art – Camera Obscura

Quanta, by Michael Taylor

Michael Taylor — Wed, 07 May 2014 04:56:09 +0000

“Photography is Light Architecture.”

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy¹

“Light is beautiful in itself, for its nature is simple and all of it is there at once. Wherefore it is integrated in the highest degree and most harmoniously proportioned and equal to itself, for beauty is a harmony of proportions.”

Grosseteste²

Introduction

I first explored photography as a child taking photographs on film using ‘box’ cameras. In 1978 at the age of fifteen, my parents bought me a Praktica camera: I shot a roll of 35mm film and was hooked for life! A few years later I made a small darkroom in the loft of my parents’ home and loved watching the magic of black-and-white images emerge before my eyes. This experience will never leave me. I still have a good darkroom.

Although I loved drawing and art I always favored photography. After my two science degrees at Queens University I completed Design BA and Fine Art MA degrees.

Light has always fascinated me throughout my life.

The qualities of light that excite me most are purity, harmony, paradox and unpredictability. Light is “pliable” and can be merged, moved and shaped. However, there is always feedback: light reveals its own inherent possibilities.

Quanta (2014)

Quanta is a subset of the life-time Lumen series that I started in 2010. My ultimate aim is to mediate the properties of light via photography.

The abstract photographs shown here were created using long exposures of light in a fairground in Southern France. The images were all taken at night:

“…even the purest light, lacking the robe of darkness, would be without expression”.

Mary Oliver³

Choreographed camera movements recorded the energy of moving light. While wandering around reacting to light and choreographing camera movements during long exposures I lost track of the activity around me and felt like I was dancing with light. The experience was immersive. There was a mixture of both planning and spontaneity.

Moholy-Nagy’s earlier vision was that of an orchestrated painting with light:

“The work of the future lies with the light engineer who is collecting the elements of a genuine creation.

…just as one paints with brush and pigment, in recent times one could have “painted” direct with light, transforming two-dimensional painted surfaces into light architecture.

I wanted a… light-symphony which follows exactly the composer’s score.”

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy⁴

Quanta involved a more direct and spontaneous orchestration involving a choreographed recording of variations in the intensity, chroma, hue, line, movement, texture and depth of light.

Continuous experimentation is the engine of the creative process. In the words of

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy:

“The enemy of photography is the convention … the salvation of photography is the experiment.”⁵

Both staged and found light patterns are equally important to me. Unpredicted moments where light reveals itself are gifts of grace.

My basic approach is to keep focused on one area, observe different aspects and look deeper. I never try to force anything: what I love defines the style.

Vision usually precedes execution: imagination is primary but focused discipline, planning and craft skills are vital to translate a latent image into a real one. The key priority is always attention to interpreting light.

These Quanta images were very intuitive and instantaneous: vision blurred into execution. I was at play with light and instinctively knew in advance which images would remain.

The light patterns are also metaphors pointing to events beyond their creation.

For example, the embryonic life inherent in Quanta 004 and human presence in Quanta 003:

A key aspect is transformation. The emphasis is not on the figures/objects but on light and its modulation:

“Objects are chosen for their light-modulating characteristic; their reality and significance disappear.”

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy⁶

Fairground rides now become new worlds.

The formal qualities unique to photography as a medium are vitally important. My aim is not simply to document reality but to reveal hidden aspects of the world, especially of light and photography. By using these unique qualities, the referential / indexical aspects of photography are now so abstracted that the images no longer convey as-seen reality.

When the “object” is light itself, abstraction is pushed beyond the photographic transformation observed by Barbara Savedoff :

“In the case of painting, the forms refer to objects … In the case of photographs, the forms are the objects (or more precisely, the forms are those of the objects before the lens): the image is both record of the object and abstraction. There is a sense in which we see the object transformed.”

Barbara Savedoff, Documentary Authority And The Art Of Photography.

((From: Wladen, Scott (ed.). Photography and Philosophy: Essays On The Pencil Of Nature. London: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2010, p.122.))

A constant theme in my work is a quest for simplicity and minimalism.

These studies of light also emphasize transcendence:

“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite.”

William Blake⁷

Abstraction involves going beyond precise recording of seen objects – from seen to unseen, from objective to subjective. It is a highly selective and partial disclosure of reality. Abstraction also encourages the viewer to participate in creating their own meanings. As Aaron Siskind observed:

“When I make a photograph I want it to be an altogether new object, complete and self-contained, whose basic condition is order…

The object has entered the picture, in a sense; it has been photographed directly. But it is often unrecognizable; for it has been removed from its usual context, disassociated from its customary neighbors and forced into new relationships.”

Aaron Siskind⁸

Lyle Rexer describes abstraction in photography as:

“… novel seeing, a vision of things that have not been seen – investigative or undisclosed photography rather than abstract photography. At its most extreme, it offers objects defined by their concrete, material existence, referring to nothing outside themselves.”

Lyle Rexer, Introduction: Undisclosed Images.⁹

There are several methods of photographic abstraction involved in Quanta such as the selective framing of reality and time exposures revealing unseen worlds within reality.

Influences include Goethe, books on cosmology and science, art films and theatre (especially the lighting), abstract photography and movements in paintings ranging from Renaissance to Abstract Expressionism.

I am fascinated by the work of artists such as James Turrell who create environments in which the qualities and properties of light are replicated and enhanced in front of the viewer. This is revelatory:

“Light is not so much something that reveals, as it is itself the revelation.”

James Turrell¹⁰

Photographers with abstract visions of the world appeal to me. Examples include Moholy-Nagy, Minor White, Man Ray, Alexander Rodchenko, Frederick Sommer, Paul Strand, Brett Weston, Aaron Siskind, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Tokihiro Sato and Alvin Langdon Coburn (Vortographs).

An entire series of light-related experiments is planned for the future: hopefully images from the different series will show cohesion.

My final advice is to keep focused on one main area, stay open to all the possibilities and always keep going.

The greatest inspiration for photographers is the inexhaustible reality of light surrounding us.

We just have to look deeper.

Moholy-Nagy, Laslo. “Fotografie ist Lichtgestaltung”, Bauhaus, 2/1, 1928, p.1
From: Eco, Umberto. The Aesthetics Of Thomas Aquinas. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1988, p.109
From: A Certain Sharpness In The Morning Air, in Oliver, Mary. New And Selected Poems. Volume 1. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992, p.41
pp. 155&156, Moholy-Nagy, Sibyl. Moholy-Nagy: Experiment In Totality. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1969.
From: Vision in Motion; quoted on the frontispiece of David Travis And Elizabeth Siegel (eds.). Taken By Design: Photographs From The Institute Of Design, 1937-1971. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (74th edition; 6 Mar 2002).
p. 71, Kostelanetz, Richard. Moholy-Nagy : An Anthology. New York: Da Capo Press, 1991.
From: Erdman, David V. The Complete Poetry And Prose of William Blake. New York: Anchor Books, 1988, p.39.
From: Credo. In: Aaron Siskind: Photographs 1932-1978. Oxford: Museum Of Modern Art, 1979.
From: Rexer, Lyle. Photography’s Avant-garde: The New Wave In Old Processes. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 2002, p.11.
From: Zajonc, Arthur. Catching The Light: The Entwined History Of Light And Mind. London: Bantam Press, 1993, p.324.

Deconstructing the American South-West, by Marco Annaratone and Hanni Cerutti

Marco Annaratone — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 12:11:38 +0000

Moab 05© Twelve-Tone Photography
Please visit Deconstructing the American South-West, by Marco Annaratone and Hanni Cerutti for the full size image.

Marco Annaratone and Hanni Cerutti

Text and photos by Twelve-Tone Photography.

