1000 Words Photography Magazine Blog

Eggleston Shore

2012-01-30T14:52:00.000+01:00

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

2012-01-25T22:29:00.000+01:00

© 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

2012-01-05T18:25:00.003+01:00

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 dealswith an unusual subject: a unique form of pigeon racing practised inthe Spanish regions of Valencia and Murcia. Known as colombiculture,it is a sport with rules and referees.

It consists of releasingone female pigeon and dozens of males. Painted in combinations ofprimary colours, reminiscent of flags or football kits, these pigeonschase the female to get her attention. None ever manage to get toointimate, and consequently the winner is the one that spends the mosttime close to her. The winner is not necessarily the most athletic,the toughest or the purest in breed but the most courteous, the onethat shows most constancy and has the strongest reproductiveinstinct. This is the one that is seen by aficionados of the sport asthe true embodiment of ‘macho’.

The pigeon handler investstime, money and hope in his young pigeons. He raises them, gives themnames, trains them and has faith in them. When competition dayarrives he is full of childlike illusion and uncertainty. The pricefor young pigeons can reach thousands of euros and betting involveslarge amounts of money. The male pigeon becomes almost a projectionof the pigeon-keeper himself, who embodies its sporting, economic andsexual success or failure in the community. Raising a male championcan bring both prestige and profit. Far from the harsh reality of hisdaily life, the colombaire has a second life where all ispossible – he can reach the top. He just needs a championpigeon.

In Paloma al Aire, Ricardo Cases explores the sportas a symbolic act, a projection and a way of relating to the world.It is an ethnographic documentation as groups of men run through thecountryside behind their male pigeons, observing their matingperformances, discussing the rules and the decisions. It could almostbe a study of the rituals of a remote tribe or of a group of childrenwho, in the process of discovering the world, invent a new game.

Bornin Orihuela, Spain, in 1971, Ricardo Cases originally studiedjournalism at the University of The Basque Country. He has exhibitedwidely throughout Spain as well as in China, Poland and Peru, and haswon several awards. He now lives and works in Madrid and isrepresented 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.

Farewell 2011, hello 2012!

2011-12-31T10:05:00.000+01:00

And so another year passes. We hope you have all had a happy, healthy holiday season and here’s to a prosperous2012! Asever, thanks to everyone who has supported and worked with 1000Wordsduring this past year. Here are some of our organisation's highlights:

-the appointment of a board of directors who play an active role in the direction of the organisation. They are Camilla Gore, Nicholas Barker, Simon Baker, Aron Morel, Louise Clements, Tim Clark, Michael Grieve and Norman Clark

-the announcement that our sister-site, the 1000 Words blog, was named as the winner of Arts Media Contacts’ Photography Blog of The Year Award

-two 1000 Words Workshops with Anders Petersen and Erik Kessels that took place in the beautifully evocative medina of Fez, Morocco

-1000 Words editors, Tim Clark and Michael Grieve’s participation in a panel discussion on “galleries” for photography with Linda Berlin and Toni Cederteg, Library Man; and Kristin Bråten, Director, Gallery Riis in association with Objectiv in Oslo, Norway

-curation of a slideshow featuring Anna Linderstram, JH Engström and Viviane Sassen at Łódź International Festival of Photography, Poland

-three issues of 1000 Words Photography Magazine, based around themes of Aporia, Hidden and Thereness, released in February, May and October respectively

-sponsoring The Salon Photo Prize 2011, in which thirty-five early-career photographers were exhibited at Matt Roberts Arts on Vyner Street, East London with one exhibitor, EJ Major, winning the selectors’ prize supported by 1000 Words consisting of £1000 and a subsequent solo exhibition

-Tim Clark, Editor in Chief at 1000 Words, joining the Academy of Nominators for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize and also co-judging FreshFacedandWildEyed2011, the fourth annual competition for recent graduates organised by The Photographers’ Gallery, alongside Edmund Clark, Photographer; Louise Clements, Artistic Director, QUAD and Format International Photography Festival; and Brett Rogers, Director, The Photographers’ Gallery

The Trouble with Art Criticism

2011-12-22T22:00:00.001+01:00

1000 WORDS WORKSHOP WITH ROGER BALLEN IN MOROCCO, MAY 2012

2011-12-20T09:22:00.000+01:00

1000Words is delighted to announce its fourth workshop. Following successes with Antoine d’Agata, Anders Petersen andErik Kessels we are proud to present Roger Ballen as the workshop leader for the next retreat in Fez, Morocco (5-9 May 2012).

"Somebodysaid my pictures are diamonds but they are diamonds with charcoal andcarbon inside. What’s going on in the interior of that world isbreakdown and chaos, but there is affection on the formal side. Youconstantly have to deal with these contradictions. They causeambiguity, which is an important part of my art." Roger Ballen

ROGER BALLEN:

Likemost great artist-photographers Roger Ballen’s work is hard todefine. Drawn from the documentary genre, Ballen has developed anapproach all of his own. Hisphotographs are complex tableaux of surreal and disturbing visionsthat attempt to reflect his own psyche, which he regards as revealing hisexistential journey in life. Focussing on the interactions between people, animals and objects that inhabit rooms - rooms that are typically squalid, their walls covered with scribbled drawings, stains and wire; their floors strewn with bizarre props and artefacts - Ballen stages unsettling scenarios that chafe on our subconscious.

Bornin New York in 1950, Ballen has lived in Johannesburg, South Africasince the 1970’s. His work has been exhibited in many importantinstitutions throughout the world and is housed in numerous museumcollections including Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Museum ofModern Art in New York and the Centre George Pompidou in Paris.Ballen is represented by the Gagosian Gallery, Stills Gallery andGallery Xavier Hufkens S.A. His books have received critical acclaimsuch as Platteland: Images from Rural South Africa (1994), Outland(2001), Shadow Chamber (2005) and his latest series Boarding House(2009).

ABOUTUS:

Theorganisation'sflagship is 1000Words,an online magazine dedicated to contemporary photography in the UKand beyond. It reviews exhibitions and photobooks and publishesinterviews, essays and multimedia. We are committed to showing thework of lesser-known but significant photographers alongside that ofestablished practitioners in the aim of bringing their work to awider audience. Often incredibly diverse in terms of subjects,concepts, styles and techniques whilst always foregrounding the subjectivity of documentary art photography, 1000 Words intends to explore the limits and possibilities of the medium.

Releasedquarterly, the magazine attracts over 140,000 unique visitors frommore than 75 countries every month. In May 2010 the 1000 Words Blogwas ranked at number 3 in The Top 25 UK Arts & Culture Blogs aspart of a survey carried out by Creative Tourist and was also namedas the winner of Arts Media Contacts' Photography Blog of the YearAward, 2010.

Yet1000 Words is much more than just an online magazine. It is the firststep in our concept. 1000 Words also operates a programme ofexhibitions and events including four annual workshops in Fez,Morocco as well as talks, portfolio reviews, prizes and awards.

1000Words is governed by its board of directors who play an active rolein the direction of the organisation. They are: Camilla Gore,Nicholas Barker, Simon Baker, Aron Morel, Louise Clements, Tim Clark,Michael Grieve and Norman Clark. The 1000 Words Workshops areorganised by Tim Clark, founder and editor-in-chief at 1000 Words andMichaelGrieve,1000 Words deputy editor, senior lecturer at Nottingham TrentUniversity and a photographer represented by AgenceVu.

ABOUTTHE WORKSHOP:

The1000 Words Workshop takes place in an authentically restored riadsituated in the medieval medina, at the heart of the beautifullyevocative city of Fez, Morocco. The workshop will be an intenseexperience lasting five days between 5-9 May 2012 and will consist of12 participants. The medina is a vibrant labyrinth that will permeateall the senses. Surrounded by the Atlas Mountains, it offers avisually stunning backdrop for this truly unique workshop.

Weare looking for a diverse range of participants who understand thework of Roger Ballen and feel that their own art will benefit fromhis guidance.

PRACTICALINFORMATION:

Thecost of the workshop will be £1250 for 5 days. Once participantshave been selected they will be expected to pay a non-refundabledeposit of £500 within two weeks. Participants can then pay the restof the fee according to deadlines (see below). Participants areencouraged to arrive the day before the workshop begins for a welcomedinner. The price includes:

-tuitionfrom Roger Ballen (including defining each participant's project;shooting; editing sessions; creating a coherent body of work;creation of a slide show; projection of the images of theparticipants.)

-awelcome and farewell dinner

-luncheveryday and snacks during the afternoon

-24hour help from the 1000 Words team and an assistant/translator withlocal knowledge.

Participantswill be expected to make their own travel arrangements and findaccommodation, which in Fez can range from £150 upwards for theweek. We can advise on finding the accommodation that best suits you.Remember that most of your time will be spent either at the riad orshooting. For photographers using colour film we will provide themeans for processing and a scanner. Photographers shooting digitalwill be expected to bring all necessary equipment. Please note thatfor the purposes and practicalities of a workshop, digital really isadvisable. All participants should also bring a laptop if they haveone. Every effort will be made to accommodate individual technicalneeds.

TESTIMONIALS:

"I have had the most profoundly moving,fascinating, difficult, wonderful week of my life. Thank you 1000Words. Words can not describe. I have been continuing with myproject. It feels different here, of course. And much slowerprogress. But still shooting with the same or similar mindset. Allconnected to what I did in Morocco. Really, really missing everyone.I feel privileged, truly, to have been part of it. Have been in thecountryside with my parents since getting back and finally showed mymum the slideshow, with music that had been spinning around my head.She cried." Laura

"The Erik Kessels workshop in Fez has been afantastic and motivational experience that I will carry with me mywhole life." Andy

"The choice of city (Fez) todevelop such an educational and inspirational workshop is amazing,since the immersion begins as soon as you arrive. You are induced toleave your comfort zone and search for new references andperspectives, and given that the culture and language are so uniquethey also become great ingredients in this creative quest. The wholeinfrastructure offered during the workshop and also the specificvenue where the meetings and tutorial activities took place were allpart of the environment, serving to create a peaceful and harmonicatmosphere that continuously inspired us all during the workshop."Alan

“Antoine D'Agata workshop in Fez wasa mind shaking experience, and for me that was just what I needed!Antoine's repeated question to me was, "but what do you want?"What a simple question it may seem but to truly honestly answer thiswas one of the hardest things. Antoine struggled with me daily to betruthful to the process of shooting and to my work. Trying to do thisas a white woman in a muslim foreign country seemed scary at first.But soon enough this fear pushed me to go farther than I had before.To take more risks and be more bold. In the end, I had allowed myselfto befriend men and women who were at first just strangers onthe street. My once beautiful but safely intimate portraiture becamemore real for me, evoking not only the fear of letting myself leap ina strange place but in the process of doing so, being able to see somuch more in others.

The workshop venue was such a treat and incredibleplace to be able to go to every day. A sanctuary to rest and to editand collect your thoughts. A place to run into your fellow workshoppers and bounce around ideas. The food was more than I hadexpected and in fact pretty much the best food I ate in Morocco in my three weeks travel. Tim and Michael were so on top of the workshop; theywere there managing every detail from accommodations, food,coordinating the class meetings, running film to labs, scanning, andeven just being sweet and kind pals to talk with about your day orhave a beer with and brainstorm about your project.

All inall, this workshop could not have been better and I feel so lucky tohave had such an opportunity. Antoine's phenomenal out of the boxthinking and honesty is one of a kind. 1000 Words' workshops fallinto the 'do not miss this' category!” Katie

HOWTO SUBMIT:

Werequire that you send 10 images as low res jpegs and/or a link toyour website, as well as a short biography and statement about whyyou think it will be relevant for you to work with Roger (approx. 200words total). Submissions are to be sent toworkshops@1000wordsmag.com with the following subject header:SUBMISSION FOR 1000 WORDS WORKSHOP WITH ROGER BALLEN.

01March 2012: Deadline for applications

05March 2012: Successful candidates contacted

12 March 2012: Deposit due (£500)

09 April 2012: Second installment due (£750)

04May 2012: Arrive in Morocco for welcoming dinner

05May 2012: Workshop begins

09May 2012: Workshop ends

Good luck!

frieze issue 143 and frieze d/e issue 3

2011-12-06T14:34:00.001+01:00

We are very happy to announce a new discounted offer on frieze magazine exclusively for 1000 Words readers. Over the past last twenty years, frieze has firmly established itself as the leading print publication in the field of contemporary art and culture. Astute critical analysis, exquisite design and through using informed and dedicated writers (guiding principles which are very close to our heart), frieze still continues to be the magazine of choice for today's brightest and most forward-thinking writers, artists, curators and collectors.

Here, we present a short preview of the current issue of frieze, and frieze d/e their new quarterly bilingual journal, both current issues of which are entirely dedicated to photography!

frieze - issue 143: Still-Life Photography

In the new issue of frieze Elad Lassry discusses his sculptures that "happen to be photographs" with curator Mark Godfrey, articulating the relationship between objects, the importance of the frame and the potential of "nervous pictures."
Plus, Chris Wiley looks at new approaches to photography in the work of a number of US-based artists and David Campany discusses the intertwining of art and commercial photography in the genre of still life. Also featuring: Gilles Deleuze, Luigi Ghirri, Barbara Kasten and Kathrin Sonntag, as well as Lynne Tillman on a new book on the writing of Diane Arbus that prompts a deeper understanding of her work. Alfredo Jaar answers the questionnaire: "I distrust images".

With 40 reviews from 26 cities including: 'Untitled (12th Istanbul Biennial)'; 'September 11', MoMA PS1, New York; 2011 Folkestone Triennial; 11th Biennale de Lyon and Yokohama Triennale 2011. As well as exhibitions from: Athens, Beirut, Berlin, Brescia, Brussels, Cologne, Dublin, Dundee, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Munich, Moscow, North Adams, Osaka, Paris, Portland, Porto, Stockholm, Vienna and Zurich.

frieze d/e - issue 3: The Ends of Photography

How do photographs circulate and what happens to them over time? The winter issue of frieze d/e looks at how artists use photographs both as isolated objects and as instant images.

Editor Jennifer Allen considers the status of photography after the end of film. Plus, Hans-Peter Feldmann contributes an exclusive artist project. Also featuring: Marieta Chirulescu, Haris Epaminonda, Holger Hiller, Dorothy Iannone, Albert Oehlen, Rudolf Schwarzkogler, Hito Steyerl and Christina Zück. With 20 reviews from 16 cities including: Aargau, Berlin, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Innsbruck, Kaufbeuren, Lausanne, Leipzig, New York, Stuttgart, Vienna and Zurich.

Receive frieze and frieze d/e through your door and save 25% on newsstand prices.

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Ochi Reyes

2011-11-28T12:25:00.000+01:00

All images © Ochi Reyes

Last Saturday, I met up with my fellow judges and the participating photographers from this year’s Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed at The Photographers’ Gallery offices for the follow-up portfolio reviews and slideshow. Now in its fourth year, the competition celebrates the breadth and dynamism of photographic work produced by recent graduates from across the UK. Following an online application process, the 20 selected finalists were exhibited in an online gallery. To see the list of those photographers who were included, and their respective works click here. This year’s judges were Edmund Clark, photographer; Louise Clements, Artistic Director, QUAD and Format International Photography Festival; and Brett Rogers, Director, The Photographers’ Gallery and yours truly, (Editor-in Chief, 1000 Words Photography Magazine).

At some point during one session with a particular finalist, Ochi Reyes, a voice in my head started to channel the words "She’s got something special" for these indelible self-portraits hit me hard. Their dry humour and deadpan compositions and style remind us of better-known female practitioners from the past such as Jo Spence but also speak in the more contemporary photographic language of say Marina Abromovic or even Catherine Opie. Poignant and political, Reyes’ work examines the influence of the other on the self. She is interested in how our identities are culturally constructed, and her photography explores how conceptions of gender distinctions, love and desire are imposed on our bodies from outside. More often than not, the characters in her photographs are actors, and she questions how we become actors in our own bodies, playing out the roles already scripted and prepared for us. Her photographs question the nature of representation, often exploring the mise-en-abîme effect of using one sort of representation inside another. In her artist statement for the project Revelations, shown above, she writes:

"My own body and thoughts are the basis for a critical examination of society’s expectations to do with identity, surrounding issues of age, gender and family. All of the thoughts scratched onto my skin are related to not fitting in and the feeling of anxiety arising from this displacement. The surface of my body portrays how these thoughts, which come from outside, find their way not only into my psyche but also into my own body image.

My skin condition, dermographism, means that the surface of my body can be inscribed as if it were a slate. In the same way that early morning thoughts linger for a short while before they disappear, leaving a slight trace that remains throughout the day, my skin slowly goes back to normal over the course of the day and is ready the following morning to be re-inscribed. It is not only this malleability of the skin, that interests me, but also the idea that skin absorbs information from the outside world; it is the interface between the self and others, both separating us and becoming the physical link between our bodies."

Ochi Reyes was born in Madrid in 1974. After studying at Murcia School of Art she moved to London and completed a degree at Westminster University in Photographic Arts in 2010. In 2005 her project Photographs of an Amorous Discourse was shortlisted in the category Descubrimientos in PhotoEspaña. She is currently studying for an MA in Photographic Studies at Westminster University. Definitely one to watch.

Roe Ethridge

2011-11-18T14:40:00.000+01:00

Whilst researching for our latest issue "Thereness", we came across a selection of videos on featured artist Roe Ethridge. In this particular interview with MoMa's Curator of Photography, Roxana Marcoci, Ethridge discusses his experience of working in commercial photography and its influence on his personal projects, and in the process gives us an interesting insight into his unique approach to making fugues that are achieved through what he refers to as "amnesic states of wondering".

Here is an extract from Maggie Gray’s article in issue 12 of 1000 Words:

"Roe Ethridge studied at Atlanta College of Art, after which he found work as a catalogue photographer to make ends meet, so the theme of day to day luxury and branding is one he knows well. On top of influencing his subject choices, Ethridge’s commercial experience informs the eclecticism of his style. Working to other people’s briefs throws up a host of visual and thematic scenarios. As Ethridge put it in this interview, he can photograph “a golden retriever one day and an underwear model the next.” He brings the same incongruous variety to Le Luxe: a turn of the page leads the viewer straight from bikini-clad women to a thoughtful shot of an empty maple syrup jar. Unlikely reverberations and echoes emerge throughout the book. One photograph depicts men breaking up stone slabs for the Goldman Sachs construction. In three others, similar slabs feature as impromptu ashtrays. Are they from the same source? Does it matter if they’re not, if the associations still resound? Other themes, such as Ethridge’s fascination with textural surfaces, are woven more intrinsically into the whole. His free and associative combinations deliberately reflect the heterogeneity of a photographic career – the juggling of projects, the frequent unsolicited finds and the constant casting about for inspiration. Nothing in his work happens in isolation as he draws, untethered, from his entire visual practice.

That Ethridge is prepared to include images from all areas of his work, and beyond (he regularly borrows from public sources such as newspapers and online media) is a powerful thing in itself. Some of the pictures he employs are pixelated and blurred, brazenly failing the standard tests of ‘good’ photography. But contemporary life sees a constant bombardment of images, good and poor, particularly online where they are circulated, replicated, cropped and corrupted with ease. Ethridge is one of several artists who have taken the plunge, raiding this plethora of modern photographs to create work that – to quote video artist Hito Steyerl – offers a “defence of the poor image” instead of bemoaning it. This practice of grabbing, scanning and pasting from other sources raises thorny questions of ownership and originality which Ethridge confronts with humorous candour."

Also worth flagging up is this short interview and slideshow of Ethridge's work created by The Photographers' Gallery as part of the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2011 and, finally, here is an installation video of Ethridge's exhibition Le Luxe II BHGG at the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills that took place June 9 - July 21, 2011.

Tallinn Photomonth 2011

2011-11-06T18:25:00.011+01:00

Marge Monko, I Don’t Eat Flowers, 2011, colour poster, 42 x 59cm

In 1989 a united group of people formed a human chain that stretched six hundred kilometres across the three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In a move to denigrate the 50th anniversary of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, three pro-independence groups from the three nations organised The Baltic Chain. Witnessed globally, the scene was a powerful act of social solidarity and mobility, preceding Lithuania’s declaration of independence by just six months. Estonia and Latvia were to follow. On the evening of 19 August 1991, an attempted coup (the "August Putsch") occurred in Moscow in an endeavour to take power from Gorbachev. This contributed markedly to the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union. The coup, supported by the Soviet commander of the Baltics, set in motion the declaring of independence of the Baltic States. On 20 August, as Soviet tanks approached Tallinn, the Estonian-Soviet parliament met in an emergency session to decide the fate of Estonia in or out of the hands of oppressive Soviet power. There occurred the conclusion to the “singing revolution”, as it has been named. A revolution of humility: a revolution of no deaths. The harmony and control shown in this way of overturning power is representative of an attitude that can be seen in the considered and collected nature of Estonian culture today.

KUMU, the Estonian modern art museum, designed by Finnish architect Pekka Vapaavuori Tallinn, Estonia: the 2011 European Capital of Culture.

Such an occasion for a nation with relatively recent independence is an opportunity to demonstrate the individuality and progressivity of its culture in the twenty-first century. With the same consideration and acuity as Heinz Valk’s “singing revolution” of 1991, Estonia has created a vibrant art scene in its capital that does not accede to all of the demands of the art market, instead preferring a discourse that remains on the most-part commercial gallery free, and state-supported in its activities. When few are selling and even less are buying, the discourse of art-making as an incongruous set of commercialised practices is somewhat relieved, resulting in a group of practitioners that seem to be more genuinely interested in the pursuit of art as political and aesthetic process (in-as-much one can separate commerce from these two vast areas of enquiry). For an example, see the Estonian ‘capitalist anti-capitalist’ collective Visible Solutions. It’s not that the Estonian art scene doesn’t want or anticipate a market for its artworks; it just hasn’t developed yet and there is seldom a commercial gallery showing contemporary art to be found in the city. One of the few current examples is Temnikova & Kasela Gallery, who will soon present a seminar on collecting contemporary photography.

