State of the Art

ICP Infinity Award Winners Announced

Award season continues apace, and the next big show will occur one week from tonight when the International Center of Photography presents its coveted Infinity Awards for 2008. But the word is already out about who’ll be receiving prizes this year.
     I’m happy to report that the Young Photographer award will go to Mikhael Subotzky, whose documentary work depicting life in South African prisons (below) also earned him an American Photo Emerging Photographer award in 2007. A portfolio of the work that appeared last year in Aperture was nominated for a National Magazine Award as well….so this has been a big year for Subotsky.
     The award for Art this year goes to Edward Burtynsky, whose large-format work explores the connections between landscape and industry. His pictures from China (above) have achieved a kind of cult status at this point.
     The photojournalism award will go to Anthony Suau, who has covered a number of important stories over the past 20 years, including the war in Chechnya. He has recently worked on a project documenting the US during the Iraq war. Suau won the Infinity Award for Young Photographer in 1986.
     The Applied Photography award this year will go to fashion photographer Craig McDean. Photographer Taryn Simon wins the Publication award for her book “An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar.” (Read an interview we did with Simon here.) The Writing award will go to Bill Jay for his 2007 book “Bill Jay’s Album.” The Trustees Award is going to actress Diane Keaton, who is also a longtime photography enthusiast. And the Lifetime Achievement Award will go to Malick Sidibe, the renowned Malian photographer.
     I’ll be at the awards show and post on all the goings-on from there.—David Schonauer

Annie Griffiths Belt on Cameras and Diapers

If you missed hearing the interview with National Geographic Photographer Annie Griffiths Belt (above) on NRP  NPR last Sunday, you can go here to listen. It’s really a terrific insight into the working life of a photographer. And the whole thing is absolutely charming, since it’s about Annie.
    The interview coincides with the release of Belt’s new book, “A Camera, Two Kids, and a Camel: My Journey in Photographs.”  The book tells of how Belt, one of the first female photographers at National Geographic, managed to combine her professional life and her personal life. In the interview, she talks about how she learned to pack in order to take her two young children with on assignments. She found that diapers could fill dual uses—for her kids’ bottoms and to wrap about fragile photo gear. She says diapers are in fact the best cushioning material she’s ever found.
     That’s very practical advice. It got me to wondering what other everyday items people repurpose to make their photographic lives easier...let's start a list. —David Schonauer

The Photo Book As Art and Insulation

Here’s some good news for people who love photo books—and all books for that matter.
    If you are one of those people, you may sometimes feel guilty about trees being cut down for paper. But the editor’s of the Bookseller magazine in the UK now assure all of us that books are environmentally good. Their thinking is that books lining the walls of homes actually provide a type of insultation, reducing energy usage for heating.
     The science behind the claim—spelled out in an article in the Telegraph newspaper—isn’t really spelled out, as far as I can tell. But it’s an intriguing idea, and very welcome, I can tell you. I’m tired of carrying around a paper-lover’s guilt. I believe in photo books as collections of history, as art objects in their own right. My office (above), which contains stacks and mountains of photo books, lined against walls and piled high on tables, must be the most energy efficient office in New York.
      I know I'm not alone in this. A couple of weeks  ago I was interview photographer/book packager Rick Smolan, who confessed that a lot of his friends try to make him feelbad about making books. (Rick is one of the people behind the popular "Day in the Life of..." series, so he's go a lot of trees to answer for.) But, as he told me, there is nothing like books in terms of reproducing images with great power and authority. The Telegraph article says that a survey of people in the UK found that many more would rather have a home library than a home theater system. I wonder if the same would be true in the U.S. Let's start our own informal pole: What would you rather have, a home photo library or a home theater?
—David Schonauer

Tintype Buckaroos

Having grown up in the Texas Panhandle with a healthy dose of cowboy artifacts and imagery all around, I'm always tickled when I come across said folklore here in New York City. So I was pleased as a pig in mud to see the arts-section feature story called "You Bet Your Tintype, Buckaroo" in yesterday's New York Times.

