a photographer for week 2, week 2 chooses/interviews week 3, etc. There is only one stipulation to the process: Next weeks photographer has to be someone he/she has not had direct contact with yet. Ideally, this will take the gallery on a linked tour around the Internet, and exploring and unearthing new photographers as it goes.

This week, Elaine Stocki interviews Bertien Van Manen , see for an review ....

tbilisi

Ballet Tbilisi. 18*24 cm. C-print.

Elaine Stocki: I’ve read that you began as a fashion photographer. Can you speak a little bit about how you came to photography in the first place? Were there any local (i.e. Dutch or otherwise) photographers or artists working in other mediums that motivated and inspired you?

Bertien Van Manen: I sort of rolled into it. I photographed my small children with an old camera that my father in law gave me. As I had no schooling at all, there were several photographer-friends who showed me the way. One photographer, who saw my pictures, offered me a job as an assistant. I started working for fashion-magazines, earned enough money to buy equipment and after some time I got tired of the fashion world. My colleague-friend Kenneth Hope, a British fashion photographer, showed me The Americans and inspired me to do more documentary work. Joseph Koudelka is a European photographer who has inspired me, and later, Martin Parr, two different ways of looking, but both very close to their subject.

luyulan
Lu Yulan. 18*24. C-print.

ES: Your work gives both a free, shoot from the hip photograph that has been compared to the spirit and form of both Robert Frank and Nan Goldin, as well as a quieter, more studied image, a still life, that uses the language of Dutch Vanitas painting. Do you consciously navigate through different genres in both the photographing and the editing, or is it an entirely intuitive affair? Is there a desire to resist the constraints of making an image in one particular way?

BVM: Both Robert Frank and Nan Goldin have inspired me, especially the directness and closeness to the subject they have. I have to like the people I photograph. I need to feel an attraction, a fascination. I have not much with Vanitas painting, it never occurred to me that there was a connection. But, of course, there is certainly a sort of sadness and seriousness. Perhaps the Vanitas-aspect is subconsciously there, for Dutch people all have something of Calvin in them.

metromoscow

Metro Moscow. 18*24. C-print.
actriceshanghai

Actrice Shanghai. 18*24. C-print.

ES: One of my favourite images from the body of work A Hundred Summers, A Hundred Winters is Odessa. In the photograph, a group of youngsters surround a boy playing an accordion. What I love about the image is the unguarded happiness that is expressed in the faces of the group watching the performance, while one young girl, with a more serious gaze, looks directly at you, the photographer. There is complexity in expressing both a cognizance and complicity of an outsider documenter and at the same time an ease and unselfconsciousness expressed in the faces of the others. Certainly, one might question how you achieve that so consistently throughout this body of work. Your subjects are certainly aware that you are there, however, there is no sense of inhibition. What are your thoughts on the relationship you developed with the people you photographed in this body of work?

BVM: First thing is that I often use automatic, non-professional cameras. Traveling with expensive Leicas or Nikons in Russia at that time was asking for trouble. They considered my cameras as toys, not worth stealing. And they did not feel threatened by them, they considered me as a tourist or friend, who liked to take pictures. I let the cameras linger in the house, people picked them up and more than once, coming back home in Amsterdam and having the films developed, there were images I did not remember having taken… like the little boys who had had fun a whole afternoon, while we were gone on a visit and I had left one camera on the table, taking pictures of each other bottoms…

I try to have a personal contact and I prefer to stay with the people I photograph, to live with them and become friends with them. For A hundred summers.. I had to learn Russian, nobody spoke any other language, especially on the countryside. With many people I stayed with, I am still befriended.

45odessagypsyboy

Odessa. 40*50. C-print.

ES: Your body of work Give Me Your Image consists of family photographs re-photographed in a formally complex arrangement of domesticity: bits of chair, draping, tables and knick-knacks complicate and charge the frame of your photograph whilst the family photograph within the frame emotionally charges the inanimate objects around it. It’s interesting to hear that you don’t necessarily feel aligned in any way to more classical still life work….can you tell me how you feel the family photographs charge the formal still life arrangement in which they exist?

BVM: The surroundings, arrangements are supporting the family portraits. They give an insight into the different European cultures and tell something about the history of Europe. I always started with the portrait. It was exciting to walk through the homes with a portrait, looking for the perfect place to put it. I tried not to think and just follow my intuition. This sometimes gave surprising results, like the lady in Rome, who started crying when I put the image of her dead son in a corner, in front of a little cabinet that he always had treasured and that was all she still had of him.

21romefaustocoppi

Rome Fausto Coppi. 40*50. C-print.

ES: In Give Me Your Image you speak about finding the ‘perfect’ place for the photograph. In either of your series A Hundred Summers, A Hundred Winters or East Wind West Wind was there any direction? Were you documenting, or directing, or a combination of both?

