Michael Grieve

All images taken from No Love Lost © Michael Grieve

1000 Words contributing editor Michael Grieve recently revamped his personal website with a whole new look and feel, and has put up some fresh portfolios as well as stuff from his frequent forays into editorial photography. He is also selling prints from his wonderful series Blue of Night and No Love Lost. Check it out.

It´s no secret that Michael and I are good friends (shock horror!) but, needless to say, I am an avid admirer both of his work and his spirit for life. The images shown above are taken from his trademark project No Love Lost which speaks volumes about intimacy and dislocation in a theatre of sexual commodity. Talking about the body of work, he says "(No Love Lost) is a visual project that inhabits heightened sexual environments in contemporary England. People featured are active in the increasingly entwined and performative worlds of pornography, prostitution and stripping. What they share is a measured psychological engagement with strangers in close proximity that is a purely physical and sexual union lacking in affection. Fantasy is played out within the frame of constraints and closeness is kept at a distance. Menace is always present, control is often threatened. These are emotionally charged settings, both plastic and primitive, where the ‘stuff’ of life is all too present."

"These are real fictional encounters that convey a sense of the difficulties of meaningful human connection in spiritually vacant environments," he adds.

Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1966, Michael Grieve is based in London and is represented by the prestigious Agence Vu in Paris. He studied an MA in Photographic Studies at the University of Westminster in 1997 and works for a variety of publications internationally including the Sunday Times Magazine, Weekend Guardian Magazine, Liberation, Le Monde and Le Monde 2. He writes for Hotshoe and the British Journal of Photography and, as I mentioned before, is a contributing editor for 1000 Words. His first book, No Love Lost, will be published in the new year. He describes his work generally as ‘searching for the light of possibility in an existential world’. Here´s to you, Michael.

Catherine Opie on New Topographics

via

New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape @Los Angeles County Museum of Art

October 25, 2009–January 3, 2010

A restaging of the landmark exhibition first seen in 1975 at the International Museum of Photography, George Eastman House. "New Topographics" signaled the emergence of a new photographic approach to landscape: romanticization gave way to cooler appraisal, focused on the everyday built environment and more attuned to conceptual concerns of the broader art field. More than two-thirds of the photographs by the original ten participants—Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore, and Henry Wessel, Jr.—are displayed. An accompanying presentation of works by influential photographers and thinkers offers historic context, including Timothy O’Sullivan, Walker Evans, Ed Ruscha, Robert Smithson, and Dan Graham, as well as architect team Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, with their publication Learning from Las Vegas (1972), an ode to the “ugly and ordinary.” A final video installation by the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI), commissioned by LACMA, explores oil’s central role in the development of the American landscape. CLUI’s contemporary response to the legacy of "New Topographics" suggests an ongoing concern for man’s use of the land.

Curator at LACMA: Edward Robinson, Photography.

New Topographics was organized by the Center for Creative Photography, the University of Arizona, and the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film.

Diane, I miss you.

Having just stumbled upon this wonderful online archive of Diane Arbus´ work, I thought it might be nice to share a few quotes that make me tick, both personally and professionally. Some are very well known, others less so. Photographers, if you can make your life half as interesting as Diane´s, you will find the inspiration that gives you something truly worthwhile to say about the world and what it means to be human. So, without further ado, here is a choice selection from the legend herself:

"If I were just curious, it would be very hard to say to someone, "I want to come to your house and have you talk to me and tell me the story of your life." I mean people are going to say, "You're crazy." Plus they're going to keep mighty guarded. But the camera is a kind of license. A lot of people, they want to be paid that much attention and that's a reasonable kind of attention to be paid."

"There are always two things that happen. One is recognition and the other is that it's totally peculiar. But there's some sense in which I always identify with them."

"The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. The hand is the cutting edge of the mind."

"The thing that's important to know is that you never know. You're always sort of feeling your way."

"I always thought of photography as a naughty thing to do - that was one of my favorite things about it, and when I first did it, I felt very perverse."

"I never have taken a picture I've intended. They're always better or worse."

"It's important to take bad pictures. It's the bad ones that have to do with what you've never done before. They can make you recognize something you hadn't seen in a way that will make you recognize it when you see it again."

"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know."

"There are things which nobody would see unless I photographed them."

"Everybody has that thing where they need to look one way but they come out looking another way and that's what people observe. You see someone on the street and essentially what you notice about them is the flaw."

"I work from awkwardness. By that I mean I don't like to arrange things. If I stand in front of something, instead of arranging it, I arrange myself."

"One thing I would never photograph is a dog lying in the mud."

