Mike Osborne

I found the work of Mike Osborne the other day via the OK! Fresh blog. He has done extensive work in China and Taiwan, capturing these cultures in the midst of great social and historical transformation. As Obsborne notes:

“Shooting in China and Taiwan, I found myself focusing on aspects of the public sphere that, perhaps somewhat paradoxically, fascinated me as a cultural outsider without necessarily being quintessentially ‘Chinese’ or ‘Taiwanese’ either. My pictures convey little sense of China’s 5,000 years of cultural history or Taiwan’s colonial past. I just couldn’t get over Beijing’s big broad streets, the over-sized ads, the sprawling construction, and the new buildings. One associates this breed of spectacle less with Communist rule than with capitalist economies. I suspect the things my pictures fixate on are every bit as foreign-seeming to many Chinese as they were for me.”











From Top To Bottom:

Beijing 2007

Beijing 2007

On Air: Taiwan, Taipei 2007

Pearl Tower, Shanghai 2007

Beijing 2007

All Images © Mike Osborne

Dave Jordano's Prairieland

Dave Jordano e-mailed me today with a selection of images from his series Prairieland. He thoughtfully chose a cohesive subsection of photographs from this body of work that "deal with the idea of how people express themselves through the environment of their own backyards."

I've always been fascinated by how people seek out their individuality through the decorum they surround themselves with. This kind of decorative ornamentation manifests itself out of a need for recognition and social validation. Jordano captures his proud subjects amongst their ephemera with an impartial eye. Many of the people become marginalized within the chaos of their creations, ultimately taking on the qualities of their inanimate lawn decorations.

Prairieland is an extensive project which is well worth exploring in more detail. I would also recommend Jordano's series Articles Of Faith.











All photographs from the series Prairieland

All Images © Dave Jordano

Plum Collective

Kelly Burgess e-mailed me yesterday announcing that she recently started a Boston based photography collective entitled Plum Collective. As the mission statement on the website declares:

"Plum is a collective of talented emerging photographers located in the Greater Boston Area. It functions as an organization for furthering the professional advancement of local artists and enriching the cultural landscape of Boston. Our hopes are that Plum will serve as a networking point for emerging photographers (of all ages) and also prove to be a resource for both local and national galleries.

Plum's goal is to not only bring artists together in collective form on the internet, but also with scheduled exhibitions and publications. There is a very small amount of photography being shown in the area, and we want to change that. With the recent news of many galleries in Boston closing their doors, Plum is looking to offer photographers a way to communicate with other artists in the area and exhibit their work."

They are currently looking for submissions for membership. So if you're a Boston-based photographer whose looking to get collaborative, you should pay them a visit!

Elspeth Diederix

I found the work of Kenya born, Amsterdam based photographer Elspeth Diederix today. This description, found on the Solar Photography site, accurately illuminates her imagery:

"In her work, Elspeth strips everyday objects of their logical form or function and introduces them into a new and surreal world. She brings every variety of material and human character into view in such a way that causes them to lose their original meaning and take on a new one. The illusory image becomes stronger because the objects depicted seem to be suspended in an introverted dream world."











From Top To Bottom:

Z.T. (Mams)

Maquette

Jasmin Chair

Lilac

Black Bowl

All Images © Elspeth Diederix

Aino Kannisto

Finish photographer Aino Kannisto's cinematically influenced photographs distill life's intermediate moments with an eerie tension. In her statement, Kannisto explains:

"I make constructed pictures. I build fictional scenes which I record with the camera. I act out the parts of the individuals in my pictures. However, my pictures are not self-portraits in the traditional sense. The person in the picture is a fictional narrator in the same way as there are narrators in literature. My pictures are fantasies, I represent an atmosphere or a mood through fictional persons. Fantasy is a means to speak about emotions.

Making art is for me a reaction to being in the world. I am engaged with my artistic work as I am always a perceiving and reacting human being. I see pictures in my mind, the things I have dealt with come into my dreams and still moments. I cannot stop working as I cannot stop thinking or existing in the world."











All Images © Aino Kannisto

Photographic Typologies: Louis Porter

Louis Porter's series Motel Carpets is wonderfully offbeat twist on the typical rigidity of the typology. Each stain, tear, cigarette butt and embedded piece of gum adorning the carpets lends each patterned surface a unique, albeit weathered, charisma.











All photographs from the series Motel Carpets

All Images © Louis Porter

From Here To There

Katie Shapiro e-mailed me today after happening upon The Exposure Project website. As it turns out, she is a member of the Los Angeles based art collective From Here To There. Their site is well worth checking out when you get a minute. It's nice to find other artists that are working in a similarly collaborative manner. As their mission statement asserts:

"From Here to There is a collective of artists currently living and working in Los Angeles. Their practices range from photography to collage and include video, sound, and installation. What brings them together is their desire to combine their personal perspectives and various interests to create a greater dialogue through the art that they make. They meet on a bi-weekly basis to discuss ideas both old and new, to hone their practices, and fuel each other through discussions, critiques, and conversations."

