Guest: Kay von Aspern

I came across Kays work at photopoints.com, and really like them, love the composition and mood, and the play with light and shadow.

Kay writes:
"I enjoy taking shots from so called normal life. I don't need any
special events, any extraordinary places or something likate that. I go
outside, explore the places where I am and look. Better say observe :-)
For me a good picture is founding on studying environment. I try to keep
environment and people together. Sometimes the result is a kind of
humour. Another time maybe there is a melancholic situation. A third
time there is a surreal aspect I like to make the picture. Photography
means amusing myself. And although I am looking for some interesting
moments, I don't want anything. If you want it, you don't get it ;-)
Thank you for being your guest in Gruppo F!"

See more of Kays work here or here email: kay@von-aspern.de
Invited by Mats Äleklint.

Light leakage

Photo: Christian Wettergren

In the middle of the street

All of a sudden there was a guy taking pictures in the middle of the street.. I think he was just as surprised as me.
Photo: Mats Äleklint

Retro Hardcore

Damn Dalinka! Nothing like a bit of hardcore!
(Mr Caley walks his dog.)
-C

stockholm, stockholm, here I come

Twilight zone

photo: Christian Wettergren

Guest: Payman Hazheer

They say 21 gram is the weight of your soul

What if you´re half the man that you used to be

The time has come and i wish you well

Love like an invisible bullet sucking me down,

im falling, yeah i´m falling - i got seconds to live

I stumbled across Paymans pictures a couple of years ago at the
Swedish fotosidan.se. His sincere, unpretentious and genuine approach
in making pictures has inspired me greatly ever since I first saw his work. You can see more of Paymans photos here.

Invited by Alf Johansson.

Guest: Jonas Andersson

"Mythos"

Untitled

"In the heart of your heart"



As I stated in a previous post I consider Jonas Andersson
to be a master of digital monochromes.
Here are some of my favourites among his work.

Invited by Markus Andersson.

Ad# 1

Artwork: Dalina

alone with his thoughts

Photo: Mats Äleklint

Guest: Joy Goldkind

Joy Goldkind is one of my favourite photographers. Joy uses the historic bromoil process. Within this process a bromide silver gelatin image are bleached to remove the silver content. Lithographic inks are then applied with brushes to replace the silver. I really love her pictures and are, as an amateur bromoilist, deeply inspired by her magical work. Therefore, I am honoured to present three of her photographs on the F blog.

Photos by Joy Goldkind, USA. Image courtesy of the John Stevenson Gallery. Invited by Fredrik Skott.

about fear and the exhibition

'The b side' - The dub side

(Click here for music, music2)
[part one]

Dub and politics on Jamaica was intimately intertwined, especially towards the end of the seventies. The music exploded on the dancehall scene at the same time as the neighbourhoods exploded in violence.


As the reggae historican Steve Barrow expresses it; "Dub music represents 'the other side' of things figuratively. There is always a front page and a back side, an 'a side' and the 'b side'. The world is divided. Dub is the 'b side'."


Crossroads
Dub, while being born out of reggae, is at the same time the early dark roots of hip hop as well as influencing the second-wave ska music. Dub being born from turmoil, became breeding ground for new music, creating a kind of musical crossroads.


The last track of King Tubby's record was a unnamed dub version of "Satta Massa Gana", the famous single track of the Abyssinians (1969). It was informally known as the national hymn of the rastafari religion. Somewhat incorrectly translated from amharinijan it meant something like "thank and praise Haile Selassie". In the backgroundof the melody was the phrases "longing for the far-away far-away country".

King Tubby drastically cut down the hymn into a pulsing base and a distinct snare drum. The base beat was skewed and shifted out of both tone and position. The drums were like exploding thunder. The mirror world he created echoed the dissolving alliance between the Jamaican rastas and the Social Democrats. The utopia had been robbed by the gansters and left to die in the alley's of Trenchtown.

It was the music of hostile cross fire. Dub embraced the circumstances. It was everything at the same time. Dub was declaring, distorting and disengaging, all within the samebeat. It gave an embracing and fragmented voice to all the terrors the Jamaican nation could not express openly.


