Archives
volume 27 (9.2010-12.2010)
GRAND PRIZE WINNER
My Brother's War
American photographer Jessica Hines' brother Gary was drafted to fight the war in Vietnam in the 1970s. He later took his own life. Hines used photography as a way to retrace his "footsteps" using his own photographs and his letters from the war as guides. It's a remarkable, touching story.
2ND PRIZE WINNER
Photos - Souvenirs
With beads, colored thread and scissors, French photographer Carolle Benitah has altered her family photo albums to explore the memories of her childhood, and as a way to help her understand her current identity.
3RD PRIZE WINNER
Jennifer's Family
This documentary series by German photographer Louisa Marie Summer focuses on a second-generation Puerto Rican woman, her Native American life partner, and their four children, who live in South Providence, Rhode Island, in the United States. This eye-opening work challenges stereotypes about poverty and disadvantaged families.
Canada's Flash Forward Festival
The Magenta Foundation's excellent, first Flash Forward Festival featured lots and lots of exciting exhibitions of emerging photographers from Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Artists included Melinda Gibson (her photo shown here), Alinka Echeverria, Jason Larkin,Tom Hull, Ayoung Kim, Anja Schaffner, Toby Smith, Karen Asher, Alyssa Bistonath, Kotama Bouabane, Philip Cheung, Jinyoung Kim, Jason Andrew, S. Billie Mandle, Sarah Small, Magda Biernat, Katrina d’Autremont, Jonathan Gitelson, Jonathan Hanson, Gabriela Herman, Jowhara AlSaud, and Kevin Van Aelst.
Lumen Gallery, Budapest
During Paris Photo, the Lumen Gallery from Budapest, Hungary will be showing work from several eastern European photographic artists, including Gergely László, Péter Rákosi, Krisztina Erdei, and Zsolt Fekete. Here is a brief preview.
Tigress of Housekeeping
Hungarian photographer Anna Fabricius has created a series of ironic portraits of modern day women. The portraits mix traditional cinematic aspects of feminine fragility and devotion, with a more cartoon-like heroic sensibility riffing on tough female images portrayed in video and computer games.
Noorderlicht Festival: Warzone
Through the work of top photographers like Ad van Denderen, Martin Specht, Paul Seawright, Peter van Agtmael and Antonin Kratochvil, the exhibition and book,Warzone, pauses to examine the experience of soldiers who have been dispatched to the warzones of our recent history. The traces in the landscapes in which they lived have been covered again by time, but the world of war will – for better and worse – continue to exist in their inner landscape.
Noorderlicht Festival: Land
An intelligent, throught-provoking group show depicts country life in the urban age, chosen from artists all over the world, including Jackie Nickerson, Nadav Kander, Munem Wasif, George Awde, Evzen Sobek (his image shown here), Larisa Sitar, Brigitte Grignet, Tessa Bunney, and Ian Teh. The introductory essay is loaded with facts, statistics and questions.
Brighton Photo Biennial
The Brighton Photo Biennial 2010, entitled New Documents, aimed to reflect the immediacy and vibrancy of contemporary photographic practice by a new generation of practitioners including Stephen Gill, Alejandro Chaskielberg, Esteban Pastorino Diaz, and Rinko Kawauchi, among many many others.
Photoport, Slovakia
During Paris Photo, Photoport Gallery from Bratislava, Slovakia, will present the work of several photographic artists, including Juraj Fifik, Ján Kekeli, and Lucia Stránaiová. Here is a brief preview, with texts provided by art specialists in Slovakia.
Czarna Gallery, Warsaw
During Paris Photo, Czarna Gallery from Warsaw, Poland, will present the work of several photographic artists, including Szymon Roginski, Ján Kekeli, Teresa Gierzynska, the team of Dorota Buczkowska / Przemyslaw Dziennis, and Monika Wiechowska. Here is a brief preview, with texts provided by art specialists in Poland.
Metropolis
Russian photographer Ivan Mikhaylov has assembled a wonderful series of portraits and short interviews with young people who have moved from the provinces to find new lives in the bustle of Moscow.
Sun City
Peter Granser looks inside America's oldest adults-only community, Sun City Arizona. Population 38,000. Minimum age, 55 years old.
Resettlement
Artist Julia Curtin "sampled" iconic photographs of poor dwellings from America's Great Depression, then built scale models of those houses, and covered them with scans from the original photos.
Autour / Around
Benoit Fougeirol makes quiet, meditative photographs of ephemeral situations on the fringes of the city of Paris. His new book includes poems (in French and English) by poet Michael Batalla.
Life in Blue
Photographer Evžen Sobek explores life, leisure activity and DIY architecture around artificial lakes in the Czech Republic.
