This is a still. And this is the video. I’ve been waiting for some really subtle landscape video, and this one is checking all the boxes.

Thanks, Grant Cornett.

Enter Manjari Sharma’s Darshan. Named for a Sanskrit word which means “sight”, “vision” or “view, Manjari’s new project seeks to photographically recreate nine classical images of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. These icons are deeply connected to Sharma’s spiritual upbringing. By melding them with her reverence and devotion to photography, she is creating altars of her own.

You’ll never believe what goes into making these images. It’s a full-on production of costume designers, set stylists, jewelry designers, carpenters and painters. Sharma believes art is much about the process, and this is one hell of a process.

This is the first image, Maa Laxmi, the goddess of wealth, good fortune, and prosperity.

Here is more about the project, and an amazing behind-the-scenes look at the work as it is created:

Darshan from Manjari Sharma on Vimeo.

PLEASE consider donating to Sharma’s project. These images ought to be created. Click here and help out! You can even receive a signed, editioned print. Totally worth it, this is an excellent use of Kickstarter.

Here is more from Sharma in her own words:

“I grew up in a Hindu home to parents who were quite spiritual, religious and god fearing as they would call it in India. I visited countless temples, shrines, and discourses as frequently as my parents wanted. These discourses circled around unraveling the mysteries locked in chapters of mythological enigma and tales of deities, reincarnations and astrology. The roots of hindu mythology run deep; my own experiences as a child ranged from being fascinated and enlightened to lost and still seeking. Naturally, coming back home still consists of delving back into the same routine of worship and meditation I left behind.

I moved from India to the United States in 2001 in order to pursue an undergraduate study in Fine Art Photography. The frequency with which I visited Hindu temples in what felt like my previous life, gradually got replaced with visits to art galleries, museums and studios, where creativity in all mediums of expression are revered.

This series bridges two parts of my world. Iconography in the Indian religion found in temples and scriptures are ultimately artistic representations of mythological characters. Most hindus have seen the use of painting and sculpture but rarely photography taken to the level of exacting measures with respect to showcasing deities. The creation of these images has become my act of devotion, to art and to religion.”

Go to Manjari Sharma’s site.

Go to Kickstarter and be inspired.

TPP recently sat down with the dashing Alberto Milazzo of LaBoutique NY to discuss the state of the art… of retouching.

Before

After

TPP: How did you get started in the industry and where?

AM: I’ve been a retoucher for 9 years. I originally went into Graphic Design and went to school for it in the UK, I liked it but I started enjoying manipulating images and incorporating them in my design pieces more than the actual “designing” of the project. So after I was done I did a lot of self teaching at home, while I was working for Blockbuster Video and trying to break into acting. My agent told me to go get some headshots. I went to a photographer they recommended and turns out, he was in need of of a graphic designer/digital retoucher to set up his new digital department. I jumped at the chance. Acting quickly became secondary, and after I had proven my worth, I ended up working full time for him. I started retouching wedding shots and drool off of baby’s mouths – and I loved it.

As I retouched more, I became faster and more confident. Through that job I started meeting other photographers and was suddenly thrust into the industry where I learned a lot, fast. After a couple of years there I started freelancing for the big boys and really got my face out there to whomever had a minute to see me. As I grew my skill base I also grew a portfolio, which was starting to circulate… even all the way across the seas to NYC.

I got a call from a friend who had moved there and were in need of good retouchers. To my surprise, they offered me a freelance gig in NYC. I was on the plane before I could say yes. Two weeks later the company offered me a sponsorship and a full time job. That was 5 years ago and I have worked very hard in the industry since then and have worked with many professional photographers, clients and fellow retouchers.

TPP: You are one of the most sought after retouchers in the business – what would you say is your philosophy when taking on a new client or project?

AM: Clear, concise and honest communication. I take direction very well and its all down to taking the time to listen and asking the questions that will lead to a great image, story or campaign. I have also taken the time to grow strength in previously tough areas such as product retouching, which is more technical and precise when compared to fashion or beauty. I am a well rounded retoucher. Another huge advantage when working with new clients is knowing when I need to put my ego aside. This industry can lead anyone with a creative streak or skill to question their abilities or to get personally effected by an unhappy client. You can’t please everyone. I do my best and apply all that I have learned plus a dash of passion & commitment into what I’m working on. I believe this is key when meeting a new client or starting a project.

TPP: You clearly take a creative approach to retouching – what/whom are your current influences/inspirations?

AM: There are many photographers that I admire and who inspire me. To name a few in an otherwise long list; there’s Guy Aroch, Mert & Marcus Piggott, Richard Avedon, Ben Hassett and Tyen. I find myself being inspired by so many of the images that I see both consciously and subconsciously. I mentally log a specific color, a certain density, a particular contrast or palette they use when I retouch, this enables me to stay focused on new trends and augment my skill base to keep up with the demands of new and existing clients. It is very important for a retoucher to be versatile , you need to remain as unbiased with your technique or/and creative opinion, to stay as flexible as possible when tending and respecting one photographer’s style to another.

TPP: A lot is changing in the photo industry right now – what are some of the current challenges facing the retouching industry right now?

AM: A lot has changed, this is definitely true. I have seen a huge shift in the 9 years I’ve been working as a professional retoucher. One of the biggest changes I’ve seen is the lack of boutique-style retouching that I was originally taught in London – to sit with either the client or photographer when working. At least for the first or second ’round’ – to build a solid working relationship whereby making sure that no markup-up or direction is lost in translation. These days all a clients need to do is call and upload files and instruct a retoucher to “do the usual”. This can be very challenging and sometimes arduous. I struggled with this for a while until I managed to shift my way of working to suit this “in and out” method which is also brought on by small retouching budgets. No one wants to pay for good retouching anymore it seems. It pains me to see a wonderfully shot subject or story by a talented photographer ruined by sloppy cheap retouching.

