The Online Photographer

50 Photographers You Should Know

So I'd like to crowd-source a list...of notable photographers who came along after 2000.

Years ago, I made a list for my students called "100 Photographers You Should Know." I used it as a resource for various lessons and assignments.

Of course, that list included "historically important" photographers and many 20th-century photographers...the latter for a very good reason: at the time, it was the 20th century.

So here's what I'm wondering...who are the photographers anyone should know from the 21st century? That is, since 2000? The main criteria is that these should be people photographers should know (rather than the best or the most famous or the richest or whatever). Students or students of the art.

Maybe exclude photographers who were mostly important in the last century. I'm thinking of people who have been important, or formative, or who emerged, post-2000. (I'm going to put Vivian Maier on this list, because my thesis is that she's a photographer whose story belongs to 2009 and the years that follow, not the years she took her pictures.) Maybe not people who've reached the snow-on-top stage or who are having lifetime retrospectives in this century.

So far I've got Vanessa Winship, Gueorgui Pinkhassov, Vivian Maier, Uta Barth, Matt Black, Aaron Huey and Chris Jordan on my list.

Who would you nominate? Again, the main criteria is that these would be people who gained recognition mainly after 2000 who we ought to know, that's all.

UPDATE: I'm getting a few recommendations of photographers who really made their mark mostly in the 20th century...even a few who died before 2000. I've rewritten the above to make it more clear. Just to reiterate, we're looking for people who have made their mark since 2000, or saw most of their international recognition and influence happen after that date.

And we've gotten some wonderful suggestions, too. Thanks. I hope to catch up with posting the comments tonight.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

AlexM: "Yuri Kozyrev."

Bob Blakley: "I'd nominate Lauren Simonutti. She's now deceased, but came to the attention of the world much more through flickr and her blog than through gallery representation (the Edelman gallery, whose site seems no longer to be accessible). All her online photos date from 2008 or later, so she's a paradox—a 21st century photographer, working entirely in large format film, who found her audience almost exclusively through the digital image. Her work and her life story are both compelling."

Mike replies: I'll say.

Dan Deakin: "Not sure how famous you need to be to make the list, but this Rui Palha's street photography is world class. See here and here."

Hans Muus: "What a lovely idea! I would like to propose for inclusion: Evgenia Arbugaeva. Born in 1985, winner of the Oskar Barnack Award in 2013 (that's how I came to know her)."

Douglas MacLellan: "Michael Christopher Brown. One of the innovators of iPhone visual journalism, particularly his Libya and Congo work. Robin Hammond. Especially his Zimbabwe and mental health in Africa work."

mark: "Definitely Joe Holmes. One of my personal favorites of this century."

Mike replies: Which one?

Floyd Takeuchi: "Shinya Arimoto, a contemporary 'street photographer' based in Tokyo. He has a very different take on the usual Japanese street photography style—direct but often with the acknowledged participation of the subject(s). Earlier work in Tibet. Arimoto-san is a film photographer, and he usually makes his photos with a Hassleblad wide, often with a flash. Earlier work was done primarily with a Rolleiflex TLR. And he prints all of his work—gorgeous prints, which are shown at the Totem Pole Gallery, a photographers' cooperative, in Tokyo."

Random Excellence: Deborah Luster

Scene of the murder of Cornelius Watson, age 25, by gunshot,
on June 4th, 1998. Photograph by Deborah Luster.

-

"Tooth for an Eye: A Chorography of Violence in Orleans Parish (Twin Palms Publishing, 2011) is a photographic archive documenting contemporary and historical homicide sites in New Orleans, the homicide capital of the United States. The result is an exploration of the dizzyingly empty space at the core of violence. Luster approaches this invisible, excised population obliquely, with haunting, unpopulated photographs that seem to exist outside of time, simultaneously distant and chillingly close." (From Deborah Luster's website.)

-

Deborah Luster has been interested photographically in criminals and crime scenes since her mother, Jeanne Tovrea, was murdered by a contract killer in 1988. Because she (Deborah) had seen the killer, for the next seven years, until he was apprehended, she believed he might be after her as well. She was, in her own words, "pretty much a mess."

More here.

And here is the full story of The Murder of Jeanne Tovrea.

Mike
(Thanks to Don Norris)

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

S. Boonchai: "Thanks for this post. Deborah is a very generous soul and a great presence here in NOLA's art community. Just a FYI, she recently received a Guggenheim and will be the Keynote speaker at this year's PhotoNOLA on December 12th at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Info here."

Mike Chisholm: "A story straight out of Elmore Leonard. Or possibly George V. Higgins. Being a fan of photographer Raymond Meeks, a while ago I bought a copy of his collaboration with Deborah Luster (of whom I had never heard), Crime Victim Chronicle, the first in the "Orchard" series. I've just looked at it again, with fresh eyes. I'd say that whoever maintains that knowing a artist's back-story is irrelevant to an appreciation of their work (as many do) is, um, mistaken."

Overexposed

One of the first weirdnesses I noticed after I was hired as a magazine editor is that certain very talented photographers "hide their light under a bushel"—that is, they stay private and reticent—and others push relentlessly and aggressively to publicize themselves. It creates an unnatural imbalance. I figured early on that if a photographer had the means to hire a PR firm to help market their work, they didn't need my help.

Another weirdness is that the culture tends to pay attention to people who have already gotten lots of attention, and persistently continues to ignore people who have already long been ignored. That seems counterintuitive to me. Seems much more logical that you'd say "enough, already" to the people who've already been showered with recognition, and seek out people who've unfairly been overlooked.

Take At Zenith. It's a reprint of a 1979 book that featured 15 pictures by William Eggleston of...well, clouds. White clouds on blue skies. It was originally issued in an edition of 20, a number which was probably just right for the market.

Now, don't get me wrong. I like Eggleston. I know a lot about his art-historical importance, I "get" his way of seeing, and I both appreciate and enjoy his work. I have two books of his work (both still in print—William Eggleston's Guide which is a must-have for any decent photobook library, even for people who don't like the photographer; and For Now, which is a stellar example of photobookmaking through and through). I love both and prize both and revisit both regularly. I've owned two or three other books of his that I've gotten rid of (I regularly cull my collection, de-accessioning things that don't hold up for me). I greatly enjoyed seeing the show of Eggleston's work at the AIC in the company of the affable and erudite Ken Tanaka. And, finally, I do think it's really great that some photographers are so exhaustively illuminated that we can really get to know them. They sort of stand in for all the others we don't get to know so well.

So it's not that I'm anti-Eggleston. I just think...well, do we really need a $55 reprint of a book of 15 color snapshots of clouds? If we just take it as a reprint, there are a hundred photobooks that need reprinting far more. If not a thousand. And if we consider photography as a living culture, surely there are a hundred photographers (if not a thousand) that are ten times more deserving of a $55 book.

I'm not criticizing any particular player here. It's possible you could read this as a criticism of Steidl's publishing program, and it's not my place to criticize my betters, as it would be toweringly churlish to complain about a publisher that has given us so many riches.

It's just that I'd prefer to see one book of an unknown photographer's first-rate work rather than the umpteenth book by a well-known "star" featuring third-rate work.

Steidl's impulse seems to be comprehensiveness—he wants to see, and show us, everything. I guess I just have a different impulse is all. I like to see only the best. I like selections. Edited sets. Curated shows. And in fact, peering too closely into any artist's junk drawer (we all have large agglomerations of "second best" and "not good enough" stuff lying around or reposing on old hard drives) actually dilutes the artist in my mind. It's not only that I like to see someone's best work, it's that I'd prefer to see only the best. And then move on.

