News

March, 2007 Archive

“What makes a great photo?”
Davin — March 27th, 2007

Joerg Colberg relayed the simple yet subjectivity-packed question, “What makes a great photo?” to a lengthy list of bloggers, photographers, and blogger-photographers. The unsurprisingly varied answers are posted to his blog Conscientious.

Ross has already posted his viewpoint on his blog but I’ll double quote him here for posterity:

“I don’t respond to single photographs the way some people do. If they are funny or ironic or insightful or informative I will appreciate them as such. But really, one image out of context really does nothing for me relative to a series or body of work.

In my opinion one of the most wonderful things about photography is how it can document a persons perspective, or a particular take on a place or idea. Sometimes that is supremely boring (my recent photographs near crushingly boring levels), but as a whole I hope they speak to something far more interesting.

The point of hero photographs in advertising and editorial photography makes complete sense, and are necessary since most magazines aren’t interested in publishing Ross’s 20 favorite photographs from the shoot. When it comes to making my own work, however, I have the opportunity to be as slow and deliberate with my description of something as possible.” — Ross Evertson

I’ll drop my two cents here. I am quite abashedly emotionally driven when it comes to photography whether it be my own or someone else’s. Announcing a picture as “great” is such a personal thing and it often has so little to do with the technical practice of photography for me.

I can’t ever see a way for me to see a photo that isn’t viewed through my own experience — coloured by my own nostalgia maybe. Every great photo invites me to see myself in the world in some sense. I’ve called my own photos “emotional bookmarks” and that’s what I pick up from other images that really draw me in.

Posted in Questions — Comment
How heroes are made.
Davin — March 24th, 2007

From Leica World 1/2005 - Joel Meyerowitz “I watch. That’s my life”:

Joel Meyerowitz: “Eggleston came to new York in 1969 or 1970 and someone sent him to me. He showed me a box of black and white photographs from the south. Mediocre photos, in my opinion, without tension, without energy. I then showed him approximately 500 coloured works. We sat together until the early morning. And when he left he murmured something like: “Colour photography, that’s it.” He then started to take pictures similar to the ones he had done before, only in colour. As a millionaire he could afford to have them printed. Szarkowski liked my work in colour. But he kept saying:” I need prints. I need something for the wall.” Only I did not have the money for prints. That’s how Eggleston became the pioneer of colour. But that’s what it’s like in photography.”

joelmeyerowitz.com

Posted in Interviews — Comment
I have been where you are.
Davin — March 16th, 2007

NOW ON SALE: I have been where you are. Photos by Davin Risk

I have been where you are.Photography is an emotional and intuitive process for me. Scenes, objects, and the subtleties of light and colour are like emotional bookmarks. The images act as stand-ins for my experience and hopefully extend it for others to find their own emotions and memories. I see many of my images as shared fragments of other people’s lives — the traces that people leave behind which form subjective narratives. I’ve called them “little stories” in the past. They aren’t the story of someone’s life but maybe the slightest description of a passing thought. This book is a non-linear collection of images taken between 2004 and 2006.

118 pages, 9″ x 7″, perfect binding, 80# white interior paper, full-color interior ink , 100# white exterior paper, full-color exterior ink

Posted in Books — Comment
JAMEL SHABAZZ in Toronto March 16th-17th
Davin — March 16th, 2007

UPDATE: RESCHEDULED DATES BELOW

Jamel Shabazz was born in 1960 in Brooklyn, New York. He picked up his first camera at 15 and has been actively documenting urban life for more than thirty years. Shabazz’s photographs in Back in the Days (2001) celebrate the style and social life of early hip-hop culture of the 1980s and provide an invaluable document of that time. He has also published The Last Sunday in June (2003) and A Time Before Crack (2005).