TPP: I know retouchers get crazy requests – without naming names, can you tell us about some or one of the most outrageous/challenging requests you’ve had?

AM: I have retouched many celebrities. I have worked with all sorts of clients. Among the usual head switching, body shaping, acne removal and skin coloring, here are a handful of the most absurd comments and requests I have encountered : “Make her look like a Barbie doll”, “This is one image needs to be composed from 32 shots”, “Make her breasts look natural”,”lets change her skin color, I’d like her to look latin”, “Whatever you do, DO NOT touch the mole on the face, its her trademark”, “I don’t like her body shape, use body from a shots of (another person) and lets see” ( After 13 rounds of changes ), “I still don’t like it, lets go back to the first round and start over” and my favorite of all time : “We need to change her face completely, she looks awful, but its important that she still looks like her as her fans won’t recognize her”.

TPP: Any before and after’s you can show us? If so, can you walk us through your strategy in approaching this image?

AM: It is generally understood that showing any before and afters of work a retoucher has been paid for is out of the question, so, I took the liberty of shooting someone myself to show a typical beauty before & after. As you can see, its a huge difference. I chose a beauty image because they typically involve a lot more skin work, hence the dramatic difference. This is only scratching the surface of how different some images end up looking after rounds and rounds of changes. Here I started shaping the face, more symmetrical ( considered more attractive ), Then I moved on to some light general color moves and density/contrast shifts to generate a pleasant result. Then comes the skin and hair work which takes the most amount of time. There are a few techniques for retouching skin, I choose the ‘dogde and burn’ method in Photoshop, which was originally used in film photography to manipulate exposure of a selected area(s) on an exposed print. Dodging decreases the exposure for areas of the print that the photographer wishes to be lighter, while burning increases the exposure to areas of the print that should be darker. I use this to lighten unwanted shadows, a blemish mark, brightening up eyes or to enhance shine of lips or to darken a bright spot etc. For this particular image I had to completely replace her left eye from another shot, the original eye was too dark and the shape was unflattering.

Before

After

TPP: Retouching is so much about staying ahead of current trends and technology. Can you tell us a little bit about how you stay on top of these developments?

AM: I am always in a constant state of absorption. A vast amount of information is presented to me daily from my clients. The camera equipment used for a particular shot, the lighting effects as well as particular color choices are all part of a photographers style. Knowing your client/photographer, their work, and what they expect from you is important in understanding the trends that are being set. As far as technology goes, it is imperative to stay current. I am always reading articles online about emerging products that will aid or change the industry. I try to stay on top o fall the latest camera technology, hardware to software… it can get exhausting when the industry perpetually pumps out new products throughout the year. I also find it imperative that if in fact some new product emerges that we incorporate it onto our practice if I feel it will benefit me or my clients. For example: In the studio we use EIZO screens. Theses screens are the top of their class. They allow consistency with color and give one of the best monitor-to-print matches around. Color calibration and consistency/prepress industry standards are crucial to the retouching industry. With technology such as this we are able to deliver more accurate results to our clients.

TPP: What is your favorite tool in Photoshop and why?

AM: Without a breath of hesitation, my favorite tool in photo shop is known as “curves” which is a color adjustment tool. The reason is simple: I love color. Whether you are looking at a photograph, a work of art, or out your window color is what makes the world around us interesting. Having the curve adjustment tool gives me the option to change the color and intensity of any given image and/or area. Its comparable to giving someone a blank canvas and an infinite amount of color and saying… Have at it! This tool allows me to set the mood of an image by making color moves. I can make the image warm, cool, give it the appearance of being vintage, or poppy and fresh regardless of the images subject matter which I find exciting. Color is everything!

TPP: Any advice for anyone who is interested in becoming a retoucher?

AM: I know so many different people from all walks of life who enter into this industry. In all honesty I believe it is a career choice that most retouchers fall into. For instance I studied graphic design and photography, and for me the transition was predictable. However, I know of some very successful and talented retouchers who have emerged from the hairdressing business, music and modeling industries. To my knowledge there are no decent retouching classes available. If there are, and I am mistaken, I would just like to ask where are all the good retouchers? I mean it is very hard to find a skilled and talented retoucher. Anyone can buy a copy of Photoshop and learn the basics by means of one vehicle or another but there is so much more to retouching than software or hardware. There is a sensibility involved, knowing just how far to push a color, a pixel, or even someone’s nose. Coupling tact with technique is key. The greatest advice I can give to someone is to cultivate your abilities through practice after learning the basics, and to not become to greedy with Photoshop; develop the sense to know when to stop pushing an image and you’re already in the right direction. Have fun with it!

Terrible, shocking news today, with the report that much beloved photographer Tim Hetherington has died while covering the conflict in Libya.

Read Daryl Lang’s profile of Tim here, and The New York Times’ account of his death, here.

Tim was larger than life, and his war work incredibly resonant. His recent Oscar-nominated film Restrepo made real the perils of war as he was embedded alongside U.S. soldiers in intense combat.

A few years ago he spoke with Sebastian Junger about Restrepo:

Here are a few images from Hetherington’s series Sleeping Soldiers:

RIP, Tim.  You were loved and respected by your fellow photographers. We are so sorry.

addendum: watch this.

Diary (2010) from Tim Hetherington on Vimeo.

Read more… (via BJP)

Chris Hondros, at work in Libya – The New York Times’ Lens blog.

In Memoriam: Tim Hetherington – The New Yorker.

‘Restrepo’ director is killed in Libya – The New York Times.

Photographer Tim Hetherington killed in Libya – The Guardian.

A Tribute to Tim Hetherington – The Documentary Blog.

Tim Hetherington: In His Own Words – Human Rights Watch.

