Het kleed past ons niet!

We zijn halfweg het parcours als we even de tijd nemen om het één en ander op een rijtje te zetten. Wat betreft het fotofestival in Arles en het moet gezegd, tot nu toe was het geen grote klepper van formaat. Geen fotografie waar men 1000 km verder speciaal voor moet rijden. We hebben het vooral over de binnenstad waar Christian Lacroix, de bekende mode fotograaf zijn “invités” mocht presenteren. Daar zijn natuurlijk enkele bekende namen tussen zoals Peter Lindbergh, Paolo Roversi, Richard Avedon, Catherina Jebb, Jerome Puch, Henri Roger …

Onze opmerkingen zijn wellicht niet verassend als we verklaren dat het officiële en ook betalende parcours geen nieuwe fotografie of verassingen kon brengen. Oude knarren kunnen hun werk wel tonen en gebruik maken van prachtige locaties zoals kapellen en kerken die hier overal te vinden zijn, maar missen verfrissende en vernieuwende fotografie. Het zijn prachtige modefoto’s die niet zullen misstaan in een heruitgave van Vogue, Elle of Vanityfair, maar waar een gemiddelde fotografie bezoeker weinig boodschap aan heeft. Oké, het is waar, enkele modellen worden in hun beste pose gefotografeerd, maar oude krokodillen zoals wij worden er niet warm van.

Het is niet al negatief sinds we deze ochtend aan de fotoqueeste begonnen, integendeel, we vonden in de gratis toegankelijke exposities jonge fotografen terug die niet zouden misstaan in ons fotofestival. Ondergebracht onder “SFR Jeunes Talents Révélateurs d’artistes” zagen we volwassen en intrigerende fotografie met een verbluffende conceptuele inbreng. Op te volgen dus en hun gegevens te noteren: Delphine Manjard, Julot, J.C. Delalande, Didier Illouz, Benjamin Roi, Lise Grosperrin, Claire Bertin en Michel Rajkovic. Ook de talenten van het ENSP (école nationale supérieur de photographie) waar vooral Sung Hee Lee opviel met zijn landschaps-conceptfotografie.

Arles is ook meer dan alleen fotografie. De organisatie brengt ook muziek. De eerste twee weken van het festival zijn wellicht het meest interessant maar daar zijn wij jammer genoeg te laat voor. Hoewel, gisteren mochten we op een terras meegenieten van Massive Attack en kropen we in een rookvrije club tussen jonge mensen van alle slag die wild werden van een DJ-duo dat zich “China Man” noemde. Maar ze zagen er niet echt Chinees uit en Chhovy kan het weten!

We kijken uit naar het vervolg. Onze huurwagen staat al klaar. We hopen dat de investering meer loont dan vandaag.

Chhovy en Thomas uit vanuit Arles.

Meer info over het fotofestival Arles kan je hier vinden.

The Modern Chinese Art Foundation presents ‘Outward Expressions, Inward Reflections’, originally a showcase for four young China-based photographers which was launched March 1st, 2008 by Three Shadows Photography Centre in Beijing.

The exhibition in Ghent, hosted by MCAF focuses on the work of photographer Adou, born in 1973 in Mianyang, Sichuan Province.

Tentoonstelling/Expositon/Exhibition 06.07 > 31.08.2008
friday – saturday – sunday 1pm – 6 pm
Modern Chinese Art Foundation
Anseeleplein 6, 9000 Gent

Adou’s work appears to depict the life and environment of western China. However, his art is not just ordinary documentary photography. Adou’s photographs of the Yi ethnic minority from Da Liang Mountain in western Sichuan province are called “Samalada.” In this series, the artist uses black-and-white images to create a visual language that is self-conscious and full of emotion. By presenting rich, innocent landscapes and portraits, Adou places the pastoral into a space conscious of life and history.

Opened in June 2007, Three Shadows Photography Art Centre is the first contemporary art centre for photography in China. Three Shadows, founded by one of the most important Chinese photographers Rongrong and Japanese photographer Ms. Inri, is situated in the Caochangdi art zone in Chaoyang District, Beijing, occupying a total area of 4600 square meters of which more than half were designed by the internationally renowned artist and architect Ai Weiwei.
Three Shadows is dedicated to fostering a professional and authorative platform to present and promote contemporary photography.

