State of the Art

Art Direction Run Amok: Great Photoshop Gaffs

You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time. Here's a very funny post about some ridiculously bad art directing judgments. Lesson: It's not always the photographer's fault! Oh, and let me add, it's Photoshop, not PhotoShop.--David Schonauer

Photojournalist Philip Jones Griffiths, 1936-2008

Philip Jones Griffiths, who captured the violence that the war in Vietnam brought to that country’s civilian population, died on Wednesday in London. He succumbed to the cancer he had battled for several years. You can read his obit in the New York Times here. Griffiths was a longtime member of the Magnum photo agency, which posted a tribute to him on its website.
    For me it has always been hard to rightly describe the impact of Griffiths work, or his place in the history of photography. His book “Vietnam Inc.” is  now considered a classic, as the Times says. But for me the pictures were never classic war photos. This work was different from any other produced in the Vietnam War—or perhaps any other war. Steeped in the humanity of the Vietnamese people, it reflected Griffiths love of the country itself. In his 2002 book “Shooting Under Fire,” Peter Howe quoted Griffiths on the subject:

When I first arrived in Vietnam in 1966, I found the equivalent of my village in Wales. The country is unusual, in many ways unique—it’s a collection of villages set like islands in a sea of rice fields. In a Welsh village, you’re taught to keep quiet, to keep your eyes open, to listen, and not to give too much away. I felt that was the ethic that the Vietnamese people lived by.

There was a tenderness in the war pictures made by Griiffiths—if pictures of  war can ever be described as tender. But then as one time he had been a practicing pharmacist, a kind of healer, who only later began photographing part-time for newspapers.
    He was a pacifist covering the trial of war. If he brought humanity to the civilians of Vietnam, he also captured the predicament of the American GIs sent to Vietnam to wage war. For me his great picture was the one he made of an American soldier propped casually in a chair, rifle aimed through a window. A doll sits on the floor near the chair. The Americans, he once said in a lecture, were “for the most part…kids who were confused.”
     In 2006 American Photo named Griffiths as one of the most underrated photographers of the past 30 years. Some people thought it was odd to do so, given his stature. But to a large extent his impact had been forgotten as America dashed away from the memories of the Vietnam War. We asked Philippe Garner, the international director of photography at Christie’s in London, to access Griffith’s career. Go here for that article.—David Schonauer

National Magazine Award Nominees Announced

The nominations for the National Magazine Awards have been announced, and there are some interesting photography angles. I was a judge in the Photojournalism category, so I’m going to focus on that category in this post. For a complete list of all the NMA nominations, go here.
       In general, nominations in the three photo categories went to the same magazines that have been honored in the past. Aperture magazine received nominations not only in the Photojournalism category but also in the General Excellence category for magazines with circulations under 100,000. National Geographic was nominated in the Photography category and the Photojournalism category. New York magazine was nominated in both the Photography and Photo Portfolio categories (among many others).  But as I said, the interesting news, from my perspective, was in Photojournalism. I saw a glimpse of the future.

Catcher of the Eye

For image-makers who want to learn to cut through the clutter of today's information glut and quickly grab people's attention, here's a chance to learn from one of the true masters. The Museum of Modern Art in New York just announced a forthcoming exhibition, George Lois: The Esquire Covers from the 1960s and early '70s. Along with large-scale prints of many of the final covers, the show will also show Lois's original artwork for several of the designs, including the renowned picture of Andy Warhol drowning in a soup can (above), which illustrated a May 1969 story about the decline of the American avant-garde.

This shot is particularly clever because, in the days before Photoshop, Lois and photographer Carl Fischer created it out of two images — one with the can of soup (Fischer says they dropped marbles in it; Lois says it was a stone) and the other a posed portrait of Warhol (he said, "Oh greaaaaat," Lois recalls). These were combined in a "C-print that was printed together and retouched," Lois told Kurt Andersen in an interesting interview recently broadcast on NPR's Studio 360. It will be fascinating to see the "images behind the icons" at the MoMA show — it runs from April 25 through March of 2009 (for a preview sampler of the Esquire covers you can go here).

Book This

If you are among the many photographers who have recently self-published a book of your work, take note: A new competition wants to see it. Called the Photography.Book.Now International Salon and Symposium, this contest celebrates and surveys self-published photo books, with a grand prize of $25,000 going toward the completion — or the beginning — of a new photo project of the winner's choice.

