About The F Blog projects

The first day of this year 2008, we released three projects that are meant to run all of the year; Face to Face, Docu 08 and Trees. We are glad to receive so many contributions to the projects - the actual standing is Face to Face (92 postings), Trees (69) and Docu 08 (10). However this is of course not mainly about quantity - we want you to go on sending great quality photographs related to the projects. You will find all information you need in small introductions to each project.



The mini projects will come and go and we finish a couple of them today. Still featured are Shopwindows, Houses and Kitchen. We remind you that there is no obligation to stick to the featured projects. If you want to share pictures related to previous mini projects, please do.There is a growing list of such projects; café, street corners, reality or fiction, kiosk, hair and music - they are still with their labels active. If you have any suggestions about new mini projects - don´t hesitate to send us a line.



Postcard from: This is a way to emphasize the international charachter of the F blog. We want pictures from the city, town or village where you live. So, please no postcards from your holidays. This project will run forever - or at least as long as the F Blog is around.

about titles of photos in F 08 projects etc.

We are truly glad to receive so many excellent pictures in our new projects. This is just the first day of 365 and we already have an impressive collection. Keep them coming! In order to "organize" this flow a bit, we have set up a list called "All photographers in F 08 projects." We will list your names there and link to the post where your picture is found. If you send more pictures over the year, they will be listed as well after your name.

You are free to put any title you want to your picture. The title will be displayed below the photo. If we have failed so far in putting a correct title, please send an email to let us know.

You are welcome to send series as well. If you want them published in a certain sequence, let us know. If you send several pictures, we may decide to publish them on different occasions.

Do you want us to link to your web site or blog? Please tell us. We will not do it otherwise. Many thanks!

F Blog project 08: Face to Face

Photo: Tom Holmlund

"A picture of a person or persons that captures their likeness, especially their face."

Portrait photography has been around since the birth of photography. In the year of 1850 daguerreotype portraits were the talk of the town - over 100 000 of them were taken in Paris alone.

About that time another technical achievement - the wet collodion process was invented - which probably was the reason why Julia Margaret Cameron started to photograph and make portraits.

A quick ride through the history of photography takes us to New York and the 1920s, with Alfred Stieglitz obsessed by the idea of creating the ultimate portrait of Georgia O´Keeffe. Perhaps was he in a way instead portraying himself as O´Keeffe indicates in her introduction to an exhibition with selected portraits (1978).

Nickolas Muray was a master of portraits in colour - you know him from several articles on the blog.

Photo: Per-Arne Andersson

But let’s talk about 2008 and Face-to-Face. We would like to see portraits where "eyes meet", where there is a dialogue between the photographer and the portrayed person. Where you (as the third person involved) will get a feeling of someone looking back at you from the picture. We are not excluding self-portraits - on the contrary.

Photo: Mikael Jansson

You may send series or individual pictures. In this project you don’t have to worry about when the photo is taken. Whether from 1978 or 2008 – it will be fine.

F Blog project: DOCU-08

photo: Anders Blomqvist

Our second project this year is called DOCU-08.

"Every photograph could be taken as a document or piece of art. It’s not about two different types of photographs. The decision is up to the observer, to the one who thinks about them." - Jean-Claude Lemagny cited by Francois Soulages in "Aesthetics of Photography".

Is the same decision present when it comes to documentary and photojournalism - the reportage? Documentary (after wikipedia) "usually refers to a type of professional photo journalism, but it may also be an amateur or student pursuit. The photographer attempts to produce truthful, objective, and usually candid photography of a particular subject, most often pictures of people. The pictures usually depict a certain perspective of the photographer."

photo: Christian Wettergren

Let's think about the real documentary photography. What is it today? Is it still part of the professional photojournalism? Is it mainly about people and candid shots? Is the decision up to the observer or up to the photographer?

If you take your time to browse the blog, you will find pictures from the history of documentary photography. Just to mention a few: the photographers of the Farm Security Administration , Lewis W Hine and Paul Strand.