YMMV. At any rate, I'm perfectly happy with a sampling of Eggleston's best. I don't need to see fifteen throwaway pictures of clouds, never mind pay $55 for the privilege. Enough is enough; let's relax our focus, and let a few more people into the club.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Kenneth Tanaka: "I saw this on Steidl's list of upcoming books some time ago and also scratched my head. I admit that I was already skeptical when bought the 3-volume Chromes set early this year, although it turned out to be a wonderful, lush set of 'new' works. (It was also a good investment, as it's now only available from secondary sources at 100%+ appreciation.) Nevertheless, the guy has definitely had more than his 15 minutes.

"I would speculate that Eggleston continues to be so popular to publishers like Steidl because he sells out reliably and quickly. Buoyed by the major retrospective show you mentioned, and by many other shows and news exposures, William Eggleston is money in the bank. Underexposed and/or under-appreciated photographers are all risk. I suspect Mike will have a greater appreciation for that in the coming year.  ;-)"

[Ed. Note: Ken had second thoughts about this comment, and posted an emendation in the Comments Section. An excerpt of that further comment follows.]

"...Gerhard Steidl is one of the few publisher-printers willing and able to follow an artist to the very end even when the late-career tailings may seem trivial at the time. Thank goodness for such a devoted publisher! I am occasionally asked to research photographers for exhibition, a task that often begins on the Internet but ultimately takes me deep into the library. I can tell you that the number of photographers who have had good career-long publication coverage beyond exhibition catalogs is relatively small. [...] I did not want to seem petty and critical of Steidl's publishing of this small Eggleston book. I actually loudly applaud his commitment, usually with my hands slapping my wallet, to certain artists, particularly living artists."

Bill Pierce: "'It's just that I'd prefer to see one book of an unknown photographer's first-rate work rather than the umpteenth book by a well-known "star" featuring third-rate work.' Same problem with museum shows. Everybody seems to be playing it safe."

Florian Freimoser: "I think there are many different things involved here. It is most certainly the case that a publisher will sell many more copies of a bad book by a famous photographer than of an excellent book by an unknown photographer. This also means, that more people rather buy a mediocre book by a famous person than a good book by an unknown person. I would assume that people often do not want to decide themselves what to consider good and therefore rely on criteria such as fame and success."

Carrie Mae Weems Wins 2013 Genius Award

Photographer and visual artist Carrie Mae Weems is among the winners of the 2013 MacArthur Fellowships, the so-called "genius grant" that now awards recipients $625,000 free of conditions.

An art-insider friend who shall remain nameless comments, "Not exactly a [surprise] winner. She [that is, her name, as a contender —Ed.] has been in very heavy circulation for a long time."

Congratulations Carrie Mae!

Mike
(Thanks to Bob and Walt)

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

No featured comments yet—please check back soon!

DxO Film Pack for Free, and Salgado's Method

Written by Kevin Purcell

An interesting free offer that TOP readers might like to try:

Sony and DxO together are offering Film Pack 3 Essential for free download for Mac or Windows. It previously cost $79. It runs as a standalone application or a plug-in for Aperture, Lightroom, or Photoshop. It's a Nik Silver Efex Pro and Color Efex Pro competitor and does a similar job. The offer is good until October 31st.

It's not upgradable to later versions. Current version is DxO Film Pack 4, so the web page for the current version doesn't say much about the old version, and the Film Pack UI has changed too.

You give them your email address to get the activation code (you can turn down email solicitation and still download the software). The email you get contains the activation code and links the download for the software (should you need to redownload it or get both versions). For the Mac it's a 166MB download.

Visit this URL to download Film Pack 3

The PDF manual for DxO Film Pack 3 is on their support website. (Take care not to download the manual for Film Pack 4.)

It lists the supported film simulations. It looks (to me) like most of the major films from Fuji, Kodak, Polaroid, and Ilford are there.

See the text file "Download DxO Film Pack 3 Essential films" for a full list of supported film simulations extracted from the PDF.

Luis Inácio Lula da Silva (right), president of Brazil in 2006, receives the book Trabalhadores ("workers") as a gift from the photographer Sebastião Salgado. Photo by Wilson Dias.

You might notice that one of the endorsements for DXO Film Pack on the current Film Pack page on the DxO website is from Sebastião Salgado. From a variety of interviews and public comments, and forum threads*, here's a reconstructed summary of Sebastião's digital > film negative > darkroom print workflow:

1. Shoot with a digital camera
2. RAW demosaic (+ exposure correction, I suspect)
3. Process with DxO Film Pack for Kodak TriX 400 or TMax 3200 film simulation.
4. Print that image to a 35mm technical film internegative (so you have a real negative whose image simulates his favorite old films without adding grain).
5. Print the internegative to silver halide paper in Parisian darkroom using his regular printer** (with dodging and burning for the Salgado look).

This workflow lets him shoot digital images that look identical to his film images and result in a silver halide archival print and an archival negative (that can be printed from in the future).

I think many photographers today have no idea about darkroom printing annotation and pro printers (see for example "Magnum and the Dying Art of Darkroom Printing" on The Literate Lens). They can add enormous value to a print.

Salgado gets the best of both worlds. He (or his assistant) doesn't have to carry 50 lbs. of film to remote locations (and through many Third World X-ray scanners) but he ends up with a negative and print as he did with film.

I don't know if any other photographers have taken this route. I'd be curious to find out. I know that Daido Moriyama (well, his assistant) uses Nik Silver Efex Pro to get his film look with the image from the compacts he shoots with, but he doesn't bother with an internegative (as far as I know).

Kevin

*Citations:

• Testimonial
• Interview
• Interview in Portuguese
• Commentary (especially on the lack of silver in modern film)
• Forum comments
• Forum comments

[**Regular TOP readers know who that is. —Ed.]

©2013 by Kevin Purcell, all rights reserved

Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Jack Nelson (partial comment): "What a great marketing idea. Give the customer a free un-upgradable copy and on the download page include a link to a discounted new version. I'll bet they get a few people who would not otherwise use their product to try it out (like me) and of those I'll bet they get a few that like it and buy the discounted version 4."

Jim Bullard: "I've played with DxO as a trial program and even did a review on my blog that compared it with other B&W conversion packages. In the end I went with Nik Silver Efex Pro because my object was to produce the best conversion for my intent, not to make it look as if it had been shot on film. The Nik software can add film grain and rendition but that's not its primary intent nor is it mine."

Historical Significances

I hope you won't read this as some big pronouncement or hard-and-fast claim. It might constitute an assertion, of sorts, but I'm not making the assertion aggressively, at all. It's more in the nature of musing—turning ideas over in my mind—.

My thought is that the Caponigros' print will be the only one of our print sales with lasting photo-historical significance.

It has such a clear story. I see it as a future microcosm of 2013—I'll bet even the printing style will one day be recognizably characteristic of the present era. And its status as a rare collaborative work of two well-known photographers who happen to be father and son will never lose interest.

That can't be more than a guess.

My only puzzlement is how to frame mine...and where to put it. Where to put it so I can get to know it.

But I promised to tell the story of my poster.

Many years ago, when I first got bitten (hard) by the photography bug, I was moonlighting part-time in a frame shop. One of the other employees, whom I've long since lost track of, was a talented but impoverished painter. During one of the dead times at the shop he and I were shooting the breeze about our favorite artwork on the walls. "That's the only thing in here that's worth a damn," he said, pointing to this poster.

Curiously, I'd never even noticed it before. It was so visually "quiet" amidst all the louder, more "attention-seeking" work on the walls. I looked at it long and hard that day, wondering what my co-worker saw in it.