The subject is the photography of National Geographic veteran Robb Kendrick — a native of tiny Hereford, Texas (home to world-class stinky feed lots, and sports rival to my nearby hometown of Canyon) — who often shoots modern cowboy life using the outdated but aesthetically apt medium of the tintype.

"The latest result of Mr. Kendrick’s twin obsessions — with tintypes and the bow-legged anachronisms who continue to make their living on horseback — is Still: Cowboys at the Start of the Twenty-First Century, a new collection of 148 tintype portraits published by the University of Texas Press," writes Randy Kennedy in the Times.

The story's online slide show includes evocative portraits such as those of Raithe and Merline Rupe (above left) and Kendrick himself at work (right). The project is a fascinating rediscovery of rural North America, historic photo techniques, and enduring relics. Happy trails to viewers. — Jack Crager

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."

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

Flip Side of Fame

Back in the pre-digital days, we all kept batches of snapshots in shoe boxes, pulling them out occasionally to marvel at the memories, mainly interesting only to those involved. But when your shoe box has photos of someone wildly famous — and prematurely departed — it could be turn out to be revelatory.

Such is the case with May Pang's shoe box full of images of her 18-month companionship with John Lennon. In her new, splendidly titled book, Instamatic Karma ($30, St. Martin's Press), Pang (at right in 1974) shares pictures that had literally been closeted away since the mid-1970s. A recent piece in the New York Times pointed out Pang's intent — to show that Lennon was not all depressed and unproductive during his "Lost Weekend" months with her — but the book itself weaves a complex portrait of Lennon's time away from his wife Yoko, befitting a man of every-changing moods and contradictions.

Every Grain of Sand

Photos © Dr. Gary Greenberg

"In the fury of the moment I can see the Master's hand
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand."
– Bob Dylan

That couplet has long struck me as among the most heartfelt and poetic ones in Dylan's entire oeuvre. But I never thought it would make a great lead-in for a photo book report.

A bit of background: Recently I posted a Web story on a book called The Art of the Snowflake, by Dr. Kenneth Libbrecht. That book features mesmerizing images of snow crystals, a photographic subject rarely explored since Wilson Bentley's pioneering snowflake images back in the late 1800s. Seizing on one aspect of Libbrecht's project, I titled the piece "No Two Alike?"

"People make a lot more out of that saying than they ought to, you know," Libbrecht replied when asked if every snowflake was unique. "No two grains of sand are exactly alike either, but nobody really cares about that." Later, I joked with Libbrecht about the possibility of him doing a book on sand. "People have done this with sand," he said.

He's right. The day after the story was posted, I got a note from Libbrecht's publisher: "This spring, Voyageur Press will publish a new book that will do for sand what Ken Libbrecht’s photographs did for snow," wrote marketing rep Maurrie Salenger.  I just received the new title, A Grain of Sand: Nature’s Secret Wonder, by Dr. Gary Greenberg ($20, voyageurpress.com). And this book, too, is a revealing, iridescent study in microphotography and nature, drawing equally from science and art.

Film, Stills, and Albert Maysles

As Dave Schonauer writes in his recent blog, Nubar Alexanian has photographed on the sets of many of Errol Morris's documentaries, work collected in a new book called Nonfiction. If you've never seen Morris's 1980 Gates of Heaven, do: I remember it as a brilliant series of talking still photographs. Another great documentary filmmaker, Albert Maysles, actually took his own pictures as he created such classics as Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens. (Those earlier films were produced with Albert's brother and sound man David, who died in 1987.) Albert was in fact a photographer first, and you can catch his vintage black-and-white prints from the 1950s and 1960s, color stills from the filming of Grey Gardens, and his recent "cinemagraphs" at New York City's Steven Kasher Gallery, where they're on display through March 15. The cinemagraphs (below) are printed directly from frames of actual Maysles films.

Watson's Walk on the Wild Side

Photographer Albert Watson has always been hard to pigeonhole, but his newest project is a surprise departure even for him — an unabashed romp into kitsch and kink in Vegas.

The Scottish-born Watson has put together a one-man show called Miss Beehayving, running at Hamiltons Gallery London through March 15. Culled from Watson's forthcoming big book project Shot in Vegas, this exhibition focuses on a single model, a dominatrix and burlesque performer called Breaunna (her online moniker is the show's title). "She lives in an exotic, erotic world, and that 's what fascinated me," says the photographer.

