Every one of us can continue to learn from Ms. Groover’s pictures. Find the video entitled “Jan Groover: Tilting at Space” and pay careful attention.
She had the intestinal fortitude to state “Formalism is everything.” Believe her.
Jan Groover, 1943-2012
Videos, videos, schmideos.
Errol Morris speculates incisively about truth, art, and propaganda: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/video/2011/dec/26/errol-morris-photography-video
Joseph Herscher perpetuates a revered tradition and keeps it fresh: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/nyregion/brooklyns-joseph-herscher-and-his-rube-goldberg-machines.html?_r=1&hp
It’s the big Seven Seven for E. Aron!
W. o’ W.: Duane Michals
“The best part of us is not what we see, it’s what we feel. We are what we feel. We are not what we look at. We’re not our eyeballs, we’re our mind. People believe their eyeballs and they’re totally wrong. That’s why I consider most photographs extremely boring, just like Muzak, inoffensive, charming, another waterfall, another sunset. This time, colors have been added to protect the innocent. It’s just boring. But that whole arena of one’s experience, grief, loneliness, how do you photograph lust? I mean, how do you deal with these things? This is what you are, not what you see. It’s all sitting up here. I could do all my work sitting in my room. I don’t have to go anywhere.”
Francesca
http://lightbox.time.com/2011/11/04/retrospective-looking-back-on-francesca-woodman%e2%80%99s-prolific-career/#1
In the era during which the huge school gallery kept its own library of art books, our department secretary objected to keeping the Francesca Woodman monograph there. Now, some people have a shallow opinion of her (too emo): http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?t=84815
We missed the telecast, but it’s available. See what you think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu9LSFFnn54
An end-of-the-year Top 15 (+21) List (as well as 20 or so “MIA”)
Surf this; find something that you can use: http://lpvmagazine.com/2011/12/top-photography-websites-of-2011/
…and surf these for what remains: http://blakeandrews.blogspot.com/2011/12/in-memoriam-photoblogs-2011_26.html
Join AA in Wauconda
“A national touring exhibition featuring works by celebrated photographer Ansel Adams (1902-1984) extends through January 8, 2012 at the Lake County Discovery Museum in Wauconda.
In Lake County and the Chicago area for the first time, the Classic Images: Photography by Ansel Adams exhibition presents a rare portfolio of 70 photographs hand-printed by the artist, and selected by him to represent the best of his life’s work.
‘The Museum Set’ collection of Adams’s favorites reveals a lifetime devoted to capturing the drama and splendor of the natural world. Through these photographs, museum visitors will be swept away to mountains and horizons in places such as Sierra Nevada and sun-baked geometries of New Mexico, and enjoy them through Adam’s keen eye for the rhythmic detail.
Adams’s prints are known for their technical mastery and subtle gradations of tone and contrast. His vision speaks of the enduring power of fine photography. He promoted his techniques through published writings and workshops, which have influenced photographers through the years.
The Lake County Discovery Museum is located on Route 176, just west of Fairfield Road and east of Wauconda in Lakewood Forest Preserve. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday–Saturday; 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $6 for adults, $3 for students ages 18 to 25, and $2.50 for youth ages 4 to 17. Admission is discounted on Tuesdays: $3 for adults, and free for youth 17 years and under.” A $1.00 discount coupon is available on the website: How much will you have to pay: $3.00? $2.00? $2.50? $1.50? Nothing?
http://www.lcfpd.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=calendar.viewDetail&object_id=35173
The Rostromedial Prefrontal Cortex — Holiday Gemini Edition
It’s one thing to have Ella’s recording of “Sleigh Ride” stuck in one’s head, especially the ending sung as triplets on a descending blues scale; but why in the world would it be alternating with Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys?
Yeesh. Happy hip holidays.
W. o’ W: Robert Adams
“Most photographs would never be taken were it not for an impulsive enjoyment, a delight that is notably free of big ideas.”
W. o’ W.: Richard Benson
“Traditional chemical photography is an extraordinarily flexible field, which, even as it disappears, has hardly been touched.”
Holiday Hedonism
Whether you’re reading this when it’s fresh, or whether you’ve come across it months after posting… when one needs to make purchases by a hard deadline, any sort of help is welcome. That is why we provide this service again during the holiday season. You be the judge as to which items are bang-for-the-buck and which are only to be acquired with one’s second lottery winnings. Let’s begin with the glowing items:
http://www.glo-net.com/glow-photo-paper.html
http://www.freestylephoto.biz/sc_search.php?q=holga+glows&sc=2200
On to books. Books are always good.
The New Testament of pinhole literature is (may we have the envelope, please):
Next item of interest: the aforementioned
101 Things to Learn in Art School by Kit White.
A book which has in limbo for 40 years is finally published:
The Complete Architecture of Adler & Sullivan by Richard Nickel, Aaron Siskind, John Vinci and Ward Miller.
Another monograph we’ve been anticipating, for a year or more, is Vivian Maier: Street Photographer
by Vivian Maier, John Maloof and Geoff Dyer (hmm… didn’t know Mr. Dyer was involved; good).
Not enough Viv? http://www.bighappyfunhouse.com/archives/11/12/16/14-55-57.html
How about The Vivian Girls? http://www.hammergallery.com/Artists/darger/Darger.htm
Perhaps you’d like to fill your freezer with things that are, um, going away soon. Kodak_Announcement-1
…or simply enjoy collecting an artist’s work in the fast track: http://blakeandrews.blogspot.com/2011/11/with-halloween-fading-in-rearview.html
Personally, all I want for Xtol Xmas is more film & paper and the time to ruin it. (And maybe a $2500 gift card.)
Happy armchair surf-shopping!
Creative Camerawork 