Archives
volume 16 (7.2008-8.2008)
Battered
Some young people in the suburbs of Finland like to go out, get drunk, and fight. Harri Palviranta documents these scenes like a modern-day Weegee.
Waves and visual haiku from Japan
NAMI is a series of photos of waves around the shores of Sado Island in Japan. The photographer, a young Buddhist monk named Syoin Kajii, watches the water patiently, waiting for a moment of surprise.
Hamburg Sud
A small, poetic series of photographs all made on the same day in Hamburg.
Net Works
First she made art with Nylon stockings. Now Elaine Duigenan is back with a quirky series of digital photograms made from vintage hairnets.
Mobile Phone Fortune Telling
Psychic/photographer Beth Lilly puts both talents to work one day per month, when she uses the camera on her mobile phone to predict the fortunes of strangers who call in from all over the world.
Deliver Me
Laura Noel takes a look at smokers who have recently become outcasts in health-conscious politically-correct societies.
Urban Tree Portraits
City trees in Buenos Aires show their individual character and awkward charm in this series of portraits by Emma Livingston.
Photo Espana 2008: a preview
For a couple months every summer, the City of Madrid hosts one of the best photo festivals in the world. Here is a peak at what you can discover there in 2008.
Look 3 Festival of the Photograph
For the second year in a row, this new festival in Charlottesville, Virginia, is hosting on-stage interviews with some of today's best photographers. This year's line-up includes Mary Ellen Mark, James Nachtwey, and Joel-Peter Witkin.
Oblivion:
Los Angeles from the Air
David Maisel creates highly detailed aerial photographs of the densely packed sprawl of Los Angeles. Is it any wonder that it looks alien and uninviting?
Serial No. 3817131
At an age when social, sexual, and educational explorations are at their highest point, the life of an eighteen-year-old Israeli girl is interrupted to serve in an army involved in daily conflict and war. Rachel Papo was inducted into the Israeli Army when she turned 18. Fifteen years later, armed only with her camera, she decided to go back to see if it was as bad as she remembered.
Hyper
The hypermarkets of France sometimes look like consumerism on steroids. Photographer Denis Darzacq takes it one step further with his series of "shoppers" flying and floating through the aisles like superheros or astronauts. And yes, they are real photographs, no tricks.
81 Preview Photos:
2008 Festival in Arles
Take a sneak peak of the eclectic mix of photography that will be shown at Les Rencontres d'Arles Photographie this summer, starting July 8 through September 14. Be sure to check out Lens Culture's high resolution slide show.
The Last Days of Higley
The American Southwest is slowly succumbing to the inevitable sprawl of suburban developments. Former resident Andrew Phelps documents the demise of a small rural town as it is bull-dozed into another massive, generic bedroom community.Archives
volume 15 (5.2008-6.2008)
Soldier
Who are the men and women who volunteer to fight in America's wars, and what do they look like after their first tours of duty?
Photographer Suzanne Opton provides some uncomfortably intimate portraits, and tells her story about this controversial work in an exclusive audio interview with Lens Culture.
Russian springtime playgrounds
As winter's snows thaw, Trevor Traynor captures the faded colors of Moscow's playgrounds.
Drifting Away: remembering the disappeared from Colombia
Colombian artist Erika Diettes has created a light-filled photo-based memorial installation to honor and remember the thousands of her countrymen who are missing or dead.
The shapes of formal gardens
Photographer Beth Dow aims for pictures that have "a meditative quality to reflect the spiritual urges that inspired the earliest gardens some six thousand years ago." Her platinum prints make them feel even more wonderfully unreal and magical.
Bejewelled Carcasses
Patricia Pastore zooms in on the beauty of dead bugs, with bright lights and highly selective focus. The results shimmer with minimalist elegance.
Night Park
Dogs and people cavort like dancers in the dark when photographer Susan Bein experiments with hand-held late-night long exposures.
Flowers
Colorblind photographer Tony Mendoza decided that after 30 years of black-and-white it was time to tackle color photography. These flowers look like none you have probably seen in your garden.
American Suburb
Douglas Rickhard chronicles the twilight-zone empty feeling of 60s and 70s era suburban housing developments in the United States.
Written in the Past
Joachim Froese presents us with zen-like meditations and dream-like imagery in his series of triptychs.
County Fair Winners
Dan Nelken takes a long loving look at the competitions at county fairs in America, and gives us a gift of early 21st century rural Americana, circa 1998 - 2007.
Before and After Death
A stunning series of portraits of people — shortly before and just after they die — is touring Europe now, and tackling one of the biggest remaining taboos in Western societies. Photos by Walter Schels, text by Beate Lakotta.
Surfers: modern/primitives
Using a century-old photo technique, photographer Joni Sternbach creates portraits of modern-day surfers.
