Saturday, December 22, 2007

Michael Northrup

What would you get if you mixed equal parts Mark Cohen, Bill Zelman, and Jacob Holdt? Probably something like this, which I stumbled on today courtesy of 40 Watt. If you're a fan of candid snapshots Michael Northrup is for you. Great moments, rich colors, and just downright bizarre in a beautifully creative way. These are photos by someone with the ability to laugh at himself, and in a deep love affair with photography.

The design of the website differs from most art/photography sites in that it's set up to look like a stock photograph company. I can't tell if it's meant to be ironic or if he actually generates stock business from the site. If it's ironic, it's a nice twist on the normally deficient fine art sales model. If it's not ironic, hey that's nice too since it means these photos will meet an unprepared audience out there somewhere. Either way, the site navigates well if you don't mind titles like C82-5-60a.

I suppose my final judgement can be summed up by the fact after checking out his website, I ordered his book Beautiful Ecstasy sight unseen.




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1 comment:

  1. plechlDecember 22, 2007 at 3:23 PM

    wow, talk about personal style. this guy seems to have it in droves. all these photos have something that unifies them, and yet they all achieve something quite different, and then again there's always that same sense of 'something is not quite right here.' thanks for the introduction. it's a deep 'archive' and i'm going to have some fun going through it.

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