"My favorite thing is to go where I've never been."

"Freaks was a thing I photographed a lot. It was one of the first things I photographed and it had a terrific kind of excitement for me. I just used to adore them. I still do adore some of them. I don't quite mean they're my best friends but they made me feel a mixture of shame and awe."

"Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats."

"Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true."

"It gets to seem as if way back in the Garden of Eden after the Fall, Adam and Eve had begged the Lord to forgive them and He, in his boundless exasperation, had said, ''All right, then. Stay. Stay in the Garden. Get civilized. Procreate. Muck it up.'' And they did."

"Love involves a peculiar unfathomable combination of understanding and misunderstanding."

"Regardless of how you feel inside, always try to look like a winner. Even if you are behind, a sustained look of control and confidence can give you a mental edge that results in victory."

James Clark

All images © James Clark

Why aren´t there more photographers turning their cameras to the effects of the recession I wonder? James Clark´s project Downturn, however, is an ongoing documentation of an ever-changing British landscape in this time of great economic turmoil and does very well in making you feel what it describes.

"Over the past few months," says Clark, "I have been objectively documenting signs of the recession. I have witnessed elements that have traditionally balanced a British lifestyle meet their fate, with homes, workplaces and entertainment outlets all buckling under the strain.

Any project that deals with such loaded subject matter can be viewed as having vested interests, but this body of work is not intended as a critique, or a veiled snipe towards the financial systems, but merely a document, a record of what is happening now and the audience is strongly encouraged to form their own opinions and judgements."

James Clark was born in Reading, England in 1987. He is currently in his final year studying for a BA Graphic Arts: Photography, at Winchester School of Art,(University of Southampton). Previous to this, he completed a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design at Thames Valley University, passing with Distinction. His work experience includes: assistant to Kalpesh Lathigra for the Guardian Weekend magazine, assistant to Rob Smith for a University degree show publication and a three-month work placement undertaking product photography for a company website.

Special x-mas book offer!

Christmas is now fast approaching and what better present to give your photography-loving friends and family than a photobook. 1000 Words is offering its readers discounts on Magnum photographer Donovan Wylie´s Maze and Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2009 winner Paul Graham’s Monograph, courtesy of Steidl. To order your copy please contact tim(at)1000wordsmag(dot)com.

Please see below for more details:

Maze
Donovan Wylie
Steidl



















All images © Donovan Wylie/Magnum Photos

Between 2002 and 2003 Donovan Wylie spent almost a hundred days photographing inside the Maze prison. Through its history of protests, hunger strikes and escapes, this prison, holding both republican and loyalist prisoners, became synonymous with the Northern Ireland conflict. After the Belfast peace agreement in 1998, inmates were gradually released, but the Maze remained open.

Wylie was then the only photographer granted official and unlimited access to the site, when the demolition of the prison began, symbolizing the end of the conflict in 2007. He systematically recorded its demise. The photographs which document this period are divided into four sections, each depicting a “layer” of the prison: the internal walls, the various modes of fencing, the H-blocks and, finally, the perimeter walls, which reveal the external landscape. Eventually this once-enclosed space is reintegrated with the outside world.

First published in 2004 to critical acclaim, this new edition of Maze comes in three volumes: Maze 2002/03, Maze 2007/08, and The Architecture of Containment.

Special price for 1000 Words readers: £45.00
Free shipping within the United Kingdom available

Essay and historical chronology by Louise Purbrick
206 pages, 150 colour plates
29.5 cm x 23.5 cm
Two hardcover books and a singer-stitched booklet housed in a slipcase
Steidl
ISBN: 978-3-86521-907-7
Publication date: April 2009

Paul Graham
Monograph
Steidl


















All images © Paul Graham

Paul Graham is one of that remarkable generation of photographers born in the 1950’s who have come to dominate art photography today and who dedicated themselves to photography at a time when it was unwelcome in the art world. This book is the long awaited survey of 25 years of his photography, 1981-2006, to coincide with a large scale touring European museum exhibition. Graham was the first photographer to unite contemporary colour photography with the classic genre of social documentary.

His colour work in the early and mid-1980s had a transformative effect on the black and white tradition that had dominated British photography to that point. Since this ground breaking early work, and what sets Graham apart from his peers of that time, is that rather than rest on such achievements, he has continued to radically explore the medium for the next two decades, showing a profound commitment to expanding photography’s artistic space, whilst remaining faithful to that core locus where the documentary and artistic aspects of photography coalesce.