Chris Hondros and Tim Hetherington – BagNews Notes.

Tim Hetherington, HOST Podcast (October 2010) – Foto8.

Chris Hondros: Life Behind the Lens – MSNBC Video.

Tim Hetherington 1970-2011 – Panos Pictures

Remembering Tim Hetherington – Foreign Policy Passport

Soft Smoke Rises in Gay Rings Above the Roof

2. Also in the city of Brotherly Love, PPAC is hosting it’s annual book fair! Do not miss this. Exhibitors include Hassla Books, Gottlund Verlag, Blind Spot and Hamburger Eyes to name a few.

3. NEXT THURSDAY, The Sum of All Colors opens at Sasha Wolf Gallery. The show features work by Jessica Eaton, Matthew gamber and Bill Sullivan.

Matthew Gamber

4. ALSO NEXT THURSDAY AND ALSO IN PHILLY, Breadboard is hooking up with the Virtual Public Art Project (VPAP) to launch a city-wide Augmented Reality (AR) exhibit as part of Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts. Over 30 virtual art sculptures will be located around the city of Philadelphia and can be viewed via VPAP’s free Layar App for most iPhone and Android smartphone devices. THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOME!

5. Browse the Brooklyn Academy of Music fundraising auction powered by BiddingForGood and bid on items to help support this cause!! Bidding closes April 10th.

6. Do not miss stunning work from Carlos Reyes, Ben Schumacher, Jo-ey Tang and David J Merritt at the NYU Steinhardt MFA Thesis Exhibition (Part 1). The show closes April 9th.

Jo-ey Tang

7. Antenne Books just launched their new and improved website with new titles from Ryan McGinely, Henry Roy and more!

Ryan McGinley

8. The New York Photo Awards, one of the most dynamic and sought-after showcases for emerging photographers from all over the world, is open for submissions! Deadline for submitting photographs and digital images will be April 25, 2011 at midnight.

9. LAST CHANCE! Now until midnight, join 3rd Ward with no commitment necessary and submit your work for our Open Call Early Entry Award.

10. LAST CHANCE!! Lay Flat pledges to donate 50% of all sales from March 11th through March 31st towards the American Red Cross disaster relief efforts to help those affected by the earthquake in Japan and tsunami throughout the Pacific.

Ruth van Beek is a Dutch artist who works mainly with an archive of found photographs that she manipulates and re-contextualizes in ever changing relationships. The disjunctions in her collage works are often redoubled by the feeling that each piece is somehow part of a greater network. Ruth’s work has been exhibited widely in Europe and the United States and she recently had a solo exhibition, The Great Blue Mountain Range, at Okay Mountain in Austin, TX. I caught up with her on occasion of a two person exhibition (with Philip Miner) currently up at SEASON (a residential gallery opened by Robert Yoder) in Seattle.

Untitled, 2010

LB: I feel in your work a kind of insistence on the subject of the photographs that is often absent from collage / bricolage work. For me, the psychic drama of the work is in trying to reconstitute the object (as in the one above [will be the one attached]) where in most collage the attention is in constructing a picture plane. Is this an attitude that is important to you in making the pieces?

R: Yes, for me it is not so much the technique of collage that interests me, but its the ability to transform existing photographs into the images of my imagination. By cutting and folding,  the work not only represents an object, but also becomes an object itself.

Untitled, (orange), 2009

LB: There seems to be some consistency to the content of the photographs you use. Rocks, animals, and furniture come to mind. Do you see this content as particularly important?

R: When I collect these pictures I think a lot about the way the subjects are photographed. This is more important than the subject itself, since I can easily change or cover up the original subject of the photograph. So in this way the content doesn’t really matter.

But then again, I intentionally go for these kinda nondescript, “useful” photographs.  It is not as if it is just any image that I can get my hands on.  Most of them come from books published to teach people about how to make things: how to decorate your house, how to take care of your plants, how to recognize gemstones, all about hobbies, cats or rabbits and so on. How to do things the right way. So the content of the single image does’t matter to me, but the origins of the photo are important.

Untitled, 2010

LB: For me there is a kind of intimacy in your obscuring. As if by removing or folding together the “faces” of these objects we are left to explore the pictures for other clues. This leads to a kind of weighing and measuring in an attempt to come into terms with the image. Or in other words, it is as if by obscuring the face you have come to reveal the body. Tthis sense of physicality is really pervasive. Does this relate to your idea of an object? And do you see this objectness (the one w/in the photograph) as dependent on the second objectness of the physical thing itself?

R: I like your comparison to the face and the body. I actually try to animate the objects.  The work is much about actions related to the object: obscuring, collecting, transforming, but also the guessing or longing brought out by these interventions.  They come alive once separated from their original function. When I cover up the object, it is to make the viewer curious about what is behind, but I also give the viewer a clear shape in return.  The original object is never to be seen, only to guessed at.  This makes the viewer long for what he can’t see, which in these works becomes an impossibility.

Untitled, 2006

LB: It is a strategy that is really successful in the work! When I have seen your work in the past I feel like the obscured content in the photographs has often been similar — leading to feelings of a group or collection, also a museum display. The works in the SEASON exhibition feel more disparate, which makes you focus on them more as a group of pictorial interventions. Is this something you were thinking about?

R: I guess like the collections I have brought together in the past, the images I selected for the SEASON exhibition also try to tell a story. Either case begs a reconstruction of something by its traces. In this case, I do not only hide and transform furniture and objects, but the people in a number of the pictures also become hidden in their homes. The exhibition is actually in a house. I wanted to play with this.

Untitled, 2009

*All images copyright Ruth van Beek

Do you want to be a beekeeper? A painter? A diva? An eccentric shoe designer?* In that case, you’ll want to contact Todd Selby for your photo opp.