Tallinn Photomonth took place this October, and is comprised of a number of exhibitions featuring international and local photographers, or artists, working within the field of lens-based media. The message is clear: Tallinn Photomonth seeks to address current photographic discourse internationally, while showing something original to the Baltic, and indeed Estonian photography. The festival is named Natural Magic, and is filed under the auspices of "exhibitions and events that seek to thematize the possibilities, limits and spatial relations of lens-based art".i For such a huge thematic undertaking, the series of exhibitions around the city contain the usual didacticism one would assume, as well as some genuinely interesting and thought-provoking excursions into the world of Estonian and international photography. The exhibition has been incredibly well organised by Marge Monko, who is also a practicing photographer and a lecturer in the photography department at EKA, the Estonian Art Academy.

BEYOND: Solipsism and Curating

KUMU, the Estonian Art Museum, plays host to the largest and most capacious of the festival’s exhibitions. The building is a shard-like structure in the neo-modern style, jutting out of a limestone cliff. Its inside is curved as one makes one’s way up ramps and steps from level to level. It is a wonderful space for viewing art and one that is generally used to great success, particularly the exhibition The Soviet Woman in Estonian Art, which I saw on my first visit to Tallinn and which opened in April 2010, curated by Katrin Kivimaa and Kädi Talvoja. On my visit this time, I am also intrigued to see an exhibition of work by Tadeusz Kantor, polish avant-gardist and theatre reformer.

For Photomonth, the headline exhibition BEYOND (Look at my face: my name is Might Have Been; I am also called No More, Too Late, Farewell), curated by Adam Budak, features a number of great and interesting works of photography-cum-sculpture-cum-mixed-media, coherently hung together under an unfortunately didactic and ostentatious curatorial proposition. This proposition could be read as really having little to do with the references and meanings behind the works themselves: A large collection of works, with a huge set of individual references and associations, are grouped together under a theoretical pennant, and flown confidently as an exhibition designed to engage the public in an accessible and clear manner (presumably?). The problem is not that theory shouldn’t lead the concept of a publicly-funded exhibition, nor that intellectualising contemporary art is a problem at all, it is just that within the discourse of contemporary curating, there seems to be a decision being consciously or unconsciously made that any theory can be paired with any set of artworks, regardless of their ambiguous connections:

"BEYOND (Look at my face: my name is Might Have Been; I am also called No More, Too Late, Farewell) is foregrounding a self-reflexive nature of the photographic medium and its current condition as well as the photography’s “conditionality” and “exigency” (what Agamben calls “a demand for redemption”, or what he perceives as an agent of the “real that is always in the process of being lost, in order to render it possible once again”). What makes photography “possible”; what makes it “work”, being “useful” and acting in a “relational” way; how photography continuously contributes to the architecture of the image and goes BEYOND (it); what does make photography “speak”; what is “gestural” about it; how to go BEYOND the medium or move AROUND while simultaneously remaining within the photographic discourse?"

The poetic title par excellence opens up the “multiple perspective” approach of much curating; a form of practice that attempts to be flexible in terms of meaning, but in fact remains ambivalent for fear of being pinned-down in response to criticism. This position allows a number of rhetorical safeguards that distract from the almost total lack of cultural engagement paramount in this publicly funded, institutionally supported show. It is the exhibition that does everything, means anything and says absolutely nothing (which seems to be a regular trait of this particular curator). It is the contribution to a discourse where an exhibition must support itself with heavyweight theory - a philosopher’s oeuvre that is being reconsidered in light of some new advancement in contemporary art. It must purport to make the grandest and most profound of statements, asking the viewer to reconsider the meaning of not just a single subject, but the whole discourse of photography itself; its history as an art from; its ‘self-reflexivity’; its ‘conditionality’ and its ‘exigency’. Exhibitions like this take theory out of context and place it in a vacuum-like space somewhere between the financial rhetoric of the art-market and the bemusement of practicing artists and theorists who must attempt to engage with, criticise, or simply “discuss” the myriad of disconnected ideas often put upon the table of exhibition-making. See here and here for other prime examples, and here and here for more contemporary elaborations.

Agamben is not known as a theorist of photography, and his short essay Judgement Day seems to fall into the same Barthesian trap that James Elkins has so well criticised Barthes himself for in his text against Camera Lucida – What Photography Is (2011). The punctum, "…so personal, so close to history and so close to solipsism." ii Agamben reads like that, his closing remarks in Judgement Day that put affect at the centre of viewing all photographic images; almost to say all we have is this raw and unparalleled emotion and that all photographs are necessarily imbued with such conditions, such exigency. Agamben’s photography is not a photography of aesthetics (he admits this, preferring rather to see it as a ‘demand for redemption’), but a photography of judgement: the Brazilian girl in the portrait he speaks of in Judgement Day is judging him, as if her frozen timelessness could say something more profound than ‘Look at the objects that surround me. I am here, at this time, not in your time.’ Perhaps photographs have the ability to judge us only when they exist in multiplicity? Perhaps a single image is lost without other points of connection in the form of other images? That is one of the reasons why bodies of photographic work commonly exist in series: the photographer himself feeling the need to present serial images of a space, a subject, or a time, in order to make sense of it. Even Agamben speaks of more than one image, a book of images in fact:

"Photography demands that we remember all this, and photographs testify to all those lost names, like a Book of Life that the new angel of the apocalypse - the angel of photography - holds in his hands at the end of all days, that is, every day." iii

Sometimes photographs demand nothing whatsoever. They can exist entirely as images born of the often-pointless relationship between technology and human habit. Is it not the case that photography also shows a non-humanist side, one that downplays human agency?

"Camera Lucida hides photography’s non-humanist, emotionless side. Photography is not only about light and loss and the passing of time. It is about something harder… not only a blurred glimpse of our own deaths, a sense of memory as photographic grain, a dim look at the passage of time, or a poignant prick of mortality, but something about the world’s own deadness, its inert resistance to whatever it is we may hope or want". iv

Sometimes photographs do not contain the events we ascribe to them, or the profundity we label them with; they can also be empty and punctum-less. Such images portray the act of doing simply because one has the ability to do; building simply because one has the ability to build. And as the US housing market has recently shown us - so interestingly and subversively revealed by Edgar Martins’ Ruins of the Second Gilded Age - sometimes there is no one to use or occupy that which has been constructed. Your average person with an iPhone: click, click, and click goes the digital shutter as yet another pseudo-analogue photograph gets sent into the flickering ether. What of this huge archive of images? What are we to do with it? The advent of the “online exhibition”: curating the immaterial, a shifting, morphing subject…

Agamben cites Benjamin, but Agamben’s angel of photography doesn’t seem to view the past as a continuous catastrophe, more an exigence for the punctum itself; that spontaneous, habitual Barthesian nostalgia. Agamben’s angel of photography would not be forced by a storm into the future, but would keep photography in some crumbling idea of its own past (the punctum, a mirror; the narcissism of meaningless humanity). The angel of photography holds in her hands the whole of Flickr and Facebook; an incredible weight to bear whilst caught in a storm, moving towards the future. The images she holds do not contain a punctum, nor do they put affect at the centre of their existence, they are simply historical moments and coincidences:

"The notion of the ‘true’ image has been blasted apart – to use Benjamin’s words – by the dynamite of the split second. No snapshot is an absolute resemblance – Rodchenko uses the example of Lenin to make his case – there are only moments and coincidences. No one photograph summarizes the essence of Lenin, for there is no essence, there is no synthesis, only a shifting subject who moves through time, modifying history, being modified." v

Like Elkins’ statement on Barthes’ closeness to solipsism, so too we see the solipsism of the contemporary curator; one who looks for meaning in exhibition making, but instead ends up back with the conclusion that only he can be proved to exist; that exhibitions must show the existence of the curator overtly. Long has a time passed when the curator lurked in the background of the museum; now he is an art-world celebrity; his name appears in matt-grey vinyl lettering across the wall of the white cube at the same scale of that of the artist. Like the angel of history, a storm pushes the relational, global, philosopher-curator (of which Nicolas Bourriad is the epitome) into the future while art history crumbles behind him in total despair.

BEYOND Mini-symposium

Daniele Monticelli delivers the opening lecture The Event of Language: Life In (and After) the Society of the Spectacle according to Giorgio Agamben. He succeeds at presenting an accessible and intelligent account of Agamben’s thesis adopted by the exhibition’s curator, and in doing so proves it bears little relevance to the works of art featured in the show, other than in the most profoundly general manner.

Liz Wells brings some coherence to the situation by delivering a highly interesting paper on shifting notions of the sublime, which focuses more on paintings of the polar landscape and Caspar David Friedrich than on the exhibitions concept.

The mini-symposium concludes with a group discussion with several of the artists, in which the curator explicitly refuses to answer questions about the exhibition, preferring to divert attention to the practitioners who all look genuinely perplexed by what is expected of them, with the exception of Alexandre Singh who made some lucid comments that both rightly contradicted and surpassed the logic of the exhibition’s concept. I must also use this opportunity to point to the interesting work of Dénes Farkas, the Hungarian artist who has, for a long time, been contributing to a burgeoning contemporary photography scene in Tallinn.

Moments of Reprieve at Tallinn Art Hall

This exhibition, co-curated by Louisa Adam and David Birkin, and held at the Tallinn Art Hall, contributes to an argument about the crisis of photojournalism, which could find expression, again, in Walter Benjamin’s essay The Author as Producer. Here, Benjamin rightly criticises the tendency photojournalism has to objectify suffering for bourgeois consumption, creating images that allow for too comfortable a contemplation of their content. The critique Benjamin wrote of Albert Renger-Patzsch’s publication The World is Beautiful (1928), contributed towards his wider criticism of the “new objectivity” movement in Weimar Germany at this time. The relationship between aesthetics and politics, according to David Levi-Strauss, reached boiling point in the 1980’s and 1990’s, when several writers took up their discontents with photojournalistic practice and its “aestheticisation of suffering”, including Martha Rosler, John Tagg, Abigail Solomon-Godeau and Allan Sekula (one could add several others to this list).

Today, there are a number of practitioners that continue to criticise mainstream photojournalism, including David Birkin and Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin - who all feature in this exhibition - along with Indre Serpytyte, Idris Kahn, Ori Gersht and Taryn Simon, who, in a variety of ways contribute to this important discourse, where photography exists as social critique and as political engagement, which is one very good definition of art and one that perhaps Benjamin would agree with.

"Moments of Reprieve brings together a group of artists whose work responds conceptually to the challenge of articulating loss in photography, whether as personal experience or political critique. Through a series of staged and stolen moments, the photographs in the show expand on the idea that the medium and its modes of production may point to something beyond a literal visual depiction – for instance, by highlighting how images can communicate more through what they conceal than the subjects they portray. The exhibition takes its title from the 1978 book by Primo Levi, recalling the small and often unspoken gestures encountered during his imprisonment that restored a sense of humanity in otherwise inhumane circumstances." vi

The idea of loss (loss of life; loss of information; loss of control) - one of the key points of consideration in any individual or society’s experience of war - is a valid and understandable concept for an exhibition. Where as BEYOND sought to obfuscate cultural engagement and demand the impossible of itself, the exhibition Moments of Reprieve succeeds in contributing coherently to Tallinn Photomonth by, ironically, disentangling a set of works that hold obfuscation (partial or complete abstraction) at the centre of their existence. The former exhibition takes a body of artworks and seeks to obscure them in verboseness, while the latter exhibition takes a body of obscure and often abstract works - with a stringent political message - and gives them relevance and a platform for accessible cultural engagement.

"I spoke of the operation of a certain type of fashionable photography, which makes misery into a consumer good. When I turn to the ‘new objectivity’ as a literary movement, I must go a step further and say that it has made the struggle against misery into a consumer good." vii

If much mainstream photojournalism, even to this day, represents part of the ideology of “new objectivity”, then it is exhibitions like this one that seek to question it. As Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin have already expressed their objection at the way in which photojournalism comes to be seen and what it means, so too does this exhibition contribute to a discourse of photographic practice and exhibition-making that seeks to expose and criticise some of the problems inherent to contemporary photography and its politics of obfuscation (as Brecht terms photography's obscuring ability in 1931, in the following quote). The role of the mainstream photojournalist has been replaced by the vernacular or everyday image. Technology has developed sufficiently to allow for a situation where photojournalism is rendered redundant in its traditional “new objective” function by the very apparatus (camera technology) that allowed it in the first place. Now the role of the amateur photographer or video maker, which the BBC and other news corporations will describe as “unverified footage”, has taken precedence over Brecht’s model of the bourgeois photographer:

"The tremendous development of photojournalism has contributed practically nothing to the revelation of the truth about conditions in this world. On the contrary photography, in the hands of the bourgeoisie, has become a terrible weapon against the truth. The vast amount of pictured material that is being disgorged daily by the press and that seems to have the character of truth serves in reality only to obscure the facts. The camera is just as capable of lying as the typewriter." viii

This ties into something incredibly pertinent Joel Snyder said in the transcription of The Art Seminar, published in James Elkins’ Photography Theory. The following quote perfectly highlights the erroneous nature of much photojournalism in its quest for accurate social depiction, or verifiable, lucid truth. Perhaps then, what Joel Snyder says here describes exactly where the exhibition Moments of Reprieve might locate itself within the context of exhibition making; and perhaps where BEYOND fails in its perverse solipsism:

"This is the first kind of problem you run into with the index. If you try to go from what you see in the photograph to what was actually in the world at the moment of exposure, you eventually screw up the way we talk about photographs. What we see in photographs is not, either necessarily or even generally, what we would have seen in front of the camera when the picture was taken." ix

The first issue here is representation, in the literal sense of the word: what exists in the world at the time of a photograph is not what is recorded. Photographs can only be imbued with a minority of any given quantity of present information. Therefore the index of a photograph is only ever a small, undemocratic quantity of the index of the event it attempts to capture. I don’t agree that this ‘screws up’ the way we talk about photography; I think it concretises it. Photographs are, on the most part, lies - be them hurtful or nostalgic lies - one who sees the punctum in an image; the narcissism of meaningless humanity - or photographs as empty depictions, such as Elkins’ Dim look at the passage of time, what one is viewing is technology’s ability to lie when taken at face value; when used as intended. Art that depends upon technology in a mechanical or digital sense is best produced, in my opinion, when it criticises the very conditions that make it possible; a kind of inversion of its own logic. That is what is interesting about David Birkin’s Embedded series, and additionally - to give a different example outside of this exhibition - a number of Cory Arcangel’s videos, including this one.

Other Highlights

Sigrid Veer, Nude with Parents. , 2009, 35mm slide installation

Another exhibition, Generation of the Place: Image, Memory and Fiction in the Baltics, curated by Vytautas Michelkevicius, seeks to research photography as a catalyst for discussions and definitions of national identity between the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

"The exhibition is a part of the project Re:Searching the Baltics, aimed at reviewing photography used by Baltic artists born in the 1970–80s. Grown up in the shift of two eras, this generation still has vivid memories from the early Soviet childhood, mixed with the experience from the teen years in rapidly changing Post-Soviet environment. The experience of this local fin de siècle gave the generation a specific commonness, clearly separating them from earlier and later, entirely Post-Soviet, generations..."

Earlier in the month a solo exhibition by the Ukrainian Boris Mikhailov filled the ground floor space of the Tallinn Art Hall. The show featured two series of work: The Wedding (2005-6), which has recently been published by Mörel Books and I am Not I (1993-2002).

Daniel Campbell Blight is a writer, curator and academic based in London.

Hands in the fire with Erik Kessels

2011-11-06T18:02:00.008+01:00

© Michael Grieve / 1000 Words

During the month of September 1000 Words held its third workshop in the medina of Fez, Morocco. This time we invited energetic Dutch man, Erik Kessels, curator, publisher and top banana at KesselsKrammer creative agency, to conduct an interesting and unique workshop that surprised and challenged the participants. Erik is one of those special people who injects a lateral perspective into the minds of those willing to take up a conceptual yet free thinking disposition. And as a passionate collector of anonymous photographs Erik always found the time to hunt in the medina for those vernacular gems hiding in the most unlikely places and lost on the pages of dusty albums.

1000 Words (Michael Grieve and Tim Clark) would like to thank all the participants for a productive workshop and for making the workshop a pleasant and relaxed environment. The participants were:

Alan Nielsen (Brazil)
Natasha Caruana (UK)
Alessandra Ferragina (Italy)
Hyseung Jeon (South Korea)
Hil Van Der Waal (The Netherlands)
Andy Nelson (UK)

We, of course, would like to thank Erik Kessels for his teaching skills and powers of motivation and our local assistant, Omar Chennafi, and Stephen DiRenza for allowing us to use his beautiful riad for the week.

1000 Words is organising four more workshops in Fez for 2012 with some of the finest photographers and artists the world has to offer including Roger Ballen (others still to be confirmed), and will be making a call for submissions very soon.

© Michael Grieve / 1000 Words

1000 Words Photography Magazine #12

2011-10-13T22:22:00.004+02:00

I am delighted to inform you that issue 12 of 1000 Words "Thereness" is now available to view online at www.1000wordsmag.com

Featuring portfolios from Léonie Hampton, Chris Shaw, Maja Forsslund, Rinko Kawauchi, Ordinary Light Photography and Roe Ethridge alongside in-depth interviews, essays and reviews by Louise Clements, Simon Baker, Lucy Davies, Natasha Christia, Brad Feuerhelm and Margaret Gray, 1000 Words attempts to show a kind of photography that draws directly and honestly from life; work that does not fit neatly into categories yet which can be infinitely more rigorous and fresher than any attempts at visual gimmickry made by the latest tricks of the trade.

In line with this, we also cover new titles from Andy Sewell, C Photo and Enrique Metinides in the dedicated books section courtesy of texts from Michael Grieve, Oliver Whitehead and Daniel Campbell Blight.

"[...]'Thereness' is a sense of the subject's reality, a heightened sense of its physicality, etched sharply into the image. It is a sense that we are looking at the world directly, without mediation. Or rather, that something other than a mere photographer is mediating. [...] Such a feeling, such alertness, when present in the photograph, can of course conceal the greatest photographic art. 'Thereness' is seen at the opposite ends of the photographic spectra, in the humblest holiday enprint as much as the most serious art photograph, in the snapshot-inspired, dynamic small camera candid as much as the calm, meditative, large camera view. Those photographs which conjure up a compelling desire to touch the subject, to walk into the picture, to know the photographed person, display 'thereness'. Those photographs which tend towards impressionism, expressionism or abstraction can be in danger of losing it, or never finding it [...]. 'Thereness', in short, is a quality that has everything to do with reality and little to do with art, yet is, I would reiterate, the essence of the art of photography".

From The Art That Hides Itself - Notes on Photography's Quiet Genius by Gerry Badger

Thanks to all the photographers, writers and editorial and production team as well as of course our advertisers for contributing to yet another fantastic issue of 1000 Words.

Enjoy dear readers, and please take note of our new studio address: 1000 Words Photography Ltd, 29 The Arthaus, 205 Richmond Road, London, E8 3FF

Hans Aarsman

2011-09-16T14:15:00.006+02:00

Greetings from Fez, where our workshop with Erik Kessels is in its final stages. Tomorrow the participants will present their projects but there will be a future blog post for this. For now, I just wanted to share this wonderful talk at TEDxAmsterdam which Erik has put me onto. Its by Hans Aarsman and is titled 'From pretty to ugly and back again; mysterious ways of beauty in photography'.

Surprising, insightful and at times hilarious, Aarsman shows different concepts of beauty in photography, and suggests that the only real photographic beauty is to be found in pictures that were made without such a goal in mind....Food for thought as we break for lunch.

Michael Ackerman

2011-09-07T17:06:00.005+02:00

We stumbled across this haunting, yet rather dramatised multimedia piece on Michael Ackerman's Half Life, the book of which is featured in issue #11 of 1000 Words. In his review, Francis Hodgson took exception to the project stating, among other things, that although the book is often very moving it is not coherent.

"The manner is dark and often blurred, with a heavy grain and a permanent air of history weighing directly upon each photograph just as the light does. There is (or there purports to be) a great deal behind these photographs which is not actually in them. A text by Denis Kambouchner suggests that the pictures are haunted. But Ackerman’s history is not broad, although it runs deep. He has a neat trick of confining himself to that part of our cultural baggage which is shared enough that no further explanations are needed. Dark woods are a simple example. Dark woods are the places of fairy stories, but also of massacres. Naked men in the shower have overtones of concentration camps. Even if you look at photographs of the traditional showers used by the racers after the famously brutal Paris-Roubaix cycle race, they often have those overtones. Ackerman has been living and working for some years in Poland, where he can’t resist the trains: train journeys through Poland are also a branded historical reference. A composite is building up. Ackerman’s subject is often the second world war, and the legacy it has left even as the memory of it fades. And when he’s not looking directly there? Tense pictures of men with hard faces, or naked women, or people on beds. Mini-adventures up stairs or through woods. Smoking and drinking. Again, a composite is building up. This is the mind of a teenage boy. Not the football and Xbox sort of boy, but the more soulful Rimbaud-reading boy interested in death and melancholy."

The rest of the review is available here.

Irina Rozovsky

2011-09-05T16:30:00.011+02:00

All images ©Irina Rozovsky

While looking through our submissions inbox we found this delicate and understated project by Irina Rozovsky. One to Nothing is a gentle body of work about Israel that abandons any preconceptions or prejudices we may hold towards this typically “troubled” place or depiction thereof.