BVM: It is a combination. You always look for the perfect place, surroundings, frame, light, person, expression etc. I work with 35mm film, but I try to withhold myself as much as possible, I try not to shoot as a machinegun, but to concentrate on the one image (one reason why I prefer not to work digitally). My experience is that when I feel insecure about an image I start taking more and most of the time there comes no better image, simply because the situation is not perfect. That happens and sometimes is difficult to accept.

26parisaliceinwonderland

Paris Alice In Wonderland. 40*50. C-print.

ES: One of the most interesting aspects of your work is the way that it is critiqued in the United States. Images of the Soviet Union are consistently read as ‘depressing’… ‘exposing the awfulness of three-quarters of a century under Communist rule’… ’spiritually depleted’. In a country in which anything but democratic rule has traditionally been feared, how do you feel that the reaction to your work is different than overseas? Is there a remarkable difference?

BVM: Perhaps Americans are a bit more moralistic than Europeans? I never looked for “photogenic poverty”, I photographed what was there. What shocked me was the reaction of Ljoeda, the lady in whose house I always stayed in Moscow. She was angry because I was showing her table without a tablecloth and because I wrote about the fridge in which they had stored their administration instead of food. Some Russian people who, after seeing my pictures, realized how poor they were, they were so used to this life, they did not see it anymore. And they had to go on living in it, having for dinner nothing but carrots and cabbage and some meat every day. I could go home to Holland, where I was confronted with the abundance in the supermarkets.

novokuznetsk

Novukuznetsk. 18*24. C-print.

ES: How important is it to you, and how much do you pay attention to, the reactions to your work that must always reflect the cultural background from whence the reaction came? Does it inform and or change your work? Do you let it?

BVM: The reactions from the people I photograph are important to me, I very much take them at heart. Ljoeda with her tablecloth stands for the Bourgeois mentality that I don’t mind criticizing. But the fact that Ljoeda could be angry with me because of that, I regret, I want people to like me. I don’t think it changes my work in a direct way, many experiences influence you subconsciously. But it is important for me that, despite difficult circumstances, there is humour and relativity in my pictures.

05stpetersburg

St.Petersburg. 40*50. C-print.

ES: A North American viewer might have a different reaction to your work than someone in Holland, or Russia, or China. It’s one of the most interesting aspects of your work, because it is constantly being read by an audience that could be thought of as the ‘other’… so, the work you did in China is looked at by Europeans and North Americans who are looking at images of a country and a way of life that they have not had first hand experience with but have ideas about nonetheless. Same goes for your work in Russia…I alluded to the reactions, in print, of some American writers when looking at a way of life under a political system that is alien to them (i.e. the work you did in the Soviet Union). It’s interesting to me, and I was wondering how much you reflect on the complexities of that situation?

BVM: I don’t really think of the reactions of people while photographing. Afterwards I sometimes am angry about reactions of people who have no idea of the situation. For instance I had my first exhibition of the Russian pictures in the Stedelijk museum in Amsterdam. I overheard a man, talking to a woman about the image of the Collectif kitchen in Siberia. The man talked about laziness and chaos and carelessness, saying that the people did not even bother to repair the floor. During that time it was impossible to get anything, people had to improvise and I was admiring the women for being able to bring some coziness to the houses, they badly needed this as a protection against the dangerous outside world. They were very inventive. And if you look well at the picture you can see that there is a lot of order, considering there are 4 or 5 families cooking there. Look at the plastic bags for example, they were scarce and were washed and hung to dry and used again and again.

65bellyyarcommunalkitchen

Belly Yru Communal Kitchen. 40*50. C-print.





vrijdag 10 juli 2009

Bart Sorgedrager Improvised Explosive Devices Photography


Er is een weg naar de vrijheid Op een gebied van 1 kilometer bij 350 meter aan de huidige Lunettenlaan bevond zich van januari 1943 tot begin september 1944 het Konzentrationslager Herzogenbusch, zoals Kamp Vught officieel heette. In totaal waren er in die periode ruim 31.000 mensen voor kortere of langere tijd gevangen. Na de bevrijding in 1944 kregen het gebied en de gebouwen van het voormalige concentratiekamp nieuwe functies. Weinig andere locaties in Nederland kennen zo’n bijzondere combinatie van functies op zo’n beladen plek als de Lunettenlaan.

Naar aanleiding van de viering van 65 jaar bevrijding van Zuid-Nederland heeft Nationaal Monument Kamp Vught vijf fotografen gevraagd om het thema vrijheid vanuit één specifieke locatie aan de Lunettenlaan te verbeelden. Deze site geeft een voorproefje van hun bijdragen.