When men call women names
Bird, bitch, fox... UK photographer Rachel Graves created a menagerie of characters based on the derogatory terms that women hear on the street every day. These self-portrait diptychs are disarmingly simple, seductive and thought-provoking.Archives
volume 14 (3.2008-4.2008)
Here and gone:
21st century
anonymous portraits
Anonymous urban dwellers are photographed in the artificial light of public spaces. Photos by Russian photographer Alexei Vassiliev.
Book Review:
The Roma Journeys
One of the best photo books of 2008. Photographer Joakim Eskildsen has created a stunningly rich portrait of contemporary Roma Gypsy life as it is played out in seven different countries.
What remains in an empty home?
Norwegian Oyvind Hjelmen photographs an old family home as it is being emptied after several generations have come and gone.
World Press Photo Winners
Here are some of the very best photos taken in the world of photojournalism during 2007.
Deutsche Borse Prize Finalists
More than 40 images from the four finalists in one of Europe's most prestigious photography contests that comes with a £30,000 cash prize.
Book Review:
The Mother of
All Journeys
Photographer Dinu Li re-traces the steps of his mother's life travels from China to Hong Kong to England. This family history is told through a deft mixture of old family photos, oral history, and new photos of the places that were significant in her past, but shown as they are today.
Gender, Politics, and Images of Power
Deborah Oparallo juxtaposes 18th century power portraits of male leaders with internet images of women in fetish costumes.
Silent Nests
Vicki Topaz documents 14th to 18th century pigeon houses in France — disappearing symbols of aristocratic status.
Photography in China: 1934-2008
The world's most comprehensive collection and overview of photography from China is premiering in a mammoth city-wide exhibition in Houston, Texas, as part of FotoFest 2008. Lens Culture is thrilled to present 60 photographs from the exhibition — many never seen before outside of China.
Patti Smith Polaroids
A major solo exhibition of Patti Smith's visual art opened in Paris on March 28. The show includes lots of Polaroid photos taken by Smith over the course of her forty-year career as a rock 'n roll punk poet visionary.
Army Cooks
Did you ever think about the men who have to feed hungry armies out on battlefields? What do they do when basic food and ingredients are hard to find? How can they inspire their men on to victory? Photographer Martin Kollar delivers an eye-opening photo-essay from Eastern Europe. Text by Peter Kerekes.
Saul Leiter: Retrospective
A European retrospective, and a new book, celebrate the black-and-white and color street photography of American Saul Leiter from the 1950s-60s. Archives
volume 13 (1.2008-2.2008)
Grit of Life
Raw, direct, tender, harsh, sad, and beautiful. A portfolio of all new work by young Swedish photographer Marcus Erixson.
Painted Rituals
Aboriginal traditional dances photographed by Argentinean photographer Lorena Vaschetti. Text by Finn Thrane.
Eyes of an Island:
Japanese Photography 1945-2007
In-depth critical essay on the evolution of Japanese photography since WWII. Written by Marc Feustel, and illustrated with a diverse range of images and photographic styles.
Workers
Eastern European men from all social classes migrate long distances to harvest the crops in Germany. Ingar Krauss captures individual portraits after a long day of manual labor.
We're All the Same!
Dutch photographer Hans Eijkelboom just published a 3-volume sociological photo report proving that, at least visually, life in New York, Paris, and Shanghai is nearly identical.
No Love Lost
Photographer Michael Grieve takes us into seedy swingers' joints, back-stage at strip clubs, and in between takes on porn film sets in the UK in this revealing and not-so-sexy photo essay.
Bosnia: Blood + Honey
The war in Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1992 until 1995 took a great toll on human life and infrastructure. Today, there are still an estimated 2.2 million refugees living in crowded refugee camps. Nathalie Mohadjer gives us a look inside one camp, and writes a concise overview of the current situation.
The Absence of All Colors
Brazilian artist Ludmila Steckelberg doctored the photos in her collective family albums by removing the images of her relatives who died, leaving black silhouettes where the dead had once been alive.
Misrach: On the Beach
Richard Misrach takes us high in the air over dream-like tropical settings in his latest book.
Archives
volume 12 (10.2007-12.2007)
Observance
Can people communicate a prayer or a mantra through a photograph? More than 100 people from all continents and many religions prayed while they posed for long-exposure portraits by Nicola Dove.
Intimate Enemy
For his new book, Robert Lyons photographed murderers, accomplices and surviving victims from the Rwandan Genocide. The photos are presented without captions.
"In Between" Contest Winners
Lens Culture sponsored a contest in the Flickr community, with the open-ended theme of "in between". Our editors chose 35 of the best entries.
Darkness Visible
Photographer Nicholas Hughes gives us richly detailed, dark and moody images of nature, as seen by a modern urban-dweller in the UK.
Drift
German photographer Wolfgang Zurborn has a new photobook that captures the visual clutter of our man-made environments. The photos — all created in camera — are like wonderfully tricky and complex collages.
