Miyuki Okuyama Photographs

Miyuki Okuyama Photographs. "...In attempt at creating images, which represent rather internal reality, I use a pinhole camera and a toy camera. Such primitive tools are not able to make sharp or accurate images. Instead, they create effects like vignetting and distortion. These images, as a result of such effects, become somewhat obscure and enigmatic, as if being filtered through time and space. Many of them represent anonymous and insignificant scenes in everyday life. They look like they are photographed in a very casual manner, or shot instinctively.
In the meantime, I construct miniatures for the series 'Safe Playground,' to make images from. I started this project after moving to the Netherlands from Japan. Where I grew up, the countryside of north east Japan is somehow haunted by its history. Compare to such land, my new home seems overly organized and urbanized. It feels like there is something missing: shady corners and obscure places. From my longing for such, I started to create imaginary places in the photographs. In my work, darkness is associated with human subconscious. These images create the place to temporally relief human feelings (fear, anxiety) in its suspended disbelief."

Eric Daigh: We Have One Conversation

Eric Daigh: We Have One Conversation at Carl Hammer Gallery in Chicago, IL. "...Using push pins, the innocuous, adhesive, near-detritus of our everyday, Eric Daigh’s work is that rare aerial perspective of the faces we see everyday, the vistas of common personalities, the long view of the human. You can stand up close, squint into the vacu-formed industrial sheen of some common object, but such a perspective only argues the atomic structure of his work. As we pull back, one quotidian reference morphs into another. Objects become portraits, the pedestrian becomes sublime. Molecules, pixels, cultivated fields, all speak to his medium. He starts with a flat 5 color cadence, all just rhythmic loops, then relationships form, a singularity shifts into subtle congress, and depth and tones appear. We step back further and slowly, as if through the portal of some remote ship we suddenly recognize 'That’s us - That’s me.'"

Thomas Demand: Tunnel

Thomas Demand: Tunnel (1999) at UbuWeb Film & Video. "...The film presumably shows a fast-paced tracking shot through the tunnel in which Lady Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash. At first the viewer seems to remember seeing these images in the media. But in reality the set is a true to life, cardboard mock-up of architectural details. Under closer inspection, one also realizes that instead of reproducing reality Thomas Demand creates a perfectly-constructed model world. The cleverly-lit cardboard scenery takes up an incident of recent history and, in doing so, mirrors the illusionary features of what appear to be familiar images."

Andy Warhol: Polaroids

Andy Warhol... Self-Portrait (1977, Polacolor Type 108 photography). From the exhibition Andy Warhol: Polaroids at Galerie Priska Pasquer in Cologne. "...Around 1970 the Polaroid camera became the ideal tool for Warhol for to depict the people of the worlds of art, music, fashion, media and celebrity. The Polaroid photographs became the base for his portrait paintings; moreover they became a distinct body of work within Warhol’s wide array of media he used for creating art. Additionally the Polaroid camera was also a tool for Andy Warhol for to relate to other people while being able to keep the distance behind the camera."

Charles H. Traub: Object of My Creation, Photographs 1967-1970

Charles H. Traub: Object of My Creation, Photographs 1967-1970 at Gitterman Gallery in New York. "...This exhibition is comprised of photographs that Charles H. Traub made during his last semester in college through his time in graduate school and is concurrent with the release of his fourth monograph, Object of My Creation.
Traub studied with Art Sinsabaugh as an undergrad at the University of Illinois. Upon graduating, he went into the Peace Corps but an injury forced him to return home to Kentucky. There, he sought out Ralph Eugene Meatyard, the most important creative photographer in Kentucky at the time. Meatyard became a great inspiration and family friend. Following a brief stint in the army, Traub was left with little ambition, aside from the desire to pursue photography and thus applied to graduate school at the Institute of Design in Chicago. He studied primarily with Aaron Siskind, who became a mentor and lifelong friend."

Soft Film 軟性電影

Soft Film 軟性電影. "...Exploring the ephemeral past of Chinese entertainment from Hong Kong, the U.S.A., and around the world: vaudeville pioneers, flappers, aviatrices, burlesque dancers, hula hoopers, movie queens, sex bombs, jade girls, tomboys, pin-ups, sour beauties, girl jocks, swordswomen, and go-go girls." Brilliant!

Emi Fukuyama - from The Moon, Following Me

Japan Exposures... Emi Fukuyama - from The Moon, Following Me. "...When you first see Emi Fukuyama’s work, you may ask yourself: 'what’s going on here?' Nothing much is ever really happening in the places that Emi photographs, so you could say her work is quiet. But she doesn’t belong with topographic photographers or anything banal. Her photos are vague rather than just simple. As unremarkable as the things she photographs may be, she draws you in by making it difficult for you to see them clearly. This creates a tension running through her work which hints at something more interesting happening here."

