Eggleston Shore

We have just come across this bonus footage from the DVD, Eggleston In The Real World, which takes a brief look at the relationship between the work of Stephen Shore and William Eggleston, possibly two of the most important photographers to tame colour photography back in the early 1970s, alongside William Christenberry, Luigi Ghirri and others. For those of you who, like us here at 1000 Words, enjoy to hear Bill Eggleston in laconic interview mode, this snippet will uncover some unexpected delights.

Tono Stano @ Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York

© Tono Stano

An exciting exhibition is opening very soon at the Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York. Tono Stano's series of haunting and surreal images are due to go on display from 2 February through to 17 March, 2012, marking the Slovakian photographer’s first solo show in the United States and features 20 unique gelatin silver prints from his ongoing series of surreal portraits, White Shadow. 

With White Shadow, Stano seeks to turn reality negative, transporting the viewer to an inverted monochromatic realm. Produced in-camera, his photographs are analogue paper negatives that appear as positive representations through Stano’s meticulous and unique process of painting the white portions of his subjects’ bodies and faces black, and vice versa. When photographed in this fashion, that which is negative appears positive. The resulting images, which are graphically striking and seductively haunting, present a fusion of both the negative and positive. In this way, Stano is interested not only in the physical aspects of this negative/positive transformation, but also in "promoting this conversion as a life philosophy" according to the gallery's pr. 

Since 1984, Stano’s work has been the subject of solo and group exhibitions worldwide. His photographs can be found in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; the Museum Ludwig, Cologne; the National Media Museum, Bradford, England; and the Slovenská narodná galéria, Bratislava, Slovakia, among others. 

Paloma al Aire

All images © Ricardo Cases

We have just received word that there are only a few copies left of Ricardo Cases' critically acclaimed book Paloma al Aire, published by Dewi Lewis.

Ricardo Cases’ third photobook deals with an unusual subject: a unique form of pigeon racing practised in the Spanish regions of Valencia and Murcia. Known as colombiculture, it is a sport with rules and referees.

It consists of releasing one female pigeon and dozens of males. Painted in combinations of primary colours, reminiscent of flags or football kits, these pigeons chase the female to get her attention. None ever manage to get too intimate, and consequently the winner is the one that spends the most time close to her. The winner is not necessarily the most athletic, the toughest or the purest in breed but the most courteous, the one that shows most constancy and has the strongest reproductive instinct. This is the one that is seen by aficionados of the sport as the true embodiment of ‘macho’.

The pigeon handler invests time, money and hope in his young pigeons. He raises them, gives them names, trains them and has faith in them. When competition day arrives he is full of childlike illusion and uncertainty. The price for young pigeons can reach thousands of euros and betting involves large amounts of money. The male pigeon becomes almost a projection of the pigeon-keeper himself, who embodies its sporting, economic and sexual success or failure in the community. Raising a male champion can bring both prestige and profit. Far from the harsh reality of his daily life, the colombaire has a second life where all is possible – he can reach the top. He just needs a champion pigeon.

In Paloma al Aire, Ricardo Cases explores the sport as a symbolic act, a projection and a way of relating to the world. It is an ethnographic documentation as groups of men run through the countryside behind their male pigeons, observing their mating performances, discussing the rules and the decisions. It could almost be a study of the rituals of a remote tribe or of a group of children who, in the process of discovering the world, invent a new game.

Born in Orihuela, Spain, in 1971, Ricardo Cases originally studied journalism at the University of The Basque Country. He has exhibited widely throughout Spain as well as in China, Poland and Peru, and has won several awards. He now lives and works in Madrid and is represented by La Fresh Gallery, Madrid.

We have also included this short video to give you a better picture of the book and the work as a whole.