“One to Nothing depicts an Israel we do not see on the news. These images go beyond politics: they do not defend a side or critique the conflict. Here, Israel is seen in an unexpected light, as a mythological backdrop to the age long struggle between man and the dusty, sun bleached landscape of his origin. The score to this existential battle is locked at 1– 0, with no finish line in sight. A loose, subtle, and open-ended narrative One to Nothing describes historic tension with striking and unusual observations.”

Irina Rozovsky, was born in Moscow in 1981 and grew up outside of Boston. She received a BA in French and Spanish Literature from Tufts University and an MFA in Photography from Massachusetts College of Art.

She was a recipient of the Magnum Expression Finalist Award, juried by Martin Parr in 2010 and her work has been shown in national and international exhibitions. Among these are; 31 Women in Art Photography, curated by Charlotte Cotton and Jon Feinstein, Photo España, Madrid, Les Rencontres d'Arles, and, most recently, she was the subject of a solo exhibition at the New England School of Photography, Boston.

Rozovsky currently lives in Brooklyn, New York and One to Nothing is her first monograph, recently published by Kehrer Verlag.

Alejandro Chaskielberg @Michael Hoppen Gallery, London

2011-08-31T11:01:00.002+02:00

Image ©Alejandro Chaskielberg

The exhibition season is clearly back in full swing here in London. Opening next week at Michael Hoppen Contemporary is High Tide, an exhibition of new work by the fantastic Argentinean photographer Alejandro Chaskielberg, who I tipped as my name to watch ahead of the Brighton Photo Biennial 2010 for a piece in the Telegraph last year. Chaskielberg was also the overall winner of this year’s Sony World Photo Awards.

High Tide is a series of colour photographs taken in the remote Paraná River Delta, Argentina, where Chaskielberg lived and worked from 2007-10. His subjects are local residents of this isolated community who rely on the river for food, work, travel and communication with the wider world. His portraits are ethereal, dreamlike images that convey the everyday life of those photographed - lumberjacks shifting heavy timber, an aged hunter sitting by an open fire in contemplation, lovers walking under the stars.

Working at night under a full moon, Chaskielberg documents the relationship between the inhabitants of the delta and their environment in startling technicolour using techniques that push the boundaries of the medium to transform our natural perception of light, colour and space, whilst still referencing the aesthetic of nineteenth century photographic portraiture.

Chaskielberg requires his subjects to pose still for up to ten minutes in order to distinguish the image from the thick darkness, relying on the natural light from the moon and supplementing this with a variety of artificial lighting tools - torches, flashes and lanterns, creating imaginary scenarios with real people and situations.

"My intention is to use photography to occupy a border between document and fiction and imbue the islanders with a strange timelessness. Photography can transform reality and produce a magical view of people and of life."

This will be the first solo exhibition by the artist in Europe and as such is a great opportunity to view and acquire a group of prints from an artist who is quickly crystalising his reputation as one of the bright new talents of his generation. Michael Hoppen Contemporary will be celebrating his success at the Sony World Photo Awards as well as the release of La Creciente, a monograph of Chaskielberg’s photographs newly published by Nazraeli Press.

The exhibition runs from Thursday 8 September to Saturday 1 October. Michael Hoppen Gallery, 3 Jubilee Place, London, SW3 3TD.

Ej Major @Matt Roberts Arts, London

2011-08-30T19:59:00.013+02:00

All images ©Ej Major

A buzz surrounds Ej Major's one man show that opens on Thursday at Matt Roberts Arts, winner of the 2011 Salon Photo Prize (sponsored by 1000 Words). Of the work on display, most notable is her clever faux biography entitled Marie Claire RIP.

"These series of 12 images," Major explains, "is based on an article published in Marie Claire in 2002, which featured police mug-shots of a [heroin addict] taken over a fourteen year period. The article revealed that not long after the last picture was taken the woman was found dead."

She adds, "Marie Claire RIP is a re-staging of these images using myself as subject. I intended the piece to be non-specific in terms of the nature of the character’s demise. There is no direct reference to heroin addiction. The series may be read in terms of each person’s story or experience who views it. While the piece challenges the veracity of the photographic portrait it also finds an authenticity in a notion of self-portraiture that involves acting. It is me and it isn’t her and yet it is her and it isn’t me at the same time."

This exhibition runs from Friday 2 September to Saturday 24 September. Matt Roberts Arts, Unit 1, 25 Vyner Street, London, E2 9DG.

David Maisel: History's Shadow

2011-08-24T14:46:00.024+02:00

All images ©David Maisel

As we gear up for the launch of our next issue, 1000 Words new Editorial assistant, Sean Stoker, takes some time out from prepping to peruse this recently released title from Nazraeli Press and is impressed with the spectral qualities of the photographs within.

While working at the Getty Research Institute in LA, David Maisel was confronted by a 12 foot high x-ray pinned to a window, rear-lit from outside. The subject of that x-ray, a small, drab painting, was left in the wake of its copy, overshadowed by the blown up x-ray. Inspired by this discovery, Maisel trawled through the archives of x-rays of old museum artefacts, uncovering these ghostly emanations of light, and then scanning, re-photographing and digitally manipulating the images earmarked for the project.

Those images now grace the pages of Maisel's latest book History's Shadow which, like many of his previous projects, illustrates a keen interest in the manner in which photography can combine art, science and a sense of humanity. While the work is also about the processes of memory, excavation and transformation it is really photography itself that is arguably the main focus of this project, and Maisel uses the x-ray to examine its inherent flaws with issues of space, depth and scale. Some images seem to emerge from the page itself, while others float in their black surroundings, yet they transcend mere images of objects, and become sculptural in their own right; a truly convincing illusion of three-dimensional space rendered on the two-dimensional page. In Maisel's words,"they becomes a vast nether world, and in others becomes the velvety ground of some kind of brain scan/portrait." Some are more successful at this than others, yet together, the images manage to reference the history of photographic practice – recalling the mysterious long exposures and amateur scientific studies of the medium's early years – and the history of art (x-rays have historically been used by art conservators for structural examination of art and artefacts), which is not just limited to icons of Western art.

The x-ray empowers us with an all-seeing, piercing gaze that distorts our perception while it transports us to a ghostly, ephemeral world in which everything appears too delicate to touch, that we may extinguish these glowing forms. Here, inside becomes out, and out becomes in. We are confronted with everything simultaneously, overwhelmed by fragile veils of light and plunging depths of darkness as space and time collapse and compound. It is within these objects that we see traces of the artist's hand, suggestions of a human presence and structural details that invoke a curiosity within us, not only to understand the vestiges and indicators of past societies, but to also comprehend ourselves and our future.

What I most enjoy about this book is also what I most enjoy in photography as a whole; despite its apparent complexity and tendency to over-theorise itself, it is often its simplest aspects that are the most interesting. History's Shadow, while intricate and well considered, represents the essense of photography: the presence and absence of light, the shape-shifting nature of time and the curiosity to see what cannot be seen with the naked eye.

Sean Stoker

Haunting the Chapel: Photography and Dissolution @ Daniel Blau Gallery, London

2011-08-22T13:58:00.007+02:00

We are getting very excited here in the studio about this upcoming exhibition of vintage, anonymous, vernacular and spirit photography,also including works by Fratelli Alinari,Cecil Beaton, René Barthélemy, Emil Cadoo,Arthur Conan Doyle, JH Engstrom, Walker Evans, Michael Grieve, Bill Jacobson, Fritz Lang, Rut Blees Luxemburg, Floris Neusüss, Arnold Newman, Diane Pernet, Leni Riefenstahl, Jeffrey Silverthorne, Edmund Teske, U.S. Army Picture Corps et al.

"They are moving because of their phantom condition; every act they execute may be their last; there is not a face that is not on the verge of dissolving like a face in a dream." Jorge Luis Borges

Daniel Blau Gallery, London will be presenting a unique set of images that embody a theme particularly relevant to current artistic and cultural practice: that of the haunted, the blurred and the dissolved. To exemplify these themes this exhibition will feature vintage prints as well as more recent explorations in photography and its often-dissolute processes. In homage to the alchemy and chemistry of photography, this show will illustrate fire, smoke, the spirit, the x-ray, blur and motion, decay and the photogram. Like a series of dark objects and entities trapped behind the framing of glass, the gallery space becomes a chapel to the haunted history of the photographic medium.

Haunting the Chapel: Photography and Dissolution
2 September – 8 October 2011
Opening: 1 Sept, 6-10pm
Daniel Blau Gallery, London

To coincide with this, the gallery will be hosting talks and lectures that relate to the concept of the exhibition. If you would like to attend one or all of the following events, please RSVP to: london(at)danielblau(dot)com Tickets are £5, payable on arrival at the gallery. All the events open at 7pm for a 7:30pm start. 51 Hoxton Square, London N16PB.

Tuesday 6 September: Talks

Jeffrey Silverthorne in conversation with Brad Feuerhelm / Michael Grieve in conversation with Aaron Schuman.

Tuesday 20 September: Lecture

David Bate presents some ideas related to the exhibition with a following discussion.

Not to be missed!

'Thereness'

2011-08-03T16:08:00.005+02:00

Get ready for issue 12 of 1000 Words, 'Thereness', out 1 October.

"[...] More often than not, a direct, 'simple' record of the subject in hand - the way of the 'quiet' photographer - produces a result that is more profoundly fresh than any attempt at visual novelty made by utilising the many tricks of the trade. If photography deals directly and honesty with life, it has every chance to be fresh and 'new', for the surface of life itself is infinitely variable, renewable and renewing. [...] The concreteness of photography, its awkward specificity, *must* surely be its glory, for can we ever tire of looking at a tree, the sky, a human face?

[...]'Thereness' is a sense of the subject's reality, a heightened sense of its physicality, etched sharply into the image. It is a sense that we are looking at the world directly, without mediation. Or rather, that something other than a mere photographer is mediating. [...] Such a feeling, such alertness, when present in the photograph, can of course conceal the greatest photographic art. 'Thereness' is seen at the opposite ends of the photographic spectra, in the humblest holiday enprint as much as the most serious art photograph, in the snapshot-inspired, dynamic small camera candid as much as the calm, meditative, large camera view. Those photographs which conjure up a compelling desire to touch the subject, to walk into the picture, to know the photographed person, display 'thereness'. Those photographs which tend towards impressionism, expressionism or abstraction can be in danger of losing it, or never finding it [...]. 'Thereness', in short, is a quality that has everything to do with reality and little to do with art, yet is, I would reiterate, the essence of the art of photography"

From The Art That Hides Itself - Notes on Photography's Quiet Genius by Gerry Badger

Noorderlicht International Photography Festival 2011

2011-08-03T13:24:00.010+02:00

© Michael Wolf

The press release for the 18th Noorderlicht International Photo Festival in Groningen (18 September-9 October 2011) has just landed on our desks here at 1000 Words and looks very promising.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, more than half of the world's population live in urban areas. In two successive exhibitions Noorderlicht is examining the consequences of this development for both the countryside and the city. After Land – Country Life in the Urban Age in 2010, from 11 September through 9 October 2011 the photo festival Metropolis – City Life in the Urban Age will be seen in Groningen. This multifaceted and innovative exhibition will provide insight into a process that touches everyone, directly or indirectly.

“The” city doesn't exist. Although cities are at the heart of modern society – certainly now that 3.3 billion people are packed onto 3 percent of the earth's surface – they are not all exactly the same in nature. The city is an feverish economic, cultural and social nerve centre; it is the place where the dreams of architects and urban planners come to life or collide with recalcitrant reality. Cities grow wildly, sometimes anarchically, and swallow up everything in the vicinity. They suck in people who – successfully, or in vain – are in search of a better life. In the midst of an oppressive massiveness, people are still able to carve out a small space for themselves and find their own fulfilment. The city is a place that offers opportunities and dashes hopes, where you can be seen everywhere and at all times but where you can equally well be completely alone.

From Michael Wolf's traumatised faces in the Tokyo subway to Michael Najjar's sterile futuristic urban landscapes, on the basis of work by more than eighty photographers from The Netherlands and other countries, in Metropolis Noorderlicht exposes the many sides of the city. To do this, Noorderlicht breaks new ground, both in terms of content and design. The six 'chapters' and the unusual arrangement in the main locations offer space to the city, and bring across Noorderlicht's view of the city in an insightful and perceptive manner.

Metropolis is a city of images, an exhibition about the soul of urban society.

Click on the links for more information on the participating photographers, the Metropolis - City Life in the Urban Age exhibition and to read an interview with the curator Wim Mellis.

Vivian Maier @ PHOTOFUSION GALLERY

2011-07-25T11:56:00.029+02:00

Those of you who missed out on the highly-acclaimed and much-anticipated Vivian Maier show at the German Gymnasium as part of the London Street Photography Festival, fear not, for it is now travelling to the wonderful Photofusion Gallery in Brixton.

From 29 July - 16 September, Photofusion will bring together 48 black and white and colour prints from the Chicago-based nanny who in her spare time wandered the streets with her Rolleiflex, obsessively taking snapshots of life as it unfolded around her. The exhibition includes spontaneous street scenes, street portraiture and more abstract compositions reminiscent of some of the greatest photographers working in the genre. Through her unique style of candid street photography and an aesthetic that is by turns raw and unflinching yet always brimming with a dark formal beauty, Vivian Maier incidentally recorded some of the most interesting marvels and peculiarities of urban America in the latter half of the twentieth century.

All images courtesy of John Maloof ©Maloof Collection Ltd

Prior to the exhibition officially opening, it seems like a perfect opportunity to revisit this interview with Aaron Schuman and John Maloof, originally published in #11 of 1000 Words.

AS: There’s been quite a bit of coverage of Vivian Maier’s own mysterious biography, as well as of the incredible story of how you found, acquired and are in the process of archiving her work, and the discovery of this collection. But for the purposes of this interview, I’d like to focus on the photographs themselves. Firstly, why do you think Maier’s work is particularly interesting and important?

JM: I must say that, at first, I didn’t know that her work was as good as I now understand it to be. When I found Vivian’s archive, I was not a photographer, so what caught my eye were the more nostalgic images of Chicago and New York in the 1950s and 60s. Over time, I began to realise that the work was better than I’d first thought. What I now find to be so interesting and important is the fact that she was not formally trained, and yet she was ahead of her time; purely by coincidence, she was taking photographs similar to those of Diane Arbus, but she was doing so a decade earlier than Arbus.

AS: I understand that you initially bought her negatives hoping that they might serve historical purposes, but they’ve since been positioned within an “Art”, or at least, “Art Photography”, context - how did that happen? Do you think Maier was interested in photography – and understood her own photography – as “Art”?

JM: As I mentioned earlier, I originally purchased her work because it contained images of Chicago in the mid-twentieth century, and at the time I was researching and co-authoring a book about my local Chicago neighbourhood. But I do think that she was photographing as a form of art, and that she understood photography well. In fact, when she died she left behind many books by photographers, which means that she must have appreciated the work of others.

AS: Judging by what you’ve seen so far, how would you generally describe Maier as a photographer?

JM: I would describe her as one of those photographers that simply follows their own curiosities, wherever they lead. She didn’t have assignments or a specific agenda to promote; she was doing this for herself. That is the most interesting aspect about her intentions as a photographer.

AS: In the process of archiving her work, have you noticed any particular themes developing?

JM: The themes within her work changed over time. In the first few years, she was still very much an amateur, taking controlled photographs – mostly landscapes and portraits – with a Kodak Brownie box camera. She then got into street photography, primarily honing in on women, children, and the poor. After that, in the mid-1970s, she switched to colour and became more abstract, taking pictures of garbage on the curbside, racial and political graffiti, and so on.

AS: In the past, you’ve speculated that Maier may have studied under Lisette Model in the early-1950s, and might have been in touch with – or at least aware of – a number of other prominent photographers working at that time. Is there any hard evidence to support a direct connection?

JM: I did speculate that there was the possibility of a connection to Lisette Model, however it was clearly a speculation based on coincidences. I recently received the class roster of Model’s class from the New School of Social Research, and unfortunately Vivian wasn’t on there. So I can’t say for sure who her influences were. The only evidence of any direct influence on Maier is from Jeanne Bertrand, a portrait photographer whom Vivian boarded with in her early years. There’s no hard evidence to support any other direct connections, but within her work there’s definitely a sense that she was aware of the photographers who were becoming known in her time, such as those from the Photo League and the Institute of Design in Chicago.

AS: I understand that there is another collector, Jeff Goldstein, who possesses quite a bit of Maier’s work as well – in particular, her earlier work. What is your relationship with him, and how do your collections differ?

JM: Just to clarify things, Vivian started taking pictures in 1949/1950, and it is mostly amateur quality work at that time. The work in my collection is from 1949-1999. To date, it is largely un-scanned, so only a small portion of it has been posted on the website. We’re scanning it in chronological order, so that’s why there are only images from the 1950s and 60s up on the website; it will take some time to get to the later years, but so far we’ve found several hundred undeveloped colour rolls, and around thirty-thousand color slides that have already been developed. I’m not exactly sure how much Jeff has, or what years his collection represents. But from what I know, his collection is weighted more in the early work, and the later work (late-60s - early-70s). He purchased this collection somewhat recently, in the summer of last year. We have a friendly relationship, we’ve opened up our archives to one another for research purposes, and have since been talking about working on this immense archival project quite a bit.

AS: I’ve often seen Maier described as “an equal of” or “as good as” some of most celebrated photographers of her time - Robert Frank, Helen Levitt, Harry Callahan, Lisette Model, Diane Arbus, William Klein, Roy DeCarava, and so on. But I worry that her work might only be seen, understood, and celebrated through the prism of our contemporary version of photo-history, rather than recognised for itself in its own right. Each of the photographers mentioned above have a distinct aesthetic and very personal approach to photography – in your opinion, what do you think is particularly unique or special about Maier’s work?

JM: This is a very loaded question, and I can’t fully answer it until we’ve documented and explored more of her archive. At this point, judging from what’s been uncovered so far, I believe that she produced work that is equal to some of the well-known masters. Her interest in women (especially women with glamorous fashions), children, and the less fortunate have been common threads within the images that we’ve archived so far. She also has a well-rounded understanding of the formal elements of photography, as can be seen in the images on the website. But it will take more time to figure out her unique “fit” with the other masters of her time - she definitely had a personal style, which we expect to see more of as we move forward.

For more information on the exhibition please visit www.photofusion.org/gallery/photography/exhibitions/future/default.htm

Places still available for the Erik Kessels workshop!

2011-07-18T15:59:00.013+02:00

There are still two places available for our workshop with Erik Kessels at riad 9 in Fez, Morocco (12-17 September 2011). Though the camera will be the tool, this workshop will appeal to creatives from all visual disciplines, not just photography.

Here is a great video of Erik giving an overview of his work as part of California College of the Arts' Photography Lecture Series; filmed on 24 February, 2011, in Timken Lecture Hall on the San Francisco campus:

For more information on the workshop or more details on how to submit click here. (Please note, the deadline for applications has been extended to 14 August.)

Finally, below is the manifesto from the groundbreaking exhibition From Here On at this year's Les Rencontres d'Arles which Erik co-curated with Clément Chéroux, Joan Fontcuberta, Martin Parr and Joachim Schmid. The conceptual approach and playful attitude that is outlined will be echoed in the workshop and push those who are open to exploring more lateral ways of image-making.

NOW, WE’RE A SPECIES OF EDITORS.
WE ALL RECYCLE, CLIP AND CUT, REMIX AND UPLOAD.
WE CAN MAKE IMAGES DO ANYTHING. ALL WE NEED IS
AN EYE, A BRAIN, A CAMERA,
A PHONE, A LAPTOP, A SCANNER, A POINT OF VIEW.
AND WHEN WE’RE NOT EDITING, WE’RE MAKING.
WE’RE MAKING MORE THAN EVER,
BECAUSE OUR RESOURCES ARE LIMITLESS AND
THE POSSIBILITIES ENDLESS.
WE HAVE AN INTERNET FULL OF INSPIRATION:
THE PROFOUND, THE BEAUTIFUL, THE DISTURBING,
THE RIDICULOUS, THE TRIVIAL, THE VERNACULAR AND THE INTIMATE.
WE HAVE NEXT-TO-NOTHING CAMERAS THAT RECORD THE LIGHTEST LIGHT, THE DARKEST DARK.
THIS TECHNOLOGICAL POTENTIAL HAS CREATIVE CONSEQUENCES.
IT CHANGES OUR SENSE OF WHAT IT MEANS TO MAKE. IT RESULTS IN
WORK THAT FEELS LIKE PLAY,
WORK THAT TURNS OLD INTO NEW, ELEVATES THE BANAL.
WORK THAT HAS A PAST BUT FEELS
ABSOLUTELY PRESENT.
WE WANT TO GIVE THIS WORK A NEW STATUS.
THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT
FROM HERE ON...

1000 Words Portfolio Review Consultations

2011-06-24T16:20:00.012+02:00

The more eagle-eyed of our readers will be aware that we recently started providing in-depth portfolio review consultations for photographers. In the three years since launch, 1000 Words has grown in both scale of operations and size of audience meaning that the amount of portfolios submitted to the magazine for potential publication has also increased significantly. The sheer volume is staggering. (Upon opening my emails this morning, I realised that there are currently 491 submissions sitting in my inbox from the month of June alone.)

Whilst we do take the time to look at each and every one of these we regret that we can not always respond. However, if you would like to receive specific advice and feedback on your work we have introduced frank and informal review sessions with the view to providing photographers with the following:

-Critique of creative output
-The practical and conceptual vision needed to help attain your goals and develop further photographic projects
-Assistance with self-representation, portfolio presentation and approaches to potential outlets in the editorial, publishing and gallery markets
-Resources to help enhance your work.

