Amy Elkins

my good friend Amy Elkins is in the running for best book in the new Blurb book competition. as well as the juried competition, Blurb has just announced a People's Choice Award. you only get one vote - spend it wisely, spend it here.

i've spoken about Amy here before. honestly, she's the kind of photographer that i could devote a weekly column to. she offers extraordinary depth in her portraits, and is such a refreshingly honest person.


© Amy Elkins

Jonathan Harris

it dropped to -40°F today. a perfect day to stare into the glowing abyss that is my monitor. this morning i found a great distraction (through Fairbanks, turned DC, journalist R.A. Dillon)...

so, if it's cold where you are..belly up to the monitor and get lost in Jonathon Harris' photos of a Barrow whale hunt. his slick site shows no less than 3,214 photos- taken at no longer than 5 minute intervals. this is an interesting project, but it's taken some time for me to put it in perspective. warning- you may not be able to leave.

read about the project here.
see the photos here.
see Johnathon talk at the TED conference here.
also, accompanying Harris was Russia photographer Andrew Moore.

ok..i'm slowly stepping away from my machine now.


© Jonathan Harris

listening to Sun Kill Moon.

in the dark with Misrach

those of you who suffered through my posts from this time last year, know that i get a little surly when the darkness sets in. the lack of sunlight comes close to doing my head in.

today i stood outside my job at about 2:30, as the sun was going down, straining to steal the last faint rays of yellow life on my face. the sun doesn't emit any warmth. it's all in my head. when i went back inside KUAC was repeating a weather warning:

"severe weather warning on the Dalton Highway. mile 90 to 130, 50 mile/hr winds and zero visibility."

ugh. i know that the time spent in the car up there would be miserable and dangerous, but the light once it did break the next day had the potential to be something special. another time.

i walked home at 4:00 in total darkness. made a cup of tea. walked the dog. checked some blogs. Kevin Sisemore posted an interview by Richard Misrach at the Art Institute that interested me. as i sat here, sinking in a self imposed Monday stooper Misrach spoke:

"for this period, for 2 years i didn't make a single photograph during the day time."


© Richard Misrach from Night Photographs

god damn right! screw it. dark of not, i'm going out to make photographs.

or, you know, it's really cold out too.. maybe i'll just sit here and get lost in his On the Beach series...


© Richard Misrach

listening to Moloko (vid)

Jennifer Boomer

happy to see, today, that Jennifer Boomer is an '07 winner of Jen Bekman's Hot Shot! competition.

Jennifer's body of work was produced down in the Aleutians, in the very burly Dutch Harbor. i've been a great appreciator of her work since we spoke over email several months ago. we tried to meet up a while back when she was in Fairbanks visiting friends, but Dea and i were in Anchorage at the time. unfortunate, as meeting other photographers from far off corners of the state is not easy, let alone the Aleutians.

seeing great work coming out of Alaska always gets me all worked up. and, it's so good to see solid color photographs of Alaska, that aren't stock photos of Denali from Wonder Lake.

cheers to you Jennifer.


© Jennifer Boomer

silence

i've been up to the the museum twice this week to see On The Edge, because i can't shake this photo by Erica Lord.


"Silence" 40x32 © Erica Lord

the show runs through next week.

Sally, Robert and a rainy day

fall is here in the interior. the leaves are changing. there is a clean, almost sterile, smell to the air. it's been wet and dreary all day.

it's the kind of day for reading, reflecting, thinking - having a false sense of productivity. i went to the library last week and brought home with me copies of Second Sight and To Make It Home. something about a chilly, rainy, day that makes the two resonate even more.

there is a photo on page 31 of Second Sight that i haven't been able to get out of my mind. i tried to find it online, but came up short. it's of a woman standing outside by a clothes line - clothes blowing, hair blowing, and her gesture is one of flight. wish i could find it for you- words are trivial.

in looking for the photo, i came across the PBS' art:21 website. sadly, we don't get the program here as part of Alaska One's programming, but i'm making a call tomorrow to try to change that. it's an entire show devoted to artists of the 21st Century, and the website is a treasure trove of interviews and video clips.

