graeme mitchell » audio/video

Random notes from this weekend,

admin — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:12:29 +0000

The William Kentridge exhibit at the MOMA (see this!), notably the stop motion movies,

video: excerpt from Stereoscope (no sound), ©William Kentridge

Valerie Belin’s work, incredible black and white prints,

photo: ©Valerie Belin.

David Godblatt’s work, notably this portrait,

photo: Hillrow, Johannesburg, South Africa. ©David Goldblatt.

Karl Blossfeldt‘s work, so German, so exquisite, doing what much later the Becher‘s would do for industrial buildings,

photo: a picture of Monkshood by Karl Blossfeldt.

and also Blossfeldt’s uncanny resemblance to Dash Snow…

photo: a portrait of Karl Blossfeldt, 1895.

Finally, Nicholas Nixon‘s new book, Live, Love, Look, Last, which shows a 4 decade dedicated vision and Nixon’s adherence to something akin to a poetic form, showing how the singular becomes expansive, and furthermore how in the specific resides the universal,

photo: John Grady and Tesair Lauve, Cambridge, 1997, ©Nicholas Nixon.

Notes from the weekend Harold Edgerton (the fellow you can thank for all that...

Old Japanese photography and French New Wave ramble.

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:40:14 +0000

It’s not news that I like Japanese photography from the 60s and 70s (see posts, here, here, here, here). Why is for much the same reasons I return often to French New Wave cinema. Call that reason a stripped down aesthetic which verges on a sensual brutality. Nearly able to chew on it. But what saves it from being trite w/ brutality, is a delve headfirst into the subconscious – wait, no, subconscious might prompt something psychoanalytic. That’s too much for here. But by subconscious I mean the very deepest and most uncontrolled and most fundamental mechanisms taking place in our minds. I guess it’d be easiest to just call it, our dreams. (Makes me think of Joyce writing in Ulysses, “history is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.”) It’s a documentation of an entirely different sorts, and it makes the work not brutal, but rather almost unbearably human and gentle.

I’m not informed enough to make theories on the reasons, the whys of parallel creative evolutions, but just look at Shomei Tomatsu’s work and then go watch Chris Marker‘s short film, La Jetee (here). Breathe deep.

photo: still from Chris Marker’s film La Jetee

Or, make a literal French to Japan connection w/ Hiroshima Mon Amour by, Alain Resnais (like Marker – and also Agnes Varda – one of the Left Bank New Wavers).

photo: still from Alain Resnais’ film Hiroshima Mon Amour

There isn’t going to be order here though. Ramblings. B/c what I really wanted to do was just list some old Japanese photography. The inspiration being a well done new book out by Aperture Foundation called Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and ’70s, which reminded me recently how important this work is.

Jun Morinaga, namely his book River: It’s Shadow of Shadow:

photo: from River by Jun Morinaga

(These tiny and poor jpegs are not doubt not representative of the quality of this work – this stuff is not easy to find on the internet…a fact that gives me a little hope this morning.)

Masahisa Fukase, and his series Solitude of the Ravens:

photo: from Solitude of the Ravens by Masahisa Fukase

Tetsuya Ichimura, who’s work is almost impossible to find online, but he’s done a number of books, all now very rare I think:

photo: from Salome by Tetsuya Ichimura

Nobuyoshi Araki, who we all know as a photographer of gorgeous flowers and gorgeous bound women, but his book Sentimental Journey reveals a side of him little known. This older work is, again, almost non-existent online.

photo: from Sentimental Journey by Nobuyoshi Araki

Eikoh Hosoe, who I’d not heard of until just recently:

photo: by Eikoh Hosoe

And a few more obvious ones I’ve touched on before on this site and who are very well known, Shōmei Tōmatsu,

photo: by Shōmei Tōmatsu

For God’s sake, now that (↑) is photography.

photo: by Shōmei Tōmatsu

and Daidō Moriyama:

photo: by Daidō Moriyama

A friend recently offered me a simple and apt definition of good art, saying it “is something people want to experience again…after seeing it they immediately want to relive it, and then again and again.” This work then, to me, is good art.

