Growing up my first attraction to photography came through books from various documentary and street photographers. They grabbed me by my two pigtails and sent my childish imagination spiralling into a whole new world. Somewhere out there, beyond the green fields of my playground was another world, people of different skin colour, armed men, starving children, people living in the strangest ways.
And ever since I have been drawn to documentary photography. I have a profound admiration for photographers reporting on social issues, telling everyone their stories that otherwise would not be told.
I came across Rena Effendi’s work few years ago and have been inspired since. At the time her first book was just published “Pipe Dreams: A Chronicle of Lives along the Pipeline” in which she tells a story on people’s lives along the Baku-Tbilisi- Ceyhan oil pipeline through Georgia and Turkey. Story of ordinary people, struggling for survival, right next to a pipeline that is carrying all its wealth and energy to the West.
(c) Rena Effendi
I managed to get in touch with Rena to find out what inspires her work to which she graciously agreed to answer a few of my questions. Thanks Rena!
What is your main drive behind choosing a certain project?
Rena:The story has to have some global relevance and it has to be important to me personally. The best story is the one that chooses me.
How do you approach people you choose to photograph and what are the main qualities one should have to be able to build a connection between you self and the person you’re documenting?
Rena: You have to be open and honest; you have to be charming and also brave in approaching strangers. It’s basic human communication skills that are useful in almost every job. You have to understand your purpose and explain it well.
(c) Reena Effendi
Have you stayed in touch with anyone you have photographed?
Rena: I have been back to meet some of the people I had photographed. But now I moved to another country (Egypt) and with constant travel it’s harder to go back to the same stories and stay in touch.
What is the hardest part and what is the most rewarding part of your job?
Rena:The most rewarding part is to go back with the images that then become part of your life. Every story and image add on another layer. For me, the hardest is the time before I go out on the shoot. It’s the anticipation and trepidation before the whole thing starts. And then I get sucked into the work and forget everything else.
What has been your most interesting situation or experience while taking pictures?
Rena: There have been so many different situations… Just last week I was chased down the hill by a 350 kg baby elephant, he was almost 2 years old and wanted to play. Photography takes me to places I would otherwise not find myself in, such as going 400 meters underground in the belly of the Siberian coal mine or enjoying a dinner cooked by the Turkish trans-gender sex workers.
(c) Reena Effendi
What equipment do you make sure is always in your camera bag?
Rena: I have a Rolleiflex which is older than me by a few years. It’s a wonderful camera that I always take with me. I feel almost helpless without it.
I know you shoot film, do you develop it your self or brig it to a lab?
Rena: I have been working a lot in colour, so I use various labs around the world to process my film.
What makes you to shoot with film instead of digital?
Rena: Film pushes me to take things more seriously. With only 12 exposures on the medium format roll, I really have to think hard before I shoot. It’s about discipline. I also love the surprises of film, sometimes you have to trust the gods.
(c) Reena Effendi
If you could have a master class with anyone you wished, who would be your ultimate photographer you would like to learn from or work with?
Rena: There are definitely a few that I would love to meet and have a conversation with. Unfortunately, most of them are dead now. Diane Arbus and Richard Avedon for instance. I would have loved to hear them talk in person.
If you could shoot anything and anywhere, what would it be?
Rena: In my dreams, when I am asleep. Sometimes there are wonderful pictures there.
(c) Reena Effendi
How did it feel to hold in your hands your first book for the first time?
Rena: It was like when you come from a trip abroad, a country you’ve never been to before and you went there with your best friends and brought back memories, pictures and things you bought. And a few years later you find a box of all these things in it and you open it again and go through it. It feels nice.
What tips and advice would you give someone wanting to work with social and documentary photography?
Rena: Be patient, read more, look at other people’s work to see who is doing what, try to avoid clichés.
(c) Reena Effendi
To find out more about Rena’s work and see her beautiful photographs please visit http://www.refendi.com/
I was wandering around the web and clicked and flicked through Tokyo Camera Style, my go to site for lusting after old film gear. In amongst the graphic gratuitous gear photos there was a link to an interview by Blake Andrews with 5B4 author and photographer Jeff Ladd
Jeff Ladd lives in New York City, where he is an active photographer as well as the author of 5b4 and a co-founder ofErrata Editions.
B: Can you briefly trace your photographic path? When did you first become interested in it? Was there any special teacher or photographer who grabbed you initially?
JL: My “path” in the medium was really stumbled upon. When I graduated from high school I had no real direction other than I was good at skateboarding. I was a bad student and the idea of college wasn’t really on my mind. A girlfriend of mine was attending the School of Visual Arts in New York City and she was the real motivating factor in my applying to that school. I had an “interest” in photography but not one strong enough to commit to a four year, and somewhat costly, education. My parents supported my decision but also sensed that I just wanted to be with my girlfriend in NYC and school was a convenient excuse. They were absolutely right.
Mark February 2011 as a very exciting month of Photography in Cork. The above video is from the All My Lovin opening in May 2010 in Poland. Now it’s coming to Cork!
I received the press release this morning, so will quote directly from it –
Sirius Arts Centre in association with the Crawford Art Gallery has brought together a number of arts venues to organize a massive exhibition of photography that will take over Cork City and County in February 2011.