Entries will be accepted in two categories: General — pretty much open to any self-published photography volume — and Themed, which includes work that "demonstrates how photography can create a narrative in book form," according to the contest announcement, released today. (Above is a spread from a themed book on portraits.) Entry deadline is July 14. For entry details and guidelines, visit photographybooknow.com.

With a jury panel led by photographer and author Darius Himes, the contest will judge the entries based on creativity, innovation, and image quality. Along with an awards ceremony set for September 12 in San Francisco, related events include a traveling salon and symposium, detailed on the Website.

“To affordably make a book of one’s own photography, with complete creative control, is a liberating, exciting, highly personal, and satisfying experience," says Eileen Gittins, CEO of Blurb, one of the contest sponsors (others include Livebooks, Flickr, SmugMug, and American Photo). She adds that the contest is for "photographers making the books they’ve always wanted to make — with a real chance to gain worldwide recognition and win a tremendous prize.” — Jack Crager

Where to Go and What to See

The New York art world seems to have conspired to ease me back into my weekly column with a pre-arranged theme: Asia Week! I don't know if all these shows are specifically part of the festivities, but at least a few are...and as for the rest, I'm just glad to see all the non-Western (or non-unconsciously-Western) photographs being honored.

Howard Greenberg takes the retrospective approach with Photographers of Japanese Descent, including Araki, Hosoe, Izu, and Matsumoto. The Point of View Gllery brings us the fusion sensibilities of Drew Tal; ICP the work of Yi-Ting Chung; and Sous Let Etoiles, a fascinating portrait study of immigrants and their restrictive spaces from Fumio Tanai.

~Miki Johnson

(Photo: "Artist" by Fumio Tanai)

Follow the link below for details about these and many more photography events.

"Sponge-Worthy?"

Last week while spring-cleaning at home we discussed the demise of Polaroid film, set to be discontinued by year's end, but we made the decision to hang onto our nifty little Polaroid instant camera — "hey, you never know what will happen with this technology so let's not toss it just yet" — while we contemplated whether to snarf up some Polaroid film while we can. It reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine stockpiles boxes of Sponges and then has to decide whether subsequent dates are "Sponge-worthy." (If you need an explanation for that ... never mind, you're too young.)

Then we saw a piece in yesterday's New York Times Magazine that officially reminded us how, for instant-camera film, time is short.

The piece is in the Consumed column by Rob Walker, a personal friend (I hired Rob eons ago as a reporter for a Texas newspaper and I've steadily watched his writing career ascend ever since). Each week the column is all about trends in marketing and consumption, sometimes not in that order, and Rob rightly points out that Edward Land's invention of Polaroid instant pictures led to its modern digital ancestors — which rendered it obsolete.

Albert Watson Sells His Super Studio

Back in about 1987, American Photo did a big piece on the new studio that Albert Watson had opened at 777 Washington Street. It was a magnificent place, impeccably designed in an 80s modern way that never seemed to go out of style. Watson's studio seemed to usher in an era of big, ultra-luxurious photo studios--both private spaces and rental spaces. But the time of the big private studio is over--at least for Watson. He has sold the Washington Street space for $34 million and is relocated south, in a penthouse in Tribeca. The new space will be dedicated to Watson's printing operation only. "For shooting we'll be using rental studios," says his son and assistant, Aaron.
     When Watson moved into the Washington Street space, in Manhattan's meat packing district, the area was filled with transvestite hookers. (He paid $850,000 for the building in 1985, according to New York magazine.) Later, Fabrizio Ferri opened the Industria Superstudio down the street. Now the area is super-hip, and there are so many big buildings that Industria has, according to many photographers, lost it's natural light.--David Schonauer

Spitzer as Art, via Kruger

I told myself umpteen times this weekend that I would not do another post about the disgrace of former New York governor Eliot Spitzer. Then I saw this image, which is the cover of this week's New York magazine. The photo, taken by Henry Leutwyler, was given the old art treatment by Barbara Kruger. Result? Brillaint. This is why we have magazines.--David Schonauer

Annals of Advertising: Kermit the Frog Poses for Terry Richardson. Earth Survives, Somehow.

I never thought I'd write the words "Kermit the Frog" and "Terry Richardson" in the same sentence. Yes, those rumors you've been hearing are correct: The lime-green amphibian from Sesame Street has posed for a new campaign shot by the guy in the pervy 1970s-era porn eyeglasses. The campaign is for Supreme, the clothing line popular among the skateboarding set. Some people hate Richardson. Others think he's genius. I think this instantly makes Kermit the coolest frog on earth. You can watch Richardson at work, below.