Entries from February 2007
February 27, 2007
© Andrew Hofter
I have been a regular of the photoblog published by Andrew Hefter, a very young photographer, only 17, and making really excellent work. You will see in his bio that just after two years taking pictures he has made large inroads winning many awards... including being nominated for the Photobloggies 2007 awards under the category "Best under 18 photoblog". You can enjoy the excellent photography of Andrew at his blog, and the galleries at his deviantArt, Flickr, GFXartist, and Art Limited accounts.
Miguel Garcia-Guzman
Bookmark It
Hide Sites
Posted in Photoblogs, Photographers, Photography 
No Comments »
February 24, 2007
© Alberto Korda [Alberto Diaz Gutierrez, 1928-2001]
"[During a memorial in 1960] at the foot of the podium draped in black crepe, my eye pressed to my old leica, I was focusing on Fidel and the people around him. Suddenly, through the 90 mm lens el Che loomed above me. I was surprised by his look ... I was about 8 or 10 meters (yards) from the tribune where Fidel Castro was speaking... ' - Alberto Korda
Korda pointed his Leica and took two frames. Remarkably, the photo was rejected for publication by Korda's newspaper. Back in his darkroom Korda enlarged, among others, the Che frames cropped to display the headshot of the legend. The editor at "Revolution" picked a Castro-picture for the newspaper and returned the rest. Korda liked the Che picture and put it on the wall in his Havana-studio. The photo was unknown until Korda gave a copy to an Italian visitor in 1967 (see below). When Guevara died soon after, the Italian quickly began distributing the picture.
The corpse of Che Guevara was hardly cold in Bolivia, before you could buy big posters, all around the world, with the Korda-image of Che. Feltrinelli copyright it. Korda told me, that in half a year, Feltrinelli sold 2.ooo.ooo posters.- Alberto Kortda
The photo, for which Korda never received royalties, eventually adorned every self-respecting student radical's dorm and was reproduced on millions of T-shirts, posters, key-rings and banners around the globe. The image that went to become perhaps "the most famous image of the 20th century" never produced any money to Alberto Korda, not a peny.
The Washington Post has published online some of historical images of the work of Alberto Korda "Cuba by Korda". The work was also published in a book few months ago. If it happen that you speak spanish, you may be interested in reading an interview with Alberto Korda here. If you like to know the more of the story read below.
[digg=http://digg.com/celebrity/El_Che_Guevara_by_Alberto_Korda]
Miguel Garcia-Guzman
Bookmark It
Hide Sites
Posted in Books, Photographers, Photography No Comments »
February 22, 2007
© Morton Schamberg /CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD
As reported by pdn online the auction market for photography is really hot. The prices that some images command today are spectacular and much higher than even market appraised valued. Interestingly, this image from Morton Schamberg is the picture of an sculpture attributed to Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, according to a Christie's catalog note. So, an image of an art object (sculpture) becomes the art object by itself.
The prints at Wednesday's auction came from the estate of Thomas T. Solley, a former director of the Indiana University Art Museum who began collecting photographs in the 1970s. The auction of his collection brought in a total of $4,328,460. A second auction of photographs at Christie's on Thursday brought in another $1,231,800.
Prints by Morris Schamberg, Henri Cartier-Bresson and El Lissitzky greatly exceeded auction-house estimates at Christie's in New York Wednesday, setting new auction records for those artists.