Yes Yes. Tremendous.

No related posts.

Portrait: Julian

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:01:12 +0000

Julian is someone I have the pleasure to photograph whenever our schedules allow. It is always a great pleasure.

photo: Julian in my basement, NYC, 2009. ©Graeme Mitchell

He is a friend, a musician, and a wonderful mind.

Here is a song:

song: Dolls Aren’t Supposed to Bite by Julian Tulip’s Licorice

And – peelug - he also did the music for the Unreal City Slideshow.

Unreal City, Portfolio Edition Hopefully this will be the last time I mention this...
Portrait: painter, Alex Steckly, again again. I’ve posted a number portraits of the painter, Alex Steckly...
Tunes for your New Years Will have some new work to share after the holidays,...

Tunes for your New Years

admin — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:14:20 +0000

Will have some new work to share after the holidays, but in the meantime two cracking MJ remixes to get your New Years jammin, both by Code Talkers.

song: “They Don’t Care About Us (codetalkrs mix2)” by Codetalkers.

song: “Blood on the Dance Floor (MJ remix)” by Codetalkers.

No related posts.

Bresson and Weegee audio recordings

admin — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:42:01 +0000

A photographer (thanks, James!) sent me these great little finds that were originally posted on this photographer’s record collection blog.

I’ll start with Henri Cartier-Bresson.

audio: Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1958. From Famous Photographers Tell How

The Weegee one is almost comical…given his subject matter: “The easiest thing to photograph is a murder.”

audio: Weegee, 1958. From Famous Photographers Tell How

photo: originally from: http://boogiewoogieflu.blogspot.com/2009/06/weegee-speaks.html

Portrait: Julian Julian is someone I have the pleasure to photograph whenever...

‘Unreal City’ multimedia presentation

admin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:15:10 +0000

I’m currently assembling a very small edition bound portfolios of an edit of NYC street photography that will represent that body of work to date, 50 prints to be exact (more on these when a few are finished). The name of the edition will be, Unreal City. This is a slide-show presentation of those 50 pictures. So, please, take a minute, dim your lights, turn up the sound, and let it creep around you.

Thanks, and I hope you enjoy.

Unreal City, Portfolio Edition Hopefully this will be the last time I mention this...
Portrait: Julian Julian is someone I have the pleasure to photograph whenever...

W, making of…

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:04:08 +0000

video: making of W, “The Art Issue,” 2009.

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A conversation: Friedlander on Avedon, then bicycles, then Bill Cunningham

admin — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:50:42 +0000

More a regurgitation of a conversation, but after all, it’s a blog: so: while having lunch in Tompkins Sq. yesterday with photo-friend, Aaron Binaco he gave me some, how should I put it, neat shit. My first sun-drunk-enthusiasm was for that by now well known moment when Avedon went to take Freidlander‘s portrait at his home, and how Freidlander, being a really real photographer (see note), also took Avedon’s portrait. I said I could find the Avedon picture, but have yet to be able to find the Friedlander. Well, Aaron found it and sent it to me. I imagine a sort of stand-off of great personalities, great wills face to face, and even if they were cordial and kind on some level it must have been profound-intense. Either as a matter of attrition of neither ever giving in, or maybe rather of two old masters being able to wink and nod, knowingly.

photo: from Aperture #188, Lee Friedlander by Richard Avedon (left) and Richard Avedon by Lee Friedlander (right)

Both Aaron and I grew up racing bicycles, so then he started on about this Scottish trials rider, saying, “he’d ride up that tree over there and just chill out,” while pointing at this giant bloody elm that a cat could maybe climb. I called, hyperbole!, but then he emailed me this link and jesusmurphy…if you’ve ever ridden a bike you should be able to appreciate this video:

And, yes, I am in fact posting on extreme sports youtube video…sigh, probably a slippery slope, so I’ll post this to balance it out:

photo: Corvette I saw in soho which I voted best possible prop of the day and sent it to a fashion editor with a synopsis of a story involving Death Valley, Bottega heels, and a Camio by Dennis Hopper (as eminence grise, naturally). Fashion editor responded, I weep.

