thechrisproject photography

“I don’t like explosions. I don’t mind progress. But digital photography has made every man, woman, child and chimpanzee a photographer of sorts and consequently has numbed down the general quality of photographs.”Of course digital photography is essential for economy and for speedy results (news - fashion photography - advertising and the like) but it also is too damned easy and doubtful for archiving as technology and conservation methods always change. Silver halide is still the most reliable material but regretfully on the way out.”

I saw this photo of Eliott Erwitt on The Online Photographer a while ago.

I consider Erwitt to be a master photographer. I think the shirt is hyperbolic, but his words above ring somewhat true with me. But I think the idea that photography has a general quality that is subject to being numbed down is flawed. Recently, also on The Online Photographer, Mike Johnston said this:

Show me an artist who doesn’t loathe or dismiss whole categories of artistic endeavor and I’ll show you an artist who isn’t committed to his own art.

It made me think about Erwitt’s position in a different light.

This interview with Ralph Gibson has some interesting thoughts on digital as well. Ralph is still a film guy, through and through. But it sounds like he keeps up on digital things and uses them a lot when appropriate. That’s what I appreciate about his take on digital: it’s not fanatical. Not that I don’t have a certain amount of respect for the fanatics.

Ralph:

Ralph: I have. And I’ve gone to InkjetMall.com (Cone Editions). I’m pretty much abreast of what’s going on. And I have used those inks, and they’re great. It’s just that they’re not better or worse than photographs. They coexist. They’re not photographs. They’re another kind of very beautiful print.

The whole interview is worth reading. I have an immense amount of respect for Mr. Gibson. I saw a number of photographs last year.

As for me, I got back into photography because of digital. The low cost per photograph allowed me to shoot a lot and learn quickly. Though the last camera I bought was a film rangefinder, which I love.

Magnum in Motion has a series of stories from four of their fantastic war photographers.

Phillip Gones Griffiths (who just passed away last week)
Christopher Anderson
Thomas Dworzak
Paolo Pellegrin

Freiderike von Rauch makes very controlled looking photographs. I love the color, or lack thereof. Found at Mrs. Deane.

I find portraits fascinating. I’ve never really done much of it, but I really love good portrait work. Jörg Colberg has been talking about it for a while and I always enjoy his writing, even when I’m disagreeing with it. He published this portrait of Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall) by Richard Avedon.

Cat later told Ocean Drive Magazine,

“I was so drunk I could barely stand up,” Marshall recalls of the weeklong bender that deposited her in front of Avedon’s lens. “My organs were so messed up from drinking I was in physical pain. I couldn’t zip up my pants because my stomach was killing me. I didn’t even realize I wasn’t wearing underwear until the magazine came out.” With a touch of embarrassment, she adds, “I had to explain to my grandmother that this was the definitive photographer of the 20th century.”

I don’t really have a lot to add here. Go read the rest of Jörg’s post.

I’m not sure where I first stumbled across Daniel Shea, but I think the first thing of his I saw was from his Removing Mountains project.  It’s a great body of work about the coal mining in the Appalachian region.  What’s going on there has only recently been shown to me and it’s work like Daniel’s that can really open people’s eyes.  The photography is excellent.  It ranges from the shots above to some amazing portraits.

The Subjectify blog has a two part interview between Shea and his photographer friend Caitlin Arnold, a great artist in her own right.