For the next few weeks, I’ll be traveling in India. The blog will be pretty quiet until I return at the end of the month, at which point I plan to get back to the usual posting and will begin the sale/distribution of Lay Flat. Very exciting.

See you all soon!

Swimmer, Aspen, CO, 2007
© Shane Lavalette

Daniel Cooney has launched the second installment of his Emerging Photographers Auction. I’m happy to be amongst the great list of photographers who have work for sale this time around:

Juliana Beasley, Timothy Briner, Nina Buesing, Tom Chambers, Megan Cump, Clayton Cotterell, Adrienne De Boer, Matt Eich, Sam Falls, Jon Feinstein, Mark William Fernandes, Amy Finkelstein, Lucas Foglia, Kyle Ford, Chuck Hemard, Oded Hirsch, Whitney Hubbs, Michael Itkoff, Dave Jordano, Christopher La Marca, Nyra Lang, Shane Lavalette, Pixy Liao, Walter Lockwood, Jennifer Loeber, Oz Lubling, Sara Macel, Jay Matthews, John Mann, Eri Morita, Carolyn Monastra, Nik Mirus, Sarah Palmer, Lydia Panas, Toni Pepe, Bradley Peters, Jeffrey Rich, Nadine Rovner, Noel Rodo-Vankeulen and Shen Wei

You can view all of the pieces in the auction here until January 21st, when the auction ends. Place a bid on my piece (the above image) right here.

Butterflies, 2007 [from "I Want to Live Innocent"]
© Torbjørn Rødland

Norwegian artist Torbjørn Rødland has been described as “to photography what the Pet Shop Boys are to pop music.” His contemporary, Gil Blank, once described his photographs as “blatantly retarded in a consciously agile way.” For fifteen years, Rødland has been making work that baffles, finding something in common between nudists, priests, Nordic landscapes and curious still lifes of food, such as one of George W. Bush’s favorite things: Diet Coke, tortilla chips, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Häagen-Dazs “Pralines & Cream” ice cream and A Field of Dreams. That’s only the beginning. It was an absolute pleasure to have the chance to speak with him about his books, his work and the meaning of images. The following conversation (text only) can also be viewed as a printer-friendly PDF.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m happy to take part in “The Troposphere,” a group show in Manhattan that was curated by Sophie Lvoff to include photographs by the following artists:

Alicia Baird, Christine Collins, Gerald Edwards III, Bertrand Fleuret, Jason Fulford, Bryan Graf, Brenton Hamilton, Sharon Harper, Shane Huffman, Shane Lavalette, Sophie T. Lvoff, Curtis Mann, Patrick Nilsson, Thomas Seely, Lanya Snyder, and Barry Stone.

The show is up at The Hampshire House (150 Central Park South, No. 804) from December 11th until January 4th, viewed by appointment only. The opening reception will be held December 11 from 7-9pm. Be there!

More info here.

Jake Stangel sent me an e-mail recently informing me of the launch of Too Much Chocolate, a new website for young, emerging photographers to come together. The site features a rotating gallery, a discussion forum and interviews. Very cool, I thought.

But it seems that a lot of these kinds of websites have been popping up over the last year or so, with the creation of Humble Arts, the Fjord collective, Flak Photo, Noel Rodo-Vankeulen’s We Can’t Paint network (including the recent launch of Wassenaar), Joerg Colberg’s Conscientious Google Group and a plethora of others.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that photographers are craving something beyond what blogs offer, something more dynamic where conversations and images aren’t so easily lost in the archives. Perhaps these “photography hubs” are the answer, the next step in centralizing the overwhelming amount of information that proliferates the Internet.

The more great places to visit online the better, obviously. But, I wonder, how is everyone in this online photography community expected to “come together” if there are so many places to choose from?

Just a thought. I’d love to hear what readers think.

Triple Canopy describes itself as working collectively “with writers, artists, researchers and other collaborators on projects that deal critically with culture and politics, and the ways people engage them, both online and in the world at large.”

It was only recently that I discovered the online magazine, but was pleased with the current issue entitled Original Ideas in Magic, which features poetry and photographs by Tim Davis along with some wonderful photocollages by Hannah Whitaker.

See it here.

I was recently introduced to the work of Jean-Christian Bourcart. His project entitled The Most Beautiful Day is one of my favorites. As he introduces it,

Being a wedding photographer was my first job. Since then, I have been fascinated by those moments of built-up joy in a crude or absurd reality. Like an archaeologist, I began a collection, patiently excavating through thousands of unsold photos, the strata of private memories, looking for my own chosen freaky family.

The photographs were shot in Paris, beginning in 1980.

Untitled, 1980-2008
© Jean-Christian Bourcart

Untitled, 1980-2008
© Jean-Christian Bourcart

Untitled, 1980-2008
© Jean-Christian Bourcart

Untitled, 1980-2008
© Jean-Christian Bourcart

Untitled, 1980-2008
© Jean-Christian Bourcart

Untitled, 1980-2008
© Jean-Christian Bourcart

How often do you come across wedding photography this good?

See more from The Most Beautiful Day here.

Mike Mandel sent me an e-mail recently reminding me to see an exhibition of Boston-based photographer Karl Baden’s Covering Photography collection, now up at the Boston Public Library in their Rare Books and Manuscripts exhibition space. The show, titled “Imitation, Influence… and Coincidence,” highlights books from Karl’s collection that either appropriate or seem to be influenced by famous photographs.

“Imitation, Influence… and Coincidence” at the Boston Public Library, 2008
© Karl Baden

BOOK: The Shackle (1976) by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette
PHOTOGRAPH: Lovers, Budapest, 1915 by André Kertész
© Karl Baden

BOOK: The Road to Wigan Pier (1956) by George Orwell
PHOTOGRAPH: Three Generations of Welsh Miners, 1950 by Eugene Smith
© Karl Baden

BOOK: La Bâtarde (1976) by Violette Leduc
PHOTOGRAPH: Lovers Quarrel, 1936 by Brassaï
© Karl Baden

BOOK: Caddie Woodlawn (1970) by Carol Ryrie Brink
PHOTOGRAPH: Lucille Burroughs, 1936 by Walker Evans
© Karl Baden

You can read more about the collection and see more sample displays from the exhibition here. But if you’re in Boston, I highly recommend seeing it person. The show will be up until December 31st.

L: cover of The Last Days of W., 2008 R: Ron, San Antonio, Texas
© Alec Soth

Alec Soth’s new body of work, an assemblage of photographs made over the last eight years (the time that George W. Bush has occupied the White House), called The Last days of W. was just added to his website. I’ll leave it to Alec to explain:

During these last days of the administration, what is the point of protest, satire or any other sort of rabble-rousing? In assembling this collection of pictures I’ve made over the last eight years, I’m not really trying to accomplish much at all. But as President Bush once said, ‘One of the great things about books is, sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.’

Indeed there are! Alec turned the project into a nicely-sequenced 48-page artist book/newspaper which, I’m happy to report, is now available online through Little Brown Mushroom.

Here are two lo-fi audio recordings that I made of recent talks delivered by noted photographers Gregory Crewdson and Philip-Lorca diCorcia. These recordings are not very professional and the one of Crewdson doesn’t include the Q&A, but hopefully some of you will enjoy them nonetheless. If that’s the case, leave a comment to let me know and I’ll keep posting more as the come.

Gregory Crewdson [58:22]
October 28, 2008 at MassArt, Boston, MA

Philip-Lorca diCorcia [1:31:49]
November 17, 2008 at MassArt, Boston, MA