I once had the pleasure of visiting Watson's 13,000-square-foot studio in Manhattan's meat-packing district, which covers several floors and is humongous by New York standards. Throughout the space, prints of Watson's work were on display and stacked in organized piles, thousands of photographs running the gamut from fashion to celebrities to fine art to journalistic moments. "In 99 percent of art, recognizability is a comfortable factor," he said at the time. "My recognizability is going to have to be in the diversity."

In Praise of the Pirelli Calendar

There was a time when I could show you a pretty complete set of pictures from the legendary Pirelli calendar. Those days are gone, for better and worse. Showing exposed breasts in America simply invites too much trouble—from readers who feel offended by the sight and from advertisers who worry about cultural pressure groups.
    However, you can see the complete archive of the Pirelli calendar in a new book, fittingly titled “The Complete Pirelli Calendars” (Rizzoli, $85). The image above, made by Francis Giacobetti for the 1970 edition,, captures the Pirelli allure and the long-ago days when pin-up photography was something of an art. I’ve selected a few more images from the new book, which you can see if you continue reading….

Enemies of Nature--and Photography?

I admit to a fascination with photographs about the marks humans make on our landscape. Fine-art photographers in particular have taken up this study, with the likes of Emmet Gowin and David Maisel creating aerial images that read like abstract painting and drawing. Some of these are so beautiful, in fact, that they really cease to be an indictment of our stewardship of the earth. Their creators would disagree, I know. But I know that I’ve looked at such pictures, so handsomely made, and pretty much forgotten that their lines, tone, and color are often the product of human disrespect. (Below, Emmet Gowin’s view of off-road vehicle tracks along Utah’s Great Salt Lake; David Maisel’s image of strip mining in Arizona.)

Hair There and Everywhere

If there was ever any doubt that big hair is alive and well, it will be dispelled by a new photo book and accompanying runway show. Just in time for the holidays, a consciousness-raising volume called Hair Wars has been released by powerHouse Books  (which can always be counted on for idiosyncratic photo collections). The book features such wild creations as this little do at left. For those who want to see this stuff in the flesh, a grand celebration is planned for January 20, 2008, at the Northfield Hilton in Troy, Michigan, outside Detroit — touted as the "Hair Capital of the World."

Where to Go and What to See

There are precious few weeks left before the end of the year gets swallowed up by holidays and family trips. The galleries seem to sense this, and are pulling out their big guns to lure art lovers from the press of holiday festivities. In New York, the Marian Goodman Gallery is putting up a Francesca Woodman retrospective and Edwynn Houk Gallery is showing Sally Mann's Immediate Family work. In Toronto, Stephen Bulger Gallery has an exhibit of Ruth Orkin's classic American Girl in Italy series. Also just in time for the holidays, there are a few book signings this week: Richard Miscrach at the Pace/MacGill Gallery, Pieter Hugo at Yossi Milo, and a spate of photographers and artists at the Rizzoli Bookstore, all in New York.

~Miki Johnson

(Photo: © Pieter Hugo, "Paul Ankomah, Wild Honey Collector, Techiman District, Ghana"/Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery)

Follow the link for more information about these and other photography events around the country.

Elvis Trumps Frank

Having recently posted a blog about a cool exhibition of Frank Sinatra photos at The Shops at Columbus Circle, I was pleased when our office got advance copies of a new book called Frank Sinatra: The Family Album and a companion book called Elvis Presley: The Family Album, both published by Little, Brown and Company, out now just in time for the holiday season.

Each of these volumes is designed to show the "man behind the myth," with text by people who actually knew these entertainment giants and intimate photographs (many previously unpublished) that show myriad moods and behind-the-scenes moments. The two titles share the Family Album theme, with snapshots that look they're mounted on album pages and embossed covers. What's striking is how genuine both of these men seem when removed from their pedestals, as well as the obvious charisma that made them the icons of their respective generations. But a close look makes it clear: Elvis is much more the alluring character.