We would also like to remind you of Eugen Atget. "Other photographers had been concerned with describing specific facts (documentation), or with exploiting their individual sensibilities (self-expression). Atget encompassed and transcended both approaches when he set himself the task of understanding and interpreting in visual terms a complex, ancient, and living tradition." Read full article here;

Photographs from important historical events like the military coup in Poland show the power of documentary photography. There is of course much more to say about this tradition and we are aware of its importance.

photo: Joanna Kinowska

Among our invited guest you will find Diego Levy, Paul Hansen, Emmanuel Smague, Levan Kakabadze, Gerry Johansson, Alec Soth, Howard W French and many others (some of them perhaps not even defining themselves as part of the tradition of documentary photography.)

The label "reality or fiction" is a recommended reading on the blog. You will find some challenging points of views there.

It’s interesting to see how an increasing number of photographers aim toward the documentary, not only the professionals, not only students or amateurs. Generally speaking it's more popular than ever. So how could we define the documentary in 2008? What if the documentary is about decisions, a personal choice of the photographer who finds the way from subjective to objective and reverses it back? What if it's more personal than ever?

We - the F blog - are inviting you to participate in our new project DOCU-08. We’ll be delighted to see what you think about it. We’d love to hear your answers on the questions above.

photo: Marcin Górski

We are looking for pictures, which will illustrate and explain the potential of today’s documentary photography. It’s an ambitious project and a challenging task. Your contributions are of course essential to reach this goal.

We're not looking for "right" or "wrong" answers. Let the pictures speak! You may send series or individual pictures. In this project we want pictures no older than from the year of 2008. So please don’t forget to tell us when and where the picture is taken. Send pictures to Gruppo F Inbox or to any of the editors.
/By Joanna and Ulf

F Blog project 08: Trees

Photo: Markus Andersson

Trees are strong symbols, a blessing to mankind and also very "photogenic", don´t you think? We have therefore dedicated one of our F blog projects of 2008 to this subject. Here are a few examples of what "trees" are about. (As you know, The F blog is about photography primarily, not biology or mythology etc. So this short introduction is just to remind you of the importance of trees.)

In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil is the World Tree, a great ash tree located at the center of the universe and joining the nine worlds of Norse cosmology.

There are many different cherry tree varieties in Japan, most of them bloom for just a couple of days in spring. The Japanese celebrate that time of the year with hanami (cherry blossom viewing) parties under the blooming trees.

The olive is one of the plants most cited in recorded literature. In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus crawls beneath two shoots of olive that grow from a single stock.The leafy branches of the olive tree, as a symbol of abundance, glory and peace, were used to crown the victors of friendly games and bloody war.

Photo: Christofer Grandin

Pines are commercially among the most important of species used for timber and wood pulp in temperate and tropical regions of the world. This is because they are fast-growing softwoods that can be planted in relatively dense stands, and because their acidic decaying needles may inhibit the growth of other competing plants in the cropping areas.

The oak is a common symbol of strength and endurance and has been chosen as the national tree of England, Estonia, France, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, the United States and Wales.

W.H. Barreveld wrote: "One could go as far as to say that, had the date palm not existed, the expansion of the human race into the hot and barren parts of the "old" world would have been much more restricted. The date palm not only provided a concentrated energy food, which could be easily stored and carried along on long journeys across the deserts, it also created a more amenable habitat for the people to live in by providing shade and protection from the desert winds "

Photo: Jeanne Wells

Many trees are also changing clothes by the seasons, from the tiny buds of springtime to the naked branches of late autumn. There are many possible interpretations of this subject. We are looking forward to receive your unique interpretation.

The pictures don´t need to be taken during 2008. If the pictures are from 1968, it´s fine with us. You may send series or individual pictures.

The bottom line is: We want pictures of trees.

Three F Blog Projects 2008

Starting on 1 January there shall be three projects featured on The F Blog. They will be on all of the year for submissions from our authors and readers. We believe in a mix of a fast and direct dialogue as well as a more thoughtful, reflective and "slow photography". To reach our goal, we will have the projects running for a long period of time in conjunction with the daily twists and turns of the blog.

There is no limit to how many pictures you may send us, but on the other hand there is no guarantee that every picture submitted to the projects will be published. You may send individual or a series of pictures.. If it is a series, it could be anything from 3-7 pictures or enough to fit in a single blog post.

We are also planning to set up an online exhibition with the pictures provided by our readers and authors. And who knows, even a live exhibition?

The projects will be introduced to you very soon. So stay tuned to F.