Smoke and Mirrors
Ellie Davis creates fantasy landscapes where glimmering golden saplings sparkle like fairies in the midst of otherwise dark, dense forests.
Subterra
New Zealander Wayne Barrar photographs vast underground spaces – mostly caves and mines – that are currently being re-used for various odd purposes.
Mojave and Desert Paradise
In the vast and open landscape of the Mojave, traces of man's intervention and neglect are instantly apparent. Markus Altmann reports.
Voyage en Périphérie
Cyrus Cornut's look at the bizarre and often alien-like architecture offers a stark counterpoint to typical romantic images of France.
Red Star, Black Gold
Ollie Woods traveled to a remote coal mine in north eastern China to document one of the last working steam railways in the world.
Immortal
Vee Speers' brand new body of work, Immortal, poses questions about obsessions with youth, beauty and impossible perfection in today's world.
Preview: Paris Photo 2010
Paris Photo's yearly art fair is often viewed as the authoritative, up-to-the-minute guide to what is going on in the world of fine-art photography. This year promises an especially rich offering, with special emphasis on photography from central and eastern Europe. Lens Culture has compiled a preview of more than 300 images in a high-resolution slideshow. The photo above is by photographer Michel de Broin.
Yangtze: The Long River
Prix Pictet winner Nadav Kander has just published a new book of photographs from his award-winning series about the Yangtze river. He talks about his process of making this series in an exclusive video interview for Lens Culture.
International Exposure Award Winners 2010
More than 6,400 photos were submitted from serious photographers in 47 countries — see the winners here in Lens Culture. Great, eclectic, inspiring contemporary photography from all over the world!
Where does West become East?
Over the course of several months, photographer Frederic Lezmi traveled slowly from Vienna to Beirut in search of cultural and geographical "in-between" moments. His wonderfully rich, layered photographs capture the slow and sometimes uneasy transition of cultural symbols and values as one moves from Europe to the Orient.
In almost every picture #7
This delightfully quirky photobook features a remarkable series of self-portraits made over the course of 60 years. The chronological series begins in 1936, when a 16-year-old girl from Tilburg in Holland picks up a gun and shoots at the target in a shooting gallery. Every time she hits the target, it triggers the shutter of a camera and a portrait of the girl in firing pose is taken and given as a prize.
Belief
Israeli photographer Natan Dvir is "fascinated and sometimes frightened by the extreme situations people reach in the pursuit and defense of their beliefs. Regardless of specific religious or political affinities, belief can provide a sense of community, belonging, safety, and understanding, yet might also provoke hatred, separation and aggression."
Tokyo: Up / Down
Lured by thousands of nightclubs, host/hostess bars, and love-hotels near Tokyo's Shinjuku's station, business people descend from their offices in high speed elevators, only to rise up again in other elevators in other buildings, seeking comfort, fantasy and escape. Photographer Xavier Comas provides an almost voyeuristic view of these moments of vertical transit.
Flotsam and Jetsam
Peter Tonningsen collects odd things that wash up on California beaches near his home. He then scans them on a flat-bed scanner, and arranges those images artfully, and with a sense of humor, to create grids that have a loopy sense of logic.
Archives
volume 26 (7.2010-8.2010)
Más Világ
(Other World)
Judit M. Horvath and Gyorgy Stalter have documented the lives of Hungarian Roma gypsies for more than 15 years. Their photos are filled with joy, tenderness and love — and argue against prejudice and stereotypes.
Wasted Expressions
Charlie Ferguson sees the scrapes, scratches, rust and peeling paint on trash dumpsters as random artistic abstractions.
Dream about Motherland
Using an inexpensive old camera, Tamas Paczai captures a romantic view of the last generation of traditional rural life in Romania.
Allen Ginsberg Photo Album
Poet, mystic, and spokesman for the Beat generation, Allen Ginsberg also photographed his friends and lovers over the years. He made albums of these photos, with elaborate hand-written captions.
Sweden's New Photography Museum
Fotografiska, a beautiful and impressive new photography museum, opened in May on the waterfront in Stockholm. Premier exhibitions included stellar shows by Annie Leibowitz, Joel-Peter Witkin, Vee Speers, and Lennart Nilsson.
Marcin and Gienik
Two aging men, down on their luck, live happily together in Warsaw, salvaging junk. Andrzej Mitura creates an intimate portrait of their day-to-day lives.
Tony Ray-Jones
Photographer Tony Ray-Jones,who died in 1972 at the early age of 31, exerted an enormous influence on the development of British documentary art photography that continues to be reflected in the work of Martin Parr and many others. A retrospective of his work was a highlight during the Month of Photography in Krakow, Poland.
