...a photoBook is an autonomous art form, comparable with a piece of sculpture, a play or a film. The photographs lose their own photographic character as things 'in themselves' and become parts, translated into printing ink, of a dramatic event called a book...
- Dutch photography critic Ralph Prins
The collection focuses on a specific theme, that of work. Started in 1988, the photography collection Work/Werk belonging to the professional services company Randstad Nederland has grown to comprise more than 300 images by international artists, all dealing with a concept as abstract as work. The photocollection concentrates on work by Dutch artists including Rineke Dijkstra, Inez van Lamsweerde and Carla van de Puttelaar.
The photocollection reveals the level of quality attained by Dutch photography, a phenomenon that has been labelled the “Dutch Renaissance”. Curiosity for one’s surroundings, an interest in the everyday, attention to detail and a profound ability to describe characterise the work of a group of artists who seem to have picked up the mantel of the great 17th-century Dutch portrait painters.
This is photography with a markedly documentary character, which describes in a precise, detailed and objective way the personality of the sitter. As Frits Gierstbergnoted : “Often portraits of an individual have a symbolic meaning that goes beyond that person [...] It can also act as a mirror in which we see reflected both the luminosity and the weight of our own existence”.
Rhetorics of Work includes examples of the different trends that form part of this resurgence of photography in Holland, such as photography of place (Erwin Olaf), the documentary image (Margriet Smulders), landscape (Reinier Gerritsen), character portraits (Rineke Dijkstra), and the digitally-manipulated image (Inez van Lamsweerde).
Work/Werk The idea of forming a photography collection had its origins in the proposal to build up a collection of graphic art that reflects the company’s identity and would be used to make the workplace more agreeable for employees and clients of Randstad Nederland. The works in this collection are therefore hung in the company’s offices and workplaces.
These are images that surprise, provoke questions and encourage debate. According to the company itself: “each work is much more than an artistic object used to decorate the wall”.
Dutch photographer Helen van Meene illustrates everyday girlhood in her New York Times featured Tokyo Girls. The subjects are mostly pubescent and subtly erotic.
Tokyo GirlsPublished: April 3, 2005 Hellen van Meene is one of a handful of Dutch photographers who are currently enjoying something of an international vogue for their portrait work. From the glamorous and theatrical celebrity photographs of Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin (seen in the Great Performers portfolio in our Feb. 27 issue) to the stark, intently observed subjects of Rineke Dijkstra's pictures (one of which, as it happens, appears in this issue), there is no single Dutch style; there is only a shared taste for original portraiture. Van Meene, for her part, has developed a characteristically small, square and intimately composed portrait shot -- most often of pubescent girls, soft and languorous and at times, she observes, innocently erotic.
When the magazine decided to commission a portfolio of photographs of young Japanese women, van Meene's work immediately came to mind. In today's Japanese youth culture -- or at least in the forms of it that have international cachet -- innocence is pulled in multiple directions: exaggerated into mere cuteness in the kitsch of Hello Kitty; mock-heroically ennobled by the child heroes of manga (comic books); even distorted and sexualized in the submissive schoolgirls of the country's anime, or cartoon, pornography. Lost in these extremes but captured in van Meene's work is the less stylized (but still stylish) vernacular of everyday Japanese girlhood. It is a look at once fashionable and ingenuous, tender but not without the occasional flush of teenage allure.
In February and March of this year, van Meene approached girls and young women on the street in Tokyo and shot them in casual 10-minute sessions against the backdrops at hand. Van Meene says she does not conceive of her portrait photographs in the traditional documentary way: while she does not exactly ''stage'' her subjects, neither does she try to capture their true, underlying personality or state of mind. Instead, she chooses to see her subjects as the raw material of her own fictions. ''This is not just you, now,'' she explains. ''This is a sense of you, created by me.''
This is a story about man’s attempt to model his surroundings to become that which he envisions as being an ideal world. It is about how a created world has become reality. I perceived this to be especially visible in places such as hotels, airports, lounges, avenues, resorts by the sea. These places seem to present man with a truth which may be difficult to live up to. Details, both subtle and paramount, can be read in the understandable attempt of man to maintain this created decor and himself in it. In the end, what remains is the undercurrent of man’s alienated relationship to the world he created, a feeling of estrangement. This is what I observe as I travel. It is what this story is about. See for more wanderlust: natascha libbert ...
