State of the Art

Women's Soccer Is Not a Contact Sport

I realize that I get a weird kick out of sports pictures that capture unintended violence. Sports with intended violence, like boxing and  football (okay, plus hockey) don't do it for me as much. Am I strange? This image has been getting around lately--CBS Sports picked it as a "Photo of the Day" and I just saw it in the German photo magazine View. Shot by Steven Governo for Associated Press, it shows U.S. woman's soccer player Abby Wambach, in gold, battling with Denmark goalie Heidi Johansen, who punches the ball away (subsequently connecting with Wambach as well, it seems). The action took place in Portugal at the Algarve Cup finals on March 12 .--David Schonauer

Crewdson's Weird World

Given the unsettling eerieness of Gregory Crewdson's photographs and their suburban settings, it's surprising that photographer grew up in Brooklyn with a self-described "normal" childhood. "Suburbia is like a foreign country to me," Crewdson told me a couple of years ago. "I approach it as a literary place, an aesthetic setting rather than one of personal experience."

Nonetheless, Crewdson has made that setting his own in elaborate images that manage to tell little stories yet often beg the question, "What's going on here?" An influential photo professor at Yale, he creates large-scale photographs at a meticulous pace but keeps cranking them out: His most recent collection, Beneath the Roses, goes on view at New York's Luring Augustine Gallery April 5 through May 3, as well as London's White Cube April 23 to May 24 and LA's Gagosian Gallery May 3 to June 4. Crewdson himself will be signing books at Luring Augustine from 2 to 5 pm April 12.

Accompanying the show is Crewdson's newest book, Beneath the Roses (Harry N. Abrams, $60), in which the photographer adds some slushy winter elements to his subjects' psychological coldness. As always, the detailed pictures show familiar scenes in which something is askance, the mood seems foreboding, the characters caught in an internal drama. "I like to take sort of ordinary iconography and defamilarlze it, make it mysterious," Crewdson explains, "so there's a tension between a sort of dream and reality, between the ordinary and the fantastical. But it's always grounded in something real."

Here's How to Treat the Paparazzi

So many celebrities complain about the ill-mannered paparazzi who follow them around. But how many go out of their way to be courteous to the photographers who have to follow them through the dark, cold streets at night? NOT MANY is the answer. In this wonderful clip, however, none other than Amy Winehouse brings her personal photo corps nice hot cups of tea. Note to Sean Penn: you'd be better off serving hot beverages to the paparazzi than picking fights with them. Or is that just a guy thing?--David Schonauer

"Get Your Glossy Online"

The above line is from an anonymous reader who posted it — after the words "Save a tree" — as a comment to an interesting piece about the future of magazines. The story was in the New York Observer but you can read it here. (Save a tree, get your pink paper online.)

Among the magazine insiders commenting on the future of print media are Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter (who envisions a new "electronic book" in our future world), Esquire editor David Remnick (who imagines more innovative printing practices), and Wired editor Chris Anderson (who sees magazines staying the same for awhile). Go figure.

Editors at many print magazines (including American Photo) may take comfort in the facts that a) a new medium doesn't necessarily kill an old one; b) nothing looks better than a picture printed on decent paper; and c) people don't usually take their computers to the bathroom or curl up in a tub with them.

Sotheby's Withdraws Potentially Historic Image from Auction--For Now

It looks like it will take a little bit longer to rewrite the photo history books. I just got off the phone with Denise Bethel, director of photographer at Sotheby’s in New York, and she told me that a controversial image that was to have been included in a sale next Monday has been withdrawn from the auction. According to at least one historian, the image could prove that photography was invented not in 1939 1839, the date commonly given for the birth of the medium, but nearly 30 years prior to that.
    In the past few days the photo world has been buzzing about the image, a “photogenic drawing” (above) that until now has been attributed to the Englishman William Henry Fox Talbot and dated 1839. However, the Sotheby’s catalog attributed the image to “Photographer Unknown” and included an essay by photo history Larry J. Schaaf speculating that the image was in fact may by Thomas Wedgewood “in 1805 or earlier.” Wedgewood was a member of the family famed for making fine china and was known for experimenting with photographic processes.
     When the essay appeared, it stirred up a hornet’s nest of commentary from other historians. “We knew this was going to happen,” said Bethel. “We knew that if we put it out there we would get this discussion going.” With more speculation dribbling in, Sotheby’s decided to postpone the sale of the image until further clarification of its origins could be made. This doesn’t mean that Schaaf was wrong in his assertions. It does mean, however, that in the next weeks and months we are going to be learning a lot more about the birth of photography.