De titel van de expositie is ontleend aan het boek ‘Er is een weg naar de vrijheid. Zeven maanden concentratiekamp’ (1965) van Jaap Hemelrijk, die één nacht doorbracht in Kamp Vught voor hij op transport werd gesteld naar Buchenwald.

De expositie is mede gefinancierd door de Provincie Noord-Brabant en het V-Fonds en is te zien van 7 mei t/m 23 augustus (vrij entree).


Kamp Vught was het enige SS-concentratiekamp buiten de grenzen van Nazi-Duitsland en werd opgezet als een modelkamp. Naast uiterst sobere barakken voor de gevangenen werd een flink deel van het 350.000 vierkante meter omvattende terrein ingenomen doorfraaie bakstenen bedrijfsgebouwen voor de Duitse en Nederlandse SS, die in het kamp de respectievelijk leiding hadden en als bewakers fungeerden. Na de bevrijding werden deze gebouwen onder de namen Van Brederode en Lunettenkazerne in gebruik genomen door de Koninklijke Landmacht.

Vanuit het perspectief van het thema vrijheid richtte Bart Sorgedrager zich op de huidige functie van de Koninklijke Landmacht en met name het trainingscentrum van de Genie aan de Lunettenlaan in Vught. Vanwege de betrokkenheid bij vredesmissies in Afghanistan enIrak speelt de opsporing van ‘Improvised Explosive Devices’ of ‘bermbommen’ een belangrijke rol in dit trainingsprogramma. Deze onzichtbare (berm)bommen vormen immers een levensgevaarlijke bedreiging voor de uitgezonden militairen. Sorgedrager toont hoe deze geïmproviseerde en vaak op afstand te bedienen explosieven er uitzien, in combinatie met videofilmpjes van Amerikaanse militairen over de vernietigende werking ervan.




donderdag 9 juli 2009

Houses in Detroit Photography

A Forgotten Detroit Remembered
By SAMANTHA STOREY

When Kevin Bauman began photographing Detroit’s derelict houses in the late ’90s, his intention was to create a record of the homes before they were torn down to make way for new development. Using an old Hasselblad camera, Mr. Bauman, 37, a Web developer and freelance photographer, shot them straight on, in the style of commercial catalog photography.

“I wanted to leave the houses alone and not put too much of myself in them,” he explained.

A decade later, most of the structures are still standing, as development in Detroit never reached a fever pitch. And as the houses continue to deteriorate, the photographs, at 100abandonedhouses.com, provide a beautiful and heartbreaking record of what were once some of the city’s grandest properties.

Inkjet prints of the images are available for $35 each, and Mr. Bauman is donating 30 percent of the profits to the nonprofit organization Habitat for Humanity. “I don’t think a single person from Detroit has ordered any,” he said. “If you grew up looking at these houses, it just makes you mad.”

Houses in Detroit Photography

A Forgotten Detroit Remembered
By SAMANTHA STOREY

When Kevin Bauman began photographing Detroit’s derelict houses in the late ’90s, his intention was to create a record of the homes before they were torn down to make way for new development. Using an old Hasselblad camera, Mr. Bauman, 37, a Web developer and freelance photographer, shot them straight on, in the style of commercial catalog photography.

“I wanted to leave the houses alone and not put too much of myself in them,” he explained.

A decade later, most of the structures are still standing, as development in Detroit never reached a fever pitch. And as the houses continue to deteriorate, the photographs, at 100abandonedhouses.com, provide a beautiful and heartbreaking record of what were once some of the city’s grandest properties.

Inkjet prints of the images are available for $35 each, and Mr. Bauman is donating 30 percent of the profits to the nonprofit organization Habitat for Humanity. “I don’t think a single person from Detroit has ordered any,” he said. “If you grew up looking at these houses, it just makes you mad.”

Sexual freedom and illusions Summer of Love Photography

This summer the Noorderlicht Photogallery brings you Summer of Love, a blistering exposition in which four photographers take up sexual freedom and illusions.

Emmanuel Guillaud roamed through Tokyo at night. Until the sun rises is his new installation about loneliness, about men who wander through parking lots and and school yards: public places which by night change into a temporary ghetto. They hope for chance encounters, are 'in search of a kick without obligations', or actually of intimacy� When the sun comes up they leave again, preferring to forget what has happened. Emmanuel Guillaud (France, b. 1970) lives and works in Tokyo. He was the first Western photographer to receive the Tokyo Wonderwall Award (City of Tokyo, Museum of Contemporary Art of Tokyo, Metropolitan Museum of Photography). The installation until the sun rises is being shown for the first time by Noorderlicht.

