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Sunday, October 11, 2009
For Sale: Enlarger
An email offer I recently received, with the phrase "exhibition print" substituted for the word "penis":
Friday, October 9, 2009
What To Do? #44
133. Portland, OR, 2006
134. Portland, ME, 2008(WTD? is a weekly installment of old unseen b/w photos)
American Prospects Revisited: Houston 1983
Eugene Register-Guard, February 4, 1983Thursday, October 8, 2009
Shards of America
The new Blue Sky 07/08 catalog recently came in the mail and I've spent the past few evenings going through it and re-familiarizing myself with all the shows from last year.
One photographer whose work jumped out at me was Phil Bergerson who showed photos from his Shards of America project at Blue Sky in October 2007. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed his work. For example I think this image is just fantastic:
Cle Elum, Washington, 1993, Phil Bergerson
At first glance it seems bland enough to fit into the New Topographics. It could almost be a Wessel or a Baltz. What makes it different --and the thing that really pushes all Bergerson's work over the top for me-- is that it's far more judgmental. Yes it's just another tree in suburbia but just look at the tree! Pinned up and submissive, clinging to its last summer leaves, and trapped inside some weird fencing easement. This tree has personality. This photo has personality. Bergerson has personality. All three come through strongly.
Many photographs I see today follow the opposite tack. The photographer shows us a scene of a corner or a fence or something and we are left to make up our own minds about what it might mean. Struth's photographs seem to typify this movement. The onus is on the viewer.
Jiron O’Higgins, San Vicente de Canete, Perù, 2003, Thomas Struth
This deconstructionist attitude may be a hit in the fine art world, and indeed it is sometimes fun to guess at a photograph's meaning. But more often I am left feeling empty.
I want a photographer to take a stand and tell me what he thinks, and Bergerson's photos do that. For example, there's no confusing the intent of this shot:
New York, New York, 2002, Phil Bergerson
Or this:
Temple, Texas, 1998, Phil Bergerson
Bergerson is as much a cultural critic as he is a photographer. Flags, Jesus murals, imprisonment: They're the sort of easy themes any casual observer of America would notice in a heartbeat, yet few Americans pay attention to those things. That Bergerson is Canadian probably helps. Yet being an outsider is only an aid in observation. The actual nuts and bolts photo-building into clever, opinionated statements is all Bergerson. For me, it is this deliberate first-person attitude that sets it apart from similar work by, say, Zoe Strauss or David Graham.
Pueblo, Colorado, 1999, Phil Bergerson
The other recurrent Bergerson motif is signs. I know signs have been photographed to death, and that they're often the source of bad visual puns and so-what moments. Still I am a sign lover. My knee-jerk reaction is to read every sign I come across for photographic possibilities, especially and above all handwritten signs because they are often the most organic elements in the social landscape. In Bergerson I recognize a fellow sign lover. I suspect he too cannot walk by any sign without reading it.
Edgewood, Illinois, 1997, Phil Bergerson
Salem, Ohio, 1993, Phil Bergerson
Springfield, Missouri, 1998, Phil Bergerson
All of Bergerson's images above and many others can be found in his book Shards of America, published by Quantuck Press in 2004 and sold for the ridiculous bargain price of $25.
One photographer whose work jumped out at me was Phil Bergerson who showed photos from his Shards of America project at Blue Sky in October 2007. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed his work. For example I think this image is just fantastic:
At first glance it seems bland enough to fit into the New Topographics. It could almost be a Wessel or a Baltz. What makes it different --and the thing that really pushes all Bergerson's work over the top for me-- is that it's far more judgmental. Yes it's just another tree in suburbia but just look at the tree! Pinned up and submissive, clinging to its last summer leaves, and trapped inside some weird fencing easement. This tree has personality. This photo has personality. Bergerson has personality. All three come through strongly.
Many photographs I see today follow the opposite tack. The photographer shows us a scene of a corner or a fence or something and we are left to make up our own minds about what it might mean. Struth's photographs seem to typify this movement. The onus is on the viewer.
This deconstructionist attitude may be a hit in the fine art world, and indeed it is sometimes fun to guess at a photograph's meaning. But more often I am left feeling empty.
I want a photographer to take a stand and tell me what he thinks, and Bergerson's photos do that. For example, there's no confusing the intent of this shot:
Or this:
Bergerson is as much a cultural critic as he is a photographer. Flags, Jesus murals, imprisonment: They're the sort of easy themes any casual observer of America would notice in a heartbeat, yet few Americans pay attention to those things. That Bergerson is Canadian probably helps. Yet being an outsider is only an aid in observation. The actual nuts and bolts photo-building into clever, opinionated statements is all Bergerson. For me, it is this deliberate first-person attitude that sets it apart from similar work by, say, Zoe Strauss or David Graham.
The other recurrent Bergerson motif is signs. I know signs have been photographed to death, and that they're often the source of bad visual puns and so-what moments. Still I am a sign lover. My knee-jerk reaction is to read every sign I come across for photographic possibilities, especially and above all handwritten signs because they are often the most organic elements in the social landscape. In Bergerson I recognize a fellow sign lover. I suspect he too cannot walk by any sign without reading it.
All of Bergerson's images above and many others can be found in his book Shards of America, published by Quantuck Press in 2004 and sold for the ridiculous bargain price of $25.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Quiz #16: Photographic Google Trends
I am fascinated by Google Trends. Type any word or phrase into Google Trends and it will plot the Google search volume for that word over time (GT also tracks news reference volume, but I'll ignore that for the purpose of this post). For example here is the Google Trends graph for the word "flowers":
There are two spikes every year, right around Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, then a dip every winter just after Christmas when folks toss out their holiday bouquets. Between Valentine's Day and Mother's Day is a small peak which changes location from year to year. That is Easter with its variable date.
The flowers index is a good example of the fact that every Google Trends graph is unique. Each one is a visual fingerprint specifically matched to one and only one search phrase. In many cases the graphs provide enough clues that someone could guess the search phrase from just the fingerprint. Or could they?
Below are twelve graphs showing Google search volume for phrases (one or two words) related to photography. Your challenge is to identify as many of the phrases as possible. You can check your answers by running them through Google Trends to see if they return the right graphs. The person who first correctly identifies the most correct answers receives 1) a free print, 2) a special photo-related surprise, and 3) everlasting glory (warning: individual experiences with glory may vary). Good luck!
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There are two spikes every year, right around Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, then a dip every winter just after Christmas when folks toss out their holiday bouquets. Between Valentine's Day and Mother's Day is a small peak which changes location from year to year. That is Easter with its variable date.
The flowers index is a good example of the fact that every Google Trends graph is unique. Each one is a visual fingerprint specifically matched to one and only one search phrase. In many cases the graphs provide enough clues that someone could guess the search phrase from just the fingerprint. Or could they?
Below are twelve graphs showing Google search volume for phrases (one or two words) related to photography. Your challenge is to identify as many of the phrases as possible. You can check your answers by running them through Google Trends to see if they return the right graphs. The person who first correctly identifies the most correct answers receives 1) a free print, 2) a special photo-related surprise, and 3) everlasting glory (warning: individual experiences with glory may vary). Good luck!
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