Dit beeldverhaal gaat over hoe mensen denken dat ’t moet. Over hoe en wanneer de dingen mooi zijn. Op zoek naar een beleving en een ideaal. En daardoor ontstaan kleine of juist monumentale vervreemdingen. Dit is bijvoorbeeld zichtbaar in hotels, luchthavens, lounges, avenues, ‘resorts’ aan zee. De schoonheid zit ‘m vaak in het onvermogen om dit decor te onderhouden, of de wijze waarop de mens zich probeert te handhaven in deze gecultiveerde werkelijkheid. Het zegt iets over de vervreemding in onze relatie met de wereld, van onze dromen en onze idealen. Ik zocht een relativering van deze maakbaarheidsdrift. In hotels, en daarbuiten. Lees meer Haarscheurtjes in de perfecte leefomgeving ...
Photography : Natascha LibbertEdit and design : Renate Boere (and trainees Michel van Soest and Marieke Houwers) and Natascha Libbert Essay : Jurriaan van Kranendonk Print run : 300 Pages: 56 English / Dutch 25,- euro (excl. shipping)
In a time that questions photo report VD's (aka Vincent Delbrouck) work shakes things up. He assembles recycles, decomposes and recomposes elements of his personal story to create universal photo albums, 'poetic documentaries' according to his expression. A documented journey between identity and memory, intimate diary and photo report. We are glad today to introduce an installation of a selection of photos, letters, testimonies, photocopies of 'Beyond History', a documentary VD made in Cuba between 1998 and 2006. Photography as a document, of memory. Zie voor een recensie...
PHotoEspaña has revealed in a press conference the names of the winners of the PHotoEspaña 2009 Awards. The PHotoEspaña Director, Claude Bussac, has made public the awards in Matadero Madrid at Naves del Español, with the presence of most of the awarded artists.
The PHotoEspaña Baume & Mercier 2009 Award has been granted to photographer Malick Sidibé(Mali, 1936). The Malian photographer receives this reward as recognition to his exceptional condition of portrait artist, his sensibility and personality. All that makes him one of the most renowned photographers of Africa. With pictures taken in its own study -Studio Malick- during the 50s and 60s, Sidibé has documented an important period of the history of Africa, a phase of emancipation, cultural changes, pride and hope in the future. His sensitive, enthusiastic, and compromised look has created simple, authentic, and full of truth images showing the special complicity between the photographer and its portrayed.
The prize, gifted with 12,000 € in purchase of work, a trophy designed in exclusive by Eduardo Arroyo and a watch of the firm Baume & Mercier, has been granted before to photographers Martin Parr, Robert Frank, Hiroshi Sugimoto, William Klein, William Egglestone, Greek Almeida, Nan Goldin, Duane Michals, Chema Madoz, Luis Gonzalez Palm and Josef Koudelka in recognition to its important role in the international photographic middle.
The Bartolome Ros Award, gifted with 12,000 €, has been granted to photographer Isabel Muñoz. The jury of the prize, formed by Rose Ros, responsible for the bequest of Bartolomé Ros; Carlos Gollonet, curator of expositions and advisor of photography of the Foundation MAPFRE; Publio Lopez Mondejar, photographer and Bartolome Ros 1999 Award; Carlos Urroz, cultural agent and Alberto Anaut, president of PHotoEspaña has wanted to recognize Muñoz by her bravery, capacity of innovation and approach to diverse cultures through his full portraits of intensity coherence.
In past editions the following artists have been awarded: Ricard Terre, Javier Vallhonrat, Marta Gili, Alejandro Castellote, Kowasa library, Joan Fontcuberta, Alberto Garcia-Alix, Juan Manuel Castro Prieto, Ramon Masats, Cristina Garcia Rodero and Publio Lopez Mondejar.
Magee Art Gallery has been awarded by the Off Festival Saab Award for the exhibition Accidents of Jin Shin. The artist recreates automobile accidents and photographs them with disturbing, mysterious and sidtressing results. He offers a reflective hyperreatist interpretation of the images theat the media insert daily in our subconscious. This award recognizes the best exhibition organized in this section of the Festival. The jury of this prize has been composed by Paula Bartolome, marketing manager of Saab; Alexandra Fonseca, artistic advisor of Banc Espirito Santo; Carlos Manzano, architect and collector; and Juan Bonet, architect and collector.