Katharina Hesse, in Human Negotiations, gives us a different picture of the prostitution industry in Bangkok, Thailand. She followed a number of women outside working hours and interviewed then extensively about their lives and their background, their choices and their motives. It appeared very much the question whether our Western image - women as powerless victims of the Eastern sex industry - can be maintained. Hesse dares to oppose the stereotype of sexual slavery with an intimate, and at the very least ambiguous picture of ordinary women who make a better life possible for themselves and their children by selling dreams. Katharina Hesse (Germany, b. 1966) studied Chinese Language and Culture in Paris and worked as a journalist for the German television broadcaster ZDF and for Newsweek. She is self-taught as a photographer. Her work has appeared in Courrier International, Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, Marie-Claire, Neon, Newsweek, Stern, Vanity Fair and other publications.

Yevgeny Kondakov asked himself the question: what happens when the most repressed country in the world is exposed to mass-market consumerism and a government that does not care what ordinary people do? In Russian Sexual Revolution he demonstrates that not only an economic and political revolution took place in the former Soviet Union, but also a sexual revolution: in all its wildness, its strangeness, its vulgarity, and its innocence.Yevgeny Kondakov (Russia, b. 1961) is a freelance photojournalist. His work has been seen in Stern, The New York Times, Time and Paris Match. He is co-author of the photo investigation How do Russians love? His photo book Russian Sexual Revolution appeared in 2008.

Amy Touchette in The World Famous *BOB*, documents the life of a female burlesque dancer living in New York. Raised in California, *BOB*'s eccentricity as an adolescent eventually led her to a life of alienation and destructiveness. Waking up from the nightmare, she viewed moving to New York as her second chance and an opportunity to finally live out her fantasy of being a star. Amy Touchette followed *BOB* for four years and was able to get a look inside her life, without restrictions, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.Amy Touchette (USA, b. 1970) is a freelance photographer and teacher's assistant at the International Center of Photography in New York. Summer of Love is curated by Wim Melis.

Noorderlicht Photogallery Akerkhof 12 Groningen, The Netherlandsadmission freeopen Wednesday through Sunday 12 AM - 6 PM

Sexual freedom and illusions Summer of Love Photography

This summer the Noorderlicht Photogallery brings you Summer of Love, a blistering exposition in which four photographers take up sexual freedom and illusions.

Emmanuel Guillaud roamed through Tokyo at night. Until the sun rises is his new installation about loneliness, about men who wander through parking lots and and school yards: public places which by night change into a temporary ghetto. They hope for chance encounters, are 'in search of a kick without obligations', or actually of intimacy� When the sun comes up they leave again, preferring to forget what has happened. Emmanuel Guillaud (France, b. 1970) lives and works in Tokyo. He was the first Western photographer to receive the Tokyo Wonderwall Award (City of Tokyo, Museum of Contemporary Art of Tokyo, Metropolitan Museum of Photography). The installation until the sun rises is being shown for the first time by Noorderlicht.

Katharina Hesse, in Human Negotiations, gives us a different picture of the prostitution industry in Bangkok, Thailand. She followed a number of women outside working hours and interviewed then extensively about their lives and their background, their choices and their motives. It appeared very much the question whether our Western image - women as powerless victims of the Eastern sex industry - can be maintained. Hesse dares to oppose the stereotype of sexual slavery with an intimate, and at the very least ambiguous picture of ordinary women who make a better life possible for themselves and their children by selling dreams. Katharina Hesse (Germany, b. 1966) studied Chinese Language and Culture in Paris and worked as a journalist for the German television broadcaster ZDF and for Newsweek. She is self-taught as a photographer. Her work has appeared in Courrier International, Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, Marie-Claire, Neon, Newsweek, Stern, Vanity Fair and other publications.

Yevgeny Kondakov asked himself the question: what happens when the most repressed country in the world is exposed to mass-market consumerism and a government that does not care what ordinary people do? In Russian Sexual Revolution he demonstrates that not only an economic and political revolution took place in the former Soviet Union, but also a sexual revolution: in all its wildness, its strangeness, its vulgarity, and its innocence.Yevgeny Kondakov (Russia, b. 1961) is a freelance photojournalist. His work has been seen in Stern, The New York Times, Time and Paris Match. He is co-author of the photo investigation How do Russians love? His photo book Russian Sexual Revolution appeared in 2008.

Amy Touchette in The World Famous *BOB*, documents the life of a female burlesque dancer living in New York. Raised in California, *BOB*'s eccentricity as an adolescent eventually led her to a life of alienation and destructiveness. Waking up from the nightmare, she viewed moving to New York as her second chance and an opportunity to finally live out her fantasy of being a star. Amy Touchette followed *BOB* for four years and was able to get a look inside her life, without restrictions, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.Amy Touchette (USA, b. 1970) is a freelance photographer and teacher's assistant at the International Center of Photography in New York. Summer of Love is curated by Wim Melis.

Noorderlicht Photogallery Akerkhof 12 Groningen, The Netherlandsadmission freeopen Wednesday through Sunday 12 AM - 6 PM