At a time when art photography is increasingly staged, or holds the world at a conceptualized distant view, Paul Graham's work distinguishes itself by retaining a firm and full commitment to life as it unfolds; to an understanding that at its core photography begins with an unblinking engagement with the world. Embracing this crucial axiom of photography, Graham's work of the past 25 years has been vital in reinvigorating the core of photographic practice, both by broadening it's visual language, and essentially, by questioning our notions of what such photography could say, be, or look like.

Special price for 1000 Words readers: £32.00
Free shipping within the United Kingdom available

Essays by David Chandler, Michael Almereyda
and Russell Ferguson
376 pages, 250 colour plates
22.5 cm x 28 cm
Hardcover
steidlMACK
ISBN: 978-3-86521-858-2
Publication date: July 2009

Jennifer Cox

All images © Jennifer Cox

There are some nice images from Jennifer Cox´s portfolio I wish I knew how it would feel to be free that she recently submitted to the magazine. Some of the strongest work for me are those shots that use less props or none at all. In my mind, the more minimalist compositions are more compelling and operate on a different level; one that is disconcerting, unfamiliar and far less easily explained. Have a read of her artist statement posted below to get a full flavour of her project:

"I wish I knew how it would feel to be free is a series of photographs that tries to analyse our relationship with Nature. I believe our bodies are an extension of Nature: it is a perfect creation, despite whatever its shape might be, and therefore it is no different from everything that surrounds me. I believe that modern cities have somehow managed to alienate our bodies, as they have become an accessory instead of a tool, it is out of place, it has no function save to decorate and charm.

For me Nature is an untamed force that instils the same amount of fear and awe in me whenever I have the pleasure of being in it and it is only in those moments that I feel truly free. It is as if some kind of primitive instinct that has lain dormant in me for years awakens and I suddenly turn feral: I climb trees, swim in rivers, dig holes, jump from rocks and run wild. I become empowered and my body takes the place that was originally meant for it.

My "Free" photographs are composed mainly of self-portraits that I have taken during my repeated visits to different natural environments. These visits have become some sort of pilgrimage in which I look for the perfect place to photograph: I set my camera and through staged performances I go back to being wild and, at the same time, I try to capture on film my longing to become part of nature, untamed, free and wild."

Jennifer Cox was born in Malaga, Spain, where she began her studies and practise as a fine art student. Later on she moved to the U.K. where she studied a BA (Hons) in Documentary and Film in the University of Wales, Newport and from which she graduated with Honours. Although her creative work requires her to travel much of the time, she now lives in Madrid, the city in which where she works as a photographer and a film maker.

Amongst her better known work are her two short films Little girls know all the secrets (2005), Hush-Sh (2006) and a 40 minute documentary entitled A film about Home (2008). She has also made music videos for artists such as Marissa Nadler and Aroah. Her photographs have been shown in many galleries such as the Baltic in the UK, the Castiello de San Jorge gallery in Lisbon and the Galeria Central in Malaga. She has received grants from Foc Films, has produced photographs for advertising campaigns for Calle 13, cd sleeves for groups like Earthphish and Aroah and has had her work published in magazines such as Camino, Rockdelux, Glamour and Psychologies.

She is now working on new photographs for her first solo exhibition.

Mike Whelan

All images © Mike Whelan

"The catalyst for my Ad-Site project was the increase in new construction works taking place in London. Walk past one of these building sites and you'll be greeted with 'artists impressions' of modern utopias, which promise an elevated social existence by living, working, or even just visiting one of these locations. But there is a radical distinction between utopian vision and the social reality which attends the upheavals of regeneration - and which remains out of public view. I wanted to deconstruct these projections of pristine living and suggest towards the unseen on the social infrastructure that 'gentrification' entails."

Since graduating a few years ago with a BA photography Whelan has been assisting, won the Fine Art Single category at the 2009 NYPH awards, highly recommended at the 2009 IPA’s, voted AOP’s 2009 Assistant Photographer of the year, a finalist in the Photographers Forum Best of Photography 2009 show and 2008 BJP Project Assistance Award nominee. Recent exhibitions include the Photographers Gallery, AOP Gallery, Brighton Photo Fringe and upcoming exhibitions in New York. He is currently working on two books and seeking gallery representation for his personal work.

Workshop: a week with Denis Darzacq from February 14 until February 21 2010

© Denis Darzacq / Galerie Vu

Atelier de visu is organising a workshop directed by Denis Darzacq
The workshop will take place in Marseille.

Content of the workshop:

> defining each participant’s photographic project.
> shooting sessions.
> editing sessions, each participant will create a coherent series
of images.
> creation of a slide show.
> opening night at Atelier de visu’s gallery and projection of the images of the participants.