Amid a broad array of work by 20th century masters, a 1918 Schamberg print fetched $390,000, making it the highest-selling lot in the auction. The price far exceeded the estimate of $5,000 to $7,000. -pdn online
Miguel Garcia-Guzman
Bookmark It
Hide Sites
Posted in Photography No Comments »
February 21, 2007
© Melanie Pullen
Self-taught artist, Melanie Pullen (born 1975) began her "High Fashion Crime Scenes" project after seeing a copy of Luc Sante's 1992 book Evidence (1914-1919) about crime scen photos from the New York City Police Department. While the disturbing stories behind the pictures intrigued Pullen, she was more interested in the minute details: the material that made up the images and told a story. Prior to the mid-50s, the nature of criminal photographs was fundamentally different from their present, clinical form. Given the complexity of cameras earlier in the century, most crime scene photographers had both artistic and professional experience. With an eye for composition, lighting and drama, photographers like Eugene Atget, Alexander Gardner, Jacob Riis and Arthur Fellig (a.k.a. Weegee) produced crime photos that were artistic and documentary, evocative of tabloid illustrations or film noir. Inspired by such images, Pullen conducted extensive research in the LAPD archives that yielded a wealth of vintage sources with which to work. Drawn to the rich details and compelling stories preserved in the criminal records, she began re-enacting the crime-scenes, outfitting the “victims” (her selected models) in current haute couture and photographing them in her staged settings.
The series, "High Fashion Crime Scenes" was debuted by Ace Gallery Beverly Hills in May of 2005, soon followed by a hardcover book published by Nazraeli Press, featuring over 100 photographs that make up the series.
This is wild imagination indeed.
Miguel Garcia-Guzman
Bookmark It
Hide Sites
Posted in Books, Photographers, Photography No Comments »
February 19, 2007
© Rachel Papo
The life of an eighteen-year-old girl in Israel is interrupted when she is plucked out of her environment at an age when sexual, educational, and family values are at their highest exploration point. She is then placed in a rigorous institution, where individuality becomes a secondary matter, making room for nationalism. “I solemnly swear…to devote all of my strength and to sacrifice my life to protect the land and the liberty of Israel,” repeats the newly recruited soldier during her swearing-in ceremony. She enters the two-year period in which she will change from a girl to a woman, a teenager to an adult, all under a militaristic, masculine environment, and in the confines of an army that is engaged in daily war and conflict. - Rachel Papo
See/listen a video with the images and audio here.
Miguel Garcia-Guzman
Bookmark It
Hide Sites
Posted in Photographers, Photography No Comments »
February 16, 2007
© Pete Turner
Pete Turner is one of the most influential photographers of the last decades. He defined new ways to use color in photography, he mixed color with art and photographic images like nobody else had done before.
"Color takes my work into another dimension. It's the way I see. I've always been drawn to the colors of nature, and nature is a wonderful teacher. Look at the color coding of a bee -- yellow and black stripes -- or of a cardinal with its different shades of red. It is rare that nature is not in color harmony. Go out there and look. Although a lot of my pictures are not taken from nature, I use nature as a color source. Make color work for you, and keep it simple. I always look at my subject and work at incorporating mood"- Pete Turner
Photographers take pictures with cameras; Pete makes photographs with his imagination. Before Pete, there was nothing modern about photography. The first time I saw one of his photographs, it hit me as though I had been struck by lightning, and with almost as much voltage.- Eric Meola
A recent interview with the artist has been published at Range Finder Magazine. By the way, if you wonder about the place this image was taken, I have been there. It is one of the most beautiful hotels in Mexico, the Westin Los Cabos. Pete Turner has several images in his portfolio taken at this coloful hotel (see walls of light at his website).
Miguel Garcia-Guzman
Bookmark It
Hide Sites
Posted in Photographers, Photography 2 Comments »
February 14, 2007
This image is one of the most powerful pictures from the last World Press Photo 2006 awards. Illegal immigrants, hiding in the shadows, with fear in their eyes, after risking their life for a better future wait for an uncertain future. The picture was taken by spanish photographer, Arturo Rodriguez from the Associated Press, who won two World Press Photo 2006 awards with images covering the topic of illegal immigration in Spain. This image won second price in the spot news section.
The second image is from a series covering same topic, and shows tourists in Tenerife helping migrants that had just reached the beach in a patera. Hungry, weak thirsty, but fighting for hope. Powerful images that show the contrast between people enjoying leisure time and try to forget their "normal" life and people risking their life to get a "normal" life. These images were awarded with the second price in People in the News series category.