It didn't sell; which meant it stayed on the wall, while the "Hang In There Baby!" cat and a certain Fred Maroon photo of Georgetown in the snow flew out of the store, replenished again and again. (This happened back in D.C., where I lived for many years.) I found myself looking at it day after day, and, as I did, it began to grow on me. I began to find a sort of peace and nourishment in the simple forms, the delicate tones, the way the stones mutely conjured a mysterious bygone world. Eventually it was like it was the only poster on the shop walls, the only one I saw; it was the only one I wanted to look at.

At the end of a month or so, I found myself one day walking the two miles between home and the shop, deep in thought, probably feeling sorry for myself for having to work all evening after already working an eight-hour day. But one good thing I could look forward to, I thought, was that at least I could visit "my" poster yet again. Then the thought flashed across my mind—if no one's bought it!

I put a down payment on it that day; I think it took me another thirty days to finish paying for it. I lived in a run-down group house at the time, and I painted my room there at my own expense, picking the color entirely to show off the poster. That would have been about 32 years ago now. (It even looked good in moonlight.)

The poster taught me a lesson, too. That many photographs (many advertising images, for instance) are deliberately intended to catch the eye and provide immediate gratification—but their appeal is often quickly exhausted; and some of the best photographs grow on you slowly , and yet continue to reward long familiarity. I still like photographs that have staying power, and it's something I look for in photographs.

Some music is the same way. I'm sure you know of catchy ditties that you loved on first hearing but soon got sick of, and other music that you almost didn't hear at first but have grown to love, and can return to again and again.

The other thing is did is that it introduced me to the work of Paul Caponigro, whose work in books I soon became very familiar with. Unfortunately, I've never seen a show of Paul's original prints, but I did see a few originals when I published a portfolio of his work in one of the magazines I worked for. Maybe one day I'll finally catch up with one of his shows.

There's always something to look forward to in photography.

And oddly enough, when I had my bedroom painted a few weeks ago, I once again chose the color specifically to set off this poster, just like I did in that grimy group house 32 years ago.

Mike
(Thanks to MM)

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Steve D: "Thank you for this. It's timely for me. I'm in my third year of taking photographs (as something other than mere snapshots) and I've noticed that the images I return to again and again are not what I would have 'expected' to gravitate to when I started out. They are not flashy or particularly eye catching but they've 'got me.' I've been trying to verbalize the 'why' of my feelings but it simply escapes me. I like them on an almost primal level and that's that I suppose."

Robert Billings: "I too have a Paul Caponigro poster that has been with me wherever I have lived since the early 1970s. 'Running White Deer, Ireland 1967.'"

The Father-Son Print Sale

We all have our special touchstones. For me, one of the most influential photographers of my life has been Paul Caponigro, one of the leading landscapists of the 1970s and in my view one of the towering artists in the medium. His presence on the current scene has quietly receded—by all accounts he is a quiet and spiritually-oriented person—but not for me. I revere his books, especially The Wise Silence, and have pored over them—you might even say meditated over them—too many times to count. I have never met Paul or spoken with him, but he was certainly one of my teachers, through the prism of his work, which is as deep as the sky.

A bit of a digression, if you can abide it...I recently remodeled my small bedroom. All my life I've had problems sleeping, problems that have gotten worse in recent years. Following a sleep specialist's recommendations, I've endeavored to make my bedroom a peaceful, comfortable, quiet retreat, with no electronics, as few distractions as possible, and minimalist decor. In contrast with the rest of the house, there's only one piece of visual art in the room. Although "only" a poster, it's one of my favorite pieces of art, one that has followed me through thick and thin, and many moves, for more than thirty years. I love it today as much as I did the moment I first brought it home. There's a good story behind that old poster, and I'll tell it soon.

Paul is very fortunate in that his son John Paul is also a major photographer. It's amazing how much John Paul Caponigro is his father's son artistically, even though his work is essentially not derivative of his father's at all. John Paul needs as little introduction to digital photographers as father does to view camera traditionalists; virtually since digital became viable, John Paul has been at the forefront—among American photographers—of those continually exploring the newest artistic and creative possibilities of digital technology. He has lectured, consulted, and taught workshops about digital techniques, written books about Photoshop, and counted as clients many of the big-name companies. And yet he has never allowed his extensive activities in the field to interrupt his life as a practicing artist, or his ongoing growth as a creative person. 

Nice guy, too!

Old and new methods
For the initial print offer of our Fall season, Paul and John Paul have created, between them, a unique single artwork combining one picture by each. From a phototechnical perspective, it is truly a contrast of old and new. It exemplifies and encapsulates in one work of art the "digital transition," the period in the history of photography we have just passed through.

Paul's picture, in black-and-white, was taken in 1957 with a 4x5 Deardorff view camera and an 8-inch lens. John Paul's color picture was taken last year with an iPhone 5 and processed with Google's Snapseed app.

As if that's not enough difference, the two images could not be more different in terms of subject matter as well. And yet the technical dimension and the subject matter are really just the surface. The visual interplay of the two pictures (which you'll see next Sunday—we don't reveal the images in our print offers before the start of the sale) is wonderful; you can clearly see the unanimity that exists between the artistic concerns and approaches of father and son, and the way the work of each of them echoes, informs, and (in this case) enhances the other's. Paul chose the pairing. It's really quite an amazing piece, from a purely visual as well as from a photohistorical perspective.

Both pictures will be printed by John Paul on one sheet and will be signed by both photographers, father and son. A unique and unusual original work, and one I am proud and happy to be able to bring to you.

Please stay tuned for more information. The sale starts on Sunday at noon, and orders close on the afternoon of the following Friday. As you might know, we take orders for our sale prints for only a limited time, and then the prints are made to fulfill the orders already placed. The work is limited to those prints sold during that time.

Please spread the word, would you? And please check in on Sunday to see the work.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Marcelo Guarini: "I met Paul Caponigro, in 1986 I guess, when I was commencing my Ph.D. At U of A. The occation was an exhibit opening of his recent work, at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson. Quite different technically from his view camera work, although the subject was again landscape, walls etc. The prints were large Cibachromes made from 35mm Kodachromes he made with a Leica M, and they were beautiful. I got the opportunity to talk to him for a few minutes where he told me about how his family arrived to the U.S. from Italy, and about how much he was enjoying that little camera (the Leica), we even talked some Italian, his much better than mine. From those few minutes, I realized I have met more than a top photographer, but a superb human being."

Bruce Van Valen: "I was very fortunate to have been in Maine in 2011 and to have been able to spend time at Paul Caponigro's show at the Farnsworth Museum in July of that year. That show was incredibly impressive to me as a photographer. I had been aware of his work before but this collection of his work blew me away! I also have a great deal of respect for John Paul's work, and would like to do one of his workshops one day. But I have to say that the notion of one of these photographs coming from an iPhone puts me off. Obviously, I haven't seen the photograph yet, but as a previous purchaser of TOP print sale prints, I can't see iPhone photography as being the pinnacle of the state of photography at this time."

Mike replies: Consider that in the early decades of 35mm, there were many who called them "toy" cameras or "miniature format," and wouldn't take work made with them seriously...there's actually nothing deficient about John Paul's image technically (I might even enjoy the contrast between the two a little more if there were), but I'd say the artfulness is in the artist, not in the device. Of course you must judge for yourself, so you're right to reserve judgment.

Steve Makin: "Hello Mike. Long time reader here. Just wanted to share my Caponigro story. The Wise Silence has long been my favourite, a shared passion with my good friend John. Imagine our surprise when out photographing trees at a local wood and we came upon the very same tree that Paul photographed and included in The Wise Silence (titled 'Cheshire UK' if I recall correctly). John and I had spent a whole winter photographing every Sunday morning at this place (Alderley Edge, Cheshire) with a view to putting together a joint exhibition. It was to be our last visit for this purpose and we both instantly recognised the tree! A magical moment. Obviously we have both attempted to capture something of the tree ever since but never managed to do so."