On The Floor

Image © Katie Shapiro

Kim Boske's Decay Can Be Very Slow

I found the work of Dutch photographer Kim Boske today via On Shadow. Her series, Decay Can Be Very Slow, meticulously and convincingly recreates natural history museum still lives. As Boske declares in her statement:

"My work can be described as a body of research in which different moments in time and space run together in a field that seems to embody a determination of time to present proof of it's discrete, unique moments. I create stories that rise around the system of time and space. I'm fascinated by the systems that exist behind the direct surface of the visual world. I see the system of time as a structure that is built up out of smaller differentiated structures. I experience the “now” as a complex collection of all sorts of connected influences from the present and the past; a web of similarities and minute differences caused through the slight moving of time. I portray these different layers of time by carefully assembling visual fragments of narrative elements to create a structure of connections and unity, which I translate into an image. I view my work as constructions in which layers upon layers of ideas take on a meaning of their own. I always search for a harmonious image in which you can discover disharmony without damaging the unity of the image."











All photographs from the series Decay Can Be Very Slow

All Images © Kim Boske

Happy Inauguration Day!

The Collector's Guide To Emerging Art Photography

The Collector's Guide To Emerging Art Photography is now available for pre-order through the Humble Arts Foundation website. There are a limited number of copies available for retail purchase, so if you want one, reserve one now! For more information about The Guide, refer to the publications page at Humble Arts.

The Collector's Guide To Emerging Art Photography
Curated by Alana Celii, Jon Feinstein & Grant Willing
With Introductions by Ruben Natal-San Miguel and Jon Feinstein

The Collector's Guide is an invite only, unique 180–page source book distributed to collectors, art dealers, gallery directors, photo editors, museum professionals, and independent curators. Published biennially, The Collector's Guide aims to further Humble's mission by bridging the gap between ambitious early-career photographers and often-unapproachable photography professionals and art institutions.

Selected photographers include:

Dustin Aksland,Carlos Albalá, Kathyrn Parker Almanas, Corey Arnold, Peter Baker, Rob Ball, Gideon Barnett, Anna Bauer, Matthew Baum, Juliana Beasley, Johan Bergström, Brian Berman, Colin Blakely, Dan Boardman, Steven Brahms, Mark Brautigam, Timothy Briner, Jessica Bruah, Michael Bühler-Rose, Jesse Burke, Alejandro Cartagena, Jacob Carter, Melissa Catanese, Anastasia Cazabon, Alana Celii, Talia Chetrit, Andrea Chu, Céline Clanet, François Coquerel, Robyn Cumming, Chris Davis, Rachael Dunville, Dan Eckstein, Gerald Edwards III, Scott Eiden, Amy Elkins, Geoffrey Ellis, Tealia Ellis-Ritter, Grant Ernhart, Thobias Fäldt, Jan Fassbender, Jon Feinstein, Todd Fisher, Lucas Foglia, Manya Fox, Zack Genin, Dana Gentile, Sam Gezari, Emiliano Granado, Leslie Grant, Yann Gross, Gustav Gustafsson, Gregory Halpern, Paul Herbst, Beth Herzhaft, Susanna Hesselberg, Nicole Jean Hill, Ben Huff, Lacey Ann Johnson, Dina Kantor, Nicole Katz, Drew Kelly, Mikael Kennedy, Gunnar Knechtel, Liz Kuball, Naho Kubota, William Lamson, Molly Landreth, Mårten Lange, Shane Lavalette, Alejandra Laviada, Jason Lazarus, Bryan Lear, Ashley Lefrak, Miranda Lehman, Brian Lesteberg, Jennifer Loeber, Sophie T. Lvoff, Thomas Macker, Ashley Macknica, Sarah Madsen, Alison Malone, Jessica Mallios, John Mann, Michael Marcelle, Marc McAndrews, Andrew Robert McComb, Erica McDonald, Tammy Mercure, Nick Meyer, Chad Muthard, Wakaba Noda, Boru O’Brien O’Connell, Bob O’Connor, Grady O’Connor, Patrick O’Hare, Christina Maria Oswald, Robert Pallesen, Sarah Palmer, Lydia Panas, Ahndraya Parlato, Brandon Pavan, Eric Percher, Nathan Ellis Perkel, Regine Petersen, Ryan Pfluger, Cara Phillips, Birthe Piontek, Louis Porter, Friederike Von Rauch, Shawn Records, Justin James Reed, Reka Reisinger, Peter Riesett, Jenny Riffle, Lissa Rivera, Jessica Roberts, Carlo Van de Roer, Patrick Romero, Dalton Rooney, Nadine Rovner, Will Sanders, John Saponara, Matthew Schenning, Jennifer Niederhauser Schlup, Aaron Schuman, Stephen K. Schuster, Bryan Jacob Schutmaat, Matthew Shain, Angus R. Shamal, Daniel Shea, Matt Siber, Sarah Small, Angie Smith, Tema Stauffer, Will Steacy, Amy Stein, Parsley Steinweiss, Luke Stettner, Sean Stewart, Barry Stone, Sarah Sudhoff, JJ Sulin, Rachel Sussman, Tina Tyrell, Simon Vahala, Alex Van Clief, Kamden Vencill, Caroline de Vries, Michael Werner, Emma Wieslander, Sara Wight, Grant Willing, Sarah Wilmer, Ofer Wolberger, Jason John Würm, Wheat Wurtzburger, Jeongmee Yoon, Anoush Abrar & Aimée Hoving, Allison Wermager & Alexander M. Harrington, Inka Lindergård & Niclas Holmström, Kate and Camilla and Tribble & Mancenido