Sally Mann was the subject of a segment during season one on place. i never tire of watching other photographers work. the video clips are but previews, but the entire season is available on DVD. it's worth watching the abbreviated versions:

"if it doesn't have ambiguity, don't bother taking it. i love that aspect of photography"
- Sally Mann from the Dog Bones clip

season 4 starts next month, and among the artists is Robert Adams on November 11th.


burning oil sludge. Weld County, Colorado, 1973
© Robert Adams


listening to Belle and Sebastian

quiet around here

sorry for the lack of posting recently. i've been struggling with things a bit lately. editing, and beginning to print, some images from 'Denali' have my perception a little skewed. sometimes when i'm struggling, i put up a fight and in effect struggle harder - making it all worse. stop, step back, relax...then it all works it's way out. i never see this soon enough however.

i've been thinking a lot about Alaska photography lately: mine and others. i'm accused on occasion of not really photographing Alaska. not making those images of association that can only be made here. there are some points there to be made i suppose. i tend to ignore such comments, until i find myself feeling stale. i think that's where i'm at right now. in September i'll make another trip North to work out more direction on An Impossible Road. not a moment too soon.

thinking about Alaska, looking at maps, spending some time with the google, and all along the ever relevant humble arts foundation was highlighting the work of Corey Arnold. his photos of crab fishing on the Bering Sea honestly, floored me. cut me off at my knees! makes me sick with admiration. i want to call in dead to my day job, point my boots north, stick out my thumb, and just be gone. he's captured it.






all images copyright Corey Arnold

humble also has a great interview with Corey.

listening to The Whipsaws

in bed with photographers

I'm an acute admirer of Amy Elkins' portraiture, so I was pleased to find she posted the following photo on her blog a few days ago of Richard Renaldi:

© Amy Elkins

The tone of this photo, to me, is devastating. His expression, the slow heat from his brow, the perfect marriage of color between the sheets and window. It's quietly brutal. tense and light all at once. All of it, perfect.

This has gotten me thinking about photographers making photos of other photographers. It's been done to good effect by some, and it's always intrigued me. It's the idea of the sitter being acutely aware of what is happening on the other side of the camera. Sometimes you can see the understanding, almost an empathy.

The photo of Renaldi however, had me also thinking of beds. of course beds, as objects and symbols, have a long history in photography- from Walker Evans to Ryan McGinley (there's a stretch), and Renaldi himself. i'm interested though with Amy's photo in the bed as a means for a portraiture environment.

it's been used for self portraits over the years. One of my favorite photos (portrait or not) is the following Stephen Shore image:

© Stephen Shore

Robert Maplethorp was a little more abstract:

© Robert Mapplethorpe

And, Lee Friedlander preferred to leave himself out of this image. The point of view however put him firmly at the head of the bed, and almost gives the viewer the sense of a self portrait, even though Friedlander himself never enters the frame.

© Lee Friedlander

However, with Amy's photo of Richard in bed, she has turned this place of self reflection, and reflected on another. Certainly not new- the bedroom is probably on of the most common places for the average portrait- but the fact that Richard is a photographer himself adds layers to the story I think.

I love the fact that she has taken this seemingly intimate place, the bedroom, and stripped down (figuratively) another photographer there. The vulnerability, I suppose, is in the knowing- the knowledge on the receiving end of just how much power is being wielded on the other side of the glass. Amy has allowed Richard to be something else- not a photographer but, someone being photographed. Richard has relinquished all of his power, and the result is wonderful.

Timothy Briner in Boonville

I've been intrigued by NYC photographer Timothy Briner's newest project, Boonville, for several months. It's an ambitious effort, which will see him crisscrossing the country in true American photographer style. As he makes the final preparations for his six month project, I had a chance to ask him a few questions recently.

