„Fuck the midtones“ – How to make a book with Steidl
November 1, 2010
This Thursday for the first time on tv: the german documentary “How to make a book with Steidl”, Thursday night, 04.10.11 at 3sat.
“How to make a book with Steidl” is a documentary on Gerhard Steidl and his work as a printer and publisher in the art and photography world. The film was awarded the “Golden Dove” and received positive reviews so far, so I’ll definitely see that one!
Watch the trailer on http://www.howtomakeabookwithsteidl.de/file/Trailer.html, buy the dvd here.
Best moment of the trailer: Steidl discussing proofs with a (famous) photographer, who seems to be worried about the midtones of the pictures. Steidl’s reaction: „Fuck the midtones“
Read more here.
New Blog: One year of books
March 8, 2010
As a last post this night I’d like to recommend you a fresh blog from Paris about photo books, called “One year of Books”
Karsten Kronas Stadtfotograf Koblenz – Vernissage and book launch
February 14, 2010
Karsten Kronas with whom I had the pleasure to be part of the “I Object” exhibition in Duesseldorf spend the last year photographing in Koblenz with a residency called “Stadtfotograf Koblenz” – city photographer Koblenz.
On February 23th, this new work will be shown in Koblenz and will for sure be a good reason to visit Koblenz. There is also the book launch of his project “BEYOĞLU BLUE” (Heterotopien) by Kehrer publishers and as I saw the dummy and the exhibition of this series I can say that it’s great work and I hope it will gain the attention it deserves.
The independent photobook list of Joerg Colberg and Mrs. Deane
January 10, 2010
Admired bloggers Jörg Colberg from “Conscientious” and Hester and Norman from “Mrs. Deane” started a new blog “the independent photo book” that lists independent photo books that are not available on amazon etc.
What a great idea to collect all the wonderful work and books one never comes across beacause they are too small which actually says nothing about their quality- so many of the self-made and self-published books are really interesting and cool.
Again, great idea, thanks Jörg, Hester and Norman!
(Hope to produce and publish my own project “Bergwerk Ost” later this year – and put it on the list…)
Making of “storylines” by Robert Frank with Steidl
December 28, 2009
By chance I found this kind of a “making of” of Robert Frank’s book “storylines“, which was published by Steidl in April 2004. I love designing photo books!
Mark Cohen – True Color and more
December 21, 2009
Next to Bruce Wrighton one of the most interesting photographers I “discovered” this year was Mark Cohen (born 1943, lives and works in Wilkes-Barre,PA). Especially in the 1970s with shows at the Moma and famous New York art galleries, he was a well-known street photographer and a pioneer in color photography.Nevertheless, Cohen was (and is?) a professional photographer in his home town Wilkes-Barre, doing assignement photography for a living and taking harsh, often flashed street photographs in his free time (I’m focussing here on color photography but he also did a lot of black&white, see his book Grimm Street).
What I like about Mark Cohen’s work is that the photographs are very spontaneous and one get’s somewhat close to the subject (as far as photography is able to do so…), at least to their surface. But then it’s also great great colors and extraordinary composed photographs.
Beside the quality of his work, the way he works is maybe even more remarkable but also questionable. See these videos (one is german though, the other one starts at 1.35 mins):
I’m not sure what to think about the way he works. On the one hand, I wold love to be able to be that direct, brave, agressive because often enough I probably do miss pictures because I am too shy,too polite even. But then, for Cohen it’s all about the picture and he doesn’t care at all how is subjects feel and that he invades their privacy. Honestly, until now I can’t work like that, but for sure the way Cohen works can result in beautiful pictures with great impact. In a comment about Cohen’s work I read: “I would probably describe Cohen (at least at that time) as displaying traits suggestive of being somewhere on the autism spectrum.” Interesting thought.
Other blog posts about Cohen:
A short New York Times review about his recent show “True color” at Hasted Hunt Kraeutler
Here are some of my favourite b&w shots:
A collection of Cohen’s black and white photographs is held by the George Eastman House.
All photographs © Mark Cohen and Hasted Hunt Kraeuetler
Back with Stefania Gurdowa’s glass negatives
November 18, 2009
Back in Germany! After seeing great photography in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York my notebook is full of photographer names and my ixus full with exhibition shots. I will try to get some of what I saw and liked onto the blog, but it was sooo much.
Anyways, I’ll start today with something I just found online, not during the trip.
It’s a project I found on lensculture.com, edited by Agniesza Sabor and Andrzej Kramarz. They found about 1000 glass negatives of a photographer called Stefanie Gurdowa (1888-1968) who ran a photographic studio in the 1920s and 30s.
