Here's a preview of the William Greiner show, which opens tomorrow night. Greiner was a student of William Eggleston's, and works very much in the same vein. The images are carefully constructed large-format shots of New Orleans before the flood, between 1995 and 2005. Greiner lost his home as a result of Katrina, and now resides in Baton Rouge.

Light those rent checks on fire and go see some art! I smell a theme smoke.

Edgar Martins' forest fire work reminds me of the work Laura McPhee made in Idaho, called River of No Return. I'm liking this undercurrent of danger in landscapes that I've been seeing. It feels apropos, in light of our current struggles with the global warming and such.



Laura McPhee, Understory Flareups

I met up with Edgar Martins yesterday for some cappuccino and chamomile not hours after he'd arrived in New York in preparation for his talk tonight at Aperture. I didn't know what to expect; his new book Topologies is filled with quietly beautiful minimalist landscapes, with, at times, a slightly sinister undercurrent. The book culls work from many of Martins' series, so we see imagery that ranges from nighttime beaches, creeping forest fires, airport runways, bright highway barriers, and the forbidding terrain of Iceland.

I thought Martins might be similarly quiet and not divulge much about the work, but it was quite the opposite; we went page-by-page through the images, and it was really amazing to hear him speak about his intentions. Sometimes photographers are cagey and secretive about their work, but Martins clearly loves photography, and lives it, and it shows. Martins was born in Portugal, but grew up in Macao, China, which is not far from Hong Kong. He went to London for both his undergraduate and graduate degrees; his MA is from the Royal College of Arts. I asked Martins the obvious question about who his influences were, and he sort of grimaced; I got the sense that he's informed by many working artists, but not particularly consciously, with the exception of Bill Viola.

All of his work is created painstakingly, and over many years. He's interested in "non-place" spaces, and ambiguity, which is a theme I'm hearing a lot lately. I was most struck by his nighttime beachscapes, called The Accidental Theorist and his forest fire images, from The Rehearsal of Space. The Accidental Theorist work feels at first very controlled and austere-- at least, that was my impression, but it turns out to be more paradoxical; Martins took long exposures on this same Portuguese stretch of beach over a period of two years. The exposures range from three seconds to two hours, so in essence, he was really letting go of a lot of control. He often didn't know how an image would turn out.



Untitled, from the series The Accidental Theorist, 2005




Untitled, from the series The Rehearsal of Space, 2006

The forest fires, from The Rehearsal of Space are all shots of real fires in Portugal. Martins initially tried to live with a fire brigade, but after a week, he hadn't found himself at any fires. Instead, he was able to hook himself up with a morning report every day at 7am, and he'd drive himself to a fire. This was not easy work: he was seriously burned on several occasions and suffered from smoke inhalation. The fogging you see in the image above (the yellowed sky) was because the negative was so close to the heat. Martins later used this technique purposefully to burn in his Icelandic skies.


Untitled, from the series The Rehearsal of Space, 2006


Untitled, from the series The Rehearsal of Space, 2006

The images below are from the series Approaches, which resulted from an artistic commission which afforded Martins unlimited access to all the airports in Portugal (best.commission.ever)... In any case, Martins has always traveled a lot, and considers and airport a safe space, the ultimate "non-place space".


Untitled, from the series Approaches, 2006


Untitled, from the series Approaches, 2006



Hear Edgar speak more about his work, and have a book signed tonight at Aperture at 6:30pm.

Aperture Foundation
547 W. 27th St., Fl. 4
New York, NY 10001
(212) 946-7108


Edgar Martins is represented in the U.S. by Betty Cunningham Gallery and Paul Kopeiken Gallery.

I missed the Times Travel section over the weekend; I was all caught up in the Miley and flickr and young gay marriage coverage. But Slate has a nice piece today about the clever human positioning photographer Adriana Zehbrauskas pulled off with her coverage of the nude-only Hidden Beach Resort in Mexico. As Slate's Jack Shafer says:

You might want to pull your Times out of the recycling bin for examination as the Web reproduction doesn't really do the composition justice. The guy on the left reclining under the awning conveniently places his left foot just so to conceal the wedding vegetables.

