street photography NOW!

the book and the exhibition, soon!

3rd floor gallery from Cardiff, run by our friends: Maciej Dakowicz and Joni Karanka, is preparing for the new exhibition: "Street Photography Now, produced by Third Floor Gallery in collaboration with the publishers Thames & Hudson, brings the best of the milestone photobook of the same name from the page to the wall."

about the exhibition in the 3rd floor gallery

book-site in Thames&Hudson and on facebook.

Participating photographers:

Christophe Agou, Arif Asci, Narelle Autio, Polly Braden, Bang Byoung-Sang, Maciej Dakowicz, Carolyn Drake, Melanie Einzig, George Georgiou, David Gibson, Bruce Gilden, Thierry Girard, Andrew Z. Glickman, Siegfried Hansen, Markus Hartel, Nils Jorgensen, Richard Kalvar, Martin Kollar, Jens Olof Lasthein, Frederic Lezmi, Jesse Marlow, Jeff Mermelstein, Joel Meyerowitz, Mimi Mollica, Trent Parke, Martin Parr, Gus Powell, Mark Alor Powell, Bruno Quinquet, Paul Russell, Otto Snoek, Matt Stuart, Ying Tang, Alexey Titarenko, Nick Turpin, Munem Wasif, Alex Webb, Amani Willett, Michael Wolf, Artem Zhitenev, Wolfgang Zurborn.

Polonia and other fables/ Allan Sekula

American photographer, writer, artist and documentalist - Allan Sekula came to Poland for his first solo show at Zacheta. The exhibition is dealing with the best sort of documentary, social goals in photography, treating history, and... Polish origins. You might know his "Shipwreck and workers" project. Here are some pictures from the expo. Worth coming, till 28 of February.


Allan Sekula, Ladies Auxillary Polish Army Veterans of World War II, Polish Constitution Day parade, 3 May 2008, Chicago/press materials/

Allan Sekula, Farmer threshing grass at abandoned airport used by CIA for transport of clandestine high value terrorism suspects, Szymany, Poland, July 2009/press materials/

Allan Sekula, Mother and child - Taste of Polonia festival, Chicago, September 2007 /press materials/


Allan Sekula explaining his solo exhibition at Zacheta / december 2009

more info about the exhibition: "Polonia and Other Fables" at Zacheta/Warsaw.

save the date for 100's birthday!

Milton Rogovin, social documentary photographer gonna turn 100 years on Saturday 12th of Dec!
his website with awesome pictures is here http://www.miltonrogovin.com/

happy birthday Mr Rogovin!

delivered by joanna

about photography

"There is nothing as mysterious as a fact clearly described.”

"I don't have anything to say in any picture. My only interest in photography is to see what something looks like as a photograph. I have no preconceptions. "

- Garry Winogrand

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl4f-QFCUek&hl=sv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wem927v_kpo&feature=related

about photography

"Sometimes I think all my pictures are just pictures of me. My concern is . . . the human predicament; only what I consider the human predicament may simply be my own."

- Richard Avedon

about photography

"I ask him if he would miss taking photographs if, for some reason, he had to stop. 'Probably not,' he says, shaking his head. 'I don't have a burning desire to go out and document anything. It just happens when it happens. It's not a conscious effort, nor is it a struggle. Wouldn't do it if it was. The idea of the suffering artist has never appealed to me,' he says, smiling his childlike smile. 'Being here is suffering enough.'"

Sean O'Hagan interviews William Egglestone (Observer -2004)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2004/jul/25/photography1

about photography

'it's not my intention to shock, to offend, sensationalise, be political or whatever, only to make work that is as spiritually meaningful as I can make it - in all these photographs I never bothered with things like the negatives. some of them got marked and scratched. I just used the cheapest film and took them to be processed at the cheapest place. I was just trying to make order out of chaos.'

- Richard Billingham

http://www.designboom.com/eng/funclub/billingham.html

about photography

"My name is Weegee. I’m the world’s greatest photographer... "

-Weegee - "Weegee’s New York", Harvey V. Fondiller,

The Best of Popular Photography by Harvey V. Fondiller.

about photography

"If you want reality take the bus."

- David LaChapelle

concepts?

While watching one of the books published by Museum in Gliwice I came across photographs that I'd been fascinated with at one of the Museum's exhibitions - "Silesia in Old Photographs".
Exhibition (organized in a cooperation with Silesian Museum in Gorlitz) took place in 2007 and was really representative for old silesian photography - containing portraits (these studio ones, as well as outdoor portraits), industrial views, historical moments in a region, some everyday life situations, etc.
Tree photographs taken by Wilhelm von Blandowski - one of the most famous photographers in the end of XIX century in Gliwice, are showing three bricklayers in a very contemporary way! - that's the thing that somehow shocked me.