Mike replies: Man, I know what you mean. I tried once to mimic a Lee Friedlander photograph, which I initially thought would be a piece of cake. I spent a week perching my camera on the hood of various cars and posing behind the wheel, and I never even got close. Not even close.

Marilyn Nance: "I was on a photographic workshop to the Antarctic Circle led by John Paul and Seth Resnick this past February. JP is a wonderful, kind person in addition to being a great photographer and instructor. Hope to be able to attend one of his printing workshops."

Mike Finally Meets Peter

Taken at Harley-Davidson's 100th Anniversary, ten years ago. Photo by Peter Turnley.

I was away from the desk for most of yesterday. Which, much as I love you, I need sometimes.

One of the oddities of the Internet age is "friends you've never met." At this point I've had ongoing online friendships that have lasted for as much as 18 years with people I've never met face to face! (Bob and Walt, Ailsa, et al., you all know who you are.) In a number of other cases, such people have gone on to become good in-person friends too (Nick, Oren, and more...).

Possibly my best friend-I've-never-met I finally met yesterday. A momentous event! And what do you know, Peter Turnley in person is—speaking objectively, now—one of the world's great guys.

The mountain had to come to Mahomet*. Milwaukee isn't on the way to anywhere, and visitors seldom pass this way. But Peter has been photographing Harley-Davidson's periodic anniversary bashes here for a decade now, and H-D hired him this time for three days of shooting at the 110th Anniversary celebration this week. So he flew in a day early so we could meet and break bread.

Peter's well-worn M Monochrom, his current camera of choice. You'd think I could illustrate this post with a better picture than this, but none of my other snaps "turned out."

Peter and I have a lot in common. We also have a lot not in common, for instance the fact that he's a globetrotter and I'm a homebody, and he'll photograph anything and anyone fearlessly and I'm afraid to shoot anyone I don't know. This would seem to predict that I'd enjoy his company more than he'd enjoy mine, but we got along great and talked nonstop all afternoon and evening. I think our shared idealistic love of photography trumps all, when you get right down to it.

We stopped by the Milwaukee Art Museum and had a nice long talk with Photography Curator Lisa Sutcliffe, too (they'd never met). I really like Lisa as well, and always enjoy seeing her.

Anyway I had a great time. I think the word for the effect of such visits on my psyche is "revivifying." I had to look up that word to make sure it fits. It does.

We are going to do our level best to get me to one of Peter's Paris Workshops in the coming year, something I finally feel free to do now that Zander's in college and has his own car (Lulu will have to go to the doggie hotel). Granted, I got lost twice yesterday driving around in my own town, so travel might not be my strong suit. But I think the revivification will make it worth it.

Mike

*"Mahomet cald the Hill to come to him. And when the Hill stood still, he was neuer a whit abashed, but said; If the Hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet wil go to the hil." —Francis Bacon, Essays, A.D. 1625.

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Steve Rosenblum: "Since I'm pretty sure I 'introduced' you guys eight or nine years ago, this post made my day. It's not necessary for people to be very similar to become good friends, only that they have enough in common to connect on a core level and otherwise admire/respect the parts that are different. You are both lovely guys (who I know and admire individually) and I'm very happy that you enjoyed each others' company. I would love to see Peter's photos of you!"

Mike replies: What, and break that nice Leica?

Ken Jarecke: "Sounds like a wonderful day. I hope you pulled some great stories out of him...he's got a few!"

Mike replies: Ken, on the way back to the hotel I got regaled with one of the greatest lost-camera stories I've ever heard. One I'm not allowed to repeat, very unfortunately. But...yeah.

The Peeping Tom: It Wasn't that Bad

Arne Svenson's show "The Neighbors" hanging at Julie Saul Gallery in New York City. The show was up from May 9 to June 29.
Photo courtesy Julie Saul Gallery.

Do you remember Arne Svenson? We wrote about him a while back, last May to be exact. He's the fellow who engaged in a long-term art project shooting pictures through the open windows of the apartment building on the other side of the street from where he lives in New York City. Sort of a glorified, gussied-up peeping-Tom kind of thing. Some of his neighbors were displeased, as they discovered large prints of themselves taken surreptitiously through their windows being put on view at a prestigious city gallery.

One couple sued.

Well, the court has now ruled—in the artist's favor. Judge Eileen Rakower of the New York Supreme Court limited her decision to the "circumstances presented here," but wrote that the artist's First Amendment protections outweigh the subjects' expectations for privacy.

Note that issues like this are never not going to be thorny, and, as Ctein often reminds us, such issues often come down to case-by-case adjudication.

Arne Svenson, "The Neighbors" #16

Personally, I like the pictures, small JPEG renderings of which can be seen on Arne's website. But I sympathize more with the neighbors (the body of work is called "The Neighbors"). I find I identify with them more than I do with the photographer, and I know that I would definitely not want someone snapping pictures of me in my home through my open window.

But the judge's ruling seems sensible. Through the scaffolding of due process and legalese, the ruling seems to say, in effect, "In this case, it wasn't that bad."

Mike
(Thanks to several readers)

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Carsten S: "I am more concerned about the watching that he had to do to take the pictures than about the publication of that particular selection of photos."

David A. Goldfarb: "There are relatively few buildings like the Zinc Building in New York—seven stories with floor-to-ceiling windows and 21 apartments in a bustling Tribeca location, where an 880 sq. ft., 1 bdrm, 1.5 bath apartment sold for $1.375 million just this past April. If one wanted not to be on display, it would be easy enough not to live there."

Mike replies: I know this is off topic, but that's one of the reasons I like Waukesha: around the corner from me, there is a big, beautiful stone house with 5,000 square feet including an indoor gym, four one-car garages and an oversized garage for an RV, on a beautifully kept 2.5-acre lot with mature trees and a broad lawn. Hammer price: $319,000. Sold just a few months ago. Of course, it's not New York; but then, some people would prefer quiet, safe, friendly li'l ol' Waukesha. The realtor: "It takes a special kind of buyer. The taxes are very high." Taxes: $9k annually.

Back on topic: Does the size of your windows really change the issue? That sounds suspiciously like the old saw about a woman asking to be raped because of the provocative way she dresses. A central tenet of moral behavior is that you follow the principle rather than allowing yourself to be influenced by temptation or opportunism, no?

Of course, the courts have ruled, so we're only talking about ethics here, not legality.

Herman Krieger: "It looked like a window of opportunity."

Bill Poole: "Judging from the images on his site, these are beautifully composed photographs—not of the building residents, but incorporating fragments of their figures into the compositions. (The photographer seems to have gone out of his way to not include recognizable faces.) To me, the result is strangely moving: intimate without being personal or revealing."

Alan Fairley: "As an attorney, I was intrigued by the legal issues in the case. I poked around a bit and found that what Svenson did would almost certainly be actionable in jurisdictions that have a common-law right of privacy, as defined in the Restatement of the law of Torts. However, New York State does not recognize that common law right of privacy, which hamstrung the neighbor's ability to plead a viable claim against Svenson. Instead, they had to sue for 'unauthorized use of likeness for commercial purposes' which, not only in New York but virtually every jurisdiction, recognizes an exception for works of art. Thus, the lawsuit was doomed from the start.

"Personally, I find what Svenson did to be reprehensible, but on the other hand, I find the photographs luminously beautiful.  No one ever said art was simple."

We Hear from Nathan Benn

I had a nice note yesterday from Nathan Benn, whose photographs and forthcoming book we discussed in the post titled "The Color Disease":

Nathan Benn here. I am overwhelmed by the response to Matt McCann's story on the New York Times Lens Blog about Kodachrome Memory. I was literally brought to tears by the generosity and spirit of some of the comments. I started redacting my archive in 2003, and I was doubtful whether anybody today would find pleasure in looking at the pictures. The comments on the NYT Lens Blog and The Online Photographer are a very happy surprise. Thank you.