Bill Cunningham New York

Trailer (QuickTime Video) for Bill Cunningham New York - a film by Richard Press. "...Bill Cunningham, The New York Times’s peripatetic, octogenarian, bicycle-riding fashion photographer. Filmmaker Richard Press says it took 10 years to make this portrait of Cunningham, the first eight spent convincing his subject to acquiesce. Anyone who has so much as glanced at the Styles section of the Times will recognize Cunningham’s work: an obsessive, meticulous, witty and eclectic array of images of New Yorkers dressed to kill. Cunningham is famous for spotting trends before anyone else, for giving young and unknown fashionistas as much play as society’s grande dames, and for rejecting every hostess’s effort to get him to stop for just one moment to sip champagne or shoot the breeze. Living in monk-like asceticism above Carnegie Hall for 50 years, Cunningham is a New York original, a man who has joyously transformed fashion into urban anthropology."

Big Bangs/Small Bucks III

Big Bangs/Small Bucks III at Dean Jensen Gallery. "...By and large, the names of the artists in this show don‘t yet resound far and wide in the broader art world, although those of at least some of the exhibitors are becoming increasingly reverberant, among them the photographers Gary Stochl and Wendel A. White, the painters Santiago Cucullu, Harri Monni and Claire Stigliani, and Gerard Sendrey, the production‘s single 'outsider' artist, who, at eighty-two, is regarded as something close to a national treasure in France."

Bernard Faucon: Les Grandes Vacances, 1976-1981

Bernard Faucon: Les Grandes Vacances, 1976-1981 at L.A. Galerie Lothar Albrecht in Frankfurt. "...The idea of fabricating fictions, the idea of a possible equation between photography and the dummies, struck me quite out of the blue. Childhoods made of flesh and plaster, the many lights of the Luberon, the nostalgia and actuality of desires, crystallised together through the magical operation of the photographic record. The power to fix, eternalise in light, attest to the world the perfection of an instant."

Valentines: Expressions of Love and Affection

Valentines: Expressions of Love and Affection at the WHS. "...Tracing its roots to ancient times, today's St. Valentine's Day has evolved over the centuries to become a greeting card-intensive observance. The Society has been collecting Valentine's Day greeting cards for decades and has some fine examples in its archives of intricate artistry in the form of ornate and finely detailed Valentines from 1840 to 1980. This special collection of 99 Valentines provides the content of the latest Wisconsin Historical Images gallery, offering a visual tour through more than a century of St. Valentine's Day greetings."

Valerie Solanas: S.C.U.M Manifesto

Valerie Solanas: S.C.U.M Manifesto (1968) at UbuWeb Historical.

Mugi Takei

Good luck to our friend Mugi Takei - a solo show of her drawings opens at Cullom Gallery in Seattle on March 3rd.

Shepard Fairey (OBEY): A Private Collection

Shepard Fairey (OBEY): A Private Collection at Mondo Bizzaro Gallery in Rome. "...Shepard Fairey, a forty-years-old artist from the skatebording scene, has been often compared to the epic figure of Andy Warhol because of his multiples artwork series, including screen printings, and also for his need to multiply his presence in various sectors, both business and media. That’s how the clothing label OBEY, the magazine Swindle, the gallery Subliminal Projects, and many other projects grown up over the years. But where Warhol portrayed showbusiness stars, Shepard Fairey prefers to shine the spotlight on liberal and progressive America. Subcomandante Marcos and Angela Davis are his subjects, as well as guerrilla women from all over the world, gentled by flowers sprouting from the barrels of their rifles."

My Funny Valentine

Chet Baker... My Funny Valentine (.mp3 audio 02:17, 1953, Blue Note).

Todd Hido: Fragmented Narratives

Todd Hido: Fragmented Narratives at Bruce Silverstein Gallery. "...Renowned as a master of sequencing in book format, Hido juxtaposes images from his influential monographs House Hunting, A Road Divided, Outskirts, and Between the Two with portraits and new images never before exhibited. Hido successfully extends his narrative from a linear book format to an almost cinematic storyline forged by his grouping and pairing of images unrelated in time or place, his female subjects acting as the characters in his photographic sequences. Hido's eerily lit nocturnal images of suburban houses allude to the often discomforting, lonely American scenes by the painter Edward Hopper as well as mirror the director David Lynch's interest and attention to the seedy underside of suburban American culture."

Malick Sidibé: The Eye of Bamako

Malick Sidibé: The Eye of Bamako at M+B in Los Angeles. "...an exhibition of over thirty contemporary and vintage gelatin silver prints and chemises by internationally acclaimed Malian photographer Malick Sidibé. The 75-year old 'Eye of Bamako's' magnificent portraits of sweeping personal and cultural changes in post-colonial Africa have been celebrated around the world. Relatively unknown outside of Mali until the mid-1990s, Malick Sidibé was the first photographer to receive the prestigious Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2007. This exhibition will include his iconic black and white photographs that recorded the history of his countrymen as well as the lesser-known 'chemises', or vintage proof sheet style works on construction paper. Positioned at the junction of Malian independence and a period of rapid modernization, the works exhibited bear witness to the joy, insouciance, and confidence of Africa’s youth revolution."

