Posts from the “Art” Category

Roger Ballen: Ballenesque

Posted on December 8, 2017

When Roger Ballen graduated from high school in 1968, his parents gave him a Nikon FTn camera. It was flown over from Hong Kong by a friend and lost in customs for several weeks before it finally arrived. The day that Ballen received it, he headed to the outskirts of Sing Sing prison to take photographs, a prescient moment to launch a journey in photography like no other before or since.

His name alone conjures up curious and disturbing visions of an uncanny world, one that recalls the spaces of the dreamscape, theaters of the unconscious. Here reality is a construction, but it is also something else: it is the space where our minds are released from rational sensibilities. To describe the work as unnerving would be polite. It is as though the non-linear spaces of the mind are given full flight.

“A shadow runs through my work,” Ballen observes in the magnificent new book, Ballenesque: A Retrospective (Thames & Hudson). “The shadow spreads, grows deeper as I move on, grow older. The shadow is no longer indistinguishable from the person they call Roger. I track my shadow (life) through these images.”

Ballenesque provides a road map through this life, bringing us along the trail that the shadow has traveled over the past five decades. One of his most telling photographs was taken at the very start, a photograph of a dead cat lying on a street in New York. Made in 1970, it has all the hallmarks of what is to come: the strange un-reality of this dead creature, a line that suggested the presence of the entry to a netherworld, an a car driving into the distance, into the great beyond.

Read the Full Story at Feature Shoot

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, Africa, Art, Books, Feature Shoot, Photography

Constantine Manos: American Color/Florida Pictures

Posted on December 8, 2017

Photo: Miami Beach © Costa Manos/Magnum Photos

A member of Magnum Photos since 1963, Constantine Manos was a serious black and white photojournalist until 1992, when he decided to begin shooting a project called American Colorr. In search of a new kind of photograph – one that was as extraordinary as it was surreal – Manos headed down to Florida, where the light, the colour, and the people are out of this world.

“The people are a new breed,” Manos observes. “It’s a dynamic cross-section of America, from the very right to the very poor. Because of the climate, a lot of people who can’t afford a home live and sleep wherever they can. They are mixed in with the big condos and high-rise towers, the waterfront homes and yachts.”

Manos likes to visit fairs, beaches, and outdoor events in search of a new kind of photograph. “I look for specific kinds of images,” he reveals. “I’m not just satisfied with what things look like; I choose to shoot a combination of people and place that doesn’t try to explain anything but asks questions and presents problems to the viewer.”

Read the Full Story at Huck Online

Photo: Miami Beach © Costa Manos/Magnum Photos

Categories: 1990s, Art, Books, Exhibitions, Huck, Photography

Club 57: Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978–1983

Posted on December 6, 2017

Artwork: Kenny Scharf (American, born 1958). Having Fun. 1979. Acrylic on canvas. Collection Bruno Testore Schmidt, courtesy the artist and Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles

By 1978, the East Village art scene was coming into its own, and a new movement began to take hold in the basement of New York’s Holy Cross Polish National Church at 57 St. Marks Place. Club 57, as it was known, was home to a group of young artists including Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, Fred Brathwaite aka Fab 5 Freddy, Klaus Nomi, Tseng Kwong Chi, Joey Arias, John Sex, and Marcus Leatherdale – all of whom were redefining art and photography, fashion and design, film and video, performance and theatre.

The no-budget venue and social club broke all the rules, transforming the ways in which we experience art to the present day. In celebration, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, presents Club 57: Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978–1983, a major exhibition and catalogue organised by Ron Magliozzi, Curator and Sophie Cavoulacos, Assistant Curator, Department of Film, with guest curator Ann Magnuson.

Read the Full Story at Huck Online

Artwork: John Sex (American, 1956–1990). Amazon Temptation, 1980. Silkscreen. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Department of Film Special Collections

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, Art, Books, Exhibitions, Huck, Manhattan, Painting, Photography

Alex Webb & Rebecca Norris Webb: Slant Rhymes

Posted on December 5, 2017

Photo: Arcahaie, Haiti. © Alex Webb from Slant Rhymes.

Over a period of 30 years, Magnum photographer Alex Webb and poet and photographer Rebecca Norris Webb have traveled the earth, capturing the mystical moments of life on film. Whether visiting London or Istanbul, Paris or Tijuana, the images they create speak to each other in a language that goes beyond words – creating harmonies, melodies, and rhythms all their own.