L’Atelier de visu will also be doing portfolio reviews.

Price of the workshop: 500 euros
Maximum number of participants: 12
Accomodation can be provided at Atelier de visu. (depending on availability)

For further information, please contact Atelier de visu
19 rue des Trois Rois 13006 Marseille
téléphone: 04 91 47 60 07
contact(at)atelierdevisu(dot)fr
www.atelierdevisu.fr

Here is a documentary film that shows the photographer working with street dancers in the suburbs of Paris to create his trademark images:

Vision 09 | British Journal Of Photography

© Martin Parr/Magnum Photos

BJP´s essential event for professional photographers - Friday 27 November @ The Business Design Centre, London

Come and learn from the world’s leading experts at Europe’s only event dedicated to aspiring pro and early career photographers.

Vision returns for its 11th year with a packed programme of talks, seminars and folio reviews at the Business Design Centre in London, providing inspiration, information and essential ideas to get your career moving.

Many of the industry’s leading manufacturers will also be there to showcase their latest products and services, giving you a unique opportunity to meet key innovators all under one roof.

Confirmed speakers include:

Steve Bloom

Best known for his wildlife photography, Steve Bloom will be discussing what inspired him to write and photograph his new book Trading Places: The Merchants of Nairobi (Thames and Hudson). This photographic portrait of the merchants of Nairobi offers an encounter with a community rarely glimpsed by outsiders. The results are often delightfully quirky – presenting an authentic form of popular street graphics. After his talk, Steve will be available to answer questions and sign his book.

Martin Parr

Magnum member and the UK's most renowned photographer and chronicler of our age, Martin Parr will be discussing his most recent project, Luxury - his epitaph to the age of conspicuous consumption, with candid images of the fabulously wealthy on the international party circuit. He will also be available for book signings.

Eugene Richards

One of the best living documentary photographers, Eugene Richards will be presenting his latest work, War is Personal, which focuses on Americans whose lives have been irrevocably impacted by the ongoing war in Iraq. The project highlights the consequences a war can have on people once they come home from the frontlines.

Here is the timetable:











I am excited to announce that I will be doing portfolio reviews from 2-4.30 pm. Reserve a one-on-one session with me or any one of the reviewers at the ever-popular folio clinic and get real world feedback and advice from leading imaging professionals. The expert panel includes top image buyers, picture editors and gallerists, so prior booking is essential as these sessions sell out in advance. Each 15-minute session costs £5 in addition to the £10 registration fee to enter Vision 2009. Book a session here.

I am interested in finding new work to showcase in the magazine as well offering up good solid critique. Career guidance and use of the internet as a marketing tool are amongst my other areas of expertise. I am a keen advocate of photography as fine art and am less interested in looking at fashion, editorial and commercial work. I would like to see a series of images that is underpinned by strong aesthetic and conceptual goals, preferably forming part of a project.

Paris Visone

All images © Paris Visone

Don´t ask me where or when but not so long ago I remember overhearing somebody say:

"Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?"

Profound, I thought. Well, this morning, after a bit of googling, I stumbled upon that same quote again and can reveal that these were actually the words of none other than Winnie the Pooh!

Which brings me to the topic of today´s post-thinking. The images you see here are taken from a project called Thought and were kindly offered up for submission from Paris Visone. Explaining the work, the photographer writes:

"When you think, your mind takes over your eyes.

These photographs not only explore and illustrate the main idea of thought, but raise more questions. How much of our daily lives is spent thinking? How much time do we spend thinking about the past, the present, the future. If a person is a product of their environment, then are their thoughts also? None of the photos are set up or preconceived. They are all documents of actual thought.

These photographs are also about thought; but not only thought. They are about what the people in the photograph are thinking. And what the person looking at the photograph thinks they are thinking. Or what the photographer thinks about what the viewers are thinking that they are thinking. Think about that."

Currently residing in Boston Massachusetts, Paris Visone is a graduate from The Art Institute of Boston. She recently had a solo exhibition, Gender Roles and Appearance at TSP Gallery in Boston, MA. Her work was recently published in F-stop Magazine, Performer Magazine, Wassenaar Magazine, and Doll Magazine (Japan). She has been in various juried exhibitions, the latest being The Salem Arts Associations Photography Exhibition, curated by Phillip Prodger. More of her work can be seen at www.parisvisone.com I´ll leave you with my personal favourite. Simply stunning!

