Street & Studio

Andreas Serrano © from the series Nomads

Street & Studio is an exhibition of international photography at the Tate Modern London. The exhibition includes a collection of of photographic portraiture taken on the street or in the studio. Over 350 works are gathered in this exhibition, by some of the world’s most famous and important photographers including Francis Alÿs, Diane Arbus, Cecil Beaton, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Rineke Dijkstra, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Robert Mapplethorpe, Irving Penn, Norman Parkinson, August Sander, Cindy Sherman, Malick Sidibé, Paul Strand, James Van der Zee, Juergen Teller and Wolfgang Tillmans.

Lee To Sang ©, Photo Studio Amsterdam

By Adrian Searle from The Guardian

Portraiture is the key to Tate Modern's new photography exhibition, Street & Studio. The show's subject, over and above the medium and conventions of photography, is really ourselves, in a multitude of guises.
Grace Kelly jumps in the air for Philippe Halsman's camera in 1955. Weegee jumped, and so did Marilyn, and now they're suspended forever. David Bailey throws himself to the floor to photograph Veruschka, while Bert Stern nabs them both in an arty 1960s image. Last year South African photographer Pieter Hugo shot Nigerian Abdullahi Mohammed beneath an elevated section of highway in Lagos. Abdullahi holds a muzzled hyena on a chain. The moment is full of power and danger. Caught on camera, a well-groomed lawyer on the corner of West 41st Street totes his laundry and eyes Joel Sternfeld warily in 1988. The world feels full.
From beginning to end of this compendious and not altogether successful show, like a kind of insistent background din, is the roar of the city. You can hear it above the silence of the images themselves - in the clatter of a Paris street in the rain by Alfred Stieglitz, in the footsteps of commuters heading for work in Paul Strand's 1915 Wall Street, in the drunken shouts and murmurs of Boris Mikhailov's alcoholics. The exhibition calls itself an urban history of photography, and it takes us from mid-19th century Paris and London to present-day Shanghai and Mexico City. In many respects, it covers familiar territory: histories of photography are 10 a penny. Some of the work here just feels unnecessary. More here http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/may/21/photography.art

Tate Modern and Flickr

mike&lori by zeiss66super ©

A great promotion for photography has taken place at Tate Modern this summer.

Tate Modern has partnered with Flickr and Blurb and has invited people to contribute to a unique photo book with their own portrait street photographs.

After submissions a selection of 100 photographs will be chosen by a panel of curators, artists, photographers and others to form the book. The 100 will also form a slideshow in the gallery and be archived on Tate Online as part of the exhibition's website.
The book will be produced using Blurb, the creative self-publishing platform. If your photograph is selected for inclusion, you will receive a copy. Once it is produced, further copies of the book will be available through the Blurb Bookstore

Rhubarb Rhubarb

Ferit Kuyas ©

While i was in London few days ago, few miles away in the East Midlands an international photography festival was on the way. This year festival was somehow different to 2007, infact compare to previous years the organizers decided to focus on the reviewing as a main object to this year festival. The first Rhubarb Rhubarb International Review was taking place. More infos and video on http://www.rhubarb-rhubarb.net/

Ferit Kuyas was one of the photographer taking part at the review

Question time with Benedetta Alfieri

Benedetta Alfieri ©

I saw Benedetta Alfieri work for the first time in Reggio Emilia this year during the festival. I was very interested in understanding more about this project that I asked Benedetta to take part in this Question time. (hopefully soon to be in English)