Shabazz is a twenty-year veteran of the N.Y. City Department of Corrections who dedicates much of his time to mentoring youth and exposing them to the arts through the Rush Arts Philanthropic Foundations and the Studio Museum of Harlem’s Expanding the Walls program. He is currently working on a documentary with Charles Ahearn the director of the classic hip-hop film Wild Style.

KODAK LECTURE SERIES
FREE - 7:30 pm, Friday, March 30, 2007

Ryerson University Centre for Computing and Engineering, Lecture Theatre 103. 245 Church Street (just north of Dundas St. East at Gould St.) FREE. Arrive early for guaranteed seating. Lectures are webcast live as well as archived at www.ryersonlectures.ca

PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP FOR YOUTH
FREE - 12-2 pm, Saturday, March 31, 2007

Prior to the opening, Shabazz will be leading a Photography Workshop for Youth from noon-2pm organized by The Remix Project, Earwaks.com and Manifesto. To participate in the workshop contact che@earwaks.com or getatremix@gmail.com

PHOTO EXHIBITION
FREE - 2-5 pm, Saturday, March 31, 2007

An exhibition of Jamel Shabazz’s recent photographic work will open at Thrush Holmes Empire, 1093 Queen St. West. Show runs till April 22.
www.thrushholmesempire.com

Posted in Events — Comment
Strife Photography
Davin — March 12th, 2007

rossevertson.com/blog

Ross on the contentious issue of aesthetics and documentation:

“It encompasses any documentary work that might not fetishize, but aesthetizes the unpleasant nature of a given situation, whether it be the war in Iraq or a holler in Appalachia. From war to the poor.”

Posted in Websites — Comment
Mike Slack - Things to try to avoid shooting
Davin — March 9th, 2007

From an interview with Mike Slack at flashfilm.com:

“I keep a long mental list of things that I try (and often fail) to avoid shooting. That list includes: funny-looking bushes; chain link fences; street signs; arrows of any kind; empty parking lots; painted brick walls; weeds; stairs; shadows; doors; rain gutters; tools; words; hats; the backs of people’s heads; trash; trash cans; empty roads; plush toys; food; loading docks; telephones; cracked sidewalks; shopping carts; manhole covers; water towers; inanimate objects that resemble sex organs; airplanes; shoes; telephone wires; water puddles; clouds; stray dogs; ugly office buildings; brightly colored flowers; the ocean; empty hotel rooms; long hotel corridors; birds; air conditioners; fire hydrants; curtains; framed paintings; crashed cars; cell phone transmitters; and sofa cushions.”

Fuck. I am so busted.

Posted in Interviews — Comment
The New Color: The Return of Black-and-White
Davin — March 8th, 2007

Tip of the Tongue is an interesting new project from New York’s Art + Commerce in search of “the words that explain emergent issues for photography.” The first of their core essays is The New Color: The Return of Black-and-White by Charlotte Cotton; it’s a well presented argument for what could be a return to black and white fine art photography. I’m not sure the whole argument isn’t a bit too wrapped up in the commercial whims of the art world and maybe a touch too sentimental for the loss of a ‘traditional’ art form but it’s still a good analysis.

Posted in Websites — Comment
OkOk Gallery and J&L Books Present
Davin — March 6th, 2007

The Stable
Curated by Jason Fulford and Leanne Shapton

Jason and Leanne have put together a show of work by over 30 artists who have contributed to J&L Books over the 5 years of its existence. Including work from Mike Slack, Paul Davis, Christian Patterson, Ed Panar, Gus Powell and many, many more.

The open reception is March 10th from 6-10pm, and runs through April 10th at the OKOK Gallery in Seattle, WA.

Posted in Websites — Comment
Degrees of Separation
Davin — March 4th, 2007

Former New Orleanian Samia Saleem has just released a book of post-Katrina postcards created by displaced NOLA designers. We interviewed her about the project for the next issue of MakingRoom, but until that’s online you can read more about the project or buy the book now (with a custom slip cover+posters+buttons) at http://www.degreesnola.com/

Posted in Websites — Comment