Note: “real photograher”: I was shooting on 5th ave by Tiffany’s on Saturday morning, and I saw this old timer shooting people fast with an old Nikon. I guessed maybe he was part of the old-Magnum-guard. I said, hello, asked his name, he said, Bill Cunningham, didn’t ring a bell. I asked him if shot there much, if he’d seen Bruce Gilden out, he’s always shooting on this corner. He said, I have seen him in the afternoon; how is Bruce? I said, I’ve no idea, I just see him, can’t catch him. He said, now that’s a real photographer. I liked that. Since there was truth in it. We chatted a bit more, then he took off after this super chic blonde to photograph. I thought, huh, mildly-licentious, but, yeah! It wasn’t until I mentioned it later in the day in passing that someone explained to me who Bill is. Love it. Before he ran of he waved and said, keep snapping kid. I offer the same good-bye, keep snapping, Bill!

Portrait: Julian Julian is someone I have the pleasure to photograph whenever...

Andrei Tarkovsky, some beats, Lanvin…

admin — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 22:55:17 +0000

I know I’ve been mentioning films a lot here, but movies are very influential to my work, as I think they can be for many photographers. So bear with me…but, I watched Andrei Tarkovsky’s, Stalker last night and my jaw was like hanging to my lap for the entire 2hrs. Geeked! Remarkable…no, a brilliant film. I’d never seen any of Tarkovsky’s work and had no idea what to expect, so it totally side-swiped me. Yeah, it’s sorta an old-arty film, so it takes some gear shifting, but it’s not French New Wave, so don’t drug yourself just yet.

photo: still from Andrei Tarkovsky’s film, Stalker.

Now I need to see Tarkovsky’s, Mirror and Solyaris.

photo: still from Andrei Tarkovsky’s film, Mirror.

Still, I appreciate that it’s not for everyone. Talking movies while on set today I lit up and got really excited about having seen Stalker and I could tell pretty quickly nobody cared to hear me wax on about it, let alone log into netflix for it…

…so if it’s not your bag, here’s a link to some crackin-beats: Pete Tong Essential Mix. (FYI, download button is towards bottom of the song list.) Thanks Mr. Diggles for that link; he’s my defenitive line to all things techno and all things Hi-Tech.

Segue.

Saw this gorgeous Lanvin look in the windows of Bergdorf’s the other day and immediatly sent it to a stylist on messanger:

“Me: LOOOOVE this Lanvin look!
Her: Love it and love each and all things Lanvin.
Me: Sigh”

(BTW, feel like you’re a photographer that gets the photos but is dumb on the clothes, well the Bergdorf windows are about the best crash course in fashion you’re going to find.)

Tunes for your New Years Will have some new work to share after the holidays,...
Random notes from this weekend, The William Kentridge exhibit at the MOMA (see this!), notably...
Old Japanese photography and French New Wave ramble. It’s not news that I like Japanese photography from the...

Helen Levitt, a film, back, Kim

admin — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 00:12:24 +0000

For those of you who didn’t hear, Helen Levitt passed away last week. She was a slightly lesser known but no less wonderful NYC street photographer who did a lot of work circa 1950s. Her person and career gives me a heartfelt grin, since photography, and especially street photography, is so much a boy’s club, that I love that a women came and conquered her own place in it. There’s a NPR interview with Levitt, here.

That last picture made me think of this phenomenal film I saw while away, Killer of Sheep. Really really turned my mind around in a way that I didn’t expect, and it was so remarkably shot that I went back and watched a lot of it again w/o sound. The phrase, far out, describes that quite perfectly. Try it…if you want.

It makes me want to begin to shoot motion.