The Public M2-El Mundo Award, granted by internet users of http://www.phe.es/ and http://www.elmundo.es/ to the best exhibition of the Official Section, has been granted to the exhibition Resiliencia (Resilience), organized by the Institute Cervantes and PHotoEspaña with the contribution of Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and that can be seen in the Institute Cervantes until September 20th. The exhibition, curated by Claudi Carreras, gathers the work of 10 new photographers that have participated in Descubrimientos PHE -the seen of portfolios of the Festival- in its assemblies of Lima and Mexico City.
Paul Strand - Manhatta (1921) The prize of the Best Photography Books of the Year gathers from 1998 independent publishers and publishing houses so they can present their photography books published during the last year. The finalist books of this contest are exposed at la Central de Diseño in Matadero Madrid, until July 12th. A jury composed by Gisele Tavernier, art critic of Le Journal des Arts; Alberto Heart, Designer; Pablo Berastegui, coordinator Matadero Madrid; and Alberto Anaut, president of PHotoEspaña, has awarded the following prizes: in the national category, Paul Strand, en el principio fue Manhattan (Paul Strand, in the beginning was Manhattan), published by Foundation Pedro Barrie de la Maza. This monographic catalogue reproduces the 114 photographs of the exhibition Paul Strand. Retrospective 1915-1976, organized by the Foundation itself and includes an essay illustrated by pictures of other important American photographers like Alfred Stieglitz, Clarence White, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Arthur Rothstein and Mathew Brady. In the international category the winner book is Weegee the famous, published by M+M Auer. This catalogue, published because of the exhibition carried out in the Pavillon Populaire of Montpellier, gathers more than 400 photographs of Arthur Feelig, best known as Weegee, the great narrator of urban histories that documented the life and the death in the New York of the 30s and 40s.
Likewise, the jury of the prize of the Best Photography Books of the Year has granted four mentions of honour. In national category: Helena Almeida. Tela rosa para vestir (Pink Fabric for Dressing), published by Fundacion Telefonica and Constelación (Constellation), by Carmela Garcia, published by MUSAC/Turner.In international category: Looking in Robert Frank's The Americans, published by National Gallery of Art/Steidl and Boarding House, by Roger Ballenpublished by Phaidon Press.
The Outstanding Publishing House of the Year Award is forErrata Editions, for this project Book on Books. The books that integrate this series reproduces faithfully the integral content, page by page, of rare or out-of-print books of photography. This way, Errata Editions has published mythical books like Photographe de Paris by Atget or American Photographs by Walter Evans. Errata Editions is a small independent North American publishing house created in 2008 by Valerie Sonnenthal, Jeffrey Ladd and Ed Grazda. See for more...
The winner of the Prize Descubrimientos PHE Epson to the best portfolio of the Festival has been the Mexican photographer Alejandra Laviada(Mexico, 1980) for her work Photo Sculptures. In it Laviada takes photographs of ephemeral sculptures created with objects found in spaces abandoned that try to alter our conception of the routine things and to register places that will be demolished or transformed. The jury of the Prize Descubrimientos PHE Epson has been composed by Susan Kismaric, curator of the photography department of the MoMA in New York; Colette Olof, curator of Foam_ Fotografiemuseum in Amsterdam; and Lesley A. Martin, executive publisher of the Aperture Foundation in New York. The prize will allow Alejandra Laviada to exhibit her work individually in PHotoEspaña 2010. In past editions, the following have been awarded Yann Gross, Harri Palviranta, Stanislas Guigui, Vesselina Nikolaeva, Comenius Röthlisberger, Pedro Alvarez, Tanit Plana, Sophie Dubosc, Juan de la Cruz Megias, Paula Luttringer and Matias Costa.
The Room Mate Hotels Revelation Award has been granted to the artist Carlos Sanva as recognition of this work, which is a splendid example of integration of the image like artistic vehicle to its higher aesthetic and conceptual level with photography of impeccable formal bill. The jury of the prize was formed by Enrique Sarasola, President of Room Matt Hotels; Alberto Chinchon, Professor of the Area of Art of the European University of Madrid and artist; and German Gomez, photographer. The prize, gifted with 6,000 € in purchase of work, recognizes the work of a Spanish artist less than 35 years old whose work or publication have noticeable during the last year. This prize has been previously granted to German Gomez, NOPHOTO, Bleda y Rosa, Joan Morey, Lucia Arjona, Paco Gomez, Carmela Garcia, Isabel Flores, David Jimenez and Xavier Rivas.
