Charlotte Cotton (ed.) ‘Photography is Magic’

The recent glut of photobook purchases continues…

Charlotte Cotton’s Photography is Magic is something of a departure for me… I have a variety of photobooks: personal projects; documentary stuff; straight photography; art photography; experimental stuff; etc. But Photography is Magic is different… It’s nominally photography, but most of the photographs look like documentary evidence of performance art, like photographs of sculpture, or like purely digital constructions, and I’m not really sure what to make of this book or the work in it, and will have to think some about how it fits into my personal practice…

Continue reading “Charlotte Cotton (ed.) ‘Photography is Magic’”

Alekey Titarenko – ‘The City Is A Novel’

Thanks again to Ted Forbes for pointing me to another decent photography book: Alexey Titarenko’s The City is a Novel. Ted knows a good bit more about Titarenko and his style than I do, so if you want a favorable and fairly thorough look at the book, go and have a look.

And apologies… I know I claimed to be giving up the photobooks for a bit in favor of some actual photographs, but a couple more came in that I forgot about, and so let me get through them quickly, and then I’ll get back to shooting, InshaAllah.

I saw some of Titarenko’s pictures back in Art School and thought the long/multiple exposure river of people thing was pretty interesting, and after actively photographing for a number of years now I’m more impressed with some of his framing choices and the light he saw and captured.

Continue reading “Alekey Titarenko – ‘The City Is A Novel’”

The C.L.A.M. And The Rose

I’ve felt a bit uninspired by my actual photography practice of late. I was ill for a week or so, but it went back farther than that, really, back to early January even. I think it had something to do with diet, maybe, or rest, or exercise, but none of that has changed much. Allahu Alim.

In any case, I wasn’t particularly feeling anything I shot, so I was really happy to have a stack of books to unbox and scribble about. But the time has come to just throw all this stuff out there, whether it’s any good or not… So today, I bring you:

The C.L.A.M. and the Rose. Continue reading “The C.L.A.M. And The Rose”

unboxing “A Conspiracy Of Cartographers, vol. 1”

At the suggestion of—I think—the good people at the Film Photography Podcast, I started following @conspiracy.of.cartographers on Instagram. I don’t look at Instagram much, but one day a few weeks ago I called it up during some interminable time on hold or something, and I noted that @loadfilminsubduedlight had put out a zine. Being a bit of a lover of zines, and a sucker for photobooks, especially ones by hobbyists like me, I ordered one up.

Continue reading “unboxing “A Conspiracy Of Cartographers, vol. 1””

Laura Wilson – ‘That Day’

By the time you read this, the exhibition at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art will have closed. Apologies.

Big thanks to Ted Forbes over at The Art of Photography for pointing me to to it, and to Allah for granting me the ability to go and visit it. You can check out Ted’s podcast on this for his take. It was really nice to visit a museum again: it’s been awhile.

Continue reading “Laura Wilson – ‘That Day’”

Dave Heath at Amon Carter

I visited the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth over the weekend to catch the Laura Wilson exhibition before it closed, and while there, I stumbled into the little alcove upstairs where they keep a rotating stock of original prints—last time I was there, they had a multiple versions of Stieglitz’s “the Horse Car Terminal” in various stages of cropping, dodging & burning—and I immediately recognized a couple of prints from Dave Heath, whose retrospective book I picked up and flipped through briefly a couple of months ago, and that I’ve been trying to read through over the past week or so.*

I don’t know how long they’ll be up, but the actual, in person, prints are spectacular. If you find yourself in Funky Town, pay the Amon Carter a visit. It’s known for its commitment to American photography, and it almost always has some great photography on display, in addition to all the Remington and Russell you could ever want to see in one place, and it’s free… Continue reading “Dave Heath at Amon Carter”