BTW, I’m back, and while I don’t expect you to be excited, after having been traveling the last 6 of 7 weeks for work I’m glowing to be home and to get back to life here. I’ve been shooting for Adidas, Interview, Dazed. I can’t share anything ’til stuff goes to print. Mostly I’m excited to be back to get personal projects going and some fashion stories.

Oh, and on the topic of fashion, I want to point to the story Sebastian Kim did for Numero in this month’s architecture issue. Excellent. I enjoy his work b/c it’s rare to see heavily conceptual work done so, well, uh, well…or with such taste. (There’s actually an older interview with him, here, which is worth reading if you’re starting as a photographer b/c he had a rather unique start to his career having assisted both Avedon and Meisel for extended periods.)

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A poem, a note, and some pics

admin — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 03:31:24 +0000

The author, Haven Kimmel had written this poem during the first chapter of a sprawling and inspiring email conversation I had and remain to have w/ her. Last week for some reason I was possessed by the notion of hearing her read it, for my own pleasure, but also with it in mind to put up here, so I wrote and asked her to record and send. And she obliged!

So, lay back and close your eyes, b/c I doubt you’re going to find this anyplace else.

“The Holy Dove Was Moving Too,” written and read by Haven Kimmel.

Haven has a number of bestsellers riddling the shelf. Go and seek out.

[Change of topic]

Note: my posting here has been pretty thin lately. I’ve been busy. I’ve been busy working on things I’m not in a hurry to go on about here. It’s not my intention to talk work work on this site, at least not in depth. Yes, I’ll drop a post updating the occasional happenings, but only so things don’t wilt here. I suspect these are the thinnest posts. You see, the original purpose of this site was to share the NYC Journal and other work I do that would be otherwise homeless, and also to talk about photography in the most whimsical sense of an art and of what lights the fires in my head and heart. I have no interest in using this site as a marketing tool. Why am I bringing this up? B/c I’ve realized, as I’ve become busier, how the original intent of this blog was very time intensive. The NYC Journal alone is something that I used to spend days on a week, while right now it’s lucky to get a handful of hours in the week. But I’m not complaining, only letting you know I’m learning and making adjustments to keep things going here. Note concluded.

On that note,,,

[Change of topic yet again]

a few random pics:

photo: London, 2009. ©Graeme Mitchell.

NYC Journal 77, and a poem Facing the Music by Paul Auster Blue. And within that...
On the personal project, an ode JeanLoup Sieff lamented the moniker of “personal” when used in...

Music: DJ Excision’s dubstep + picture farmin’ tunes

admin — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:19:29 +0000

So been in Portland, just now wrapping up this commercial job, and as usual I’m crashing with my good friend, Benjamin. He and I have been geeking on a few things, one being dubstep, which seems to be the electronic hype right now. We went to a Pendelum show and this canuck, DJ Excision opened up w/ a gut shaking dubstep set. Rocked my mind…jams you’d never usually hear outside of the hippest sort of party in London or Paris, deep, dark, dirty, apocalyptic, universe-ending beats, and I mean deep and dirty.

You can check his FB page and tour dates, here, or download one of his mixes, here.

Turn this up:

mix: “Shambhala 2008″ by DJ Excision

What does this have to do w/ photography…well, sort of a lot, b/c music is SO key on the set. Some traditional favs of mine are Sigor Ros and the Stones for portraits; for fashion it depends entirely on the vibe, but when a shoot goes to that hard electronica place, for me that means things are going right. And I almost never shoot street stuff sans headphones unless batteries run out, and there it is usually one of two extremes: something like Chopin/Schubert/Verdi or some crackin Breakbeats.

Schubert:

Breakbeats, (Plump DJs):

What do you listen to to set your work off?

Tunes for your New Years Will have some new work to share after the holidays,...

More Guy: videos

admin — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 19:52:10 +0000

I found these to be remarkable. Both in what they are standing alone in the Formalist sense, but also in how they function as a side of Bourdin’s work. I believe he would have shot these during his still shoots, which to me reveals a certain visual obsession, or at the very least a singular idea of great depth…

video: by Guy Bourdin

There are a number of more of them online if you look them up.