These are pretty well-played too. Tricky Assignment.

I became acquainted with Tim Flach's work back when I did a tearsheet feature about the trend of kittens in advertising, and I've been thinking about his Equus project ever since. The series is expansive to say the least; Flach traveled to India, Utah, Iceland, Moscow and the UAE, among others, to explore the origins of the horse. As a photographer who focuses primarily on animal imagery, Flach is extremely interested in the anthropomorphic qualities of his subjects, and especially in the human reaction to the imagery. Much of the work he produces is ambiguous; the nape of a horse's neck could easily be mistaken for the rise of a mountain range.

The allure of horses is undeniable; I certainly spent some childhood years sleeping with a velvet hardhat next to my pillow. But I think these images are extraordinary in their scope and craftsmanship. Abrams Books will be publishing the Equus monograph in October; I'm gunning for a signed copy.


I spoke to Tim about the work:

How long did the Equus project take?
The majority of this work was realized in the last two years. 180 of the 190 images.

How did the project initially come about?
The publisher PQ Blackwell approached me initially, but it was actually that we'd spoken years before when the publisher was owned by a different company, and we'd discussed doing a project. They'd seen my other work and my awards. We discussed a suitable subject, and as you know from the work I've done, with bats and monkeys and pigs, I've always had an interest in the anthropomorphic link between man and animal and the horse was a subject that I thought would be accessible to a broad audience. And as you probably know, it is very difficult to make a monograph that reaches a broad audience and doing a book that's themed around a subject matter is much easier. And I thought that it was probably a good stage in my career to actually have an extended period working around the challenge of one subject; I have a tendency to be quite nomadic, which is to say I pick a subject for a few days and then I move on to another subject. Well, you don't penetrate much by doing that. In the case of the horse book, I would like to think that I looked at the very way that consciousness is linked to that species, and how was that determined, and how that stretches right back to paleolithic times.




How were you able to afford it?
The publisher gave me a nominal advance, which wouldn't really even cover the people helping with production. Essentially, I funded it by doing advertising in between. You have to be disciplined and strategic. I researched it and prioritized. For example, when I learned that there were Zonkeys and Zorses, I chased that idea, and found out where I could shoot them.


Tell me more about the Zonkey and the Zorse. I really love those images.
Oh yes, the crossbreeds. The reason I approached them is that they're animals that can't breed on. You know,  we cross breed a donkey and a horse to make a mule, and it can't breed on. But the donkey has a function-- basically it has low-mileage if you talk about food against how much work it does. So a mule is an efficient breed. We have it because we don't have to give it a lot of food, and it's sure-footed and it's strong. Well, a Zonkey and a Zorse, which are other crossbreeds, don't have any of those attributes. They're merely done because man can do it, and we fancy the exotic. And their mentality is totally schizophrenic; I mean, they're not stable, you can't ride them. The point is, they're bred because people can breed them, not because they have any logical function. I think it really brings in to question why man is doing these things.





What was is favorite image from the project?
I don't know, I have images which I think were rewarding which I didn't expect; I mean, I quite like the blind eye, for example. I feel very pleased with the one that we call "Chestnut Window", which is this horse against a window where it kind of looks like a fake window, but it's actually a real landscape. We lit it to be quite ambiguous. It looks like it's been retouched. The embryos I think do some interesting things, and the horse that was shot going down the track at thirty miles an hour, frozen, where you can see the veins and everything. Or the one where I put on a scuba kit and shot the horse under water. It looks evocative of a Rothko painting. There are certain images where it's less about the interesting photography; sometimes there's something almost teddy bear-like about the horses.