Our transcontinental interview:

"Boonville USA: The Death and Life of America's Small Town" is a six-month photographic journey to six different towns named Boonville. Created by Timothy Briner and underwritten by Cannery Works, a nonprofit arts organization based in New York, "Boonville USA" will begin in Boonville, Missouri on August 1, 2007."

Ben: When did you originally have the idea for the Boonville project, and has the scope of the project changed in the last few months?

Tim: The project has gone through many, many stages over the last few years. The project first manifested itself in 2003, after I spent a week in Boonville, New York with a good friend. We spent that week mostly photographing in and around the town. We both quickly formed a bond with the town and its residents. This was important for one reason: I never forgot Boonville. I often spoke of it and referred back to it. I was very happy with the series of work I produced there and I wanted to go back to shoot more. I began to do research and explore where I wanted the work to go. At the time, most of my work was narrative and based on the "establishing shot" often used in film. I was also using diptychs to create a wide film-like format: using one image as an establishing shot and then the other as a detailed shot -- both images were meant to represent the same moment in time. This was very limiting and my work eventually suffered from it. My frustration and struggle with this may be part of the reason that Boonville has taken four years to become a reality. This format is no longer my practice and my ideas for the project have transformed since then.

Back to the point: I began researching the town of Boonville, NY online and quickly found five other Boonvilles in states all across the country. This immediately fascinated me. No two places are the same. No two regions are the same. Yet, when people discuss small-town America they often have a very specific idea of what they think it is. Expressions like "The Boonies" or "Boondocks" reflect that judgment. By using a common and evocative name like Boonville and showcasing the six different regions and towns, I am attempting to explore the connection small towns have to each other and to the rest of America. The fact that these six Boonvilles were spread out all across the country was just the beginning. I quickly found out that Boonville, Texas is actually extinct; Boonville, Missouri has a population of 8,775, which is up from 7,090 in 1990; Boonville, California has a population of only 600 and created its own language in the late 1800s called "Boontling." All of this information further altered my original idea of the project. I became fascinated with the sociology of the towns. With "Boonville USA," I'm attempting to explore the many facets of small-town life. For example, I'm looking at how the extinction of a town affects its surrounding areas or how population gain may influence local business or the bond of a community. I'm focusing on the psychology of each community and how the town and its residents relate to me, each other and the rest of the country.

©Timothy Briner

Ben: A trip like this is so romantic from a photography perspective. Do you have any books, or photographers, in mind as you head toward the first Boonville in Missouri?

Tim: Romantic is a great word: As far back as high-school I can remember dreaming of crossing the country on my own, with just my camera in hand. Traveling with no boundaries and focusing 100% on your surroundings sounded very romantic to me.

There are many photographers/artists I have on my mind on any given day. But there is only one that has consistently been on my mind since the beginning: Duane Michals. In 1958 Michals traveled to Russia. The portraits and stories that he captured were raw and beautiful. It was his first attempt at photography. After he returned to NY, Michals began photographing restaurants and barber shops through their front windows, after they had closed for the day. He once mentioned that he liked to imagine people going about their normal activities in these pictures; He was creating his own visual story inside each of these worlds and he wanted us to do the same. These two bodies of work have stuck with me over the years because they represent the beginning of his long journey. They're untouched by the essential Duane Michals elements but they still posses his passion for story telling. They're truly honest.

With that said, I am traveling with only novels, books on philosophy and photography, and poetry. I am not taking any photography books. I am trying to step outside of myself and what I am accustomed to seeing -- taking a new and "honest" approach to this body of work.

Ben: you've developed a blog for the project. Will you be posting words and photos as you travel?

Tim: Yes. I will definitely be posting words, short videos and stories from the road. I created www.boonvilleusa.com to be my "headquarters" for the entire project. I will be posting photos as well but they will most likely not be a part of the series. I am still debating whether I am going to reveal the work as I go.