Portfolio reviews cost £90 and last one hour. They take place at our offices in East London or at your studio if you have one/if it is more convenient and consist of two one-on-one sessions with 1000 Words’ editors, Tim Clark and Michael Grieve.

To book a portfolio review or for more information contact: portfolio(at)1000wordsmag(dot)com

Photomonth Krakow 2011 (ALIAS)

2011-06-23T11:10:00.015+02:00

You see them here, you see them there, you see them everywhere. In their latest project, the artist team Oliver Chanarin and Adam Broomberg (featured in #11 of 1000 Words) have been blessed with the opportunity of curating an entire photography festival, and in so doing have left an indelible mark on the landscape of such events.

Photomonth Krakow 2011, now in its ninth year, was subject to ALIAS, an unconventional series of conceptual exhibitions, split into two halves that tested the limits of acceptability and has divided audiences and critics alike. The festival is counter-balanced by a series of exhibitions from invited curators called ShowOFF.

The first half of ALIAS features twenty-three writers who were commissioned to construct a fictional story with a main character. A visual artist then inhabited this character and the work exhibited is the result of this symbiosis. Writers included such notables as David Campany, Ekow Eshun, Brad Zellar and Siddhartha Mukherjee taken from the art, literary and medical worlds, and visual artists such as Rut Blees Luxenburg, Alec Soth and David Goldblatt occupied the fictional artists and produced their work. We are wonderfully unaware of who did what, which is the point. This flies in the face of the egotistical and heavily loaded notion of authorship, and so the artists and writers remain anonymous. It can be helpful in the creative process for the artist to create an alter ego, in the guise of a protagonist with a pseudonym or simply to remain unknown, giving license to make work outside the confines of expectation and reveal a greater sense of self. As Chanarin and Broomberg point out in the accompanying catalogue, this conception of artists taking on or dealing with the subject of alternative personalities is nothing new, and the second half of the festival, buried in the aptly named Bunkier Sztuki Gallery, displays the work of artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Gillian Wearing and Sophie Calle. As an example these artists have produced work as the fictional and real people of Rrose Selavy, Jean and Brian Wearing and Maria Turner. One such artist, Brian O'Doherty, as a protest against Bloody Sunday embodied the persona of outsider artist, Patrick Ireland, whose subsequent symbolic death was, as perceived by O'Doherty as the "chance to bury hatred".

Scattered in various galleries around Krakow were stories of humour, tragedy, strangeness and ordinariness - all quite believable though always with a hint of the uncanny. The various exhibitions are too numerous to mention, but one story struck a chord, and finds poignant roots in Poland's dark history. This is the sad tale of a photographer called Dora Fobert (born in 1925) during her time in the Warsaw ghetto. It is a piece of fiction that sounds as authentic as the almost unbelievable story of Oskar Schindler, whose infamous factory in Krakow is now the site of the impressive and newly constructed MOCAK (Museum of Contemporary Art). Fobert's last photographs were hastily printed and chemically unfixed, before being taken by the SS, and can only be shown in daylight behind red glass. The effect is imbued with multiple meanings; the fragility of life, the impossibility of fixing a moment, the frustration of not seeing and how photography is a process. The story also tells of how the Nazis vilified the Jewish woman as a bohemian, free thinking seductress, opposed to the idealisation of Aryan women - dressed in uniform, hair tied back, restrained and orderly. These photographs are the last act of defiance and reveal old and young Jewish women posing nude for Fobert's studio camera in an expression of freedom.

Dora Fobert, from the archive of Adela K. circa 1942

What is ALIAS then, and how should it be remembered? The curators boldly claimed that this concept was to be an experiment and an experiment is a method of testing with the goal of explaining the nature of reality. It is rare to find festivals that proclaim such an experimental and admirable model. Though definitions should matter little, this festival is really an art festival more than it is a photography festival and because of this it has opened up a real Pandora's box. One question it asks is that in a world confused with the ever-mounting proliferation of imagery are we really better informed and especially from photography that reports the ‘truth’? Given Chanarin and Broomberg's trajectory from documentary photographers to constructors of photography this process lends credibility to the concept of ALIAS, in other words it is not being different for the sake of being different, rather it is logical and emotional conclusion. We are perhaps more intellectually astute about the role of photography than ever before and therefore we are better able to deal with conceptual festivals such as ALIAS that suggests that the truth is better understood from the perspective of non- truth.

ALIAS is by no means a festival of easy gratification; it is the antithesis of a spectacular and populist festival since it demands contemplation from the audience, and this, surely, is no bad thing. Those who resist are probably looking for work that is easily digestible and grumble at having to exist outside their comfort zone. But the mischievousness of this festival is highly enjoyable and perhaps raises the thinking behind future happenings even if this is in danger of alienating the local population.

One of the reasons for ShowOFF, than other to simply showcase new Polish photography, was perhaps to address the issue of the difficulties of ALIAS by inviting curators to realise more 'conventional' exhibitions, but no less interesting for that. ShowOFF was curated by Polish photographers and theorists such as Kuba Swircz, Magda Wunsche and Rafat Milach to select and featured the work of Ula Klimek, Karol Kaczorowski and Yulka Wilam to name but a few. The work is young and fresh, with a tendency towards the conceptual, and perhaps points to the future of Polish art photography.

All of this takes place in the wonderful city that is Krakow. With its rich cultural and historical diversity it continues to fascinate and is right on time for a festival such as this. In a sense, Photomonth Krakow is the Arles of the East; everything is within easy walking distance and beyond the photography there is much more to be seen.

Michael Grieve

Taryn Simon

2011-06-07T15:37:00.005+02:00

Yet another fantastic multimedia production from Tate Shots, this piece on American photographer Taryn Simon (see Susan Bright's article in #10 of 1000 Words) focuses on her new exhibition at Tate Modern ‘A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters’. Simon mixes photography and text in a series works that chart family bloodlines. At the heart of each group of photographic portraits, carefully arranged as 18 horizontal family trees, is a compelling story. One set documents the relatives of an Iraqi man who was a body double for Saddam Hussein’s son; another show members of a religious sect in Lebanon who believe in reincarnation; while the exhibition title comes from a work about a living Indian man who was declared dead in official records. From feuding families in Brazil to victims of genocide in Bosnia, Simon forms a collection that maps the relationships between chance, blood and other components of fate.

"Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living." Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852)

Simon Norfolk

2011-06-05T20:38:00.004+02:00

Following on from Val William's exclusive feature on Simon Norfolk & John Burke: Photographs From The War In Afghanistan in #11 of 1000 Words, here is a very well put together short video from Tate Shots wherein he discusses the parallels between the two bodies of work, his outspoken political opinions and his manner of seducing his audience through beauty in order to draw their attention to the real issues he is trying to represent.

Anders and that gut feeling

2011-05-23T12:01:00.027+02:00

© Michael Grieve / 1000 Words

The 1000 Words Workshop in Fez, Morocco with the Swedish photographer Anders Petersen finished on 1 May 2011, and was an absolute success.

Anders Petersen is a self-confessed fish; once you think you have him in your grasp he will surprise you and slip away. Paradox is taught on an Anders Petersen workshop as an essential ingredient together with the need to embrace our fears in life and not to be afraid of being afraid. Petersen’s personality, charisma and experience make him one of the most vital teachers of photographic practice to those seeking to unlock an expression of themselves from the heart rather than the mind. Such was the experience in Fez, a location that provides the perfect backdrop, bursting with energy to engage the senses.

Petersen conducted a wonderful workshop, directing his students to shoot from the gut and reach the pinnacle as they go about "sharpening their pyramids".

1000 Words would like to thank Anders Petersen and the vibrant personalities of the participants who, after five intensive days, produced some extraordinary photography,a small snippet of which can be seen below. The concentration of time, perfect location and Petersen’s inspiration conspired to change the attitude and approach of the participants for the rest of their creative lives. They are:

Andre Faccioli (Brazil)

Birgit Vagani (Italy)

Emily Clarke (UK)

Jim Clarke (UK)

Nina Hove (Norway)

Laura Hynd (UK)

Samuele Pellecchia (Italy)

Vanessa Bonnin (Australia)

We would also like to thank Omar Chennafi for his local knowledge and assistance, Vanessa Bonnin for help processing black and white film, and the gracious presence of Stephen di Renza for being the perfect host.

Submissions are open for our next workshop in Morocco with Erik Kessels in September 2011. More information and details on how to apply is available here.

1000 Words Photography Magazine #11

2011-05-18T11:15:00.004+02:00

I am delighted to inform you that the third anniversary issue of 1000 Words "Hidden" is now available to view online.

Despite a recent period of frenetic activity during which we have participated in a panel discussion in Oslo, staged our workshop with Anders Petersen in Fez and presented a slideshow at Fotofestiwal, the tenth annual International Festival of Photography in Łódź, Poland, we have still managed to produce this issue in time for Spring.

So without further ado please go to: www.1000wordsmag.com

Keeping things from notice or view is the theme which underpins much of the photography that is featured in the "Hidden" issue.

Writer and curator Val Williams reports back from the Simon Norfolk and John Burke exhibition at Tate Modern, (Photographs from the War in Afghanistan); Photography critic at The Financial Times, Francis Hodgson wrestles with the work of Michael Ackerman in his special book review of Half Life and Daniel Campbell Blight also brings us an extended book review of People in Trouble Laughing Pushed to the Ground from the artist duo Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, an extraordinary social document of a critical moment in the history of Northern Ireland.

Elsewhere, photographer, editor, educator, writer and curator Aaron Schuman lifts the lid on the remarkable story of the late Vivian Maier whose work was discovered at an auction in Chicago by John Maloof; Director at QUAD, Co-founder of FORMAT International Photography Festival and 1000 Words Non-executive director Louise Clements turns her attention to How to Photograph a Black Dog, a witty and irreverent project by legendary Dutch art director, collector and innovator, Erik Kessels and finally Natasha Christia, Manager of photography at Barcelona's Kowasa Gallery, peeks into the portfolio of Martina Hoogland Ivanow, the hugely talented Stockholm-based artist.

In the dedicated books section 1000 Words Deputy editor, Michael Grieve pays his dues to Paul Graham's Beyong Caring and Oliver Whitehead puts Rinko Kawauchi's Murmuration under the scalpel.

At 1000 Words we strive to foreground the subjectivity of documentary photography whilst always exploring the limits and possibilities of the medium. Many thanks to all the artists, writers and advertisers for contributing to this special issue. A big hand must also go to Santiago Taccetti of CCCH Creative Studio Barcelona for his beautifully understated art direction on the project. We would also like to extend our thanks to you, our readers, for helping support 1000 Words throughout this exciting venture.

Photography, publishing and the internet

2011-05-10T16:05:00.009+02:00

The words "photography" and "publishing" are natural bedfellows, intertwined for as long as anyone can remember. Historically speaking, the printed page was the ultimate venue for viewing a photographer's work but in recent years the internet has profoundly changed the way we look at and think about photography. So who's hogging the duvet now?

In a recent interview, Lesley Martin, publisher of the Aperture Foundation's book programme, ventured the following: "The mystery for me is that the photobook audience has become more educated, more interested, more connected to the idea of the photobook – yet for the most part, sales are not shooting through the roof to a corresponding degree."

Printing photobooks can be very expensive, meaning that print runs are usually small. Publishing online on the other hand is fast, fluid and flexible, costs a fraction of the price but offers an audience infinitely larger choice to boot. Yes, I understand the arguments; Photobooks are collectable. Photobooks offer an intimate and tactile viewing experience. Photobooks are the perfect "lap medium" as the great John Gossage famously said. And yes I am also fully aware that there is a certain stigma attached to the broad access to photography online from some fraternities of the photo world, although thankfully this is gradually fading. Image overload, viewing images on screen and the many things that can ping or pop up at you at once are just some of the common gripes from the digital naysayers. But I'm not arguing for one over the other. Frankly, I'm tired of the analogue versus digital debate. It is as inevitable as it tedious. I prefer to think that we are constantly moving, and that photographic debates and wider creative concerns provide opportunities for us to think on lateral terms, in other words, how can we arrive at a certain point from a different perspective.

What is true is that the sheer volume of images we digest on a daily basis not just on the internet but in the world around us is staggering, something that will only increase at exponential speeds in tandem with developments in technology. Camera phones, social media platforms and the Flickr ecosystem have in effect created a vast sprawling suburb of mediocrity.

So what to make of this slew of imagery? Now, more than ever, when instead of maybe going to galleries and museums we are finding ourselves more frequently viewing websites of photographers as way of discovering new work, there exists a very strong need to expose the meaningful images, promote, curate, share, and, most crucially, review and critique them intelligently.

Tiny Vices, an online gallery and image archive founded in 2005 by one time photo editor at Vice-cum-independent curator and photographer, Tim Barber, was probably the first to do its level best to respond to this challenge, and consequently helped to firmly establish the internet as a legitimate platform for disseminating photography. Offering an eclectic dip into hundreds of portfolios from artists such as Ryan McGinley and Dash Snow to Gus Powell and Craig Mammano, the website quickly become a wildly popular and accessible showcase with its well defined sensibility and thoughtful selection of work. Hundreds of new images were sent in for consideration every month in response to a continuous open call for submissions. By virtue of being web-based, Tiny Vices removed hurdles and facilitated genuine global dialogue and exchange of ideas for people who would never normally have the opportunity to interact in such a way. It fostered a great community. Such was its influence and reach that Barber was invited by Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York to put on a physical exhibition during March, 2006. Reflecting the DIY, punk ethic of the website, it comprised a complex installation of photographs, drawings, and paintings by over sixty of the artists, well known and hitherto unknown, that had been featured online. Tiny Vices is a shining example of how two complimentary modes of production can be incorporated in an interesting and innovative way, whilst at the same time ushering in a radical rethinking of what constitutes a curator. Much could be said, much doubtless will be said about whether bloggers are the curators of the 21st Century.

Another website worthwhile bookmarking or better still saving as your home page is Jason Evans' visual diary, The Daily Nice. Presenting one image per day, his lo-fi website which first went live in 2004 consists of just one page, with just one picture on it. Familiar and spontaneous yet strangely compelling, the images taken by Evans are snapshots of commonplace situations, people, animals, objects, landscapes and the urban environment that convey a fragile, transient beauty. Evans has himself described The Daily Nice as "a retreat – a sheltered harbour, where you can rest for a minute."

Since June 2008 I have been publishing and editing 1000 Words, an independent, opinionated online magazine dedicated to contemporary photography. Released quarterly, each "issue" is loosely based on a theme, and features exhibition and photo book reviews, interviews, essays and multimedia. 1000 Words believes in merit and strives to feature works that represent creative skill, emotion, intelligence and that certain something that cannot be pinned down by words.

Whether we like it or not we are moving in an age where we will always be connected to the internet, and where the smart phone will become someone's digital identity. We are living in a time of accelerated consumption and shortened attention spans. In this information era we are allowed to – and even encouraged to – know very little but there has to be more to it than just an internet sugar rush. 1000 Words abides by the philosophy of the “slow web movement” and therefore requires you to take your time and savour what you consume.

The next issue of 1000 Words - Hidden - will hit the digital shelves 13 May.

This article was originally published by Raconteur Media and appeared in The Times, Saturday 23 April, 2011.

Fotofestiwal - 10th International Festival of Photography in Lodz, Poland

2011-05-05T11:50:00.012+02:00

©JH Engström

©Anna Linderstam

©Viviane Sassen

Fotofestiwal, the annual International Festival of Photography in Lodz, Poland has commenced, showcasing a great selection of European and international artists in two main exhibitions Out of Life and Out of Mind. Along with hosting the usual gamut of workshops and portfolio reviews, Fotofestiwal has invited 1000 Words to curate a slideshow based on contemporary work from three of our featured photographers, who have each chosen music to accompany their own photographs. They are:

JH Engström, Wells, the third part of a trilogy leading on from Trying to Dance and Haunts, an autobiographical account involving mostly himself and Amanda.

Anna Linderstam's The Unheard Contradictions, an exploration of "mental states and conflicts through a performative process".

Viviane Sassen, Flamboya, which is both an attempt by Sassen to evoke her childhood, and more reflexively, questions photography's common properties.

The slideshow starts at 6pm, Friday 6 May at the Centrum Kultury Kreatywnej, Lodz.

1000 WORDS WORKSHOP WITH ERIK KESSELS IN MOROCCO, SEPTEMBER 2011

2011-05-04T17:17:00.006+02:00

*17.07.11 THERE ARE STILL TWO PLACES AVAILABLE-APPLY NOW!-DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 14.08.11!*

After two very successful workshops with Antoine d'Agata and Anders Petersen, 1000 Words is very pleased to present its third with Erik Kessels in Fez, Morocco (12-17 September 2011). Though the camera will be the tool, this workshop will appeal to creatives from all visual disciplines, not just photography.

"Nowadays, we consume images without really looking at them. It's every photographer's duty to make images that stand out from the daily visual clutter." Erik Kessels

Please scroll down for more information and how to submit.

ERIK KESSELS:

Erik Kessels' list of achievements are extensive. He is best described as a curator and publisher who conceptualises vernacular photography and produces unusual artworks. He is a founding partner and Creative Director of the highly successful and innovative advertising agency, KesselsKrammer in Amsterdam (yes, that is the actual website). He has won numerous awards and KesselsKramer comprises of thirty eight people from eight different countries and has been operating since 1996. He has designed, edited and published several books on vernacular photography through KesselsKramer Publishing – including the in almost every picture series, The Instant Men and Wonder. Since 2000, he has been an editor of the alternative photography magazine Useful Photography.

Erik is also noted for his particularly original curated exhibitions such as Loving Your Pictures at the Centraal Museum Utrecht, The Netherlands and at Les Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles. He was one of four curators (alongside Lou Reed, Fred Ritchin and Vince Aletti) of the New York Photo Festival 2010 where he presented the exhibition Use Me Abuse Me.

Aside from all that, Erik is a very nice man with a creative spirit second to none. His conceptual approach and playful attitude will push those who are open to exploring more lateral ways of image-making.

ABOUT US:

The organisation's flagship is 1000 Words, an online magazine dedicated to contemporary photography in the UK and beyond. It reviews exhibitions and photobooks and publishes interviews, essays and multimedia. We are committed to showing the work of lesser-known but significant artists alongside that of established photographers in the aim of bringing their work to a wider audience. Often incredibly diverse in terms of subjects, concepts, styles and techniques, yet by covering a wide spectrum of genres 1000 Words intends to make us reconsider the contemporary photograph.

Released quarterly, the magazine attracts over 140,000 unique visitors from more than 75 countries every month. In May 2010 the 1000 Words Blog was ranked at number 3 in The Top 25 UK Arts & Culture Blogs as part of a survey carried out by Creative Tourist and was also named as the winner of Arts Media Contacts' Photography Blog of the Year Award, 2010.

Yet 1000 Words is much more than just an online magazine. It is the first step in our concept. 1000 Words also operates a programme of exhibitions and events including four annual workshops in Fez, Morocco as well as talks, portfolio reviews, prizes and awards. In July 2010, we launched the 1000 Words Collection, in partnership with Troika Editions, offering limited edition photography prints at affordable prices from artists including Simon Roberts, JH Engstrom, Bruno Quinquet, Sarah Small, Trinidad Carrillo, Andrew Bruce, Leigh Ledare, Nuno Cera and Virgilio Ferreira.

1000 Words is governed by its board of directors who play an active role in the direction of the organisation. They are: Camilla Gore, Nicholas Barker, Simon Baker, Aron Morel, Louise Clements, Tim Clark, Michael Grieve and Norman Clark. The 1000 Words Workshops are organised by Tim Clark, founder and editor-in-chief at 1000 Words and Michael Grieve, 1000 Words deputy editor, lecturer at Nottingham Trent University and a photographer represented by Agence Vu.

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:

The 1000 Words Workshop takes place in an authentically restored riad situated in the medieval medina, at the heart of the beautifully evocative city of Fez, Morocco. The workshop will be an intense experience lasting six days between 12-17 September 2011 and will consist of 12 participants. The medina is a vibrant labyrinth that will permeate all the senses. Surrounded by the Atlas Mountains, it offers a visually stunning backdrop for this truly unique workshop.

We are looking for a diverse range of participants who understand the work of Erik Kessels and feel that their own art will benefit from his guidance. As we said before, though the camera will be the tool, this workshop will appeal to creatives from all visual disiplines, not just photography.

"A lot of photographers are looking into ways to make their work public," says Erik Kessels. "Almost every photographer has their own website. But for a lot of photographers, there is also a strong need to publish a book or have an exhibition. How do you communicate these needs to the outside world? Also, which kind of tools are there to use?"

Erik Kessels will first give a lecture about his own experiences on these subjects. There will then be a workshop where photographers will find their own way to proceed in their future work. Subjects will be: 'How to edit your own photographs?' 'Self publishing' and 'How can photographers communicate about their own work?'.

Over the course of several days there will be different short briefs for the attending photographers. These will teach them to be more playful and communicative with their own work.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION:

The cost of the workshop will be £1250 for 6 days. Once participants have been selected they will be expected to pay a non-refundable deposit of £350 within two weeks. Participants can then pay the rest of the fee according to deadlines (see below). Participants are encouraged to arrive the day before the workshop begins for a welcome dinner. The price includes:

-tuition from Erik Kessels (inluding defining each participant's project;shooting;editing sessions;creating a coherent body of work;creation of a slide show;projection of the images of the participants.)
-a welcome and farewell dinner
-lunch everyday and snacks during the afternoon
-24 hour help from the 1000 Words team and an assistant/translator with local knowledge.