The exhibitions are being held to highlight the importance of photographic art to the area and in support of the largest exhibition of photography ever to be held in Cork! “All My Lovin” which opens in the Crawford Art Gallery on Thursday 3 of February at 6:00pm was initially co curated Sirius Artistic Director, Peggy Sue Amison Krzysztof Candrowicz – Director of Fotofestiwal, Lódz and Lódz Arts Centre, Poland and Christoph Tannert – Director of Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin Germany, for the 9th Annual Lodz International Festival of Photography and premiered in Lódz, Poland and Berlin Germany in 2010 – now this collection of international photographic artists will be highlighted in Ireland.
The collected supporting exhibitions will highlight different established arts venues, as well as numerous artist led spaces and universities. Sirius Arts Centre, with the support of Culture Ireland has organised for a 2 day portfolio review event featuring over 13 curators and artists from Ireland and Europe (registration is now closed on this event) which will take place on the 5 &6 of February in Cobh, County Cork with over 70 participating photographers. This event will create a truly international mix of artists working in photography.
For more information please contact Sirius Arts Centre at cobharts@iol.ie for more information or visit the websites listed below.
So here’s a list of the events taking place. Again quoted from the press release.
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Opening Thursday 3 February 6:00pm
ALL MY LOVIN’
Crawford Art Gallery, Emmet Place, Cork
Artists: DOUG DUBOIS JENNY MATTHEWS LYDIA PANASPHILLIP TOLEDANO AMELIA STEIN CAROLLE BENITAH MUIREANN BRADY ALEX TEN NAPEL IGOR SAVCHENKOELINOR CARUCCI LUCIA STRÁNAIOVÁ CHRIS HURLEY EDITH MAYBIN REBECCA MARTINEZ ANNA SHTEYNSHLEYGERSANDRA MINCHIN VERENA JAEKEL
Co-curated Peggy Sue Amison – Sirius Arts Centre’s Artistic Director, Krzysztof Candrowicz – Director of Fotofestiwal, Lódz and Lódz Arts Centre, Poland and Christoph Tannert – Director of Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin Germany, for the 9th Annual Lodz International Festival of Photography.
A collection of imagery focusing of love, family, relationships through photography,video and sound installations. Travelling from romantic and sexual love through to lifelong relationships within families, to faded and remembered love, All My Lovin explores a vast dialogue through the collective voices of these international artists.
Explorations in various media including collage, drawing and photography addressing aspects of everyday life – inner dialogues, moments and details the artist sees, hears or considers as she moves through her days. The pieces in this show are a mirror of the quotidian, but taken together, they point to the larger themes running through the artist’s oeuvre: female empowerment; the meaning of time; the complex dynamics of intimate relationships; the anonymity of urban life, and also mobility and globalization.
April was artist in residence in January for the Guesthouse – part of the Cork Artist’s Collective. This is her first solo exhibition in Ireland. For more information visit: www.aprilgertler.com
Additionally April is the founder of Picture Berlin, an artist residency/art academy for artists working with photography. For more information: www.aprilgertler.com/ www.pictureberlin.org
Winthrop Arcade, Winthrop Street, Cork(Adjacent to Oliver Plunkett Street across from the General Post Office)
Maeve O Neill’s work is more akin to dreaming than to documentation, offering thoughts of how we connect with the world we are situated in and how an image may work in our experience. Within this lies a detached quality which infers that the image is more than just data. What is intrinsic to her work is the inevitable, if impossible, wish to see things in totality; which is in essence to want to make a map of the world, to understand; wanting to know and critique the experience of life. For more information visit: www.maeveoneill.com
Supported by O’Leary’s Camera World and IADT
Running until Wednesday 9 February
Opening Hours: 11:00 – 18:00www.staganddeer.com
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Opening Wednesday 2 February at 19:00pm
Camden Palace Hotel in partnership with Sirius Arts CentrePresents
PAT THE PICKET
In celebration of the life and times of Pat Allen: 1953 – 2010
Camden Quay, Cork (across from the Opera House)
In celebration of the life and times of Pat Allen: 1953 – 2010
Photographs by Doug Dubois along with Pat’s costumes and other effects. Pat Allen was a very special part of Cork City. Arriving at protests in outlandish costumes, he became well known in the city for illustrating in a special way the uniqueness of this creative city.
Running: Until Friday 25 February
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The Tributaries an Installation by Charlie Jouvet
Exploring pinhole photography, French photographer, Jouvet, explores portraiture in a site specific context. Special thanks to Cork Film Centre
Running until Saturday 12 February
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Running from 2 February
People of the Sea by Gilles Perrin
Hosted by iophotoworks and the Institute of French
18 St Patricks Place, Wellington Road Cork (Across from 96FM Broadcasting House, at the end of Welllington Road)
An encore exhibition of large format, black and white documentary photographs by French photographer, Gilles Perrin which focuses on people working in the maritime industry around Cork County. This is an edited selection of works from the recent exhibition held in Sirius Arts Centre and West Cork Arts Centre.
Quay Co-Op Restaurant, 24 Sullivans Quay, Cork City
Cork based photographer Harry Moore works extensively with pinhole photography, this exhibition reflects his feelings of Cork City where he’s lived since 1990.
“The city is compact, has a strong society and active networks in all areas of the arts, which keep me sustained here. I also enjoy the look of the city and enjoy aspects of its history is reflected in architectural features.”