Where to Go and What to See

I hope no one tries to accuse me of New York-centrism after this week, in which I'm suggesting we all go to Cambodia. Or, if you're like me and haven't quite gotten your ticket yet, at least check out the Website of the 3rd Annual Angkor Photography Festival that is going on there over the next few weeks. Somewhere between a festival and a workshop, the fest provides free workshops to Asian photographers working to document their own countries. This year's distinguished teachers and supporters include Magnum's Philip Jones Griffiths, Antoine d'Agata, and John Vink and VII's John Stanmeyer and Ron Haviv (to name very very few of the many photographers attending). Billed as "photography for change," the festival obviously fits in well with the social consciousness of both organizations, and its workshops are fashioned after VII workshops, apparently. Plus, that social consciousness is no lip service at the Angkor festival, where participating photographers donate their time during the festival to help local organizations. Check out the program and other details here.

~Miki Johnson

(Photo: © Altaf Qadri, "A Kashmiri muslim boy jumps to reach for balloons as an Indian Border Security Force soldier hold balloons to be distributed on the 58th anniversary of India's Independence in Central Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-held Kashmir, Sunday, 15 August, 2004." Qadri will participate in the Angkor Photography Festival, and was also a 2007 National Geographic All Roads fellow.)

Where to Go and What to See

Three grids of images, each from a different city: Paris, New York, and Shanghai. Two are of men on motorcycles, one is of bike messengers. Sure, it's kind of a gimmick, but for some reason it totally works. In his book on the three cities (images from which are on view at the Aperture Gallery in New York City), Hans Eijkelboom has created an incredible study of street life in each--and a rare opportunity to compare among the three. In capturing everything from little old ladies in flowered dresses to teenagers with mohawks, always in sets of 10 or more images, he draws attention to the diversity of the cities, but equally to the way styles are repeated and permutated in such dense urban areas.

Cornucopia: Documenting the Land of Plenty also deals with issues of density and consumption. On view at the Montserrat College of Art Gallery, I'm guessing this show is worth a look mostly from the young photographers included in it. JeongMee Yoon created an incredible book this year, Pink & Blue Project, which American Photo is featuring in our upcoming best books issue. Her photographs chronicle the color worship of toddlers (and their parents) by creating portraits of the children surrounded by their pink and blue objects. I'm also a fan of Chris Jordan, whose series Running the Numbers and Portraits of American Mass Consumption are both beautiful and terrifying, and Brian Ulrich, whose Copia work documents huge commercial centers such as Target and Home Depot.

Finally, I can't escape the feeling that it's become passé to recommend Alec Soth (sorry Alec). But in going back over his Dog Days, Bogotá series (on view at the Weinstein Gallery in Minneapolis) I've decided I just don't care. The work--created in his adopted daughter's hometown partially as a way to record for her the place she came from--is simply too good not to be seen. It's quiet, and beautiful, and tragic, and funny. What more can we ask for.

~Miki Johnson

(Photo: "Cell phone chargers, Atlanta, 2004" from Chris Jordan's Intolerable Beauty: Portraits of American Mass Consumption series)

Click the link below for details about these and many more photography openings and events across the country.

Introducing Radius Books

While the Internet is a tool of limitless potential for photographers, there's something uniquely priceless about sitting down with a beautifully printed photo book and poring over its contents page by page.

Few appreciate this act more than American Photo contributor Darius Himes. As the founding editor of the PHOTO-EYE, a quarterly dedicated to none other than photography books, Himes has established himself as a preeminent authority on the subject. And now, Himes is putting his knowledge and passion behind a new art book publishing company called Radius Books.

Picture Windows

It's not a typical venue for a top-notch photography exhibition, but the storefront windows at Manhattan's big midtown Barnes & Noble are currently host to an eye-popping display mounted by photographer Brian Oglesbee to publicize his new monograph, Aquatique (published by Insight Editions, and about $50 at discount). Sixth Avenue passers-by can see a sampling of Oglesbee's spectacular large-scale silver prints of mysterious, watery black-and-white figure studies, created not with Photoshop but entirely in the studio.