Alex Leme

All images © Alex Leme

This work is titled Literary Ghosts and was sent in from Alex Leme. He tells me that he discovered his love of photography at an early age through his many family trips around Brazil where he was born and raised. From these roots sprang a desire to explore the world and its innumerable facets through the lens of a camera. He attended the University of Westminster in London, England then completed his formal education in 2002 at Cambury College in Goiana, Brazil. After teaching English, producing theatre, and working as a marketing director, he moved to San Francisco, California. 2004 marked the beginning of a successful career in corporate finance as a consultant for a major investment firm.

Thankfully, in 2009, he answered his heart’s calling by abandoning his financial career in order to pursue his lifelong dream as a photographer. Since then, he has been part of many group exhibitions in the US and also won several awards. His pieces can already be found as part of the permanent collections for the Museum Of Contemporary Art and Theo Brandao Museum in Brazil as well as private collections in the US, Brazil and Europe.

Talking about this particular project, he says:

"Initially I started this essay motivated only by personal reasons since libraries were such an important part of my upbringing. However, once I started the project I began to notice the changes those institutions have undergone and continue to experience through the years. Some of them were influenced by the technological evolution, others by sociological transformations. In light of those facts, I realized the need to expand the scope of my essay and start to explore those changes such as the contrasts among smaller and larger libraries, older and newer ones, from small and larger cities, from different countries, with different budgets and so forth. With that in mind, those photographs represent only the beginning of this project, which I like to reference as the more personal depiction of the content and the geometry of those spaces."

Katinka Goldberg

All images © Katinka Goldberg

Upon seeing these images I felt a pang in my heart. Still Movement belongs to Katinka Goldberg and consists of series of self portraits, alone and together. "For me" says Goldberg, "this project was a way of illustrating an introvert state of mind where it feels like you are almost disappearing. I wanted to create a feeling of a closed zone or a closed space. Although this space is still exposed since we, the viewers can look within and observe.

It is important that this project isn’t a narrative because the nature of the emotions portrayed is constant, still and strangely undramatic. The sheets becomes almost like a fluid landscape that surrounds you and overtake you.

I have a background in painting, and I am inspired by Nordic painters from the turn of the last century, like Helene Schjerfbeck. My images are often closer to paintings, and in this body of work I have tried to connect the two expressions. In doing that I am able to combine the expressivity of painting, with the energy and ability to capture the moment that lies within the photographic media."

Katinka Goldberg is a Swedish photographer educated in Sweden and France with a BA (Hons) in Photography from Edinburgh College of Art. She is represented by a Norwegian gallery called Melk Galleri that focuses on young Scandinavian photography and has her next exhibition there in April 2010. Her latest exhibition was at Krane Calman Gallery in Brighton in April 2009. She has also exhibited at the Photography Festival in Arles, Voies Off. Now based in Norway, she is completing her first photography book called SEE YOU that will be published in 2010.

David Walker

All images © David Walker

David Walker got in touch the other day to share some images from his recent work Under the shadow of mad Richard’s folly. Introducing the project, he writes:

"In this dense wooded land dating back to the early 17th century there is a rich, and somewhat unsettling history. It includes a wealthy, and morally questionable young aristocrat Richard Atherton who in 1723 commissioned architect William Wakefield to build Atherton Hall, only to die three years later at the age of 26, not before making himself very unpopular locally by expelling the congregation of the now famous Chowbent Chapel in 1721. It’s also rumoured he harboured the invading Scots at the Hall. Also, a now disused railway line that encountered the first trials of Stevensons Lancashire Witch, A dubious Children's home, Bear bating, ghost sightings, various suicides, and the Chowbent Races all happened within it’s boundaries."

He goes on to explain:

"In this project I’ve used some of those various researched historical allegories and references to inspire me to create some disquieting stories of my own."

On leaving secondary school at the age of 15 David joined his first advertising agency. He had a very successful career as a Senior Art Director for over 30 years. In 1983 he began seeking creative fulfilment outside the world of advertising with a parallel career in photographic art. He has completed six major projects since that time, with exhibitions at the Lowry Salford, Cornerhouse Manchester, Gallery Oldham, Static Liverpool, Touchstones Rochdale and the Turnpike Leigh. In 2006, he also curated the show Between today and yesterday at the Turnpike featuring the work of Idris Khan, Hannah Starkey, Martin Parr, Richard Billingham,Tony Ray Jones, Peter Kennard, Paul Hill, and Brian Griffin.

