veronique besnard

veronique's work on refugees in the uk stands both as document and as visual evocation. here is a nice slide show with audio.

joão bento

my very special portuguese roommate is the author of these compelling images above. here is something he sent me in written words too:


The Last Carer

Yasmin Rios is a young woman that came from Honduras to the UK to work as a carer in August 2007. She found a place at the Leonard Cheshire Disability Centre on the outskirts of Cardiff in Radyr. Her regular responsibilities include preparation of meals, servingfood and drinks to residents and aiding those with difficulties eating, helping residents with personal hygiene and to maintain their appearance by giving manicures, facial treatments or putting on make and entertaining residents by playing games with them. All sort of small but important activities, making the life of those who live in the house possible and enjoyable. She is also one of the 100,000 carers
from abroad working in the UK. The number has been increasing due to a lack of interest in the job on the part of the British. Also, according to a survey by the organization Skills for Care and Development, overseas workers are often more committed, ambitious and more likely to have a genuine interest in care work, making them more suitable for the profession. Recent changes in government policy dictate that low-skilled workers from outside the EU will no longer find it as easy to enter the UK to work in this kind of position anymore. This will make the life of those like Yasmin difficult and bring a possible negative impact on the quality of care supplied.

first day of my life

things take for ever.

bad news is always bad...

last week my 85 year old grandma fell, broke her head and had brain damage which has her hospitalized and not able to speak. i've been crying like a baby and can't help not be sad, worried and not understanding. the proximity to death is such a strange thing...

good is good but great is great

that was the tone paul set through out the workshop. it is for sure one of my top classes ever and will defently influence me in the future. thank you...
above is paul showing us his american night book

the camping in aranjuez

so i'm back from spain and i'll start posting again. lets start with the sleeping facilities in which most of us stayed. walking and a very early curfew, thats all i can say. nice people though.

last day at paul graham´s workshop

i´ll post a few things next week that i saw that loved and work from european photographers i met here.

adios por ahora...

in spain in the middle of nowhere

finally after 24 hours of no sleep i´m here... this is just a short post. i´m too tired to write.

campus photoespaña

i leave tomorrow to campus photespaña in aranjuez spain, where i´ll be attending a workshop with paul graham, a seminar with sven ehmann on book editing, and master clases by karen knorr, xavier ribas, nadav kander, paul graham and jodi bieber. i can´t be more excited!!! the posting will slow down for I´ll be busy all day, but I will try to put some images of what am seeing and doing. bdw... that image at top is a proposal for the cover of the lost rivers book...if you have any comments let me know... the text on the back cover is not the one that will be included.

sharon harper

images that play with time and space. here then click on sharon harper.

a short video on jeff wall

a second part here

a short video on stephen shore

christopher laMarca

christopher´s forest defenders series is a beautiful and strong work. he has looked at a theme that is mainly represented by big razored landscape pictures and has added a romantic, almost reportage - documentary feel to the idea of defending and caring for our world.

yales e360

take a look at yale's new page by the Yale School of Forestry
& Environmental Studies. e360. there are good reads about water shortages and other environmental problems and opportunities.

bending space

i really enjoy this work by french artist georges rousse. i like the idea of the image that plays with my mind.

sometimes a boo is good too

rachael dunville

rachael´s portraits are great. the feeling that they are a bit snap-shotty make them feel intimate and not too staged. i saw a big part of the series at review santa fe and loved the prints. here page is here.

gerardo montiel klint

here is a link to all of gerardo´s series. he has been my teacher, friend and mentor. mainly staged photographs, he explores concepts of the mind; desires, pervertions, dreams and extremes. take a look at his studio work too.

pictured screen culture before many

paul graham´s television portraits portrayed screen culture back in the 80´s. take a look.

oswaldo ruiz

oswaldo has being doing images for some time now. he just got back from doing a masters in london. his images are about dreams, nights and specially space. he is currently working with luis adelantado gallery and teaching at CEDIM in monterrey. his page is here.

felix r. cid

me deleité viendo el proyecto de felix. las fotos son profundas, sugestivas, irracionales, comicas, sumamente cotidianas y divertidas de ver. de su statement:

The project studies new cotemporary society from an intimate perspective, Family and close friends model in the images. Therefore relationships between the models are strong, they appear as actors posed, performing autobiographical images that socially, politically and traditionally are directly attached to Spain´s imagery.

felicitaciones! vean las fotos aqui.

morgan from chicago

take a look at karen morgan´s portraits of animals. her prints are beautiful. it was a pleasure to chat with her and i do hope she is feeling well now!

sarah small

it was lovely to meet sarah at review santa fe and finally see here prints in person. since i first saw an image from her over at flak photo i was drawn buy the psicological intensity of here portraits. take a look here.

Ideology in Paradise/ hiroshi watanabe

i really enjoyed time with my new friend hiroshi watanabe. he is exactly what his images are: honest, witty and full of surprises. as hiroshi says in his statement:

"I go to places that captivate and intrigue me. I am interested in what humans do. I seek to capture people, traditions, and locales that first and foremost are of personal interest. I immerse myself with information on the places prior to leaving, but I try to avoid firm, preconceived ideas. I strive for both calculation and discovery in my work, keeping my mind open for surprises".

somewhere in middle america/colin blakely

the name of this series stuck to me from a counting crows song:

In the middle of the night there's an old man
Threading his toes through a bucket of rain
Hey mister you don't want to walk on water
Cause you're only going to walk all over me...

Somewhere in middle America
Get right to the heart of matters
It's the heart that matters more...

colin´s work reminds me of love, dreams and treasured memories. of the feeling of hovering over everything. the time in life when nothing matters. of the pleasure felt when thinking of the past. finally, it personally takes me into a past when my world was comprised by just a few blocks of land where everything happened. look here.

space

mike schwartz

during the 4 days of review santa fe i had a chance to meet great people and see a grand variety of work. mike schwartz´s architectural images resonate in ways that exceed mere form. questions like why does man need such spaces and such elaborate constructions, seem to be asked. Here is a link to a talk about what architecture should be and do for us.

back from review santa fe

ill be posting a bunch of my colleagues work during the week. there are so many good things i saw and heard i am sooooo overwhelmed, but very content. in the mean time here is a link to all who participated.

memories

in the middle of nowhere 2008


new york 2008


cancun 2008


wedding 2007

jpeg magazine published a few images from the lost rivers series in there human impact issue. take a look here.

desastres y tragedias

enrique metinides

the great mexican photographer, enrique metinides, has captured tragedy in a haunting romantic way. the first picture i saw of him, of an electrocuted man
made me one passionate "miron" of catastrophe. i don´t know if it is that it makes me cry, hence making me feel alive, that makes me so attracted to these images and stories or that i am just a bit too morbid.

drunk driving

what does a photograph do when it registers such a tragedy? is it the picture or the actual fact that makes us feel the way we feel?

nothing matters in the end

OZYMANDIAS

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

what happens when young photographers get together to party?

mmm....