Lick Creek Line by Ron Jude

My review of Ron Jude's Lick Creek Line (MACK, 2012) is now online at photo-eye.

The hazy, almost imperceptible, line that separates man from nature is a difficult and well-trod territory for photographers. It is also a fiction. The perceived demarcations have more to do with our own human and cultural distinctions than anything essential. As much as we try and forget, we are still animals. Ron Jude’s latest book, Lick Creek Line (Mack, 2012), uses a fur trapper and a small community in northern Idaho to tease apart these fictional boundaries. His work asks provocative questions about the relationship between photographs, personal experience and knowledge, as well as our persistent desire to understand images in spite of their maddeningly murky nature.

Read the rest here.

Visual Studies Workshop - Photo-Bookworks Symposium 2012

 

The 2012 Visual Studies Workshop Photo-Bookworks Symposium is June 28th-30th this year. I'm honored to be giving a talk about writing and criticism this year. I was unable to attend last year, so I'm excited to attend this year. The symposium looks great. Among the other presenters are Christian Patterson, Valerio Spada, Irina Rozovsky, Verna Posever Curtis, Mark Steinmetz and more. If you are anywhere near Rochester, come check it out.

Check out the full schedule here.

Lebensmittel by Michael Schmidt

Michael Schmidt's latest book is a monster. Roughly translated as food or 'foodstuff,' Lebensmittel (Snoeck, 2012) is a massive exploration of our global food economy. Weighing in at several pounds and with over 170 images, the book is very impressive. I'm a huge Schmidt fan and think he is one of the most underrated contemporary photographers. I'll take him any day over his German contemporaries from Düsseldorf. Lebensmittel represents several years of work investigating factory farms, grocery stores, slaughter houses, dairy farms etc... captured with Schmidt's cold and clean eye. The book also contains rare examples of color work, which is surprising given his recent retrospective at the Haus De Kunst in Munich was entitled "Grey as Color."

With the exception of EIN-HEIT (Scalo, 1996), this may be Schmidt's most ambitious project to date. From the slipcase and the printing, the production on the book is also exceptional. While the book is undeniably gorgeous, I almost feel the production value of the book is trying to lend the work more solemnity – like a over-designed (and overpriced) boxed set of a rock band. I also worry that the steep price of the book will prevent it from being more widely seen, because it is smart and interesting work. I just wish a institution like PS1 would step up and host the show here in NYC.

I've kept my comments brief, but may write more later. I need to spend some more time with the book.

For more info, look here and here.

All images © Michael Schmidt

All images © Michael Schmidt

All images © Michael Schmidt

Invisible City by Ken Schless (Case Study)

The Photobook Club has just released their first ibook/case study of Ken Schles' classic book Invisible City (Twelve Trees Press, 1988). The ibook contains all the images from the book as well as several short texts/interviews by Schles and others. A similar idea to the Errata Edition's wonderful books, but just for the ipad and its free. The next best thing to actually looking at the real deal. I'm looking forward to the full reprint.

Download it for your ipad here.

Photographs Not Taken | Edited by Will Steacy

 My review of Will Steacy's Photographs Not Taken (Daylight, 2012) is now available on photo-eye's website.

Photographers live with a multitude of missed moments and photographs that escape the click of the shutter. Equal parts voyeur and hoarder, photographers stereotypically collect moments and images. Anything that escapes is cause for at least a little temporary sorrow if not haunting regret. While they don’t possess a monopoly on this ever-present sense of loss, photographers are trained to be vigilant for such moments and feel this loss all the more acutely. The distinct collection of short personal essays in Photographs Not Taken is not merely a catalog of lost photographs, but offers unique insight into the personal desires and hopes that drive photographers, and points to what photography can’t, shouldn’t and often fails to capture.

Read the rest here.

29x29 Benefit Portfolio/Show

       Untitled (#151), 2007, Adam Bell (29x29 Benefit Portfolio)

Just wanted to post another reminder about the 29x29 benefit show/portfolio at the Bruce Silverstein Gallery (Project Space), 529 W. 20th Street (3rd Floor), up this weekend (April 19th-21st). The portfolio is being sold to benefit The Center for Arts Education - a fantastic organization that promotes arts education in NYC public schools - and includes work from 29 SVA MFA Photo alumni from 2004-06. (I contributed the image above, from my 2006-07 series Star Maps.) For a partial list of the contributors, see my post below, or check out all the work and contributors here.

All the photographs are currently on display through Sat, but the portfolio, which comes in a gorgeous red portfolio case, can be viewed at the Bruce Silvertein Gallery or online here.

Swiss Photobooks from 1927 to the Present

My review of Swiss Photobooks from 1927 to the Present: A Different History of Photography Edited by Peter Pfrunder (Presetel, 2011) is now available on photo-eye.

Books on books seem to have become a genre unto itself within the expanding world of photobooks. Beginning with Fotografía Pública and The Book of 101 Books, the genre was given its most comprehensive treatment with Gerry Badger and Martin Parr's groundbreaking work, The Photobook Vol. 1 and 2 (I've read a third volume is on the way), and continued with Aperture’s recent volumes on Japan and Latin America, as well as their upcoming releases on Dutch and Chinese photobooks. This list is by no means comprehensive, but points to an increased engagement with and scholarship around the photobook, as well as a belated critical acknowledgement of the important role they've played in the medium's history. The most recent addition to these new publications, Swiss Photobooks From 1927 to the Present, focuses its attention on the varied books produced by Swiss photographers. From Robert Frank to Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs, the book covers impressive ground and offers unique insight into the history of Swiss photography and photobooks.

Read the rest here.

P.S. Be warned the book is a beast and weighs around seven pounds. Make room on your shelf.

29x29 Benefit Portfolio

I'm honored to have one of my images from the series Star Maps included in a new portfolio being sold to benefit The Center for Arts Education - a wonderful non-profit that helps foster arts educations in NYC public schools.The portfolio is the work of both Chris Fisher and Hilary Schaffner, who conceived of the idea and help bring it to fruition. Seth Lambert has also worked closely with them and helped oversee the printing and production of the portfolio.

Some of the artists (and former classmates at SVA) include Alison Brady, Matthew Pillsbury, Amy Stein, Suellen Parker, Kate Cunningham, Jeff Chien-Hsiang Liao (whose image is above), Yamani Nayer, Sarina Finkelstein, Chris Fisher, Molly Landreth, Shai Kramer, Alix Smith, Keren Moscovitch, Shen Wei and more. For more information about the artists and images, look here.

Each portfolio comes with twenty-nine 13x19 inkjet prints, one from each artist, and a short text by Vince Aletti. There is also a upcoming show at Bruce Silverstein's project space on April 19-21th, where all the images and portfolio will be on view and for sale.