Daniel Lillie

All images © Daniel Lillie

I got introduced to Daniel Lillie at Chris Steele Perkins´ book launch a few weeks back. Let me just say, not only is he a delightful young chap but his work, for which he won the August edition of theprintspace competition, is outstanding. The images shown here are taken from his project I´ll see you on the far post... and this is his introduction to the series:

"Historically, socially and culturally the working man has been seen as a figure of strength and integrity, a foreboding presence both in the family and the community. These images are about what men do with their time, be it with their family, friends or alone. They are about working and not working. Work is not guaranteed for these men, it is insecure and transient.

These images also offer a portrait of a small estate in Newport, South Wales. They look at the ideals of family, friendship, kinship and the intimacies and relationships which are formed in a close knit community. They also look at the changing domestic role of the male within the family, as the roles clash and men re-negotiate their lives and relationships after the prospect of industrial stability has waned. They are about the in-between times, time spent in the company of other men. They’re about killing time; or time killing us".

Daniel was born Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1986 and graduated with a B.A Hons in Documentary Photography from the University of Wales, Newport in 2008. He has been working on the project I’ll see you on the far post… almost exclusively since 2007 but he also works as a freelance assistant in London. The project has been published in Black and White Photography Magazine, winning their reportage assignment and also came second place is Ag magazine’s ‘Brilliant Book Awards.’ He has been invited to present the work at The Photographers Gallery in 2009 and had a solo show in Exit Gallery at Claire de Roeun Books, in London. He is also a shortlisted finalist for the Magnum Expression Award 2009.

Paris Photo 2009

Lorraine, 2009 © Mauricio Anzeri, Courtesy: The Photographer’s Gallery, London

Geographical diversity and discovery. Spotlight on Arab and Iranian photography

1000 Words Photography is delighted to announce our new partnership with Paris Photo. We have eight day passes valid for one person during the fair for sale at £10 each so get in touch if you are in need of tickets (they normally cost £15 but we are offering them at a discounted rate to our readers). Email me at tim(at)1000wordsmag(dot)com for more details.

Held at the Carrousel du Louvre from 19 to 22 November Paris Photo, the world’s leading fair for 19th Century, modern and contemporary photography will feature 102 exhibitors including 89 galleries and 13 publishers. With 75% of selected participants coming from 23 countries, the 2009 edition is remarkable in terms of its geographical diversity. With 11 galleries Germany is first among the foreign participants, followed by the United States with 10 galleries,the United Kingdom (7), the Netherlands (6), Japan and Spain (5 galleries each), Italy (3), two each from South Africa, Denmark the United Arab Emirates, Finland,Tunisia, and finally one for Austria, Belgium, China, South Korea, Hungary, Portugal, Russia,Lebanon and Morocco. France is represented by 21 galleries, among which several newcomers make their debut such as La B.A.N.K, Patricia Dorfman, Dominique Fiat,Françoise Paviot and la Galerie RX.

With 31 first-time participants, the emphasis in this year’s selection is placed firmly on renewal and an up-and-coming generation of promising young galleries such a Motive from Amsterdam, Kuckei+Kuckei from Berlin, Nusser & Baumgart from Munich, or Pente 10 from Lisbon. They come alongside established and prestigious names such as Goodman Gallery,South Africa’s historic gallery founded in 1965, and Munich’s Fine Old Masters, a regular at TEFAF Maastricht. In addition, Denmark’s Bo Bjerggaard is back while both Robert Koch Gallery of San Francisco and Toni Tapiès of Barcelona are coming for the first time.

An unprecedented exploration of the Arab and Iranian scene

In 2009, Paris Photo proposes to undertake an unprecedented exploration of photographic practices in the Orient. Photography arrived in the region in the 19th Century. It has become the dominant medium in what is today a diverse and autonomous contemporary art scene that is now attracting considerable interest internationally. Catherine David, Director of Documenta X at Kassel in 1997 and the author of numerous exhibitions and publications on Arab contemporary artistic production, will present the major characteristics of this emerging and poorly documented scene, in three parts. First is the Central Exhibition showing a selection of rare images from the collections of the Arab Image Foundation in Beirut. The Statement* section will provide an overview of emerging talent form Tehran to Damascus, Beirut to Cairo and Tangiers to Dubai. Finally, the Project Room will offer a programme of video screenings, testimony to the growing interest for the dynamics of this
medium among the artists of the region.