Participants will be expected to make their own travel arrangements and find accommodation, which in Fez can range from £150 upwards for the week. We can advise on finding the accommodation that best suits you. Remember that most of your time will be spent either at the riad or shooting. For photographers using film we will provide the means for processing and a scanner. Photographers shooting digital will be expected to bring all necessary equipment. Please note that for the purposes and practicalities of a workshop, digital really is advisable. All participants should also bring a laptop if they have one. Every effort will be made to accommodate individual technical needs.

HOW TO SUBMIT:

We require that you send 10 images as low res jpegs and/or a link to your website, as well as a short biography and statement about why you think it will be relevant for you to work with Erik (approx 200 words total). Submissions are to be sent to workshops@1000wordsmag.com with the following subject header: SUBMISSION FOR 1000 WORDS WORKSHOP WITH ERIK KESSELS.

30 June 2011: Deadline for applications
15 July 2011: Successful candidates contacted
29 July 2011: Deposit due (£350)
31 August 2011: Second instalment due (£900)
11 September 2011: Arrive in Morocco for welcoming dinner
12 September 2011: Workshop begins
17 September 2011: Workshop ends

Succes gewenst!

We're recruiting! Advertising sales director

2011-05-03T15:18:00.001+02:00

Posted: 3 May

Closing: 3 June

Reporting to: The Director

Organisation background: 1000 Words is a leading online magazine dedicated to highlighting the best contemporary photography in the UK and beyond. Released quarterly, the magazine attracts over 140,000 unique visitors from more than 75 countries every month. In May 2010 its sister site, the 1000 Words Blog was ranked at number 3 in The Top 25 UK Arts & Culture Blogs in a survey carried out by Creative Tourist, and also named as the winner of Arts Media Contacts’ Photography Blog of the Year Award 2010. 1000 Words is published by 1000 Words Photography, a not-for-profit organisation that promotes and supports contemporary photography through publishing and exhibiting opportunities, workshops, talks, limited-edition print sales and prizes and awards.

Salary: The position will be commission only: 50% of an advertisers’ first booking and then 25% thereafter paid immediately on the client funds clearing. The position can be held remotely for those with their own equipment and broadband, in which case 1000 Words will pay expenses which would be primarily for travel and phone calls (as the magazine is online all media packs, magazines, correspondence etc will be sent by email).

Job description: 1000 Words is looking to appoint an Advertising sales director to work on a freelance basis for its online magazine and related events. This role will suit a driven, tenacious sales professional with exceptional communication skills looking to further their career within the arts and publishing. The successful applicant will promote our full range of online advertising and bespoke e-announcements to existing UK and international clients as well as establishing new business prospects. A multi-platform sales role, you will also be responsible for events advertising as well as other forms of monetising the brand extension.

The role will include, but is not limited to, the following duties and responsibilities:

-Generating new business within existing accounts
-Identifying sales opportunities and presenting key features and benefits
-Liaising with accounts regarding credit control
-Liaising with editorial and art direction on production and placement of advertisements
-Keeping customer records up-to-date

Skills and attributes:

-2 - 5 years experience in advertising sales at a newspaper, magazine or website, preferably in the arts
-Proven track record of working under pressure, meeting deadlines and attention to detail
-Excellent time management, organisational and communication skills
-Must be confident in own abilities and views and be able to build relationships
-Highly motivated, and able to work independently and as part of a team
-Proven computer skills in all office applications
-Good knowledge of how the visual arts and photography sectors operate
-Sensitive understanding of 1000 Words’ mission, objectives and goals
-Firm believer in the value and benefits on online advertising and bespoke e-announcements
-Tech savvy and up-to-speed with social media platforms
-Excellent contact base and well-connected
-Background in photography or art history highly desirable

If you are interested in this role, please send your CV and a covering letter outlining why you think you would be the right person to jobs(at)1000wordsmag(dot)com by 12pm, Friday 3 June 2011.

Natasha Caruana

2011-04-25T14:05:00.008+02:00

"Sorry now sold"

"You will feel like a princess"

"If it doesn't sell I will take it as a sign I'm not meant to part with it"

All images © Natasha Caruana

Natasha Caruana was my stand-out artist during the portfolio reviews at this year's FORMAT International Photography Festival in Derby and her latest series of work, Fairytale for Sale seems very pertinent given the Royal Wedding that looms large. The project exposes the world of online wedding dress re-sale in a manner that is both humorous and offers a complex cultural commentary on the idea of marriage. The omission of personal identities through markings and blue tack, in juxtaposition with comments intended to sale the item, loads the work with both narrative and critical possibility.

Posing as a woman hunting for the perfect dress, Caruana befriends the brides who in her words: "reveal that the artefacts of the big day are being discarded; sold for money to de-clutter the wardrobe, make space for births or in some cases because the dresses are now tainted with divorce. Their words punctuate the images."

Caruana further explains her work and interest in the phenomena: "The smiling faces of the bride, groom and their entourages’ are blocked out in white, cloned over, smothered in blue tac or scratched off in a bid to disguise and make anonymous their private day now in the public arena. What remains are bizarre theatres of marriage; white-faced performers have taken to the stage and act out emblematic scenes. The original wedding album represents the trophy, the validation of a ceremony, a ritual performed, a tradition upheld as a record of the perfect day. But now the party is over, the cake has been eaten, the presents have been opened, and the photographs have been framed; the online adverts represent the detritus, the props of the fairytale wedding production."

Caruana's matured foray into themes of love and the everyday comes after The Other Woman and Married Man. Her works have been exhibited in various group shows, such as Invisible Adversaries, alongside Francesco Goya and John Constable and The Fool at the Northern Gallery of Contemporary of Art, Sunderland. Previous group and solo exhibitions have been in The United States, Poland, Germany and Saudi Arabia. Her work is held in the collections of the British Library, Woman’s Library in the UK and the Laguna Art Museum and The Kinsey Institute in the United States.

Born in 1983 Caruana is a practising artist, lecturer of photography and founding director of the London based studioSTRIKE artists studios. She graduated from an MA in photography at the Royal College of Art in 2008 and is currently a lecturer of Photography at the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, Surrey. Her work was shortlisted for the National Magazine Awards in 2007 and the Deutsche Bank Pyramid prize in 2008. In 2010 Caruana was named as the one to watch in the Royal Photographic Society Journal and the British Journal of Photography and selected by the Humble Arts Foundation as one of 18 leading female art photographers working in the UK.

New Directions in Contemporary Photography

2011-04-25T13:16:00.002+02:00

The integrity of Tim Hetherington

2011-04-21T13:59:00.010+02:00

From the series Sleeping Soldiers. © Tim Hetherington

Sometimes there are those rare individuals who, in one's life, just seem to be always present. For me, Tim Hetherington was one of those people. Fresh out of university, I wanted to make an impression as a photographer and I started at the Big Issue in 1999. Just before working for them I met the fiercely passionate and committed Tim who had been their only staff
photographer. He had just left the magazine and I wanted to fill his shoes, as, at that time, the Big Issue was doing wonderfully interesting reportage stories. Tim had moved on, indeed he was always moving on at a terrific rate with absolute vision and conviction, forging forward with intellectual rigour and always thinking outside the frame. We met many times over the years and every time we spoke he conveyed his ideas to be a communicator reaching out to the masses, leaving the ego behind. What mattered in life was to inform about complex issues that led to suffering. The stereotype of the photojournalist was not Tim.

He embedded himself so much into the lives’ of those he documented. I remember once at Perpignan the West African characteristics he had picked up in his mannerisms and language from his long stay in Sierra Leone and Liberia. I was in awe of the incredibly smart and sensitive work he did with blind children in Sierra Leone, often the victims of the Revolutionary United Force, and the way in which he linked it to blind children in the UK to show difference and similarity and what it means to see and feel.

My last fond memory was bumping into him at Liberty's store in London on Christmas Eve where we were both frantically trying to find last minute presents; he bought a lovely silk scarf for his sister. Of course we spoke about photography and the lyrical aspects of the medium but I was enthralled by hearing his recent experiences of Liberia and how he was taking time off documenting to work for the United Nations to gather the necessary evidence to convict the ex-president, Charles Taylor, of war crimes.

The huge amount of attention his death has received is for a simple reason and that is that Tim Hetherington was not a superficial photographer. He dug deep, in difficult places, against the odds.

He won the respect of many and I will miss him very much.

Michael Grieve

The "Emerging" Photographer Bursary Award

2011-04-13T11:48:00.013+02:00

Spectrum, Garage Studios and Photoworks are sponsoring an exciting new bursary: the winner will receive a heavyweight package of tuition and mentoring, studio time, and a fully promoted exhibition.

The Bursary will include:

*1 full day of studio lighting tuition at Garage studios with one of our experienced tutors worth over £550

*7 days of studio and lighting hire at Garage Studios, with a lighting assistant provided to support you on your shoots worth over £2800.

*1 day of mentoring from Photowork's Emma Morris, which will include discussion on creating a cohesive project, and understanding artistic practice with a view to how this can be applied to a studio environment.

*£1000 worth of Spectrum goods and services to be used for the final exhibition (including any film processing, scanning, printing mounting and framing you may need).

* An Introductory visit to Spectrum who will be on hand throughout the bursary to offer technical printing help and guidance.

*1 Full days use of one of Spectrum's top of the range calibrated monitors, to ensure you colour management is spot-on before printing.

* A two week exhibition which will be promoted by all three companies, and held at Garage Studios in September worth approx £3,000.

To apply for the bursary all applicants should submit a 300–500 word submission document describing the proposed studio based project and how you envisage it developing. All applicants must also submit a minimum of 3 images of previous work, alongside a current CV to showcase their work. The organisers are of course aware that this is for emerging talent so images submitted may be either work in progress or non studio based imagery but please consider how the images will support your proposal. All applications must be received by 12pm on Monday 2 May, no entries will be accepted after this time.

The judges, Emma Morris of Photoworks and Spectrum-appointed judge Simon Roberts, will view all applicants submission and images and will pick one overall winner of the Bursary Award.

For more information and to apply visit: www.garage-studios.co.uk

William Eggleston: Before Colour

2011-04-08T11:42:00.000+02:00

1000 Words is offering its readers discounted copies of William Eggleston´s Before Colour, courtesy of Steidl. To order your copy please contact tim(at)1000wordsmag(dot)com.

Please see below for more details:

William Eggleston
Before Colour
Steidl

All images © Eggleston Artistic Trust

A few years ago in the archives of the William Eggleston Artistic Trust in Memphis, a box was found containing Eggleston’s earliest photography – remarkably in black and white. The photos were subsequently exhibited at Cheim & Read gallery in New York and sold. This book reunites these photos in their entirety, and shows the artistic beginnings of a pioneer of contemporary photography.

In the late 1950s Eggleston began photographing suburban Memphis using high-speed 35 mm black and white film, developing the style and motifs that would come to shape his pivotal colour work including diners, supermarkets, domestic interiors and people engaged in seemingly trivial and banal situations. Now, fifty years later, all the plates in Before Colour have been scanned from vintage prints developed by Eggleston in his own darkroom. In the mid 1960s Eggleston discovered colour film and was quickly satisfied with the results: “And by God, it worked. Just overnight.” Eggleston then abandoned black and white photography, but its fundamental influence on his practice is undeniable.

Special price for 1000 Words readers: £35.00
Free shipping within the United Kingdom available

Edited by Chris Burnside, John Cheim, Howard Read, Thomas Weski together with the Eggleston Artistic Trust
With an Essay by Dave Hickey
152 Quadratone plates
200 pages
22.5 cm x 25.5 cm
Hardcover, with yellow imitation leather, with a tipped in photo
Steidl
ISBN: 978-3-86930-122-8

What's next?

2011-04-06T12:27:00.001+02:00

Coinciding with FOAM's tenth anniversary is a forward-looking micro-site: What's Next. The site a selection of articles and reflections by some of the most interesting minds in photography today, covering everything from the future of the institution to the effects of digital media on photography.

The good people at FOAM say: "The question 'What's Next?' is founded in our conviction that photography has fundamentally changed during the last twenty years. And this process of change and transition might not be finished yet. The digitalization of the medium has altered every aspect of photography, whether it is the photograph as an object, the position of the professional photographer, the function of the photo lab, the news agency or the photography museum.

In fact the question 'What's Next?' is about far more than 'just' the future of photography. It is also about the future of a society dictated by visual media, of a society in which people primarily communicate with technological tools that have been developed and made into consumer products with incredible speed. It is about the future of a society in which every layman can and will be a photographer, sharing his experiences with newly made online communities, a society in which the experience of time and space have drastically changed."

In conjunction with the website FOAM recently held a fascinating symposium, a few video clips of which you can see here:

To see more videos like this from FOAM click here

Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2011

2011-04-06T11:29:00.015+02:00

As a key event in the UK's photography calender, the 15th Deutsche Börse Photography Prize has finally opened it's doors at Ambika P3. The winner, to be heralded as the photographer who has made "the most significant contribution to photography in Europe between 1 October 2009 and 30 September 2010", will be announced on the 26 April from the shortlist of Thomas Demand, Roe Ethridge, Jim Goldberg, and Elad Lassry.

© Thomas Demand, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/ DACS

Demand’s concise yet strangely unsettling images explore German social and political life, with spaces ranging from the interior of the Bonn Parliament in the late 1960s to the artist’s’ childhood room. His works subtly reveal the mechanisms of their making, and challenge the viewer’s perception of reality by examining memory and photographic truth.

© Roe Ethridge/ Courtesy of Greengrassi London/ Andrew Kreps Gallery/ Mai 36 Gallery

Blurring the boundaries of the commercial with the editorial, and the mundane with the highbrow, Roe Ethridge’s conceptual approach to photography is a playful comment on the traditions and conventions of the medium itself. Often borrowing ‘outtakes’ from his own commercial photography work, Ethridge readily juxtaposes a catwalk shot with a still-life of a pumpkin or a pastoral scene of cows grazing. His distinct yet elusive and poetic groupings of portraits, landscapes and still lifes, create new associations and embrace the arbitrariness of the image and image making.

© Jim Goldberg/ Magnum Photos

Jim Goldberg’s series Open See documents the experiences of refugee, immigrant and trafficked populations who travel from war torn, socially and economically devastated countries to make new lives in Europe. Originating from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, these ‘new Europeans’ have met violence and brutality as well as hope and liberation in their new homes. Goldberg employs his varied and experimental approaches to photographic storytelling to reflect on issues of migration and the conditions for desiring escape through the exploitation of a range of photographic vernacular and moving image.

Image © Elad Lassry, Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery

In his seductive yet detached photographs and films, Elad Lassry highlights the strange in the over-familiar. Drawing on source material such as advertising and stock imagery for inspiration, Lassry’s over-saturated photographs are often collages of pre-existing images or newly staged studio photographs that allude to the visual language of product photography. Constantly shifting between ‘original’ and found materials, Lassry instigates a dialogue between photography and the moving image to explore ideas of authorship, originality and appropriation.

If you're excited, disgruntled or feeling generally pensive about the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, we've started a discussion on Facebook where you can bounce ideas around.

Vevey International Photography Award 2011

2011-04-02T18:29:00.005+02:00

The 8th Vevey International Photo Award is a unique form of support for contemporary original works, with a free choice of subject matter and genre.

This contest is open to artists, and professional or student photographers. An amount of 40,000 Swiss Francs (over € 30,000) is awarded for the development, realisation and presentation of the winning project during the Festival Images 2012 in Vevey, Switzerland. Applying to this contest is also an opportunity to receive other prizes such as the Mention Leica, the Mention Boncolor and the Prix Nestlé.

This year Jury will be chaired by New York artist Andres Serrano and will include:

Clément Chéroux, curator, cabinet de la photographie, Centre Pompidou, Paris.
Marloes Krijnen, director of the photography museum Foam, Amsterdam.
Christian Lutz, photographer, co-winner of the Vevey International Photography Award in 2009-10, Geneva.
James Reid: photography director, Wallpaper*, London.

Subscribe now on the website www.images.ch and send your photo project before 15 April 2011!

More info can be found via:

Festival Images
CP 443 - 1800 Vevey - Switzerland
+41 (0)21 922 48 54
photo(at)images(dot)ch

Alina Kisina

2011-03-28T11:23:00.002+02:00

All images © Alina Kisina

Here's an interesting project by Ukranian-born, London-based photographer Alina Kisina. City of Home is a series of half abstract, half representational photographs that conflate Kiev cityscapes and interiors. Kisina's images become a dialectical and lyrical space questioning the changing state of both personal and cultural values in Ukraine. Malcolm Dickson, Director of Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow (where she recently exhibited), said of the work: "...Whilst there is a longing in the images, Kisina is too young to be nostalgic (!). She is an image-maker embarking on her artistic journey, wide awake to her task and too driven to dwell on distances to lose sight of the road ahead. These photographs, which glow and pulsate, help plot the way."

I had the pleasure of meeting Alina in person at this year's FORMAT International Photography Festival in Derby which she was also part of, and she immediately struck me as a very sincere but fiesty and fearless person with an intersting story to boot. Here is her artist statement on becoming a photographer:

"Having been brought up in a rather conservative family and trained as a linguist I never questioned my beliefs, tastes or occupation until a single event drew a line between 'Before' and 'After' and the power of visual language revealed itself to me.

I suddenly became intrigued by mysteries and the spiritual qualities of things, realising the potential of visual discoveries made within this extraordinary means of communication. Photography became an obsession and a way of finding my place in the world.

I do not convey facts but merely suggestions, questions and emotions, relying primarily on my sincerity, the force with which I myself feel the emotion I transmit, to help me infect the viewer and share my interrelated but universal concerns.

I prefer not to intellectualise my work but admit the role philosophy played in my education – I cannot escape the categories of time and space that give me the illusion of replacing the material world with the world of ideas."

Have a listen to Kisina talking about her work on the BBC here.

Stefan Ruiz on VBS.TV

2011-03-25T18:29:00.004+01:00

Yesterday, I received word from the people at Vice about the premiere episode of Picture Perfect on VBS.TV featuring Stefan Ruiz. The series is comprised of "short video docs on our favourite photographers," they said in their press release.

In episode one, "Picture Perfect visits Stefan Ruiz at his studio in Brooklyn, New York where we talk about hoarding, portraiture, and his career as one of the best photographers around. We then go on assignment with him to Monterrey, Mexico, where an urban subculture of Cholombianos are so inspired by the Colombian style and culture that passes through town that theyʼll do anything to mimic it."

Each month, Vice will go behind the scenes to explore the artistic process of various photographers as they go on assignment to all corners of the Earth. "We'll see their successes and challenges as they attempt to capture life in a variety of interesting locales," they added. Since its launch in 2007, VBS.TV has become an industry leader in creating original content and providing online news. The channel now boasts over 40 established shows covering everything from current events to sports to investigative reporting to music. VBS.TV and VICE operate in 30 countries, and license over 20 television shows for broadcast throughout Europe and North and South America.

Ben Murphy

2011-03-23T12:49:00.023+01:00

All images ©Ben Murphy

Investigating "some of the problems and paradoxes within the structure of contemporary American society, and the ideologies of freedom and advancement on which it was founded", Ben Murphy's Homeless Encampments of the American West depicts the temporary shelters of 'homeless' individuals who have taken up semi-nomadic residence in California and Nevada.

These ad-hoc living spaces which seem to inhabit the 'wastelands' on the periphery of the city, are in a sense sculptural representations of a facet of the American psyche and, an evocative twist of the idea of the American 'settler'.

Murphy writes: "With limited resources in insecure environments, a sense of home and identity is achieved and established through an improvised impermanent architecture.

American homeless settlements exist as ghettoized counter cultures; often neglected, and marginalized by the communities they live amongst, identifiable by the dwellings made from found materials, vehicles, tents and the remnants of peoples pasts, as much as by the inhabitants themselves. Hidden in woodlands, under freeways, and on embankments, or more conspicuously sited on roadsides, in industrial areas, public spaces and wasteland these liminal environments rarely exist for more than a few days or weeks before they disappear to leave the traces of an existence."

Ben Murphy's career initially began with a BA in Graphic Design at Northumbria University, and, after years spent working as a musician, actor, assistant designer to Neville Brody and a stint as assistant art director for Face Magazine, Murphy settled on photography. It seems the choice was well made. Murphy has since exhibited widely, and is held in permanent collection at the V&A and the National Portrait Gallery and has held shows at The Courtauld Gallery, Plymouth City Art Gallery, and Steiglitz19. He has also been featured in publications such as Portfolio, The Telegraph Magazine, The Sunday Times,Wallpaper, The Independent and published The U.N Building with Thames and Hudson in 2005.

1000 Words Photography - The Collection

2011-03-21T13:22:00.013+01:00

We are delighted to announce new work in the 1000 Words Collection, Tender #4 by Andrew Bruce.

© Andrew Bruce

Medium - 1 available
Edition of 5
£495.00
51 x 40.5 cm paper size
38.50 x 30.50 cm image size

NB: This is a hand print on C-type Kodak ultra endura paper. It comes with a certificate signed by the artist and is the first print from the edition. The print is produced with a white border around the photograph to allow for framing. We also have included some cotton gloves to protect the print during handling.

As a cyclist travelling to and from college Andrew Bruce was aware of the amount of dead animals and birds on the road. As the cars sped past him he began to wonder how easy it would be for him to meet the same fate.

Andrew became inspired by the tragedy of their sudden death and haunted by the imagined sound of metal against flesh and bone; seeing the road-kill as a potent symbol of humanity's clash with nature, both literally and figuratively. His response can be seen in his series Nature Morte, Vanitas and Tender.