Women of Vrindavan
Massimiliano Clausi reports on the harsh lives of 20,000 widows in the holy city of Vrindavan, India.
VII: The Magazine
Readers of Lens Culture now have access to exclusive multimedia reports from inside the world of photojournalism.
Often disturbing, always insightful.
Shipbreaking
Shipbreaking is a controversial industry. The recycling of these old vessels is often consigned to scrapyards in India, Bangladesh, or Pakistan, where salary, health, safety and working standards are minimal, and workers are desperate for work. Pierre Torset reports.
Memoria Scaduta
In Italy, one's final resting place in a cemetery is not considered to be forever. Photographer Jim Vecchi documents what happens when the lease is up.
Roma Relocation
200 Roma families who lived in a ghetto on the banks of one of Belgrades’s most important rivers have been run off the land, which is now considered premium real estate coveted by the elite class. Matt Lutton reports.
Scenes of Life:
Winner of the 2010 HSBC Prize
We float high above peaceful moments of a romantic life when we view the work of young Franco-German photographers Lucie and Simon. This series was just awarded a prestigious prize in Europe, the HSBC Prix pour la Photographie.
Inside photojournalism:
VII The Magazine
Lens Culture has joined with the leading international photo agency, VII Photo, in an innovative online project that gives readers of Lens Culture unprecedented access and insight to the work of some of the world’s leading photojournalists. The weekly features are edited specifically for online distribution, and are accompanied by intimate commentaries from the photographers themselves. The photo above is from a fun multimedia presentation of American cars and trucks, by Christopher Morris.
Daughters
Two young Norwegian sisters appear to be creatures of Scandinavian folklore in this series of photos made over several years by their mother, Margaret M. de Lange. Dark and moody, sometimes care-free, sometimes menacing or dreamlike, these photos represent memories, fantasies, and realites of Norwegian childhood during the brief but sweet summer months.
Daily Life in Kabul
As the war escalates in Afghanistan and foreign dollars continue to flow into the country, aid meant for the masses has, for the most part, only thickened the wallets of corrupt Afghan officials, warlords and drug lords. Michael Christopher Brown delivers a photo-essay along with his first-hand observations.
Photo Souvenirs,
with embroidery and beads
Artist-photographer Carolle Benitah uses the decorative function of embroidery and beads to re-interpret her own history (through old snapshots in her family albums) and to expose its failings. She writes a compelling text about this work, in French, as well as in an English translation.
40 Preview Picks:
Rencontres d'Arles Festival 2010
Every July, the ancient town of Arles, in the south of France, becomes one of the world centers for photography, attracting photographers, curators, art collectors, and photography lovers from all over the world. Watch our high-resolution slide show featuring 40 examples of the eclectic work you will find there at the 41st annual festival. The photo above is by Marcos Lopez from Buenos Aires.
Near the Egress:
Analog/digital circus performance
Photographer, film-maker and professor, Antonio Martinez, has created one of the most exciting mash-ups of old and new photo techniques that we've seen. This experimental stop-motion animation incorporates black-and-white film, modern tintypes, digital scans, and a custom soundtrack. Watch it "full screen" and take a short trip of delight. You can buy the DVD, too.
Archives
volume 25 (4.2010-6.2010)
Military Camp
for Kids
In Hungary, super-realistic military "survival" or army camps for boys and young men aged 8 to 18 are very popular — the only thing missing is live ammunition. Árpád Kurucz presents a compelling and disturbing photo essay.
VII: The Magazine
Starting with this issue, the readers of Lens Culture will have direct access to an insightful look at the inside world of photojournalism through our collaboration with VII Photo Agency. Get ready to dig in!
Not In Your Face
Susan A. Barnett explores t-shirt culture as a wearable artform that "advertises hopes, ideals, likes, dislikes, political views, and personal mantras."
Intimate look at Lithuania
In a new photobook, Mindaugas Kavaliauskas captures life in 21st century Kraziai, an historic village in northwestern Lithuania.
Time
With a fixed tripod, and a simple, straightforward technique, John Clang creates hand-ripped montages that compress time in one place.
Book Review:
Not Niigata
American photographer Andrew Phelps lives in Europe and just published his personal take on life in a Japanese city. Reviewed by Marc Fesutel.
Heavy Hand, Sunken Spirit
In the 2-1/2 years since Mexican President Felipe Calderon escalated the battle against the country’s drug cartels, nearly 13,000 people have been killed and kidnappings have skyrocketed. David Rochkind delivers a graphic and disturbing report.
Recollections: Philip Jones Griffiths
A big, beautiful book that looks at life in Great Britain from the 1950s through the 1990s.
