Alec Soth’s Little Brown Mushroom has released the first book in what the group says will be “a series of photographic storybooks for grown-ups” inspired by the Little Golden Books of old (my favorite was The Color Kittens!). The first in the series is “Bedknobs & Broomsticks” by Trent Parke. Only 1000 are available. I’ve already ordered my copy; I’m not letting this one get away like Dream/Life, 3 used available at Amazon starting at $849.99.

Photography Hijacked from jack pam on Vimeo.

Photography Hijacked looks promising. The film follows 12 photographers from Australia and the US, showing their work and working process. I believe it’s connected with the Hijacked book from a couple years back. NSFW due to quick nudity in the trailer above. From the film’s website:

“Photography Hijacked, a documentary film by Jack Pam, is a journey through the processes, techniques and outcomes of 12 unique photographers from Australia and America. The idea that individuality of process is what underwrites and makes possible all interesting artwork is explored with each new artist in the film representing a new way of looking at the contemporary medium of photography.”

The film features Graham Miller, Dean Karr, Shen Wei, Jennifer Juniper Stratford, Sarah Small, Toni Wilkinson, Gareth Willis, Brad Rimmer, Amy Stein, Karron Bridges, Angela Boatwright, and Bill Sullivan.

Reason to rejoice: Jason Eskenazi’s (previously) excellent book, Wonderland, is back in print, thanks to Red Hook Editions. 2008 POYi Best Photo Book, Wonderland explores Russia and the history of the Soviet Union as a fairytale, and is filled with many, many classic images. From the book summary:

For many, the Soviet Union existed, like their childhood, as a fairy tale where many of the realities of life were hidden from plain view. When the Berlin Wall finally fell so too did the illusion of that utopia. But time changes memory. The ex-Soviets confused the memory of their innocent youth for their nation’s utopian vision, unable to confront its history and thus creating nostalgia for tragedy. This book tries to seek and portray the socialist dream, the nightmare of the USSR beneath the veneer and the reality that emerged after the fall. And like all fairy tales try to teach us: the hard lessons of self-reliance. -Wonderland

update by Scott: Just bought myself a copy. Excited to see it when I’m back in Montana sometime in the next year.

After a couple years away from the keyboard, Alec Soth is back to blogging with his DIY publishing operation Little Brown Mushroom. Not much on the blog yet, beyond a somewhat tongue-in-cheek response to LiveBooks call for ideas on the future of the photo book. I hope there’s more to come at the Little Brown Mushroom Blog.

(via Soth’s old blog)

I’ve been waiting for the Georgian Spring site to launch ever since the Magnum Stories rss feed dumped a ton of unexplained short videos into my reader. Turns out it’s an ambitious book project combining the work of 10 Magnum photographers: D’Agata, Bendiksen, Dworzak, Franck, Majoli, Parr, Pellegrin, Pinkhassov, Power, and Soth. Couldn’t ask for a better amalgam of contemporary photography. I haven’t gotten a chance to dive in to all the photos yet, but I’m excited from what little I’ve seen.

I’m glad to see M. Scott’s new posts, not least of which it keeps you all busy with content while I get myself back in gear to post more. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been on the road over the last few weeks photographing a number of things: in Bosnia the Srebrenica Anniversary and the famous bridge divers in Mostar and more recently new work on my project Kosovo New Born. I will have a longer post in the next week or so talking about this Kosovo work, with updates from this trip and my plans to bring it together in book form and as a feature at a popular web magazine.
The next few weeks, before a dvafoto trip to Perpignan for Visa pour l’Image (more from M Scott and I on this soon!), will be devoted to editing and producing a book dummy and continuing with the Roma Relocation project here in Belgrade.

Speaking of books, I just came across 2nd Tour, Hope I Don’t Die by Peter van Agtmael, just published by Photolucida through their Critical Mass portfolio review. I’ve been ambivalent about some of van Agtmael’s work in the past but this package really seems to codify an interesting perspective and photographs about our modern American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I would be very interested to see this in person, do let me know if you get a copy. I’m curious how this sort of personal narrative about a larger “news” story works in book form, not least of which because I’m approaching this with my work, but also for its ability to open a possibly new medium for distributing long term documentary that is closer to what typically runs in the mainstream press than book publishing.

