Random Excellence: Damion Berger

Damion Berger [untitled]

This isn't the easiest picture in the world to visually parse. If you're lucky, when you first looked at this you didn't get it right away, and then you did. Made you smile, I bet. I'll give you a hint: it's a perfectly straight photograph, as far as I know. (I hope it is. We should ask Damion.)

It's from the series "In the Deep End." I've known there was a great series of photographs in this subject for literally twenty-five years; I always knew it. (I could never be the one to shoot it, though. Or try. Ever heard that old dictum that a man can drown in a teacup of water? Well, I am that man.) Every now and then I'd see a hint of it, one shot here or there showing just how rich a subject it could be. There was a fine book out a long time ago from Aperture called Swimmers (actually, it was Aperture no. 111, June 1988) that showed a lot of the composite parts, but of course lacking one unifying sensibility. Anyway, Damion Berger's "In the Deep End" is the first time I've ever seen anybody actually pull it off. Great set. Don't miss the slideshow—this is work that really coheres as a set, and each of these pictures is better in the context of all the others.

Some of the work is on view all summer long at Bonnie Benrubi Gallery, in the "Hot Fun in the Summertime" show. The gallery is at 41 East 57th Street, 13th Floor, New York, New York 10022, phone 212/888-6007.

Mike

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UPDATE: I heard from Damion, who tells me that all the pictures in the "Deep End" portfolio are indeed "straight."

Glub, glub, glub

Comments

[charlie d]

Oh boy

That is just fantastic.

[Rod]

Very nice. I like the graphic look afforded by the B&W approach. The triple-decker shot looks like fun to try.

Yes, I think lots of us have seen our own versions of these photographs, but lacked the ...drive... to make them.

I see in this interview comment that he used a Nikonos:
http://theclick.us/2009/06/cm-top-50-damion-berger/

The RSVP series on his website is also very interesting. Thanks for the link, Mike.

Rod S.

[Sean Reid]

Good call Mike. I like these pictures. Thanks for drawing our attention to them.

Cheers,

Sean

[James McDermott]

Mike,

Please stop featuring work that cannot be criticized, on way or the other, on bokeh grounds. It's upsetting for the Lonely and Unloved.

[Oronet Commander]

Truly excellent slideshow, Mike, very well rounded. And the pictures by themselves are stunning!

[Simon Griffee]

Thanks, Mike. These are some of the most beautiful, evocative photographs I have seen in a long time.

[Greg Mironchuk]

When it hit my screen... my first thought was that it was a late-in-life WeeGee...

Greg.

[Alex Vesey]

Very refreshing site; I have marked it off for extended viewing later. Thank you for sharing this with the readers.

On a gear note, what kind of camera could one use for such shots?

Alex

[bobdales]

Wonderful photographs. His web site has "On Private Walls" showing his prints in real settings. A very interesting touch. Opulance seeking opulance.
The Series Statements nicely contribute to the experience.
bd

[mogodore]

What a wonderful Sunday morning treat - and the last shot is a hoot. Love it. Love it.

Cheers

John

[mike plews]

Wonderful pictures! Thanks

[Marcell Nikolausz]

Great picture! I bookmarked the link with the excellent set. It reminded me that there are excellent options to take pictures in the pool. I also tried it years ago when my children participated in a baby swimming course. Here is one of my my attempts:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21017948@N06/3647743458/

Marcell

[Ken Tanaka]

Ha. It struck me immediately as a shot of Dr. Frankenstein's monster reading a magazine by a swimming pool...taken from underwater! Really terrific work by Damion Berger! Thanks for calling this out, Mike.

(Side note re: the image above. Just last week I watched an interview on TCM with the late director Billy Wilder in which he talked about how what an unexpected technical nightmare the opening shot of "Sunset Boulevard" was. This shot showed William Holden floating face-down, dead, in a swimming pool and was apparently taken from the pool's bottom. It also had to show the cops standing at the pool's edge. It all looked so simple during pre-production. But NOT! It required shooting with a mirror to get a reasonably clear simultaneous image of the cops.)

[Alunfoto]

Thanks for pointing this out, Mike.

I'd like to point to another artist having worked in the same... um... arena :-)

Heidi Wexelsen Goksøyr from Norway:
http://www.heidiwexelsengoksoyr.no/dreamweaver/under_overflaten1/under_overflaten_engelsk.html

[Mikal W. Grass]

Love the pictures. Thank you for the link.

He used a Nikonos? It is hardly a discreet camera, especially when using the 85 mm lens, but it is a terrific camera. I took mine out today with a roll of Kodachrome 25 and tri-x, to take some pictures of my wife and kids.

[Taran Morgan]

Didn't anyone notice the pervert at the bottom of the pool?

Trying to recreate these shots in a public place would be a fast ticket to jail in the current photographic environment of the USA, sadly. I wish I could do something like this, but my country won't allow it.