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Torijon Grasslands 2010, Zhao Renhui at Hereford Photography Festival 2010

Maybe this is one artist that would not want you to look at his work and appreciate the aesthetics. There is a problem with documentary photography. The problem is the relationship between the image and the viewer, that an image that conforms to our perception of beauty can often mask the initial message that the photographer intended.

Renhui describes his project very well on his blog “I have always worked with scientific facts and aesthetic fictions”

When first viewing his projects I knew there was something I was supposed to discover. Only a few days before I recalled somebody in the media talking about Invisibility cloaks and when they are developed would be next greatest technological leap. So on first impression I was investigating the image to see if it was real (insert irony here).

This is not the first photographer to want the viewer question the reality of the image. But it is not the  reality of the invisibly cloaks that is in question but man’s relationship with animals. Maybe this was obvious due to the title of the project  and the name of the  institution “The Institute of Critical Zoologists” but it took some investigating skills.

I really appreciate the work of people that have an idea/passion/theory/thought and run with it throughout their work. Zhao Renhu projects are very strong and I look forward to seeing and learning more.

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A brilliant award site bringing together NGO’s and photographers to bring about social change. The projects are really worth looking through not just for inspiration but if you have some spare money to donate.
I think sites like these are invaluable to photographers especially when the competition is so tough to get into the magazines. The photo story had incredible power to change people’s lives, call for action and change. But very few of the big magazines carry as many hard-hitting photography projects especially when the subject is one of poverty and sickness. Simply due to the major income of the magazines come from advertising revenue and advertisers do not want their product next to images of poverty as it reduces the sales. Consequently the time of photographers getting a paid commission are very rare unless you are already a big name. Competitions, awards and grants seam to be the way that photographers can make a name, build up a reputation and get some funding while also raising the profile of the charity.

One of my Favorite photo stories is for the World Wildlife Fund “A Human Face in the Coral Triangle” by James Morgan. The images are so beautiful and I love the story concept of the human face of conservation areas. The local tribe took James in a taught him to free dive to get these images, that is just lovely. Click here or on the image to see his sideshow.

Thanks to ZORIAH for the original post where I discovered this site.

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Screen grab from his lasted project Slow Light

Two well known stars of Bristol Suspention Bridge and pinhole photographer Justin Quinnell. His project Slow Light consists of pinhole photographs with an exposure of 6 months between the winter and summer solstace taken in 2007-2008. Thanks to Sinead sending me an article from Householdname blog check out the other images in this collection on Justin’s blog Pinhole photography by Justin Quinnell.

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Sometimes real life gets in the way of your virtual life. I have wanted to write about Perpignan for some time but it all felt a bit contrived to write the posts until now. The star of the show was Michael Nichols, composite by Ken Geiger for the National Geographic. 84 images stitched together of a 1,500 years old redwood tree in California’s Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. The giant photograph hanging in the Eglise des Dominicans was truly a impressive sight it made me feel child-like and giggly maybe it was being in the presence of a image of a living thing over 1,500 years one can not help but feel young. Check out how the photograph was made here.

Not at Perpi but this week on TED, while thinking of old things I  also enjoyed this talk by Rachel Sussman on The worlds Oldest Living Things. Rachel photographs living things older than 2,000 years!

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Thanks to Alice sharing this on Facebook. Nice little film about a guy that dares to be different. This has distracted me writing about Perpignan.

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The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

I love it when stuff goes viral, you just want to help it along. Well done Sam! To find out how he made the film check out his blog bit.ly/aFmaPZ

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Girl looks lost on the Paris Metro

Willy Ronis: A poetics of Engagement exhibition has been running since April this year and I was lucky to catch it in its last few days. It is the anniversary of his death and this exhibition also marks the centenary of his birth. There is no better place to see his work than Paris, where he lived and made most of his work.  Willy was photographing his whole life and it is awe inspiring to see not just the absolutely beautiful images but the many changes that have happened in our history. To think as a photographer the images your are making can become history and in a life-time how everything can change so much.

There is a really beautiful documentary film on show,  Willy discussed why he was unhappy about how one magazine would not give him any authority over the captions and how important this was to him. Due to the political nature of some of his images taken in the strikes etc. he was often upset by how the images had been cropped and captioned, especially in the American press at the time. In the guide it talks about how his independence caused him professional and financial difficulties.

One picture of his I recall with particular fondness was taken in the Louvre the crowed of people mixed into the large painting behind them. The painting is the  Jacques Louis DAVID:The Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon

Un Dimanche au Louvre by Willy Ronis

Jacques Louis David was commissioned by Napoleon I to paint this huge canvas which depicts the splendor of the emperor’s Coronation while conveying its political and symbolic message (Louvre web 2010)

I think that political and symbolic message was very important to his work and in this photograph Willy is directly communicating this idea.

These various artistic solutions, designed to suit this monumental painting and its fascinating hero, fully satisfied the Emperor: “What relief, what truthfulness! This is not a painting; one walks in this picture.” David realized the significance of this work for the future and for his personal fame, saying “I shall slide into posterity in the shadow of my hero.” (Louvre web 2010)

In his photograph Willy has blended the people as if they were walking into the picture. And only one face turned away (looking else where in the Louvre) David changed the events of what happened for the political beliefs of his hero the emperor and acknowledged this. This is something that Willy would not do he would not compromise his political beliefs for his personal gain, he left his posterity to the struggle of the workers.

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On Facebook I get regular updates from American Suburb X (can’t get enough of this website). I really enjoyed the work of Toby Old. I went to a talk by martin Parr a few months ago and was struck by something Martin said. What seams to be ordinary now can totally change in just a few years. There is nothing ordinary about Toby’s images, he has gone for the stock unusual, but now they seam evan more unusual.

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Edward Burtynsky

Edward Burtynsky Taking about his photographs on the topic of oil on the Big Think website.

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My poor blog, it looks like I have not been doing much, I am in Paris now and will be updating here Soon. In The mean-time here is a photo of Paris exhibited as Paris Photo last year.

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