david corona

good friend and photographer david corona has some years developing his visual voice with eerie urbanscapes. he is based in guadalajara mexico, which lately has been giving mexican photography great artists.

a paul graham interview over at PDN worth reading

PDN: In your 2008 essay on Tod Papageorge's book Passing Through Eden, you wrote that art made from “life as it happens… is regrettably viewed with suspicion in the art world. Misunderstood as a collection of lucky moments, fortuitous observations, or simply 'documentary', it has been bypassed or overlooked by many curators, writers and collectors who muddle it up with photojournalism, and are attuned mostly to assessing what the artist created.” Given that your work is currently hung in MoMA, and that you are having a mid-career survey as well, are you satisfied that the art world now appreciates work made directly from “life as it happens” and has realized its errors?

PG: Well, it's not a question of "errors." Of course Cindy Sherman's Film Stills, or Mapplethorpe's portraits, are stunning bodies of work. So is much of Jeff Wall or Thomas Demand or... My point is simply that the art world is traditionally attuned to perceiving what the artist “created,” which in photography usually means that they pick up more on work with a synthetic quality—constructed scenes, Tableaux Vivants, staged pieces—these fit neater into this expectation and fit into the broader art world model of “what artists do” much easier. However, the great photography which operates at the core of the medium—from Frank to Eggleston to Shore to Winogrand—doesn't fit that model, as it is taken from life directly, unscripted and unforced. That creates problems and is often misunderstood or marginalized as 'documentary' or 'observational.' Now nobody in their right mind can deny the power of what Frank did, or the best of Eggleston, or Robert Adams, but sadly there's a lot of folks that don't get it, and prefer the traditional model.

Having said that... there's a lot of blame to lay in the photography community itself, for the plain dumbness and lack of discrimination that burdens the medium. We should fight that and be smarter and more discriminating in what we do, say and promote. It's an incredible medium, alive and direct, but we need to engage our hearts and minds in aspiring to make truly great work, that put any doubts beyond reach.

read the whole interview here

wow jean paul goude

some of his images here

flashback

just got back from laredo texas and i found myself singing to this old song in the local shopping mall. enjoy...or not.

more china power: li wei

what i love about li wei's work is that he is doing things that anyone can think of in their crazy head, but, he actually makes it visible to everyone and that is what really counts. these kind of images makes me doubt if the actual part of photography that deals with the "document=reality" is really worth pursuing, for is it not more exciting to see things that only exists in our minds?...dilemma numero uno!

maleonn

some very impressive images in shanghai artist maleonn's website. his use of the absurd is, well, hilarious.

chris mccaw/hans-christian schink

the sun is burning on both artists. images of hans here and images by chris here

douglas adesko

i just went through an impressive website by douglas adesko. both in images and presentation. i liked the ohio project the most.

julie blackmon

a remix of anthony goicolea, a contemporary lady clementina hawarden and ralph eugene meatyard. i saw a her work at photo la and found myself in like but estranged at the same time. see for yourself here.

©anthony goicolea



lady clementina hawarden



ralph eugene meatyard

the backdrop-the isolation-the new meaning...michael itkoff and myoung ho lee

it seems to me these images are a little bit of many photography strategies put together in a very smart way. both artists have found a way to get photography critics and thinkers to burst out with explanations on what these images really mean... i´m trying to find out what they mean to the authors.

they both are interesting visual dilemmas and aesthetically striking representations that will find warm reception. myoung ho lee images here. michael itkoff images here.