Wilhelm von Blandowski "Three Bricklayers", 1864 1 - They were going to work. 2 - They came during work. 3 - After work. (Photographs from the collection of Museum in Gliwice)

Until I saw these photographs I'd been thinking about concepts in photography as something that was domain of art in XX and XXI centuries. When photography was invented there were some attempts of showing movement - so they were photographing one thing or a person like "one shot after another" - some "series" had been created, but concept like "before and after"...
Here we have some very contemporary example:
Nicolai Howalt's photographs of young boxers, taken moments before and moments after their matches.

Marcin, I'm posting on ur birthday!

about photography

"The dismal half-baked images of the average "reportage" and "documentary" photography are self damning... the slick manner, the slightly obscure significance, the esoteric fear of simple beauty for its own sake – I am deeply concerned with these manifestations of decay. Gene Smith's work validates my most vigorous convictions that if the documentary photographs is to be truly effective it must contain elements of art, intensity, fine craft and spirituality. All these his work contains and we may turn to his work with gratitude, appreciation and great respect."

- Ansel Adams

about photography

"All photography is propaganda"

-Martin Parr

about photography

"There's no particular class of photograph that I think is any better than any other class. I'm always and forever looking for the image that has spirit! I don't give a damn how it got made."

- Minor White, Interviews With Master Photographers : Minor White, Imogen Cunningham, Cornell Capa, Elliott Erwitt, Yousuf Karsh, Arnold Newman, Lord Snowdon, Brett Weston by James Danziger

about photography

"Lately I've been struck with how I really love what you can't see in a photograph."

- Diane Arbus

about photography

"To the vast majority of people a photograph is an image of something within their direct experience: a more-or-less factual reality. It is difficult for them to realize that the photograph can be a source of experience, as well as the reflection of spiritual awareness of the world and self. The painters have done little to dispel the impression of their superiority in the creative graphic fields; they point with scorn (and often correctly) to the shallow "storytelling" aspects of photography, and they also disapprove of photographers who attempt superficial "abstract" or "no-objective" effects within the limits of photographic processes. To a large majority a photograph bears the same relationship to a fine painting as a contractor-designed house does to a fine architectural creation. This situation would be ridiculous were it not so tragic. The truth is that photography is limited only by the photographers!"

- Ansel Adams, from "The Profession of Photography",

Aperture vol. 1, no 3, 1952

Foto8 award

Foto8 Award & Summer Show 2008
We are pleased to annouce that the winner of the Foto8 Award for 'Best in Show' at this year's Summer Show, goes to....Guido Castagnoli for his image: Street to the main station, Shimada City, Japan 2007 taken from the series Provincial Japan.

The judges were impressed by the high standard of all the work but they were particularly drawn to the colouring and mysterious 1950s, bleached effect of Castagnoli’s print, commenting: “This is an image that will continue to be intriguing each time one looks at it. It is both strange and beautiful.”

about exhibition

Foto8

stay tuned for more from Guido in the Fblog, soon....

congratulations!

/from jo-urnalist's desk/

long live Magnum !!

This summer an official news comes from Magnum:

"After viewing over 200 candidate portfolios, organised under the Presidency of Stuart Franklin, Magnum Photos is pleased to announce the following decisions:

MEMBER status was voted for: Antoine d’AGATA, Jonas BENDIKSEN and Alec SOTH. Their portfolios can be consulted on www.magnumphotos.com/photographers.

The following new NOMINEES were announced: Peter VAN AGTMAEL, 27 years old, American-Dutch: www.petervanagtmael.com and Olivia ARTHUR, 28 years old, English: www.oliviaarthur.com ".

congrats!!! :) and well, well: Alec Soth as our special guest in the Fblog is here :)brought to you by the front journalist ms jo

The Snapshot Museum

Recently I've been more and more fascinated by snapshots. Tonight, when I had a late night walk around the Internet, I stumbled upon the Snapshot Museum. It's a nice little place with some lovely snapshot from the 30's to the 80's. Have a look!

/markus

Bravo, Strömholm and Kahlo

In the interview Graciela Iturbide among others mentioned her teacher and mentor Alvarez Bravo and the Swedish photographer Christer Strömholm. The emotional photos of Frida Kahlo´s house were made by Graciela.

So, please also have a look at these short articles on the F Blog.

Frida Kahlo portrayed by Nickolas Muray
Rediscovered photographs of Frida Kahlo
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
Christer Strömholm

download a camera

From Corbis you may now download, print and build your own pinhole camera. There are different models like "Livingstone" and "Peyote". You will also find some photos taken by the cameras on the site. Sounds real fun. Thanks Tommi Pirnes for telling us about this.