PH39 - In questa tua ricerca che importanza ha l`esperienza del vissuto rappresentato come assenza del corpo?
Benedetta Alfieri - Vissuto e assenza sono il binomio su cui si fonda questa ricerca sul corpo: da una parte, il vissuto è ciò che caratterizza il corpo perchè è attraverso di esso che si esiste e si vive; dall'altra, il corpo è però sottratto alla vista e quindi assente. Esistono allora delle tracce, dei segni, che dicono che qualcosa c'era, c'è stato, ha attraversato, con l'esperienza, gli oggetti fotografati. Non fotografo nuovi ed intonsi abiti, scarpe o "arredi corporei", come sono stati chiamati in diverse occasioni; non faccio fotografia di moda, anche se mi è capitato, e non propongo oggetti contestualizzati che lanciano modelli di vita e immaginari a cui tendere. Mi interessa l'oggetto consumato dall'uso, non necessariamente consunto, ma comunque usato: il vissuto mostra sempre dei segni, anche se a volte impercettibili o delicatissimi. L'esperienza del vissuto è allora fondamentale in questa ricerca: un paio di scarpe fotografate mostrano tagli, macchie, piccole deformazioni, stringhe usurate, modi di annodare i legacci, ecc. Attraverso l'osservazione di un paio di scarpe fotografate, si possono conoscere caratteristiche e vicende del corpo di un essere umano che non si vede.
PH39 - Il corpo evoca l'assenza attraverso le tracce che ha lasciato, raccontaci chi sono state queste persone.
B A - Le immagini esposte a Fotografia Europea sono tutte inedite e costituiscono uno sviluppo della ricerca che porto avanti da qualche anno. L'esordio è stato l'analisi di oggetti provenienti dall'ambiente familiare; in questo caso, invece, gli oggetti fotografati appartengono ad amici e rappresentano dei ritratti, quasi delle carte d'identità. In mostra ci sono indizi precisi, anche se forse silenti, del fatto che le fotografie rimandano a persone in carne ed ossa: nelle didascalie sono indicate infatti le iniziali di nome e cognome, l'anno di nascita e la misura, espressa in cm, del piede della persona ritratta; vere e proprie tracce d'identità considerando che oggetti quali le scarpe raccolgono l'impronta, la gravità, l'incombenza del corpo, la sua simmetria o asimmetria, il suo equilibro e ancora il movimento, il modo di camminare e muoversi nel mondo. Per Reggio Emilia il progetto fotografico si è inscritto in un contesto molto particolare dove già preesistevano altre opere: si è creato così un intervento site specific, un pò ironico, dove diverse opere pittoriche di Cesare Detti sono state scelte per essere abbinate alle fotografie de Il passo negato; in questo modo, si è aggiunto un ulteriore significato alla ricerca, quasi a suggerire che i personaggi ritratti nei quadri, siano usciti per un attimo dalla loro sede per farsi una passeggiata nella contemporaneità e rietrando nei quadri, si siano levati, per educazione, le scarpe.

Benedetta Alfieri ©

PH39 - Nei tuoi lavori i soggetti vengono quasi decontestualizzati su sfondi bianchi, e` un processo che aiuta la soggettivita` dell' oggetto?
B A - Forse sì. Anche se, inizialmente, parlerei di "oggettività dell'oggetto". Mi spiego: la ripresa, il fondo, l'illuminazione, la scelta dei materiali concorrono affinchè l'oggetto si veda con la miglior resa; l'evidenza e la naturalezza, ma anche l'assolutezza, finiscono per creare un'atmosfera di "oggettività", di pretesa oggettività, perchè siamo di fronte a deliberate scelte di linguaggio. Tale pretesa oggettività finisce per favorire una fortissima soggettività, dove gli oggetti riescono a raccontare di soggetti, dove gli oggetti finiscono per dire molto di più di quello che ci si aspetterebbe da loro.
PH39 - Gli oggetti che fotografi hanno loro stessi delle memorie, sono parte di un percorso narrativo?
B A - Gli oggetti fotografati sono già di per sè dei racconti perchè, attraverso caratteristiche e particolari, narrano della loro storia e della storia di chi li ha portati, di chi li ha abitati. Molto spesso, inoltre, questi oggetti hanno tra loro dei rimandi, cromatici o di forma, che corrispondono a legami, relazioni tra le persone. Esistono, in questo universo di oggetti proposti fotograficamente, dei livelli di lettura che vanno dall'elementare considerazione che siamo di fronte a degli oggetti, all'immaginazione della storia che sta dietro agli elementi che li costituiscono, alla costruzione di relazioni tra l'uno e l'altro.
PH39 - I tuoi lavori rispecchiano le dimensioni reali dei soggetti, che importanza ha per te questo rapporto di 1:1?