But if you want to work with photographers, studios, magazines, ad agencies, post-production companies, printers, or retouching houses, you should stay right here.

Since we have thousands of visitors from the photo industry a month, it seemed like the logical extension to TPP’s growing community to offer industry specific classifieds and, most importantly, an employment search tool that connects talented, experienced job seekers in the industry with the employers that need their skills.

Welcome to the Job Feed; TPP’s photo-job search tool, designed to link people looking for jobs in and around the industry we love with employers in need of their talent, energy and skill.

Search the jobs now, or add a job, if you have an employment opportunity!

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And for your perusing pleasure, here are some of Selby’s greatest hits:

Find A JOB !

I’m doing this side personal project, where I’m documenting offbeat characters in my town of Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve acquired an old 1942 custom made Graflex camera that shoots 4×5 Polaroid, and I’m shooting that, plus some Nikon, plus some video. I scan the Polaroids and then work with them. The lens is from 1941, and it’s amazing, how you never know how it’s going to render a scene.

I’ve only been working on it for a couple of weeks, but here is where I am at this point:

http://mydaywith.com

We’re really digging the results, have a look:

the camera

the man at work

We like the goats best.

See more.

ps: the goat picture was actually shot with the NIKON D3X. still, we love it.

David Benjamin Sherry

2. It’s Armory Art week people! If you are overwhelmed, start here!

3. F.L.O.A.T. Gallery is going whole hog in their new Chelsea space with a show called Art of Attraction curated by F.L.O.A.T. proprietors Carol Taverass and Meagan Zeigler Haynes and featuring work by Brian Finke, Camille Vivier, Christian Weber, Ellen Jong, Joseph Szabo, Cass Bird, Løber Nøgan, Sandy Kim, Stephen Irwin, Therese + Joel, Yisook Sohn and Zed Nelson.

Zed Nelson

4. TONIGHT! You may want to consider whooping it up at The Night Event. This is more than a party. Experience exquisite art and performance at the premier event of NYC’s Armory Arts Week, TONIGHT from 7pm – 1am inside the historic Angel Orensanz Foundation. Featuring live performances by Gang Gang Dance, Didi Gutman of The Brazilian Girls, and the Vintage DJ.

5. TONIGHT! HEREart is pleased to present the group exhibition, .gif .jpg .png .tif (gjpt). Titled after common web-based graphics, this exhibition explores the realm of standardized image formats as represented in Internet-based art, websites, videos, applications, and multi- media design.

6. Speaking of Art Fairs, Rhizome will have a booth at the Armory Show at Pier 94, in booth L-26. Artists include: Harm van den Dorpel, Sara Ludy, Takeshi Murata, Seth Price, Anne de Vries and Rafaël Rozendaal.

Anne de Vries

7. TONIGHT! “Moving Image is very pleased to announce the list of participating artists and galleries for its inaugural exhibition, including 36 artists represented by 30 galleries from the US and Europe.” 6:00pm – 9:00pm at Waterfront NY.

8. On Saturday, in conjunction with ARMORY NIGHT – BROOKLYN & the WGA (Williamsburg Gallery Association), Capricious will remain open after hours and invites you to view continuous screening of emerging artist Arielle Falk’s new video work THROWING PAINS.

9. Tomorrow at 7:00pm, FUSE Gallery is hosting an opening reception tomorrow for their latest show, WHAT’S HE BUILDING IN THERE – An ode to the darker side of curiosity.

10. As part of SITE Fest 2011, 319 Scholes is pleased to present Not Spring Not Winter, an annual exhibition of installation + performance by emerging artists from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Have a look.

Kabul:

United Arab Emirates:

Western Front:

See much more from Lauren Lancaster.

The essay is also featured in the FORMAT International Photography Festival catalog and dovetails with a panel discussion he’s contributing to (including Internet dynamos Amy Stein and Yumi Goto) which kicks off next weekend.

Without further ado….

from the Bloggers series. Photo courtesy Gabriela Herman

How will digital media impact the future of photography?

For the past five years I’ve been publishing FlakPhoto.com, a website that promotes photographers, book projects, and exhibitions from within the online photo community. This spring I’m heading to the FORMAT International Photography Festival to join a panel discussion that will consider the impact of Web 2.0 on contemporary image-making. In support of the event, I contributed a catalog essay that explores how online publishing and social media are redefining photography so it can flourish outside the realm of traditional publication and exhibition.

The Internet has changed the way we consider photography, and the medium has undergone remarkable transformations at every level. No longer restricted to the gallery wall or the printed page, photography now regularly—and sometimes exclusively—appears on computer screens. In the past decade, photoblogs, online magazines, and digital galleries have revolutionized the way we look at photographs. More significantly, Web 2.0 is influencing contemporary photo culture around the world by connecting international audiences to art experiences, enabling the discovery of new work and presenting never-before-seen channels of expression and communication. These are exciting times for image-makers wishing to publicly show their work: armed with a computer and an Internet connection, the 21st century photographer can share his or her visual ideas with a worldwide audience of peers, fans, and patrons. And these artists are redefining the medium every day.

In his essay, Online Photographic Thinking¹, photographer Jason Evans explores the nature of digital media and its impact on the processes of making and experiencing photography: “In the inevitable and frankly tedious digital versus analog debate, my position is one of either/and. Both systems offer distinct possibilities, but I ultimately believe that they are just different sides of the same coin.” He’s right, of course—the way a picture looks is relatively similar in print and online, but seeing an image on an un-calibrated monitor is hardly a substitute for experiencing a book or print as the artist intended. Still, screen-based picture constraints shouldn’t be the sticking point. We instinctively faulted the Web for its deficiencies as an image-delivery mechanism. Instead of recognizing digital media’s distinctive qualities, we cursed its inferiority to perform at traditional standards of expectation. Evans argues for an expansion of “what photography can be” and his plea is significant because it champions the Internet’s unique potential for photographic publication, exhibition and distribution.

