December 14th, 2009
Larry Sultan, from his series Pictures from Home
I first saw Larry Sultan’s Pictures from Home in an exhibition at the Corcoran in Washington D.C. many years ago (along with a concurrent exhibition of Philip-Lorca DiCorcia).
Seeing the work was like being hit over the head. It was the first time I ever paid attention to photography in any serious manner and quickly woke up to it’s intense artistic power.
I probably wouldn’t have taken up photography if it wasn’t for that afternoon alone with Sultan’s family, he will be missed.
(via)
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December 13th, 2009
Actual size:
3.25 x 4.25 inches
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December 13th, 2009
James Rosenquist with his mother from Painting Below Zero
I am quite stricken with the above photograph of James Rosenquist and his mother standing in front of one of his early painted signs in Minnesota back in 1954.
The billboard itself seems quite special, but maybe it’s just my feeling of nostalgia for a somewhat less commercial time or maybe it’s because I love Coca-Cola. Either way, I would have loved to see a billboard like that.
I guess the closest thing we can experience that even compares to something like that is the very large painted billboard you can see on 23rd street and Park Avenue as you head uptown. Whenever I see the painters up there I am amazed at what they do and wonder how it’s done as I don’t see any grid or anything.
(via)
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December 11th, 2009
These new ads fro Olympus for their new PEN camera are pretty diverting this early in the morning.
Kevin Spacey is hilarious:
“I wanna be… I don’t know, camera chow, picture wow, something different. Don’t be a tourist.”
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December 10th, 2009
To request the above photograph:
Send an email (subject: Photographic: 21-09) to horses [at] horsesthink.com with your name and mailing address.
If you are the first person to respond after the posting, you will receive the photograph in the mail.
*This photograph is no longer available.
Posted in Photographic Project | 1 Comment »
December 10th, 2009
I came across some items on eBay over the past few weeks that were implied to be signed, gelatin silver print photograms by László Moholy-Nagy.
Today I see that another one is on sale.
The seller states:
“Since I do not provide certificate of authenticity or any expert statement for this photograph, in keeping by ebay rules the photograph must be sold as after or in the manner of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Keep in mind that the picture itself is much sharper than the one appearing here.”
The seller also sells other photographs by some lesser known artists but the Moholy-Nagy’s seem to sell for the most money.
The top photograph seems the most credible in my mind but of course we’ll never know the truth (unless some expert steps up to the plate).
The whole thing seems pretty fishy but at the same time, given the amazing and real things I have found on eBay before, almost anything seems possible.
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December 8th, 2009
To request the above photograph:
Send an email (subject: Photographic: 20-09) to horses [at] horsesthink.com with your name and mailing address.
If you are the first person to respond after the posting, you will receive the photograph in the mail.
*This photograph is no longer available.
Posted in Photographic Project | 1 Comment »
December 7th, 2009
Just came across this small treasure trove of artist interviews over at the Journal of Contemporary Art website.
Some juicy tidbits from Thomas Ruff:
Philip Pocock: Unlike the Neue Sachlichkeit of Sander or Renger-Patzsch, there is a clear crisis of belief in the objectivity of your medium in your work. True or false?
Thomas Ruff: It’s both. It’s true and false. They also used the camera as an instrument to take pictures. The difference between them and me is that they believed to have captured reality and I believe to have created a picture. We all lost bit by bit the belief in this so-called objective capturing of real reality.
Pocock: What do you mean by real reality?
Ruff: Photography has been used for all kinds of interests for the past 150 years. Most of the photos we come across today aren’t really authentic anymore–they have the authenticity of a manipulated and prearranged reality. You have to know the conditions of a particular photograph in order to understand it properly because the camera just copies what is in front of it.
Some choice words from Sherrie Levine:
Levine: I am interested in making a work that has as much aura as its reference. For me the tension between the reference and the new work doesn’t really exist unless the new work has an auratic presence of its own. Otherwise, it just becomes a copy, which is not that interesting.
Constance Lewallen: “Aura” in the sense that Walter Benjamin used the term.
Levine: Yes.
Lewallen: Paradoxically, he said that work loses its aura because of duplication . . .
Levine: Right (laughter).
Lewallen: And what you’re doing is duplicating objects in a way that they will have an aura, not the same one as the referent, but their own, Sherrie Levine aura?
Levine: Right.
Lewallen: You’re turning Benjamin’s theory in on itself. A lot of your work has the effect of taking ideas one step further than one would expect.
There are many more interviews worth reading when you have the time, or just have nothing else to do (as if that ever happens).
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December 3rd, 2009
Frank Gohlke, Irrigation Canal, Albuquerque, N.M., 1974
If you live in Los Angeles you probably know about LACMA’s restaging of the landmark exhibition, New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape. The exhibition was originally seen at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York back in 1975.
For those of us who can’t get there to see the actual exhibition, LACMA has put together a wonderful webpage that delves deeply into the minds of the original exhibiting artists by presenting sound clips of them discussing their work and many ideas surrounding the New Topographics.
It’s quite a fascinating and insightful listen.
Robert Adams talks about being influenced early on by Ansel Adams, a surprise to me for sure.
Joe Deal speaks about his process as well as the ground rules behind his photographs.
Lewis Baltz, with probably the most interesting and neutral voice of the bunch discusses the landscape he saw around him in California and how it influenced his work.
In what is probably my favorite clip, Hilla Becher discusses how she and Bernd discovered their working process. She is so lively and very descriptive.
Take the time to listen to all the artists speak as their voices collectively reveal much about the times they were living and provide further insight into what led all these artists to tackle the same sort of subjects in surprisingly similar ways.
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December 2nd, 2009
One more Paris Photo recap, this time an in depth financial report, mostly from the dealer’s perspective.
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