B A - La dimensione reale ha una notevole importanza: è un elemento di linguaggio, una scelta precisa. Gli oggetti che fotografo ripropongono con esattezza le misure degli oggetti reali. Anche se è ormai banale esplicitarlo, una cosa è un oggetto, una cosa è la fotografia di quell'oggetto: riproposti in 1:1 i soggetti delle fotografie finiscono per avere un effetto straniante, quasi non li si riconoscesse più come oggetti.

Photography against Consumerism

Hans Aarsman ©

Hans Aarsman exhibition is on show at the Photographers Gallery in London. After a personal experience, the artist realize how easily it was to give things up after he had photographed them. This inspired him to photograph possessions preventively, to curb his compulsive desire to possess things. Aarsman combines photos and text in a personal manifesto for ‘photography against consumerism’. This project invites us to consider our compulsion to own, to keep and to collect. Open until September 14

Pieter Hugo winner at Arles 2008

Pieter Hugo © Abdullahi Mohammed with Mainasara, Lagos, Nigeria 2007

Pieter Hugo wins the 2008 Discovery Award at Rencontres d’Arles 2008
Born in 1976 in South Africa were he lives and works http://www.pieterhugo.com/
The Rencontres d’Arles Discovery Award goes to a photographer or an artist making use of photography whose work has been recently discovered internationally or deserves to be. The winner is chosen by a vote of photography professionals present in Arles during opening week and receives 25,000 €.

Five professionals from different countries and different photographic fields – Elisabeth Biondi, Caroline Issa and Masoud Golsorkhi, Nathalie Ours, Carla Sozzani, Luis Venegas – have each been invited by Christian Lacroix to designate three photographers to exhibit at the Rencontres as candidates for the Discovery Award.

When artists become their own dealers

From an article By Sarah Thornton for The Art Newspaper

"Beautiful Inside My Head Forever” sounds like the name of a new work by Damien Hirst, but it’s actually the title of his solo sale at Sotheby’s. The “Beautiful” auction raises many questions, including: Is Hirst sabotaging his own market? On several stands at Art Basel last month, new and vintage Hirst works remained unsold. Hirst’s studios are not only extremely efficient in keeping his official dealers well stocked with a good range of spot, spin, and butterfly paintings, but in making direct sales themselves.

At a time when some gallerists are experiencing a minor slowdown, one dealer suspected the artist of orchestrating an “end-of-boom fire sale” to accommodate his alleged over-production. True believers, however, see Hirst’s abundant serial output as essential to his oeuvre. One collector close to both Jopling and Gagosian told me, “I love Damien’s work, but his treatment of his business partners is abusive and selfish.” Certainly many gallerists believe the auction is “a horrible precedent”.

However, some view the sale as an almost philosophical event. As dealer-collector David Mugrabi explains, “It seems to be a game for Damien. He’s seeing if he can get away with murder, just as Duchamp did with his urinal.” Damien is one of the few who could pull this off.” We have been the crossover pioneers of morphing business models. Art is all about transforming and border testing, but the dealer logic has been very conservative.”

However, when artists become their own dealers, Dr Neumeister says, “I worry for their freedom and their peace of mind. It’s time consuming and distracting. That’s why it’s great Damien has his alter ego. In the end, it is important to note that the sale is not guaranteed and to remember that Hirst’s personal collection is called “Murder Me”. So, one must agree with Sotheby’s Oliver Barker when he declares, “Damien is totally fearless. He’s not just an outstanding artist, he’s a cultural phenomenon.”

Basilico Book on Rome

Gabriele Basilico ©

Last week a presentation of Gabriele Basilico new book on Rome took place at FNAC Milan. Two italian curator, Angela Madesani and Roberta Valtorta where introducing Basilico new book and giving their view on the project and evolution of the photographer`s work. Roma 2007, title of the book, is Basilico first entire book with colour photographs, 80 images with an opaque light that the photographer describes as less photographic but more real.

Valtorta who has followed Basilico`s work for over thirty years, has defined this book as a clear passage into a new type of photography for Basilico "a new vision of his photography" where the colour is the new element. Angela Madesani was also welcoming this new approach when introducing the book to the audience describing his use of colour as "pictorial and almost romantic" view of the capital.

Basilico approached the project on Rome by following his river. The Tevere with his bridges was the road and the only guide for Basilico taking him into hidden and new places of the city. The photographer also used the edges of the river as his viewpoint, giving him a peek into natural and urban landscape from the north to the south of the capital.