Nature Morte was his first work in which he photographed dead animals in the landscape as he found them, producing a document of their death. The use of a 10x8 camera and lights produces a visceral quality and the impact of the damage to their bodies is palpable. Harsh in its subject matter, the beauty of the chiaroscuro lighting on the dead animal creates a visual potency.

For his later work Andrew moved to a more staged and performance based approach. Gathering the dead animals as he found them, Andrew wrapped them up in his backpack and cycled home; keeping them in a freezer until he was ready to photograph them. In preparation for the photography he would carefully clean off the mud and dried blood to reinstate a beauty to the dead body.

Not interested in simply recording the reality of their death, Andrew brought himself into the photograph for the series Tender. Holding each creature against his naked torso Andrew has made the idea of their deaths more poetic and less coldly brutal.

As Andrew says "we barely notice the thud...and it is the thud that is my starting point."

Watch the artist video and read more information here.

1000 thanks to Andrew for his generosity, and of course to our partners Bridget and Michael from Troika Editions.

1000 Words - Board of Directors

2011-03-16T17:13:00.016+01:00

We are very proud to announce that 1000 Words has recently appointed a new board of directors with the goal of providing strategic direction, ensuring that objectives are achieved, ascertaining that risks are managed appropriately and verifying that the organisations resource’s are used responsibly. They will be crucial to the next stage of 1000 Words’ development. They are:

Camilla Gore is the Director of Flaere Gallery, based in Paris and London specialising in contemporary photography which she founded in 2009. She has eight years’ experience in finance at Ernst & Young LLP focused on the energy sector and has worked at HSBC advising multinational companies on strategy and raising finance, specialising in Asia. She also acts as a freelance consultant at Brunswick Arts, a leading global communications consultancy dedicated to managing and providing strategic advice to arts organisations, charities and the not-for-profit sector with dedicated teams in London, Berlin, Paris, Beijing, New York, Stockholm and Dubai, working fluently in 13 languages. Gore is also the co-founder of Still/Moving, an artist-led venture that aims to bring artists who are defining a new language in photography to London through week-long workshops. A chartered accountant, she holds an MA in Mandarin Chinese.

Nicholas Barker is an award-winning documentary film-maker, director and passionate art collector. He read anthropology at London University and upon graduating started to work for the BBC World Service directing radio drama during the 1980s. Moving into television he produced the popular series Washes Whiter, Signs of the Times and From A to B followed by a feature film, Unmade Beds; an unflinching looks at the over-forties dating scene in New York produced by Chelsea Pictures in 1996. He is currently shooting advertising commercials and his client list includes Burger King, Utterly Butterly, Whiskas, Carte D’Or, McCains and Volkswagen. Nicholas Barker is represented by Rogue Films (UK), Imported Artists (Canada), Chelsea Pictures (USA), Hot Dog Filmproduktion (Germany) and Le Pac (France).

Simon Baker is Curator of Photography and International Art at Tate. He is Tate’s first curator of photography and joined in 2009 from the University of Nottingham, where he was Associate-Professor of Art History. He has researched and written widely on surrealism, photography, and contemporary art; and co-curated the exhibitions Undercover Surrealism: Georges Bataille and Documents (Hayward, London: 2006) and Close-Up: Proximity and defamiliarisation in art, film, and photography (Fruitmarket, Edinburgh: 2008).

Aron Morel is the Director of Morel Books, a London-based independent publisher specialising in affordable limited edition art books and zines made in close collaborations with artists. Recent titles include Moonmilk by Ryan McGinley, The Wedding by Boris Mikhailov and A Season in Hell by Rimbaud, Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe.

Louise Clements is the Artistic Director and Curator at QUAD, a visual arts and media centre in Derby UK. She is also co-founder and Artistic Director/Curator of FORMAT International Photography Festival, Derby UK. FORMAT is one of the UK’s leading contemporary photography festivals since 2004 whose biennial programme celebrates the best of contemporary photography from all over the world. She also participates on photo juries including Vauxhall Collective Style Council Photography Award, Shoot the Street British Journal of Photography, EXPOSURE UK, New York Photography Festival Awards. Reviews portfolios at events in Slovakia, China, India, UK, USA and more. She has written for various artists, catalogues and magazines in both print and online media including VAGA, Creative Review, Next Level, a-n magazine, Troika Editions and Arts Professional. She is currently collaborating with Mark McPherson at Big City Press on a new edition of Hijacked – contemporary photography from Australia/UK.

Tim Clark is the Editor-in-chief and Director at 1000 Words Photography Magazine. Clark has a background in Photography and Visual Culture from Falmouth College of Arts and the University of Brighton, England and has previously worked as a photography critic at The Barcelona Metropolitan. His writing has also appeared in The British Journal of Photography, a-n Magazine, The Daily Telegraph, Next Level, Foto8, Hotshoe, Eyemazing and Fotograf as well as in various exhibition catalogues. He has judged a number of awards and competitions, and has reviewed portfolios at Les Rencontres d’Arles, BJP Vision, New York’s ICP Career Day, FORMAT International Photography Festival and FotoFest Paris. He lives and works in London.

Michael Grieve was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1966. He was educated at the Polytechnic of Central London and graduated with an MA in Photographic Studies from the University of Westminster in 1997. He is a documentary photographer and is represented by Agence VU in Paris. He works for various magazines internationally and specialises in features and portraits. No Love Lost, a project about sexual environments in the UK, is his first photobook and will be published in 2011. He is also the Deputy Editor of 1000 Words and lectures on photography at Nottingham Trent University.

Norman Clark is a chartered management accountant with forty-four years’ experience in the engineering, construction and service industries. During this time, as well as preparing financial group accounts he has had in depth involvement in the fields of corporate governance, development and control of management information systems and business process re-engineering. He was a founding member of the management team that set up of a legal expenses insurance unit for global insurer, Lawclub Legal Protection and has also been running his own accountancy practise for a number of years.

Sarah Fuller

2011-03-16T16:13:00.018+01:00

All images © Sarah Fuller

This intimate project aptly titled Book of Dreams taunts the viewer to jump the chasm between a subconscious dreamworld and the external sleeping experience that occurs contiguously.

Artist/collaborator Sarah Fuller explains: "each participant takes home my pinhole camera and sets it up with the aperture facing their bed as per my instructions outlined in the back flap of the journal. Upon waking, the shutter is closed and the participant records the contents of what was dreamed during the 8 to 9 hour exposure. As an evolving book of dream recordings, the journal has the interesting function of acting as an archive of the people whose dreams are inside and an ever-growing intimate story book that each contributor has the opportunity to read before adding their own entry."

Book of Dreams seems to lie at the crossroads of performance and artifact. Highly forensic, the viewer is steered down the avenues of psychoanalysis and the pseudo-science of graphology. The inpenetrability of the project seems to question the empirical nature of portraiture itself, and what can be known is built on the fascinating but tenuous, double-handed foundations of dreams and their vernacular.

Having completed her BFA in 2003 at the Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver, Sarah Fuller went on to complete residencies in both Iceland and Canada and exhibit at galleries such as Latitude 53 in Edmonton, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary and Three Walls Gallery, Chicago, Ill. Her work is also held in collection at the Canada Council Art Bank and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Fuller is currently working towards exhibiting new work at the Art Gallery of Alberta in May 2011.

Massimiliano Perasso

2011-03-14T12:53:00.004+01:00

Places still available for Anders Petersen workshop in Morocco!

2011-03-09T13:14:00.007+01:00

There are still two places available for the 1000 Words Workshop with highly-acclaimed Swedish photographer, Anders Petersen at riad 9 in Fez, Morocco (27 April-1 May 2011). We are asking both professional and amateur photographers to submit entries for this rare and challenging experience.

Watch these video clips from a previous workshop for a taster Anders in action. This should get your creative juices flowing:

Please click here for more information and how to submit. As you'll, see we've extended the deadline for applications to 28 March.

Oblong Gallery presents JH Engström, Laura Hynd, Michael Grieve and Tereza Zelenková

2011-02-23T15:50:00.014+01:00

Image © JH Engström

What Oblong Gallery lacks in space it certainly makes up for with quality. In its next exhibition, the works of JH Engström, Laura Hynd, Michael Grieve and Tereza Zelenkova (all 1000 Words affiliated artists) have been brought together to explore the subjective approach of the authors in their search for meaning in an existential world. Together they embrace the tragedy of dislocation and beauty of absurdity through work that is grounded in the sublime impossibility of the documentary genre. The exhibition is a rare opportunity to understand the sensibilities of four extraordinary art photographers.

JH Engström (1000 Words issue #6 cover artist) is a Swedish photographer of notable distinction. His works, Trying to Dance, Haunts, From Back Home and La Residence have been published by Journal, Max Strom and Steidl, and he has exhibited widely including Galerie Vu in Paris, Gun Gallery in Stockholm and at Arles Photofestival where his project, Wells, was curated by Nan Goldin. At Oblong, Engström is showing photographs from his distinguished series, Trying to Dance.

Laura Hynd (1000 Words Workshop with Antoine d´Agata/Anders Petersen participant)was born in Scotland and is an accomplished photographer who is commissioned by prestigious, national and international magazines and publications. Her current work in progress, The Letting Go, is a significant departure from editorial concerns. With artistic expression, she depicts a deeply personal journey allowing chance to dictate the process, and in doing so explores her identity and her relationship to others. Much of the work is situated in the heart of the vibrant medina of Fez.

Michael Grieve (1000 Words Deputy editor) is a British photographer. His portfolios are regularly published and reviewed in contemporary art photography journals and his last project, No Love Lost, has been exhibited at various galleries and festivals in Europe. His new, on going, body of work, The Foreigner, is photographed in Morocco. It is a fictional documentation of a real place that represents the unfathomable inability to connect with the substance of life.

Tereza Zelenková (1000 Words issue #10 featured artist) is from the Czech Republic and is currently studying at the Royal College of Art. Her highly praised project, Supreme Vice, is a distinctively accomplished set of documentary visual metaphors inspired by the occult that studies the tension between the inability of science to provide satisfactory answers in a world where god is dead. Her work has been regularly reviewed and exhibited. The book, Supreme Vice, is published by Morel Books in 2011.

Oblong Gallery presents JH Engström, Laura Hynd, Michael Grieve and Tereza Zelenková
3-23 March 2011 (Private view 2 March)
69 Southgate Road
London N1

Shadow Catchers: Camera-Less Photography

2011-02-16T16:10:00.030+01:00

Image © Floris Neusüss

If you haven't had a chance to check out Shadow Catchers: Camera-less Photography at the V&A yet, there's still time, as the show closes it's doors on 20 February. Featuring Floris Neusüss, Pierre Cordier, Susan Derges, Garry Fabian Miller and Adam Fuss, the exhibition offers a cross-section of the careers of each artist alongside new work created exclusively for the occasion.

In contrast to the visually verbose nature of much photography, the work of the artists presented here is by turns minimal and reductive. The differing techniques - achieved by not using a camera - create an interesting sense of indexicality and gently coax the viewer into a highly contemplative state. Living up to the title, the ethereal and the fleeting loom large and the work often draws inspiration from nature, religion, science as well as photographic history.

Introducing the exhibition is Floris Neusüss’ work - well developed in exploring it's themes of "mythology, history, nature and the subconcious". At times somewhat fetishised, his Gewitterbild pieces – photographs exposed by lightning – were fascinating in their inversion of ideas of authorship.

Pierre Cordier is unique within the group, insisting strongly that he does not ‘make’ photographs. His highly complex works stem from a strong interest in the cryptic, the cult-ish and the encoded. These, combined with his pseudo-scientific approach provide an intoxicating mix of both control and chance, all enshrouded by an air of obsessiveness.

Renown for her photograms of water, Susan Derges work is largely influenced by ideas of cyclical rhythm and ‘what underlies the visual’. Her Arch series is truly brought to life with a separate room solely dedicated to it allowing you to fully soak it in.

Masterful in his execution,Garry Fabian Miller's abstract images focus on "the essence of photography: time and light". His ‘photographs’ take both a spiritual and meditative form, seeming always to posit the question ‘what is the real essence?’

Seeming to finally underscore and examine our relationship to nature, the final room in the exhibition is dedicated entirely to Adam Fuss’ series My Ghost. Nuss takes us on a journey of the spiritual through symbolic and emblematic motifs.

The truism that sometimes the nature of things can be better understood, not by what they are, but by what they are not, certainly seems apt here, and as a whole, the exhibition is defined in this way - rather than documenting the world, the camera-less photographs show what has never really existed at all.

Shadow Catchers: Camera-less Photography is curated by Martin Barnes, Senior Curator of Photographs at the V&A and exhibits from the 13 October - 20 February.

La Boheme Artists in the 19th and 20th century photography by Bodo von Dewitz

2011-02-16T15:20:00.014+01:00

We’ve got three copies of La Boheme Artists in the 19th and 20th century photography by Bodo von Dewitz to give away, courtesy of our partners Steidl. Follow us on Twitter @1000wordsmag and retweet the announcement to enter. Offer ends 25 February.

Bodo von Dewitz
La Boheme Artists in the 19th and 20th century photography
Steidl

Henry Murger described within his novel La Bohème for the first time in history the life and struggle of poor artists within bourgeois society. This was the beginning of the romantic myth of the independent, anarchistic spirit of creative artists. In that context photography played an important role, used by the artists for self-exposure and to document their working conditions and leisure. The bohemian legend persists in literature, on stage and film, as well as in the attitudes of numerous artists of our own time. This book assembles daguerreotypes and photographs of painters, sculptures, writers and actors, portraits and group pictures, pictures of studio interiors and parties from the late Biedermeier over the Belle Epoche up to the 19th and 20th Century.

Besides the pictures from famous photographers as Nadar, Alois Löcherer, Wilkie Wynfield, J.M. Cameron, August Sander and Lux Feininger, the book contains numerous unusual pictures of unknown “masters”.

Bodo von Dewitz, born in 1950, is director of the Agfa Foto-Historama of Museum Ludwig in Cologne since 1985. He is the initiator of numerous exhibitions on the cultural history of photography.

La Boheme Artists in the 19th and 20th century photography by Bodo von Dewitz
320 pages
25 cm x 28 cm
Hardcover
Steidl & Partners
ISBN: 978-3-86930-139-6
UK £52.00
US $75.00
EC €58.00
Publication date: October 2010

Carrie Levy

2011-02-14T15:44:00.007+01:00

All images © Carrie Levy

This project came across my desk a few days ago via one of our contributing writers, Susan Bright. Both beautiful and poetic, it is also disquieting and dark. It's serious stuff, in the sense that it addresses some of the underlying tensions of photography - namely the politics of representation - not in an obvious way, but by various subtle and beguiling means.

"For my latest body of work, You Before All (2008-present), says Levy, "my photographs continue to concentrate on my camera's ability to harshly manipulate its subjects while controlling their bodies and emotions. The simple approach and ominous tone in this series introduces two paradoxical states: pain and ecstasy along side villain and victim. As the photographer, I want the viewer to question my motives as they experience the potential harm or pleasure inflicted upon my models. Being a female artist and the authority behind this work, I chose solely male subjects in order to enhance the submissive nature of the imagery.

You Before All questions the line that separates pain from pleasure. The work magnifies how in the moment it is hard to decipher between these two very different emotions. Both are intense, but are very much the opposite of another.The aim in this body of work is to ask the viewer to uncover which one of these emotions is behind a single frame and where he or she is more sympathetic. Throughout the series, my role as the photographer is to play the part of the predator. I contort my subjects to look like victims. However, whether they are victims of pain or pleasure is up to the viewer to decide."

Carrie Levy is a photographer and a photo editor based in Brooklyn, New York. She received her BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2000 and her MFA from The Royal College of Art, London, in 2005. She is represented by Daniel Cooney Fine Art since 2002 and has exhibited throughout the US, Asia, and Europe. Trolley Books published her first monograph in 2005 titled 51 Months. Her next solo show opens at Daniel Cooney on 17 February 2011. Besides widely exhibiting her works, Levy has also been a photo editor at numerous publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek. Today she is a freelance senior photo editor at GQ magazine. Levy is part-time professor of photography at the School of Visual Arts.

Ej Major wins The Salon Photo Prize 2011

2011-02-09T16:50:00.015+01:00

Thank you to all those who applied to The Salon Photo Prize 2011. Making the selection was far from easy. Out of an extensive list of strong entries (we received 953 applications in total), the judging panel has chosen 39 artists to exhibit:

Manuela Barczewski, Sara Bjarland, Richard Burton, Emma Crichton, Alex Currie, Julia Curtin, Marysa Dowling, Lisa Elmaleh, Valentina Ferrandes, Iulia Filipovscaia, Jo Gane, Marguerite Garth, Ben Gold, Isabelle Graeff, Julie Hill, Ellie Davies, Tess Hurrell, Mandy Lee Jandrell, Jordanna Kalmann, Özant Kamaci, Naima Karlsson, Yaron Lapid, EJ Major, Zoe Maxwell, Georgina McNamara, Kate Nolan, Ethna O'Regan, Vesna Pavlovic, Sever Petrovici-Popescu, Luca Sage, Carolyn Scott, Louise Short, Jayne Smith, Alison Stolwood, Jan Stradtmann, Carole Suety, Chiara Tocci, Philip Tottenham, Rachel Wilberforce.

The exhibition will continue from 4 February - 26 February, Friday-Sunday (12.00-18.00) at Matt Roberts Project Space.

To download this year’s PDF catalogue please click here. Below are a few photographs from the opening on Thursday 3 February, taken by Robson Yee, editorial assistant at 1000 Words. It was an entertaining opening night and a tremendous turn out with over 1,300 people packing out the gallery.

All images © Robson Yee | 1000 Words

Congratulations to Ej Major, who has been named as the winner of The Salon Photo Prize 2011. Major´s piece, an excerpt selected from her series To Shoulder, explores themes of construction of identity in the digital media age:

Image © Ej Major

Of the work she says: "Recently I’ve become interested in protest. The Suffragette movement provides a historical context for the performance and investigation of protest today, a fixed vantage point from which to explore the myriad issues we are asked to care about today. It also acts as counterpoint to my own ambivalence. An ambivalence born of fatigue at the information overload that surrounds the globalized internet generation."

She will receive £1000 and a solo exhibition in 2012, supported by 1000 Words. Watch this space for more developments and news on the show.

Jacques Derrida on photography

2011-02-09T12:53:00.012+01:00

An interesting musing by Jacques Derrida on himself as an author, the dissemination of photographs and what happened in 1969.

"I absolutely forbade all public photographs of myself. I like photography, I don't have anything against it but..."

Yvonne Venegas

2011-02-09T11:51:00.001+01:00

All images © Yvonne Venegas

What we get in Yvonne Venegas' project Maria Elvia de Hank is a double-glazed representation of the Mexican bourgeois, and more specifically the particulars of one woman's creation of self-conscious social ideals and how she reifies them. In Venegas' own words:

"The focus of this project is the life, family and surroundings of Maria Elvia de Hank, the wife of the eccentric millionaire and Tijuana’s ex-mayor Mr. Jorge Hank Rohn. With her as the axis of my project, I am interested in how a woman who is wife of one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs of Mexico, builds with a perfectionist touch, a social and beauty ideal that participates as an example in both her private and public life, all this within the Tijuana upper middle class, one that is transparently still under construction."

Maria Elvia de Hank is brought to us a year after the completion of Venegas' MFA in Visual Arts at University of California San Diego. Apart from assisting various photographers including Rineke Dijkstra and Juergen Teller, Venegas' time prior to her MFA was largely spent working as a freelance photographer and teacher.

To view more of Maria Elvia de Hank and Venegas' other projects, check out her website as www.yvonnevenegas.com

How to make a book with Steidl

2011-02-07T16:50:00.000+01:00

A conversation with John Gossage

2011-02-07T11:14:00.005+01:00

Join the legendary John Gossage and Curator of photography at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Toby Jurovics for a conversation about The Pond and its role in the history of American landscape photography.

Introducing the work, Toby notes: "They are not easy photographs to understand, nor is the subject matter equally likeable." What is then that makes Gossage such a great photographer? Gerry Badger seems to have the answer(s). Here is an extract from the chapter called A Certain Sensibility: John Gossage, The Photographer as Auteur in his brilliant book The Pleasures of Good Photographs (Aperture, 2010):

"What makes a very good, or a great photographer? Is it the steady accumulation of stunning single images, in the manner of a painter, the standout pictures that catch the eye in an art gallery and immediately attract the imitators, perhaps forming the beginnings of a school? The painterly photographers, or the photographic painters, if you will, like Andreas Gursky or Jeff Wall, would seem to think so, although this is not to say that their particular ouevres are simply disconnected successions of highlights without an overaching meaning, an accusation one might certainly fling at the less-gifted followers of this tendency.

Is the great photographer characterised by style? There is a presumption, with the recent art market interest in the medium, that photographers who are artists rather than mere photographers distinguish themselves as such by exhibiting a marked style. Therefore there is a tendency, encouraged by the work of the Bechers and the Dusseldorf School, to progressively distill one´s vision, reducing the range of subject matter and its treatment until it can be claimed - usually by the gallerist - that so-and-so has developed an original and instantly recognisable style. Style equals branding, and branding means sales, so we get the fairly common phenomenon of the photographer who hits upon one extraordinary image and then repeats it, with minor variations, for the rest of his or her career. In short, the Mark Rothko´s of photography.

Or are the really great photographers drawn from the ranks of those who reject visual style in favour of a visual sensibility, those who recognise that the medium is profligate rather than reductive, and more akin to the film or the novel than the painting? Those accordingly, who tend to put content before form.