Photography has been married to publishing from the beginning. Historically, and particularly before the popularity of galleries and museums devoted to photography, the printed page has been the ultimate venue for viewing a photographer’s work. Until recently, magazines, journals, and books were the primary outlets for circulating photos. But printing photography can be costly, and therefore photobook runs are usually limited. Online publishing—especially blogs, but also social networks and photo-sharing websites—radically alters the relationship between photographers and publishers by empowering the former to engage directly with the public at a fraction of the cost.

This broad access to online publishing has been met with skepticism from some corners of the photo world. Though the stigma is fading, concern still lingers about amateurs compromising the quality of what we see online. It’s true; the barriers to entry are low. But as credible publishers embrace the form, the association of mediocrity with blogs and social networks should be retired. A thoughtful website is as legitimate as any traditional publication, and social media has been embraced by established institutions the world over. If the printed pages of Camera Work functioned as a reputable platform for Stieglitz a century ago, how can a blog or online magazine be any different today?

A natural broadcast and publishing medium, the Internet is also a distinctly social medium. Blogs, for example, are inherently communal. We don’t just look at or read them; we become a part of them by contributing to the conversations they generate. The best photography blogs are collaborative, providing a public venue for lively discussions on all aspects of contemporary image-making. Certainly we tune in because we identify with the author’s editorial perspective, but also because we like posting comments and seeing how peers respond to our ideas. And the widespread adoption of social networks has given each of us the ability to discover and share photography at lightning speed. Who among us hasn’t joined the legions of Facebook or Twitter or Flickr users?

In less than a decade, the online space has become a vibrant public realm brimming with images and ideas. I don’t live in one of the world’s major photography centers, but Web 2.0 has made it possible for me to participate in an ever-expanding ecosystem of visual experiences and photographic relationships nonetheless. The Internet connects the world and in doing so, is fostering the growth of a global online photographic community. Day by day geographical boundaries dissolve as each of us interacts with and learns from each other more spontaneously than ever before. All of this is a click away, easily searchable, and instantly available.

For the past five years I’ve been publishing FlakPhoto.com, a website that promotes photography from within the online community. In December 2010, I co-produced The Future of Photobooks, a cross-blog conversation considering the question, What will photobooks become over the next decade? Our aim was to pool collective wisdom from a variety of photographic disciplines, so we invited practitioners from across the globe to nominate the most exciting contemporary photobooks. We summarized those ideas and hosted three blogger-moderated discussions that explored current innovations in photography book publication.² The most inspiring part of the project was discovering the sheer volume of photographers utilizing online publishing and multimedia to independently create, promote, and fund their work. And, in many cases, the book was only one facet of a multidimensional photographic experience that blended aspects of traditional and new media publication and exhibition.

What these photographers realized was the unique opportunity the Internet provided for the online community to participate in their photography. Not surprisingly, many have appropriated social media for promotional purposes. But the savviest photographers are publishing blogs and multimedia journals that involve their fans in the creative process; some are mobilizing their communities to finance their efforts with online fundraising tools. What’s more, these photographers have instinctively developed website galleries, multimedia podcasts, and audio slideshows to complement their print publications and physical exhibitions. These formats don’t just present online alternatives to traditional photography; they’re meaningful photographic experiences with the potential to reach a widespread audience across the world.

In some circles, photography remains a predominantly printed medium. Books and prints are highly collectible and their physical presence is still essential for many photographers. But the Internet is transforming photography so it can flourish outside the constraints of traditional publication and exhibition. A thriving online community will most certainly play a vital role in the discovery and dissemination of new work produced by contemporary image-makers. And social media empowers each of us to shape the photographic conversation by participating in its ongoing creation and curation. The Web’s innovations promise important possibilities for photography’s evolution. And we’re only beginning to understand them.

¹ Evans’ essay originally appeared in Words Without Pictures, an interactive online publication produced by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2007. Initially issued as a print-on-demand title, the complete collection of essays and responses is now available from Aperture. Find it at Aperture.org/books/books-new/words-without-pictures.html ² My colleague Miki Johnson does a great job of summarizing our findings at FOPB.tumblr.com. The modes of production have obviously changed, but photobooks are as popular as ever (more so maybe) and with more indie publishers producing small press runs, contemporary print publications are valuable collectibles in their own right.

This essay appears in the FORMAT 11 International Photography Festival catalogue

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Andy Adams is the founder and editor of FlakPhoto.com, a contemporary photography website that celebrates the culture of image-making by promoting the discovery of artists from around the world. An online art space + photography publication, the site provides opportunities for a global community of artists and photo organizations to share new series work, book projects, and gallery exhibitions with a web-based photography audience. More about him at AndyAdamsPhoto.com

2. If you missed the previous incarnations of BYOB stateside and you happen to be in London TONIGHT, check out the latest in this “series of one-night exhibitions where artists are invited to bring their own ‘beamers’ and explore the medium of projection.”

3. Parsons is hosting a series of lectures called The Photographic Universe. Don’t miss this!

4. Jesse Hlebo has a solo show opening at Printed Matter on March the 3rd! Mark your calendars!

5. If you missed the opening Last week (like I did), check out Carrie Levy’s show You Before All at Daniel Cooney Fine Art.

6. Hassla just released Andy Capp Variations by Torbjørn Rødland.

7. TONIGHT in Chicago, make sure you head over to EBERSMOORE to see Stephen Eichorn’s Flowers. Opening starts at 6pm. with a performance by Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe (Lichens)

that looks like a painful latch.

This picture is by Torbjorn Rodland. and I like it.

This is also not me (Penelope Cruz, three weeks after birthing a child. Maybe she has an assistant do the breastfeeding.)