Sometime the production of artwork follows convoluted if not downright bizarre paths. This is the recount of one such artwork, that we have organized as a four-stage process, because it developed and reached completion in four distinct phases over a period of six years.

Rocks in Five Parts© Twelve-Tone Photography
Please visit Deconstructing the American South-West, by Marco Annaratone and Hanni Cerutti for the full size image.

Phase 1 – The Subject

All our visits to the American South-West were profoundly emotional. We have lived for almost two decades in the US and this gave us the opportunity to explore the area in some depth. We have seen it at different times of the year: from the searing hot August days in the pink sand dunes of Yuma to the blooming season in Death Valley. The American South-West is all but a monolithic visual experience: Monument Valley and Moab, or Bryce Canyon and the Valley of the Gods, have little in common from a sensory perception. In spite of these significantly different sceneries they all impressed upon us similar emotions: a fundamental sense of disorientation, vertigo, lack of mooring, a compass gone wild. Mind you, this experience was not unsettling, it felt like a suspension of time and peaceful relinquishing of one’s comfort zone.

The Valley of The Gods 01© Twelve-Tone Photography
Please visit Deconstructing the American South-West, by Marco Annaratone and Hanni Cerutti for the full size image.

One particular place was instrumental in making us feel this way. The first time that we visited the Valley of the Gods these emotions overwhelmed us. This is a place out of the classical tourist routes — one can be alone there, and we mean totally alone, with the surroundings. Afterwards we were able to experience the same sensations elsewhere as well, although in a less dramatic way. Once this “symphonic fortissimo” was played for us in the Valley of the Gods we were able to experience it — although at a lower volume — in the Grand Canyon, in Moab, or Bryce.

Of course we took lots of pictures, but later we were not totally satisfied: looking at them did not evoke the same sensory experience. The disorientation, vertigo, suspension of time, lack of mooring were simply not there. The pictures were silent. Yes, they faithfully depicted what we had seen but did not resonate.

Bryce Canyon 01© Twelve-Tone Photography
Please visit Deconstructing the American South-West, by Marco Annaratone and Hanni Cerutti for the full size image.

Phase 2 – The Intuition

We share a passion for contemporary classical music. It all started in our college years when we were living in Milan, Italy. At the time the city, in cooperation with the local Music Academy, was organising yearly concerts as part of a program entitled “Music in Our Times” (MiOT). For several years the program offered concerts of all the major contemporary composers, from Stockhausen to Berio, from Penderecki to Ligeti. Some attention was also given to American composers out of the classical mainstream: first of all Cage, who gave a memorable performance, but also Steve Reich and Terry Riley. These concerts were the spark that set in motion our personal journey through contemporary classical music: we attended workshops in computer music at CNUCE in Pisa (Boulez’ IRCAM in Paris opened shortly thereafter), became familiar with minimalism, and even visited some musicians whose music impressed us. We still remember a young Gavin Bryars opening the door of his London flat and looking both puzzled and amused at this couple of Italian students telling him how much they loved his “Sinking of the Titanic.”

The Valley of The Gods 06© Twelve-Tone Photography
Please visit Deconstructing the American South-West, by Marco Annaratone and Hanni Cerutti for the full size image.

Our love for contemporary music made us think in recent years about the reasons why some parameters are kept invariant in artistic expression, often for no reason other than tradition. We asked ourselves what would happened in photography if one denied this invariance, the consequences one had to face and what could be found at the end of the tunnel that one enters when these invariances are simply made variable. Our natural point of reference was atonal music. The destruction of the invariance of tonality that contemporary music produced from Schönberg onward has been a driving force of much classical music (albeit not all) of the last century. Much could be said about it — there is an extensive literature on this topic — but one thing is certain: the jury is still out. What has happened in the 20th century may turn out to be — once filtered by time — nothing more that a cataclysmic event in the progression of musical development that has left traces — more or less profound — but few memorable compositions. Conversely, it may leave lots of masterpieces that audiences worldwide will enjoy listening to for centuries to come. Steve Reich seems to believe in the former outcome, when he says:

The reality of cadence to a key or modal center is basic in all the music of the world (Western and non Western). This reality is also related to the primacy of the intervals of the fifth, fourth, and octave in all the world’s music as well as in the physical acoustics of sound. Similarly for the regular rhythmic pulse. Any theory of music that eliminates these realities is doomed to a marginal role in the music of the world. The postman will never whistle Schönberg. This does not mean Schönberg was not a great composer — clearly he was. It does mean that his music (and the music like his) wlll always inhabit a sort of “dark little corner” off by itself in the history of all the world’s music.¹

Whether atonal music will inhabit a dark little corner in the history of world’s music is outside the scope of this article and we certainly do not have the competence to provide any significant contribution to the topic. This notwithstanding, we became curious about the similarity to photography, now that digital photography (remember computer music?) has potentially broken some technical constraints. There are two major invariants in photography: color temperature and exposure. They are kept constant across the whole image field. We have found our “musical key,” therefore, and applied it to photography. The next step was to ask ourselves what would happen if we made both be variable. We expect many agree about the invariance of color temperature, while many will strongly object when reading about the invariance of exposure. Yes, yes, we hear you saying: “and what about dodging and burning? And what about HDR?” Indeed, they change the exposure in selected places (the former) or across the whole image field (the latter). But these are tools to address (perceived) visual issues, not a methodology to free the parameter of light intensity reaching the sensitive surface from an imposed, specific initial value. We stand by our statement that dodging, burning or HDR are something else.

Moab 06© Twelve-Tone Photography
Please visit Deconstructing the American South-West, by Marco Annaratone and Hanni Cerutti for the full size image.

Phase 3 – Applying the Intuition

We called this process of imposing variability to color temperature and exposure photosequencing. While we never forgot even for a moment what Reich said above, and without having the arrogance of comparing photosequencing to atonal music, we do believe that the former will certainly occupy some (very) little dark corner. We do not think it is a new way of picture taking, nor will it ever become one. But Twelve-Tone Photography’s mission is also about carrying out visual research applied to photography, and this is one of the many experiments we performed. We discuss it here since it produced artwork and solved a specific problem at the same time, and hence it is worth reporting.

The process of modifying color temperature is rather straightforward: we considered a range from 1000K to about 14000K. In fact, the sensitivity of the eye to color temperature variation is not linear with Kelvin degrees but with mired. We therefore converted Kelvin degrees into mired and divided the latter in twelve segments. These are the twelve color filters we applied to our pictures. After much experimentation we also decided that the best shape for each filter was a rectangle. Before we tried with circles, or various irregular shapes, but the results were visually unconvincing. A similar (even simpler) process has been applied to exposure, subdividing the EV space into twelve. In this case a rectangle has also turned out to be the preferable shape.

Moab Triptych© Twelve-Tone Photography
Please visit Deconstructing the American South-West, by Marco Annaratone and Hanni Cerutti for the full size image.

Phase 4 – The Result

The next step was to decide where and how to apply photosequencing. This is when we focused on our project about the American South-West. The rationale behind it was quite pragmatic: we loved these places and longed for the emotions we had experienced, but as we said above the pictures did not embody them yet.

The results intrigued us. The pictures were finally resonating. The emotions we had felt on location could be at long last be felt by looking at the photographs: disorientation, mild hallucination, a crazy compass, time distortion and a sense of suspension were all there in front of us. These pictures finally spoke to us. We called this project “Deconstructing the American South-West,” for rather obvious reasons.

The Valley of The Gods 09© Twelve-Tone Photography
Please visit Deconstructing the American South-West, by Marco Annaratone and Hanni Cerutti for the full size image.