What began as a friendship blossomed into love and marriage, as well as books: most recently a volume titled Slant Rhymes (La Fabrica). A love poem to photography, to the world, and to relationships themselves as it reveals a powerful energy that exists when we are fully present in the moment. The book is organised in diptychs, with one photograph from each photographer facing the other in silent conversation.

“Rebecca and I first realised that our photographs talked to one another in intriguing ways with our initial collaboration, Violet Isle, a book on Cuba. We discovered that our photographs often visually rhyme, but, more often than not, at a slant,” Alex reveals. “With Slant Rhymes, our paired photographs are not necessarily linked by geography, but by other things as well. Sometimes it’s a palette, geometry, or the evocation of a mood. Other times it’s a shared sense of surrealism.”

Read the Full Story at Huck Online

Brooklyn, New York, USA. © Rebecca Norris Webb from Slant Rhymes.

Appuzha, India. © Alex Webb from Slant Rhymes.

Categories: Art, Books, Huck, Photography

Dazed Selects the Best Photo Stories of November

Posted on December 5, 2017

Photo: Tupac Shakur, New York City, 1991. Photography by Albert Watson.

What a way to kick off the last month of the year! I am thrilled to have two features selected as the best photo stories of November for Dazed!

Albert Watson’s Lessons on How to Be a Master Photographer
Name an icon and it’s likely that Albert Watson has photographed them. From Naomi Campbell to Alfred Hitchcock, and even King Tut artefacts, Watson has spent the past four decades documenting history. Recently, he released an XXL limited collector’s edition book, titled KAOS, so we caught up with him to talk about his career milestones and the lessons he’s learned along the way.

Groundbreaking Drag Artists Who Aren’t RuPaul.
While we can never have enough Mama Ru, we are also aware that the world of drag deserves endless appreciation. Last month, Gregory Kramer released a new book, Drags, which takes inspiration from Irving Penn’s Small Trades – a series of black and white photographs of skilled trades people. In Drags, Kramer called upon New York’s drag community to come and pose in front of his camera. In celebration of its release, we asked each of his subjects to tell us what makes them stand out.

Photo: Peppermint. Photography Gregory Kramer.

Categories: Art, Books, Dazed, Photography

“The Rumble in the Jungle” – and the Poster That Sold It

Posted on November 30, 2017

Artwork: Norman Mailer: The Fight, with photographs by Neil Leifer and Howard Bingham (Taschen).

In the darkest part of the morning, they came 60,000 strong — to watch undefeated world heavyweight champion George Foreman take on challenger Muhammad Ali. It was another time. The 20th of May Stadium in Kinshasa, Zaire, is now the Stade Tata Raphaël in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and The Rumble in the Jungle, as it was known, was scheduled to begin at 4 a.m. local time on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 1974. This was so the match originally titled From Slave Ship to Championship would air live on closed-circuit television in U.S. theaters at 10 p.m. EST.

From backstage, journalist Norman Mailer described the scene. Although his entourage was somber, Ali appeared relaxed as he addressed himself in a mellifluous tone: “I been up and I been down. You know, I been around. It must be dark when you get knocked out. Why, I’ve never been knocked out. I’ve been knocked down, but never out.”

Read the Full Story at The Undefeated

Categories: 1970s, Africa, Art, Books, Photography, The Undefeated

Rania Matar: In Her Image

Posted on November 29, 2017

Wafa’a and Samira, Bourj El Barajneh Refugee Camp, Beirut Lebanon, 2016. Copyright Rania Matar.

Born in Lebanon, Rania Matar left her homeland during the Civil War to study architecture at Cornell University in upstate New York. But it was September 11 that would be the turning point in her life, as she decided to pursue a career in photography as a means to create an empowering and inclusive narrative.

While her work is not overtly political, it bears witness to the nature of girl and womanhood in both the East and the West. Photographing in New York, Boston, Beirut, and Palestinian refugee camps, Matar discovered that no matter what the circumstances, women all have more in common than not.

“The focus on our differences is so artificial,” Matar observes. “I am from Lebanon and the United States, and I am the same person whether I am there or here. Nothing changes in the way I live and act. The label of having to be one thing is very limiting in the sense of identity.”

Read the Full Story at Huck Online

Destiny, Dorcester, Massachusetts, 2010. Copyright Rania Matar.

Categories: Art, Exhibitions, Huck, Photography, Women

Park Jongwoo: DMZ – Demilitarized Zone

Posted on November 24, 2017

Photo: Copyright Park Jongwoo, courtesy of Steidl.

Photo: Copyright Park Jongwoo, courtesy of Steidl.