Moving Performance, Still Photos
Self-taught photographer Laurence Demaison plays — delightfully — with film photography and with the idea of photography. Taking full advantage of showing what the camera sees (sometimes over long periods of exposure) compared to what the human eye cannot or does not see, she creates rich, quirky, complex images without the aid of digital manipulation. What you see was really there.
VII Photo: Inside Photojournalism
Lens Culture has joined with the leading international photo agency, VII Photo, in an innovative online project that will give readers of Lens Culture unprecedented access and insight to the work of some of the world’s leading photojournalists. The weekly features are edited specifically for online distribution, and will be accompanied by intimate commentaries from the photographers themselves, recorded exclusively for this website. One of many stories this week: In a very personal interview, photographer Ashley Gilbertson opens up about the effects of war on soldiers and their families, himself, and the country. The photo above is by James Nachtwey on the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti.
Unintended Light
Hungarian photographer Zoltán Vancsó sees art in daily life, and creates modern-day, classic black-and-white photographs that vibrate with visual delight.
Iran 1979-2009
This series of photos by Alfred Yaghobzadeh reveal quite a range of daily life in Iran over the past 30 years — from the Iranian Revolution in 1979 through the highly contested political elections of 2009.
Touchless Automatic Wonder
For more than 20 years, photographer Lewis Koch has collected fragments of found text from all over the world with his camera. After several years as an innovative web project, the best of his collection is now compiled in an excellent new photobook — guaranteed to make you smile.
In Between Layers
Affluent cultures around the world have recently embraced a mash-up of photography, trompe-l’oeil imagery, conceptual art and super-large-scale digital printing, to cloak the temporary “ugliness” of construction scaffolding with building-size outdoor art installations. Photographer Han Sungpil has documented this trend as it evolves into more and more sophisticated illusions.
Archives
volume 24 (1.2010-3.2010)
Roger Ballen
talks about his art
In this engaging 10-minute video interview, Roger Ballen talks about psychology, metaphor, controversy and art in photography. From the new video series, Lens Culture: Conversations with Photographers.
Hydrology:
Visions in Ice
Remarkable, organic, and complexly chaotic still life photographs of formations in ice, by Douglas Capron.
Claimed: Landscape
Alexis Pike explores the delicate balance of the scenic and the mundane, and documents the way ideals of picturesque landscapes literally overlap conventional structures in the American West.
Useless Things
Leopoldo Plentz makes large-scale scanner art from crumpled, discarded, anthropomorphic pieces of junk he finds in the streets.
Southern Depictions
Wonderfully rich and quirky portraits by Donna Pinckley of young kids at play.
The Cinemas Project
Aging single-screen cinema theaters of Bombay are lovingly documented by Zubin Pastakia.
Somerset Stories — Fivepenny Dreams
In her new photobook, Venetia Dearden explores the tough, vanishing ways of life of subsistence farmers and travelling communities in England.
kai fàng
Kate Shortt travelled through China in 2006 to photograph everyday heroes, now in their eighties and nineties, who are silent survivors of decades of politcal repression.
Beyond History
Vincent Delbrouck's book, subtitled "poetic documentary versus dirty realism" is an odd, unsatisfying mixture of self-indulgence with a handful of decent photos.
World Press Photo
2010 Winners
Lens Culture is pleased to present a high-resolution slideshow of this year's winning photographs from the World Press Photo competition. The photo above, Rainbowland, New Mexico, by Canadian photographer Kitra Cahana, won 1st prize for Arts and Entertainment Stories. Most of the other winners focus on areas of conflict. All of the photos are remarkable this year.
Simon Roberts video interview: Visual Anthropology in Russia and England
Simon Roberts talks about his in-depth visual studies of people and the places they live. "I want to create a series of pictures that you want to look at longer... and are rewarded for the more time you look at it."
Chaotic Harmony:
Contemporary Korean Photography
Discover the work of 40 contemporary Korean photographers who were chosen to represent the current state of Korean art for large-scale exhibitions at The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
Priya Kambli:
Color Falls Down
Priya Kambli's artful combinations of vintage photos, contemporary photos, colors and textures visually express the notion of transience and split cultural identity caused by the act of migration — in this case from India to the US.
Claire Bayrasy: Ride
Ride is more of a visual poem than a photo documentary. Claire Bayrasy made this series of photos from inside cramped narrow motorcycle taxis that she took to work each morning in Beijing.
David Helsham: Bongin Bongin
Bongin Bongin Bay and its surroundings in northern Sydney Australia provide the raw material for this magical series of diptychs. Photographer David Helsham often juxtaposes found objects he discovered on the beach – from discarded toys, to shoes, to skulls – with views of the bay in all weathers and seasons.