Photosequencing forces time into a picture by its own very characteristics, i.e., modulating exposure and color temperature, hence mimicking the day passing by (though in a fragmented way). Sometime this can be useful, as it was in this project. So far we have used photosequencing in another project where make-believe is a primary goal and its application appropriate and justified. We may not apply it anywhere else in the future, though: when its presence is clearly justified — as we believe was the case of “Deconstructing the American South-West” — the benefits largely outweigh its extremely strong visual signature; the latter in fact — if not carefully managed — can initially attract the viewer with its chromatic abundance yet also hide shapes and forms too much.

We champion non-visual sensations in our photography as a way to expand the viewer’s experience to include more than what is visible on the surface, and to suggest other intangible, non-visual elements that inhabited the scene being captured. In “Deconstructing the American South-West” the searing heat, the fuzziness, the breeze, the flickering before one’s eyes, the subtle feeling of unbalance, and ultimately the possibility to feel either happily lost or happily immersed in this immensity of space were integral part of being there. Thus, we felt that our project was now complete.

Monument Valley 01© Twelve-Tone Photography
Please visit Deconstructing the American South-West, by Marco Annaratone and Hanni Cerutti for the full size image.

Steve Reich, Writings on Music 1965-2000, Edited by Paul Hiller, Oxford University Press, 2002, p.186-187.

Self-Portrait with prostitutes, by Sergey Yeliseyev

Sergey Yeliseyev — Sun, 16 Mar 2014 19:03:28 +0000

© Sergey Yeliseyev
“Little fifteen”. Silver print colorized with Acrylic 40x30cm. Saint-Petersburg. Russia. March 2003.
Please visit Self-Portrait with prostitutes, by Sergey Yeliseyev for the full size image.

Text and photos by Sergey Yeliseyev.

As a fact almost every artist-photographer time to time working with naked model and I am no exception.

I began to seriously pursue the photo in 2000, when, after the father’s death, I found his analog camera Zenith EM.

© Sergey Yeliseyev
“Dance” Self portrait with nurse”. Gelatin silver print colorized with Aniline 60x50cm. My own studio, Saint-Petersburg, Russia. July 2013.
Please visit Self-Portrait with prostitutes, by Sergey Yeliseyev for the full size image.

I took pictures of everything in the beginning as done all photographers. I took pictures of the architecture of St. Petersburg, people on the street, birds and dogs on the street.

In a year it has bothered me and I started doing my own projects.

© Sergey Yeliseyev
“Red summer”. Gelatin silver print colorized with Acrylic 40x30cm March 2003 Studio in House of Artists. Saint-Petersburg. Russia. March 2003.
Please visit Self-Portrait with prostitutes, by Sergey Yeliseyev for the full size image.

I rented a small studio and began to take pictures of nude girls.

I found models in the street, in the subway, on an Vernissage in galleries or museums.

If somebody attracted my attention, I come to her and asked if she wanted to be a model. Some of them immediately asked me:- “Naked?”

© Sergey Yeliseyev
“Girl in Red Boots before the Isaac Cathedral”. Gelatin silver print colorized with Acrylic 40x30cm. Saint-Petersburg. Russia. May 2005.
Please visit Self-Portrait with prostitutes, by Sergey Yeliseyev for the full size image.

The first time I took pictures of young girls, aged 15th to 20-25 years.

In 2002, I began photographing fashion and asked models after Fashion show, if they want to be photographed naked or in underwear as done it Helmut Newton.

© Sergey Yeliseyev
“Butterfly”. Gelatin silver print colorized with Acrylic 40x30cm Taxi station. Saint-Petersburg. Russia. August 2005.
Please visit Self-Portrait with prostitutes, by Sergey Yeliseyev for the full size image.

I used black and white film. I developed the films by myself and made gelatin silver prints by myself as well in my Darkroom (as I do it till now). I have colorized mat black and white prints partly with acrylic in my studio.

In 2003 I came to the conclusion that I should be engaged in my own projects, because I had good ideas and imagination (as I wrote the music and lyrics for the songs playing in the Rock-Band in the past). And I began to invite my former acquaintances models for the new projects.

Photo session was held in the museums, on the square, in abandoned taxi stations in open air, in village,and even in the studio of outstanding Soviet sculptor Michael Anikushin.

© Sergey Yeliseyev
“Symbol”. Gelatin silver print colorized with Acrylic 40x30cm. Country side, Saint-Petersburg, Russia. August 2005.
Please visit Self-Portrait with prostitutes, by Sergey Yeliseyev for the full size image.

All the previous works were created by me from 2003 till 2007.

Every artist is constantly looking for the new forms of creativity to realize his ideas. And when he feels that long time he does the same and nothing new, it comes a Depression and Stagnation.

He dropped his hands, and he did not do anything for a long time.

And time has come to think about the work done.

© Sergey Yeliseyev
“Musicians” Self portrait with 20-y.o. prostitute by name Nastja”. Gelatin silver print colorized with Acrylic 30x30cm. My own studio. Saint-Petersburg. Russia. March 2012.
Please visit Self-Portrait with prostitutes, by Sergey Yeliseyev for the full size image.

He thinks “where to go” and in what way.

What new forms to apply.

What techniques to use.

Sometimes in a dream come new ideas as a result of hard and constant brain’s activity.

© Sergey Yeliseyev
“Chains - Self portrait with nurse”. Gelatin silver print 60x50cm My own studio. Saint-Petersburg. Russia. July 2013.
Please visit Self-Portrait with prostitutes, by Sergey Yeliseyev for the full size image.

Sometimes it happens by accident (as it may seem at first sight).

But there is nothing accidental in creativity does not happen.

Master’s Brain constantly fueled from outside – during a walking around the city, meeting with friends and colleagues, visiting restaurant, party, travel to different countries, information from the Internet.

As a result, there comes a moment when the artist finds a new direction in creativity for himself and he begins to create new work with inspiration and high energy.

And finally I invited a young prostitute to my studio in spring 2013.

© Sergey Yeliseyev
“Gas mask test” Self portrait in gas mask with nurse”. Gelatin silver print 60x50cm My own studio. Saint-Petersburg. Russia. July 2013.
Please visit Self-Portrait with prostitutes, by Sergey Yeliseyev for the full size image.

My series “Self portrait with prostitutes” has begun in particular from this photo session.

One composition replaced by another, and suddenly I do not know why, I asked her if I could stand beside her and make a joint portrait. She gave me positive answer.

Practically all models who agreed to be photographed naked were not against shooting with me in a pair.

Usually, before the photo session, I’m writing a script – what composition should I create, what objects have I to use during the session, whether to use underwear, whether to use a mirrors or something else.

© Sergey Yeliseyev
“Kosi and Zabivai” Self portrait with 50 y.o. prostitute”. Gelatin silver print colorized with Aniline 60x50cm My own studio. Saint-Petersburg. Russia. July 2013.
Please visit Self-Portrait with prostitutes, by Sergey Yeliseyev for the full size image.

Often the scenario is changing during a photo session and some compositions are born directly in the process of shooting.

For example a model saw a flag in my studio and started to play with it.

Or the model had a good mood and started to dance in the pause between the compositions.

Next time a model was tired and started to walk in my studio. Suddenly she stopped at a table with a chessboard and became rearrange figures in meditation.

This is almost the same as improvisation in jazz. And it’s very familiar and close to me, as I was a rock musician in the past.

© Sergey Yeliseyev
“Chess - Self portrait with nurse”. Gelatin silver print 60x50cm My own studio. Saint-Petersburg. Russia. July 2013.
Please visit Self-Portrait with prostitutes, by Sergey Yeliseyev for the full size image.

