Thursday, October 10, 2013

I've always been interested and angry about poverty. Fascinated by the poor and homeless. A little while ago I finally got around to reading The Grapes of Wrath, and it instantly became one of my favorite books. Steinbeck has the ability to invoke a ton of rage as well as respect and pride. I feel as if Dorothea Lange has the same effect with her photography. I admire all the work I've been able to see so far. I can look at the picture of the boy in overalls with dysentery and feel pitiful and cringe for him (Not feel pity for him, but actually feel pitiful) and then look at her photo of migrant farmers playing baseball and feel their resilience. I have to imagine these events took place near each other in time and space. While the ball game surely didn't help the boy, maybe her photographs did. Its admirable, I think, that a well-off studio photographer decided to go out into this world she wasn't cast in to, and try to reveal it to the rest of the country. I have a lot of respect for her and her work.

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/lange/



Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Martin Parr.... I don't know how I really feel about this guy's work... but I've been looking through it for over a half hour now. He's basically poking fun at everyone and everything. Like rich people, world tourists and Americans, which I find amusing (he's British). But also many other countries and cultures I'm unfamiliar with so miss the point he's making. From what I've seen and the bios I've read, it seems like his goal is to put a mirror in front of people and show us how we actually look in reality. He does this with candid photos, up close and in peoples faces. Often he juxtaposes people with animals, or some other object, making comparisons. Some people pose for him, some people seem angry with him, and some are seemingly oblivious to him. I like this. It's disturbing. It's unattractive. It's vile. But at the same time.... maybe this guy is just an asshole. What makes him better than someone on Instagram who takes an unflattering picture of dirt poor, obese mother, at the pharmacy at 2AM buying cough medicine in her stained sweatpants for her sick kid, completely out of context with the hash-tags #thingsyoufindatwalmart? He's just doing this on a global scale getting acclaim for it. Maybe he has some astonishingly poignant message he's making with his avant-garde, colorful style, or maybe he's just a clever dick. I could be ignorant. Maybe I'm just missing every point he's trying to make..... I don't think I like his work.

http://www.martinparr.com/


Monday, October 7, 2013

Looking to find a collection, or a photographer, focused on train hopping, I found a guy who seems to have garnered mild fame for his work, and for being a bit of a mystery. His portrayal reminds me of Banksy. His name is Mike Brodie and he was born in Arizona in 1985. Its funny, a lot of people I've met that hitch across country come from Arizona. The state just breeds them I guess. The guy never had formal training, and says that he never really wanted to pursue photography. He just happened to be given a Polaroid camera right before he decided to hop trains in his early 20's. The result was aggressively raw photos of the world he was living in for 4 years. He was able to document a culture most people think doesn't exist; like its out of a Dickens novel. All because he wasn't trying to make art or live up to expectations. According to one article he's really not comfortable with the small fame hes gotten now with galleries and books, and lives a modest life as a traveling diesel mechanic. I can't help but wonder if this person is just a fictional persona of a professional. I know seemingly genuine and magnificent things have turned out to be just that before in art. I hope this is all true and raw. The work really is awesomely captivating.

http://mikebrodie.net/








Sunday, October 6, 2013

In searching for another mountain climbing photographer, I found a forefather of both tasks that intrigues me. I can't find much info on him because every website I've come across seems to have the same quick list of basic info about him. There are a couple of books on him I would like to try and find though. Actually, the more in-depth information I found about him came from reviews of one book. His name is Vittorio Sella. He was an Italian, born near the Alps in 1859. His father was a photographer, and his uncle was a famous mountaineer. It seems that he took training and interest in both and just ran with them.



His photographs are breathtaking; literally. He was determined to take his camera equipment, which at the time weighed over 40 pounds, up to the summit of mountains where oxygen was thin and it wasn't uncommon for people to perish. He not only made amazing first ascents in mountain climbing, he did it all while lugging up twice the weight of what anyone else would. The shots are great in a documentary sense, for being unattainable by anyone else at the time, but also in their artistic rights as well. (Every site I went to was quick to point out that Ansel Adams always had flattering things to say about him.) Even in black and white he's able to show great detail in the mountains and really present them as how grand and sometimes frightening they are. And something that I really like about his collection of work is that he was more apt to include people in some of his photos. The other couple pioneers of mountain photography I came across rarely ever included humans in the shots. It makes sense not to, they didn't climb all that way just to take pictures of the same people that started on the ground with them. But now, 130 years later, it is very interesting to see who was climbing back then. And more so, seeing a lone person in some of these shots of giant mountains is jaw dropping, and left me staring at them for a few minutes. Seeing a picture of someone on a summit today, in a bright red NorthFace jacket, $200 goggles, iron clad, triple-buckled boots, and the latest climbing ropes and beners, isn't always that impressive. I've seen hundreds before. Seeing some poor fool do it with next to no technology gives a totally different feeling.

http://metro.co.uk/2008/06/30/frozen-in-time-the-mountain-photography-of-vittorio-sella-227881/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vittorio_Sella



Wednesday, October 2, 2013

James Nachtwey has had a pretty lengthy career, and some very well noted work. He's worked with TIME magazine since 1984, and was responsible for good chunk of the most seen 9/11 photos. He "has devoted himself to documenting wars, conflicts and critical social issues" according to his own website. His work has taken him to some uncomfortable, foreign places. He's captured scenes from wars and atrocities that many Americans have probably never even heard of. He has gone all over the world with seemingly unflinching bravery, even being seriously wounded during the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He has a very strong passion for the work he is doing and it is obvious that he feels it is important for people to see theses things that most would otherwise choose to ignore.