Today a must see for all photography enthusiast out there. A BBC documentary called The Genius of Photography.
I wasn’t able to integrate the clips into this post so please click the following link to watch it at DocumentaryHeaven: The Genius of Photography
Or if you just want to own this documentary, you can purchase it: DVD – The Genius of Photography
Earlier on PforPHOTO I posted about a series by Michael Wolf in which he photographed windows and the small cities that exist behind them. A voyeuristic series called Transparent City. His new series, again photographs taken through windows, shows us the commuters of the Tokyo subway system. The many people (2.8 million a day) who rely on this rapid transit system are all packed neatly into small compartments.They all commute cozy together.
The photographs that Michael Wolf has taken gives us a look into the day-to-day lives of Japanese commuters. Damp windows. Emotionless faces. Portraits of people who are compressed together. Portraits of people who pause their lives from the moment they set foot on world’s busiest subway system. All on their way to do what they do. Everyday the same. Everyday together. The series is called Tokyo Compression.
Michael’s website: www.photomichaelwolf.com
Dutch photographer Arjen Zwart, based in Istanbul, Turkey, photographs the back alleys of Istanbul in his series ZIFT. He finds art on the walls of buildings. The walls have been treated with tar to make them waterproof. This practical usage of this black stuff brings about unintended beauty, or pieces of art as he calls it. And it reminds him of the works of great artists like Mark Rothko and Kazimir Malevich. The different shades of black, the structure of the walls and the surroundings make for some beautiful photographs. Arjen makes us look differently at the ordinary structures and buildings surrounding us. And showing us the abstractness and beauty in these ordinary places.
Arjen’s website: www.arjenzwart.com
http://vimeo.com/samcollinsmedia/balloflight
One of the wonderful things art can do is make you look at the world differently. French artist Philippe Ramette‘s photographs do just that. If you still believe photography gives an objective view of our world, Phillipe Ramette surely shall make you think twice. And if you think Photoshop has something to do with his photographs, you are wrong. Ramette’s playing with gravity like many art works do with ones emotions. His surreal works of art not only makes you think differently about the art form of photography but also about men’s relation to nature and its rules.
Next time I’ll find myself in San Francisco, I’ll make sure to pay a visit to Photobooth. And you should too. A retail space for classic camera gear and a gallery. But more importantly a tiny type portrait studio. They will photograph you in a unique way. On an aluminum tin type plate your portraiture is developed in a 19th century style. This old technique shows the beauty of photography and the quality it has. Co-Founder of Photobooth Michael Shindler started this studio as a way of putting tangible value back into the typically digital medium.
And this tangible value is being put back by many others. Many photographers featured on PforPHOTO still shoot analog, e.g. Ian Ruhter (also tin type), Misha de Ridder and Alec Soth. They often describe one of the reasons of doing so, the focus it ask of you, the photographer. And if you add that wonderful quality it brings about, you can imagine why many artists love analog large format photography. Even I have bought a Linhof 4×5 field camera last year, for the same reasons.
Please watch the clip about Photobooth featured by Cool Hunting below. And the article about Photobooth at Cool Hunting can be found here.
The wonders of nature have alway been a thankful subject for artists. Dutch photographer Misha de Ridder, a man who lives in the city of Amsterdam, tries to relate to the wilderness, to the greatness of nature and in the end to the nature of his own existence and inevitable death. He does this beautifully with his photography. He is looking for those untouched places. True nature. Nature at its best. For example an extraordinary shaped tree, the shape of a mountain or the different atmospheres and lights that nature brings about at different moments in time. And by the use of a large format technical field camera, a 4×5 Linhof Technica, he is able to really capture those places that lack the intervention of men. The details, the colors, the softness, all are wonderful and does make you look and think twice about us humans, about how you as an individual relate to that overwhelming beauty and perhaps just to take you away in that ever inspiring subject that is nature.