My studio is like a museum. Time has stopped in my studio. Everything in it reminds the Soviet Union time. There are many things in it such as metallic bed, brick oven for cooking and heating in rooms, old semi-ruined toilet, rusty sink, antique three-leaved mirror, a large number of mirrors of different shapes and sizes, vintage floor lamp, a samovar, cast iron, old ventilator, gas masks, wooden abacus etc. I also have a collection of women’s clothes and underwear of the Soviet period, shawls and scarves, corsets and glasses, shoes, masks and different accessories for women. And I also use it in my work.

I am also in good physical shape, as I training in swimming and karate all my life.

© Sergey Yeliseyev
“Me Lying on the floor under the standing model”” Self portrait with nurse”. Gelatin silver print colorized with Aniline 60x50cm My own studio. Saint-Petersburg. Russia. July 2013.
Please visit Self-Portrait with prostitutes, by Sergey Yeliseyev for the full size image.

And it also helps me during photo session when I create self-portrait with a prostitute.

The age of the models was different – from 20 to 50 y.o.

I am planning to expand the age range of the models up and down in the future.

Since the summer of 2013 I began to colorizing my black-and-white prints format 60x50cm with aniline dye, as did our forefathers 100 years ago.

Thus I inspire renewed interest to the tradition of the classic photography.

© Sergey Yeliseyev
“Castle” Self portrait with 50 y.o. prostitute”. Gelatin silver print colorized with Aniline 60x50cm My own studio. Saint-Petersburg. Russia. July 2013.
Please visit Self-Portrait with prostitutes, by Sergey Yeliseyev for the full size image.

What Do You Like to Photograph, by Loretta Ayeroff

Loretta Ayeroff — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 05:36:05 +0000

Text and photos by Loretta Ayeroff.

I was invited to write about my work, over a year ago. I was asked on July 13, 2012, 3:44 AM, for a thousand words. I froze up. Asking me to write about my work seemed overwhelming, let alone, intimidating. I couldn’t do it. A few attempts led nowhere. Probably 150 words, then nothing. Yes, I’ve done artist’s statements, technical articles, syllabi and course descriptions, but this essay seemed impossible. I wasn’t stymied so much about the length, as by the content. What could words reveal that my photographs didn’t? A few months ago, reading the chapter on “Writing” from Why People Photograph by Robert Adams, I felt exonerated:

“The frequency with which photographers are called upon to talk about their pictures is possibly related to the apparent straightforwardness of their work. Photographers look like they must record what confronts them – as is. Shouldn’t they be expected to compensate for this woodenness by telling us what escaped outside the frame and by explaining why they chose their subject? The assumption is wrong, of course, but an audience that knows better is small, certainly smaller than for painting. Photographers envy painters because they are usually allowed to get by with gnomic utterances or even silence, something permitted them perhaps because they seem to address their audience more subjectively, leaving it more certain about what the artist intended.”

From “Writing” by Robert Adams.

Nonetheless, here I am, giving it another try. I’d like to use this opportunity, to answer a question I’m frequently asked: “What do you like to photograph?” Lately, I seem to be conflicted on this point, even posing the question to my own psyche, what DO I like to photograph? How can I answer “everything.” How do I describe what LIGHT means to me, falling on faces, buildings, land and urbanscapes, or, just in its own state of being? Complicating this desire to document light, is my love of photographing without light, seeing how close I can get to the edge of darkness. As I mature, this exercise becomes even more urgent, passing through my lens, what I see in my heart. Perhaps, it is also my changing eyesight, my points of focus seem insignificant. So, this essay, is an attempt to record, in a thousand words, my evolution from “subjects” to “moments” in my photography. Currently, that’s how I answer the question, “I like to shoot moments.”

A long time ago, when I was an editorial photographer, I would mostly be assigned to photograph people. I shot portraits, street-work, and journalistic coverage, like my personal project, the “Vietnamese Refugees at Camp Pendleton” now part of the permanent collection “’Nam and the Sixties” at St. Lawrence University:

Vietnamese Refugees, Camp Pendelton, 1975
© Loretta Ayeroff
Please visit What Do You Like to Photograph, by Loretta Ayeroff for the full size image.

In 1978, Petersen’s Photographic Magazine published a large portfolio of my photographs of men. The Men Series was also exhibited in two exhibitions, with this review, by William Wilson, Art Critic, the Los Angeles Times:

“Loretta Ayeroff stands out from a trio of photographers because she seems to like men without harboring any illusions about them. It’s hard to like any aspect of life without illusions. It’s even harder to feel that way about one’s opposite gender. And then there is the sticky business of getting your feelings on film. Miss Ayeroff’s pictures of men seem to pull this off by simply allowing her subjects to be themselves in front of the camera. (Have you ever tried to be yourself in front of a camera?) One’s admiration goes up and up. Anyway, here are all these chaps being stupid, macho, tender, defensive-dignified, thoughtful, gay or antic like the nude fellow with a potted plant between his legs. Extremely likable pictures.”

Van Dyke Parks, Men Series, 1974
© Loretta Ayeroff
Please visit What Do You Like to Photograph, by Loretta Ayeroff for the full size image.

The “Men Series” is a collection of portraits, both self-assigned and taken for magazines that I worked for, shot in black & white Tri-x film, with a Pentax Spotmatic Camera. Earlier this year, I was asked to shoot, in the “Men Series” style, for a portrait commission, to be published next month. I pulled out the Spotmatic, replaced the battery, used my favorite 28mm lens, Tri-x film, to much success. I do miss the whole experience of working with the lab, even the waiting period, to see what came out, while the film is being developed. I stopped processing my negatives, decades ago, and my last darkroom was in the late 1980’s. I just gave away my darkroom equipment last year – I wish I hadn’t. There are over 150 portraits, maybe more, in The Men Series. They are regularly requested: a book-cover, and a CD insert, were published last year. I thought I was finished shooting this subject. Recently, however, I realized that I had still been photographing men, in color, using film and digitally, for several years. Surprisingly, I am now accumulating “Men Series II” images:

Solomon Terringer, Men Series II, 2012
© Loretta Ayeroff
Please visit What Do You Like to Photograph, by Loretta Ayeroff for the full size image.

Still, let me be frank. I stopped shooting portraits, after a reflective moment, twenty years ago, when I told myself that as an “older” lady photographer, I might not be assigned to shoot portraits.

I decided to become proficient at some other subjects. That’s when the concentration on buildings, urban and landscapes began in earnest. “California Ruins” were published in California Magazine, 1982, and one image will appear this year, in an upcoming book by Geoff Nicholson, Walking in Ruins. “The Motel Series,” shot on Kodachrome 64 film, was first exhibited and published, 1987. Last year, four images, from these two series, were included in “Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in Southern California Photography, 1945-1982,” the Palm Springs Art Museum’s response to The Getty Trust’s initiative “Pacific Standard Time: Art in Los Angeles, 1945-1980.” In the exhibition catalogue, Daniell Cornell, Curator, Palm Springs Art Museum, includes my work with artists I greatly admire, Lewis Baltz and Joe Deal:

Orange Umbrella, Motel Series, 1981
© Loretta Ayeroff
Please visit What Do You Like to Photograph, by Loretta Ayeroff for the full size image.

“Suburbia: “As the dream of a placid lifestyle unravels in the 1970’s, social photographers such as Loretta Ayeroff, Lewis Baltz and Joe Deal began presenting more ironic images. Their frequently wry depictions captured the mundane, sometimes debased, quality of life in suburban developments, for which abandoned or derelict backyards and pools became a poignant symbol. In a photograph of a California tract development by Deal, for instance, the house is pushed to the side and the image is dominated by a kidney-shaped grass yard surrounded by concrete, which mimics the iconic backyard swimming pool even though it is probably beyond the family’s economic reach. Ayeroff and Baltz create strongly formal images that reference human absence.”