Old Japanese photography and French New Wave ramble. It’s not news that I like Japanese photography from the...

Ralph Gibson

admin — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:00:14 +0000

I had not seen much of Ralph Gibson‘s work, only some of his peripheral projects – I knew his name well as he’s revered in the church of Leica and cult of Rodinal – then this evening I came by a used copy of his book Deus Ex Machina, and after flipping through it I had much more respect for what he’s put together over the years. I was going to write some composition theory mumbo-jumbo that had crossed my mind, but then I saw this thorough interview with Gibson that covers all of that and more quite nicely.

photo: “Mary Ellen and Hand,” ©Ralph Gibson.

This image reminds me of that phenomenal French short La Jetée that I posted a little while back: here…in case you missed that one.

Portrait: Kevin Baker, for Interview The painter, Kevin Baker for Interview, Aug 09. photo: Kevin...

Vik Muniz

admin — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:06:18 +0000

My friend, Kelly, sent me this video of Vik Muniz speaking for TED (which are often excellent talks if you’ve never seen them).

It’s welcome relief, and also I think rare, in the visual arts to see someone do work that is thoughtful and technically interesting but moreover that is inspired with humor.

Nice start to the day.

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Lunch, Miles Aldridge, Guy Bourdin, Rankin

admin — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:02:37 +0000

Met up with a stylist/fashion-ed yesterday for lunch and we were talking work; work work work: what’s new, what’s good, what’s fresh…you get the idea. She told me to look at Miles Aldridge‘s work. Not exactly a new name, but I’m thinking, the guy who shoots shiny for NYTimes mag? She responds, yeah maybe, but look at his stuff, digital wah!, which I know you’re not into, but it’s fucked up, which I know you are into. True and true…for the most part.

Given the post, I obviously did check out his work and obviously liked it. I mean, how to make a watch sing:

photo: Minuit, Paradis, 2007. ©Miles Aldridge.

Now that’s not so much twisted as more digestably erotic, excellent nonetheless. If you shoot sexy in fashion you’re pretty much coming from one of two similar but also disparate schools. Newton, who made for a confluence of the erotic and style. Or Bourdin, who did the same with eroticism and discomfort. Aldridge’s lineage is more of the latter. The difference is that Bourdin’s work tunneled below the image to something more troubling. There was an honesty to what he did, and much of his work then manages to transcend a sexually disquieted idea to a palpably troubling psychological event, to something that approaches the sick, but subtly so. (Not to say Aldridge’s work is superficial or dishonest, not at all, rather maybe I’m just pointing out in a round about way it’s contemporary traits. Suggesting the possibility that our current culture may be more reserved and commercial than, say, the 1920s or 1960s in some manners. We often associate the past with simplicity and a pietist nature and the the present with the opposite…consider that possibly we like to give ourselves undue credit in these regards, while culture and history ebb and flow.) Old news though, as I’ve hashed Bourdin here before, as countless have elsewhere.

photo: for Vogue magazine, ©Guy Bourdin Foundation.

But, if you want to see some actual footage of him, which is as rare as anything, someone emailed me this show (in eight short parts) last week of Rankin recreating some classic work. My first thoughts on the shows was a not getting the, why, but then I guess it’s for TV so that makes overall futilities excusable. Never mind that though, b/c I think it’s worth a watch for the superb old footage alone…or for David Baily.

Things I liked this week… The portraits by Lucia Moholy were the one thing at...

The Faces of Youth

admin — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 22:00:19 +0000

A friend, Mr. Diggles, just posted this on his site and I had to heist it and put it here too. Aside from the humor in this video, and maybe some troubling insights (but which I think are just kids being kids), it’s remarkable b/c it’s so visually well done. At first I guessed it was something Jill Greenberg was up to given the lighting, but it turns out it was done by the photographer, Robbie Copper. Originally posted at NY Times’ site (here). There’s a text on Robbie Copper’s site explaining the project in further detail, which has much more depth than just this short video, worth reading if your interest is piqued.

video: ©Robbie Cooper.