Swimsuit Model Audition

The great sports photographer Walter Iooss — who has shot more than his share of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issues — once said that "with models like these, you can't go wrong." Here's a chance to test his theory. As a clever promotional gimmick, Taco Bell has set up a virtual swimsuit model website called directdaniella.com. The model, Daniella (left) is a gorgeous (but not always cooperative) woman who will pose in a setting of your choice, and you can test your ability to capture her moves. For comparison's sake, the home page links to SI's swimsuit website as well. Happy shooting. — Jack Crager

Still A Photo Icon After All These Years

Say what you will about Madonna, she knows more about the power of still images than any other modern celebrity I can think of. The only other star I can think of who took as much care in etching a photographic identity was Marlene Dietrich. In Madonna's case, of course, the genius lay in how many different identities she could assume. This image is from the fabulous layout in the new Vanity Fair by Steven Meisel, who has always been best at shooting this icon. By fabulous, I mean it's a real page turner, which you can literally do by going here. The website also lets you browse the many, many stories it has run about Madonna over the years.--David Schonauer

Burt Keppler, Man of Action, Remembered

The irreplaceable Burt Keppler was warmly remembered at a memorial held last week at Manhattan's New School, fondly emcee'd by Keppler protegee and former Popular Photography Editor Jason Schneider. Family, friends, and colleagues such as Popular Photography Editor-in-Chief John Owens, Hachette Filipacchi CEO Jack Kliger, and Canon tech maven Chuck Westfall spoke about Burt, who shared his knowledge with generations of readers at Pop and before that at Modern Photography, as a man of kindness and -- though seemingly unperturbed by tumultuous events in photography -- of action. Which gives me the opportunity to run pictures of the Herbert Keppler semi-posable action figure.

A Flickr of Leibovitz

Master photographer that she is, Annie Leibovitz is often stirring up the blogosphere ... as in the recent debate, both con and pro, over her new Vogue cover featuring an image of Gisele Bundchen and LeBron James (left).

But today, we're especially intrigued with this item about Lebovitz and Flickr. Hmmm. (Be sure to read the whole post and check out her Flickr page at the bottom.)

Where to Go and What to See

You know how there are two kinds of "big weeks" for openings? There are the big openings, like, say, an Avedon retrospective at ICP or Jeff Wall at the MoMA. And then there are the weeks packed with openings for artists you're pretty sure you know about but can't quite put your finger on. And then you look them up and are like, oh yeah, that guy, he's great! Well, guess which week this is...

That's right, I had no fewer than four of those "oh yeah" moments while going through this week's listings. First up, Matthew Pillsbury, whose Elapsed show goes up at Bonni Benrubi on Thursday. You'd think I would remember him, since I've written about his work at least two other times (once when I he won an award and was shown at PHotoEspaña) and I always have glowing things to say about it. This show appears to be a mix of several of his projects, which all involve dark, b&w, time-lapse photography where stationary objects--buildings, electronic screens, stuffed wildlife--take on the appearance of monuments, while the people around them become transitory ghosts.

Then we have Chris Kitze's The Electric Image up today at powerHouse Arena's Windows on Main (appropriately). I've glanced at postcards of his glass window--neon sign--innocent bystander juxtapositions before but finally took the time to peruse his series this time. Although this kind of thing has been done before, it's still hard to do well, and that's how Kitze does it. Plus I'm into how he alternates between Tokyo, Shanghai, New York, Las Vegas, and Paris.

I also finally took a close look at Jessica Todd Harper, whose Interior Exposures series is going up at Cohen Amador on Wednesday. Harper's intimate, old-money family portraits also remind me of other things (i.e. Tina Barney), but they are still fresh and genuine and haunting in the best way.

Finally, at the Lisa Sette Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona, a new project from Kahn/Selesnick. If you don't know about these guys, you should. They've worked together for 20 years creating "narrative photo-novellas," as they like to call them. Basically  they develop elaborate stories with fantastical locations and characters and then photograph them in long panoramas and turn them into books with fairy-tale caption-titles...oh, it's easier if you just go look at them.

~Miki Johnson

(Photo: "Emilie and Stephano, 2005" © Jessica Todd Harper)

Follow the link below for details on these and many more photography events around the country.

The Marilyn Case: A Big Win for Photographers

Regular readers know I’ve been posting (here and here, for instance) about the legal battles over the estate of Marilyn Monroe. The fight, between the heirs of several photographers and the estate that controls Marilyn’s name and image, is not only fascinating, but also important to any photographer interested in the future of copyright protection.
    The fight has turned into a real slugfest. Every once in a while one side gets knocked to the canvas and you think the whole thing is over. Then there is a reversal of fortune, and the swinging starts again.
    It’s happened again. And now the fight is going to get really interesting.
    The latest development in the case occurred in a courtroom in California, where U.S. District Judge Margaret Morrow ruled that Marilyn was not a resident of California when she died in 1962. The ruling represents a big win for the heirs of photographers Milton Greene and Tom Kelley, who both famously captured Marilyn on film. Now the action will move to New York, where, according to the court, Marilyn really lived. Don’t you love the law?

Killing Fields Photographer Dith Pran Dies

Dith Pran, a longtime photographer for the New York Times, died yesterday at age 65 The cause was pancreatic cancer. Dith came to the United States only after surviving the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. His experiences were immortalized in the 1984 film “The Killing Fields.” The Times has a wonderful obituary today, with audio and a portfolio of Dith's images. I also loved the audio report that National Public Radio aired this morning. Go here to hear it.—The photo above, showing Dith at a family reunion in 1989, was taken by Magnum photographer Steve McCurry.-- David Schonauer