There are several interesting points or questions in the blog comments to which I intend to respond. But for now, I'd like to comment on just a couple of items. Kodachrome II was the most beautiful color film I ever used. Not the most accurate. Kodachrome 25, the replacement, was introduced in 1974 and colors were more accurate. Neither did green well, but great red, yellow and blue! KII was warmer and that often worked well, especially in "magic hour" light. My friend and National Geographic Society (NGS) colleague William Albert Allard was the greatest master of KII and the magic hour…I'm a piker next to Bill.

There is a fascinating book about making Kodachrome by Robert Shanebrook, who was the one of the guys in Rochester who made the stuff. It is called Making Kodak Film, and is out of print. But Bob is still offering it at his website.

A little back story on my image of the woman on the steps, "New Haven, Vt. 1973." I was shooting a "state story" on Vermont for National Geographic magazine. I was in New Haven to photograph an annual workshop of writers. I was there about three days, and didn't make a single frame of the writers that was worth a damn. Somebody told me about a "hippie commune" nearby called Lorien Farm. I wandered in a couple of times, following around the young and earnest farmers who shared the old farm and lived together. The woman on the step had just emerged from the kitchen, waiting for the commune members to come to dinner. I was really focusing on a young man leading a horse and wagon into the nearby barn. I turned and saw the woman, liked the light, made a little effort to frame her between the leaves. We never spoke. She was standing on those steps for maybe 30 seconds and I think I have four frames. Her hands and legs are positioned effectively as you see them in only one frame.

The image never made it to the layout room. Years later it was one of my three images in the NGS Odyssey show and book. That was first publication…I shot it in 1973 but it wasn't really seen until 1988. Kodachrome II with an 85mm lens on a Nikon F. (Mostly I used Leica M's). The original transparency is lost. Thankfully, National Geographic made a hi-res drum scan for the Odyssey show and it prints quite nicely.

A word about the color you saw in the Lens Blog. I don't know why most images there are so garishly saturated. There was some error in making the JPEGs, and it doesn't matter now how that happened. The few images on my site kodachromememory.com are much closer to my intention. However, my targets are the pages of the book and my fine art prints on Epson Hot Press Bright. The reflective versions are more subtle and I hope you will approve.

Thank you for your attention,

Nathan

-

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

No featured comments yet—please check back soon!

Abelardo Morell: The Universe Next Door

By Kenneth Tanaka

What does the expression "a photographer's photographer" mean to you? To me it's a genre-independent designation far beyond simply a "good" or "prolific" photographer. To me it's someone who leverages a mastery of the photographic medium toward making more sophisticated observations than the usual superficial self-evidence. It's a visually curious and voracious person who sees first with a keen mind then, perhaps, with a lens. And sometimes it's someone who doesn't even need a camera to make a picture.

Abelardo (Abe) Morell is, to me, a photographer's photographer. I believe that the Art Institute of Chicago's new show, "Abelardo Morell: The Universe Next Door" firmly buttresses my opinion.

Abe's work defies conventional categorization. It's certainly not street, fashion, or any form of reportage even though Frank, Levitt and Arbus were some of the photographers he most admired. Nor is it purely conceptual, although this, on average, comes closest to the mark. I just call Abe's work "deep seeing." It's simultaneously meditative, inventive, and investigative.

If you're only barely aware of Abe Morell it's likely you know of his jaw-dropping camera obscura work in which he has inarguably established the gold standard. He began doing camera obscura experiments as an instructional exercise during his 27-year photographic teaching career at at the Massachussetts College of Art and Design (a.k.a. MassArt). It gradually became a passionate pursuit that, as it became more sophisticated, has drawn him to many locations in the world, with many visual objectives. Today, with the aid of a periscoped custom dome tent, Abe can take the basic technique nearly anywhere, a freedom that's leading him in new artistic directions.

But Abe's work is far broader and deeper than camera obscura. The birth of his first child in 1986 and the consequent limitations imposed by home-bound infant care became the genesis of much of his most fascinating work. Unable to wander the world in search of images, Abe began to explore the world of his home. Switching from a small 35mm camera to a large-format view camera he began contemplating the simplest of household scenes and objects. Wet footprints on a bathroom floor. Crayons. Baby bottles. The view of his home from an infant's point of view. Gradually this work became more sophisticated and complex as he began conveying characteristics such as materiality and the cultural meanings of objects such as books, money, maps, and the indivisible relationship between photography and time.

Skimming Abe's work generally does not work. In nearly every frame there's more going on than is immediately apparent. The complexity of constructions and their meanings often require contemplation and sometimes additional notes. For example the image titled "Shadows during Solar Eclipse, 1994" apparently shows sunlight filtered through a tree canopy and striking the ground. Sounds dull, eh? But then you learn that each of those spots is a camera obscura image of the sun in partial eclipse, created by the momentary gaps between tree leaves. Then you realize that camera obscura images of the sun are always projected all around you in a forest. What's not to love about such revelatory work?

"The Universe Next Door" is a 25-year retrospective show of Abe's work conceived and curated principally by Art Institute of Chicago Associate Curator of Photography, Elizabeth Siegel, over a four-year period. It's an enormous show, featuring over 100 prints occupying four of the AIC's five photography galleries across two buildings.

Speaking of prints, they're simply gorgeous. Abe was for many years a devoted silver gelatin B&W guy. But several years ago, probably for practical reasons, he begun shooting with a digital back and also adopted inkjet printing for both color and B&W. If you visit the show, I challenge you to distinguish between the pigment and wet prints without reading labels. You can't. This is positively the most seamless intermixed presentation of digital/film, wet/pigment photography and printing I have ever seen and a monumental (if unintended) middle finger to those who continue to claim that digital printing is inherently inferior to chemical.

One last thought on the requisite characteristics that make a "photographer's photographer" in my book: they tend to be inspirational. Their creative energy becomes infectious and incites others to pick up a camera. Whether or not Abe Morell's work tickles your fancy I can almost guarantee that it will prompt you to investigate something new, or something old in a new way, with your camera. I'm sure that the educator in Abe would be elated to have such an effect on you.

Ken

Abelardo Morell: The Universe Next Door is at the Art Institute of Chicago from June 1  to September 2, 2013. From Chicago it will travel to Los Angeles's Getty Museum October 1, 2013 – January 5, 2014, and then on to Atlanta's High Museum of Art February 22 – May 18, 2014. I urge you to try to see the show in person. The prints alone are worth the visit, although the images are certain to tattoo your mind.

Failing that, however, the outstanding catalog by Elizabeth Siegel is available from Amazon. (Here's the U.K. link.)

Video: Abelardo Morell on Photography, Life, and Dancing

Our friend Ken Tanaka, who writes periodically for TOP and comments often, lives right next door to the Art Institute of Chicago and is enthusiastically involved with the museum world in many ways. Visit his (very nice, frequently updated) website here.

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Patrick Snook: "In the video linked here I saw in just three minutes the most compelling photography I've seen in three or more years. And the unpretentious commentary rings true and clear. Perfect, or as near as it gets. Thanks for bringing this photographer to TOP!"

Charles Wick: "I first met Abe in 1967 through my college roomate. Knowing him was from the first a revelation: his constant curiosity, playfulness,good humor and insightfulness have been a touchstone for me in my life since then. While he distances himself from his early street stuff, I remember the photos he did in college even now for their brilliant surprises and revelations. I have a couple of his discards from this time and still marvel when I look at them. To Abe, I can only say 'Ungark Geb!!'"