At the same time, a number of Western galleries in the general section will be presenting the work of established Arab and Iranian artists such as Abbas Kiarostami at the London gallery Purdy Hicks, Abbas on Iran at Magnum Gallery, Morocco’s Yto Barrada at Polaris, Egypt’s Youssef Nabil at Michael Stevenson, the Palestinian Taysir Batniji at La B.A.N.K and Lebanon’s Fouad El Khoury at Tanit. Other galleries have chosen to show Western visions of the East, in particular some of the earliest examples of orientalist photography presented by Baudoin Lebon, Serge Plantureux and Hershkowitz. Also on show will be the work of contemporary artists such as Gabriele Basilico on Beirut, Philippe Chancel on Dubai, Lars Tunbjork on Oman etc.

*artists in Statement
Assar Art Gallery, Téhéran : Mohammad Ghazali, Sadegh Tirafkan
B21 Gallery, Dubai: Reza Aramesh, Ramin Haerizadeh
El Marsa, Tunis : Lamia Naji, Mouna Karray
Galerie 127, Marrakech : Malik Nejmi
Selma Feriani London/Tunis : Raja Aissa, Sama Alshaibi, Rula Halawani
Sfeir-Semler, Beyrouth/Hambourg: Yasser Alwan, Wael Shawky, Akram Zaatari
Silk Road, Téhéran: Bahman Jalali, Gohar Dashti, Katayoun Karami
The Empty Quarter, Dubai: Fara Nosh, Asim Rafiqui


















Brenda, 2008 from the series Real Beauty © Jodi Bieber, Courtesy Goodman Gallery, Parkwood

The 2009 BMW- Paris Photo Prize
The BMW-Paris Photo prize is designed to support contemporary creativity and is awarded once a year to an artist/photographer for his or her work on a theme related to BMW France’s advertising campaign. For its sixth edition, the prize, reserved for artists represented by galleries participating in Paris Photo, will reveal the best in contemporary photography with work on the theme “When was the last time you had a unique experience?” The winner will be chosen from among the short-listed artists whose work will be on display during Paris Photo. The €12,000 prize will be awarded during a ceremony on Wednesday 18th November.

The 2009 Jury :
The jury is presided by Philippe Dehennin, President of BMW France
Robert Delpire, publisher, Paris, TJ Demos, Art critic and writer, London, Matthias Harder, Curator and Director of the Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin, Manfred Heiting, Collector, Los Angeles and Sandra S. Phillips, Senior Curator of Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

What’s happening in Paris during Paris Photo :
This November, Paris Photo coincides with several major photographic events in Paris : “Michael Kenna, retrospective” at the Bibliothèque nationale de France - « The Subversion of Images, Surrealism, Photography, Film » at the Centre Pompidou - « August Sander : Seeing,Observing, Thinking » at the Henri Cartier Bresson Foundation - « Delpire & Cie » at the Maison européenne de la photographie - « Federico Fellini, La Grande Parade » at the Jeu de Paume. In addition, the Middle East will be the main focus of exhibitions such as « Palestine,creation in all states » at the Arab World Institute, « Djân, Body and Soul» at VU Gallery, « 150 years of Iranian Photography » at the Musée du Quai Branly, or « Iran 1979-2009 : Between Hope and Chaos, 30 years of Iranian Documentary Photography » at the Monnaie
de Paris.






















Amorfosis 004, 2008 © Aitor Ortiz, Courtesy Galería Max Estrella, Madrid

Tessa Bunney

All images © Tessa Bunney

Tessa Bunney got in touch the other day to share some images from her Home Work series which focus on domestic labour in the suburbs and villages in and around Hanoi, Vietnam. In her statement about the project, she writes:

"Currently, around 75% of the population of Vietnam are farmers. As Vietnam moves towards urbanisation, the country’s agricultural labour force faces the prospect of losing its land to urban projects - and its way of life.

With Vietnam’s growing population also making less land available for farmers to work, families unable to sustain themselves are turning to the creation of various products in rural areas. These ‘craft’ villages have become the meeting place between rural and urban, agriculture and industry.

During the last decade, along with rapid national economic development many craft villages have increased production up to five fold through small-scale industrial development. However, the consequence of this shift is increased waste and environmental pollution with the resources of the landscape becoming overused.

My work draws attention to observing details which we usually let slip by unnoticed and aims to contribute to the ongoing debate about the changing nature of rural life".

Home Work is currently on show at The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate, UK until 8 November and then will then be touring to Light House, Wolverhampton, UK (27 Nov 2009 to 13 Jan 2010).

Since graduating from West Surrey College of Art and Design in 1988, Tessa has worked as a documentary photographer undertaking personal projects and portraits and features photography for various magazines including Observer Life, Guardian Weekend and The Sunday Times magazine as well as a wide range of commissions and residencies nationally and internationally. In 2004, she completed a M.A. in Photography at De Montfort University, Leicester.

