The F Blog: 04/01/2007

30 April 2007

For your eyes only pt. 5

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

29 April 2007

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

28 April 2007

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

27 April 2007

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

26 April 2007

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.

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)

Have you seen my skiftnyckel ?

raindrops

raindrops keep falling on my head. and just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed. nothin' seems to fit. those raindrops are falling on my head, they keep falling.raindrops keep falling on my head. but that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red. cryings not for me.'cause i'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin. because i'm free. nothings worrying me./bacharach / Gliwice 2007

25 April 2007

Photography is (dis)believing

Once again the F blog is visited by Gustav Gustafsson. He will exhibit at Else Madsen Gallery in Austin, Texas, April 20th thru May 25th. Be sure to visit!

When I look at these photos by Gustav, I come to think of a quote from a theatre play I recently saw in Göteborg, Sweden: "Don't ever do that again - or I will have to keep doing it for the rest of my life."

- Joakim Sebring

palm tree shadow

Beautiful Holga picture by Ulla Larsson
-urbano

Interior Anatomy

picture by Edward Hahn

point of view

picture by urbano

Angèle Etoundi Essamba in Stockholm

Pride and strength
If you are in Stockholm this summer you should definitely visit
Kulturhuset and explore the photography of Angèle Etoundi Essamba
from Cameroon. Her exhibition opens on May 12 and will be on show
until August 5.

For more information visit www.kulturhuset.se

photography - tatiana bitir

You do shots with cold blood….when you know the result will be good
and applauded ….and you do shots because your poor soul is melting…
for one reason …or another…or for no reason...when you do
…"poor shots"…! I would call the "poor shots"... Photography…!

text and pictures by Tatiana Bitir