Opening Hours: Monday Saturday 9:00 21:00/Sunday: ClosedRunning until March
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Opening Friday 4 February 19:00
Charlie Jouvet Geheimnisträger The Bearers of Secrets and “The Pier”
Sirius Arts Centre The Old Yacht Club, Cobh, County Cork
Special Guest Opening Speaker Krzysztof Candrowicz Director of the Lódz photography Festival and Lódz Arts Centre, Poland
Seeking out the echoes in Central Europe left behind after World War II and changes in the global consciousness of destruction, French photographer, Jouvet reveals the Geheimnisträger (Bearers of Secrets) which remain.
The Pier is a collection of images of Cobh made while Charlie Jouvet was in residency at Sirius Arts Centre in December 2009. For more information on the artist visit: www.mueki.com
Cutters – An Irish and international exhibition of collage
Curated by James GallagherWest Cork Arts Centre – North Street, Skibbereen, Co Cork
In Cutters/Cork James Gallagher, has brought together over 50 artists from all over the world to illustrate the range and depth of collage taking place today. This exhibition is the third in the Cutters series (Brooklyn in 2009, and Berlin in 2010.
Artists: Michael Bartalos, Melinda Beck, Brian Belott, Hischam Akira Bharoocha, Stephen Brandes, Paul Burgess, Dennis Busch, Hollie Chastain, Alejandro Chavetta, Cless, Barrett Cook, Liam Crockard, Valero Doval, Jesse Draxler, Tatiana Echeveri Fernandez, Erik Foss, James Gallagher, April Gertler, Jason Glasser, Eva Han, Sean Hillen, Ashkan Honarvar, Jordin Isip, Louis Johnstone, Rubén B Kowalsk, Eva Lake, Greg Lamarche, Vanessa Lemounier, Dani Leventhal, Leif Low-Beer, Max o Matic, Jeffrey Meyer, Vincent Pacheco, Melissa Paget, David Plunkert, Garrett Pruter, Kareem Rizk, Javier Rodriguez, Jenni Rope, Jason Rosenberg, Valerie Roybal, Joe Ryckebosch, Cay Schroder, Baby Smith, Kerstin Stephan, Katherin Streeter, Sergei Sviatchenko, Alejandra Villasmil, David Wallace, Jessica Williams, Oliver Wiegner, Lulu Wolf, Bill Zindel, Anthony Zinonos and Mario Zoots.
Running until 12 MarchGallery Hours: Monday Saturday 10:00 17:00
An exhibition of contemporary Irish and Chinese art
Curated by Fion Gunn
CIT Cork School of Music Union Quay, Cork
A collection of images which reflect the experiences of Irish artists as they absorb and are inspired by recent visits in China, along with a simultaneous look at Ireland through the lens of the Chinese artist Maleonn Ma. Each artist brings a fresh interpretation and reading of the other’s culture and each has their work enriched and made more subtle by the experience of ‘otherness’.
Special thanks to Crawford College of Art & Design, University College Cork, Cork City Council, Cork School of Music, Don Gallery, Shanghai, China.
CIT Cork School of Music Union Quay, Cork
Opening Hours: Fridays 08.30am -22:00, Saturdays 09:00-17:00, most Sundays 09:00-17:00.
Also running until 6 FebruaryContemporary China
Wandesford Quay Gallery, Wandesford Quay, Cork (adjacent to Cork Printmakers)
Hours same as above Curated by Cheng Xixing from the Don Gallery, Shanghai in association with Ciarán Walsh and Fion Gunn. Works by: Han Feng, Huang Ling, Liu Ren, Lu Tianyang, Ni Youyu, Xiao Jiang, Zhang Xiangxi, Zhang Yunyao and XueWu Zheng.
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Opening Wednesday 9 February
START
An Exhibition of CCAD Student PhotographyWandsford Quay Gallery, Wandsford Quay, Cork City
Photographic works from the students of CIT Crawford College of Art & Design. The students come from a diverse range of discipline within Art and Design. For some photography represents an aspect of their creative project, while for others it is the principal medium within their emerging fine art practice. START celebrates this diversity and the bridging role played by photography. START is just the beginning.
Opening times Wed- Sat, 10am-6pm.Running until 3rd March
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Artist Talks & Events
Friday 4 February 14:00pm
Polish Contemporary Photography
Krzysztof Candrowicz, Director of the Lódz International Festival of Photography PolandCrawford Art Gallery Lecture Theatre, Cork
Made possible with the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland
Followed by: “Meet the Curators”
15:30 Crawford Art Gallery Lecture Theatre, Cork
A panel discussion introducing guest curators from Europe participating in the International Portfolio Review in Cobh, County Cork, made possible with the support of Sirius Arts Centre, Culture Ireland and the Crawford Art Gallery.
Admission Free
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Thursday 10 February 18:00
Artist talks with Doug Dubois, Phil Toledano and Jenny Matthews
Participating artists from the exhibition “All My Lovin”Crawford Art Gallery Lecture Theatre, Cork
Admission Free
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Lighting the Edges
An Exhibition of Photographs byAnn O’Kelly
5th Saturday, February, 2011 at 2pm
The Bishopstown Library, Wilton, Cork.
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Saturday and Sunday 4 & 5 February
International Photographic Portfolio Reviews
Cobh, County Cork
An opportunity for photographers to meet with Irish and international curators
Special thanks to Culture Ireland. Registration is closed.