Of course, there are no rules for creating great photographers. Great artists, great photographers, reach such a pinnacle because they do not follow the norm. They break rules. They follow their instincts and convictions, not the herd and the smart money. But in my view at least, the best photographers tend to come from the last category, those whose style and individuality emanates from deep within them, and is not, as is the case I feel with all too many, something grafted on from outside."

1000 Words Photography Magazine #10

2011-02-07T10:37:00.003+01:00

It gives us great pleasure to let you know that the new issue of 1000 Words "Aporia" has now hit the digital shelves. To view it please go to: www.1000wordsmag.com

APORIA: [uh-pawr-ee-uh, uh-pohr-] The expression of a simulated or real doubt, as about where to begin or what to do or say.

[from Greek, literally: a state of being at a loss]

This issue brings together a number of exciting artists in an attempt to tackle the idea of a shared reality and the possibility - or impossibility - of its representation through photography. "Photography is a fiction," said John Gossage "not the fiction that implies a lie, but the kind of fiction that describes the experience you are getting as fleeting and transitory yet at the same time permanent. It’s not reality in the normal way we navigate it."

With this in mind, Photography critic and Picture editor at The Telegraph, Lucy Davies considers the fascinating portraits of Robert Bergman; Aaron Schuman speaks to Craig Mammano about his work on survival and isolation in the Treme neighbourhood of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina; Curator Susan Bright takes a look at Taryn Simon’s new book Contraband; Artistic director at QUAD and Co-founder of FORMAT International Photography Festival Louise Clements takes a look at the portfolio of young Russian photographer, Nikita Pirogov; Natasha Christia profiles Czech-born, Tereza Zelenková, another promising young talent who graduated from The University of Westminster in 2010; and finally 1000 Words Deputy editor Michael Grieve brings us a rare and rewarding interview with the highly-respected and controversial Magnum photographer, Antoine d’Agata.

In the books section, we turn our attention to From Here to There: Alec Soth’s America by Alec Soth, Boris Mikhailov’s The Wedding and the stunning Thirty Two Inch Ruler/Map of Babylon by John Gossage.

As always, there is no shortage of people to thank, but we would like to show our appreciation to Santiago Taccetti from CCCH Creative Studio, Barcelona for his stellar design work, Carla Rigau for her expert translation services and new staff member, Robson Yee for his hard work and assistance with all matters editorial production. 1000 Words would also like to warmly welcome the recently appointed Board of directors and looks forward to working with them on the next stage of the organisation’s development. They are: Camilla Gore, Nicholas Barker, Simon Baker, Louise Clements, Aron Morel, Tim Clark, Michael Grieve and Norman Clark.

Clikpic - websites for photographers and artists

2011-02-07T10:30:00.003+01:00

Clikpic is a special service that provides photographers and artists with excellent looking websites for only £35 pa. With minimal technical expertise required, you can use their online admin system and a wide choice of template designs to create and edit your own website with the minimum amount of hassle and expense.

-Update and change your site whenever you want and as often as you like.
Link up to PayPal or Google Checkout to sell your work online - you can even have a shopping basket facility within your website.
-Have as many pages as you like in a variety of formats.
-Dozens of features and options to customise your site and give it your own feel and look.
-Slideshows, image watermarking services, guestbooks, contact forms, etc, plus many more built-in features!
-The beauty of the Clikpic system is that you can make your site as easy or as complex as you like, with dozens of additional features and options to do more or less whatever you want with your website. All within the £35 price band!

Visit www.clikpic.com for a free 14 day trial.

Interview with 1000 Words Deputy editor Michael Grieve

2011-02-01T11:48:00.004+01:00

An abridged version of the following interview between Nina Strand, editor at Objectiv and 1000 Words' Deputy editor Michael Grieve was recently published in the Norwegian newspaper, Dagbladet. Read on for a more in depth discussion about the future of print, digital curating, the problems with the term 'emerging artist' and the thinking behind 1000 Words as the magazine prepares to launch its landmark 10th issue.

Nina Strand

Michael Grieve

NS: After 22 years Portfolio ends, what are your thoughts?

MG: I think it is very sad that Portfolio will no longer exist. Its design, editing, writing and production values are superb and set the standard for any aspiring photographer to grace its pages. Photography needs high standards in all areas and that this particular magazine has folded is a great loss.

NS: And your thoughts on Photoworks?

MG: Photoworks is an integral aspect of the 'art' photography community in Britain and across the globe. It tends to deal with more conceptually driven photography with a very clean aesthetic which dominates a great deal of photographic practice these days. I feel that there is room for more variation, photography which perhaps does not fit into neat categories.

NS: Is it a trend in Britain now for online journals, like 1000 Words?

MG: I am not sure it is a 'trend' in Britain. There are perhaps lots of blogs, but I would differentiate between a blog and an online magazine. We regard our blog as the sister site and we use it as a platform to promote work that does not make it to the magazine and to promote 1000 Words events. At a time when photography is becoming sanitized and institutionalized we are in need of new and interesting ways to harness the mass proliferation of images. 1000 Words is simply utilising technology to curate quality photography. We see an online presence as a thing in itself, it is not trying to replace the printed magazine. I see it on a par with the 'punk ethic' and remember friends using photocopying machines back in the early 1980's to produce fanzines. 1000 Words is using a more sophisticated technology but it is still a DIY attitude born from frustrations and a reaction to the 'institutionalisation' of the 'art' photography world. But the 1000 Words magazine is the first step in our concept. It is essentially our flagship and the power we have is in being able to communicate to a mass audience (the magazine attracts approximately 140,000 unique visitors from more than 75 countries every month) and we can utilise this fact to promote other 1000 Words activities outside of cyberspace, such as the the recent workshop we organised with Antoine d'Agata in Morocco. 1000 Words is not just an online magazine.

NS: Do you think the paper magazine will survive?

MG: People will always find ways to produce print magazines. It is a fetish and therefore a seduction that is essential to any lover of the photograph. An audience needs the tactile relationship to photography. Money is always the issue, but just as photographers are now finding ways to raise the finances to self publish, in response to the limited and often dire financial restrictions of established publishers, so will those with a passion to produce the printed magazine. 1000 Words also intends to produce an annual printed magazine. As I said before it is not a question of one thing or the other. However, our project has the benefit of experimentation and Tim and I are constantly thinking on lateral terms, in other words, how can we arrive at a certain point from a different perspective.

NS: What are your thoughts on the magazine as a showroom for emerging artists?

MG: Not sure about the term 'emerging artists'. I think this term is slightly patronising and presupposes that at some point you emerge.... but into what I'm not sure! It is a tidy term that has entered into recent language to deal with the huge proliferation of younger photographers. These 'emerging photographers' are the victims of this terminology and therefore enter the huge amount of competitions and unproductive portfolio reviews for 'emerging photographers', spending money they probably do not have. Being a photographer should never be neatly categorised into some careerist mode. Photography is a journey and at no point do you 'make it' as the journey is never ending, even after death.

There are obviously well-known, lesser-known and unknown photographers but we believe in merit and strive to showcase those works that represent creative skill, emotion, intelligence and that certain something that cannot be pinned down by words. We do not subscribe to trends and fashions in photography but rather pluck out what we consider to be relevant to the contemporary world and highlight work that will stand the test of time. A selection process on every level of photography is greatly needed. As a platform for showing the work of photographers 1000 Words offers promotion on a massive scale and hopes that it will stir the curiosity of people to buy the photographer's book or go and see their work in galleries, or simply look and read about it on our magazine. Like all mediums ours has its limitations. For example, we have designed the magazine in a simple but sophisticated way that gives photography and writing prime space. Advertising for us must be effective for the advertisers but not at the expense of what really matters. So we are always finding ways to not allow advertising to encroach yet make sure we develop bespoke packages for them that reward their loyality. It's a fine balance but it is all about working with advertisers and sponsors who want to relate to the topics and themes we're engaged in; a shared interest.

NS: Writing about photography is an art in itself, how do you work with the writers?

MG: Writing about photographers work is a very responsible thing to do and should not be taken lightly. It is, of course, an interpretation of someone else's creative output and it should only ever be perceived as that. But the work of different photographers demand different approaches. With some, it may be appropriate to ask questions, with others it could be a features review about a book. The balance to be achieved is always to be sensitive but also to project your ideas onto a body of work with the greatest respect. We commission writers who we feel have a certain understanding and appreciation of the particular photographer. In the current issue the curator of photography at the Tate, Simon Baker, applied his theories of George Bataille towards an interpretation of Leigh Ledare´s recent body of work, and it was the perfect mix as Simon had co-curated a show dedicated to Bataille at the Hayward Gallery a few years ago and instantly understood and brought the connection to Ledare´s work, which in itself is a creative act. And, like the photography we choose, the writers we commission share a passion.

The essays we hope, are open to debate as there is nothing worse than a culture of nodding dogs. Some magazines may declare that they are the authority on photography but we prefer an attitude of open mindedness and declare nothing accept to confess that we have everything to learn.

Laura Noel

2011-01-26T18:17:00.017+01:00

All images © Laura Noel

Another notable submission we've received recently is Laura Noel's Fiction, an introspective meditation on postmodernism and the self. Noel is an American photographer based in Atlanta, Georgia, who originally pursued her BA in Public Policy Studies and later graduated from the University of Georgia with an MFA in Photography.

Noel has developed a unique way of working with her images, the reasons for which she expands upon in her statement about Fiction:

"My photographs are like the first sentence of a short story, only the ending can never be certain. I pair images together to enhance the narratives I sense and build up in my mind while working in the street surrounded by strangers I can never really know, but feel a connection to. I am fascinated by the strong emotions that emanate from people isolated on the streets and in social settings. Occasionally the presence of manmade objects is powerful enough that people become superfluous and do not appear in the image.

I fracture these incomplete stories into diptychs so the line where the two images meet becomes the seam between fact and fiction, reality and longing, the universal and the personal. The structure of the image supports the concept behind the picture. The major theme running through Fiction is the struggle to maintain individuality in an increasingly homogeneous society. This is something I feel acutely in my own life and see reflected in others.

Through photography my life becomes intertwined with the people and places I see. By focusing my camera on certain people,I am making them a part of my life. These people catch my attention, because their appearances and actions touch something in my past or confront some of my concerns. It seems natural that these images be diptychs joining my real life with the imagined lives of others."

Noel has clearly been very active, and aside from working as an adjunct professor at Emory University, she has exhibited internationally including festivals, galleries and museums in China, the US and Germany.

Her photographs have also notably appeared in on-line and in print in Photography Now, Photography Quarterly, PHOTONEWS (Germany)and Lens Culture.

For more of Fiction, other projects and information on Noel visit www.lauranoel.com

Dominic Bell

2011-01-26T17:13:00.008+01:00

All images © Dominic Bell

I recently received these intriguing and ethereal images from Dominic Bell as part of his ongoing Broken Waves project. A recent photography graduate of the University of the Arts Bournemouth, Bell's work explores the state of our relationship with nature.

"Broken Wave, seeks to represent the objectification of nature through the investigation of current notions surrounding the contemporary seascape. The work of Broken Wave strives to exemplify the possibilities of the relationship between the sculptural object and the photographic image through an investigation into the nature of time and photography. The photographs within Broken Wave are depicted with the aim of superseding the original objects and making the temporality of the sculptural work be replaced by aspects of timelessness. This work is part of an ongoing investigation in to human interaction with landscape and our incessant desire for ‘objects’. By collecting samples of wave water and freezing them, the work plays on the themes of human intervention and destruction."

It's still under construction, but if you're itching for more you can take a look at Bell's work on his website.

William Eggleston plays the piano

2011-01-24T10:08:00.002+01:00

London Art Fair: Photography Day

2011-01-10T13:48:00.007+01:00

© Lisa Barnard

There sure are some great talks and tours as part of Photography Day (Wednesday 19 January) at this year´s London Art Fair. Scroll down for details.

Image Fatigue: Can photographs still be a catalyst for positive social change in a world saturated with images?
In association with PhotoVoice

12.00 – 1.00 Leading photography professionals discuss past and present campaigns that use socially driven imagery and ask whether they still have an impact in today’s media, and if so what makes these images successful in driving social change. The discussion is led by Marc Schlossman (PhotoVoice Trustee and photographer) with Gideon Mendel (Photojournalist) and Jessica Crombie (Film and Photography Manager, Save the Children).

On The Ephemeral in Photography
In association with Hotshoe Gallery and ORDINARY-LIGHT Photography

1.30 – 2.30 A panel discussion considering the etymology and characterisations of the ephemeral in photography and the wider concept of the ephemeral as it appears in culture and the arts. This session will be led by Daniel Campbell Blight (Director, Hotshoe Gallery) with Rut Blees Luxemburg (artist), Julian Stallabrass (Reader, The Courtauld Institute of Art) and Douglas Murphy (author of The Architecture of Failure, forthcoming from Zero Books).

(D)e-materialization and Photography in the Age of Technological Advance
In association with Hotshoe and ORDINARY-LIGHT Photography

3.00 – 4.00 A discussion of the (d)e-materialization of the photographic record in the age of technological advance. Led by Brad Feuerhelm (Director, ORDINARY-LIGHT Photography) , the panel includes Simon Bainbridge (Editor, British Journal of Photography) Charlotte Cotton (Creative Director, London Galleries, National Media Museum ), Jason Evans (artist, writer and lecturer) and Trish Morrisey (artist).

Politics in Photography
In association with Photoworks

4.30 – 5.30 This session focuses on contemporary photography concerned with the current socio-political climate in the UK. It considers the artists position in providing an important commentary on social change, political unrest and challenging political conventions. Speakers include: Anna Fox (artist and Professor of Photography, University of the Creative Arts), Lisa Barnard (artist, exhibiting in Photo50 at London Art Fair) and Steve Edwards (Senior Lecturer in Art History, Open University).

Collecting Contemporary Art
In association with the Contemporary Art Society

6.30 – 7.15 and 7.30 – 8.15 Now celebrating its centenary year, the Contemporary Art Society is the UK's leading authority on contemporary collecting. Over the last 100 years they have purchased the work of seminal artists early in their careers - Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon and Damien Hirst – and enjoy a unique and enviable reputation for being 'ahead of the curve'. These talks give you an opportunity to draw on their expertise to help you develop your own collection. The talks are led by Henry Little (Public Programmes Manager) and Dida Tait (Head of Membership and Market Development).

See their website for more information and how to book tickets.

Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz

2010-12-18T15:52:00.009+01:00

When we think of snow globes we tend to think of cozy miniature worlds; that kitschy souvenir from childhood that took its pride of place on top of the TV, occasionally picked up, shaken and marvelled at in wonder as the snow flakes swirled round and round before eventually falling onto fairytales scenes, Jesus in a manger or The Statue of Liberty. Yet Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz’s appropriation of the snow globe in their art is less about the sentimentality of tacky memorabilia than the effects of toying with the implicit innocence of these familiar objects by creating strange scenarios within them.

At first glance Martin and Muñoz’s snow globes recall the pleasant feeling we have when it snows. An atmosphere in which silence prevails, a time when people are generally in their homes, the animals are resting and even nature itself seems asleep. However upon closer inspection it quickly becomes apparent that the winter fantasy has been somewhat skewed. Not everything seems as it appears: small acts of cruelty, violence and even dark humour come forth to captivate our imagination. Trapped in these snow globes are men and women seen alone or at the mercy of others, lost in a bleak, largely nocturnal landscape straight out of the ‘dead’ of winter. These are momento mori, weirdly reminiscent of the morbid scenes from the Coan Brothers modern masterpiece, Fargo. Travelers is at the same end of the spectrum as the film; an offbeat pseudo-moralist parable that forgoes the boundaries between horror and humour, and that is set in a whitewashed, winter wilderness wherein people are gripped by the cold storm of life as various atrocities unfold around them.

In this photographic series we come across thoroughly malevolent deeds such as a burly man dangling a child over a well or a man pushing a naked woman up to the edge of a glacier. Elsewhere however, images which show a large headed boy banging his forehead against a tree or a couple slow dancing in a cemetery are simply absurd. And while several photographs are particularly horrifying, such as the one of the man in a suit who has hung himself from a tree as the horse that carried him there moseys away, others are hilarious; the figure tipping his hat to another figure tipping his whole head being just one example. Some on the other hand are just downright scary, as is the case with the photograph of a giant spider hunting a helpless man or the one that depicts a procession of villagers wielding torches and heads on stakes. These are like crime scenes that would have perhaps better remained hidden but instead are put on full view before the mantle of snow covers up any traces that these wicked deeds ever took place.

Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz explore the human condition through an unsettling slippage of reality and fantasy. Paradoxes abound and so the works leave an ample space for interpretation in our minds to complete them. Travelers has a rich texture of ideas, references, memories and dreams but ultimately it is the suspension of disbelief that is the key to their reception and meaning-the odd experience of an everyday household object revealing itself to us as something more surreal totally stumps our expectations. This wonderful synthesis of the familiar and the strange is the linchpin of their work.

As many as 750 art works have been made by this artist team for Travelers. Their working method is clearly as painstaking as it is prolific, the end photograph being just the tip of the iceberg. After spending hours scouring model-making shops for tiny figurines the artists then take them apart, cut them up, paint them and finally reassemble the various body parts, often with oversized limbs or heads, to create the desired effect for their tableaux. Likewise all the elements used to create the barren environments require painstaking precision: spindly branches, trees empty of their leaves and other sparse shrubbery are fashioned out of plumbers’ epoxy (a malleable plastic that can be easily manipulated in order to imitate wooden parts) before being pieced together and covered in water resistant resin. Water mixed with a small measure of alcohol that acts as a preservative are used to fill the orbs so that they are finally ready to be photographed. By using a Mayima camera with a macro lens, bare backgrounds, shallow focus and uncanny illumination to photograph these snowy little worlds the resulting images simultaneously seduce and startle the viewer. Paloma Muñoz compiles hundreds of complimentary images in the process which are then enlarged into prints of enormous size.

The artists have been working together since 1994, having met one year previously when Muñoz was accompanying her mother on a trip from Madrid to New York for a painting show in which she was exhibiting. Not long after they were living and working together. According to them, the pivotal moment in their lives and in the development of their work according to them was when they lost their studio in Brooklyn to a developer in 2001. As a consequence of this they experienced a long period of time constantly chopping and changing their work space until they finally settled into a charming farmhouse in the highlands of East Pennsylvania. It has now not only become ‘home’ but also a great source of inspiration too since their huge studio windows afford a stark vista of snow-covered trees scattered across an otherwise barren landscape much like the ones we see in Travelers. To a certain extent the origin of Travelers can be traced back to this sublime experience of seeing the heavy mid-winter snow that falls like a blanket on these parts when house-hunting all those years ago. In the words of the artists themselves their work with snow globes in effect was a sort of “organic response to their immediate surroundings”.

Having said that, many of these snow globes in the Travelers series contain solitary individuals trudging through the snow storms, heavily laden with bags of shopping or suitcases on a journey to anywhere. Maybe then it is not the place but rather the placelessness that lies at the core of their project. After all the unstable notion of ‘home’ is like a seam running through their work; a constant presence which has resurfaced time and time again. Underlining this sense of belonging and personal identity the image most often used to represent the series is that of a couple struggling to drag their prefabricated house across an unforgiving, icy terrain. It could well be considered as personal anecdote and, by extension, symbolic of the artist’s uprooted lives. Cumbersome and immobile, the house appears to be rolling back down the very hill up which they have pushed it. Later, in a different work from the series, we see that their efforts have been entirely futile as the same house is found at the very edge of a cliff on the point of tumbling down to the abyss that awaits it below.

Those that have the strongest undertow of gloom however are the scenes where people set out, terribly ill-equipped through the blinding blizzard that lies ahead, with no home to go to whatsoever. Such images bring to mind the millions of immigrants in the world that have abandoned a past, a culture and a family in search of a better life abroad for one reason or another, not least because of international conflicts. The protagonists in Travelers walk down an empty road hauling what remains of there belongings with them without even knowing where they are heading. They are eternally frozen in limbo between two indefinite spaces. Their open ended narrative threads refuse to be neatly tied up and instead speak more to the universal concerns of struggle, loss and lament. Therefore the journey that we are really taken on here is not such much physical as psychological that in the end leads only to the existential doubts and fears we have within us.

All images © Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz

Courtesy of Next Level. Originally published in issue 14 of Next Level magazine, and then in 1000 Words #4

1000 WORDS WORKSHOP WITH ANDERS PETERSEN IN MOROCCO, APRIL 2011

2010-12-15T15:04:00.015+01:00

© Anders Petersen

*07.03.11 THERE ARE STILL TWO PLACES AVAILABLE-APPLY NOW!-DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 28.03.11!*

1000 Words is very pleased to present its second workshop with highly-acclaimed Swedish photographer, Anders Petersen, in Fez, Morocco (27 April - 1 May 2011). We are asking both professional and amateur photographers to submit entries for this rare and challenging experience.

"You have to focus on what you are doing, not just as a photographer, but as a human being." Anders Petersen

Please scroll down for more information and how to submit.

ANDERS PETERSEN:

The importance and achievements of Swedish photographer, Anders Petersen, cannot be overestimated. As a social realist he has had a significant influence on a bitter/sweet attitude that strives towards a `subjective documentary´ approach to photography. Taught by Christer Strömholm in the 1960s, Anders has continued and expanded the necessity for photographers to embark on personal diaries of the life, places and people that they experience. He has published more than 20 photobooks from the highly regarded and classic, Café Lehmitz (1978) to the more recent collaboration with JH Engström with From Back Home (2009). He is represented by Galerie VU in Paris, Marvelli Gallery in New York, Gun Gallery in Stockholm and Rat Hole Gallery in Tokyo.