Expanding further, I concentrated on the subject of Los Angeles, my hometown. Although I’ve always photographed my surroundings, with several moves since 2006, a pattern began to emerge. Each new environment, starts with a window, with the light of that window, and what it foretold. There is a “mountain view” from most of the buildings or neighborhoods. This immersion in un-private space, smaller accommodations, un-familiar communities, gave me a seventh sense in adapting to my surroundings. The mandatory interiors, the neighborhood walks, time of dawn and dusk, my checklist for visuals. The documentation began with my studio window on Edris Drive, the last series I shot in film:

Mountain View, Edris Drive, 2006
© Loretta Ayeroff
Please visit What Do You Like to Photograph, by Loretta Ayeroff for the full size image.

“This picture reminds me of a 1978 exhibition by John Szarkowski, who was then director of the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Titled “Mirrors and Windows,” it distinguished between two types of photographers: Romantics interested in self-expression and Realists focused on objective reality. A photograph was either “a mirror, reflecting a portrait of the artist who made it, or a window, through which one might better know the world.” The distinction can prove slippery, though. Loretta Ayeroff’s photograph is both window and mirror an image of a window as a mirror. Three-quarters of this view from her studio show us the bright landscape we recognize as L.A. But the other quarter, in the sash at lower right, turns dark, moody and mysterious because it is part reflection of a view through the adjacent sash that we cannot see directly. We are looking right at the banister rail in the foreground, but where is the faint third banister we see beyond? The dim, illogical relationships in this part of the picture are typical of the subjective experience Szarkowski ascribed to mirrors. That the aberration should occupy only one-quarter of the view is about right. Mirrors have always been the minority report in photography.”

Colin Westerbeck, Los Angeles Times

The windows get progressively darker, culminating in “Fifteen Backyards, The Story of a Relationship” shot from one window, over a year, sunrise to sundown:

Citrus Avenue, the first studio of two, around the corner from a former Raymond Chandler residence, contains the red light from our annual, September, fire season. Chandler said, “There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch.”

Window, Citrus Avenue, 2007
© Loretta Ayeroff
Please visit What Do You Like to Photograph, by Loretta Ayeroff for the full size image.

Reading the novels of Chandler during this period, my work grew progressively darker, with an omnipresent “noir” quality:

Fairfax Avenue & Third Street, 2007
From “Los Angeles, Dedicated to Raymond Chandler”
© Loretta Ayeroff
Please visit What Do You Like to Photograph, by Loretta Ayeroff for the full size image.

Perhaps the studio window from Smithwood Drive, presaged my interest in “moments.” To shoot LIGHT, one has to be quick. There is no time to really check exposures, or carefully frame the scene. The photographs are produced almost like a “grab” shot, quickly before the light changes, or disappears altogether:

Window, Smithwood Drive, 2010
© Loretta Ayeroff
Please visit What Do You Like to Photograph, by Loretta Ayeroff for the full size image.

So, in my mind, I achieved the goal of expanding my subject matter. My portraiture had become portraits of my life, where I lived, and what surrounded me. Some of the family artifacts that I could no longer keep with me, during this odyssey, I documented. “Body of Evidence” is an ongoing project, becoming the proof that makes the case, my family once existed, despite the deaths and departures:

Body of Evidence: My Mother’s Green Gloves, My Father’s Cigarette Case, My Grandfather Frank’s Pipe, 2009-2010
© Loretta Ayeroff
Please visit What Do You Like to Photograph, by Loretta Ayeroff for the full size image.

“Moments” can include all. It’s how I think and see now, no longer restricted by subject, resulting in a panoply of choices… still-lifes, faces, rooms, vistas, corners, branches. An unexplainable mystery, an un-written story, like this, illustrating a Jane Vandenberg column, in the Huffington Post, next week:

Nighthawks, Child, 2012
© Loretta Ayeroff
Please visit What Do You Like to Photograph, by Loretta Ayeroff for the full size image.

I know the result of my shifting perspectives is an un-recognizable style. Whereas my portraits have an Ayeroff “look” I don’t think this is true with my current work. I’m letting the moment, speak for itself, un-encumbered by recognizable framing, or forcing a certain design element. As the photographer, the “mine” fades into the light, only to reveal better, what is in front of me.

For more photos and stories, please visit Loretta Ayeroff online portfolio.

Distance, by Romina Shama aka Rachel Rom

Romina Shama — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 06:49:44 +0000

Text and photos by Romina Shama aka Rachel Rom.

  The name of this magazine is a great starting point for me to get into my work. I hate talking about it. In fact, I never do.  I feel like the more I say, the less there is. Judging by the name of this magazine, I think you are familiar with Roland Barthes’ “Camera Lucida”, one of the first photography essays I read when I was at St Martin’s School. I was more of a writer before I started art school and at first, it was really hard for me to shift my ideas to a visual form. But as soon as I did, I lost the ability to find my words, so I started looking for someone else’s:  “The image produces death while trying to preserve life” Barthes wrote – and it should have been me. Photography truly is morbid in many ways. It freezes time. It steals it. It is a liar. It sells the contrary of life. I always asked myself why I chose this media when, in fact, I aspire to the exact opposite of that. I want to stop time from running, obviously. Also, I want to photograph life, I want to really see people. They have to look beyond me. I try not to freeze them (in photography) but then I lose them, so I look for ways to keep them alive. Now I sound like a serial killer.

The truth is: if I wanted to capture this intimacy in people I would have to hide. I would have to get close without them noticing me. I’ve always had a problem with standing in front of someone trying to portray them. There’s no story there. It suddenly occurred to me that a photograph where the photographer meets his subject is worthless. I tend to go further, I sometimes feel like an idea loses its power the moment it is said or written. I am very superstitious like that. I think there’s more poetry to an idea that is never revealed. It is nurtured inside. It either grows and becomes the core of something bigger or naturally fades out and disappears.

 When I look back, every piece of work I’ve ever done tells the same story: Absence, Distance, Silence. Ironically, I chose photography and death to speak about life.  A short time before my last show, I met up with a girl I’d often crossed paths with in my life, without noticing. Pauline Klein. She was writing her first novel and I was preparing my second show at the Visionaire Gallery. We got together again and she wrote a piece on the work I was showing. The title of the exhibit was “NAKED and HURT” and it was comprised of two series of women’s portraits.

“She doesn’t unveil, but rather encloses what the image promises at first glance: clarification. It is not either she who poses, nor the body.  I discovered, in these images, a content almost outside of the frame, which made me feel I was faced with a moment, a place… just as they would be, had they not been ‘taken’. As if, of the image taken, there remained only a distance, an absence of ties. Of these tracing-paper women, disappeared, hung up, there would remain perhaps only a sketchy, confused form, which will be forgotten. And so, the contours sunk in, and outlined the shapes while masking them. An accumulation of absences, of silences. Absence of voracious wild-cat eyes, quasi-absence of a subject discovered by chance, a ghost whose shadow is the only trace, an image not taken, but left there in an almost brutal silence, that revives and kills. She doesn’t take them, she leaves them. And the image, the frame, were dancing between my eyes, like so many long moments past, concentrated now in their most expurgated form, at the frontiers of oblivion. Here, the nude doesn’t attract, it removes, blurs, separates, re-dresses the eye and the void, it distances.”  