Helen Levitt:
Seven decades of street photography
A retrospective exhibition in Paris, and two recent books, confirm that Helen Levitt is one of the most important street photographers of the 20th century. Her range is remarkable: From iconic black-and-white images from the 30s and 40s, to pioneering color-saturated work that captures the theater of the streets in the 70s and 80s. And listen to an NPR audio interview with Levitt from 2002.
Preview: Paris Photo 2007
Lens Culture is delighted to be able to share 120 preview picks for the upcoming festival, Paris Photo 2007. The show promises to be an overabundance of visual stimulation and delight. Enjoy!
Recent Wet Plate Collodion Work
David Prifti makes wonderful photographs using very old techniques and materials. The results are rich with nuance and quirkiness, and evoke a sense of nostalgia even when the images are clearly of our time.
Archives
volume 11 (7.2007-9.2007)
North South
East West
British photographer Hannah Guy combines imagination, still images, animation, and platinum prints, to help us get to know some trees from 360 degrees.
Satellites
Jonas Bendiksen roamed around the "satellite" nations of the former USSR for several years, making stunning photographs and writing short eloquent articles about his findings. Here is a review of his fantastic book.
Tree:
A South Korean Perspective on Nature
A beautiful and intellectual meditation on trees, nature, environment and perception, by photographer Myoung Ho Lee.
Transfigurations
Thought-provoking and playful portraits that explore paintings as masks, and photos of photos of paintings and photos... by Richard Bram and Slyvia Willkens.
Holga-mania!
Holga Queen, Michelle Bates, got hooked on plastic cameras in 1991. Since then she's had international shows, she teaches workshops, and she's just published a new book: Plastic Cameras: Toying with Creativity. See some of her images and listen to her talk passionately about the utter joys of inexpensive cameras.
Motherland:
Russia today
A twelve month journey across the face of Russia in 2004-2005 delivers unexpectedly vibrant images and a compelling first person report. See some of the photographs, listen to an audio interview with the author/ photographer, Simon Roberts, and then buy the book.
Arles 2007 Preview Picks
64 photos as a preview of International Photography Festival in France. In addition to many exciting new discoveries, this year features extensive expositions of vintage and contemporary photography from India and China.
Buried:
New photos
and a book by Stephen Gill
Ever-relentless in his pursuit of joy with photography, Stephen Gill chose to collaborate with a physical place this time — not only photographing it, but also then burying his photographic prints in the same general location to see what the place would add (or subtract). The results are, well, earthy and conceptual, to say the least.
Extended Report from Chernobyl
A new book by photographer-reporter Pierpaolo Mittica is informative, impassioned and unforgettable. Here we have 20 images from Chernobyl: The Hidden Legacy, plus a book review.
Havana Sketches
Russian photographer Alexey Titarenko found his artistic voice at an early age in Saint Petersburg, where he grew up during the transition from Soviet rule to a more "Western" type of government and popular consumption. On recent visits to Cuba, he re-discovered the feelings he had in the waning days of the Soviet era.
Anders Petersen: Recent Photographs
Swedish photographer Anders Petersen was elected Photographer
of the Year at the Rencontres d'Arles in 2003. In 2007, he was one of
the four world finalists in the prestigious Deutsche Börse Photography
Prize. Now, in Lens Culture, he generously shares 20 new photos, and
talks about his work and life in an insightful and compelling 18 minute audio interview.
On Urban Walls and in your Face
Undercover photographer-activist JR uses public walls as his illegal galleries. His subjects are pseudo gang-members from the Paris suburbs, and make-believe terrorists in Palestine and israel. After being sued, arrested and hassled, he is now being celebrated by the media and exhibited by esteemed cultural organizations. Listen to our exclusive 16-minute audio interview to understand some of the ideas he is playing with. And enjoy 20 photos from his installations worldwide.
Alter Ego: Avatars and their creators
Photographer Robbie Cooper traveled the world to meet the "real-world" people behind their own cyber characters from online games and communities like Second Life and World of Warcraft. The result is a book of wonderfully eclectic dual-portraits, plus illuminating and intriguing interviews with these gamers from all walks of life.
The Birthday Party by Vee Speers
Paris-based photographer Vee Speers unveils a new series of children's portraits from a make-believe costume party where the kids come dressed as creatures of their own imaginations.
Body as Dream
Italian photographer Marco Ambrosi teamed up with American calligrapher Monica Dengo to create a meditative series that explores written language and human identity.
Photographic notes from a madhouse
Surreal, haunting, evocative, unforgettable. 38 visions by lauren e. simonutti. Plus a compelling text by the artist.
Audio Archives
Anders Petersen: a warm and candid interview, with insights into his personal apporach to photography18 minutes
Simon Roberts talks about his year-long photographic trek through the outlying towns of the former Soviet Union
24 minutes
Undercover photographer JR talks about his stealth activities to turn public places into illegal ephemeral galleries of social confrontation and dialogue
16 minutes
Richard Bram on playing with image planes, and the conversations between paintings and photographs
7 minutes
Marco Ambrosi on his series Body as Dream, exploring identity through written language and visual images
5 minutes