The exhibition “Dress Codes”at ICP New York showed some interesting photographs, among them a tableau of Yto Barrada called “The belt”  from the series “The smugglers”.

It shows a elderly marrocan woman who smuggles frequently fabrics from Spain to Marroco, hiding the smuggled items under her blue djellaba.  The tableau shows how she looks with and without the smuggled stuff, revealing layer by layer what the djellaba protects. A longer text on this and other exhibited works of “Dress Codes” can be seen here (check also Richard Learoyd with his room sized camera obscura, Lorna Simpson with her photo booth portraits or Hank Willies Thomas series “Unbranded”).

Found these photographs of Sigrid Jacob yesterday. Interesting topic, especially as in todays media everything is so much about thin, “convetionally beautiful ” people. Unfortunately, there are only few pictures online.

Her artist statement:

“This body of work has grown out of my interest in how men manage to create authentic identities in a world where masculine ideals are becoming ever more narrow and constrictive. The gay male subculture of bears – men who exalt in their large, hairy bodies – is an interesting mirror to our cultural obsessions. By blatantly defying the beauty ideals of both the straight and gay mainstream, bears have chosen to be outsiders twice over. Instead of hewing to pre-defined notions of masculinity, bears have blended a romanticized blue-collar aesthetic with a warm, inclusive way of interacting. With my images I want to reflect this complex identity, showing my subject’s delight in their bodies, but also the defiance or even melancholia that often accompany this hard-won confidence. As a straight woman who enjoys looking at these bodies my role is an unusual one. We are rarely given permission to look at large bodies, and when we do we are trained to look at them critically. I want to unsettle our viewing habits and make us see them with a lover’s gaze, as deserving of our desire. Ultimately, my goal is to contribute and to expand the ongoing discourse on how men look at men, women look at men and how we look at ourselves – the complexity of what happens when one human being looks at another human being. I find my subjects on bear-specific internet message boards and web sites. I collaborates with them on how they want to be depicted, which means sometimes re-interpreting standard ‘beauty poses’, sometimes coming up with a new visual vocabulary. The resulting images are frequently used by my subjects in internet personals ads and home pages.”

..at least I haven’t seen this new one yet. Not quite sure how much I like the new stuff, but I admire him for the great output he had over the years, for his literally fantastic productions and also the other projects he did, like the RIZE film (I unfortunately only saw some parts of it on youtube) or the stage design he did for Elton John (can be found under projects>stage).

The website shows hundreds of pictures and it’s fun to see all the complete editorial shoots he did for Italian Vogue, I-D etc.

I actually came back to his website after I found I really weird editoral David LaChapelle produced for Vogue Hommes, obviously Found Footage photographs from the 70s / 80s with some models/things photoshopped.Very entertaining.

© All photographs David LaChapelle Studio

Adam Bryce (via www.slamxhype.com ) wrote about this work:

“Vogue Homme have just published a series of photographs gathered together by David Lachapelle titled ”The Americans”. Re-opening old family albums from the holiday 4th July, Lachapelle has co ordinated a full volume of images that contain the patriotic pride of the American family which border on debauchery. An aesthetic that differs radically from david Lachapelle’s usual photos that are hyper-stylized, but they still prove to be provocative and disturbing.”

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.

In a personal project, Berlin/Vienna based portrait/travel/editorial photographer Peter Rigaud takes a portrait of somebody and then asks that person to name another person Rigaud should photograph, what he does afterwards, and so on and so on. The subjects are also asked to write some lines about why Rigaud should photograph the next person, what is so special about them. On his website, you can see some of these texts, unfortunately very small and hard to read – would like to see this project as a book or magazine!

You find these photographs when you click on Projects>Project 1, but also check out the other stuff, some of his work is quite good I think.

When reading various blogs today I again saw good work  of 2 us-american photographers, Susana Raab and Amy Stein (they both also have blogs). On Susana Raab’s website, there is a lot to see, my favourite is the “Consumed” series from which you see one photograph above.

Amy Stein also has various different projects online, I especially like “Stranded” and “Halloween in Harlem” from which the following pictures are.

I think one reason why it  makes sense to show both photographers in this post is because they both have an interest in us-american topics like Fast Food (Raab) or Halloween / weapons (Stein).

I mostly like “Life is a series of small moments I”

elizabethfleming.com

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:

@ ppmag

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

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS IN THIS POST  COPYRIGHT DAN WINTERS.

One of my favourite german portrait photographers is Andreas Muehe. He recently shot german chancellor Angela Merkel for Spiegel magazine and though he is only 30 he has shot a wide range of interesting people, including politicians, actors etc, but also some advertising. In my opinion, he has found his very own,unique style and makes great pictures with very special light and colours. He doesn’t copy other photographers and their light, but found at a quiet yoiung age his own way of portrait photography (not only). Unfortunately, he took his website down some time ago, there are only few polaroids to see.

www.andreasmuehe.com

More on  camerwork’s website.

I just found the work of finnish (and now Amsterdam based) photographer Jussi Puikkonen and wanted to share it with you.

I first read about his book “on vacation”, that  shows vacation parks, ressorts, beaches etc. in the long, 9 months lasting finish winter period. You find some photos of the series here, you must scroll down then to see all pictures.

But I also like his fashion and portrait stuff. Born 1980, young big talent.