Spain is the entry door for millions of immigrants from impoverished parts in Africa into Europe. Traveling in the night, hiding across the African continent, these people will risk their life crossing the last part of the trip in fragiler pateras. Thousands have lost their lives.
In the Spanish language, a patera is a type of boat. In current usage it refers to any of the floating devices used by African people smugglers to transport illegal immigrants from Africa to Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands (more recently also to Gran Canaria and Tenerife) or across the Strait of Gibraltar to Andalusia. The poor state of the boats, overcrowding, and lack of sea experience often result in massive drownings. Patera operators have been known to intentionally throw their passengers overboard if they need to flee the coast guard.
Miguel Garcia-Guzman
Bookmark It
Hide Sites
Posted in Humanitarian Causes, Photography No Comments »
February 12, 2007
© Spencer Platt /Getty Images
This year the winning image of the World Press Photo of the Year Award is different from the past. Yes, it is about war, but rather than just showing a tragic scene of human suffering it conveys the contradiction and stupidity of war conflicts. The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah achieved nothing and will not stop the progress of the Lebanese society nor will bring peace to the Middle East and Israel. Kudos to the jury of the World Press Photo (see the names of the jury members bellow). You will find other winning images here.
Description of the Image: Affluent Lebanese drive down the street to look at a destroyed neighborhood August 15, 2006 in southern Beirut, Lebanon. As the United Nations brokered cease fire between Israel and Hezbollah enters its first day, thousands of Lebanese returned to their homes and villages.
"It's a picture you can keep looking at. It has the complexity and contradiction of real life, amidst chaos. This photograph makes you look beyond the obvious."- World Press Photo jury chair Michele McNally
Like each year the images will tour the world. See sites and dates here.
Spencer Platt is a contributor to The Digital Journalist. If you have time to read more these are two interesting articles by Spencer with examples of his work: "A Pair of Eyes", "Media Boot Camp", "Bolivia", "Bunia:Congo" and "State Funeral".
Miguel Garcia-Guzman
Bookmark It
Hide Sites
Posted in Exhibits, Humanitarian Causes, Photographers, Photography No Comments »
February 11, 2007
© Doug Menuez
If you know Dough Menuez's work you will enjoy this fabulous series "Heaven, Earth, Tequila: Un viaje al corazon de Mexico" published in a book. If you have never seen his work, get ready for a pleasant surprise. See the images in MediStorm and with a audio commentary by the photographer at NikonWorld. A very interesting interview was published at cretivepro.com. Doug Menuez is a Nikon Legend Behind the Lens. PDN gallery has also audio clips with the photographer.
"I think if there is any core to my work, it is the search for what we all have in common. I am a student of human behaviour; I like to tell stories and capture emotion"
"Someone told me that the only thing all Mexicans have in common is tequila. Mexico is a mix of Indian, Spanish, German, French and American culture -- there are so many influences. It's a complex place, but tequila is one thing everyone has. Tequila is entwined in the family; in Mexico, if there's a serious family discussion going on, you bring out the tequila, the way you would wine in Europe."- Doug Menuez
Heaven, Earth, Tequila: Un Viaje al Corazón de México is a journey of discovery into the heart and soul of Mexico. What started as an exploration of the 9,000-year tradition of tequila fermentation paints a colorful tableau of the culture, pride and passion of Mexican people.
Over the past four years, award-winning photographer Douglas Menuez traveled through Jalisco state documenting the traditions from which tequila is born, from the history of the agave plant to how its most famous product became a symbol of Mexico.
Miguel Garcia-Guzman
Bookmark It
Hide Sites
Posted in Books, Photographers, Photography No Comments »
February 9, 2007
© David Sacks
For the first time ever, PDN has teamed up with National Geographic Traveler in order to unearth the most unique and unseen imagery from photographers around the world. See the images here. Worth the time. Enjoy.
Miguel Garcia-Guzman
Bookmark It
Hide Sites
Posted in Photography No Comments »
content rss
