On the Web: July 2007 Archives
On the heels of the online mention in the NY Times, this past weekend Gallery Hopper got a tip of the hat from the Wall Street Journal in a rather substantial article on affordable art, "Art for Less". Lisa Hunter (Intrepid Art Collector) was interviewed for the article as well as dealer and fellow Colorado College alumnus Paige West of Mixed Greens. Other blogs mentioned were Modern Art Notes and Edward Winkleman. Good company.
Ashley Gilbertson has been photographing in Iraq since 2002. The latest issue of The Virginia Quarterly Review features a long, detailed article by Gilbertson and his wife called "Last Photographs" covering various experiences in Iraq, all centering on death and photography in some way. "Last Photographs" refers to the times Gilbertson has been the last person to photograph someone before they died, whether a US soldier or an Iraqi matriarch. In June, he was interviewed on NPR to promote his new book, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. The interview sheds some light on Gilbertson's motivations, including how his pro-intervention views have changed after years of covering the conflict. Photographs from the book will be on exhibit in October at Gallery Bar, 120 Orchard St.
Suaada’s dentures by Ashley Gilbertson
For comparison, listen to this interview with Time photographer Christopher Morris, from July 2003. At that time, according to Morris, photographing the wounded was allowable, but release of such photography was delayed to allow for notification of families.
Morris covered the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, and like a lot of the photojournalists that covered that war, was outraged that the US did not act faster to intervene and put a stop to the genocide. Asked whether the US intervention in Iraq represented a change for the better in this regard, Morris squirms and says "I don't know if my role in society is to give my opinion." That strikes me as an astonishing position for a photojournalist to take, but maybe not for a modern Western journalist who believes journalism truly can be, and is, wholly objective and the only opinions that appear in a paper are on the editorial page. Compare to the position of Philip Jones Griffiths from a generation before: "To me, there is no point in pressing the shutter unless you are making some caustic comment on the incongruities of life. That is what photography is all about. It is the only reason for doing it."
He goes on to say, "We have bit off more, ah, than we can handle in the sense that we are in a region, as part of the world where we are not liked. No matter what we do, what good we do, what our intentions are, it will be turned against us. And I think we have opened a very serious can of worms that we will have to deal with for a long time." That was in the summer of 2003.
Wow, talk about getting a bee in your bonnet. Alec Soth has been on a Tod Papageorge kick all week. Honestly, it seemed a little odd to be shining so much high power light on a living photographer with the aura of Papagoerge. But it has culminated this morning in a fascinating interview with Papageorge himself.
Meat is Murder 2007, Hrad Kuzyk
Much has been made of the amateur documentation of the Iraq War by soldiers on the ground, particularly in contrast to the professional coverage. The photographic evidence from Abu Ghraib is the most significant, but in the long run, perhaps more important is the day to day vernacular record opportuned by the presence of digital point and shoot and camera phones in the war zone. "Junk Camera Soldier" represents an interesting counterpoint to this phenomenon. Captain Hrad Kuzyk has created an archive of black and white photography shot while on an Iraq tour of duty, using a variety of cheap toy cameras.
Hrad claims these are neither pro- or anti-war. It's hard to look at a photograph of a "Mistake" candy bar and believe there's no point of view behind it.
(via aphotoaday.org)
The photo book review blog 5B4 has posted a review of Bernd and Hilla Becher: Life and Work. If you are unfamiliar with the Bechers' work, this is a good place to start.
Their approach to photographing was to reduce every aspect of personal style in order to emphasize the impersonal aesthetics of the buildings.
I'm not sure I would go along with this description, perhaps I'm misunderstanding the wording. When I look at the various catalogs of forms that the Bechers' created, "impersonal aesthetics" seems counter to the evidence. Most of the structures they photographed had a strictly utilitarian purpose (grain silos, water towers, gravel plants lime kilns etc.) and while there is a consistent familiarity of form across the structures of any type there is also an amazing variation within any particular type.