Great stuff.

photo: from Immersion series. ©Robbie Cooper.

No related posts.

On the media: on rules of the editorial portrait

admin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:28:04 +0000

Being a few days old, this has probably already been discussed in web-o-land, but someone just sent me a link to this NPR On the Media episode discussing editorial portraiture w/ Martin Schoeller, Jill Greenberg, and Platon.

Here’s the MP3:

audio: NPR’s On The Media, “Snap Judgments”, Noverber 28, 2008.

They summed it up right off the bat when they said it’s about money – I’d specify for the magazines and the photographers. After all, I’ll hullabaloo with the best of them on art and integrity and. But editorial remains a business (even if it’s the biz of getting tearsheets). And the end of the day ethics of business is profit.

Bresson and Weegee audio recordings A photographer (thanks, James!) sent me these great little finds...

La Jetée, the film

admin — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:56:20 +0000

I came by this incredible apocalyptic (chic right now) sci-fi (ditto) film, La Jetée, over at Amy Stein’s blog.

To say this short film is visually remarkable is a remarkable understatement. And further, the minimal creativity of it will make you long for a time when work like this was conceived, let alone completed. It’s at once brilliant and beautiful, which are two things not easy to couple. Needless to say, it got into my head b/c I’ve never really seen anything like it.

But watch it for yourself, here in 3 parts. It might be one of the best half hours of your week.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

(Amy also mentioned on her blog that there is a book version of La Jetée‘s images with the narrative as text by MIT press (here). My notion is that it’d be excellent.)

(Also, it occurred to me by the end that this short was the inspiration for 12 Monkeys.)

(And while we’re on the video blitz of gloom. T.S. Eliot’s great poem “The Hollow Men” as recited by Marlon Brando (playing Kurtz in Apocolypse Now (Redux version), which makes sense, b/c one of Eliot’s main inspirations for “Hollow Men” was Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness, which as you know was the basis of Apocalypse Now. The film does leave out the opening line of Eliot’s poem, “Mistah Kurtz – he dead”):

“This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but with a whimper”
-final stanza of “The Hollow Men”

photo: T.S. Eliot at his desk, Jan 18, 1944. ©Bob Landry/Life Images.

…)

And it comes full circle, B/c the French film maker Chris Marker who did La Jetée also did a multimedia installation on Eliot’s “Hollow Men” titled OWLS AT NOON Prelude: The Hollow Men. I’ve not seen it nor can I find it.

No related posts.

Nike courage spot

admin — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:07:59 +0000

I was talking with a friend at W+K, and she was genuinely proud of the new courage spot they’d put out recently for Nike. Click here to see it bigger.

Nike/W+K is one of the reigning kings of transcending product and making their product seem nearly intangible…or as tangible as being a hero in a Rocky Balboa manner of being, I guess.

( ).

This of course entails heaps of bathos, but so what.

video: Nike “Courage” tv spot, done by W+K Portland.

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Garry Winogrand

admin — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:41:03 +0000

You could write a book on Winogrand and his short but unique life and the even more unique working process he had in creating what I think is a seminal and arguably one of the most representative bodies of classic American documentary photography ever produced. What I find most appealing in his photographs is how full of life they are, not only in literal content, but that there is a also sense Winogrand’s brimming taste for existence in them. Partially it comes from the archetypes that he was drawn to and how they effortlessly inspire narratives, but there’s more to it that that. It’s as though you become Winogrand in the shots, you take on his gaze, you know his intelligence and humors, you feel as he did and see the narrative he sees. This presence, the presence of the photographer, doesn’t ever shrink from the photographs, and thus the notion of the photograph as an artifact is also never lost. So a strength of these photographs is that they’re clearly one man’s fiction, like they’re written in first person, opposed to most photographs that are in the third person voice. This is amazing and bizarre to me b/c it is a specific and a rare thing. Or at least it seems rare to me. Like I said, a book could be written, or at least a many-paged Master’s dissertation.