I’ve never been a huge user of slide film, but you can’t dispute the joy of looking at a perfectly exposed slide. The colours can have a magic that we don’t often see in prints. The demise of Kodachrome has been well documented this year. Produced since 1935, it was an icon of photography in its own right and beloved of millions of photographers. Paul Simon put it in his own words –
Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day, Oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don’t take my Kodachrome away
If you took all the girls I knewWhen I was single
And brought them all together for one night
I know they’d never matchmy sweet imagination
everything looks WORSE in black and white
Some of the photographers we said goodbye to in 2010 were
So, with goodbye’s to some of the greats, lets look forward to 2011. Cork Analogue Photographers are welcoming new members (interested? leave a comment below). We are planning on printing and exhibiting the Faces Project, a portraiture project we shot during the Cork Live at the Marquee concerts. We will also hold a version of the Disposable Camera Day – probably along the lines of a Crappy Camera Day (crap camera? check. roll of film? check. day out? check!). So we’ll be out and about
All the best to everyone for 2011, have a happy and healthy New Year. I’m off for a drink now 🙂
I knew my friend, Gerry Smith, was into photography. I have seen some of his prints over the years, but not that many. We have lost touch in recent years, save for occasional contact. I knew that he was working on a Blurb book of some of his old work, and this evening he sent me a link to the book on Blurb and a youtube video of some select pieces. I have to say that I was blown away by the work, it really is excellent.
The work depicts Dublin in the 1980’s, and while I remember it murkily from my childhood, the photographs really represent a town from another time. Gerry says in his introduction
During the early 1980’s in Dublin, the inner city area was enveloped with half demolished buildings, unkempt sites and a general sense of disregard for the architectural heritage of the city. This was a manifestation of the overall depressed economic condition prevelant within Ireland at the time.
The wider richly layered social, commercial and architectural heritage represents the ‘soul’ of the inner city, which has developed over the centuries to establish the core of Dublin as unique in the qualities of scale, diversity and character of place.
The inner city on both sides of the River Liffey encompassed a rich diversity of uses and architectural quality, some of which have been regrettably lost to ‘development’ oppotunity, however the refurbishment of some areas has helped preserve and enhance much of the original quality of Dublin’s historic buildings and cultural content.
Some of the market activities that have survived to this day albeit in revised formats include the Moore Street market, the Smithfield Horsefair and the Dublin Corporation Wholesale markets on St. Michan’s Street also in the Smithfield area.
Many of the places captured in these images have become unrecognisable over the years due to redevelopment, however this collection provides a view of some of that which served us well for decades, but no longer remains.
While Gerry discusses the changing architecture of the city in his introduction, what really grabs me is the people in the photographs. The older men and women in particular, but also the children, are from another time and place – somewhere in the past, in history books, no longer present. And yet I need to remind myself that the children in the photos would have been a similar age to myself at the time – it’s not quite the ancient past!
I haven’t seen it in printed form yet, but this looks like a beautiful book that will appeal to a wide audience, not just to Dubs and the Irish.
Untitled #5, from Asser Levy Pool. 2010. 20x24 Polaroid. (c) Greg Miller
I blame kids off school, bike rides in the woods, weddings, camping and The Wire. It’s the silly season and no doubt I have neglected the blog a bit. Blogging is a bit like printing in the darkroom – at this time of the year you’d rather be outside, just hanging.
A bit like Greg Miller who hung out at the Asser Levy Pool – an outdoor pool in Manhattan. He didn’t have his camera phone or some digicam with him. He didn’t have a nice 35mm slr, fancy pants medium format ‘blad, or some big n’ bendy 4*5 neither. Nope, he brought with him a 20*24 inch giant polaroid camera and the results, like the one above are just, well, dope (as the kids might say in NYC).
The 20x24 Polaroid Camera. Photo courtesy 20x24 Studio.
I have no idea what this super rare polaroid film must cost. 20*24 – I mean that’s two feet long on the long edge and just under that on the short edge. When you bring paper that size into the darkroom, you have some negative that you have already selected from a contact print, test printed at maybe 8*10, hummed and hawed a bit, and maybe then decided that perhaps it’s good enough for a sheet of that 20*24 paper from the box of 25 that you bought from Gunn’s on Wexford St. six months ago, and don’t want to waste ‘cos it’s well, a bit expensive.
You get a lend of the 20*24 Polaroid camera though, and you have no negative to choose from. You are there, with your subject, with your shot, and when you open that shutter you gotta hope you get it right.
And then, right in front of the people who have just posed for you, you reveal the print. The giant, 20*24 inch, full technicolour print right there in front of you, moments after it has been shot. Magic.
Photographer Greg Miller wrote about the day on his blog here. From what I can see on the web, the photographs are just beautiful. I’d love to see them in real life – I’m sure the screen does them no justice.
April 15th, Style Profile Romney Leader , NYC (c) Scott Schuman
May 13th Rolled Shorts NYC (c) Scott Schuman
In the last few years the rise of the internet has allowed street photographers to publish their photos instantly and reach a massive audience though their blogs. Scott Schuman aka The Sartorialist is one of the pioneers of this type of street style blogging. While the focus of Scott’s work is street style and fashion, his photographic style is reminiscent of Sander’s portraits, and he lists Sanders as one of his influences. They both have a similar objective style of photographing people. Both their work is about how people’s identity is expressed by what they wear, whether that is a uniform for a job, a well cut suit, a student wearing a quirky outfit or a fashion editor wearing a beautiful dress.