“I’ve never seen myself as a war photographer. This is about narrative. I’m very open to any visual conceits and any possibilities at my disposal to better explain to people the ideas I’m exploring. I like art photography, I like still life, I like war photography. I like to include everything to weave a tapestry to explain to someone, ‘What happened?’” -Tim Hetherington

There’s a short and interesting interview with Tim Hetherington over at Scarlett Lion’s Liberia blog. Hetherington, who won the 2007 World Press Photo award, discusses his work on Liberia beginning with the 2003 battle for Monrovia; the pictures, which were part of Moving Walls 11, have just been published in “Long Story, Bit by Bit” by Umbrage. And, my rss reader just tells me, Art Buyer Heather Morton will be interviewing Hetherington tomorrow at the New York Photo Festival, so now’s a good opportunity to get questions in to him through her blog.

The book is also available on Amazon, though only 5 are left as of this writing.

And, if you’re in New York City on May 22, as we mentioned a couple days ago, you can hear Tim Hetherington in conversation with Gary Knight and Stephen Mayes on the subject of war and conflict photography. Friday, May 22, at 6:30pm at the VII Gallery in DUMBO, Brooklyn (28 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201).

Here is part two of the list of things I’ve been reading the last few days week or more that I found interesting enough to share. This edition with more analysis!

First, this should be required reading daily: Foreign Policy’s Morning Brief post every morning on the Passport Blog. Yes, we get most of this from international newspaper front pages but here it is all together, and always has interesting and important updates to world stories that you just don’t see often anywhere else. More news breaks for me here than anywhere else..

There was a minor controversy this last week in Washington, for two reasons I guess. Washingtonian Magazine ran a cover that reused a wire (paparazzi?) image of Obama walking shirtless in Hawaii. So, I guess controversy for putting a shirtless President on the cover of a features magazine (with a tagline of “Reason #2: Our New Neighbor is Hot”, referring to the cover story of ‘26 reasons to love living living here’), but they also photoshopped his swimsuit to red (from black). The Huffington Post wrote about this in a post called Media Literacy 101: The Ethics of Photoshopping a Shirtless Obama and then PDN picked it up with Washingtonian’s Shirtless Obama Cover: You Call This a Scandal? which gives a complete rundown and argument. I agree that this isn’t something on the level of the Time OJ Simpson cover, and mostly just want to say that this all is very weird. Having a “hot President” is a new concept for me, and maybe this is an adjustment we’ll need to get used to. I am reminded of the deservedly-lauded New York Magazine cover of McCain and Obama on the beach, which is great. Finally last word: BagnewsNotes has the analysis on this cover-controversy along with December 08 analysis of the original photo when it came out.

And a little interlude/soundtrack for this post. My favorite Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy with a new song from his new album Beware… “I Am Goodbye”.

There is not that much more I can say more than I am impressed over and over again by the Burnetts’ amazing blog We’re Just Sayin’ which blends family, photography and general useful knowledge about living. Cheers to them.

Over at Burn Magazine there is an interesting and difficult essay playing by Jukka Onnela titled “A Kind of Error”. As Bob Black, who apparently curated this essay, says in the comments, “there are knods to Clarke and Richards and Moriyama and Peterson for sure, d’agata looms large too..” (sic)

One thing appears to be going right for photojournalism: Livebooks (which powers my site) announces a hosting plan for photojournalists (PDN story with the scoop) that is significantly cheaper than their normal sites. Direct link to Livebooks Photojournalism, which costs $44/mo all inclusive. A good plan for them I think, since their normal plans really aren’t priced for most budget minded photojournalists (in fact I know of at least one who dropped the service because of cost). Luckily I’m on the EDU plan..

In keeping with the breaking news, here is Andrew Sullivan’s ‘picture of the day’ for 4/26:

Along the same lines, the Serbian Government issued a press release on their English language website that announces that:

The statement adds that in order to establish existing capabilities and assess the necessary resources for a timely diagnosis of this disease in pigs, the Veterinary Directorate carried out a control of veterinary laboratories on April 25.
…
The Veterinary Directorate formed special teams for rooting out infectious diseases in animals, trained and equipped to dispose of diseased animals if the need arises.
…
Apart from a ban on the import of pigs and stricter veterinary inspection on borders, the Veterinary Directorate will examine the heath condition of pigs and poultry farmed in Serbia.

