28 February 2007

Diffus(e)


invited guest: Risk Hazekamp

01. Giant - 2001 - 160x104 cm

Risk Hazekamp
is an artist based in Rotterdam who works primarily
with photography and video. In her work, the language of Hollywood
is directly engaged. Often the works take the issue of gender by the
horns, quite literally in some cases since the images of “the West”,
cowboys and all the baggage that they carry in terms of gender and
media constructions of gender, are prevalent.


In works that use the figure, disturbingly familiar clothing and landscape
to deconstruct –or perhaps reconstruct- the idealised images of maleness
and femaleness, Risk’s work often exists in a state of ambivalent
“femanliness”. Is she seeking to attain the perfect image of a lesbian
Marlboro woman with tinges of a female James Dean? Or is she asking
us to think about how Hollywood manipulates us? And does the bullfighter
imagery challenge the sexist swagger of Hemingway or reflect a blatant
admiration? Sometimes it is difficult to tell and perhaps one does not need
to since therein lies the power of the work to arrest.


In more recent works, the issue of gender and personal identity is tackled
even more directly as bearded androgens –she has moved into using models
in addition to casting herself in her work- populate portraiture, video and
what appear to be stills from films. Interestingly enough, whereas the earlier
work that uses the language of Hollywood and Risk’s apparent
(and perhaps desired) resemblance to a young James Dean, the new works
have a strong European cinema feeling to them. “Giant” (2001) pulls no
punches in referencing a mainstream Hollywood classic whereas
“Liberté Pour Tous” (2005) could be a still from a cult French film
that never got made.


It is not necessarily pedantic to insist that these works are much more
about the relationship between personal identity and gender than about
sexual identity. Of course, sexuality is a key aspect of personal identity.
However, whereas artists like Del LaGrace Volcano have trod similar
ground in terms of content, these works do not shock and amaze because
of what someone might do with her body, but far more who she might
“be” deep within herself.


text by Ken Pratt, July 2006
invited by ulf fågelhammar

02. Mira - 2002 - 100x150 cm.




03. Smoke Dreams - 2004 - 72x135 cm.





04. Risk - 2005 - 100x80 cm




05. Liberté - 2005 - 120x96 cm.




06. ¡Vale! - 2006 - 95x120 cm.




07. Macho - 2006 - 90x120 cm.

from Peter de Ru

To You who posted a comment , I really did appreciate this very much,
all these comments have given me new inspiration to continue my work.
I hope to be able to show you more of my photography in a near future.


Sincerely Yours,
Peter de Ru

/Photo: Chess in Budapest, 1982 by Peter de Ru
peter.gerrit.jouke.de.ru@gmail.com

Slave us



Den 3 mars startar 3:e Fotografi i Fokus – Fotografibiennalen i Skåne. I arrangemanget ingår över 40 utställningar samt ett stort antal filmvisningar och seminarier i Malmö och Lund. I år vidgas dessutom det geografiska fältet med Ystads konstmuseum, Dunkers kulturhus samt Regionmuseet i Kristianstad. Biennalen pågår t o m 1 april. Så har du vägarna förbi Skåne - passa på!!

Se fullständigt program för mer info

Invited guest: Bart Pogoda

Bart Pogoda. 30 years old photographer from Poland. He visited over 60 countries. It was extremely hard to choose some set of his works to present in Fblog. We’ve tried together pick something, and here are the photos from Middle America: Nicaragua, Guatemala and Cuba. Bart is in his way to Peru, again :)
Cuba

Havana, Cuba

Havana, Cuba

Todos Santos Cuchumatan, Guatemala

Todos Santos Cuchumatan, Guatemala


Granada, Nikaragua


Antigua, Guatemala

Antigua, Guatemala

J: In which country you feel most comfortable?
Bart: In Poland :)
J: What country would you like to visit the most?
Bart: All those places
J: Is there any dominant topic in your work, what are you looking at visiting the world?
Bart: human – nature – religion – globalisation in one
J: Do you find it easy to take pictures at home, in Poland?
Bart: At home I’m drinking & eating & regaining power for next trips.
invited by Joanna Kinowska


27 February 2007

Fairytales

Once gone
always missing
That´s why
it´s always
so damn hard
letting
go...

accidental

© Jeanne Wells

liquid emulsion and pigment. oops, wrong brush . . .

...To show off all the saints I've saved









Wash the flags - I'm coming home
I've packed my bags - I'm coming home
Shave your head - I'm coming home
Save a place - I'm coming home
I'm coming home, I'm coming home mama
Raise the dead - I'm coming home
Hold your breath - I'm coming home
Shave your legs - I'm coming home

about F blog and its humble workers (for Ulf)


26 February 2007

Contact

-- "It could have been worse!"

Some encouraging words on a Stockholm wall.
Can't see how it could though... *lol*


25 February 2007

Reflection


GruppoF Inbox : ~Under concrete ~ by Ulla Larsson








gum bichromate



© Jeanne Wells


a bowl of pears from a year ago -- I might get back to it one of these days. This is a wonderful process, and lets me work with more realistic images more comfortably. Much harder than liquid emulsion, but worth the work.

postcard from portugal


Fairytale wedding


Grandma and grandpa wedding photo, I've looked at it many times.
Some people have that gift of touching things and it looks so
so *faboulous*, with an air of 'special' about it.
This photo is like that to me.
It looks so fairytale.
-- I bet they were nervous?
-C

Something about going home for the weekend

Dad's got a new bird feeder


Me and great grandma





Simon playing with the lens cap



untitled

photo: abeku

23 February 2007

22 February 2007

Tri-X - anything else needed...?


Dateline 1940: “The fastest film in the world is the new Tri-X, with
twice the speed of Super-XX.” If you want the numbers, the British
Journal of Photography Almanac for 1940 (actually written in 1939)
reckoned it was 7000 H&D.


Tri-X processed in ID11 plus

Sometimes I am contemplating if any other film than Tri-X is needed?
The
classic which was introduced as early as 1939-40 as sheet film,
and 1954 as
roll film 135 and 120 formats. The most recent version
packs a few years and it
is my impression that the grain has become
even more appealing, and that
tonality has improved. Tri-X is fantastic.
It stretches the tonal curve in
shadows like no other film.

Tri-X precessed in X-tol

Tri-X and D-76 is a well proven combination of
film/developer, but now I have
begun using X-tol which works equally well, and
in addition is less hazardous
to the environment. If however you want the
smallest grain and maximum
resolution, it can be a good idea to make your own
D76, and in this case
replace the metolen with fenidon, with the strength of 0,3
g/liter.

This will give you Ilfords late ID11 plus, which has been
discontinued.
D76 and ID11 are known to be basically the same developers, only Ilford
made a
special version named ID11 plus. More expensive, but by what I can
see from my
Tri-X negatives from this time, it renders a clearly finer grain
and a
delightful tone/resloution of detail. With this developer the following
question is brought to life:

Is there any need for more than Tri-X?
---
Pictures and text by Nils Bergqvist who kindly translated his article to English.
See the original text (in Swedish) here. -urbano