Proud Flesh

In college, I wrote a thesis on Surrealist photographer/model/muse Lee Miller... I'm going to sound like a raging feminist right now, but I'm totally interested in female artists who examine, or at least address, a long-lived male obsession with taking pictures of really hot women to satisfy/solidify their raging sexual needs. It definitely goes both ways today, there are plenty of women taking pictures of men, but this wasn't always the case. Lee Miller was one of the first female photographers to really receive mainstream press for using the camera to explore what women also find "appealing."

Sally Mann has just partnered with Aperture to print a series of photos on her male muse, her husband. (Seriously) how romantic. (The book is titled Proud Flesh.) Like Miller, Mann tries to flip-flop the classic artistic partnership between model/muse and photographer in a kinda Surrealisty spontaneous and collage-y aesthetic. Gender politics aside, Mann is also just generally interested in exploring the relationship between photographer and subject along with the subject's vulnerability under the camera's gaze.

No matter how much you know about Surrealism, I think you'll find these photos beautiful -- the whole project harks back on the old days of film and an earlier, more gentle and heroic, time in photography. Here are some of Mann's word which appear in the book... c/o joerg colberg's art photo blog. ... I love the last sentence...

"I have looked hard at my husband since the first long strides he took into the room where I was languishing on a ratty chenille couch in some student apartment. My eyes fastened on him with bright interest, squinting to better get the measure of this tall man. Within six months, we were married. That was forty years ago, and almost the first thing I did was photograph him...

But that long history of picture-taking didn't make it any easier to make the Proud Flesh photographs. Rhetorically circumnavigate it any way you will, but exploitation lies at the root of every interaction between photographer and subject, even forty years into it. Larry and I both understand how ethically complex and potent the act of making photographs is, how freighted with issues of honesty, responsibility, power, and complicity, and how so many good images come at the expense of the sitter, in one way or another...

Most of the pictures I take are of the things I love, the things that fascinate and compel me, but that doesn't mean they are easy to look at or take. Like Flaubert, two things are sacred to me in my process: impiety and perfection--the former often hereditary, the latter always hard-won. Beyond the felicitous "unifying accidents" that occasionally grace the work, making art requires tenacity, a temperament born of an ungodly cross between a hummingbird and a bulldozer, and, most of all, practice. Practice looking."

Arnold Newman

[[ "Photography, as we all know, is not real at all. It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world." ]] -- Arnold Newman

When we look back on the work of so-called photo masters of the century, their technique sometimes seems sloppy and amateur . You'll see a lot of weird crops, blur, obvious darkroom manipulation, etc -- mistakes that would not pass today in the world of portraiture. I kept noticing this at an exhibit I saw this summer of Avedon's fashion work at the ICP. Some of his early photos are out of focus or poorly lit with screamingly bad highlights or glares. These faults don't really bother me -- but I notice them, and I'm sure other photographers do as well, which goes to show that the technical standards have definitely changed. For better or worse, these photographers still inspire because of their content, not the quality of their camera.

Anyway, I don't want to use this space to rehash on the "legends," but I think Arnold Newman is totally extraordinary. However weird and silly it is, I can feel my own personality and way of seeing in his images; It's like we like to look at the same things in the same way. I was flipping through this multimedia piece PDN put out on him, and I was once again reminded how he can bring together, with such fluidity, creative/complex graphic design and fascinating content to make a great single image -- even though his technique might not always be right on.

There's just a small sampling of his work below. You should really check out the piece above or The Arnold Newman Archive :: here :: to get a better sense of his career and personality.

I hate when people have a list of the such and such five photographers who have most inspired them and their work, but I cannot deny that I will always look at Newman's images and feel some kind of connection.

Bill Armstrong on the blur

Nice little piece -- especially liked his discussion on blur halfway into it.

Bill Armstrong: The Edge of Vision Interview Series from Aperture Foundation on Vimeo.

"Poets, if they're genuine, must also keep repeating 'I don't know.' Each poem marks an effort to answer this statement, but as soon as the final period hits the page, the poet begins to hesitate, starts to realize that this particular answer was pure makeshift that's absolutely inadequate to boot. So the poets keep on trying."

-- Wislawa Szymborska (by the way, she writes crazy good poems .... I think the above is also true of photography)

(This is taken from an article by Courtney Queeney :: The Kings Are Boring: Some Thoughts on Women's Poetry)

This seems like a total flashback to sometime pre-1998 during one of my morning swim-team practices as a kid. It feels like I'm looking back at a real moment ...  a screan grab from the movie of my life -- very odd feeling that doesn't often happen. 

You can check out more of this guy's work :: here :: on flicker

© Alan Lund Gard

Mark Borthwick

I mentioned this guy months back, but I've seen his new book, a career retrospective, Not in Fashion, all over the place. The cover is simple but lovely. I just really like it.

I admit, his work now unfortunately appears kinda cliche. His style's been ripped off by Urban Outfitters catalogue types, we've seen it before trying-hard-to-be-young and arty . . . but his organic attitude toward life and art is actually really refreshing and quite beautiful. Here's an article about him, Mark Borthwick, and once again his :: website ::

Schatz

Howard Schatz is a total photo rockstar. He does everything, seriously everything, from creating his own human-drawn typefaces to more esoteric nudes and classical portraiture. If you go to his :: website :: you will see the incredible, and somewhat overwhelming, scope of his work. It's clear that this guy is so prolific because he just loves to explore with the camera. The downfall is, not all of his images work -- especially the psychedelic dream-like ones, which don't age well (just my opinion).