The Brooklynites

Since moving to the Big Apple over eight years ago I've lived almost exclusively in Brooklyn, and as far as I'm concerned it's the only borough that matters. There's something about commuting into Manhattan five days a week that makes you appreciate the slower pace and (relatively speaking) wide open spaces of Kings County. A community exists here that's different from everything around it. It's a diverse mix of both longtime locals and new transplants. It's hip and happening, with its local arts scene, nightlife and great restaurants, but (other than the obvious exception of Williamsburg) people aren't pretending to be something they're not. Above all, Brooklyn is a place that feels like home for nearly 2.5 million Manhattan refugees.

Photographer Seth Kushner and writer/editor/curator Anthony LaSala set about several years ago to capture the indomitable spirit of Brooklyn, and their new book, titled The Brooklynites (powerHouse Books), is the culmination of their hard work.

Andrew Zuckerman's Creature

I got an email promo from the Art Department today announcing Andrew Zuckerman's relaunched website. I usually ignore such emails, but Zuckerman is a young photographer I've known and admired for a while so I clicked.

Right away the new Flash site hits you with Zuckerman's clean, almost antiseptic aesthetic, which dovetails nicely with his recent work shooting all flavors of exotic animals on white seamless in his New York studio. The first thing you get on the site is news of his new book, Creature, due out October 18 from Chronicle Books.

But rather than a simple news announcement, Zuckerman shows you what it's like to be "on press" for the actual printing of the book. The sped-up video from the printing plant is one of the more creative promos I've seen for a book in quite a while.

What's in a Name?

Here at the American Photo offices we're rounding up new photo books for our annual books issue (slated for Jan/Feb 2008). This year we can't help but notice a couple of new "titles" -- and we mean that literally.

One intriguing title: Everybody I Shot is Dead. This is a visual memoir by music photographer Deborah Chesher, with anecdotes images of a varied group of deceased stars including George Harrison, Frank Zappa, Tammy Wynette, Albert Collins, John Bonham, Terry Kath, and John Denver. Due in late fall and apparently self-published (the imprint is Chesher Cat Prods, $60, to be available at this Website) the book includes more than 400 previously unseen photographs of its mostly famous subjects. Chesher has also worked with still-living stars like Van Morrison, Elton John, and Tom Waits...but they aren't included -- that would really mess up the book's title, n'est-ce pas?

Get Your Own Photo Book Published

Simon Bainbridge, editor of the British Journal of Photography, just notified me that their BJP International Photography Award is once again calling for entries, so I thought I would pass along the details. Certainly not a dilettante's competition, the award is given for a complete body of work, a "substantial series," that will be displayed in the The Association Gallery in London and published as a book by Spectrum Photographic. The winner also gets a Linhof Master Technika Classic 4x5 large-format camera, plus accessories, worth more than $11,400 (I told you they weren't messing around). And don't forget: "The judges...will be looking for a complete, coherent series of images (rather than a portfolio of unrelated pictures) able to carry the two-floor gallery. The series must equate as single body of work - either stylistically or thematically." Entry details here.
~Miki Johnson

(Photo: © Charlie Crane, from last year's winning series, Welcome to Pyongyang)

Who's That Mysterious Artist?

As the publishers of photo books announce their fall lineups, it is clear that there will be no shortage this year of visually rich volumes on enigmatic photographers, from Robert Frank to Deborah Turbeville (both from Steidl) to Robert Mapplethorpe (from teNeues). But one intriguing new book focuses on a mysterious photographic subject -- the indie rock musician Elliott Smith.

Though not a household name, Smith was a cult figure who still holds sway over a devoted audience with his hauntingly beautiful melodies, deft guitar work, and sad lyrics delivered by a delicate voice that sounds like an angst-ridden Art Garfunkel. Perhaps his most visible (and awkward) public moment was at the 1998 Oscars where he performed "Miss Misery," which he contributed to the film Good Will Hunting and earned a "best song" nomination for, alongside the likes of Celine Dion (whose "My Heart Will Go On" won the Oscar). Smith also made headlines when he died at age 34 in 2003 of a stab to the chest, thought to be (but never verified as) self-inflicted.