Roger Ballen: Recent Photographs & Interview

The new issue of Lens Culture features a wonderful audio interview with photographer Roger Ballen. He discusses some of the psychological and anthropological issues present in his work, particularly as they relate to his extensive work in South Africa. There is also a gallery of recent images which, in keeping with Ballen's work on the whole, are strange, off-putting and quite visceral. Listen to the interview here.









From Top To Bottom:

Skins and Bones, 2007

Skew Mask, 2002

Puppies in Fishtanks, 2000

Sickroom, 2000

All Images © Roger Ballen

Sanna Kannisto's Private Collection & Field Studies

I found Sanna Kannisto's projects Private Collection & Field Studies via the Helsinki School website. In the statement for the work, Kannisto declares:

"My work explores the relationship between nature and culture. In my artistic work I aim to study the methods, theories and concepts through which we approach nature in art and in science. As an artist I am attracted by the idea that when I am working in a rain forest I am a 'visual researcher'.

In my series' Private Collection and Field Studies I was interested in borrowing methods of representation, as well as working methods, from the natural sciences, from anthropological and archaeological practices and from still-life painting tradition to use in my photographic work."











All photographs from the projects Private Collection & Field Studies

All Images © Sanna Kannisto

Joachim Schmid's Photogenic Drafts

Joachim Schmid's series Photogenic Drafts divisively undermines conventional studio portraiture by amalgamating portraits of multiple sitters. The results are at once unnerving yet harmonious, producing collages that are rooted in both the traditions of Classical European painting and Russian Constructivism. As noted by an anonymous author on the Saatchi Blog:

"In 'Photogenetic Drafts' (1991) Schmid takes his exploration of the portrait, and in particular the studio portrait, a stage further. Schmid was sent a box of negatives by a Bavarian studio photographer who had deliberately cut the negatives in two so as to prevent them being used again. Initially thrown off guard by this, Schmid then realised that this gave him a chance to question the predictability of the studio portrait . He decided to splice together two halves of two different negatives, creating a series of disturbing 'double' portraits."











All photographs from the series Photogenic Drafts

All Images © Joachim Schmid

Beierle & Keijser's On Eizo

Beierle & Keijser, the collaborative team behind Mrs. Deane, sent over some images recently from their latest project On Eizo. Comprised of photographs of computer monitors depicting appropriated images from other contemporary practitioners, the images from On Eizo explore the deconstruction and circulation of digital information. In the statement for the work, Beierle & Keijser explain:

"[On Eizo] explores the experience of viewing contemporary photography online. Digital dissemination of one's work is becoming predominant over more traditional channels such as publications or shows. When online, we navigate on tiny thumbnails, badly compressed TIFF's, slightly altered images ffffound on blogs, cropped illustrations in webzines or previews from self-published books. Far from becoming disembodied, the photographic work takes on a new existence as a screen image, changing slightly with each materialization due to the differences in types of monitors, resolution, contrast, color temperature and so on. [On Eizo] documents photographs in their new on screen lives by capturing in up-close view how they appeared on our Eizo L365 TFT monitor. Ironically, these screen captures can best be viewed in print, as on screen viewing is severly impaired by the occurance of interference patterns."










From Top To Bottom:

Gallery-represented Simone Nieweg

Online-published Brian Ulrich

Image-googled Todd Hido

Image-googled Stephen Shore

Thumbnailed Jörg Sasse

All Images © Beierle & Keijser