Furthermore, as far as street work goes, I think anyone who has ever tried to or even succeeded in photographing daily life would be humbled by what Winogrand achieved. I certainly am.

There’s a nice article on him, here, and for fun some pics of his M4, here.

(A side story I found interesting: when I was last at the MOMA I was with my friend, Benjamin. He enjoys photography more than you’re average Joe but is by no means versed in it or attempts any sort of sophistication in regards to it. In short, he enjoys whatever catches his eyes. Well, there were prints from any number of the greats hanging on the walls, including a series of maybe 10 pictures that Winogrand had shot at the NYC Zoo and the Coney Island Aquarium. If I recall they hung between Koudelka’s early work on the Gypsies and Diane Arbus‘ later work of the mentally handicapped Halloween outing. Imo, the Winogrand work was much more layered and much more difficult to appreciate. I’d have expected Benjamin to be drawn to Arbus’ otherness or Koudelka’s darkness. Yet, I watched him pass quickly over those and then come to a stand still at Winogrand’s photographs. He found them amazing. I complimented his taste, but I also became aware of something commonplace in Winogrands work that makes it something that anyone can be awed by, lacking pretense of high-art-conceit, which is why, I guess, I consider him the American street shooter, of the people and for the people. (Compare this to his more inaccessible contemporary Friedlander, who, btw, Benjamin didn’t take a second glance at…))

Finally, I caught this 2 part video at the 2point8 blog. It’s a clip of Winogrand with Bill Moyers:

First part,

And the second,

On the personal project, an ode JeanLoup Sieff lamented the moniker of “personal” when used in...

Midnight Cowboy

admin — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 14:34:51 +0000

First, I’ll admit that I’m pinching this find from Dossier’s blog. I don’t spend enough time online to dig this stuff up on my own. Speaking of pinching, this scene from John Schlesinger ’s film, Midnight Cowboy is ripe to be ripped off and made into a fashion story. (If you can do it. Do it! Play your cards right and you could build a fashion career on psychedelia right now. Which would be as ironic as the new John Varvatos in the old CBGB space on the Bowery. Sigh – alas, I think it’ll take an apocalypse of sorts (entirely feasible) before our post-modernist sensibilities of relative-truth and irony make the chance of a certainty – a sensibility unmistakable in this video clip – possible again. Until then the safest bet is inaction, un-care, or insanity…or likely a mix of the three. Or maybe there’s a fourth path too: engaging some Warhorlian high-intelligence. (Wait though, Dylan did write “Lay Lady Lay” for this film and it didn’t make the cut, which for some probably critically flawed reason on my part makes me think sentimentalizing the past is always a fallacy, b/c I can only imagine the reason for a song like “Lay Lady Lay” to be rejected would be a crude reason.)) Check out this clip anyway, for me its like a feverish susurration, and a self-aware requiem of an era to boot.

video: Party scene from Midnight Cowboy, 1969.

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Rick Smolan Talk

admin — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:42:28 +0000

Found this over at the PopPhoto blog, pretty heartwarming,

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William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize speech

admin — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:17:38 +0000

This is a recording of William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech, as prevalent today as it was when he originally read it I believe.

audio: William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech. Delivered, Dec 10, 1950 in Stockholm Sweden

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Bruce Gilden

admin — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:58:55 +0000

At work:

“I have no ethics.”

Or are your ethics just bigger than the commonplace, Bruce?

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On Models

admin — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:52:09 +0000

The Imagist has a video post up of the model Natasa Vojnovic (w/Women) at work.

See the video here.

She’s tremendous, and I can’t iterate enough the affect a girl who moves like that and works that hard has on the final images. Models can make or break a shoot.

Down to brass tax, I want to photograph her.

