In A Row

Picture by Edward Hahn

Gruppof Inbox: Ulf Börjesson

Video Photography Stockholm, VIPS

The Sally Mann exhibition in Kulturhuset is closing this week and has
scored a record of around 90 000 visitors. It´s the most visited
exhibition of photography in Sweden so far.

Kulturhuset wants to create a large meeting point for photography in
Stockholm and are concentrating large parts of its exhibition activities
on photography and video art through the platform VIPS (Video Photography
Stockholm)

We have seen e.g. "Walker Evans meets Sune Jonsson" in
Kulturhuset last summer and coming up during 2007-2008 are
among others Nan Goldin, Martin Parr and Nobuyoshi Araki.

www.kulturhuset.se (also in English)

Nurse Rabbits little helper

T.H counting down...

invited guest - John Bemerstam

You can find more of John's work here

Staszek Heyda: Białystok - one day

May 1st 2004 was a special day for Poland and 9 other countries of Eastern and Central Europe - first day in European Union. Group of recognised Polish photographers, motivated by Grzegorz Dąbrowski, and supported by several institutions decided to document this first day in EU on BW negatives. Action called "Białystok - one day" was lasting 24 hours. Photographers spent whole day portraiting the people, the city, the atmosphere of this special day - 3 years ago already. Today they say - it was worth to make this document.
I am happy to share with you part of this project, historical pictures made by one of the participants of this event: Staszek Heyda

invited by Marcin Górski

Just because you like it Jeanette

Polish longest ever weekend

Polish longest ever weekend just started, theoreticaly today, but for majority it started last Friday 27.04 and it will end 7.05. Don't you worry, after 7.05 we will start to think about Euro 2012

For your eyes only pt. 5

Oh fuck, it's springtime again. The 'grad has to wait for a while now.

When I close my eyes

picture by Thomas Håkansson

Nurse Rabbit in Sweden (preparations 2)

grass is already painted green, army - almost ready and youngest citizens are training throwing carrots to Nurse Rabbit. All of the Scandinavian (and Polish) carrots are stored for the right time - children are forced to train with potatoes.

Nurse Rabbit Dreams of Sweden

Carrotrights: Nurse Rabbit

invited guest: Svend Videbak

I am glad to have Svend here on the F Blog. He is a great photographer.
And hey Svend...there are big white ships leaving for Stockholm every
day. Hope to see you around. invited by ulf fågelhammar

In my earliest memory, I am making a picture. I’m perhaps five
years old. Sitting in my little chair, hunched over my little table,
I’m drawing with crayons on a piece of foolscap and I am delighted
with myself. The room is sunny, warm. My drawing is sunny, warm.
I love the sensation of the crayon sliding over the paper, leaving
a trail of itself under my imperfect control.






I’m 39 now and nothing has changed. Some years ago I borrowed my
father’s old Leica, which he had bought brand new in Copenhagen in 1956
– thanks to a friend of his, a press photographer, who acquired the camera
for him at a steep discount. (“Otherwise, forget it! Too damn expensive!”
was how my father punctuated the story.) I thought that since my father
wasn’t using the old camera (he couldn’t see to focus anymore) I’d give
it a try, fool around with it, see what happened. Thank God I did. The
old Leica opened the door into my visual imagination, a door that had
been closed for too long with depressing consequences.







I love to see and think photographically, imagining how something will
look when photographed. I am gaining greater and greater control over
the medium all the time, and yet accidents still happen and I welcome
the magic they bring. Increasingly, I am thinking about themes, stories
and ideas and how to express them visually with photography as just
one picture-making tool in a toolbox containing drawing, painting, graphic
design and computer programs. I have no objective, really, other than
pleasing myself. I’m still five years old, sitting in my little chair, hunched
over my little table, drawing with my crayons on a piece of foolscap.