The "blog" is a funny thing, as you well know; It allows a connection and a
level of attention to be garnered without much of an effort. It may very
well be my best friend on the trip.

Ben: Thanks so much for your time Tim. We'll be watching your progress.

Tim: Thank you for my first interview Ben

Papageorge & Dea

Alec is hosting Papageorge Week on his blog in recognition of Tod Papageorge's new book - Passing Through Eden. so in honor of PapaWeek i'll jump on the bandwagon with the following photo- found yesterday, here in Rochester.



other, more important, non-photography news - Dea is doing well. she's finishing up her dialysis treatment as i type this, and we'll be heading back to Chicago in the next hour or so. i catch the red-eye out of O'Hare tomorrow night- back into Fairbanks on Friday. Dea's staying with her parents for a few weeks, to be closer to Mayo should she have complications with her recovery, and to (very optimistically speaking) save another expensive flight from AK in the event that we can reschedule her transplant sooner, rather than later.

Warren Mckenzie and more Szarkowski

i had the opportunity to make it down to the Rochester Art Center today. the main show was a 50 year retrospective of potter Warren Mckenzie. the thing that blew me away about this show was the vastness of the collection. the thought that one man's hands could be responsible for each one of the vessels was overwhelming.

equally impressive as the show itself, was the book that the Art Center produced for the retrospective, which was housed in an impeccably rough pine slide box. while flipping through the book i found a nice photo of Warren and his wife, Alix, walking up the hill from their studio in Stillwater Minnesota. the photograph was credited to John Szarkowski, taken in the "early 1950s". I was unable to find a reproduction of the image online, but apparently the same photo was used in the book An American Potter, referenced before the book's production in the announcement of his 1999 McKnight Fellowship.

After graduating from the University of Wisconsin (art history) in 1948, Szarkowski was hired as the museum photographer for the Walker Art Center, and began making photographs for his book, The Face of Minnesota. Warren Mckenzie still lives, and throws clay, in Minnesota. He is 82.

Minnesota Public Radio has audio from a call in show, and photos of some of his work, here.

Szarkowski

John Szarkowski, the preeminent currtor writer on contemporary photography, died on Saturday. Coincidentally, I bought a used copy of Mirrors and Windows the same day. I've been pouring over this book since then- lost in a brilliant collection of images by the best photographers of the 60's and 70's.

"The artists represented in this book are all, finally, concerned with the pursuit of beauty: that formal integrity which pays homage to the dream of meaningful life"

"As one approaches the present, it becomes progressively more difficult, and chancier, to identify with confidence those figures who have significantly revised our understanding of photography's potential"

It's safe, and appropriate, to say that few have influenced and effected our understanding more.

both quotes by John Szarkowski, from Mirrors and Windows

stop what you're doing

okay Fairbanks folks - stop what you're doing, and make plans to see my good friend Dennis Witmer speak tonight at Schaible Auditorium as part of the UAF Discovering Alaska Lecture Series. as a physicist, engineer, and photographer he brings a unique perspective to photographing the Interior. i've seen his portfolio, and his images of Kotzebue are stunning. it's at 7:00 and it's free. don't miss it.

listening to The Hold Steady

Chicago

Brain Ulrich has posted, in the past, about his teachers. Brian isn't one to shy away from accolades for great Chicago photographers. he holds the city, it's history, and the photographers, now and past, with great affection. recently he posted about his respect for Paul D'Amato, along with hysterical anecdotes of time spent.

I've always liked D'Amato's portraits, and Barrio especially. i'm anxious to get my hands on a copy of his new book. in addition to the images for Barrio, on his site, he has excerpts from his journal during 1989-2002. his words should be required reading for any photographer struggling to get inside a project.

from "the 90's":
" i just want to be looking at things that knock me out, instead of trying to figure out how to make something that is thinly interesting into a good picture. I want to be in situations that get my blood going and make me forget everything else, situations in which I have to choose quickly between a number of ways this can look in a photograph. My imagination goes wild and it’s as if I see all the possibilities at once."