Speaking of Sims and Natasa, here’s a peek of there up coming spread in V #52 (March, ’08). Styling by Karl Templer. And that (wicked) hair by Guido.

Portrait: Kevin Baker, for Interview The painter, Kevin Baker for Interview, Aug 09. photo: Kevin...

And Steven Meisel…

admin — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 14:34:49 +0000

My respect for Steven Meisel (w/ Art and Commerce) and the consistent work he has produced and continues to produce can’t be overstated. And this video does nothing to dissuade that opinion. If anything, it reinforces it.

video: from Portfolio (1983) the movie.

Now insert ear to ear grin here b/c I honestly can’t tell if this was done in earnest or not. But regardless, and as absurd as the video is, a shot from a great editorial Meisel did recently shows that he, in fact, knows very well what he’s doing:

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Josef Koudelka (also compared to William Eggleston)

admin — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 00:37:57 +0000

“The maximum, that is what has always interested me.” – Joseph Koudelka

You’d think this quote is a tad hyperbolic, but I think it’s not so full of trope and more honest than one would presume coming from Koudelka. I was looking at two of his books today. Initially, I was struck by really nice prints (done primarily by Vojin Mitrovic at Picto labs in Paris), but then I just kept getting sucked deeper and deeper into Koudelka’s work. Maybe I was prone to profundity this afternoon, but I saw a great capacity for intelligence and vision that functions by transcending the everyday in his images.

Many of his picture’s – the less overtly photojournalistic ones mostly – rhythm and composition, brought to mind the sensibility Eggleston purported of a democracy of objects taking place within the photograph’s frame: a place where all things can be represented equally. Seems like a long shot putting the likes of Koudelka and Eggleston in the same sentence, but it crossed my mind. As a side note, this Eggleston picture is the sort of thing most photographers spend their life trying to accomplish; it’s perfect.

Though the comparison of Eggleston and Koudelka doesn’t go much further than that except for their dedication to the more panoramic of formats, 2:1 for Eggleston, 3:1 for Koudelka later in his career. I say the comparison falls off b/c I think Eggleston’s images tend to point you in a direction, suggesting what you’re to think or just being more implicit with their sense of irony. Maybe this is a function of the color, I don’t know? Koudelka, on the other hand, you sink into his images all the same, but they don’t guide you at all, more like they spin you around and then let you figure out for yourself where you are and what’s going on. What I’m referring to comes from a subtle sense of abstraction that is present in a lot of his work. His images of the wrist-hand-watch in the center of totally unrelated scene is a perfect example of how his work is good… Unfortunately, more of the work I’m referring to is his later panoramic images that are harder to come by, but if you can find a book of his you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Update: I guess it turns out, after talking with someone in regards to this post, that I just missed Koudelka speaking here in NYC early this April at the Aperture Gallery in Chelsea, moderated by photo critic Vicki Goldberg. I’m happy to say thanks to the internet I did find this mp3 recording of the talk courtesy of Max Pasion, which I’ll also stream here.

Joseph Koudelka speaking at Aperture Gallery in New York City. April, 2007. Moderated by Vick Goldberg.

Update 2: some of those panoramas I was talking about from Koudelka’s book The Black Triangle. Hopefully it’ll make my Eggleston comment a bit more sane:

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Mano-Destra tune.

admin — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 02:27:05 +0000

This is a treat. I was clicking around on my server and found Mano-Destra’s “Anomaly Girl” mp3. Now, I’ve no idea from where it came, but that’s not the concern: what’s important is that you get it on your ipod and listen to it on the subway.

Unfortunately, he’s currently revamping his site, but I hear his new site will be up soon and it’s full of big ideas.

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Plath Reading

admin — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 04:46:53 +0000

Here are two quieting readings by Sylvia Plath of her poems “Lady Lazarus” and “Daddy”, which I hope you take a moment for. Don’t watch the videos, or continue with anything else for that matter, close your eyes, wipe your mind, and listen openly.

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