Oct 6th at Lanvin B&W hat (c) Scott Schuman
The Streetstyle blogging phenomenon has its roots in the Japanese street fashion Fruits magazines of the 90s, but the blogging platform now allowed photographers to publish their photos freely and reach a widespread audience. Scott Schuman started his blog in 2005 after leaving a job in fashion marketing, at first it was simply a hobby but it grew quickly into a fulltime job. Scott has now taken photographs for many major fashion magazines & in 2009 he published a book of his photographs. Thousands of street style blogs have sprung up in cities all over the world in the last 5 years, some are more photographically successful than others but here are a few I’d recommend.
Photographer Yvan Rodic, based in London but travels all over the world.
Yvan began his blog in 2006 & despite not having had a background in photography he has had his photos published in GQ, Elle & Vogue and is now working as a fulltime streetstyle photographer. He describes his style of photography as “between a pose and a snapshot. I mean it’s natural but a bit posed.” And he cites the photographer Rineke Dijekstra as the inspiration behind the simplicity of his photographic style. He also keeps a visual diary of his travels at yvanrodic.blogspot.com.
Photographers Liisa Jokinen and Sampo Karjalainen from Helsinki, Finland.
This is one of the longest running street style blogs, the pictures are taken in the streets and clubs of Helsinki from July 2005 onwards. The project is a tribute to Fruits and Street magazines, the pioneers of street fashion photography.
Photographers Mary Scherpe and Dario Natale based in Berlin.
“Stil in Berlin” is an online photography project, published in blog- presenting a selection of contemporary Berlin street style. It was founded in March 2006.
Humans express their personalities through fashion. There are those who go along with the grain and those whose roots grow outside of the field. Wherever we fall on the fashion spectrum, we are all beautiful creatures. We are all pretty birds.
Vanessa Jackman is an Australian lawyer turned photographer. She says “I take a thousand photographs every day – some in my head, some with my camera; I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life- I am totally and utterly in love with my camera and with the people and things I photograph”.
Last Friday many of us attended the opening of the inaugural exhibition of the new Wandesford Quay Gallery owned by the Crawford College of Art and Design, which most of you will know as the old Fenton Gallery. Of course it’s sad to see the Fenton go, especially when the arts scene in Cork seems to be suffering so badly these days, but great to know that the space has a new use. The first exhibition was of the work of 3 students who had just completed their MA in Fine Art by Research (Liz Cullinane, Mags Geaney & Roseanne Lynch).
The work of Roseanne Lynch is of particular interest to us as photographers. Roseanne is an artist working with photography. Her work investigates the medium of photography, the photograph as an object, our ways of looking at a photograph and the most basic building block of photography – light. As you enter the gallery you first encounter three very large abstract black & white photographs hanging opposite you. They are of light hitting various planes & have an architectural quality to them, one looks like a skylight, one could be an air duct, but they raise more questions than they answer and as they are all ‘Untitled’, it is possible we will never know for certain exactly what it is that we are looking at.
This uncertainty is a thread running through the exhibition. The next piece we come to is a video. We step into a darkened room to look at the screen, on which we see vertical blinds. At first there is no movement, we wonder if this is another photograph, we are a little confused…but then there is a slight ripple as a breeze flows through the blinds and we realise that there are lots of small movements if we watch closely. I think this is one of my favourite pieces in the exhibition. It is contemplative, it challenges you to rethink the way you look at art & the way you see the world. In her artist statement Roseanne mentions that she is interested in “the possibility of silence & internal conversation when you encounter artworks”. This video provokes both.
Finally you come to a series of smaller photographs printed on metal. Again you are challenged to interact with the art because as you move across the room the pieces change as the light reflects off them. They are photographs of light reflecting off a plane, printed on metal which reflects the light. They really challenge your idea of what a photograph is & how to look at it. Looking at Roseanne lynch’s work is not a passive experience, it is challenging but rewarding.
On a side note (as we are Cork Analogue Photographers) I think it is interesting to note that all the photographs were made on large format 4 x 5 inch negatives before being scanned to be printed.
I would highly recommend a visit to the exhibition before it closes on 1st July 2010, but allow yourself some time to really contemplate & interact with the work, because you will be drawn in. If you can’t make it to the exhibition & would like to see some of Roseanne’s work, she has an excellent website at roseannelynch.com. Although I would say this work has to be seen in person to be truly appreciated.
Over the next few months Roseanne’s work can be seen in the following exhibitions:
The Thing That Bruises You in The Back Loft of La Cathedral Studios, Off Thomas St., Dublin from July 2nd-July 11th
Rua Red Summer Show 2011 at Rua Red, South Dublin Arts Centre, Tallaght from 19th July – 21st August
– Miriam
Addendum
In addition to Miriam’s review, I would like to add a congratulations to Roseanne on completing her MA, and thank her for her years of encouragement, enthusiasm and thoughtful criticism to us at Cork Analogue Photographers. Roseanne is the tutor at the night class in photography in the Crawford College of Art and Design which most of us attended for a year or more. We couldn’t have had a better teacher!
August Sander’s objective style of photography was undoubtedly an influence on many future generations of photographers, including Irving Penn’s Small Trades project. Working in Paris, London and New York in the 1950s Penn photographed trades people wearing their work clothes and carrying the tools of their trade. He photographed them in the studios he used for his fashion photography, so that a neutral backdrop and natural light are the setting in which the trades-people pose with a sense of pride. Where as Sanders photographed his photographed his subjects in their environment, Penn photographs them in isolation, taking away all the distractions & focusing our attention on the person and their attire. These photos really seem to reveal something about the individual themselves, not just their job.