- link to an interview on Chicago Public Radio can be heard here (also linked with other media on the left column).

Also, through Todd Deutsch's blog, a must see show at MoCP - Relative Closeness.

in other, unrelated, Chicago news- Dea received bad news about her transplant. she's been struggling with an infection recently, and the team at Mayo has called off the surgery until we can get it cleared up. we're headed to Anchorage Monday to have her dialysis catheter replaced, and will shoot for a reschedule in July of August.

thanks to everyone for their concern, emails, and the like.

more photography to come. projects, other photographers, news, and random ramblings coming soon.

listening to The Rolling Stones.

1 band, 1 book & 1 movie

3 things to get you through a case of the mondays:

1. Alec Soth has another book coming out soon - Dog Days of Bogota. i was going to go into more detail, but Shane Lavalette did a great post earlier today, so i'll leave it to him.

2. Win Butler & Regine Cassagne of Arcade Fire will be on Fresh Air this afternoon - listen here.

3. UAF's Summer Sessions Free Movie Nights have started, and they're playing one of my favorite all time movies tonight- Hitchcock's Rear Window. Jimmy Stewart as a hobbled, obsessive compulsive, voyeuristic, photographer...whats not to love.


Listening to KUAC

media links

i've been spending some time recently looking for audio and video of photographers. i was surprised to find so many great interviews out there. i've added a "media" list to the links to the left. it's growing list, so if you have suggestions, let me know.

my favorites thus far, based on personal timeliness, are:

-Mitch Epstein talking about Family Business (scroll to the middle of the page). i recently picked up a copy of Work, and am infatuated with so many images

-Sylvia Plachy is coming to Photo Fest in September. much more on this later.

thanks to Jim at Lens Culture for many of the interviews.


listening to The Sam Roberts Band

pondering place

in my last post i spoke about Zoe Strauss' I95 show this past weekend. i love how she has strips away the potential pretentiousness of her art for a time and presents it to her community in an accessible venue. the subjects in her photographs, and most that come to see her show under the interstate i imagine, could care less about the Whitney or Pew Fellowships. her photos, at least for one sunday a year, are all about the community and for the community. her photos, one by one, each different within the same geographical context, crescendo into a deafening exhibit of place. philadelphia.

i've wondered though, whether the popularity of Zoe's outdoor show has helped, or hampered, her image making. do her subjects know her, of her? know what she's after? is the inherent pessimism, or skepticism, eroded or heightened when a subject can visualize where their likeness might end up? does this complicate things?

I found what,i believe, to be an answer to my own questions last night while reading the new issue of photo-eye. in an interview with William Eggleston (about 5x7) he is asked about place. how he feels about being known as a "southern" photographer- he shakes of the broad brush strokes and narrows it down to the action of taking pictures- his answer:

"The best i can come up with is, you know, when people ask me what am I doing in my work, my reply is "I'm photographing life today." That's it. I don't continue on to say "life here" or "life there." That's how I feel. Just "life today." I don't mention any particular places. Life can be as is anywhere.."


also, Justin has some I95 photos here.

listening to Trashcan Sinatras

James Barker

i had the good fortune of sitting in on a lecture, and slide show, by Jim Barker today up at the university. Charles asked me last week if i wanted to sit in on his class, as i had asked about Jim recently. of course, i jumped at the opportunity.