Tentoonstelling/Expositon/Exhibition 06.07 > 31.08.2008
friday – saturday – sunday 1pm – 6 pm
Modern Chinese Art Foundation
Anseeleplein 6, 9000 Gent

Modern Chinese Art Foundation
Three Shadows Photography Art Centre

“My work is graphic, full of lines and curves, repeated patterns, strong colors and movements. It moves from one image to the other, like sequences in our daily activities. To me my photographs are like a multicultural village with the emphasis on space, high consumption end living life to the max! Our society is under construction. It is on the way to establish and finding its identity on this planet and in this universe.

In order to give this idea the right content I travel around the globe. Being a modern citizen, living in a modern world. With all the new inventions and new technologies, the world is drawn together and becoming smaller. In my world, the boundaries are thin and the cultures are mixed. It almost becomes artificial like a little toy city. Modernization gives us comfort but takes us away from our most basic instincts. This materialistic and glossy world is our comfort zone. Globalization is happening fast. We run the risk to lose our unique identity and originality.”

Artist Statement, www.nancylee

Held at the prestigious Palais des Festivals, Cannes, between the 21st and 25th April 2008, The Sony World Photography Awards proudly give tribute to photographers around the globe in all categories. From landscape to music, photojournalism to fashion, the Sony World Photography Awards showcases the world’s best images taken by the most renowned photographers as well as the yet undiscovered.

Supported by hundreds of the industry’s top photographers, critics, gallery owners, directors, founders and other industry experts, SWPA is the first awards show of its kind, providing an unprecedented international platform in the culturally important and diverse world of photography.

The aim of the SWPA is always to continuously unearth the images of the future while giving tribute to the vision of the past.

Sony World Photography Awards : Cannes 2008

Starting Thursday May 8th, Canvas is broadcasting the six-part BBC documentary ‘The Genius of photography’, at 10pm.
If you don’t have the patience you can also find the complete series on torrentsites.
Genius of Photography

© Audrey Corregan

One of the selected photographers at Hyères 2008 is Audrey Corregan, upcoming talent and living at Amsterdam. In her work “Obviously”, she shows impressive pictures of birds photographed from behind. Her backward portraits of birds reminds me of the reversed portraits by Marjaana Kella.

© Marjaana Kella

More work by Audrey Corregan you can find here.
More on Marjaana Kella you can find here and here.

Due to technical problems the Sem Presser Lecture 2008 by Martin Parr couldn’t start in time. The full lecture will be available here from Monday 28 April until Sunday 4 May.

This year, for the first time, you can follow the Sem Presser Lecture through live streaming.
The lecture is an initiative of World Press Photo and the Sem Presser Archief and is part of the Awards Days program for the 6th consecutive year. Martin Parr, member of Magnum Photos, has entitled his lecture “Photobiography”. He will examine his long photographic career and explain his motivation as a photographer and how this has changed over the last 35 years. Parr throws light behind why he feels it is important to document our world in a new and different way. The lecture will be live streamed on Saturday, 26 April 2008, starting at 15.00 hours (CET). The estimated duration of the presentation is 1,5 hours. You can catch it all on http://worldpressphoto.kanaal11.tv

 
© Grzeszykowska & Smaga

Aneta Grzeszykowska & Jan Smaga are a Polish duo who take pictures from a bird eye’s view. The pictures microscopically investigate people’s domestic space. The photographs look as if they are scannings taken by a huge scanner attached on the ceiling, capturing with exactitude the details of daily life. When you look closer at the pictures with patience and curiosity, you will discover subtletys in the objects their relationship with the environments they inhabit.

© Grzeszykowska & Smaga

You can find more about them here and here.

© Ryan McGinley

At this moment there is an interesting exhibition at the “Team Gallery” in New York by the New York based photographer Ryan McGinley. I love the way some pictures shows the body and its relationship to nature.

© Ryan McGinley

” … The inspirational images for the project were culled from the kinds of amateur photography that appeared in nudist magazines during the 60s and early 70s. McGinley would sit with his models and look through all of the ephemera of the period that he had collected, discussing with them the mood that he was hoping to capture that day. McGinley had chosen a very specific itinerary that would bring his troop through the incredible range of landscapes that are available across the US and carefully planned a battery of activities, sometimes orchestrating the use of special effects. He has always been quite fond of fireworks and fog machines and in this new work they play a major role. …”

© Ryan McGinley

More of this project you can see here.
More of his work you can see here.