Why did you choose to shoot embryos?
The embryos, the reason the embryos are there-- it's not all about having images for the aesthetic, I mean, they are aesthetic, but for some people they're not easy to look at. But the thing about them-- one of them is circular, it looks like a round planet. Well, that's a live embryo; it was moved from one horse from another so they could save the valuable horse (whose genes it carries) so it could carry on playing polo or showing. They want to breed with the best horse, but don't want to get held up with a pregnancy. I shot this in embryonic fluid. This reason I photographed it isn't just because it looks like a planet and a beginning, and at thirty days look like  baby (and all mammals at this stage tend to look similar), but I'm interested in how it is one thing but also looks like something else. I'm very interested in this idea of ambiguity. The neck of a horse can look like a mountain, but it still looks like a horse.













Why do you think horses are so evocative for people?
We initially hunted the horse, and it was our main food source in Europe; early man painted and drew the horse first. Their consciousness was surrounded by the horse before we even domesticated it. If you think of that, it's so rooted in our consciousness, which is one reason why this was a subject to be taken. But also, if you think of most of the photographers who do horse pictures do treat it with a lot of sentiment. And I think the danger of that of course is that it only offers light and not dark, like a bag of sweets. When the foal is sort of running through its buttercup field and there's some dialogue in the book talking about how it's a "lovely day and it's running to its mummy" or something, I think it at some point sort of clocks people out.



 


I love the closeup image of the horse's eye.  It's very dark, except for the lashes....
I found that one rather curious, because that was done for one of the members of the Abu Dhabi royal family. It was one of their horses. And His Highness keeps showing this picture, which is on his wall, to his guests who come in. And out there, they keep saying it looks like a jellyfish. And he finds it amusing to ask people what they think and they usually say "jellyfish". I think that must be a cultural thing. No one over here thinks it looks like a jellyfish.






More after the jump!

A rather momentous shift has taken place over at New York Magazine-- the Look Book, the weekly photo and interview documenting New York street fashion, has an additional photographer. Jake Chessum had been the man behind the helm since 2004, in collaboration with writer Amy Larocca. The Look Book had become so popular that it actually became a Look Book Book last September, so this is a prized photo gig, indeed. I was therefore quite excited to see Glenn Glasser's name under the quirky fashionista's image a few weeks ago, and delighted to see it again today. Here are the images, and a quicky Q & A with Glenn to find out how he dug his way into this well-suited empire.


Jared Madere, Artist
"Lately I've been working on clothing that I view as sculpture."



Sheena Humphrey, Developmental Aide
"I've been single a whole year now, and I love it. I have a beautiful 3-year-old son and that's my man."


RH: Dude, i see you're in it to win it again this week! So tell me for the record: How did you land this gig? 

GG: Really, I have no idea how I landed the gig, but it makes me feel as if I'm walking on sunshine. I met Jody Quon a few years ago while assisting Platon and sent her promos and updated portfolios. Taking pictures of strangers on the street against a seamless has always been a long term project of mine, and the transition into an assignment was natural. I pounded a lot of pavement and wrote a bushel of thank you notes. And having Platon and his Nutopia Forum as my advocates was a sincere honor and help too.

RH:  Did you have a tryout? How does the shoot process work? Film or digital?

GG: I always will feel as if i'm trying out-- with every client and every shoot, like it's my last-- it drives me and keeps me from feeling "safe". we basically pick a street corner or location, set up shop with a seamless and approach passersby. And after doing 30-50 portraits in a day, they all tend to blur in my mind until the film is developed and returned and the nervousness has subsided from my stomach and the excitement and editing and interview process begins. I'm so happy that all of my clients prefer film these days and that New York Magazine gives me the freedom and support that they do.



Thanks, Glenn.

I'm not sure if backstage retouching is your thing, but there's some amusement to be had on Christophe Huet's site, despite some irritating flash features. Paris-based Huet has worked on some large campaigns, including this one for Nissan, as well as Motorola, Citroen, Playstation, Nike and Snickers. He also had a hand in the the French Aids Awareness ads which caused such a stir. Worth a look.