Heavy Light at ICP New York

Tomoko Sawada © From the series "School Days," 2004

Heavy Light: Recent Photography and Video from Japan will present the exciting and highly individualistic work of a new generation of Japanese artists who have come of age following the Asian economic crash of 1990. For the last several years, China has been the focus of attention for contemporary Asian art, while the remarkable and distinctive younger generation of Japanese artists who are working today has been largely ignored. This ICP exhibition will be the first major U.S. presentation of contemporary photo-based artwork from Japan in over ten years. Heavy Light will present the work of thirteen artists and will fill most of the ICP gallery space. The exhibition will include both photographs and video, many of which are large and dramatic pieces. Curated by ICP curator Christopher Phillips and Noriko Fuku of the University of Art and Design in Kyoto, Heavy Light will be accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue and a range of public programs.

Masayuki Yoshinaga © Goth-Loli: Ageha 24 Aoko 23, 2006

Article from the New York Times

Japanese Culture, in Vivid Color

By Roberta Smith

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/arts/design/13heav.html

Harri Palviranta

Harri Palviranta©

While I was at Photoespana last week i met up with Harri Palviranta at the french embassy in Madrid for the opening party of Agence Vu. Harri is the winner of Descubrimientos 07 and he was at Photoespana with a personal exhibition "Battered". I mentioned to him about http://www.ph39.com/ and after a chat and few drinks he agreed to talk to us about his projects. Here is our conversation via email.

PH39 - Your portfolio contains a mix of landscapes, portraits, reportage and documentary projects that sometime appear so different from one another, is that the case? How do you structure your research for such a wide range of work?

Harri - My artistic trajectory hasn't been straight forward, true. But as I look back to my own work, I see two thematic paths which I seem to keep on being interested in: the first one is issues relating to male being and identity, the other is issues relating to violence. In some
works, for example in "Battered", these themes come together. You are categorising my work through visual generic terms. I mainly work from thematic backround and choose the ways of telling in realtion to that. I am not a portrait photographer, neither a landscape one. I try to approach the topic with most suitable photographic methods available.
The other issue is, how my wide artistic practises relates to my research projects. As you know, I am preparing my PhD at the University of Art and Design Helsinki (http://www.taik.fi/). In my research I am asking whether certain photographic artworks and the ways they are received and understood by the audience can be studied from communicative perspective. From its groundings communicative perspective assumes that if there is communication happening at all,
there needs to be something the “sender” and the “receiver” shares.
Following this the main question in my research is how do the artist’s and viewer’s perspectives and significations relate to each other. Further I ask what are the differences in interpretations and how can they be explained. I am conducting the study (it includes questionairies, qualitative interviews and writings by school classes) in gallery surroundings during the exhibitions and with the artworks that are made by myself. I am conducting the study with three different bodies of work. First one was "Prison sheets", second one is "Battered" and the third one
is still to be made or in progress. So I am not doing the research with all of my work. The thing that ties together the series is the issue (violence) and the photographic/artistic practise or
perspectice (documentary works).

Harri Palviranta©

PH39 - Your work has looked at practises of violence in different ways and in your projects violence is often part of the story being crude, direct or subtle. How do you edit your work, how do you select the ones to show?
Harry - Editing process is an interesting one indeed! I am rather rational in ways I create or embark a project, then I seem to be just going for it, little later when I have some pictures done I start reconsidering my approach and topic and challenges that has appeared. This become a cycle. I quess that is the time I start the editing process also. Then with the final edit it is quite intuitive. I have a tendency of getting little bored with too great repetition, both when making and watching art, so I try to maintain a fresh blow within the series, to built some variation inside it. I am aware of demand to built coherent series, but I wish to maintain possibility for the variation as well. I think the final edit is something that goes visually well together, that has variation in it, that offers possibilities to variety of argumentative approaches. The edit also always changes according to exhibition place.