Jim's book Always Getting Ready is the cornerstone of all Alaska books in my opinion.

his access to the Yu'pik people is based on a trust that almost seems impossible when you look at his photographs- it's hard to believe him not Native himself. he brings a level of respect and honesty to his photography that many attempt, but seldom accomplish. Jim lived in the community of Bethel for many years, working out of a dry dark room, and documenting Native seal hunts, dances, and the daily life of those that thrive in a subsistence lifestyle. Bethel has the highest population of Native Americans than any other community in America, and it's a world that is gravely misunderstood. his work is important on so many levels.

i'm so enamored by his nurturing of the photo essay- the series. he showed four separate bodies of work, none that i was familiar with, other than Always Getting Ready. he's a tragically underrated photographer outside of Alaska i'm afraid. i urge anyone to buy his book. his images are like everything you imagine Alaska to be in your wildest dreams. it's photographs like Jim's that give us the frames in which to assemble such dreams.

Power & Poland

the spring issue of SEESAW is online. there's an interesting portrait of Poland by Mark Power. Dea visited relatives in Poland several years ago, i'll be interested to get her take on the images.

some of what Power says about Poland i could equate to my own feelings about Alaska. i often feel an outsider here, and that i see things differently. i consider this a gift in many ways- the burden of expectations on a place can be blinding at times.

"I'm suspicious of photographers who claim they can get under the skin of a foreign land in just a few weeks. Certainly, I am making no such claims. I resolutely remain and outsider, freely admitting that Polish culture is different from my own and that I don't really fit in, no matter how many books I read, films I watch, or people I talk to" ... "This is of course not to suggest that my work is any way pioneering, but it's the idea of discovery that i find most appealing"
- Mark Power

at times, i can relate.

view more of Power's Poland images at Magnum.

on books

never do i feel more, geographically, out of the loop as when i see the calender pages of PDN each month. so many great photographer's showing right now, ans alas i'm 2,500 miles away from the closest show. my fix up here remains the photo book.

i had the good fortune of having dinner with local fine art photographer, Dennis Witmer, a couple weeks ago and viewed his mammoth book collection. i wish he had more work online for viewing- if i can find some i'll post later. he works, almost exclusively, with an 8x10 documenting Northern Alaska in black and white, and his prints are huge in size, scope, and ambition. he's a wonderful photographer and capturing Alaska in an important way.

so, about books: first, Dennis has a library of over 1,000 photography books- yes, 1,000. seeing his towering collection made me sweat a little with anticipation. it's impossible to even begin to choose one, or two, three to sit with. that night i pulled Snake Eyes, and the new MoMA retro of Friedlander, and Los Alamos and got lost in the greatness on the page as we drank wine and ate home made sushi. his has, unquestionably, the best collection in Fairbanks, and comes with thoughtful commentary. thanks Dennis.

second, the library has a fine collection for it's size, but limited in recent works. apparently they received a sizable amount of money for acquisitions in the late eighties, and haven't purchased much since then. my recent infatuations have been Joe Deal's Southern California Photographs and Lynne Cohen's Occupied Territory.

finally, the local bookstores are a little conservative in their efforts- you can never have too many Ansel Adams books it seems- but some of their choices have proven to be inspiring. the one trend that has me worried however is their 6 copies of The Big Book of Breasts. yes, 6. why? they keep selling out , i'm told. it's been a long cold winter.

one more note on the book front. i was happy to see the recent winner of the Duke First Book Prize this year is none other than a childhood neighbor of mine- Danny Frazier. Danny and i grew up (junior and senior high school) no more than five, or so, houses from each other in LeClaire Iowa. it's been a strange turn of events in viewing his work for me. i first saw one of his images from the POY awards a couple years ago, but never made the connection. he uses his middle name now, and for some reason it never clicked.

as i read the Book Prize article (judged by Robert Frank by the way) i was stopped cold with "native of a small town in Iowa". what? where? LeClaire. what the..? photographer Danny Wilcox Frazier. Danny? Wilcox? i don't know a... holy shit- Danny fucking Frazier. i nearly fell off my chair. i haven't talked to him in probably 15 years, but i couldn't be more happy for him. his book is due out in the fall, and i can't wait to see it. in short- beautiful, honest, compelling work coming out of Iowa.

if you haven't seen them already, do take some time with the images here.