Richard Tugwell: "A new photographer to me, and an eye-opener—thanks Ken for the review. I'm not sure about the term 'photographer's photographer'—sounds a bit esoteric to me, and I would think anyone who enjoys looking will enjoy this guy's ability to see. Inspirational, certainly."

The Biggest Photographer in America

He lives in the biggest house, he smokes the biggest stogie, he has the biggest feet. I met Jay once—Arthur Kramer introduced us. I'm sure I was a lot less memorable to Jay than Jay is to me. There are all sorts of this-er or that-est photographers, but Jay, the leading commercial pro of his generation and not even really a pro at heart, is just the biggest. He has a basketball court in his studio. In Manhattan. That's big.

This video has been out for a while, but Svein-Frode suggested it in the Comments to yesterday's post and today seems like a good day for it.

If the day comes when just a few humans are going to be allowed to live forever, I'm casting a vote for Jay.

Mike
(Thanks to Svein-Frode)

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Amie Adams aka @mammaloves: "Thank you. I've needed inspiration lately. I stopped carrying my camera and I hate that. I need to find the joy again."

Jim Bullard: "He has an incredible eye. I know that is cliché but I don't know how else to say it. He sees photographs where no one else would. I'm not usually inclined to have heroes but he's an exception. He's just awesome."

Dennis: "Jay is my photographic idol—he's everything I'd love to be in a photographer. When it seems that every serious photographer does 'projects' or 'series' it's refreshing to see such a great photographer just going out with his eyes open and looking for things that will make great photographs. I don't buy other photographers works in print form (I buy books) but I'd love to own the shot that shows up first when you click on 'Recent Work' on his website—the cityscape with the Christmas lights on top of one roof. I've seriously toyed with the idea of spending $5k to attend his week-long workshop, but I know that as much as I'd enjoy it, I wouldn't have time to exploit the lessons learned."

Kenneth Tanaka: (partial comment): "Watching this profile today led me to the revelation that Jay has probably been one of the most powerful influences on my own photographic approach for many years. It never occurred to me that watching another short film of him many years ago really tattooed me with his brand of 'Look, it's all around you, dummy!' philosophy for finding images. But it really was not until today that I realized his influence on me. Perhaps I'll have the chance to meet him one day."

john crowley: "I think it's time for the 'Big Book of Jay.'"

Mike replies: Amen.

Meet Photographer Andrew Borowiec

I've just spent a bracing hour in the company of Andrew Borowiec, thanks to Stan Banos's Reciprocity Failure blog. Starting with this short introductory video:

...and moving on to this longer but even more rewarding slideshow. (There's been such relentless rosy-hued propaganda through TV advertising about how lovely and perfect the Gulf Coast is that I've been in need of a corrective.)

We're not quite there with the medium of the narrated online slideshow yet, but I think it's a particularly amenable way to look at photographs—a modern multimedia version of a book that pairs pictures with accompanying text, my favorite form.

Hope you can take the time. Andrew has four books under his belt, two of which are still in print: Along the Ohio (Creating the North American Landscape), Cleveland: The Flats, the Mill, and the Hills, Historic Architecture in Canton, 1805–1940, and Industrial Perspective: Photographs of the Gulf Coast. His website is here and his gallery is here.

Mike
(Thanks to Stan Banos)

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Doug Howk: "Great video. Interesting that he too finds the panorama image best format for his Gulf Coast series (I use a 7x17 for much of my Florida work). I have his Cleveland book which is an excellent survey of Cleveland's industrial area. As a teenager I vividly remember accompanying my father through that area as he went from one side of town to the other while conducting his TV repair business at people's homes (a profession in the past). There was even a whale processing plant in the flats that stunk to the high heavens but was a crucial part of the perfume industry."

Dave: "I lived in the Akron area when I was first getting into photography. At the time I was only into taking pictures of waterfalls and sunsets. Northern Ohio seemed like a photographic wasteland to me. Now that I'm into photos of old buildings, I kick myself for the missed opportunity. Because I was looking for ruins to take photos of, I didn't really notice that part of Ohio. The place seamed downright prosperous to me. Yes, there were abandoned factories and run down neighborhoods, but there were also many new subdivisions and budding high tech industries.

"Borowiec's photos look great; they are right up my alley—ruins porn disguised as Joel Sternfeld or Stephen Shore (I mean that as a compliment). However, if he wants to be a proper documentarian, I think he needs to point the camera at some of the progress that's springing up in the rust belt."

Sebastião Salgado's TED Talk

I'm actually too busy to watch all of this right now. Please tell me if it's good or not good! (I will give thanks for the subtitles...listening as I worked didn't go so well. But then I have trouble making out accents [as well as handwriting].)

Just posted today.

Sebastião's new book can be pre-ordered. If my email is any indication, this book is being very eagerly awaited.

Mike

Rod Purcell adds: "Hi Mike—Salgado's Genesis book is already released in the U.K. My copy came last week. However good you think it will be, it's better. You have to be impressed by the commitment the guy makes to his projects and the range of his output. It is also a demonstration on the power of B&W photographs. The Genesis exhibition is currently on display in London (until 8 September).

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Jeff: "Inspirational and important, on many levels."

Jack: "Yes, it's good and worth your time, especially the last minute when he shows a photo of his parents' farm, before and after. The before is the farm as the result of years of erosion, the after is the same exact photo location after the 2.5 million trees he had planted had grown up. A wonderful and unique example of renewal that can be achieved."

Zach: "Really really enjoyed the Genesis exhibition at NHM in London. Locals should definitely go. Huge prints and relatively uncrowded even on weekends (compared to, say, the wildlife photographer of the year show which is quite unpleasant at peak)."

Geoff Wittig: "I can hardly wait for this book. Salgado's Africa is a wonderful book, but to my surprise the two images that stopped me in my tracks were landscapes. So a book that features more of them...."

matt scooler: "Saw the book at AIPAD a few weeks ago—the book is very nice (and quite heavy—Amazon shipping weight is 8.7 pounds), however it truly pales in comparison to the gigantic two-volume limited edition set which I would recommend to any of your wealthy readers interested in his photography."

Mike replies: Shhh, don't tell Geoff.

V.I. Voltz: "I pre-ordered Genesis and received it a couple of weeks ago. The printing is beyond reproach, but too many of the photos traverse the gutter, several look even more over-processed/manipulated than before; enough that it makes looking through the technique hard, and the portrait format doesn't work especially well for my viewing position. I am glad I have it, but it isn't Workers or Migrations."

stefano: "I saw the book last week here in los angeles at the Paris Photo exhibit. it is beyond any expectation; as far as I am concerned, this is the best photography work ever published—you must see it to believe it. the 'small' and inexpensive version is good too, but once you see the full size behemoth(s), you are sold!"

'Wonderland'

I've posted two links to the renewed edition of Jason Eskenazi's fine book Wonderland in the past couple of days. I've just heard from Jason, who says, "Wonderland stocks are dwindling fast. Last 100 copies. Prices will change very very soon.

"Just giving your readers a heads up. Thanks!"

A very small book in covers of thick, rough cardboard, the pictures are divided by the gutter and fill each spread, but the binding allows the pictures to open fairly flat. Although unconventional, it seems to work well, and if you give the pictures sufficient attentiveness the book is very moving. Not for nothing has it received widespread attention and praise.

Here's the link one more time. You can read a little more about Jason here.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Stan B.: "The book reads like an encapsulated volume of life fully lived, with all the grandiose drama and poignant smaller moments so characteristic of Russian poetry. Life and love, youth and longing, unsparing reality and the rituals we humans create, celebrate, and endure. All within the confines of two grey slabs of cardboard. It's the perfect portable photo bible you'll want to have with you wherever you go, just to remind yourself what good photography really looks like. Meet your maker out in the cold cruel world with this on ya, and they may not know if you can take a picture worth a lick, but they will know you got taste!"