She wrote: “She doesn’t take them, she leaves them” And she found the exact words for a feeling I couldn’t name.  She wanted to sign her text with the title of her book, which had not yet been published: “Alice Kahn”. It is only when I read the book that I understood her approach. In doing so, she became an integral part of my works. The “she” in her text was me, it was they, my subjects, but also she, Alice… She became like the absent girl I photographed and by deciding to frame and exhibit this text with my images, I had added a new layer to it. It really brought a new yet hidden dimension to my exhibition. Few people perceived it and it made sense to me. She had put the final brush stroke to an imperfect painting and it was then that I thought back to Giulio Paolini’s 2006 exhibition: “The Unknown Author”.

The unknown author
© Giulio Paolini
Please visit Distance, by Romina Shama aka Rachel Rom for the full size image.

If, as for “The Unknown Author”, the work exists prior to the author’s intervention – who can then only confirm its existence -, in this case, the work is the human being. The human exists before our missed encounter, but he wants to confirm his presence. The very nature of my approach resides in the absence of structure, of staging. Indispensable to achieve this void, inside of which the subject is revealed. I don’t take the subject, I leave it or I let it go. I am interested in its absence. In silence. The author remains distant, the work has its own identity, which surpasses the author and achieves full realisation in its unfinished state. In its questioning. There is no author, no period nor answer. Like an idea that would forever remain an idea because it would lose all of its meaning if carried out.  Without an ending, it can never wear out; it remains open and can only renew itself.  Because the work escapes the author, it exists solely in its evolution. Taking nourishment from time while the author loses time.  Hence, the photographic work is reversed. It lasts. It can restore life.   Time is not linear, even though we perceive it as such. My early work began with very linear sequences and is now evolving towards a hazier, more dimensional state. I would take five or six photos, one after the other, of something or someone and feel that in doing so, I froze each step and detained time. I was photographing sequences of empty spaces full of life or of living people’s absence. A photograph of an empty chair to portray the person who was sitting there just before I took it – or one of an empty look staring beyond me.

One day, my psychiatrist told me he had lost me, he couldn’t see me clearly because I was blurry. He was right. I see blurry because I am shortsighted.  Seriously, in a way, I was stuck in the middle state, I felt a lot like I was standing on the threshold of awakening. I felt hidden. I started “looking for the right distance”, and I quote Klein again: “A space, a void between life and the representation of life, that would neither be a dream nor an image but would evolve somewhere in between”.

Not so long ago, I was planning my third solo show at SAKS Gallery in Geneva. It was supposed to be a big deal. My friend and SAKS Gallery owner started asking me what I was working on and I showed her my blurry photos of people taken from behind, through a thin veil I attached to my objective and a series of almost abstract photos taken through a train window. I explained how I was looking at my subjects and evading them at the same time. I felt like I was looking through them and I liked it – but she didn’t. They were too elusive. Still, I kept going. My show was cancelled. I was upset and relieved.  I kept looking and pushing the distance to a metaphorical state. I would re-photograph portraits I had taken. I would print the portrait, frame it and hang it on the wall. A couple of years later I would re-photograph it, frame the new portrait and hang it to be re-photographed again after another couple of years, to give it a remanence in time. The work would be reborn and thereby remain eternally unfinished. The same portrait would thus exist in 1982, 2011 and maybe 2020. The subject moves forward with time, but does not age. As if renovated. And yet, the distance widens and the trace intensifies.  

 Very early on, I fell in love with the piece “Gemelli” from Alighiero Boetti. He then altered his name to Alighiero “e” Boetti to signify the presence of the transparent double. I think I liked it because I immediately understood it, which is rarely the case with art. It was the starting point of a lot of my thinking and I constantly researched twins and chess as a student. I really didn’t understand why, but I let it guide me. It led me to Duchamp, Picabia… the Dadas and the Surrealists, whose work often didn’t make sense to me, but whose process did. It opened a whole new window of possibilities and made me realise that art is not only about what you do, it is mostly about what you don’t do. It has no written rules and I like that. Everyone makes his own rules and feeds them with pieces of work. Some prefer not to. Each artist finds his or her system, unconsciously establishing formulae and following them methodically, but the beauty of it is that the artist will never stop researching the projection of an image.  

© Alighero Boetti (left) and Marcel Duchamp (right)
Please visit Distance, by Romina Shama aka Rachel Rom for the full size image.

 While working on this very concept, I shifted again, this time from daughter to mother. That is when I looked for pictures of my mother when she was my age and started re-photographing them. I knew this girl as my mother when I was a little girl. Let me meet her again as a mother and stand in front of her at my current age. Which brings us to the final point of my essay. The doppelgänger.  

 I feel like I am erasing my thoughts the minute I voice them. I have shifted. My work feels trapped inside me. Did I put too much distance? I think it’s too early for me to fully comprehend why I am making this decision, but it makes sense. It has to have its own identity, because it has reached that point. It is not me anymore. It is her.   Rachel Rom.

For more information and photos, please visit Romina Shama and Rachel Rom website.

Roger Ballen interview

Fabiano Busdraghi — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 06:22:35 +0000

Roger Ballen is one of my favorite photographer ever. His complex, beautiful and disturbing images are intense and powerful visions rooted deep inside the subconscious mind. Mysterious visions that last long time inside your brain, as vaguely unexpressed questions.

It was a great honor when Roger Ballen accepted to be art of CO-mag, and answer some question about his practice and vision.

Fabiano Busdraghi: You studied geology and before becoming a full time photographer you worked many years searching for minerals in South Africa. Speaking about your double scientific and artistic experience, some times ago you wrote to me: “In order to create strong images one has to be a scientist and artist.”

Personally I’m extremely interested in this topic, because I’ve be a physician during some year before switching to photography. So many people I met in the scientific or art word, think as they are two completely distinct universes, while during centuries art, science, technique… where simply considered the same expression of the human knowledge.

What is in your vision of the relationship between science and art? Why it’s important to be an artist and a scientist at the same time?

Roger Ballen: One might think of the artist/scientist analogy as the relationship between the conscious/subconscious mind. Whilst there are many overlaps, creativity has to be channeled through a part of the mind that is is rational and is able to make decisions based on experience. Nevertheless the source of creativity is based deep inside the subconscious mind.

Fabiano Busdraghi: It’s easy to see the analogy between searching deep underground and the subconscious exploration in your photographs. But I ask to my self if there is something else, something more practical and direct compared to this metaphor.

Do you think that the formal training typical of science influenced your photographic approach? What is the role of the scientific method in your images?

Roger Ballen: My goal in many ways is to become a master of the medium of black and white photography. As each year passes I continue to learn more about the media and how to “express greater complexity in a state of purer simplicity”. I think my training in the field of geologist assisted me in appreciating the relationships between cause and effect which is fundamental to the scientific approach.

Fabiano Busdraghi: When they started, many of my photographer friends had a lot of artistic ambitions. After a while, -mainly because of economical constraint- they started some parallel commercial activity: weddings, advertising, etc. The problem is that little by little they become prisoner of the economical appeal of their commercial work. The resulting situation usually killed their creativity and all the their artistic ambitions.

You practiced photography as an hobby for many years and -as a consequence- yo wasn’t obliged to make a living out of it. Do you think that this kind of freedom was fundamental to find your way? Would you suggest to young photographer to have a parallel and completely distinct job to experience the same freedom? Or it would be better to concentrate uniquely on photography form the beginning?

Roger Ballen: I often explain to younger photographers that the field of art photography is one of the most difficult careers in the world. There are literally trillions of photographs in the world and billions of people taking photographs. In order to have any possible success in this business ones work has to stand out and have lasting impact over time.