In other news, today is the end of  The Space Shuttle. Last launch is at 4:50 pm. Sad and a half. Let us have a moment of remembrance with Christopher Wahl’s photographs.

UPDATE:

Doh, it’s the last launch of the Discovery orbiter. There are still  two flights left for Endeavour and Atlantis. Slightly less sad. But still sad.

Constance and Eric are a team (yes, they are also in love) and they specialize in whatever you like. They have a show up right now at the NY Studio Gallery that is closing tomorrow night! Check it out with your sweetheart! Here are a few images from their appropriately titled Fever series…

Natasha Gornik prefers to be called a “kink” photographer. Specializing in raw, immediate portraiture and documentation, Gornik knows her way around your deepest desires. Here are a few images from her supercharged Fantasy is Reality series…

2. You can see more of Cory’s work (along with that of Tauba Auerbach, Bureau Of Inverse Technology ,I/O/D, JODI, Nam June Paik, Sterling Rub and Kerry Tribe.) at a show called Highways Connect and Divide at Foxy Productions.

Tauba Auerbach

3. Out west, Important Projects is pleased to present An Important Project featuring work by Chris Coy, Parker Ito and Jon Rafman.

4. If you are in Toronto, Come celebrate the launch of the new Butcher Gallery space at the BUTCHER GALLERY FUNDRAISER!

5. On Friday from 7:30-10:00 pm help F.L.O.A.T Gallery say goodbye to their Atlantic Avenue space and celebrate their move to their new Chelsea digs!

6. HungryMan Gallery in San Francisco presents the photographic and sculptural work of Chicago based artist Heidi Norton in the exhibition entitled, Between New Moons. Opening Reception 7:00 -10:00 pm, Saturday February 12.

Heidi Norton

7. In Venice, CA, don’t miss REVERSEVENT A group show organized by: Thomas Macker, Joe Zorrilla, Calvin Lee and featuring the work of Lucas Blalock , Sam Falls , John Houck , Calvin Lee, Thomas Macker, Arjuna Neuman , Michael Ray-Von, Albert Samreth , Esteban Schimpf , Cody Trepte, Grant Willing and Joe Zorrilla. The show will take place at 1128 5th Ave Venice CA 90291 and opens Saturday, February 12, 7:00pm – 10:00pm.

8. Lay Flat has a new fan page! Like it!

9. Check out Michael Schmelling’s show Atlanta: Hip Hop and The South at ClampArt. Opening reception Friday, March 11, 6:00 – 8:00pm.

Michael Schmelling

10. Feeling like you’d rather not go out at all? Check out all the art on EARTH with the Google Art project!

Sam Falls

2. Humble Arts is pleased to announce The Collector’s Guide to New Art Photography Vol. 2, a 216-page biennial sourcebook that highlights some of the most challenging and innovative new photographic work from 100 photographers internationally. Pre-order today!

3. If you are in the UK, Viktor Wynd Fine Art Inc is proud to present Nofound to New Documents #1, a photographic group show curated by Emeric Glayse creator of Nofound.

Alexander Binder

4. Capricious Presents: Logical Operator featuring work by Dawn Light Blackman, Grant Willing and Andrew Laumann. Curated by Karen Codd & Sophie Mörner : Polaroids. Curated by Nina Ziefvert. Opening reception TOMORROW, February 4 · 6:00pm – 8:00pm.

5. Next Thursday, February 10th, from 8pm to 11pm, Hunter & Cook celebrates the launch of their 8th issue at Unlovable. Issue 08 features: Jeff Wall interview by Brad Phillips, Robert Bateman interview by Aaron Carpenter, Tyler Brett interview by Tony Romano, Ron Giii by Rosemary Heather and David Cordero by Emily Jones with projects by: Mark DeLong, Rebecca Belmore, Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby, Kelly Mark, Joshua Jensen-Nagle and Matthew Shields.

6. Extra Extra is happy to present their first web based release, BNPJ.exe by Jon Rafman and Tabor Robak. This is awesome and you don’t even have to leave your computing station to enjoy it!

7. If you are like me and missed the launch last week, don’t miss your chance to order one of Pierre Le Hors Firework Studies from Hassla! This book is beautiful!

8. The Camera Club of New York has once again invited Alice S. Zimet to teach So You Want to Collect Photography: Beginner Basics.

9. The SIP has published their general calls. “The SIP offers funding to writers, theorists, and researchers from various disciplines (be they academic faculty, independent scholars, graduate students, artists or research-oriented curators) doing research that will advance the methodologies, theories, and practices by which we can better comprehend the world of photography and the world perceived through photography.”

10. Artists Wanted : A Year in Review closes THIS FRIDAY! These are your final moments to register for a chance at your own featured exhibition at SCOPE – enter before its too late!

We chatted with Chris about his process and background:

So the assignment was pretty straightforward – we knew a bunch of the incoming congressmen were going to be attending a conference at Harvard’s Kennedy School on Nov 30th and Dec 1st, and we hoped to shoot as many single portraits of them as possible. For inspiration, I loosely looked to Avedon’s Portraits of Power and Nadav Kandar’s Obama’s People. The plan was pretty loose – set up in one location and grab folks to shoot as they had coffee breaks between sessions. The members were all told on Nov 30th that we’d be there shooting the next day, but otherwise we had no idea what to expect (didn’t know if people would be into having their photo shot or not – we half expected to come away with nothing).

What we got was pretty amazing. Since the conference was fairly casual we got a good variety of looks from each of the subjects (not just blue suits and red ties). And as a result of the whole tea-party situation, many of the congressmen had no previous political experience, and thus were not guarded or at all concerned about their appearance. Most of the folks we shot had never had a proper portrait made of them. The result, at least in my completely biased opinion, was that we were able to get some pretty candid, honest moments out of folks who will, if their careers continue, become increasingly difficult to access in that manner.

