Makes Me Scream.

I hung this picture by FRANCIS Bacon at work yesterday, Strange Coincidence. I bet it's why this fella picked the name Francis in honour of Bacon cos he knows how much Bacon loved his Popes.

The BBC News has become obsessed (or maybe it's possessed ?) with all this Popey stuff. Why? I'm not sure. It's not like we are this great devout nation. We decide we didn't like their type in 1534. Maybe the BBC has had a change of heart. After all the Catholic Church and the BBC do have lots in common... 

Google search for Francis 1 14/03/2013

Gallery Envy.......

Much as I love Manchester, it's shows like SHOMEI TOMATSU & DAIDO MORIYAMA at MICHAEL HOPPEN GALLERY that make me envy London photography fans. I'll have to make do with watching a film about SHOMEI TOMATSU on YOUTUBE, in Japanese, and save my pennies for his book 'SKIN OF THE NATION'

Christmas Photographic Zen.

This has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas, I'm just preceding all posts for the next couple of days with the word Christmas.

I found this a while back and it's fascinating, watching the way Daido Moriyama works. There's no sound to the clip which at first annoyed me but after watching it a couple of times I think adds to it. I've seen many a film of other well known for want of a better word "street photographers" work, and with Daido it's just less, I don't no, just less showy. You know all that sticking the camera in peoples faces, off camera great ferckin ring flashes, laser guided camera in bushes malarkey. He is after all in my Gods section which he is no doubt well chuffed about. http://manchesterphotography.blogspot.com/2008/08/daido-moriyama.html

Daido Moriyama

Daido Moriyama

This is far from the first time I've mentioned Daido Moriyama, and I doubt it will be the last. You see I absolutely love his work, that's why he's in my "Gods" section, only the 5th so far (here's the others) http://manchesterphotography.blogspot.com/search/label/Gods I have scoured the tinterweb to find you the best links/interviews with this fella, like this one as a taster: http://www.bigempire.com/sake/daido_moriyama.html. I mentioned in a previous post about his choice of hardware, the Ricoh GRs 35mm compact. This is not the geek in me talking, his camera choice is vital to why I feel he is important as a photographer.

Take a look at the above picture taken early in his career and perhaps his most famous picture. What strikes you about it? What it shouts to me is "snapshot" and that's what he does. That's why the little Ricoh is important. You've got to carry a camera to take photographs it's that simple. I love this self portrait of him on his homepage:
http://www.moriyamadaido.com/ go look at the slideshows in his gallery section. It won't work if it's translated so look then translate, unless of course you speak Japanese.

These are images, lots of images working together as a whole. These are pawed over, looked at studied contact sheets, these are retrospective shots. Perhaps some of them are "Decisive moments" Catier Bresson style http://www.e-photobooks.com/cartier-bresson/decisive-moment.html but I think that more of his work will have been taken back to his studio to be analysed, sifted like that most urban of stalwart's "The Ragpicker" http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0422/is_1_82/ai_63910535/pg_5

He is using the great strength of digital photography before we or he had it. And make no mistake that's where the new territories lie. As William Eggleston and Stephen Shore made headway with colour, Moriyama's take first think later style is so suited to digital photography. I believe that if we take a leaf out of his book we could really do something exciting with little digi camera's.

Some links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moriyama_Daido
http://punctum.typepad.com/the_space_in_between/daido_moriyama/
http://colinpantall2.blogspot.com/2008/01/daido-moriyama-memories-of-dog.html
http://www.beautifuldaze.org/2008/02/daido-moriyama-55-phaidon-press.html

Paul Graham

Images from the series "American Night" by Paul Graham

Paul Graham http://www.paulgrahamarchive.com/ is only the third photographer to make it into my Gods section, and here's why.

He more than any British photographer (I'm aware of at least) is moving the art form on, leaving well and truly behind that thing that keeps dragging it back to it's early days, "The great single shot". The whole wow! single picture, decisive moment, craft skill, romantic baggage that even now in this brave new world, too many people, both critics and photographers alike are clinging onto, sadly especially here in the UK. Take his series above, a quiet series, each picture is no more than a word, a whisper even, but together it adds upto an uneasy sentence. His latest work "A shimmer of possibility" has not yet been uploaded to his website, but the book or at least a collection of twelve individual books has been published and can be seen here, if not bought as it's already sold out: http://www.steidlville.com/books/600-a-shimmer-of-possibility.html An early clue to the importance of this work?

Jacob Holdt contd......

Image Jacob Holdt from American Pictures.

I've been thinking more about Holdt's work since yesterdays post. The work has, in recent years taken on an almost "cult" status. Could this be because of the aesthetic? It has a similar feel in many ways to "Blaxploitation" movies of the time. www.blaxploitation.com This is of course partly due to the fashions, and being made at the same point in American history, but also by choosing to use colour film. I think though that it goes beyond the now cool look and works on the viewer on a deeper level. He has always claimed that the work was never made with any artistic aspirations and opting colour over black & white would support this (ease of processing/availability etc) It's use has given the pictures a raw honest feel. Does choosing colour film and a cheap non professional camera give the series and Holdt's work more authority? Do we believe in them and take notice because they are this way, and some how feel that they are more real than say beautifully printed and toned mono prints? Doe's traditional photojournalism in the Magnum style still have the ability to move us and provoke? www.magnumphotos.com

Jacob Holdt

Image copyright Jacob Holdt

Deutsche Borse 2008 nominee Jacob Holdt, is for me a true Giant of Documentary photography. http://www.american-pictures.com/english/jacob/index.html His "American Pictures" is a hugely important work, easily up there with anything done by the FSA collective, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farm_Security_Administration or Britain's "Mass Observation". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass-Observation What makes it all the more incredible is that Holdt was an unpaid, untrained Danish vagabond (his description) travelling (over 100 000 miles) in the Southern United States mainly on his own, who by 1977 had amassed over 15000 negatives taken on a $50 camera.

Tom Wood

Image copyright Tom Wood

I have noticed that photographers website status is a good indicator as to their fame and success as artists. A newbie photographer fresh out of college may start with a flickr site, moving on as time goes by to maybe a template site, until they can have a made to measure flash site built. The big boys have no site at all, relying on galleries to do such mundane things such as promotion. So it is with great pleasure that I can announce that the Great Tom Wood has no website! Well done photie man. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Wood_(photographer)

Don McCullin

Image copyright Don McCullin

Don McCullin has been given an award by The Royal Photographic Society http://www.rps.org/ well done, I should bloody well think so! Although he has a C.B.E I have never understood why he has never received a Knighthood. He has covered nearly every war since Korea and even now at the age of 72 is still working.



He is one of the reasons I switched from wanting to be a painter to wanting to be a photographer. He was one of the first photographers whose work I really looked at and whose work I really wanted to know about. I read his autobiography over and over again, it was like my Bible for a couple of years. I remember My camera was an Olympus, and swapping it for a Nikon when I found out that was what the great man used, and of course the story of how it stopped a bullet when he was photographing in Vietnam.



To read more about this legend go here: http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.horvatland.com/images/entrevues/mccullin-02.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.horvatland.com/pages/entrevues/06-mccullin-en_en.htm&h=450&w=312&sz=42&tbnid=xmOfmkQ8t3GptM:&tbnh=127&tbnw=88&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddon%2Bmccullin%26um%3D1&start=2&sa=X&oi=images&ct=image&cd=2