NEGATIVE LOST CAPA

 

Shots from the Spanish Civil War battle of Rio Segre were made from the newly discovered negatives of Gerda Taro and Robert Capa. Capa assumed that the work had been lost during the Nazi invasion, and he died in 1954 on assignment in Vietnam still thinking so. But in 1995 word began to spread that the negatives had somehow survived, after taking a journey worthy of a John le Carré novel: Paris to Marseille and then, in the hands of a Mexican general and diplomat who had served under Pancho Villa, to Mexico City.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/01/27/arts/20080127_KENN_SLIDESHOW_2.html

PHOTO GRAPHICS

At the age of seventeen Yuliya Libkina came to England to study Photography and Graphic Design, generally she works in both of these mediums. The reason for that is that she's always searching for new experiences and don't want to be bounded by one thing. Nowadays she's a second year Fashion Photography student in London College of Fashion (University of Arts, London), and explores the world through the prism of her camera lense.

 

http://www.yuliyaphoto.com/index.htm

SUBVERSIVE MELANCHOLY

Vibrant yet melancholy, and quietly subversive; Hasisi Park's photography is an honest portrayal of contradictions that makes everyday life an interesting experience. Hailing from South Korea, this 26 year old is possibly the first avant garde film maker to have shot a spread for Urban Outfitters.

magazine: HUH, april 2010

ARCHITECTURAL VIOLENCE

Fransesco Cocco portrays the self-afflicted and architectural violence wrought in Italian penitentiaries with visceral power that even within the genre of prison photography is rare. The work was made against the ongoing outcry of suicides in Italian prisons, Italian prisons are increasingly overcrowded. In eight years, 449 suicides have been counted in Italian jails, out of a total of 1243 deaths behind bars.

book: La Ruota Che Gira, Fransesco Cocco (2007) 

POEM BLUR

 

Ryan Kenny's photographs look like a million awesome summer days we have all had. This is possibly due to the fact that he is based out of Australia, but still, these photos evoke tender, lovely and carefree feelings. These are the sort of scenes that pastoral or naturalist writers and poets want to capture but the images Kenny provides us the confirmation that neither picture nor word can truly express how walking or being around nature makes us feel. But he sure a good job in the process. Some photos are blurry and out of focus, while others are sharp, perfectly clear and each resonate in a similar way. It’s as if you’re looking at sun directly in these pictures; gaining all those awesome benefits of vitamin D and boosting your happy chemicals naturally.

http://sickoftheradio.com/2010/12/29/photography-ryan-kennys-walks-nature/

HIROSHIMA

On August 9, 1945, the American B-29 bomber, Bock's Car left Tinian carrying Fat Man, a plutonium implosion-type bomb. The primary target was the Kokura Arsenal, but upon reaching the target, they found that it was covered by a heavy ground haze and smoke, pilot Charles Sweeney turned to the secondary target of the Mitsubishi Torpedo Plant at Nagasaki. Of the 286,00 people living in Nagasaki at the time of the blast, 74,000 were killed and another 75,000 sustained severe injuries. A leaflet dropped on Nagasaki during WWII. I believe Hiroshima was already hit at this point, and this leaflet is warning the people of Nagasaki that they’re next and had better get out of the city.

http://evelyn.smyck.org/2010/08/09/nagasaki-leaflet-rare-piece-of-wwii-memorabilia/

SNAPSHOT AESTHETIC

 

Yesterday I visited the impressive exhibition of Nan Goldin in the Photomuseum in Rotterdam. Goldin is an example of an artist who works at the most intimate level: her life is her work and her work, her life. It's nearly impossible to discuss Goldin's photographs without referring to their subjects by name, as though the people pictured were one's own family and friends. It is this intimate and raw style for which Goldin has become internationally renowned. Her snapshot-esque images of her friends; drag queens, drug addicts, lovers and family are intense, searing portraits that together make a document of Goldin's life. Goldin herself has commented on her photographic style and philosophy saying; "My work originally came from the snapshot aesthetic. Snapshots are taken out of love and to remember people, places and shared times. They're about creating a history by recording a history."

exhibition: Nan Goldin, Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam