Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Daniel Schumann's Elisabeth und Wilhelm

Daniel Schumann's project Elisabeth und Wilhelm unites contemporary portraiture of his grandfather and images taken from family photo albums. The transition from the appropriated imagery to the more mediated photographs doesn't always feel fluid and intuitive, however, regardless this series is a compelling examination of familial heritage seen through two distinctly different photographic tacks.


From Elisabeth und Wilhelm
© Daniel Schumann



From Elisabeth und Wilhelm
© Daniel Schumann



From Elisabeth und Wilhelm
© Daniel Schumann



From Elisabeth und Wilhelm
© Daniel Schumann



From Elisabeth und Wilhelm
© Daniel Schumann

Monday, March 29, 2010

Mariah Robertson

Work from Mariah Robertson. See more here.


© Mariah Robertson


© Mariah Robertson


© Mariah Robertson


© Mariah Robertson


© Mariah Robertson

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Seth Price

A few issues ago, Blindspot featured Seth Price's series of laser-cut silhouettes. Gleaned from generic google image searches, these pieces recall Sherrie Levine's series of silhouette collages of American presidents (example here). The text below was taken from a press release for Price's recent exhibition at Friedrich Petzel:

1. A computer search for the most basic terms: 'eating', 'drinking', 'writing', 'touching', 'mother,' etc. The result might be a digital image, a "jpeg", for example. The image depicts human interaction: people kissing, someone being fed, a person laying a hand on another's shoulder. The situation is familiar, but not necessarily clear. At one point this was a photograph, now shrunken, squeezed through the eye of the needle, its information digitally compressed for easy circulation and distribution. It appears as a tiny, lapidary screen image, though we know that if enlarged it will slip away, its edges decaying as the effects of compression become evident.

2. This image is not used, in favor of the area around the image, the negative space, excess, that which lies between the figures.

3. Then, an industrial process: massive enlargement, computer-controlled cutting, woods, plastics, metal. A design process, the fabrication of a "look and feel" that had not previously existed.



© Seth Price


© Seth Price


© Seth Price


© Seth Price


© Seth Price

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Asger Carlsen

Asger Carlsen, a Danish photographer based in New York, constructs truly bizarre, often off-putting images that strike an odd balance between candid snapshot photography and digital intervention. You can read an interview with him, conducted for Too Much Chocolate, here.


From the series Wrong
© Asger Carlsen



From the series Wrong
© Asger Carlsen



From the series Wrong
© Asger Carlsen



From the series Wrong
© Asger Carlsen



From the series Wrong
© Asger Carlsen

Monday, March 15, 2010

Indre Serpytyte's Former NKVD - MVD - MGB - KGB Buildings

Indre Serpytyte's Former NKVD - MVD - MGB - KGB Buildings explores the KGB interrogation and torture buildings utilized during the Cold War. In the statement for the work, she asserts:

"In 1944 a Cold War began, a war that was brutal, inhumane. A war that has now been almost forgotten. The Western powers continued to consider the occupation of the Baltic and Eastern Countries by the Stalinist powers to be illegal despite the post war conferences that had recognized the borders of the USSR. Hidden behind the Iron Curtain, the occupation of the Soviet block continued for 50 years and destroyed the lives of millions.

It is estimated that there were at least 20 million deaths. Many believe that the real figure is closer to 60 million.

Despite not receiving any backing from the West, the partisans’ resistance fought against the Soviet regime. These partisans had to abandon both their families and homes and seek sanctuary in the forests. In numerous villages and towns, domestic dwellings were attained by KGB officers for use as control centres, interrogation, imprisonment and torture. These homely spaces were converted into places of terror. As a result the forest not only became the place of refuge but also the place of mass graves.

The most active and forceful resistance came from the Lithuanian ‘forest brothers’, which lasted for 10 years."



"24 Vilniaus street Aukstadvaris"
© Indre Serpytyte



"14 Baznycios street Lentvaris"
© Indre Serpytyte



"15 Gelvonu street - Musninkai"
© Indre Serpytyte



"6 Centrine Square - Onuskis"
© Indre Serpytyte



"3 Geliu street - Rudiskes"
© Indre Serpytyte

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Curran Hatleberg

Below is some work from Curran Hatleberg. You can see more here.


© Curran Hatleberg


© Curran Hatleberg


© Curran Hatleberg


© Curran Hatleberg


© Curran Hatleberg

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Vernacular: #06


Photographer Unknown

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Yvonne Lacet

Sorry for the lack of posting on this blog in recent weeks. My days have become increasingly busier, which has subsequently made sharing new work rather difficult. Anyways, I thought I'd pass along the work of Dutch artist Yvonne Lacet.


"Virtual Relief, 2009"
© Yvonne Lacet



"Creation, 2009"
© Yvonne Lacet



"Virtual Relief, 2009"
© Yvonne Lacet



"Patterns #1, 2008"
© Yvonne Lacet



"Punched black circles, 2008"
© Yvonne Lacet

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Walid Raad & The Atlas Group

I've been meaning to post Walid Raad's work for some time now. Coincidentally, while recently browsing I Heart Photograph, I encountered his images again. Raad also heads up The Atlas Group Archive - "a project established in 1999 to research and document the contemporary history of Lebanon."


© Walid Raad


© Walid Raad


© Walid Raad


© Walid Raad


© Walid Raad

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Matthieu Lavanchy

More work from Swiss artist Matthieu Lavanchy (previously mentioned on this blog here).


© Matthieu Lavanchy


© Matthieu Lavanchy


© Matthieu Lavanchy


© Matthieu Lavanchy


© Matthieu Lavanchy