But privately, Smith was much-beloved by his peers in the alt-music milieus of Portland, Oregon, and later Los Angeles. One close friend was photographer Autumn de Wilde, who has shot album covers for Smith and other rock stars as the White Stripes, Beck, and Death Cab for Cutie, all close friends of Smith. De Wilde has put together a collection of intimate portraits, Elliott Smith (above left), due from Chronicle Books this fall -- it can be partially previewed at autumndewilde.com.

Two New Books About Enigmatic Photographers

Salon today has an intriguing review of two new fictionalized novels about the lives and loves of two photographers who share the first name Edward: Steichen and Curtis. First, The Shadow Catcher, by Marianne Wiggins, and then The Last Summer of the World, a debut by Emily Mitchell. Neither book gets an overwhelming thumbs up from writer Sarah Karnasiewicz, which has me thinking that maybe the review itself is worth as much consideration as the novels. As evidence I submit these rather astute observations:

1. We have long since given up on the idea that photographs serve up impartial truths and embraced them as art. But is it any less naive to believe we can glean a glimpse of the men behind the lens by looking at what they placed in front of it?

2. How is it that two men of such penetrating vision can remain so elusive themselves? It may be that, when working with photography, the real, everyday present of artists' lives is eclipsed by the allure of the frozen past.

Both questions sound so enjoyable to contemplate that I just might pick up the aforementioned books after all.

~Miki Johnson

(Photos: (Left) Edward Curtis; (Right) Edward Steichen)

Where to Go and What to See

Thank goodness for the Getty. I would have had to leave this week's event listing blank if weren't for an impressive double offering at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. First up we have Edward Weston: Enduring Vision, a retrospective of 150 images from the museum's permanent collection, the home of much of the Californian photographer's work. Aside from the exhibition itself -- which I'm sure will be a welcome chance to see the evolution of Weston's subjects as well as the continuity of his vision -- the Getty is also publishing a book recreated from Weston's own plan for a book of nudes. The book, created with Nancy Newhall in 1953, never found a publisher, and pages had been lost by the time the Getty acquired the mock-up in 1985. In 2005 Getty curator and Weston biographer Brett Abbott figured out how to reconstruct the book; it is being published in its entirety, as Weston imagined it, in conjunction with the show.

The Getty is opening Recent History: Photographs by Luc Delahaye at the same time; both exhibitions will run from July 31 to November 25. Delahaye, a Frenchman and former Magnum member, is  well known for his photojournalistic work in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Rwanda, Chechnya, and Bosnia -- but also for dismissing photojournalism as "neither photography or journalism," and for renouncing it in favor of "fine-art" photography. The 10 images in the Getty show are the large-scale, infinitely detailed, politically potent tableaux Delahaye is now known for. Now, huge detailed prints are hardly ground-breaking, in the museum world especially, but this quote from Delahaye in a well-written article on artnet.com gives me faith that his work, or at least the thinking behind it, transcends the trendiness of big prints: "The press is for me just a means of photographing, for material, not for telling the truth. In magazines, the images are vulgar, reality is reduced to a symbolic or simplistic function...one of the reasons for the photographs' large size is to make them incompatible with the economy of the press."

Check out the Getty Website for lots of cool lectures, tours, and events pertaining to these exhibitions too.

~Miki Johnson

(Photo: Pages from a mock-up for Edward Weston's book of nudes, 1953. © 1981 Arizona Board of Regents, Center for Creative Photography. Gift of Melvin and Elaine Wolf.)

John Szarkowski Understood Us

I will miss John Szarkowski (pictured at left as a younger man by Jacques-Henri Lartigue, whose work he first championed) as much for his brilliant photographic criticism as for his curatorial acumen. What made his writing special was that it drew from a deep understanding of photographic process and its direct, profound role in any photographer's work. Given the mechanical nature of our medium that understanding is essential to good criticism. I often feel embarrassed for photo critics and curators who seem to know little about how pictures are made. (I certainly never felt that way about Szarkowski.) When these critics aren't treating photographs as if they were transparent, they are characterizing them with a fudged, arch language that gives the writer a pass on studying the craft behind the art in which he or she is a putative expert.