Johan Emanuelsson

www.johanemanuelsson.com
http://www.outoffocusmag.com/the-farm.html

F Art

The Professor: is it the heat, or scramble or am i just lost i translation. I see strange words right in the middle of the street... ?
Herr Strudl (interrupting) Mr Professor, is this supposed to be funny???
The Pro: ...yes, yes.. in norweigan it is called fis sjekk and in spanish pedo comprobar..haha
Herr Strutz: No, I forbid you to post such nonsens. Grow up!!
The P: it´s already done!
Herr Apfelstrutz: Where is the delete button. I have seen it. It was RED! Now go to work you lazy bums. Delete!
The P: but..but.. butt (haha)

don´t judge a book by its cover

Photo: Jan Bernhardtz

postcard from: Toronto

photo: Tatiana Bitir

Some minor observations while walking

Invited Guest: Daryl Thetford- Mississippi Juke Joints

My Mississippi Juke Joint Project was an idea long before it was a reality. Given my fascination with Americana, I am often thought of as a documentary/art photographer. I tend to pick subject matter which is of historical significance and/or documents a way of life that is disappearing. I did not begin my juke joint odyssey to document the history of blues, nor is it my current intention. I was fascinated by the places, the culture, and the geography, and along the way became fascinated with the people and their stories.

Bruno’s Jukebox

Bruno's seats

Inspired in part by Birney Imes's book, Juke Joint, I knew I wanted to retrace some of his steps, however I do not live near the Delta and have no connections there. The idea of approaching juke joint owners cold and asking to take photographs was overwhelming. Enter Robert Birdsong, Clarksdale native, local historian, and tour guide. This project soon grew, as I recruited my wife, writer and painter Dana Lise Shavin to accompany me and craft an essay about the shoot.

CW’s inside

CW's outside

From an essay by my wife Dana Lise Shavin:

The history and social significance of the juke joints are intertwined with the history of the blues movement that grew out of the oppression of blacks in the early 1900’s. The original jukes (or “jooks,” as they were sometimes spelled) were sharecroppers’ shacks turned nightclubs on the weekends. It was there that black men and women were free to gather, drink, and dance, and to hear local entertainers who traveled from plantation to plantation bringing their own personal style of music with them. That music was the personal, repetitive, soulful story of hardship, inequity, and sorrow. It was the social climate of the Delta that provided the early fertile ground for the movement to put down roots.

Hopson Plantation Backstage

New World District, Clarksdale

With the Great Migration, in particular following World Wars I and II, the blues began losing its stronghold in the South even while gaining a new and unprecedented one in the North. The result was the demise of the southern juke joint in its purest form.

Po Monkey's Outside

Today, most of the surviving juke joints of Clarksdale, Mississippi are tucked away on lonely streets or in otherwise abandoned building fronts. Over the past several years, there has been a revival of interest in the blues, with the juke joint festival bringing in a devoted group of national and international music fans who, for a few days each year, pump money and energy into the local Clarksdale economy. But the rest of the year, most of the jukes struggle to hang on, catering to the local population. It was not lost on us that almost all of the juke joints Birney Imes photographed in the early 1980s and 90s are now gone.

Po Monkey's sign

To read more about the Juke Joint Project and to see more of Daryl's work please click here.
Text and photos © Daryl Thetford
invited by Rhonda Prince

soccer boy

Face to Face (171)

The ethnic diversity of China is tremendous. The faces of the people you meet in the street are as varied as those you will meet anywhere in the world. But everywhere, there are two distinct groups--the young and the old. Two Chinas. One reflects the Cultural Revolution, one the New Prosperity.

Text and photos by William Schmidt

(F) riday again!

Yes, it's last Friday's daily print! I love it so much I wanted to show it off again. Goofy? yes. Busy? yes. Able to leap small buildings in a single bound?

No.

I have another opening/reception tonight, and another one on the 25th -- more details on my site.

invited guest: Yo Imae

Subtle Perception
Seeing into darkness is clarity. - Tao Te Ching

"Perception is a key for our lives. Normally we use our five senses to communicate with other people. Communication could be described as the exchange of perception. In my photographic practice, first, I meet and talk to people face to face. This is important because of my belief that having interactions with other people is essential to approach reality and understanding, and also it is logically necessary for me to stimulate the functions of my body.






Stimulating senses of our body is something that technology could take away from our life as it advances. For example, the internet has been turning many real interactions into virtual interactions: we can do so many things through the internet without actually meeting someone in person.