Photography?
How does this connect to our photography then? For me personally, I'm interested in our concern for fragments, shadows, traces and spaces of life and people that is so present in our pictures. This links to the lack of order in the dub music, how the original tunes are twisted and extended to show something more than the plain object. We are creating an impressionalistic view of what we want to communicate, not an objective reflection. A favourite photo that might illustrate this by Ulf is busskuren blev en fängelsehåla or this one by Tiro Leander called 'free falling' at photopoints.com.

So - do you agree that we have a streak of dub in our 'photography'?

Next: Ska music and Thatcher's Ghost Town.


Links and sources:
www.Dub.com
Lee 'scratch' Perry (at Furious)
King Tubby history (at Furious)
King Tubby Discography (at roots-archives.com)
What is dub? (by EnchantedForest)
Can't Stop Wont Stop (by Jeff Chang)

Photo of King Tubby linked from Furious.com)
Text: partially reworked from sources, partially written by author.

Moon snail

photo: Jeanne Wells

The first day Tom was here in Portland, we went off to the beach. I always say I should never shoot at the beach, but I do it anyway. . .

My first picture

I invited Susanne to share this lovely picture with us. Here is the story in her own words: "This is one of my first pictures. I was four years old and my father had just bought me a plastic camera. I carried the camera in my hand when we left the shop. And there it was! The most fantastic lorry I had ever seen. So I pointed at it and shot this picture!
My old father has never enjoyed that picture :))"
invited by ulf fågelhammar
Photo: Susanne Wahlgren
See more of Susanne´s pictures here

Gérard Laurenceau

Photo: Gérard Laurenceau

Gérards photography impress and moves me strongly, of many reasons. Each photo contains an own universe. See more of his work here
Invited by Jeanette Hägglund.

oron bror

I'm sorry but I don't know how to translate the title in a suitable way.

Poczta Polska delivering

Photo: Ulla Larsson

Stockholm has become cold

Photo: Mats Äleklint

Guest: Richard Montgomery

This is the "Mayor" of Pigtown, which is a community in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. I saw Richard´s pictures from this place a couple of years ago on a photo site. And they are still with me. It´s no easy task to achieve what Richard has done; to make people of your neighbourhood visible showing them respect and love. I am truly in love with these photos.

invited by ulf fågelhammar

Mr Al

Natasha

Dee and her grandson

young woman in the street

Love

All photos: Richard Montgomery

Lith print, morning glory & fence

Photo: Jeanne Wells

Exhibition in Uppsala

I am honoured to invite everybody to my exhibition in Uppsala (vernissage on 21.10, at 1 p.m.) in Uppsala Fotografiska Sällskap.
Marcin

Guest: Bengt Björkbom

Roulette Gröna Lund 1964, Leica M3, Canon 1,8/35 mm, Tri-X.
Photo: Bengt Björkbom

I am happy to present one of Bengt´s fine pictures.
I hope to see you again here soon!
invited by ulf fågelhammar

See more of Bengt Björkbom´s great work here

"Student of photograhy and assisting photographer during the 1960´s
later Stockholms Fotografiska skola with techers like Walter Hirsch,
Christer Strömholm, Inge Roos and others.
Exhibited picture at Moderna Museet, Stockholm 1966
Started my street based photography 1959 with a Leica
and I am still using one.
I mostly do black and white photography."

charade

Remix by Jonas Andersson, the master of digital monochromes who I hope will do a guest aperrence in the near future.

/markus

somewhere...

Somewhere between here and there, somewhere between now and then...

Not much of an image...rather a sense of an image. Like something you just catch a glimpse of...like seeing something in the corner of the eye...

and try catching it.

...

there is a place you can be, & not here...
my eyes missing...

...

...or maybe here...among the trees...in the twotimethinking park...in Lisboa...

...

you could be here...

Polish Days in Uppsala

Marcin and Cristina ©Ulf fågelhammar

more info here

Autumn

The autumn is here now, in Sweden. And I like it! The best photo-season. :)
photo: Mats Äleklint