Coal Man London 1950 (c) Irving Penn
Commis-Larue Paris 1950 (c) Irving Penn
Penn shot these photos on a medium format camera using Tri-X film. He came back to this project repeatedly over several decades making both silver gelatin prints as well as platinum/palladium prints, which have a greater tonal range.
If you would like to know more about Irving Penn & his Small Trades project, here are some links:
A little while later Jackie met her husband, who is Irish, and moved to live in Ireland. It was at a time when the Catholic Church was constantly in the news, with scandal after scandal coming to light. She had decided at this stage that she wanted to be an artist, and once again she wanted to use photography to explore the country and society now lived in, particularly the Catholic Church she was hearing and reading so much about.
This time she spent a very difficult year researching renaissance painting, iconography and Byzantine art. It was almost impossible to get permission to photograph any of the religious orders as they were suspicious of being portrayed in a bad light. Eventually one closed order allowed her in. She sat and watched the nuns, wondering what it was that gave them the faith to lead this kind of life. The project moved away from the political situation and even the Catholic Church in particular, to the question of individual faith.
She photographed the everyday institutional life of the nuns using the traditional colours and symbolism of Renaissance painting. These photos were published in the book ‘Faith’.
Ten Miles Round
From "Ten Miles Round" by Jackie Nickerson
When Jackie and her husband originally moved to Ireland they lived in Dalkey (a small town on the edge of Dublin) but then they made the move to an extremely rural area in Co. Louth. She knew that for her next project she wanted to stay at home in her local community. She began to build up a picture of the area by collecting photos of familiar images that were already in her head; the pothole outside the local shop, the telegraph pole that was falling down that she drove past every day.
Initially she decided to leave aesthetic aside and use her brain instead of her eye to begin the project. The aesthetic came to her when she came across an early Van Gogh painting in a museum in Amsterdam. She instantly recognised the Northern European monotone shades of cyan and grey, with a little red peeping through, and realised that was the aesthetic she wanted.
Next she began to photograph people in the community. She was allowed to use the waiting room of the local Credit Union as a studio. At the start she had to intercept people coming out of the shop and persuade them to sit for her, but word quickly went around that she would take your photograph for free! Then she began to go into peoples homes, photographing interiors as well.
She explained that you have to know what you’re aiming at and what it is you want to communicate with the audience. She wanted to tell the story of the people in a community and of an area that was wild, chaotic and untamed and she used the landscape photos of hedges & grey skies and the portraits and interior photos to communicate this.
She also said that the advantage of photography as an art form is that it is far more accessible to people than other forms of contemporary art. People are used to seeing photographs all around them every day, in advertising, magazines & newspapers and so they are more willing and able to read art photographs.
From "Ten Miles Round" by Jackie Nickerson
Jackie ended the talk by saying something that I really love, “If you know how to look at things you can begin to understand them”. I think that was one of the things that really came through from listening to her speak was that her photography was very personal to her. She used it time and again to explore and make sense of her environment and her life. I found it inspiring and fascinating to hear her speak about her life and her creative process.
– Miriam
‘Photographs’ an Exhibition by Jackie Nickerson continues in the Sirius Art Centre in Cobh until Thursday, April 1st.
When Jackie and her husband originally moved to Ireland they lived in Dalkey (a small town on the edge of Dublin) but then they made the move to an extremely rural area in Co. Louth. She knew that for her next project she wanted to stay at home in her local community. She began to build up a picture of the area by collecting photos of familiar images that were already in her head; the pothole outside the local shop, the telegraph pole that was falling down that she drove past every day.
Initially she decided to leave aesthetic aside and use her brain instead of her eye to begin the project. The aesthetic came to her when she came across an early Van Gogh painting in a museum in Amsterdam. She instantly recognised the Northern European monotone shades of cyan and grey, with a little red peeping through, and realised that was the aesthetic she wanted.
Next she began to photograph people in the community. She was allowed to use the waiting room of the local Credit Union as a studio. At the start she had to intercept people coming out of the shop and persuade them to sit for her, but word
On the 11th March a group of students, artists and photographers gathered in the Rory Gallagher lecture theatre to hear Jackie Nickerson speak. She spoke about her background as a fashion photographer and her subsequent life as an art photographer, telling us the story of her three successful projects so far, in a talk that I found fascinating and inspiring.
Fashion
Jackie began by telling us about the first camera she was ever given when she was about 12 years old. It was a Kodak instamatic and she ran straight outside to take photos of the trees, using up her first roll of film within minutes. That was the moment that she connected with her passion.
She continued to take photographs throughout her teenage years and learned to work in a darkroom and make black & white prints. When she didn’t get into the only course she wanted to do after school, she flew to New York at age 18 because that was where all the great photographers were. Over a period of 5 years she took any job going to gain experience. Then she moved to Milan to start up as a fashion photographer herself. Later she lived in London and worked for all the big fashion magazines of the 90s; Marie Claire, Elle, The Face, Wallpaper etc.
She showed us a series of photographs from some of these shoots. She commented that fashion photography at the time was more pure and simple than it is now, there was less fantasy and less retouching. She liked to put her own stamp on fashion shoots, keeping hair & make-up simple and preferring to photograph clothes that she herself would wear, like Comme des Garcon & Yohji Yamamoto. She liked the character of the model to shine through, so that there was an element of portraiture in her work.