Green Bay Packers History Online

Green Bay Packers History Online at the WHS. "...When Vince Lombardi arrived in Green Bay in 1959, he told fans, 'You will be proud of the team because I will be proud of the team.' As you wait for a chance to show your Packer pride when they play in Super Bowl XLV on February 6, we thought you might enjoy brushing up on some Packers history. Here you can browse more than 1,000 pages of articles, books and pictures about the Packers. Most of this material is available through the generosity of the Green Bay Packers organization, which holds the copyright and allowed us to share these treasures with all Packers fans for nonprofit use."

Works by Kostas Seremetis

Works by Kostas Seremetis.

Happy Am I

Little Marcy... Happy Am I (.mp3 audio 01:39). From the album Happy Am I - Songs by Little Marcy (1973, Word, K-721).

Catherine Wagner: Reparations

Catherine Wagner: Reparations at Stephen Wirtz Gallery. "...These photographs address ideas of reparation and repair through the metaphor-rich object of the splint. From crudely carved wooden slabs to high-tech, molded polymer forms the splint references both injury and health; harm and healing. This is a response to the perpetual presence of images of war. These photographs reference physical traces of efforts to heal physically, culturally, and spiritually.
Each of the objects photographed was constructed to repair a fissure or fracture. They were designed to map onto the human body; to support its recovery and repair or to act as an anatomical extension to a broken body. As such, these splints and prosthesis are corporeal traces, clues to various processes of reparation." More... Works by Catherine Wagner at her personal site.

Lori Nix: The City

Lori Nix: The City at Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago, Il. "...Working in her home/studio, Nix combines cardboard, foam, glue and paint to construct small dioramas which she then photographs with an 8 x 10” camera. Often taking up to seven months to complete, these large scale photographs of everyday places – a laundromat, bar, library, aquarium – fall victim to decay, referencing the effects of man. Using humor as her anchor, Nix’s work challenges our perceptions of reality, as she reminds us of our responsibilities."

Mark Seliger: Listen

Mark Seliger... Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York (February 26, 2010, Platinum palladium, printed 2010, edition 1/9). From the exhibition Mark Seliger: Listen at Steven Kasher Gallery. "...Mark Seliger: Listen is in a sense a memento mori, a tribute to his late father. It follows in the tradition of photographers and painters such as Weston, Stieglitz, and Cézanne who, at a certain age, focus on elegiac studies of the nude, the landscape, and the still life. The pictures are Seliger’s meditations through slow looking. These photographs speak to us metaphorically of the eternal themes of love and death. They pay homage to Seliger’s forebears Brandt, Kertesz, Hosoe, and Penn. The nuanced tones of the platinum palladium convey the rich textures of Seliger’s sensibilities."

Halsted Street, USA

Halsted Street, USA - a film by David Simpson (1995, Panacea Pictures). "...Nowhere in America does a stretch of pavement slice through a more vibrant and diverse cross-section of humanity than Chicago's Halsted Street. Along its length one can view a dozen nationalities, a thousand lifestyles -- the American melting pot at full boil. But who are the people who make up the stew? This riveting, kaleidoscopic "road movie" traces this unique thoroughfare nearly 400 miles, from its origin in the cornfields of southern Illinois to its terminus in the city's boisterous heart. Along the way the film presents a fascinating and profoundly American cultural mosaic with Halsted Street as the thread that links a multitude of seemingly disparate communities.
The film journeys northward from the heartland of rural Illinois to the mostly African-American and impoverished south side of Chicago; from Bridgeport, home to five generations of an Irish family named Daley, to Pilsen, hub of Chicago's Hispanic community; from the colorful chaos of the Maxwell Street Market to the high-rise ghettos of the Cabrini Green public housing project; and from the yuppie boutiques and blues clubs of Lincoln Park to Lakeview, where Halsted is the backbone of Chicago's gay community. A varied and colorful cast of characters guides viewers along the route: kids in a rural town, a Latino street-muralist in Pilsen, a junk scavenger in Cabrini Green, revelers at the gay pride parade. Their impressions and anecdotes bring into focus vital issues that simmer up from the asphalt of main streets all across the country: tolerance and racism, immigration, class disparity, ethnic and cultural identity."

Dreaming Walls

Lens Culture... Dreaming Walls - photographs by Lucia Ganieva. "...In a small, remote village in the Udmurt Republic of Russia, photographer Lucia Ganieva discovered a wonderful anomaly in home decoration — the interiors of practically every home in the village feature room-size photographic murals of 'exotic' scenes, which symbolize the distant places that the home-dwellers will never visit, except in their dreams.
The result, from an outsider's perspective, is a riot of visual clutter. The photomurals are often juxtaposed against the equally jarring colors, patterns and textures of plush sofa blankets and other home decorations." More... Works by Lucia Ganieva at her personal site.