Harri Palviranta©

PH39 - In "Badscapes" you deal with historic and contemporary war sites, how did you research start for this subject, and would you consider it an ongoing project?
Harry -This theme keeps on interesting me, but as it is an issue that has been photographically studied rather widely (Simon Norfolk, Paul Graham, Paul Seawright, Ari Saarto amongst may others), I try to keep my hands off it! This project of mine, "Badscapes" and "On Violence", that started 1999 had rather personal starting points. In Finnish history and contemporary Finnish landscape there are a lot of places, both concrete landscapes and mindscapes, that are regognized and also celebrated through and bacause of their war ralated connotations. I bacame interested in this ceremonial orientation and the normality building processes that the places represented. I still have few projects going on that are related to this issue. On the other hand, I would not like to repeat me over and over again.


PH39 -In "Battered" you went out in Turku, a stutent town not far from where you live, sometime on your own and with police during weekend nights. How did you look for subjects and what kind of reactions did you get from the people living daytime Turku?
Harry - When I started the "Battered" project I was actually living in Turku. It is a town of some 230 000 inhabitants including the surrounding areas. I had done many of my previous projects far away from my home so I thought that maybe I should look at my home ground as well. The topic is very self evident in Finland, no one just had done it before. Of course it was difficult to execute. Most nights I was just wasting my time, I didn't come accross any fights. Once you look at them, they become hard to find. And then sometimes you can see many of them during the same night. And certainly I was not able to photograph all the people I saw beaten up, no way. Some people regognized me during the daytime, but it was not a trouble or benefit either. And when the work came public, when it was exhibited for the first time in Helsinki, Finland, it caused a some sort of media reaction and discussion. Then some people regognized me again. Of course then I was living in Helsinki. There are some controversial issues in the work, some ethical questions can be raised. Minor waves aroused in Finland.
Harri Palviranta©
PH39 - In your street style social documentarism has probably taken you into some awkward situation. Do you explain to people what your project is about or maybe not? Tell us of some of the problems if any, you have run into? Harry - When approaching people with my camera I made it clear that I am photographing them. I never photographed people without a verbal consent. I explained them briefly who I am and what I am doing, and then took the pictures. All the people in the photographs are aware that they have been photographed. There has been some questions whether all the people fully comprehended what my aim was, but this is an issue always. The ethical controverises I mentioned link to this one here. I kind of trusted that the people I photographed were adults and in their full understanding. None of them were fully drunk or unconscious. In Finland it is legal to photograph everything that happens in public space, including people. When publishing pictures there are then some more restrictions.


PH39 - In the past few years more photographers have developed fine art documentary project. You said to me that you consider yourself a socially orientated photographer, can you see a boundary between social documentary and art photography, how you see your work fitting into this?
Harri - This generic categorizing between documentary and art photography is an interesting one. It is kind of a comparative synonym to realistic and fiction. Or to documentary and post documentary. These divisions and separations, they all both amuse and annoy me. I know photographers / artists that do not want to get affiliated with photography festivals or galleries because these are not contemporary art related events or locations, according to their taste and understanding. These same photographers / artists happily take their work to Paris Photo or Berlin art fairs. Here they choose commercialism rather than uncommersially oriented festivals. My position as socially orientes photographer or artist is a reflection from this: I understand art having multiple possibilities in contemporary societies, one of them is a critical voise. I do not want a situation, where art's attractivity gets defined only through its commercial success. Art possesses qualities beyond commercial values, this is certain both from historical or contemporary point of view. To put it another words, I see a kind of boundary between documentary and art photography, also between press and documentary photography or between high quality aesthetic and more thematically oriented photographic art etc, but I would like to see them all alive and well, none of them being descriminated. It just can be that somehow many contemporary artists are afraid of political orientation or biased perspectives, that global economy has redused them to mere economical agents. I wish art could be more than just a joy.

PH39 - When i met you in Madrid last week we talked about your Phd research at the University of Helsinki, surely a great opportunity to focus more on future projects. Would you mind telling us more about it?
Harri - University of Art and Design Helsinki (http://www.taik.fi/) is very high quality University level art and design school, I would say. In photogarphic art it has a BA program, a MA program and an ever developing PhD program. Altogether the photography education in Finland is very high level. The University of Art and Design is going through a great change just now, it is to be changed to foundation owned university instead being only state funded. More likely this means more money, and more research vacancies and funding to practise based art research projects. It is a good place to work. My funding goes until end of 2011. I am a part of larger project called The Doctoral School of Communication Studies CORE. It has researchers from various disciplines.