ABOUT US:

The organisation´s flagship is 1000 Words, an online magazine dedicated to highlighting the best contemporary art photography worldwide. It reviews exhibitions and photobooks and publishes interviews, essays and multimedia. We are committed to showing the work of lesser-known but significant artists alongside that of established photographers in the aim of bringing their work to a wider audience. Often incredibly diverse in terms of subjects, concepts, styles and techniques, yet by covering a wide spectrum of genres 1000 Words intends to make us reconsider the contemporary photograph.

Released quarterly, the magazine attracts over 140,000 unique visitors from more than 75 countries every month and in May 2010 the 1000 Words Blog was ranked at number 3 in The Top 25 UK Arts & Culture Blogs in a survey carried out by Creative Tourist.

Yet 1000 Words is much more than just an online magazine. It is the first step in our concept. 1000 Words also operates a programme of exhibitions and events including four annual workshops in Fez, Morocco as well as talks, portfolio reviews, prizes and awards. In July 2010, we launched the 1000 Words Collection, in partnership with Troika Editions, offering limited edition photography prints at affordable prices from artists Simon Roberts,JH Engstrom, Bruno Quinquet, Sarah Small, Trinidad Carrillo and Virgilio Ferreira. The 1000 Words Workshops are organised by Tim Clark, editor-in-chief and director at 1000 Words and Michael Grieve, 1000 Words deputy editor and photographer represented by Agence Vu.

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:

The 1000 Words Workshop takes place in an authentically restored riad situated in the medieval medina, at the heart of the beautifully evocative city of Fez, Morocco. The workshop will be an intense experience lasting five days between 27 April - 1 May 2011 and will consist of 12 participants. The medina is a vibrant labyrinth that will permeate all the senses. Surrounded by the Atlas Mountains, it offers a visually stunning backdrop for this truly unique workshop.

We are looking for a diverse range of participants who understand the work of Anders Petersen and feel that their own photography will benefit from his guidance. Depending on individual needs the daily structure begins with lunch at the riad and during the afternoon Anders will encourage group participation in looking, critiquing and developing ideas and image making. In the late afternoon participants will begin to photograph. The week will end with a slideshow of the work created. Undoubtedly it will be a very creative and highly rewarding experience for those who wish to push themselves.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION:

The cost of the workshop will be £1250 for 5 days. Once participants have been selected they will be expected to pay a non-refundable deposit of £350 within two weeks. Participants can then pay the rest of the fee according to deadlines (see below). Participants are encouraged to arrive the day before the workshop begins for a welcome dinner. The price includes tuition from Anders Petersen, a welcome and farewell dinner, lunch everyday and snacks during the afternoon, 24 hour help from the 1000 Words team and an assistant/translator with local knowledge. Participants will be expected to make their own travel arrangements and find accommodation, which in Fez can range from £150 upwards for the week. We can advise on finding the accommodation that best suits you. Remember that most of your time will be spent either at the riad or shooting. For photographers using film we will provide the means for processing and a scanner. Photographers shooting digital will be expected to bring all necessary equipment. All participants should also bring a laptop if they have one. Every effort will be made to accommodate individual technical needs.

HOW TO SUBMIT:

We require that you send 10 images as low res jpegs and/or a link to your website, as well as a short biography and statement about why you think it will be relevant for you to work with Anders (approx 200 words total). Submissions are to be sent to workshops@1000wordsmag.com with the following subject header: SUBMISSION FOR 1000 WORDS WORKSHOP WITH ANDERS PETERSEN.

14 February 2011: Deadline for applications
28 February 2011: Successful candidates contacted
14 March 2011: Deposit due (£350)
31 March 2011: Second instalment due (£900)
26 April 2011: Arrive in Morocco
27 April 2011: Workshop begins
1 May 2011: Workshop ends

Lycka till!

Larry Sultan: Katherine Avenue

2010-12-06T12:50:00.010+01:00

This Christmas 1000 Words is offering its readers discounted copies of Katherine Avenue from the late great Larry Sultan, courtesy of our partner Steidl. To order your copy please contact tim(at)1000wordsmag(dot)com.

Please see below for more details:

Larry Sultan
Katherine Avenue
Steidl

All images © Larry Sultan

This book brings together three of Larry Sultan’s best known series: Pictures from Home, The Valley and Homeland. Made principally in the San Fernando Valley, where the artist grew up, in these works Larry Sultan explored the domestic landscape of his childhood and adolescence by photographing and re-presenting photographs of his parents, their home, and their experience of the American Dream. Wandering further behind this Californian fabric, he photographed in suburban homes serving as sets in the pornographic industry. His work culminated in a series of tableau of Latino day labourers undertaking prosaic tasks on the peripheries of these suburban sites – the kind of places where, growing up, he would find his own sense of space and freedom.

This publication accompanies an exhibition at the kestnergesellschaft, Hannover and features an essay by curator Martin Germann. It is co-published with Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, and kestnergesellschaft, Hannover.

Special price for 1000 Words readers £35.00

132 pages, 80 colour plates
27.4 cm x 26.9 cm
Hardcover with a dust jacket
Steidl & Partners
ISBN: 978-3-86930-135-8
Publication date: June 2010

Antoine and beyond

2010-12-06T11:23:00.009+01:00

© Michael Grieve / 1000 Words

In October 2010, 1000 Words held its first workshop in the medina of Fez, Morocco with the very special Magnum photographer, Antoine d’Agata. The workshop was a resounding success with all 12 participants producing vibrant and intimate photography. The location of Fez offered unique challenges and presented an intense backdrop for photographers to be truly creative. It is easy to get lost in the medina and this was perhaps the underlining and appropriate theme to the week.

1000 Words (Michael Grieve and Tim Clark) would like to thank all the participants for their tremendous energy and contribution. They completely opened up to the experience and allowed themselves to discover new approaches and push their mental and emotional selves to the limit. The participants were:

Richard Bee, UK
Martin Bogren, Sweden
Laura Hynd, UK
Miwako Homma, Japan
Edoardo Pasero, Italy
Alex Lau, USA
Katie White, USA
Joao Linneu, Brazil
Roberta Holden, Canada
Karin Crona, France
April Mountfort, Australia
Kay Erickson, USA

© Michael Grieve / 1000 Words

We would also like to thank Antoine d’Agata for his incredible skill as a teacher and for his warm and gracious presence.

The workshop would not have been possible without the assistance of Omar Chennafi for his practical knowledge of Fez and for bringing a wonderfully positive attitude to a fervent and industrious atmosphere. And Vanessa Bonnin, who provided us with the means to process black and white films and sourced the only person in Morocco who supplies the necessary chemicals!

1000 Words is organising four more workshops in Morocco next year and will be making a call for submissions very soon. Until then, check out more photos from the workshop over at the 1000 Words Photography Magazine group on Facebook.

The Do’s and Don’ts

2010-11-24T18:20:00.002+01:00

The Do’s and Don’ts of Graduate Studies: Maxims from the Chair from the book The Education of a Photographer by Charles H Traub, Chair at School of Visual Arts’ MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Department in New York.

The Do’s

Do something old in a new way
Do something new in an old way
Do something new in a new way, Whatever works . . . works
Do it sharp, if you can’t, call it art
Do it in the computer—if it can be done there
Do fifty of them—you will definitely get a show
Do it big, if you cant do it big, do it red
If all else fails turn it upside down, if it looks good it might work
Do Bend your knees
If you don’t know what to do, look up or down—but continue looking
Do celebrities—if you do a lot of them, you’ll get a book
Connect with others—network
Edit it yourself
Design it yourself
Publish it yourself
Edit, When in doubt shoot more
Edit again
Read Darwin, Marx, Joyce, Freud, Einstein, Benjamin, McLuhan, and Barth
See Citizen Kane ten times
Look at everything—stare
Construct your images from the edge inward
If it’s the “real world,” do it in color
If it can be done digitally—do it
Be self centered, self involved, and generally entitled and always pushing—and damned to hell for doing it
Break all rules, except the chairman’s

The Don’ts

Don’t do it about yourself—or your friend—or your family
Don’t dare photograph yourself nude
Don’t look at old family albums
Don’t hand color it
Don’t write on it
Don’t use alternative process—if it ain’t straight do it in the computer
Don’t gild the lily—AKA less is more
Don’t go to video when you don’t know what else to do
Don’t photograph indigent people, particularly in foreign lands
Don’t whine, just produce

Paris Photo 2010 Post Show Press Release

2010-11-24T14:37:00.005+01:00

Fresh back from our trip to Paris for the splendid 24th addition of Paris Photo, we´ve just picked up the following press announcement about various sales and other success stories:

The 14th edition of Paris Photo turned the spotlight on central Europe – Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia – and included 106 exhibitors from 25 countries. Some 38,000 visitors came to the fair, compared to 40,150 in 2009, a slight decrease in number owing to the fact that there was no late night opening this year.

Sales took off

Transactions went at a sustained pace and most exhibitors reported a better volume of sales compared to 2009. Some achieved results that were described as "exceptional," "astonishing," "miraculous," by the gallery owners themselves whose expectations were modest owing to the prevailing economic climate.

Vintage sales:

Sales were good, and even excellent, especially for those galleries whose shows coincided with some of the exhibitions currently on in Paris (Heinrich Kühn at the Musée de l’Orangerie, André Kertesz at the Jeu de Paume, Les Primitifs de la photographie at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France) as well as the big photography auctions and the Central European theme. The photograph by Joseph Sudek put up for auction by Johannes Faber gallery went for a record €300,750 at the Sotheby’s sale. This brought numerous buyers to the Viennese gallery’s booth at Paris Photo. Another image by the Czech artist went for €190,000. Meanwhile, the New York gallery Edwynn Houk, sold the picture entitled Arles (1929) by Hungary’s Moholy-Nagy for US$ 265,000. Budapest’s Vintage Gallery was showing largely Hungarian modernists and achieved better sales than last year with a total of €58,000 for 22 vintage pieces sold. France’s Françoise Paviot sold her self portrait of Man Ray for €75,000 and the entire set of small contacts by Brassaï made in 1958 for between €2,500 and €4,000 each. Obsis gallery of Paris sold its entire collection of images of the 1931 colonial exhibition held in Paris to a Paris museum for more than €100,000. A specialist in anonymous photography, the gallery Lumière des Roses (Montreuil) sold two thirds of the works on its booth, and in particular 8 autochromes (1925/1930) by Léon Gimpel at €7,000 each. Surfing on the current wave of enthusiasm for photographers who worked in fashion (Avedon, Irving Penn, Guy Bourdin, Helmut Newton...), Hamiltons Gallery of London sold the famous Mainbocher Corset (1939) by Horst P.Horst for US$ 150,000.

Contemporary sales:

Filles du Calvaire (Paris) gallery recorded its best sales ever at this year´s Paris Photo. The gallery let go of three editions of a portrait by Paul Graham from his End of an Age Series, 1996-1998 at €24,000 a piece to buyers who included some Turkish newcomers to the fair. SAGE Paris sold his entire collection of the light-boxes made in 1999 by Japan’s Naoya Hatakeyama, ie. some 30 works costing €6,000 each which went to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and to a Brazilian foundation. Berlin’s DNA gallery sold 80% of its wares including two large format staged images by Japan’s Tatsumi Orimoto at €38,000 each and two videos by Bulgarian artist Mariana Vassileva costing € 8,000 each. New York’s Yossi Milo recorded better sales than at his last participation in Paris Photo in 2006 with some 40 works priced at between €6,000 and €10,000 acquired by new collectors from England, the USA and France. With its artist Gábor Ősz as the winner of the 2010 BMW-Paris Photo Prize, Loevenbruck (Paris) found buyers for four of the Hungarian’s unique pieces at €20,000 each.

Photography book sales:

Book sellers also reported very good sales this year: Toluca sold 20 of its 28 copies of « What Man is really like » by Rachel Whiteread, Ingo Shulze and Naoto Fukusawa for €7,000 each. Librairie 213 let go of some 20 rare books with the most expensive costing €12,000. Man Ray’s book entitled Electricity (1932) offered by Denis Ozanne at €35,000 also found a buyer.

Beautiful presentations and plenty of discoveries:

Visitors, collectors, institution directors were unanimous in their praise for the high quality of the exhibits, the beauty of the works and their excellent presentation as well as the good number exciting discoveries that arose from the exploration of the Central European scene. Firmly anchored in a rich historical ground, the Czech, Polish, Hungarian, Slovenian and Slovakian scenes are today undergoing a renaissance. In addition, the exhibitions of the finalists of the BMW-Paris Photo Prize, Leica Camera’s show A Juste Titre as well as the SFR Young talents show won many accolades from the public.

Paris, world capital of photography:

This year Paris Photo coincided with a number of key auctions, including the Avedon sale at Christies’ and a big auction at Sotherby’s. It also took place in the context of the 30th anniversary of Photography Month which offered a plethora of exhibitions throughout the city, in addition to a number of "Off" fairs and happenings. More than ever, Paris Photo is the world’s leading event for photography and Paris is its global capital in November.

Paris Photo 2011: from Bamako to Cape Town, African photography

From 17th to 20th November 2011,Paris Photo will be back on the road to discovery, heading to the African continent to highlight talents from Bamako to Cape Town. Six platforms will be created to spotlight the diversity of both historical and contemporary creativity in sub-Saharan Africa. Paris Photo will select the content of these platforms with the help of artistic advisor Simon Njami.*

* A writer, art critic and independent curator, Simon Njami conceived the exhibition Africa Remix, the first Africa pavilion at the Venice biennale in 2007 with Fernando Alvim. He was also behind A Collective Diary (Tel Aviv 2010) and A Useful Dream, fifty years of photography in Africa (Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 2010). Njami was co-founder of La Revue Noire and served as its Chief Editor. He was director of the Bamako biennale for 10 years and his latest book is a biography of Léopold Sédar Senghor (Fayard, 2007).

Random find!

2010-11-24T14:05:00.003+01:00

Just a girl giving birth on Google Street View that´s all! Or is it a fake? Who knows, maybe Mr Crewdson is at it again?

Flash Forward 2011

2010-11-24T11:52:00.009+01:00

The Magenta Foundation have announced Year Seven of its Emerging Photographers exchange.

This is an open call for submissions.

All photographers in Canada, the UK and the US 34 years of age and under may submit. All submission requirements and instructions are located on their website but we´ve also listed them below.

Jurors for 2011:

Canada:
Julien Beaupré Ste-Marie, Photo Editor, enRoute Magazine
Erin Elder, Manager, Business Development, Digital Media, The Globe and Mail
Robyn McCallum, Bau-Xi Photo Gallery, Toronto

UK:
Diane Smyth, British Journal of Photography, London
Harry Hardie, Director, HOST Gallery
Bruno Ceschel, Founder, Self Publish, Be Happy
Aaron Schuman, Director and Editor, Seesaw Magazine

US:
Andy Adams, Editor and Publisher, Flak Photo
Shane Lavalette, Photographer and Publisher/Editor, Lay Flat

Competition Prizing:
The Bright Spark Award winner will receive $5,000.

As in the past, all competition Winners and Honourable Mentions will be published in a high quality catalogue. Along with being published, select 2011 Flash Forward Winners will be featured in a touring exhibition.

In January 2011, a significant additional component will be announced to complement the program’s alternate festival years. Stay tuned and sign up for their newsletter.

Submission Deadline:
Submissions open on Wednesday 20 October, 2010 and close on Friday 31 December, 2010.

Submission Fees:
Canada: $50
USA: $50
UK: £30

Guidelines for Submissions:
Submissions are easy, but please read all guidelines before submitting. Here's what you will need to submit:

1. Up to 10 digital images of your work (if you would prefer to submit fewer, that's fine too):

Resolution: low (72 dpi)

Format: .jpg, .gif or .png only. Please be aware that your files will be viewed by the jurors on the web, and if you submit files in .tif, .psd or other non-web-viewable formats, they will not be visible and you will be disqualified.

Size: 700 pixels on the longest side, and a file size NO larger than 500 kb.

The caption/title, medium and dimensions for each image you intend to submit, including English translations if the captions are not in English. These do not need to be directly attached to the image file in any way - the image upload form provides fields for filling this information in.

Please choose the images that you submit from a concise body of work which you feel best represents the style you work within.

2. An artist's statement regarding your work.

3. A brief one-paragraph bio suitable for use in a book or exhibition catalogue.

4. A complete CV (curriculum vitae) focussing on your artistic career.
Your complete contact information, including address, phone number, e-mail, web address if any, etc.

Go to their website to fully familiarise yourself with their guidelines and why not begin your submission today?

1000 Words Photography - The Collection

2010-11-22T10:40:00.020+01:00

It is a great honour to be able to announce the latest addition to the 1000 Words Collection, a work by by Simon Roberts, Sunderland vs. Liverpool, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, 16th August 2008. (We English).

© Simon Roberts

Medium - 1 available
Edition of 7
£881.25
60 x 50 cm paper size
53 x 42 cm image size

NB: Printed on Fuji Crystal Archive paper. The print is both signed by the artist and comes with a certificate. It is number 2 from the edition. The print is produced with a white border around the photograph to allow for framing. We also have included some cotton gloves to protect the print during handling.

Head on over to our collections microsite to read the story behind the specific image, watch a fantastic video interview with Simon and discover more information on the artist. But, before you do, here is an announcement from our partner Troika Editions which outlines the objectives and ambitions for their outstanding Collections initiative:

"The Arts have been under the spotlight recently as the impending cuts in state funding has fuelled much anxiety about the future of the creative industries in the UK.

The axe finally fell with the announcement in the Comprehensive Spending Review of a nearly 30% drop in funding for The Arts Council.

The impact this loss of funding will have has spawned gloomy forecasts about the inevitable closure of theatre companies, art galleries and local art projects. What I have yet to read about are all the initiatives and projects that have never been supported by Arts Council England and how they manage to find ways to fund their commitment and passion for good art.

Our partner 1000 Words is one such organisation, who through an excellent quarterly online magazine has managed to raise the level of writing about Art Photography and through collaborations with ourselves and Magnum Photos,(neither of which are funded by Arts Council England)has developed new ways to support their project.

So our message this week is there will inevitably be casualties of such a savage cut in funding, but this may also open up new ways to fund worthy organisations and we hope that our own Collections initiative will become the kernel of a new way to support art in the future."

As a not-for-profit organisation the net proceeds from all sales of limited edition prints in the 1000 Words Collection will go entirely back into supporting 1000 Words Photography Magazine and help finance our extended programme of exhibitions and events including workshops; portfolio reviews; talks; panel discussions as well as prizes and awards.

1000 thanks to both Simon, and Bridget and Michael of Troika Editions for supporting us!

Street Photography Now Project

2010-11-11T16:43:00.005+01:00

Seeing as there is a bit of a street photography theme going on round here of late, I thought I´d share some information about the Street Photography Now Project, a collaboration between The Photographers’ Gallery, London and Sophie Howarth and Stephen McLaren, authors of Street Photography Now (Thames and Hudson).

Each week from 1 October 2010, a leading contemporary street photographer has issued a new instruction, written to inspire fresh ways of looking at and documenting the world we live in.

Over the following six days, photographers around the world are invited to upload one photograph in response, to a special Flickr Group. After six days the next instruction will be issued. See the Take Part section of the website for more details on how to contribute.

The Project will run for 52 weeks, and you can join in at any time. The aim is to build a global community of photographers exploring the rewards and challenges of documenting public life. All photographers, including those who contribute to the Instructions, will be encouraged to comment and respond to the images posted to the Flickr groups.

Though not a competition, at the end of the Project one photographer will be chosen who has made the most outstanding contribution to the project across a number of weeks. They will be awarded £1000 of Thames & Hudson books and have their work displayed on The Photographers’ Gallery digital Wall for All.

The Street Photography Now Project was launched in September 2010, as The Photographers’ Gallery closed its doors for the redevelopment of its building on Ramillies Street. The Project will run for one year and is scheduled to end when The Photographers’ Gallery reopens in late 2011.

Philip-Lorca diCorcia

2010-11-09T17:21:00.004+01:00

This video clip is always worth revisiting. Broadcast from his home in New York, American artist Philip-Lorca DiCorcia confesses how he hunted the subjects of his series Heads that were recently on display at Tate Modern in Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera.

"I never talk to them... I don't ask their permission. I don't pay them... And eventually...I got into trouble." Philip-Lorca DiCorcia

John Maclean

2010-11-09T15:37:00.010+01:00

All images © John Maclean

Accomplished street photographer John Maclean has been on our radar for some time now. Born in Buckinghamshire in 1969, John spent part of his childhood in Canada and the United States. Apparently, he began using a camera at the age of 14 when he discovered the book American Images, featuring the work of Garry Winogrand, Robert Frank, Lewis Baltz and John Gossage. After studying mathematics, physics and geology he went on to graduate in photography at the University of Derby. He subsequently worked at The Royal College of Art for four years. John has been a London-based, freelance photographer since 1998, using commercial commissions to support an independent, fine-art practice. His photographs have been widely published in books and periodicals and he has self-published six books – held in the National Art Archive at The Victoria and Albert Museum and private collections.

The images shown above are taken from his latest project, simply titled City. "The intention of this body of work," says Maclean "is not to document specific cities or individuals – it is an endeavour to construct my own city through photographs."

"City is a place pieced together by utilising both photography’s assets and its limitations – it is consciously photographic. The resulting worldview is a sparsely populated, absurd theatre. A stage set of caves, screens, portals and ambiguous landscapes. A city built on the foundations of an inherently surreal medium that can’t help but veil, dislocate, displace and abstract."

A full archive of artist’s statements, texts, interviews and bibliography can be found at www.jmaclean.co.uk

In the run up to Christmas (yes we can´t ignore it much longer) why not treat yourself or a loved one to one of his fantastic limited-edition book projects? Check out the complete list on his website and order yours now.