The intimate portrait... for some just being in front of the lens is a confrontation. It can trigger a sense of being exposed, vulnerable, open.. etc. Inviting or accepting a photographer into one's home to make such a portrait takes it a step further. The following photographers make multiple trips into the private lives of others in order to make their work.

Shen Wei, Shanghai, China / currently in NYC
Hyramd

Jennifer Loeber, Brooklyn, NY
Boerum Hill, #2, 2007

Nicole Akstein, Atlanta GA
Untitled

I've had wanderlust long enough... and strayed to the west coast, landing and driving up the PCH hours before fire consumed Malibu. Now the air of cities for miles smells of bonfire and gives me vivid memories of high school keg parties on the damp coastline.. and lying about why I reeked of smoked bamboo to my folks when I snuck back in the door well after curfew. Hope these fires get tamed soon. They are quite a few within 45 minutes from my home town. Here's a map...


I have selected the three photographs for todays post out of a pile of emails with care.. all tied together with a very thin and subtle string. Don't think too hard. I'm vacation... I'm sure not.

Susana Raab, Washington DC
2007 Natchez, Mississippi

Jason Falchook, Brooklyn, NY.
Untitled Still-life

Sandy Carson, Scotland / Austin, TX (Quite the combo)
From the Roadside Grave series.

More heaviness to ponder... in relation to "the real"...
Not the heavy type? Skip and go down to some refreshing photos below.

"What the photograph reproduces to infinity has occurred only once: the photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially. As soon as the click of the shutter has taken place, what was photographed no longer exists; subject is transformed....." - Roland Barthes.

"Memory is normally embedded in an ongoing experience of a person who is remembering.... if the photograph isn't 'tricked' in one way or another, it is authentic like a trace of an event: the problem is that an event, when it is isolated from all the other events that come before it and which go after it, is in another sense not very authentic because it has been seized from that ongoing experience which is true authenticity. Photographs are both authentic and not authentic; whether the authentic side of photographs can be used authentically or not depends upon how you use them." - John Berger

The modest eye.. a theme I've been thinking about posting for quite some time. I find it truly refreshing to come across photographs by amateur photographers, hobby photographers and snapshooters who's cameras emerge when they go on vacation. Those posted today fall under various categories.. though I find the work to fall under wanderlustagraphy quite easily.

Ed Faulkner, N. Carolina
Untitled, Italy

Rafal Pruszynski, Seoul
Conversation

Matthew Van Saun
Military Coup Thailand 2006

Photography allows one to explore and bend "the real". We govern our own photographs, snapping what we set up or find.. therefore leaving evidence of what we have experienced for others to witness, react and/or relate to. Every experience we create is real... though within that everything can be manipulated. Reflections, lighting, framing, technique.. etc.. allow us to bend reality. Here are a few photographs that hesitate on that note and a quote by Einstein that seems fitting.

“Reality is merely an illusion, although a very persistent one”
-Albert Einstein

Jason Potter, Los Angeles
"Pat" on "Plum" from the series of emulsions
"Recent Men Who Come, Then Go"

Silvio Wolf, Italy
From the project "Angels of Time"

Kyle Ganson, New York

I'll be posting photographs soon enough.. but for now I'm doing a friend a favor. My photo buddy, Shane Lavalette, has been running an amazing photo blog for a while now and he has gotten quite a bit of traffic on it. So much that he was nominated for the 2007 Blogging Scholarship as one of twenty finalists. This is great news and could mean a great amount of money for a cool, talented and creative person, such as Lavalette. Head to this link to VOTE.
Best of luck to him.

First and foremost... sorry for my absence and lack of updates on Wanderlustagraphy in the past few weeks. It's amazing how NYC can take you in it's grips and suddenly weeks fly by unnoticed. Things have been busy.

That said.. enough of my babbling and apologies. Let's move on to some photographs of youth. I've been feeling far too adult these days and felt the need to look into these photographs to remind me of younger days. Enjoy.

Brea Souders, New York, NY.
Reed, 2007. Des Allemands, LA. from the series "Living Water"

Amanda Tetrault, Montreal, CANADA
From "Glimpses" in Brighton Beach

Armando Bellmas, Charlotte, NC
Just Deserts

What exactly makes a good portrait? I posted these three images as a play off of contemporary portraiture. A seemingly natural portrait, staged portrait and representation of a portrait (ala television). Does one tell a stronger story than another? It seems unfair to make broad generalizations as it seems a strong image just speaks for itself..
but curiosity does strike..

Simon Ingall, Rochester, now New York, NY.
Shaun, Pine Beach NJ

Richard Friedman, Oakland CA
The War, At Home from the series "At Home"

Erika Jacobs, Toronto, Canada.
From the series "Secrets"

On a portrait kick. Simply stated. Enjoy and send in work! I'm running low on supplies!

Andrew DeFrancesco org Texas, currently NYC
Portraits

Will Steacy, Philly, NYC
Liz, Philadelphia, 2007 from the series:
All My Life I Have Had the Same Dream.
(click on image to read text)

Melanie Bailey, Detroit
(melanie-bailey@hotmail.com) (no website)
Nikki, Diptych

"Humans are tuned for relationship. The eyes, the skin, the tongue, ears, and nostrils- are all gates where our body receives the nourishment of otherness. This landscape of shadowed voices, these feathered bodies and antlers and tumbling streams- these breathing shapes are our family, the beings with whom we are engaged, with whom we struggle and suffer and celebrate."
-David Abram Ph.D., ecologist, philosopher, & sleight of hand magician

I have been thinking a lot lately about anniversaries of big, life altering events like a lot of people this time of year... seeing that Katrina's 2nd year mark just passed and 911's 6th year mark is right around the corner. I guess it might seem funny to reference Katrina and 911 without seeking out photographers who created work during those times for this update... I guess I, like many others, have seen those images enough. I moved to NYC from New Orleans less than a year before Katrina hit and I guess I just have a bit of hard time looking over those images again and again. I'm sure most feel a similar way towards Sept 11th photos though I'm not in any way trying to shrink the magnitude of such events. Perhaps, if anything, I'm trying to sympathize with those who were a little too close to these events for comfort.

Well all those thoughts got me to thinking about people who always shoot in places that have big, life altering events surrounding them. The following photographers work with some heavy material, though as you can see the images are quite stunning.

(Sleep deprivation might seem apparent in this post. My brain's not all here.)

Wyatt Gallery, NYC
From the project- Remnants: After the Tsunami
Family Portrait on their Home #1, Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka

Barbara Davidson, A native of Montreal, Canada. Currently in the US.
Agatha Anene, Eziowelle, Nigeria.

Simon C. Roberts, Brighton, UK
From the series: The Forgotten- Chechen IDPs in Ingushetia
Excerpt from the statement:

April 2005-
Largely ignored by the international community, the war in Chechnya is now Europe's longest-running and bloodiest conflict. No one knows exactly how many civilians have died since 1994 but the number runs into the tens of thousands. The city of Grozny, the republic's only urban and professional centre, still lies in ruins more than a decade after the fighting started. In 2003, the Russian authorities began a campaign to repatriate 180,000 Chechen Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) living in Ingushetia, a neighbouring republic. (for more head to his site)

Polaroids have always had a soft spot in my photo-geekish heart.
I love the way they smell and the way they always have imperfections.
The following photographers work with polaroids on various projects.
There is something about the immediate, original, non-reproducible (for the most part) images they create and how all mistakes, coincidences and moments unrepeated are caught. These very things keep me from tossing away polaroid cameras even though I fail to ever buy the instant film they need.

I-Nan Kuo, Taiwan
Love

Scott Hammond, Columbus, OH
Lucas, Kansas, 2005.

Lars Garten, Berlin/Germany.
From the series "Welcome at Grandma's Place"

It's Sunday night and I've just made it back from only trip I've made to Coney Island this summer. For those who aren't in the greater NY area or those who perhaps aren't tuned into the fact that this summer is the last summer that Coney Island will fully be intact before bulldozers and sledgehammers and construction zones cover the area to make way for condos, a new boardwalk and a more seasonal amusement park. Coney Island is one of the most, if not the most, historical amusement parks in the United States. It's very sad that the history there means less than the condos that will rise to the sky in it's place. On that sad note.. summer is coming to a screeching halt. This too makes me incredibly sad as I've been a bit too busy to travel further than an hours flight.. and travel makes me happier than anything.

Tonight's post includes photographs from three photographers out of the states. The photographs resonate for me as they have that strong impermanent feel that only travel and the road laid out before you can create.

Also.. wanted to apologize for my lack of wanderlustagraphy updates. Summer is meant for leisure and I've been too busy with work to enjoy that.

Jérôme Icardo, France
3 of 21 from the series "Nice Place to Dream About" a series shot between Scandinavia and the Balkans with an instant camera.

Chrischa Oswald, Austria/Germany
From the series "Being"

Andrew Phelps, Raised in Arizona, currently in Salzburg/Austria
From the project: Nature de Luxe

Storytelling..
It's quite amazing that a near complete story can be built by placing one photographer's work next to another. I enjoy the narrative that is built within these three images. The color palette and mood works quite well. The idea that photography allows us all to be voyeurs and photographs allow us to study the lives of others in order to relate to one another is pretty fascinating. Before delving any deeper into that, I'll leave you on that note to ask what part of that might be true for you with your image making? In addition.. what draws you to look at anothers work?

Patti Hallock, Brooklyn, NY.
Evergreen

Nelson Chan, NJ, RI, Hong Kong.
Unofficial title: Judy at a cancer walk in NJ.