Rencontres d’Arles 2009 Preview

40 years of Rencontres in Arles France
40 years of Ruptures
Opening Week : July 7 th -12 th
Exhibitions until September 13th 2009

This year marks the 40th Anniversary of Les Rencontres d’Arles festival of photography and my third summer visit. Next year – I hope to arrange for several students to come as well!

For four decades, this festival has helped to define the best and brightest in photography — and it has generated quite a bit of controversy along the way, often featuring the work of iconoclasts, renegades, and troublemakers, some of whom are regarded as superstars today.

So, there is a good deal of heightened anticipation about what we will discover from this year’s guest curator, New York photo legend Nan Goldin. Let’s hope it’s edgy and controversial, really fresh and new — and surprisingly good.

Featured are 94 preview images from the official festival selection. As always, it’s an eclectic mix. Be sure to check out the high-resolution slideshow, and read more at  Lens Culture Magazine.

Fake Photojournalism Wins Student Paris Photo Prize

French magazine Paris Match was the victim of a hoax when it was revealed that this year's winners of its Photojournalism Award had faked their images

Two French art students created a fake photoreportage, to win first prize at a one of France’s highest competitions. Ofer translated some of the students’ motivation from the Figaro article: “Speaking to Le Figaro, Guillaume Chauvin [one of the students] confided that they ‘wanted to enter the contest in order to show the codes used too often in photojournalism and to prove that something real could be translated into something staged.’” (more coverage here, and – if you are able to read French – here)

“Related” by Anthony Goicolea

© Anthony Goicolea

I was very excited by this latest work by Anthony Goicolea. “Related” is the latest in an ongoing series in which Goicolea uses drawing, photography, sculpture and installation to explore his family history and identity as well as larger themes of ritual, assimilation and alienation.

Like many first generation immigrants, Goicolea experiences a sense of cultural dislocation. Customs and family tradition keep immigrants linked to a mythical homeland while the tendency to assimilate into their surroundings isolates and estranges them from their origins and creates a sense of alienation.

Tackling these issues, Goicolea has executed a series of portraits based on old photographs of family members, known and unknown, while they were still living in Cuba. By drawing and painting these portraits, Goicolea creates a reinterpreted, second-generation reproduction of their likenesses. These images are drawn to resemble daguerreotypes and are executed in negative on layered Mylar and glass. After drawing his own negatives, Goicolea then inverts them to create a positive photographic mirror of each drawing. Then Goicolea mounts these drawings and paintings in rural areas of the South where he was raised and in New York where he lives now. Pasted on trees, telephone poles, and the sides of buildings like missing persons ads or wanted posters, the drawings are then photographed again in a third generation reproduction, thus further removing the image from its original source. Read and See More.

Polaroid Reinvented?

©Kate Moore, 4x4 Polaroid, B. Mars 2004

The New York Times reported that a group of scientists in Europe gathered in a small town in the Netherlands to try to reinvent Polaroid film, which stopped production last year. They took over an abandoned old Polaroid factory and are attempting to reinvent the chemicals needed for the instant film processing. According to the Times, Florian Kaps, the Austrian entrepreneur behind the project, hopes to start manufacturing and distributing the film worldwide later this year.

Polaroid Users Plead Their Case.

Showing Your Portfolio As A One Minute Movie

more about “PORTFOLIO on Vimeo“, posted with vodpod

Erik Wåhlström shot a 1 minute video of himself thumbing through his printed portfolio (on his blog here too). I think every photographer might consider putting a short video (no more than one minute) of themselves online showing their work – like this or otherwise. I might rather hear commentary from the artist – well recorded, concise and well produced of course!

Just You in June: Summer One-On-One Workshops

You asked so here’s the deal: 30% off in June! You get one-on-one attention (not a group class) – and walk away with a custom “how to” plan. Work with me one on one  in your home or my Oakland art studio.  Customize your own class for the day – anything you want including but not limited to:

• Working Creatively with Digital Imaging Tools and Photographs
• Color correction, Converting Images to Black and White
• Basic, Intermediate, Advanced Photoshop
• Basic or Advanced Lightroom Workflow
• Portrait / Fashion Retouching
• Color Correction and Printing for Inkjet or Lightjet prints
• Studio and Outdoor Lighting
• Creating a Photo Book
• Scanning & Correcting
• Using Your Digital Camera
• Getting a Website Up and Running using a DIY formula
• Anything else photo or multi-media related you can think of!

What: Making stunning images!
Where: Your home or Erika’s West Oakland Studio.
When: June 1-30, 2009, 10-5pm (including  lunch break – choose as many days as you like)
Who: Just you for $485 OR you +1 for $685 per day (hourly rates available for 1/2 days)

Register For A One-On-One I Group workshops I  Student Feedback