Previous projects include Moor and Dale, which was exhibited and published by The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate and shown at various venues in the UK including Hereford Photography Festival, 2004. Lamb, commissioned by The Culture Company, was shown at Impressions Gallery, York, in 2000. Eat Better, Eat British received an Honourable Mention in the Leica Oskar Barnack Award and was shown at Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles, France in 2000.

She is represented by the Klompching Gallery in New York and is currently artist in residence at Newby Hall, a private Georgian family home in North Yorkshire. She will also be artist in residence in Jyväskylä, Central Finland in early 2010 as part of Connections North, International Residency Exchange Project organised by Art Connections.

Jake Stangel

All images © Jake Stangel

Excerpts from Jake Stangel's series Pontiac Dream are showcased here as part of today's post.

"Pontiac Dream is an open-ended retrospective on America's transitioning identity, as it drifts away from a local mom-and-pop, industry-proud culture and moves toward a more corporately maintained society. The project memorializes a mid-point of this transition, focusing on the county's resplendent and iconic heritage in a way that straddles both currency and nostalgia. With an understanding of this evolution, it's up to the viewer to infer how such rich cultural seeds might sow America's future."

Jake Stangel was born in Montreal, raised on the East Coast, and now lives in Portland, OR. He shoots most of his work on a 4x5 camera, and informs me that he has "an eternal love for film and the wonders of ambient light". He also says that he has cycled across America three times, and the majority of his work, including Pontiac Dream, has been conceived and shot on these vagabond adventures. He also runs a very cool website called too much chocolate, if you don't know it, check it out! He studied visual communication – a combination of photography, marketing, and visual philosophy – at the Gallatin School of Independent Study at New York University. He graduated in 2008 with a B.A.

1000 Words Photography Magazine #6

© Anna Linderstam

Dear friends and colleagues of 1000 Words,

It gives me great pleasure to inform you that the Autumn issue, The Unfathomable, is online now.

To view it, please go to:

www.1000wordsmag.com

Featuring work-in-progress from JH Engström, a survey of recent Farnham graduate Anna Linderstam’s oeuvre to date, Kelli Connell’s Double Life series, a presentation on Gone Astray Details by Clare Strand; a special book review of Water Does Not Soak in Rain by Korean artist Atta Kim and an essay on Without Sanctuary – a collection of found and anonymous photographs of lynchings in America’s deep south – there are many different modes of representation in this issue, but all make strong statements both on and through photography and, we hope, will touch you in some profound way.

In addition, we also have book reviews of Nuevas Historias: A New View of Spanish Photography and Video Art, Viviane Sassen’s Flamboya and We English by Simon Roberts. Beside these publications, the Autumn issue includes an exclusive multimedia piece by Robin Maddock wherein he discusses his new book Our Kids Are Going to Hell, published by Trolley Books.

Don’t forget 1000 Words is offering its readers discounts on books such as Magnum photographer Donovan Wylie´s Maze and Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2009 winner Paul Graham’s Monograph, courtesy of Steidl. To order your copy please contact tim@1000wordsmag.com.

As always, thanks to all the photographers and writers and special thanks to Santiago Taccetti of CCCH Creative Studio, Barcelona for his stellar design work on this project.

See you at Paris Photo, but in the meantime, enjoy!

Best wishes,

Tim Clark

Editor in chief | Director
1000 Words Photography Magazine

Sarina Cass

All images © Sarina Cass

This lovely work was sent into 1000 Words by a photographer named Sarina Cass of which she writes:

"My Girls is a study of the wonder an eight year old girl has of what it is to become a woman, that magic and construction femininity. My Girls is the study of our bodies in play an action. It is the study of pre-curated ideas of a women's ethos in mythology, fantasy and dream. Finally it is the observation of myself and the ladies in my life when environments are created for them. In order to remain emotional to the work, familiarity is essential - which is why my subjects are subjects who already have a place in my life. I want to offer them these memories. The environments are the places of my days. The subjects captured on film become an equal, if not vital part of their surrounding landscapes. With all luck, the world I aim to capture is successfully documented, and a history is created. With these images, I've worked to create my own archive of time, helping to make the poetic imagination a reality."

Sarina Cass was born in Boston in 1982. She has a B.A. in Cinema and Photography from Ithaca College, and, more recently, completed a M.A. in Image and Communication Goldsmiths College, University of London. Cass has participated in various exhibtions both sides of the Atlantic and was the recipient of the 2005 James B. Pendleton Photo Finishing Grant.

Make a visit to her website for more fantastic images from her eclectic portfolios.