Titles from top:
- St Tropez frolics
- What is creativity? (1)
- What is creativity? (2)
- What is creativity? (3)
- What is creativity? (4)
- The solitary cyclist
- Night field

Pictures and text©Svend Videbak

invited guest: Angèle Etoundi Essamba (part two)

(This exclusive presentation of works by Angèle Etoundi Essamba is
published on the F Blog in two parts - see part one.)

The works of the years 2000, within I am still moving and experimenting.
Started with the series “Noirs”, I have taken a new direction in terms of
both style and content.In blown-up,sober photographs of black people
against a black background, there is almost no white to be seen except
in the black self.( white of the eye, palm hand ) Symbols and accessories
have been left to one side.Choosing for restriction and minimalism,
I tried to expose the relationship between the subjects’s interior and
exterior, to represent black identity from the inside out.
















Communication in the broadest sense: “Beyond words”.Gestures have a
dominant place in my work. My images show a dialogue between humans,
shape and content, body and soul, Africa and the world: deep black and
white graphic compositions that offer a timeless visualisation of universal
symbols and wisdom.


Pictures from top:
Noir(1)
Noir(2)
Rupture
Speechless
Au-dela` des mots


The exhibition "Pride and Strength" opens on May 12, 2007 in Kulturhuset
Stockholm.
pictures and text ©Angèle Etoundi Essamba

could you take my picture?

awake on my airplane. my skin is bare. my skin is theirs. and i feel like a newborn. awake on my airplane. i feel so real.i don't believe in your sanctity... a hypocrisy. could everyone agree that no one should be left alone. could everyoone agree that they should not be left alone. and i feel like a newborn. kicking and screaming!
could you take my picture? cuz i won't remember... / filter

invited guest: Angèle Etoundi Essamba (part one)

The F blog invites you to explore the photography of Angèle Etoundi Essamba.
She has rapidly become one of my favourite photographers. The pictures
here are selected by Angèle exclusively for The F Blog. My warmest regards
to you Angèle.
invited by ulf fågelhammar

On May 12 the exhibition "Pride and Strength" will open at Kulturhuset in
Stockholm. The works of Angèle Etoundi Essamba will be on show until
August 5. Be sure not to miss it! Also visit www.essamba-art.com to
find more of her work.

Photography has a universal language which speaks across all barriers
It is for me a need, to express, to communicate,to question and to protest.
As long as the need will exist I will create.









Dialogue and symbols

My work has always been about dialogue.The internal dialogue within
myself between different cultures gives my photographic work a
simultaneous personal and universally symbolic character. My roots
are in Cameroon, but the different cultural backgrounds into which I
grew up have considerably influenced my life and my vision.I get my
inspiration inside this cultural mix mainly dominated by my african
heritage.

People fascinate me and so the human being became central
in my work. I try to shape a world of unicity and meeting of forms,
races and cultures, to show the existing dialogue between cultures.
I also want to break through with the stereotypes of an african continent
ravaged by war,misery,oppression or made of romantic myths of
Mother Africa. Keywords to my photography are: Pride, Strength
and Awareness, interaction, respect and openness.


Communication in the broadest sense: “Beyond words”.Gestures have a
dominant place in my work. My images show a dialogue between humans,
shape and content, body and soul, Africa and the world: deep black and
white graphic compositions that offer a timeless visualisation of universal
symbols and wisdom.


In my earlier work of the eighties (1980s), I mostly focused on contrasts
between black and white. The theme "Contrast / Harmony " is an important
issue in my photography, as a black woman living in a white world ,I have
choosen to picture the world in black&white.

Otherness,identity/duality,modernity/tradition,mysticism/ reality... In the
work of the nineties (1990s ), I turned my attention to a vocabulary
of symbols. that refers to the human need for contact, pride, willpower
and the self confidence of women, but also to their connection with the earth.
Here in I emphase on the aesthetic and symbolism.


Pictures from top of post:
- Heritage
- L`arbre de la vie
- La femme et l`objet
- Roots
- Symbole
- La calebassiere

Pictures and text ©Angèle Etoundi Essamba
to be continued...(part two)