I am still totally in awe of his technique and a huge fan of his diverse collection of really solid photography. He is no doubt a master at capturing texture and the beauty of the human form.

©Howard Schatz

found on ffffound ::

David Pearson

I want to meet this guy, and I want his job. Designing book covers seems like an awesome way to spend your workday. Check out all of David Pearson's work :: here ::

Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton-Jones

Just because I think these are beautiful.

©

Tamara Dean

Images by Tamara Dean, who is sponsored by Oculi, an Australian documentary storytelling organization. These are from a very lovely series on ritualism. Dean says she seeks to explore "the contemporary quest for purpose, rite in the Australian landscape," and what happens when rituals lose their meaning and become mundane parts of our everyday.

I'm not sure how much these really say about ritualism, but who really cares, because they are just flat out stunning examples of beautiful light, color, and lyricism. I am obsessed with them and wish I was the one behind the camera. Enjoy, and please check out Dean's other work.

Street Portraits

Found this on a friend's blog. It's interesting little how-to video, even though the photographer gets uber annoying ... and he forgets to mention that the finals are toned and given a high-pass filter treatment in photoshop.

Voodoo mag in process

This is what I have semi-edited from a shoot this weekend for a start-up fashion mag called Voodoo. My friend and I shot this together.... we're gonna try and put together all of the images into a more cohesive editorial. (He has group shots I'm missing here ... so, this is only part I.)

Everyone involved in this, the stylists, models, hair/makeup person, etc., was awesome... super talented and totally dedicated to the project. It's really rewarding to work with hardworking people. They made my job super easy, and I think their work and love definitely shows in the photos.

July 4

I'm a little late on this ... but I spent part of my July 4 on Coney Island, Ny. Probably not the best decision, but a humbling experience to say the least.

aftermath of nathan's annual hotdog eating contest

En Honour

my favourite mj song RIP

Zero Hour

Stephen Dunn is one of the first poets I got into and really wanted to fully understand/internalize. He is honest and very brilliant -- but often heartbreaking. His collection Everything Else in The World is one of my most loved possessions, although this poem isn't in it. He might seem irrelevant to a younger crowd, because most of what he writes is on loss, getting older, and looking back on your life. But for some reason, I still find his voice extraordinarily familiar, witty, and very real.

Zero Hour

Stephen Dunn

It was the hour of simply nothing.

not a single desire in my western heart,

no ancient system

of breathing and postures,

no big idea justifying what I felt.

There was even an absence of despair.

"Anything goes," I said to myself.

All the clocks were high. Above them,

hundreds of stars flickering if, if, if.

Everywhere in the universe, it seemed,

some next thing was gathering itself.

I started to feel something.

but it was nothing more than a moment

passing into another, or was it less

eloquent than that, purely muscular,

some meaningless twitch?

I'd let someone else make it rhyme.

Guillaume Zuili

Guillaume Zuili is so obviously French -- check out his website and you'll see what I mean. His work is definitely dirty and every image doesn't "work," but he's playful, experimental, voracious, and his love of taking pictures pours out of all he does.

One of his more recent projects "LA Fragments" is a collection of images mostly shot with a pinhole camera. Yeah, okay, so we've seen some of this stuff before. But in a world saturated with celebrity portraiture and bubble-gum tongue-and-cheek high-gloss stuff, in the moment, at least, he is a welcomed breath of fresh-er air.

My Girl

I just watched this for the first time in a long time. Overall, it's one big cornball of a movie ... but this scene is really wonderful.  

My new home

 I am fascinated but also troubled by the physical and emotional processes we go through to make a new place a home. I just moved far away from most people I love and have never really experienced this type of exhilarating independence mixed with very real loneliness ever before. I am not afraid of living or being by myself -- I would just enjoy having a good friend or companion to explore and just plain live/be with. 

But I am slowly beginning to feel alright in my new surroundings. There's this inner calming and warmth that seems to grow when I am able to discover joy and love in a place. It's a feeling of comfort and clarity -- something I cannot really explain.  

I will post more images of this exploration. I have to admit I haven't taken my camera out much since graduation. This is something I need to change.

The pictures below are really just for me. I took them walking home tonight. I was out doing some food shopping in my neighborhood. I'm not trying to make any kind of statement with them -- but I hope they will help me make more sense of what's around me and better understand a change that's happening within me. 

   

Greenpoint, Brooklyn. 

Breathless

Screenshots ::

Ed Ou -- a peer but out of everyone else's league.

Story by Ed Ou about a small village in the northeast of Kazakhstan where the Soviet government has covertly tested the effects of nuclear radiation on humans since the beginnings of the Cold War. Ou says the Soviets have detonated more than four hundred nuclear arms into the atmosphere and underground areas of the town. As a result, of course, an incredible number of people are now suffering from severe physical and mental abnormalities and cancer. 

You can see the full story on Ou's website :: here . He uses livebooks, which I respect especially since he is pretty well-known.  (Ou was recently acknowledged by the PDN 2009 annuals and made their 2008 list of the the 30 best emerging photographers.) Even better, he is only 21... damn, stiff competition. 

Anyway, there is a lot I could write about this, but my lousy commentary can't really live up to what the images say for themselves.