Especially as this technique of preparing and exposing glass negatives doesn’t exist anymore (or is somebody still doing it?), these pictures look very much like a view into the history of photo techique as well as a view into another time, when people were not used to sit in front of a camera.
The accompanying book can be found here at photoeye .
Andrew Bush – “Drive” aka “Vector Portaits”
September 9, 2009
I recently found the series “Vector portraits” of LA-based artist Andrew Bush that I find really really good.
These photographs were made when Bush was driving through the streets and freeways of Los Angeles, he had a medium format camera with a flash attached to his car and then photographed the other drivers, always writing down exact informations about where he took the photo at what speed at what time etc.
On his website, you can see the whole body of work containing not less the 66 photographs. I think some pictures are not that interesting so a slightly tighter edit would have concentrated the thing even more, but in the book it’s probably quite nice to have that much material.
Shot between 1989-1997, “Vector Portraits” is now finally available as a book called “Drive” (I like the original title way more.)
Some more infos @ YOSSI MILO GALLERY were Bush recently had a show with this work.
Also a longer article on Design Observer.
“Komm, mein Maedchen, in die Berge” by Andrea Stultiens
August 24, 2009
“Komm, mein Maedchen, in die Berge” is german for “Come, my girl, to the mountains” and is the title of a wonderful book by dutch artist Andrea Stultiens. Unfortunately, I’ve not yet seen the book itself, but saw some stuff /articles about it online and if it’s not produced too bad I’ll totaly buy it (it’s only 18 Euros).
Through a colleague, Andrea Stultiens received several boxes with 3000 slides and after overseeing them all, she picked 45 pictures that show a couple over more than 3 decades spending their holidays in the mountains.
Again I think it’s quite amazing what you can do with found footage and – if you edit your footage an interesting way- what kind of stories one can tell with these pictures. With “Komm, mein Maedchen, in die Berge”, Stultiens constructed a life, a whole world of that unknown couple and to me it’s also very emotional because in many pictures the connection between the two is so present that we, the observer of their live, turn also in witnesses of a big love.
Or maybe that wasn’t a big, lucky love at all? How can we know?
German daily FAZ has a nice online feature with audio interview here. They also did some research of the true history / identityof the two protagonists of the book. See the only german article here.
Here some more pictures:
What makes these photographs also noteworthy is the fact, that the husband who put the camera on the tripod seemed to have a good eye for framing the picture and plcing the couple in the wonderful landscapes of the alps.
I myself am also working on a found footage project about my family, still scanning and looking through the whole material, not knowing how and when this might end, but here some raw scans…
Dan Winters’ new book – Periodical photographs
July 14, 2009
Dan Winters has been one of my favourite photographers for some time now. I always considered him to be a master photographer, but I was surprised that he’s still quite young – only 38 I guess. What I like very much about Dan Winters is that he found a very special way how he uses light and how he shows his subjects. When I see a picture of him a can tell immediately that it must be his, and that is a quality and uniqueness you don’t find too often. He says:
“As photographers, we are hired for our opinions to a certain extent. It will be a visual take, a very subjective interpretation,” says Winters. “I really think the strongest ally (above any technique) any photographer can have is the ability to really look at something and formulate an opinion about it. My goal is to have enough freedom with my clients to know that I am using my judgment in the best way I can, and that they know I’m working hard for them.”
His subjects, he says, have compared sitting for him to ”going to the dentist. But in a good way. Not having root canal. Maybe just having X rays done.”
And there is another thing that is really special about Dan Winters: it seems that he does extremely tight edits, which means that he only sends 1 (!) picture to the magazine after a shoot. This is consistency!
When doing some research for this post I also came across of a lot of illustrations he also does, not only photographic illustrations but also hand-drawings. He’s really talented whith transforming strories and complex circumstances into interesting and sometimes even funny illustrations. Must be a big pleasure for an art director to work with him.
That last one is from a cool story for WIRED.
Now, Mr. Winters has a new book out called “Periodical Photographs” that shows is assignement work.
One of my favourite spreads:
Over at WTJ you find a flip-through through the book… I guess for people interested in book design and great portraits, this book will be a must have.
More articles on the book here and here.
PDN call him a legend and have a nice online presentation with interview here.
A last cite:
“I get up every day and that’s what I do, make photographs, whether I’m being paid to or not. I love it, love it, love it.”
More Links:
http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2007/10/08/oh-god-not-dan-winters-again/
http://jankesnergallery.com/jkgartists/winters-dan.html
http://www.lamag.com/article.aspx?id=16884
