Project Five

Now here is an interesting idea, Project Five, are 5 New York galleries who have pooled their talents and created a limited edition (of 30) portfolio of prints, each gallery putting forward one of their artists.... So an interesting way to start a collection, all images are 11"x14" and come in a custom made case.... I always find it refreshing and exciting when galleries work together to promote good work...
Project 5 are also doing portfolio reviews that I am sure could be invaluable to an photographer trying to break into the gallery market, read all about Project 5 here...
My favorite is Guido Castagloni's Street Corner, Kanaya, Japan, 2009 (below) form the great Sasha Wolf Gallery ..

Space Lands

Paul Freeman's project Space Lands is now available in book form, and with a print. The book comes in a box, and you can choose any picture from the book as the print (which comes mounted so ready for framing) the print is 29cm X 21cm in size...
I have a copy in the gallery if you would like see it further....

A find in Sofia

Just a quick post of some photographs found in a market in Sofia, Bulgaria.... I think they make such a great pair, implying epic narratives, they are definitely a pair..... The only info is a scribbled 1936 on pencil on the back of one of them......

A Winner

So the Foto8 Summer Show and award has been judged, and the result is in: Torben Weiss’ “Mr Bohr in his room full of pictures”.. Please see below and have a read all about the process and final decision in a piece my Max Haughton here at Foto8.com.... (also below some pictures of the judging process)

Argentina on film

Simply a sneak preview stills from film work that HOST represented Seba Kurtis will be showing at the Noorderlicht festival in September in Holland. The show Seba is part of is curated by Lauren Heinz, editor of our own 8 Magazine....

Karabekian Continued

Just Before I go away for a week, i thought I would continue what the painter, Karabekian, said after this (blog two down)... Purely as, strangely, it reminds me of my favorite words ever, written by Henry Luce ( you can read it here)...
So Karabekian continues in Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions:

"I now give you my word of honor," he went on, "that the picture your city owns shows everything about life which truly matters, with nothing left out. It is a picture of the awareness of every animal. It is the immaterial core of every animal -- the 'I am' to which all messages are sent. It is all that is alive in any of us -- in a mouse, in a deer, in a cocktail waitress. It is unwavering and pure, no matter what preposterous adventure may befall us. A sacred picture of Saint Anthony alone is one vertical, unwavering band of light. If a cockroach were near him, or a cocktail waitress, the picture would show two such bands of light. Our awareness is all that is alive and maybe sacred in any of us. Everything else about us is dead machinery."

Small Ecologies

Last Saturday I went to The Rhubarb Rhubarb festival in Birmingham where I was reviewing work, this is a portrait I rather like by photographer fresh out of studying called Damian Hughes, its from a series called small Ecologies: The Personality of Space..
The above pictures are from another series of work on Tunstead Quarry, Derbyshire...

Kurt Vonnegut and a rant!

So many times I have heard people say something along the lines of " Yeah but I could have done that..." or even recently from a very well established photographer: "But really my four year old could have taken those pictures", when looking at photographs.....
I have always found this a frustrating type of comment, because it is of no use whatsoever, and yes, maybe you could have taken that picture, but the bottom line is you didn't!...
So recently I have been reading novelist Kurt Vonnegut's (above) Breakfast of Champions and came across a section where a painter ( Karabekian ) is questioned about his abstract (and minimalist) painting selling for a colossal amount of money... And in response Karabekian says:

"I have read the editorials against my painting in your wonderful newspaper. I have read every word of the hate mail you have been thoughtful enough to send (to me) in New York..... .. The painting did not exist until I made it.. Now that it does exist, nothing would make me happier than to have it reproduced again and again, and vastly improved upon, by all the five year-olds in town. I would love for your children to find pleasantly and playfully what it took me many angry years to find."

And that kind of sums it up for me.....