However, it seems to me that people get more isolated and less susceptive partly because of this. To avoid as much as possible to become isolated and less susceptive, I as a human being and as a photographer, would like to make direct interactions on the street, and with and through the people I meet I hope to form some mutual perception.






I hope to use my basic tools as a human, everything I have inside and out, and my camera as a tool to mediate this exchange of perception, and serve as another tool for clarity. Through my camera I hope to take what I perceive as clearly as possible, and feel the value of interaction. I simply want to react to the world as far as possible, and photograph subtle perception which I think leads me to some degree of clarity.

By being on one street and taking pictures of people also on the street, I am interested in what we perceive, and the connection we make. More than individuality, or different looking people, I am interested in displaying unity. Through a simple interaction, I hope that my pictures display some commonalities that can be perceived by everyone." - Yo Imae

I am glad to have discovered the work of Yo Imae - a young photographer living in Brooklyn, New York. You will hopefully hear more from Yo in the coming weeks on The F Blog. Stay tuned.
invited by ulf fågelhammar

The Smiling Lamp

F of F - a few of my favourite things. Part 2: Colour

© Morgan Malaska

© Marcin Górski

© Markus Andersson

© Anne Leppäla

State of mind - bringing St Petersburg to Stockholm

State of Mind explores boundaries between ethics, legislation, prejudice and civic expectations in the LGBTQ life of Russia focusing on lesbians and bi-sexual women. The foundation of the work is captured in personal stories and group portraits. It has been a close process in collaboration with organizations, activist and select individuals in St Petersburg.

Video and Photography by Annica Karlsson Rixon & Anna Viola Hallberg. Opening Friday July 25, 5 pm, Gallery K1 Kulturhuset, Stockholm. Inauguration by Tiina Rosenberg. The exhibition is on show until August 24.

Tribute

Inspired by Fredrik Skott's beautiful collection "Through Dead People's eyes"

the individual picture

Montmartre 1949
© CHRISTER STRÖMHOLM
Courtesy: Bildverksamheten Strömholm

"I have too many different types of pictures. I seldom leave home without my camera. This means I'm prepared to simply be there and to be available and receive the reality I meet. And the reality is I, what happens to me, and if you're open there are so many things happening. Since I have so many interests in various areas for the pictures, my pictures can fall into thirty or forty different categories depending on the nature of the picture." Those are words by the great Swedish photographer Christer Strömholm, quoted from his last interview given to Gunilla Knape/Hasselblad Center autumn 2000 (Published in “La Caixa Catalogue” 2001)

I went to see the exhibition "Christer Strömholm 1918 - 2002 ON VERRA BIEN" late summer 2002 in Färgfabriken, Stockholm. It was a very strong experience to see Strömholm's work put together so brilliantly by his sons Joakim & Jakob in dialouge with Jan Åman director, Färgfabriken. The book from the exhibition is a treasure.

Christer Strömholm work has been labelled "subjective photography" and even "social realism". In an article called "Christer Strömholm and First-Person Surrealism" Anders Marner suggests an alernative angle of interpretation linking his work to the Surrealist aesthetic. You will find the article (in English) on Strömholm's official homepage along with many great photographs and texts.

The picture above from a cemetery in Montmartre, Paris was one of those I could not get out of my mind after seeing ON VERRA BIEN. It is so simple, still it holds an eternity. Strömholm sometimes spoke of the power of the indivual image and his statement in the interview shows that he was not making plans or projects with his photography. He said that "pictures are created in the photographer's head". Peder Alton writes in an aticle called "Long nights in Ploggatan"; "He had no comprehensive photographic plan. He was an itinerant photograher who allowed his subjects to come to him, like unexpected apparitions."

about loneliness in the city

Photographer: Viktor Gårdsäter

Urban Dialogue

It happened somehow I found myself in a dance happening of Urban Dialogue. A creative laboratory open to performers who wanted to explore relationships between body and city. Part of an international project from Bucharest, Cosmin Manolescu met Aline Nari in Genova to perform. Among many other dancers, talented Gaia Chernetich of UBIdanza stood out for her body language and attracted me.

Walking through a gallery and coming into a closed wide space, the dancers have people participate in their experiment. A short expression of feelings and life.

A real success in communication.










Photos and text by Paolo Saccheri

Face to face (170)

Photographer: Krister Kleréus