I appreciate the action Serbia, especially since I’m living here and will benefit from your preventative measures but I’m afraid you don’t quite understand that the issue is that the disease is infecting humans at present and is killing some of them.

Here is an interview on the Design Notes by Michael Surtees blog with the designer/creator of iPhone photography applications. I’ve only read part but it could be of interest. It also deals with the ‘nature’ of toy photography, and why Takayuki Fukatsu wanted to add this ‘ability’ to an expensive gadget like the iphone.

Daryl Lang at PDN takes a stand with his post Coverage of Dignified Transfers at Dover Dwindles when he says “doesn’t this seem cold? The lack of coverage at Dover ought to cause some soul-searching among assignment editors and, especially, TV producers.” While I’m very sympathetic to the power and importance of photographing events like this I do not see this as an issue. These transfers are being documented by the AP, with at least (for now) a photographer and a writer present. And frankly this ‘photo op’ (harsh) is not anywhere close to the real story and issue. That would be the combat death and the impact on families (ignoring for a moment the larger issue of the wars and their much larger ‘footprints’ overseas). Frankly I think it is odd to suggest that a full press retinue is as necessary for proper respect of a person, their death or the story of their death as an honor guard.

From Andy Levin’s blog 100eyes I was alerted to Kenneth Jarecke’s blog where he rants about modern photojournalism in a post titled “Lets Be Honest – Part 3″. It is roughly, as I can decipher, about taking ’style’ too far in photojournalism and what causes photographers to do it. Part 2 makes more sense but I still am inclined to disagree. His main point is that all of this “sizzle” added to images, good or bad images, weakens (cheapens?) them. I just want images to evoke something, say something, in however way the photographer wants to. All of us can and will react to the voice and ‘language’ that they’re using. I think Jarecke is confusing his dislike with a certain picture using a ‘technique’ with a whole swath of other things, ultimately generalizing about the photographer himself and a coming generation. Images can be good or bad, and yes they can be either because of the ’style’ put in to them. Just disagree with a particular picture or series, and let people experiment. It either works or it doesn’t, and as he says, the essence of photography is “I saw this. I found it interesting. What do you think?” . I do agree that people can be pushed in bad directions (over cooking images in photoshop or even setting up images) by the economics of the photo market (i.e. that is the crap that tends to get published, and sometimes rewarded). I feel it myself, we all do. We see the winners of World Press or what work is getting published and the thought ‘I gotta make work that looks like that’ crosses our minds. But it is each photographers’ choice to make and their decision to present their photographs in the way that they do. So I’ll reserve those judgments for each individual photographer and their work. Or maybe blame the editors.

Stephen Voss just posted some insane and striking images from abandoned schools in Detroit. Have a look.

Scott Strazzante has a touching post about optimism, his friends, mentors and layoffs in American newspapers on his blog Shooting From The Hip.

Speaking of newspapers (and layoffs) The Recovering Journalist has an interesting post about Inventing The Future in Iowa following the innovative exploits of The Gazette newspaper in Eastern Iowa. Interesting write up but frankly, after a few minutes poking around the website, I don’t see what is new or what the fuss is about.

Via The Click I saw this update about the ‘The Polaroid Kidd’ Mike Brodie on the Feature Shoot site. There are many more pictures and images from the 2007 exhibition on this page. I remember when these pictures first hit the ground a year or two ago, I think I saw them first in some sort of photo chain email. I loved them then and still do, very very much. So personal and really genius. Have a look, and remember he did it all with no training no fancy gear and at the age of 18. Kind of devastated me when I first heard that

Ok, one more slightly-wonkish Foreign Policy blog link: How NOT to dismantle the U.N. by Mark Leon Goldberg about issues within UN peacekeeping missions and accountability, and how this intrudes on the effectiveness of missions and local support. Very applicable, in my interest, to Kosovo and Bosnia of course.