Farm
From "Farm" by Jackie Nickerson
From "Farm" by Jackie Nickerson
Eventually Nickerson became dissatisfied with fashion photography and when an opportunity came up to go on holidays to Africa with a friend she went, and ended up staying for 3 years. When she first arrived she was completely burnt out and had given up photography altogether. She was living in a cottage on a farm in Zimbabwe, but over time she began to feel uncomfortable with the separation between the white farm owners and the black farm workers.
From "Farm" by Jackie Nickerson
She finally picked up the camera again to try and understand and connect with the place she was living. At first she went out into the bush with her Leica Rangefinder and took black & white photos of branches and trees. Then she progressed to photographing the farm and village, but she felt her photos were very much the ‘standard’ photos of Africans as poor victims, which was not how she felt or what she wanted to portray. She admired Africans and felt they had a freedom and happiness that she didn’t have. So she moved on to taking still life photos and realised that her background in fashion photography meant that her strength was in attention to detail. So she started to take portraits linking the land with the people. After photographing the people on the farm and in the surrounding areas she bought a truck and travelled around Africa, to Mozambique and South Africa, photographing people until she had to leave Zimbabwe and move back to London.
One more crucial step in the process relates back to a time, as a fashion photographer, when she had tea with Henri Cartier Bresson in his apartment on the Rue de Rivoli (lucky girl!) and he told a story about Matisse, when they both were on holidays in the South of France. Matisse said to Cartier-Bresson that he had it easy photographing in black and white, colour was far more difficult because the bright sunlight kills colour. She remembered this and realised that the bright sun in South Africa did the same. For example the sky is not really blue but cyan. So you have to look with your brain and not your eyes to see what colours are actually in real life.
When she returned to London she had no ambition to become an art photographer. The photographs sat in a drawer for over a year until her printer introduced her to an agent who offered her a book deal. The book is simply called ‘Farm’.
– Miriam
Part 2 coming soon!
‘Photographs’ an Exhibition by Jackie Nickerson continues in the Sirius Art Centre in Cobh until Thursday, April 1st.
What is it about film? What differentiates it from digital? Can we put a finger on its quality? Is it tangible?
Robert Benson put the question to eleven professional photographers (including Dubliner Simon Watson) who still use film for their work. The result is a great interview with each photographer responding thoughtfully to ten questions regarding their use of film.
Everyone has their own way of describing how film is different than digital, and looks special. How would you describe the “magic of film?” Simon Watson: There is a grit to it. The colors and shadows are richer and more sophisticated. Even though modern film is less grainy now, it is the grain that gives the film a grittiness (even if you can’t see it) it affects the whole image. Digital has this milky slick look. It’s flat too. And needs tons of work. Paolo Marchesi: Again, the “magic of film” in my opinion comes with the process of shooting film. Digital is too sharp, too perfect but if you want you can make digital look like film. I think… Jeff Lipsky: Film produces a much “creamier” skin tone. Finn O’Hara: I really think the ‘magic of film’ comes down to the commitment to the image. You can’t ’spray’ with a medium format camera, like you can with a DSLR. Also, as I mentioned earlier, the slower pace of shooting film is just so enjoyable. I need more analog in my life, and film gives me that pleasure. José Mandojana: It’s rich. Michael Sugrue: Grain, depth, and subtle shifts of color. It really feels like you can step into the image, or seeing exactly what the photographer saw through the viewfinder. To me, it’s especially apparent in street photography and landscapes, which are often overly manipulated digitally. I was going to mention some photographers I admire, but I realized that, while they shoot film, it’s their talent and style that separates them and not simply using film. It’s an important distinction that shouldn’t be considered in any “film vs. digital” debate. It’s personal, not an argument to win. Brian Finke: I love the grain, texture and depth of film. If they same look and technique can be achieved with digital, please let me know, I would be very interested in checking it out. Chad Holder: Film is softer, and digi can be too sharp and begin to look plastic. you can save the highlights better with color neg without it looking too funky. Bryce Duffy: It’s like listening to a vinyl record on a turntable through a macintosh tube amp through good speakers versus listening to a high quality MP3 on your ipod through a pair of expensive headphones.
Magnum photographer Alec Soth is blogging again with Little Brown Mushroom. His top ten photobooks of 2009 are reviewed here. They are predictably eclectic! His old blog was excellent, and different. A pity he stopped writing it, finishing with this
I’m hitting the road and hanging up the blog. Join me for a non-virtual visit in Memphis (Oct. 5th) and Atlanta (Oct. 11th). Otherwise, send me a letter – I’m sick of email.
I’ll leave with a poem:
When I Heard the Learned Astronomer
by Walt Whitman
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide,
and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with
much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
You can find a link to his old blog on his website, or just click here.
“Soth uses an 8*10 camera from the late 1980’s that makes almost painting like pictures. He follows the complicated process of using large-format camera and says he is lucky if he manages to make one or two exposures on a given day of shooting” (from Magnum Magnum).
If you know any photographers (which I presume you do if you’re reading this) then you’ll know they can be a bit particular about their gear. So if you’re thinking of buying them anything serious like cameras, lens or lights you’re better off just asking them exactly what they want or buying them a voucher for your local camera shop to avoid tears and tantrums on Christmas morning. So this guide is purely the fun stuff, stocking fillers at all different price ranges. I hope you find something in there that the photographer in your life might enjoy…or to put on your Santa Wishlist. Enjoy!