Great Photographers of the Digital/Internet Era

Some example pictures by a few of the photographers nominated by TOP readers as standouts of the current digital/internet era, in response to the "Dare I Ask?" post. In no particular order. The reader who mentioned them in parentheses (unless there were many, or none).

Hedi Slimane [male, French], from Fashion Diary (Eddi)

Angela Bacon-Kidwell [female, from the U.S.] ("...Even though she's guilty of placing angel wings on a human, which was a ubiquitous trangression in the early days of digital and one that I thought I could never forgive." —latent_image [hey, even Koudelka's done that...sort of. —MJ])

UPDATE: Angela Bacon-Kidwell responds: "Just for the record the images of mine that you refer to having 'angel wings' are not digitally altered. They were actually there. I have a new image with 'paper angel wings.' I wonder if it might resonate with you. :-) Thanks for the shout out and intro to your site."

Loretta Lux [female, German]

Christian Coigny [male, Swiss] (Eric Kellerman)

Tommy (Toshihiro) Oshima [male, Japanese] (Bob Blakely). This is Solo Sniper: Daido Moriyama in the streets of Soho, London.

Jason Eskenazi [male, from the U.S.] (Rory Challands). Note that Wonderland is back in print, and can be ordered directly from Jason at his website for only $32. Cool. Much better than paying $73 to $900(!) at Amazon. —MJ.

-

[To be continued...]

G'day

TOP is off on Saturday, for regular housekeeping...as in, you know, the cleaning of the actual physical house. I hate doing it but I like having it done.

We will do much more about this business of the post-1995 photographers. I'm working on a samplings post. Thanks for all the responses.

It's always fun to research photographers I haven't heard of. And what do you know, look what I came across—a "Random Excellence" photographer from way back in 2008, Hin Chua, has a lot of new pictures in the set called "After the Fall." (I thought it was a new project at first.) It's a type of photography you probably know well, but unusually well done. None of the pictures taken alone does a whole lot for me, but somehow taken altogether the set becomes meaningful. Take a relaxed, extended look.

See you Sunday.

—Mike, Organizing Apprentice and Journeyman Housekeeper Ordinaire

UPDATE from Hin Chua, Monday a.m.:

Dear Mike (and everyone),

Thanks for posting my series again! Hopefully two posts in six years doesn't consist of TOP overexposure! Mike, when I started getting into photography in 2005, your columns on photo.net were a regular reference for me; I've always valued them.

Embarrassingly enough, the current 'After the Fall' work on my website dates to about early 2010, which means I have about three years of work yet to show the general world. As William notes, yes there are hundreds of images involving thousands of miles of travel that quite rightly didn't make the cut. Whatever they say about keeping your website updated as a best reflection of oneself is true, and I've been too guilty of that. I have to admit in public the current sequence looks a little long in the tooth and will be better for the new photographs.

But the site will be updated this year, and the long-term goal is a book. I'm clearly working at a slow, deliberate pace here. And hopefully in a year or two I'll get my act together and kick it up a gear ;-)

Best,
Hin

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

William Barnett-Lewis: "Thank you for the link to the Hin Chua 'After the Fall' series. I've done a fair bit of that style of work, though rarely at his level. There are a number of delightful 'surprise' images there that tickled my personal photographic aesthetics. The best thing about it, though, is that it's a carefully edited and presented series—there were, doubtless, many more images taken than presented. To look at even an extended series such as his is a relief in a world where most people seem to think uploading everything on their SD card is all they need to do. This is, at least for me, why it works even better as a whole than even the individual well done images do. There is as much care in the crafting of the series as in the crafting of the images themselves."

Mike replies: Agreed.

Softie: "'None of the pictures taken alone does a whole lot for me...' I beg to differ. Some of those pics in 'After the Fall' are among the finest compositions I've seen in years: particularly the stack of concrete pillars with the graffiti heart."

Dare I Ask?

Apparently lots of people don't like lists very much. I think adamct, in the featured comment to the previous post, nailed the reason why I do. Still....

Well, I'll forge ahead anyway.

Who are the ten greatest photographers?

Dare I ask? But keep reading....

This is going to be a big challenge, and it's going to tax you. It's an experiment that could well end up being a failure. But instead of the usual GOAT-type list, let's see if we can crowd-source—er, TOP-source—a list of TODAY'S great photographers: that is, photographers who came along after the advent of digital, after the advent of the Internet.

I.e., not the old graybeards or grannies who made their bones in the '60s and '70s. Not the people who have been retreaded through the museums for years now, or who are on their third or sixth or tenth book. (No matter how much we love those people. And we do, of course.) I'm talking about people nobody would have heard of before 1995 or so.

Where to start?
The first, almost mandatory inclusion, in my mind, would be Vivian Maier, in that she's almost exclusively an Internet phenomenon—to me she's one of the sensations of c. 2009, not of the years in which she worked. But she's cheating, since she's a film photographer from mid-century who only came to prominence during the digital era. (Call her the Eugene Atget of the digital age.)

Whether you only want to assay a nomination or two, or concoct your whole list...here's my challenge for you: who are the greatest photographers of the digital era? (Regardless of their actual chosen medium.)

Gauntlet duly thrown....

Mike

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Marcus: "Bryan Formhals and Blake Andrews put together an interesting list a year ago with a nice little twist: '10 Oeuvres Aspiring Photographers Should Ignore,' a list of photographer's styles that have been copied to death and run their course."

Mike replies: That's wonderful. I'd never seen it before. Thanks.

And that is definitely one distinct hallmark of the digital/internet era: common styles being copied unto death.

Terrence Morrissey: "One to add to the list, Joey Lawrence only 23 years old."

Mike replies: Too obviously commercial for me. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Rory Challands: "My choice for number one would be Jason Eskenazi. He's an uncompromising New Yorker, whose refusal to go for commissions has made his professional life tougher than it should have been. He was turned down by Magnum, and was scraping a low wage as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC while his book, Wonderland: A Fairytale of the Soviet Monolith, was selling out in the shop there.

"Wonderland (though it could do with a bigger format so the page break doesn't split each photo down the middle), is my favourite recent photography book. It's an elegy to the people of the former Soviet union, and documents the human relics of that fallen empire in the decade following its collapse.

"Jason is a master of photographic depth. He doesn't take pictures of things. He take pictures of the relationships between things. Each of his photos is beautifully layered with a rhythm that takes your eye dancing sadly through the frame. It's classic black and white street photography/photojournalism that doesn't break any moulds or claim any new inventions. But it's so exquisitely felt and executed that his name should be listed in the hall of Greats.

"He's obviously sacrificed to take the images he does. I hope he doesn't question too much whether its worth it. It is."

[Ed. Note.: Wonderland is back in print, and can be ordered directly from Jason at his website for only $32! Cool. I did not know. Much better than paying $73 to $900(!) at Amazon. —MJ.]

RobinP (partial comment): "Whoa!—shock and horror. Thanks, Mike, perhaps you've just pointed out one of the failings of the 'digital era'; or maybe I just live in the past...nearly all the books on my photography shelves are of artists who produced their best work long before 1995."

Mattias: "Rinko Kawauchi. She is to Japanese photography of the last decade what Moriyama was to the '60s and Araki to the '70s, a true original with a distinct vision. About the only thing she seems to have picked up from her peers is, in her early career, the diaristic content à la Araki, which she has progressed away from."

Dave: "This is a brilliant idea. Because I can't think of a single photographer for this list, I can't wait to see the results. I'm looking forward to being inspired by the finalists."

