Flickrock
This is kinda cool: http://flickrock.com/yaschan#/yaschan/popular
Very nice way to show your best work in Flickr.
Freedom
My photo “Freedom” was recently portrayed in group exhibition in Yoshidamachi Gallery, Yokohama. I took this photo in last summer in Noge by using Kodak Gold and converted the digital scan to monochrome.
I think “freedom” is perfect title for this photo.
Printing Lizard Point
I had great time making first prints for Lizard Point photos in Dark Room Intl. in Yokohama. I was really glad to get advice and guidance from the kind people there.
I really love the look of real silver-halide prints. They look substantial and delightfully analogue. Since I was after the high contrast, I felt I really chose the right medium this time by choosing film versus digital.
Yodobashi Censorship
OK, now I am angry. Yodobashi Camera in Yokohama censored one frame from my Tri-X negative, and destroyed part of the preceding and following frames in the process, as you can see in the picture. It was mild nudity at best and I’m sure there was no genitalia in the picture, even if there was it must have not been clearly visible.
I was not notified about this when I paid and received the negatives and there was no sign in the packaging whatsoever that censorship would have taken place.
This is simply just unacceptable because the following and preceding non-nude frames were also affected by whatever dark magic they used to destroy the picture after it was developed. Also they should have explained this reason to me clearly which they never did. That is just wrong.
OK, you might think that this is a result of accidental opening of the camera while film was in since it looks like severe overexposure. But I am sure I didn’t open the camera while the film was in half way, and even if I would have accidentally done so, the film counter would have reseted. Thus I am sure I didn’t open the camera. I have shot about a hundred rolls with my Bessa R3M and this kind of issue has never happened. It just cannot be because of camera malfunction.
If this was an accident of the lab, that means they need to refund me since I paid for a product that wasn’t what it was promised. If this was non-accident but intentional censorship, then they should have notified me; and still that doesn’t justify destroying preceding and following frames.
So I think I’m at least entitled for a refund for damaged film.
And the question is what if I would have been shooting something important? Well this WAS important, but gladly I’m not going to lose my head over this. The lesson learned; develop yourself if it’s black and white. As noted by a fellow photographer, there’s also the risk that someone working in the lab might copy the image if it’s special enough; you just can’t be sure.
Sadly it’s just currently impossible for me to start developing color film, so I will still be dropping my Ektar100′s to Yodobashi.
Ceasefire
“..And little by little I will start to understand more of myself too. Just slowly is ok, I don’t think I have to hurry anywhere anymore. In my head tonight I say it’s ceasefire, and tomorrow another ceasefire and the soldiers can have their long lasting cigarette break and another, until they forget any war ever existed. “
Jaakko, rest your head now.
Araki (Portfolio)
I had my recent WTF moment when I opened “Araki (Portfolio)” which I bought from Amazon. The book has awful Tamron and Sigma ads which feels like someone pouring cold water on you while you are having sex. Ads just don’t belong to art book! You can’t even rip the ads off the book since they are integrated into the pages.
Anyway, the sentence first page by the Stern-Art-Director Donald Schneider kinda made me sad: “It wasn’t that I hadn’t seen any sex, porn or SM photos before…”. It’s obvious that the director himself does not understand the deeper meaning or context of Araki’s work. I don’t know how Araki’s photos are perceived in Germany, it might be something cultural, but they sure didn’t receive this bad treatment in Kiasma in Helsinki!
The other introduction by Jochen Siemens is kinda okay, nice little text to accompany Araki’s photos. There is also a short interview with Araki which is kinda nice.
I regret however buying this book since there are tons of much better publications which portray Araki’s work in more spiritual and sensitive way. I definably recommend to skip this book unless you love ads featuring years old camera equipment.
Magnum Contact Sheets
I recently bought the latest edition of Magnum Contact Sheets (2011, Edited by Kristen Lubben). This (huge!) book is a landmark, perhaps one of the most important photography publications out there.
Contact sheet used to be a common tool for photographers when reviewing their work; it allowed photographers to see a quick overview of the images they had shot. This first draft reveals the thought process and work method of the photographer since the original sequence of the exposed film is preserved.
Indeed, contact print is something intimate that photographers are not usually willing to show. Quoting Henri Cartier-Bresson (from page 18), “A contact sheet is full of erasures, full of detritus”, and that “A photo exhibition or a book is an invitation to a meal, and it’s not customary to make guests poke their noses into the pots and pans, and even less into the buckets or peelings..”.
I wasn’t particularly interested in seeing the mistakes of other photographers, but more I wanted to see the flow of images that existed in original film, I find there is something very beautiful and human in the process and how the mind of the photographer works. A perfect marriage of the analog workflow and human subject..
The book starts with iconic images of Cartier-Bresson in Seville in 1933, and chronologically walks the reader through the century of great photographic culture into the present day. The written stories and descriptions by the photographers themselves are fascinating to read; here are many amazing, moving stories here. I am especially touched about description of Marilyn Silverstone’s life, she was the only woman photographer to record Dalai Lama’s arrival to India in 1959 and became Tibetan Buddhist nun in the later years.
And then there is the iconic picture of the lone protestor in Tiananmen Square.
But Magnum Contact Sheets is not only a record of famous images with historical importance, it’s a record of the art itself. On the latter pages there are even video stills, and screen shots of the thumbnail images on computer screen.
It will be interesting to see how this book will develop in future as more and more photographers switch to digital.
I really recommend this book to anyone interested in photography or the human subject.