The Fuji Instax Instant Camera – $90 or $105 with film from Photojojo, 107 Billingham Camera Bag – £200 from Billingham.co.uk
If you still can’t find what you’re looking for check out PetaPixels blog post ‘21 Awesome T-Shirts for Photographers’ for some more ideas. Happy shopping!
Lecture 2 of a Short History of Photography at the Lewis Glucksman Gallery was about Photography & Conflict, presented by Matt Packer, Glucksman curator of exhibitions and projects. Some of the photographs that he presented we had seen in week 1 with Fiona Kearney. She had talked about the history of photography, and the art that the eye of the photographer brought to these documents. What stood out to me during Matts’s lecture was the idea of the ethics of photography in situations of conflict.
Matt began the lecture by talking about the history of photography, and how technology changed the ways in which the war was brought home. In the early days, guys like Fenton and Brady needed horse drawn wagons to develop plates on the spot, and this largely prevented them from photographing the actual battle scenes – they general made pictures of the aftermath. As the technology progressed, particularly with the emergence of the Leice and 35mm film in 1925, photographers were able to become embedded with the soldiers, and photograph events as they happened. Robert Capa’s photographs of the Spanish Civil War, and later WW2, pioneered this type of photography in conflict. Not that Capa was immune to possibly fictionalising events either, as the controversary following his photograph “Death of a Loyalist Soldier, 1936” was to prove.
Robert Capa – Death of a Loyalist Soldier
This photograph by Capa was controversial when it was first published, as it was the first time such an image had been made in the heat of battle. It proved controversial ever after too – was it fake?
Capa coined the famous phrase, “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough”. During the D-Day landings, Capa was certainly close enough.
Robert Capa – American landing on Omaha beach, D-Day, 1944
This photograph is technically very flawed – shaky, too contrasty, over exposed. And yet it is a shocking masterpiece – a document showing exactly what was happening on the beach that day. Hardly surprising that Capa’s hand shook when he was that close – right in the middle of it. This was to become the working method of photographers ever after – being there in the thick of the conflict with the soldiers, dodging bullets, on the run, documenting what was happening.
Catherine Leroy – L’assaut de la côte 881
But what of the ethics of witnessing these atrocities?
George Rodger – Belsen Concentration Camp
George Rodger in 1945 went into the Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp tasked with making pictures of what was there. And despite the horror of what he witnessed, he needed to document the scene, to compose correctly, make a good photograph. In an interview later he said, “It wasn’t even a matter of what I was photographing, as what had happened to me in the process. When I discovered that I could look at the horror of Belsen – 4000 dead and starving lying around – and think only of a nice photographic composition, I knew something had happened to me and I had to stop. I felt I was like the people running the camp – it didn’t mean a thing”
Richard Drew – The Falling Man
Matt told us a story about how he had met Don McCullin, and spoke with him about the very famous photograph from the Sept 11th attacks in New York – “The Falling Man”. McCullin commented that the photograph should never have been printed. Matt didn’t understand this. Why would you not print and publish a photograph as important as this? McCullin argued that the photograph should have been taken but never printed. It was important for the photographer to bear witness. But it is an entirely different set of ethics to use the image, to publish it, and to receive royalties.
Today photographers are like antennae on the scene, and images are being sent instantly to picture desks. Is the photographer still ethically responsible for what is used, what is published? Or has that responsibility been taken from him?
James Nachtwey – Rwanda, 1994 – Survivor of Hutu death camp.
Choosing the photography of James Nachtwey as a case study, Matt shows that Nachtwey chooses his projects, and makes excellent, very emotive pictures. But what are the links between the projects? What research has been done? Looking at his website we see that he has been to all the modern war zones and places of conflict, disease, famine, pollution – Bosnia, Romania, Rwanda, etc. But where is the broader sense of context? There seems to be a homogenity of approach no matter what stricken region he is in. Are the photographs about what he has seen, or about him? The sense of ethical responsibility is evident on Nachtweys website however – the home page contains the quote, “I have been a witness, and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated.”
Camera phone photo, London Underground, 07/07/05
Matt also discussed the idea of photojournalism in crisis. With modern technology, pictures are reaching the media from the general public using camera phones and so on. Has the value of the photo journalist been eroded by this? Robert Pledge argued that “… Certain individualists will doubtlessly continue the tradition of photojournalism. But books and exhibitions will be their media. They will produce long term stories, often grant supported, that will give us an understanding of the world different from the one we see on TV”
Simon Norfolk – Afghanistan
Which brings us to Photojournalism & Contemporary Art. As an example, Simon Norfolk uses a large format camera when photographing scenes such as this in Afghanistan. This format gives lots of detail, picture space, improves spatial relationships. It’s not taken on the battlefront – it’s the aftermath or periphery. It is primarily produced with a view to exhibition and a book. You get a sense of pathos with a photograph such as this. The photographer is engaging with people, not scambling about in the bushes avoiding bullets. Depicting the human farming activity in front of the ruins of the building, it attempts to display the human offort to build hope despite the evidence of destruction.
I have left out a lot more of what Matt discussed – it was a rather long lecture! But he concluded with a video, “Journalists Under Fire: Vietnam and Iraq”, featuring Don McCullin, Catherine Leroy, David Leeson, Mike Cerre and Jonathon Schell, discussing the ethics of photojournalism, what they witnessed, and how it affected them. I checked you tube, and here’s the 58 minute version –
After that heady evening, I’m looking forward to Week 3 – “The Commercial Image”
cork analogue photographers 