Stan B.: "Before the digital era I could at least name most of my faves off the top of my head; now...it's like expansion teams gone wild. I've well exceeded your suggested limit—so cut me off where need be:

"Taryn Simon, Zoe Strauss, Aaron Huey, Matt Black, Mark Steinmetz, Eva Leitolf, Leon A. Borensztein, Brenda Ann Keneally, Brian Rose, Jens Olof Lasthein, Scot Sothern, Doug Rickard, Jason Eskanazi, Bruce Haley, Thomas Michael Alleman, Thomas Kern, Robert Gumpert, Vanessa Winship, George Georgiou, Dave Jordano, Valeri Nistratov, a holy host of others, and of course, Vivian...."

Derek Lyons: "These lists always end up being lists of the 'most widely known'...because really there's no other way to find common ground."

He Shoots He SCORES!!

Hey, remember Nick Laham? We wrote about him when he was forced to turn a Tampa restroom into a studio and shoot some portraits with his Apple iPhone. Well, his picture of A-Rod (the one we featured) made Page One of The New York Times on Sunday.

There's been a lot of teeth-gnashing, hair-tearing, and garment-rending about how publications no longer care about professional-quality work from pro cameras, but you could look at it from the opposite perspective too—you could claim pro photographers aren't on the hook to keep contantly upgrading to the latest and best professional DSLRs any more. They can just use their iPhones like "everybody"* else.

Mike
(Thanks to Steve Rosenblum)

*Except us. We'll use good-quality point-and-shoots or better, thanks.

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

Click here, dammit Gumby.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Mark: "I haven't seen a copy of the actual newspaper myself, but I can't help but think that this is an entirely appropriate usage of a camera and technology and a testament to the skills of a professional photographer. Eyeballing the size of the photo relative to the size of the page, it can't be more than about 6x6" (or 15x15 cm). Even if it were printed at 300 DPI, that would only be a bit more than 3 MP for the image—and newsprint was almost never a medium for high-resolution photography in the first place.

"Furthermore, if any story allowed for the use of a nostalgic instagram aesthetic, I would have to see it as a story about an aging baseball star.

"Lastly, I know that I couldn't have improvised a studio in a bathroom and captured those expressions no matter what camera I was using. So doesn't that argue in favor of professional photographers rather than professional cameras? In terms of resolution, even a two-page spread in Time, National Geographic, or Elle could easily be handled by the previous generation of full-frame cameras. There's something liberating in that, if only we could remember and pay attention to it."

Henry Rogers: "I like that picture! I wouldn't like it any more if it had been taken with much more precise equipment."

Followup: Twofer! ...And We're Back On Topic

One thing I will say for BMW...it's a popular subject. Yesterday's post about BMW brought in far more traffic than normal for a Sunday.

I did go to the car show, and got a pleasant surprise. As I rounded the doorway into the Classic Two-Seater Sports Car room, this is what I saw:

Whoa, what?

A bonus for Mikey, that's what. Turns out an enterprising local photographer had piggybacked on the Auto Show to stage an exhibit of his work. He's a retired commercial professional from West Allis named Tom Ferderbar.

Photographer Tom Ferderbar

Here's Tom. We had a nice chat. He knew the late Arnie Gore, a local pro who was a good friend of my father's. He was showing two sets of work in the Two-Seater room: black and white from Yosemite National Park, and color from a project shot along the old Route 66. And he kinda liked the GX1, too.

One of Tom's Yosemite pictures next to a 1991 Lotus Elan.

The color work was done on 6x6 and with Canon DSLRs, and the black and white was all 8x10" Tri-X. The giant prints—I forgot to write down the size, although you can get an idea from the snapshot above—are digital prints made from scans. Tom told me that buyers sometimes ask for silver gelatin enlarger prints, but he can't make them this big, and he says he thinks the digital prints are better anyway. The main advantage, he said, being that he can burn and dodge much more precisely.

I was too polite to ask him if he'd sold any. His prices were right stiff, too.

As you might even have guessed, Tom studied with Ansel Adams—he took a workshop with Ansel in the 1960s (I think it was). The week-long workshop included a private dinner for two students at a time at the Adams home with Ansel and his wife Virginia. Cost for the week? $100.

•     •     •

The nice thing about going to the Auto Show on the weekend is that you get to meet some of the owners of the gorgeous old cars being displayed. In Tom's room I got to talk to the owner of a perfect 1959 Corvette, as well as a guy who had owned his restored 1957 Ford Thunderbird since new. That's pretty unusual. I also talked to the owner of a Bugatti Type 57 that must have been the rarest car on display at the whole show. He had just gotten it back after a five-year engine rebuild. I didn't even want to know what that cost. I must have been well into six figures.

Best of show: A used Fiberglas-bodied Superformance Cobra on display at Harry's Toys. Harry's is my favorite exhibit year after year, no question. Harry has been dealing in cool fun fine used cars since he was 16. In his day he's sold more Excaliburs than anyone alive. He sells mostly used cars skimmed from his sizeable wholesale business, but he also just took on a brand of Canadian three-wheeler that must have been the strangest vehicle at the whole show. He likes telling the story of one customer from Switzerland who has bought 35 cars from him! If I were a rich guy, I'd trade one used car for another every two years at Harry's for the rest of my life, like clockwork.

Oddities: #1: This might sound strange, but the muscle cars of today are Mercedes-Benzes. In some of their cars there are so many engine choices that they'll offer a 400+ HP bi-turbocharged V8 and then a more powerful option above that. They have a station wagon that will pin a Viper's ears back, and I'm not joking.

#2: I was looking forward to sitting in a Golf R, my current dream car, but, strangely, the VW display did not include a Golf R. Or a GTI. Or a Golf. That's right, no Golfs of any flavor in the VW area. That's just strange.

Hot tip: If you happen to be in the market for a mainstream sedan, make sure you see the new 2013 Mazda 6, a Camry/Accord competitor that's new this year (they've only been on sale for four weeks as I write this). The car looks good in pictures, but in person it's gorgeous. Especially in an as-yet-unidentified smokey blue color. Even the cockpit design is superb. Coming from a company that has been notably styling-challenged in the past few years (remember the cat-car?), that's like a mope who's batting .119 suddenly stroking a game-winning grand slam.

It's really an unusally pretty car for its segment. And it starts at $20k.

Fiat Abarths are nicer than I thought they'd be, too, but who are those cars for? I can't picture men buying them, and I can't picture women buying them. And I think those are the only choices.

It's my birthday today, so I'm going back to the Auto Show this afternoon. Playing hookey two days in a row...what a slug! But the nice thing about going to the Auto Show on a weekday is that there aren't nearly as many people, and you can get better pictures of the cars. Today I'm shouldering the Big Dragoon...gotta get some snaps of that Cobra. Who knows if I'll ever see one again.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Christian: "I am in love with that first B&W photo with the tree and the waterfall. I can't even see it that well in your picture, Mike, but I am quite smitten. When I grow up I would love to make pictures of that caliber."

Tom Kwas: "FYI, for the years I worked in Milwaukee, Tom had the premier advertising studio in town; and was a genuinely nice guy. Everyone wanted to work there, and they always had the best facilities and equipment. He was blessed, if I can use that term, with owning that studio during what would be the golden years of advertising photography in this market area. He was of the perfect age, such that when he decided to retire, the business market in general was already on the wane, and many of the local businesses that had national and international markets, had already sold themselves to larger concerns not located in this area, and moved their advertising and marketing departments out of this area to their home offices.

"He probably owned his studio when Milwaukee was still the 13th–15th largest metro area in the country, until by the early '90s, it had shrunk to the 38th largest market area. Perfect timing! No studio now exist in this market area that was like his. End of an era...."