In life it is crucial to find the correct balance. Whilst “what might work for one may not work for the other”; I have stated that firstly one ought to photograph for oneself not the market, secondly that being an art photography requires the same discipline and dedication that one might apply to any other field and thirdly that it is crucial to have another profession to subsidize the costs of daily life.

Fabiano Busdraghi: Looking at your photographic production, animals are extremely recurrent: dogs, cats, ducks, birds, snakes… Some time ago I was reading an analysis of Pink Floyd songs where animals had a central part, especially concerning Syd Barret. In the book, the massive presence all kind of real or mythological fauna, insects, and animal sounds could even be interpreted as an early sign of Syd mental illness. Even if I’m not sure about this statement, I think the parallel between a band who often explored the dark side of our existence and your introspective work is evident.

So, why so many of your photos are populated by animals? What is the importance of animals in your work?

Roger Ballen: For most of my life I have been fascinated by the similarities of animal behavior to human. A substantial amount of my imagery over the past decades has attempted to decipher visually the animality of the human being.

On another level, my images comment on the complex relationship between mankind and animals. It is quite obvious that this interaction is not one of mutual trust and benefit. Quite the contrary.

Fabiano Busdraghi: You have organized and diffused your work in the form of photo books. It seems to me that books are central in your production, and are the natural physical materialization of your work. Before exhibiting your work is so many galleries and museum, you already published several books, and it’s your book Platteland who drove so much attention on your practice and was a fundamental turning point in your life.

Can you explain why you have this fascination for books? What are the implication of having a photo book as the main objective? When you produce a new body of work, do you already think to it as a future book? Or after some year shooting new work, you “discover” a book editing all the raw material you gradually accumulated?

Roger Ballen: My career has revolved around the production of books namely Boyhood, Dorps, Platteland, Outland, Shadow Chamber, Boarding House, and Asylum. These projects have all taken approximately five years to complete.

All of the above book projects started with a word that eventually became the title to the future book. During the years that it took to complete these projects my goal was to define in a purely visual, subjective manner the meaning of the particular word. Each strong, successful photograph added another dimension to the project in progress.

A book, unlike an exhibition is permanent, it is something one can go back to over and over again. It establishes a level from which one can begin the “next climb”.

Gonzalo Bénard: I studied 12 years at a Jesuit’s school being an atheist since I remember myself, however, the very first photograph I knew from you was the most engaging portrait of God I ever seen. I have shown it in almost every master class I gave, as example of composition, conceptual photography, etc. But knowing you and your work, you’ve been always creating, projecting and representing your inner world, maybe as process of oneself knowledge. This photograph can be seen as an icon to a man full of faith and yet can also be an icon of a pure atheist, showing God as a nonsense dogma. The guy seems sleeping relaxed feeling protected yet giving the back to us, humanity; the dog seems asking “what the hell is going on here?”; the God himself as a wired puppet, a doll with a funny smile, and the whole environment as opposite to the golden church.

Where are the creator here? Where are you in this photograph?

Roger Ballen: I have always stated that whilst some may find this image titled “Loner” disturbing; it is ultimately conveying a profound statement about the meaning and nature of the identity of God.

On a formal level the photograph is integrated by the fact that the eye of the dog is comparable to the doll, the dog and the man on the bed lie in the form of a cross, and the reverse spelling of the word God is Dog.

Gonzalo Bénard: You often say that your photographs are a way to define yourself, your “psychological and existential journey”, however you do not come up on them, your real face/body is not visible in your work. Do you project yourself in the photographed beings – humans/animals? Most of your work has some kind of ritualistic mood, not coming up in the photographs yourself, are you playing the shaman, using others to project yourself in these rituals? Or going further if I may: are each one of your works a mask you use (or could use) being the shaman?

Roger Ballen: Like my photographs my being consists of endless fragments many of which I am oblivious of. Each photograph I produce reveals Roger Ballen’s mind through a camera. People fail to realize that a camera is fundamentally a tool of the mind; no different than a paint brush in the hand of a painter or a pen of a poet.

Gonzalo Bénard: Parallel yet not separated from your photographic blood you run the Roger Ballen Foundation, with which you add an important role in South Africa education for culture, with lectures, classes, workshops, dealing with people who might be a world future great photographer. Knowing by my own experience, teaching and doing workshops can be an amazing way to learn from the new ones. What do you give from you? What do you get from them? Being teaching an ex-change of minds in which everybody should learn from the others, what’s the most pleasant for you leading the Roger Ballen Foundation? Do you want to share a bit your experience on this?

Roger Ballen: The purpose of the Roger Ballen Foundation is to increase the aesthetic awareness of contemporary photography in South Africa. Unless the public becomes aware of the value of photography and begins to collect photographs it will be almost impossible for young artists to continue in this field without other forms of material support.

The Foundation has organized and supported master classes, symposiums, exhibitions, and lectures over the years all of which have been very well attended.

Gonzalo Bénard: as an art-photographer I know that a serious interview about our work can get one tired, specially when we feel we already answered most of the questions people do, and sometimes we ended up giving an interview thinking: “pity they didn’t ask about this or that as it’s important”… like the importance of having a left nipple to chat with the right one. Do you want to answer to yourself?

Roger Ballen: Answering to yourself is the most important activity of an artist.

For more information and photos, please visit Roger Ballen website.

Photography and contemporary art galleries in Barcelona

Fabiano Busdraghi — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 15:30:30 +0000

Contemporary art and photo in Barcelona. From top left, clockwise: Mito, 3 punts, Carles Taché and Camara Lucida.

I just got back from a week in Barcelona dedicated to the research of a contemporary art or photo gallery that can represent me in the Catalan. It was my first time ever in Barcelona, therefore I had to learn something about the city, understand where expositive center and galleries were located, appreciate the atmospheres and taste the districts. This article is a resume about the experiences made last week that can be used to prepare an itinerary for those who are searching for a space to expose or for those who simply wants to visit art and photo galleries in Barcelona. The emphasis, because of my motivations, is posed on photo or contemporary art galleries that are potentially interested to bet on young photographers.

Where to find art galleries in Barcelona

The majority of the contemporary art galleries of the city are found in the district Eixemple, north west of the Catalunya Place.

The galleries are concentrated along c. Consell de Cent, between the Rambla and c. Aribau. Therefore you can find them everywhere also in c. Aragò, Valéncia, Enrique Granados, Balmes and in the pl. Latamendi. They’re numerous on the streets in the nearby: c. Diputacio’, Rossello’, Provença and Mallorca. In this entire zone there’s something like fifty galleries, sometime literally one near to each other, mostly in c. Consell de Cent.

L’Eixample is a modern and dynamic zone, plenty of restaurants and bars, some new and kind of high tech, typical of the aseptic milieu of businessmen. It is a neuralgic and frequented zone, even by tourists, as it is not far away from the center, near to the Rambla and the Battlò House. The streets are jammed and the foot way crowded. The houses are modernized, well-kept and rich. Well, it is a high level and modern district. The sensation that I had is that the galleries in this district are the one that expose the most contemporary art, who bet on the new artist, on the innovative idea; inside those streets the actual history of art in Barcelona is written. Obviously, there are also galleries that expose works of well-known artists, more classic works and occasionally antiquity.

In the historical center the galleries are grouped inside 2 streets: c. Petritxol in the Barrio Gotic, c. Montcada at La Ribera. Around the Museum of contemporary art there is something else. Except one or two exception of superb galleries, the ones of the center are real institutions/museum where it is impossible to expose if your name doesn’t appear on art books studied at school, or simple shop windows with artistic products sold to tourists. In these last shops, the exposed works are even beautiful, but often conventional. Or there is no real temporary exposition but rather works by several artists to be sold. This gives the idea of a luxury shop more than a gallery that develops contemporary art events, take an artist under its wing and grow up with it. Moreover photographies are virtually absent from the historical center. It is practically impossible to expose in this zone as emerging photographer and probably would not even interesting from the career point of view.