As for technical stuff, I wanted a pretty even light that would work on a number of different types of clothing and skin color. I ended up using just one light – a Profoto head/7A into that huge Elinchrome octabank. I had the light coming straight on at the subject, basically a little above eye level. I shot the whole thing on a Canon 5DII, using the 50mm 1.2 and the 24-70 2.8. That’s basically it – I’m into super simple set ups.

As for me, I’ve been on staff here at Washingtonian for 2+ years now. This job was a total career change for me – before here, I was working at the State Department doing really boring/confusing/classified things. However, my father is a photographer, so I grew up shooting and surrounded by photography and kept it up through college. 3 or 4 years ago I got my first digital camera and learned how to make a digital photograph. My wife is a writer at Washingtonian and clued me on to their photography internship, so I quit the State Department and have been here ever since. And since, I’ve felt like the luckiest person in the world. Being on staff is great, because you have a constant stream of work and all types of different work – its been a great way for me to learn how to be a photographer. One minute I’m shooting food for the website, the next I’m stumbling my way through a fashion story, and then I’m in Boston shooting congressmen. It really has been a great way for me to gain experience in super fast forward.

Here are some favorites:

Terri Sewell, 46, Alabama Democrat

Rob Woodall, 40, Georgia Republican

Lou Barletta, 54, Pennsylvania Republican

Frank Guinta, 40, New Hampshire Republican

Chuck Fleischmann, 48, Tennessee Republican (ED. NOTE: WE LOVE CHUCK THE MOST)

Blake Farenthold, 49, Texas Republican

Billy Long, 55, Texas Republican

Tie your shoe, Billy Long!

Ann Marie Burkle, 59, New York Republican

Dan Benishek, 58, Michigan Republican

See more from the shoot, here.

See more from Chris Leaman.

See more of the Washingtonian.

Zoe Crosher is an artist who lives and works in Los Angeles. Her current undertaking is The Michelle duBois Project; a series of investigations into the personal photographic archive of Michelle duBois, a call girl and aspiring flight attendant who worked the Pacific Rim during the 1970’s and ’80’s. The range and depth of the archive is tremendous, owing greatly to the fact that the subject was enthralled by her own portraiture. Crosher has approached this archive in ever evolving iterations that highlight the strategies and structures of fantasy as much as they expose anything concrete about Ms. duBois herself. Two independent iterations of the archive can currently be seen in Los Angeles; one as part of the California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art, and the other, For Ur Eyes Only: The Unveiling of Michelle duBois, at the Charlie James Gallery with related events at Dan Graham, Royal Pagoda, and EGHQ. This final iteration (the tenth), curated by Emma Gray, will be the last before Crosher commits it to a monograph to be published by a new arm of Aperture Books next year. Work from other of the artist’s projects are also currently on view in The City Proper (curated by James Welling) at Margo Leavin, also in LA.

LB: Can you talk a little about how photographs “act” as material in The Reconsidered Archive of Michelle du Bois? They seem to be considered as both images of someones life, but also as objects or keepsakes from that  life. For me this doubles the notion of archive in that it is both an ‘archive of her’ as well as ‘her archive’. Is this something you were thinking about?

ZC: Yes it is absolutely something I am thinking about! Not only is this an  ‘archive of her’ as well as ‘her archive’, but with all these different iterations/shows accumulating over the course of the project and everything gradually collapsing together, it also becomes an archive of my ever-shifting relationship to the work. This cumulative collapse will ultimately play out in the upcoming book to be published by Aperture in the Spring of 2011, where images from previous versions of the book, install shots, various reviews, the recent mock-mock up in the CA Biennial, possibly even this interview will end up as part of the larger archive. This cumulative layering of material and history, playing out through the “Kodak Promise” of every single film type, size and print, add to the impossibility of seeing the archive as a totality of ‘her’, or whatever various fantasies there are of ‘who she is.’ The fiction of the totality of ‘her’ mirrors the fiction of totality that the actuality of the archive can never achieve.

It is here that the materiality of the archive gets sussed out through the photographs themselves. Their (the photographs’) object-ness and material-ness become paramount in the connection between the archive’s own materiality and the concept of the archive specific to this historical moment of the end of the analog. There is a parallel between the unraveling of her narrative and the unraveling of the material of the narrative, of the end of the analog…Somewhat secondary to this you also have my exploring the physicality of the archive through its materials (through the backs of photographs and the fronts of albums), and furthermore, there is an interest in anything inside the image frame that references things ‘kodak’. I am interested in the vernacular tropes of the amateur photographer that become the invisible layer through which you view the images themselves. Neither the ‘images’ nor the ‘photographs’ are neutral. Both get read (reconsidered, unraveled, unveiled)  simultaneously against the backdrop of this perfect example of an amateur photographer known as Michelle duBois.

LB: I want to continue down this idea of the archive-at-the-end-of-the-analog and it’s relationship to narrative.  Do you see the digital as the end of a certain kind of narrativity? Said that way it reminds me a bit of Christopher Williams’s “period piece” For Example: Dix-Huits Leçons sur La Société Industrielle which also comes into itself through a collection of iterations, except that where he is focused on a broad material (Marxist) history your work seems to focus on the problematics of a personal history. Maybe you could even say a personal history as it could be told/collected in the brief ‘age’ of analog photography?

ZC: I do want to make clear that this idea I’m working with of archive-at-the-end-of-the-analog and it’s relationship to narrative was initially rooted in the impossibility of totality concerning a persons’ persona (or history) in photographs. This fiction (of possible totality) as regards the archive is in fact nearly inverse in that in fact accumulation does not equal clarity but in fact compromises it. Starting off with my LAX work that played with the fiction of the ‘documentary’ in relation to the mapping of Los Angeles via LAX, I next wanted to extend this notion of documentary failure to a question of numbers; amounts of images and what that means. The problems I am interested in; the archive and mapping, became intertwined in this project with the problematics of the “amateur photographic history” that the duBois’ archive encapsulates. All of which now seems clearly specific to a historical, pre-digital, Kodak moment.