Lastly, PHotoEspaña has granted the PHotoEspaña OjodePez Award for Human Values, which is given to photographic works highlighting values like solidarity, the effort, ethics or justice. The prize, gifted with 6,000 €, corresponds the photographer Simona Ghizzoni by her work Odd days, a work on alimentary disorders and its long process of recovery. Alimentary disorders affect to a high percentage of women and it is the first cause of mortality in women between 12 to 25 years old in occidental countries. Photos have been taken in clinics that treat this type of long-term illnesses. The jury has been composed by Joanna Mister, photography editor of The New York Times Magazine; Rod Slemmons, director of Museum of Contemporary Photography of Columbia University; Anne Tellgren, photography curator of Moderna Museet of Estocolmo; Sergio Mah, general curator of PHotoEspaña and Arianna Rinaldo, editor in chief of OjodePez. The previous winner of the Prize was Olivia Arthur, by the portfolio Beyond the Veil, in 2007.
'The whole point of taking pictures', according to Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt, 'is so that you don't have to explain things with words.' Hmm, maybe so - but for photography's dedicated bloggers, his advice has fallen on stony ground. Just as the medium continues to expand at a dizzying rate, so too do the accompanying words, explanations, accounts and interpretations that photography inspires.
What must Erwitt make of Magnum's own blog where you can read conversations and interviews with such luminaries as Bruce Gilden, Alec Soth and Michael Subotzky? Or visit its archive and discover field reports from members in Washington, Abu Dhabi, Machu Picchu, Jakarta…
Another agency offering commentary on its own progress is Reuters. Check their blog for members' opinions on the issues and concerns that affect working photojournalists; and take the opportunity to see the 'overs' and extended edits that do not make it into print.
To savour something of the sweet aroma - or acrid stench - of freelance life, visit the highly enjoyable blogs of Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert in Tokyoland, and erstwhile Tabasco Kid (don't ask), Leon Neal.
Not for the first time, the future of photojournalism appears beset by uncertainty; meanwhile that of art photography seems almost robust by comparison. Jorg Colberg's brisk and intelligent Conscientious serves as a useful introduction to the work of some of the genre's more accessible exponents. As does the Aperture Foundation's Exposures blog, albeit from a more pronounced North American perspective.
It remains to be seen whether the extraordinary surge of interest in photography books in recent years will be sustained, or is indicative merely of a bubble. Until we find out, there is no better guide to all things photobook-related than Jeffrey Ladd's authoritative, comprehensive and ever-so-slightly-obsessive 5B4. If it all gets a bit too intense, head for the reviews section of the excellent Lens Culture blog for some light relief.
If you want a smattering of all of the above and equipment reviews and competition news – try two magazine blogs: Photo District News' PDNPulse and the British Journal of Photography's 1854.
Finally, and in a display of shameless self-promotion, I can unreservedly recommend my own blog, found on the ever vibrant Foto8 site. Alongside book and exhibition reviews you can find my interviews with some of photography's most influential and respected practitioners, including Andreas Gursky, Susan Meiselas, Martin Parr, and Richard Misrach.
Of course there are many more out there - why not send us links to your favourites, with brief explanations of why you endorse them?
...Photography is the visual medium of the modern world. As a means of recording, and as an art form in its own, it pervades our lives and shapes our perceptions...
The Rhetorics of Work. Randstad Photocollection. 
The Bartolome Ros Award, gifted with 12,000 €, has been granted to photographer Isabel Muñoz. The jury of the prize, formed by Rose Ros, responsible for the bequest of Bartolomé Ros; Carlos Gollonet, curator of expositions and advisor of photography of the Foundation MAPFRE; Publio Lopez Mondejar, photographer and Bartolome Ros 1999 Award; Carlos Urroz, cultural agent and Alberto Anaut, president of PHotoEspaña has wanted to recognize Muñoz by her bravery, capacity of innovation and approach to diverse cultures through his full portraits of intensity coherence.
Posts