The third zone of galleries goes from the enchanting district of Gràcia to Tres Torres. Galleries here are more spread that in Eixample. Although this, some are concentrated on c. Verdi, some in the triangle between Avinguda Diagonal, Travessera de Gràcia and c. Gran de Gràcia and some around the tube stop Bonanova and near Pl. Francesc Macià.

Personally, even if I do not know the entire city of Barcelona, the streets and lanes of the old town of Gracià are maybe my favorite zone of the city, a place where I would like to live. Here’s an amazing popular and lived atmosphere, antique and shabby houses that remember me about Latin America, long and narrow tree-lined streets. Inhabitants, animated streets, no tourists, gypsies playing under windows begging for money and typical restaurants where menu with starter, pantumaca, first, second, dessert, wine and coffee costs less than 10 euros. Galleries though are isolated and scattered, because the local population is not the typical art buyer and the plausible visitor (or buyer) must move to visit the gallery. Those are the reasons for which, from a commercial and working point of view, it would be better to choose the gallery center inside the Eixample. Nearby Augusta Street, which is more central and animated as it is similar to the Eixample, there are two of the few galleries of Barcelona entirely and uniquely dedicated to photography, thus it’s worth the walking.

Vegas Looser

Art galleries in Barcelona

Barcelona turned out to be an active and lively city for contemporary art, confirming its fame of city attentive to art and new talents that everyone knows all around the world.

Galleries are concentrated in a couple of zones, which allows the formation of a gallery pole, probably facilitating the possibility of visitors, collectors and professionals beyond vernissages. Galleries are all well visible, on crowded streets and have windows. This is an enormous difference compared for example with Milan, where the majority of the art galleries are unfortunately all hidden. If you don’t know that in Who Knows Who Street n. 33, ringing at the fifth doorbell, opening the door and entering the garden, you would probably never know that there’s a gallery over there. Unfortunately this way the majority of art galleries in Milan are precluded from every occasional visitor.

Another great difference between Milan is the absence of arrogance and sometime even impoliteness that you must face, not in all, but in many galleries of the north Italian city. In Barcelona I’ve always been politely and happily welcomed. In some cases the galleries politics wasn’t to watch works proposed from tyou, but rather the directors choose the artists. Even in this case though I’ve always been respectfully received. In some cases I was asked to send a dossier via mail, sending that gave back some answer and some others are still waiting to be received. The majority of the galleries anyway gave me the opportunity to fix directly an appointment with the director or even show immediately my work, without waiting or going back again.

Born to run

Welcoming has always been warm, interesting, disposable and even involved. And this is the demonstration of how here gallerists are ready to see what you propose, independently by the fact that they decide to represent you or not. In some cases the discussion was long and the directors gave me advices, encouraged me, opened new possibilities and proposed future meetings.

In the whole, a couple of galleries would start suddenly to expose my works, while some 3 or 4 are potentially interested and the dialogue is still open. But the possibility to be represented are is definitely concrete.

A selection of art galleries in Barcelona

One of the first galleries that I visited along c. Consell de Cent is Manel Mayoral, a beautiful gallery that exposed a wonderful collective of famous contemporary photographers, such as Gabriele Basilico and Candida Hofer. Undoubtably when the shots are made by famous photographers the quality strikes your eyes, the images where absolutely wonderful, without exceptions and it’s something that doesn’t happen quite often walking around the galleries. Perfectly presented, modern ambient, large and elegant, rich and refined, not the simple white and empty room of many galleries. The gallery only exposes works of well-known international artists.

Another beautiful gallery of the zone that exposes photography is Senda. Once again wonderful spaces and interesting works, but their politic as well is not to look at works proposed directly by photographers but rather the direction choose the artists during the international exhibitions.

Landing

Two more beautiful galleries along c. Consell de Cent, which expose paintings, sculptures, pictures and installations are Toni Tapies and Carles Taché. In both cases you can’t present your work on site or ask for an appointment, but you must send a dossier via e-mail. In the same street, there were two galleries who were exposing pictures, which are Contrast and Llucià Homs. The first one was hanging little black and white pictures by Martìn Sala, that I personally completely disliked, apart for a couple of exceptions. The other photographers represented in the gallery had interesting works. I particularly appreciated the work of Robert Berlin. The second gallery shown an interesting work: Seven Deadly Sins by Lukas Maximilian Huller, the most impressive work between the ones I saw in Barcelona. For both galleries it is possible to fix an appointment to present your works.

The exhibition that mostly surprised me has been Hot Dreams’ motorbikes exposed in the Gòmez Turu gallery. I enjoyed the idea that those were real sculptures that deserved the honor of being exposed in a contemporary art gallery. Moreover, they’re more beautiful than many other “artistic” objects. They’re perfectly finished and they are also functional objects, objects made not for the art market but for motorbikes lovers, real and concrete objects, for people, objects that have a sense inside. Love them!

This is a perfect example of what I mean when I say that contemporary art suffer of the same problem of unintelligibility and isolation of classical music. They should both follow the example of Jazz at the beginning of the last century or the example of Rock in the 60’s, which completely reinvented the language and the musical universe itself, keeping themselves near to the real world and being perfectly intelligible. Talking about the art dealers, greetings for their courage to bet on such an exhibition like this one.

I also enjoyed 3 punts, José de Ibarra and Mito galleries in the Eixample. The three galleries regularly expose pphotographs and I had the pleasure to talk with all the directors of the three, interested at my work, helpful and open-minded towards me, sometime even prodigal of propositions, advices and suggestions. In Mito gallery there were some sculpture by Brian Dettmer, made deforming and uniting old audio cassettes, that I found simply genial, one of the contemporary art work I mostly appreciated during last months. The last gallery I must suggest for this zone is Adn, which you must send your works via e-mail to receive a quick and kind answer.

Kowasa is one of the few gallery in Barcelona that only expose photography. It is in a certain way an extension of the photographic library at the ground floor (which is supplied with wonderful monographs and pictures books), in which young unknown photographers expose their photos, but in a space that is actually a bookshop more than a prestigious art gallery. The space at the second floor exposes pictures in a classical manner, but these are mostly pictures that are part of the collection, therefore is not easy to expose a personal work.

Among the other expositive spaces that are not part of the galleries center of the city, a particular mention surely goes to Trama. This gallery, situated in a crowded street of the Barrio Gotico, exposed, in a beautiful, elegant and spacious space, some interesting gigantic prints of Aziz+Cucher. It is not possible though to present your work directly to the gallery, it is up to the direction to choose the exposed artists.

I also appreciated a little gallery called Cubo, with a young and informal ambient, music turned on. Pictures has literary texts attached and were sold to low, low price. It is interesting for those who’d like to expose in a space without excessive requests.

Camara Lucida is a gallery that only exposes photography. Beautiful even if it doesn’t have any big space, but many little rooms and a splendid inner court with tables open air. It seems a lively place of exchange, intimate and welcoming. It remembers me of my gallery in Paris, Chambre avec Vues. Instead of a unique volume with a temporary, brief exposition, there are many rooms with images of different photographers, and the space of the exposition that seems to be the one of the moment. Between the exposed works, I particularly appreciated the one of Branislav Kropilak, his Trains series (which I thought about, but never realized it) and Landing series. I think they’re both brilliant and perfectly realized.

The last gallery that only exposes photography is Fotonauta, but it was closed when I walked by because they’re moving into a different location.