Since I've been thinking about adolescent female imagery all day, I was considering putting together a gallery of some the photographers who are working in this guise right now, but my list was way too long and I felt overwhelmed. I settled on showing some of British photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten's work, which feels like a cross-breed between Sally Mann and Jeff Wall. Well, maybe more Wall; it's quite constructed, but still has traces of feeling, especially in the portraits with one girl in the frame. A little Lauren Greenfield, and Alessandra Sanguinetti (The Adventures of Guile and Belinda and the Engimatic Meaning of their Dreams is possibly my favorite photo project, ever) seem to be seeping in, too. Hello, name-dropper! In any case, Fullerton-Batten recently did a book of teenage work, entitled Teenage Stories. All of the work below is from her personal work; she's clearly continually interested in the adolescent trope.

Thanks for the inspiration, Miley.

All this Miley uproar has me thinking about young flesh in other contexts. I started a list last week in my head of the art I would buy if I were flush, and Sally Mann was at the top of it. I fell in love with her Immediate Family work years ago, and it still does it for me. Anyone have an extra copy of that book lying around? Below is the diptych entitled Jessie at 12.

Does the female form make you uncomfortable, Mr. Lebowski?

 


Slideluck Potshow is on a tear. From a recent press release:

"If we proceed as planned there will be Slideluck Potshows in a total of 55 cities, 23 of which are in North America. We will be launching in 39 new cities, 15 of which are in North America. We are expecting to then produce about 100 shows in 2008."

Holy crap, they're bigger than Celine!

If you don't know what Slideluck Potshow is, here's the lowdown. Photographer Casey Kelbaugh (pictured above, doing his thing with co-director and producer Alys Kenny) gathered his friends in his Seattle backyard in 2000, for an informal showing of artwork and sharing of food, and the idea took off. SLPS became a non-profit organization, and events were planned all over the country. It's grown exponentially from there-- the most recent event in NYC attracted more than 1500 participants. This is the basic format:

"The evening begins with dining on the home-cooked dishes of participants, while drinking and mingling in a relaxed and spirited atmosphere. Following the potluck, the lights are dimmed, the crowd is hushed, and a spectacular slideshow becomes the sole focus. The slideshows, many of which are cutting-edge multimedia presentations, are accompanied by music, commentary, and other surprises. Presenters range from the very accomplished to those who have never shown work publicly before. Regardless of status within the community, each slideshow is limited to five minutes and the crowd receives each presentation with equal amounts of enthusiasm."

SLPS has become a forum for exposing artists, curators, reps and editors to new work. It's also included some well-known folks. A recent documentary about the organization featured work by Jill Greenberg, Edward Burtynsky, Ursula Gullow, Will Anderson, Cara Phillips, Saviero Truglia, Dawn Roscoe, J.G. Zimmerman, Martin Waugh, Sarah Small, and Michael  Muller.

So the exciting news is that SLPS has launched an online network. A network of sorts had already formed around participants, but this is a more formal, centralized way to harness the hungry, artistic masses. A liitle bit Facebook, a little bit Slideluck, this site allows users to interact online, upload images, and BLOG. Here's what it looks like, check it out.

I'm hearing a lot about the United Arab Emirates in the news lately. And it's not just about the Disney/Vegasfication of Dubai; now Abu Dhabi is getting into the mix, with a new English language newspaper with a largely western staff.

The National launched last Thursday. The role of the paper as stated by Editor-in-Chief Martin Newland is to "reflect society, help that society evolve and, perhaps most importantly, promote the bedrock traditions and virtues that must be preserved even in times of change, and that is why we have called our paper The National."

The paper will cover news, business, sports, culture and features, and will have a staff of about 200. The paper is meant to give Abu Dhabi a national voice. It will be interesting to see what that voice turns out to be; it is owned by an investment fund controlled by the Abu Dhabi government. Many of the paper's staff were hired away from top tier papers in London, New York and Toronto, including photo editor Brian Kerrigan from Canada's The Globe and Mail, review editor Jon Shainin from the New Yorker, Bill Spindle from the Wall Street Journal, and deputy editor Hassan Fattah from the New York Times.

I checked out the website, and was interested to see a photo essay by ICP alum Lauren Lancaster about important role falconry plays in Emirati culture. Lancaster is a full-time staff photographer for the paper.


Some pictures from the essay: