Tuesday, October 30, 2007

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

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

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.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

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

Monday, October 15, 2007

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

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

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

Monday, October 8, 2007

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.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

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