I don’t think the digital is the end of a certain kind of narrativity, but I do see it as the end of a certain physicality of the narrative. Information is always embodied, it is just that there is now distance from this type of analog embodiment that is particularly physical and messy; in this case, as messy as the content of her life and fanatical self-documentation, or what I called Autoportraiture. Not only are you dealing with the collapse of her pose over time, of the ‘quality’ of her image, but you are dealing with a physicalized collapse of the photograph (or film, or polaroid or print.) In the analog the way that time takes a physical toll (in all senses) is so vastly different from the digital and its comparatively immaterial relationship to history; where information be so easily deleted on the spot or forgotten on some hard drive somewhere. The problematics of the narrative and the archive are of course still present with the digital, but in such a vastly different realm.

It’s also interesting that you bring up Christopher Williams as he was quite influential when I began to think about photographing the language of photography and the schism between image and objectness (Anne Collier was also very inspiring in this way). He is actually so inspirational that there are a couple of pieces from the duBois project dedicated specifically to him, Like Mika Smiling for Christopher Williams and Like Mika Almost Laughing for Christopher Williams. There was such an amazingly innocent readymade reference to Williams’ faux commercial images of the ladies with the towels on their heads that I ended up extending the reference by mimicking his exact print size, mat size, frame size & type and edition size, which is always the same. This was part of an early investigation into mining the (unintentional) art historical references that duBois had (see also the Cindy-Shermanesque cluster.)

I’ll have to think more about the comparison to Williams in regards to the problematics of history, but yes, I am clearly working within that realm, specifically from a feminist vantage point…

LB:  That the material (c-print) mirrors the dissolution of a lifetime in the analog is a really resonant notion, and inherently gets to the sense of their being no achievable totality either in identity or in history. I feel to treat the information physically (bringing it’s decaying substrate into focus) really does make for a strikingly corporeal photography which for me opens easily to certain traditions in feminism. I am interested in the way that the contemporary explorations of the analogue and it’s properties really deconstruct a great deal of the popular mythology about the medium. Popularly, the photograph has often been considered in spite of it’s materiality in notions of permanence and objectivity, yet from here (on the digital horizon) it seems we are all-of-the-sudden often relating to pictures through their ‘bodies’ as it were. I am interested in the way duBois’ “amateur-ness” defines this relationship in your work. You said earlier that she was a sort of “perfect amateur photographer” and to me her relationship to the photographs production is the initial point of capture. (Who is this woman? What was she seeking by making these? etc.) I feel like amateur here comes with a fully articulated set of conventions as if it were a genre all its own (even the notes on the back feel like a convention)? Do you see this acting out as implicit in the “Kodak promise”? that she was performing not only a set of fantasy roles in her life but ones that come to necessitate photography? is this a stretch?

ZC: The wonderful thing about the word amateur is that it is based in the root word amour, meaning love. There has historically been a distinction made between the “amateur” and the “professional” in regards to art-making, with Professionalism as a concept going through an interesting bout of self-definition in the last forty years. Howard Singerman speaks a lot about this, a huge shift towards MFAs, formalizing art production, the system of a monied art world dictating terms of production on all levels. This simple and very misleading dichotomy, to make something out of ”love” or to make a “living” is also encapsulated in the Postmodern discussion of High/Low art and the questioning (and resulting collapsing of) that so-90s question of selling out. It begs the larger question, how is art judged?  In the amateur world, there is no assumption of judgment, or at least no perception of one, and this supposed liberation is key to reading the duBois work.

Her amateur ‘liberation’ is indeed conventional, all amateur things are, because one lets go any assumption of criticality and can therefore be “free” to do whatever it is they want, from stamp collecting to pole dancing to photographing oneself in many Mae-West like poses all over Asia in the 70s and 80s. This fantasy duBois has of herself, the “freedom”, is seen in the quality and, most importantly, the numbers of her photographs. And I agree with your “stretch” – there is no question her fantasy relationship to herself is inextricably caught up with assumptions of the photographic (and the cinematic), especially in relationship to feminism and to how women have been photographed/objectified/posed/etc.

The project swings back around when duBois’ agency gets complicated by her relationship to her means of production – she was completely in charge of every aspect of the image, from the materials to the pose to the keeping of the photographic stuffness that begs this embodied question of the digital horizon.The crazy part about the whole thing is that the viewer isn’t sure whether the/her/my intent is cynical or not, and that confusion is especially profound. She has all the hallmarks of “art” yet her “work” was made without any self-reflexive relationship to that. Perhaps self-reflexivity is a key to that amateur/professional distinction.
LB: I thought we might leave off this installment w/ an extended quote from Claude Levi-Strauss that I came across in Ann Reynolds book on Robert Smithson. I feel like it has a lot of relevance here. She quotes:

“The virtue of archives is to put us in contact with pure historicity. As I have already said about myths concerning the origin of totemic appellations, their value does not lie in the intrinsic significance of the events evoked: these can be insignificant or even entirely absent, if what is in question is a few lines of autograph or a signature out of context. But think of the value of Johann Sebastian Bach’s signature to one who cannot hear a bar of his music without a quickening of his pulse. As for events themselves, I have pointed out that they are attested otherwise than by the authentic documents, and generally better. Archives thus provide something else: on the one hand they constitute events in their radical contingence (since only interpretation, which forms no part of them, can ground them in reason), and, on the other, they give a physical existence to history, for in them alone is the contradiction of a completed past and a present in which it survives, surmounted…”

* all images copyright Zoe Crosher