Conscientious has one of his more interesting posts for me in a long while while highlighting Anna Shteynshleyger, specifically her intriguing work from Siberia and the sites of Gulags. It is made even better by this really interesting analysis/critique by Pete Brook at Prison Photography (which I hadn’t known till now, but is now rss’d). And here is the crux for me that Colberg teases out, which I’d love to explore later: “It indicates that there are no photographic conventions established, yet, for how to deal with the Gulag – which might reflect that the discussion (or actually amount of discussion) is still very much in flux. In fact, now that Russia has descended into a sort of authoritarian quasi-democracy, the Gulag there seems to be evolving into a non-topic…” . I don’t entirely agree, and neither would many in Russia I’d venture, but I too haven’t seen any photography that comes anywhere close to written accounts. My favorite of which is Ryszard Kapuscinski’s Imperium which I recommend with pleasure and passion.

A friend of mine sent me this very intriguing visual-blog (?) on the New York Times called And the Pursuit of Happiness by Maira Kalman. I’ve only had the pleasure of reading her latest post May It Please The Court so far, but I look forward to reading back. Kalman also has a cool looking book.

I’ve seen everyone posting about the New York Times article about Danny Lyon and his two new books, but I two quotes struck me and bear repeating:
“You put a camera in my hand, I want to get close to people,” he said. “Not just physically close, emotionally close, all of it. It’s part of the process.” And, “It’s a very weird thing being a photographer.” Ooh, I agree.

Oh, and as evidence of my insanity and need to spike a few dozen of my rss feeds … this is what my computer looked like while I was preparing these posts…

Lastly, and I say this reluctantly, I am now on twitter. So join me if you want smaller versions of this kind of post and my musical ramblings.

I can’t believe I’d never heard of John Berger’s 1972 four-part BBC series and book “Ways of Seeing” before. Each episode–”Ways of Seeing,” “The Female Nude,” “Oil Painting,” and “Advertising“–is available on youtube, though I only managed to watch halfway through the second episode before China blocked youtube. The series, which I’m told replays on the BBC every couple of years, starts from a position very relevant to the world today: we’re awash in images, and each of those images, intentionally or not, pushes an agenda which may not readily present itself to the viewer. Berger advocates a critical engagement with all images, from contemporary advertising to the oil paintings of the European masters and beyond, and his series gives viewers the language and tools to do so.

Berger’s inquiry moves slowly and critically, dissecting images, their contexts, and what viewers themselves bring to the dialog between picture and viewer. The book, “Ways of Seeing,” has played a role in contemporary feminist thinking through its exploration of depictions of women in advertising and classical painting. The second episode of the series, “The Female Nude,” takes on the subject most directly, calling into question the whole of classical images of women. Berger’s conclusion, as well as that of those he interviews in the series, is that the paintings of nude women hanging in the great museums of Europe are nothing more than pornography. The women in the paintings are objects to be violated or consumed, and nothing more. I’ve rarely heard someone speak so forcefully against this branch of the western canon, and it’s refreshing.

The series is not without its faults. In the first episode, Berger appeals to oil painting as the highest of visual forms. Perhaps, but likely not. My timeline of photographic art history is a bit fuzzy, but this series likely appeared around the same time that photography as art was making its way into the great galleries and museums of the world. Photography now stands alongside other visual art forms as almost an equal. Berger’s reliance on his own opinions and arguments, too, presents problems. Halfway through “The Female Nude,” John Berger realizes he hasn’t had a single female critic discuss the subject; he quickly fixes the problem with an all-female discussion panel, but the anxiety he feels here runs throughout the parts of the series I’ve seen.

And yet, there’s a lot of value to the series. Speaking or writing about visual subjects is notoriously difficult. While we’re forced to watch Berger stare at paintings more than is necessary, “Ways of Seeing” adeptly weaves the visual with discussions about the visual in straightforward and jargonless language. Berger’s presents his views clearly, making careful observations about the visual without delving into art school discussion-style solipsism, tautology, ambiguity, or equivocation.

Posted by user WPW on metafilter in a discussion about the Philadelphia papers’ bankruptcy filings.

Gah, this whole business is so depressing. Why can’t the internet kill advertising and public relations, not books and newspapers?”

Of course, it’s an oversimplification of the problem. Media companies’ and shareholders’ lust for profit above all else, the real estate collapse, and the generally horrible economy, can also be blamed, but the point is well taken. This is why we can’t have nice things.