On June 25, 1950, Korea was torn apart by civil war. Though the fighting went on for 37 months, the war never ended, as both sides refused to sign a formal peace agreement. Instead, they constructed the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a 248 km long, 4 km wide buffer zone – the site of a fully armed Cold War that begins a mere 60 km from downtown Seoul.

Here, forests are filled with landmines and barbed wire fences, patrolled by military armed with the most up-to-date equipment. Civilians are prohibited from entering the DMZ, which unfolds like circles of hell, from the furthest areas of the Civilian Control Zone, all the way to the joint security area, where the two nations stand in a 60-year face off.

In 2010, on the 60th anniversary of the war, the Korean Ministry of National Defense decided to make the first photographic record of the DMZ ever. Photographer Park Jongwoo was tapped for the job, giving him unconditional access to the South Korean Guard Posts (GPs) on the site, the results of which have just been published in DMZ: Demilitarized Zone (Steidl).

Read the Full Story at Huck Online

Photo: Copyright Park Jongwoo, courtesy of Steidl.

Categories: 1970s, Art, Books, Huck, Photography

Gordon Parks: The Making of an Argument

Posted on November 22, 2017

Photo:Gordon Parks: Red Jackson, Harlem, New York, 1948; gelatin silver print; 19 ½ x 15 ¾ in. Courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation.

Photo: Gordon Parks: Untitled, Harlem, New York, 1948; gelatin silver print with applied pigment; 4 ½ x 4 ½ in. Courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation.

1948 was a watershed year in the career of American photographer Gordon Parks. An established fashion photographer who had been working on assignment for LIFE magazine, Parks was also an accomplished author, publishing his second book, Camera Portraits, a collection of his work accompanied by professional observations about posing, lighting, and printing. At the same, time, Parks longed for something deeper and more essential to his soul.

“Photographing fashion was rewarding but for me somewhat rarefied,” he revealed in his memoir, Half Past Autumn. “Documentary urgings were still gnawing at me, still waiting for fulfillment.”

He met with his editors to make his very first pitch: the story of Leonard “Red” Jackson, the 17-year-old leader of the Midtowners, a Harlem gang that had been caught up in the turf warfare that had been plaguing the neighborhood throughout the decade. He showed them 21 pictured edited from a body of hundreds photographs made over a period of four weeks made shadowing Red as he went about his business. The work tells the story of survival in its most poignant form, caught in the space where poverty, oppression, and violence foment and froth.

Read the Full Story at Feature Shoot

Photo: Gordon Parks: Red Jackson with His Mother and Brother, Harlem, New York, 1948; gelatin silver print; 10 5/8 x 13 in. Courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation.

Categories: Art, Exhibitions, Feature Shoot, Photography

Jill Freedman: Resurrection City, 1968

Posted on November 22, 2017

In April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech titled “Beyond Vietnam” at Riverside Church in New York City. Turning the focus from civil rights to human rights, he called for an end to the war, and renewed focus on fighting the enemies within the United States borders: poverty, injustice, and insecurity. One year later, to the day, he was assassinated – a crime for which the US government was finally found guilty in a court of law in 1999.

In the final month of his life, Dr. King called for a national demonstration that would “confront the power structure massively.” Following his death, “The Last Crusade” went forward, and 3,000 people came from across the land to set up a camp called “Resurrection City” on the Washington Mall. They lived in wooden shanties that stood for six weeks in 1968.

The Poor People’s Campaign, as it was officially known, was organised to draw attention to the poverty affecting people of all ethnicities in the United States. “They murdered Dr. King and I was furious,” photographer Jill Freedman remembers. “I had to go.”

Read the Full Story at Huck Online

Categories: 1960s, Art, Books, Exhibitions, Huck, Photography, Women

Awol Erizku and Olivia Locher Chosen for the Forbes “30 Under 30” List

Posted on November 19, 2017

Artwork: Awol Erizku, “Same Ol’ Mistakes” – Rihanna, house and spray paint on OSB, 2016

What a thrill to see Awol Erizku and Olivia Locher chosen for Forbes “30 Under 30” list – as well as all the amazing talents that prove the future is now.

In the past year I’ve had the great pleasure of interview Erizku for Crave Online and Locher for Dazed. Cheers to a bright future already playing out on the world stage

Photo: In Ohio it’s illegal to disrobe in front of a man’s portrait. Photography Olivia Locher, published by Chronicle Books 2017

Categories: Art, Books, Crave, Dazed, Exhibitions, Photography