31 August 2008

Tatiana Bitir new author of the F Blog

When I am travelling on Photography Dr., sensations are at the forefront and not the thoughts that may be crossing my mind.

Conjuring up an image where poetry and mystery mingle, as in City Girls, where nature inserts itself incongruously above the veil of a hat: tree branches, clouds, we get a sense of freedom; the breath frees itself from the stranglehold of the fabric covering the face.

I try to pursue the mystery that lies between light and shadow, to reveal the boundless solitude of human beings hanging in midair, precariously balanced between Heaven and Earth, on the verge of an imminent fall: Suspended, under a sun that scarcely lightens up, but remaining the sole witness to their presence.

Bodies exist in anticipation: frozen in the unchanging time, a woman at her window. Waiting; another one clumsily makes vague dance steps in a disembodied space: Dancing with the Light.

Illusion and Joy: In another syncopated dance, a child whirling around a green ball and its shadow, in glorification of a magic-sized world of fantasy.












A woman zigzags along a path – a distant figure with an umbrella, whose destiny we will never know: Path.
There are those I meet on the streets, who smile at the camera, I feel they are on the border between the outer-normal-world and the inner-madness-world, a place where the limits are undefined and constantly changing.

The absence of landmarks inspires me to move towards the unknown, stress differences that can lead to a humorous, melancholic, fantastic representation, and uncover, behind the façade, the ‘weirdness’ of things and beings.

Face to Face (187)



Photographer: Andre Lindholm

R is for Rowland


Fly free and happy beyond birthdays and across forever, and we'll meet now and then when we wish, in the midst of the one celebration that never can end." (Richard Bach)

Best wishes Bea!

-R

Feliz cumpleaños, Reina !

El rey

A rebus in French

A common french phrase, two words, sorry GC you can't guess! :)

30 August 2008

High Hopes from The Division Bell by Pink Floyd

CDG/JHE

Soon JH Engström release his new book CDG/JHE, published by Steidl. Now, on wednesday (3 September), it's time for signing/release at the bookshop Konstig at Åsögatan 124 in Stockholm. Don't miss that! And stay tuned to the F blog for more info and check out JH's earlier contributions to the F blog (here, here and here).

- f. skott


more thoughts about bicycles

Captive

By the will art thou lost, by the will art thou found, by the will art thou free, captive, and bound.
(Angelus Silesius)

27 August 2008

Invited guest: Piotr Koszczyński

Piotr Koszczyński: I'm a fan of photgoraphy. Like to watch black and white photos, sometimes also to ramble around the city by myself with a camera. My favourite photographer is Elliot Erwitt. His pictures are telling so lyrical and equisite stories. My pictures are made on chromes, maybe because I'm amazed by lights like in the theater and density of colours in this material. I like analog technic because of it's manual pulling of shutter, the smell of grease. I like to put a film into the analog camera. Like the ring of shutter, the sound of film passing and "click" of the measuring the diaphragm... I like to roam through the city, to observe people, to get in their worlds. I like to see the negatives, to watch the slide on the enlarger, like to touch and watch the pictures developed on the bromine's papers.
I definitely dislike pictures made by digital cameras and the cameras itself. I can't find all this magic of photography in digital technics. I like this photographic process and it's final outcome - the image. I like watching exhibitions, but dislike openings.

invited by joanna kinowska

Stay cool Catman

Happy Birthday Christian!
/Nenne Gulden

Happy Birthday Christian!



photo: Jeanne Wells

There's a fabulous birthday gift waiting for you behind door number 2!

26 August 2008

invited photographer: Xavier Ribas



















These pictures from Barcelona by Xavier Ribas have touched me in a very special way - they speak of people with relatively free minds, still able to create a kind of paradise right in the middle of nowhere.

The great Spanish photographer Joan Fontcuberta describes it well: "Quite spontaneously, people preserve, manage and recycle these spaces, effectively keeping them out of the efficient, productive order of the city: places for walking, sunbathing, picknicking, sport and exercise…It seems paradoxical that these spaces –not yet codified, as yet without regulation- are where people still have a chance to take the initiative." (from text on Xavier Ribas’ photographs in BLINK, Phaidon Press, London 2002).

I am glad that Xavier accepted this invitation to The F Blog. As a quite frequent visitor to his city they remind me of "el Mediterráneo." I was not born there, but I have felt the magic. /Ulf

"En la ladera de un monte,
más alto que el horizonte.
Quiero tener buena vista.
Mi cuerpo será camino,
le daré verde a los pinos
y amarillo a la genista.
Cerca del mar. Porque yo
nací en el Mediterráneo."
- Joan Manuel Serrat

























Xavier Ribas was born in Barcelona in 1960. He lives and works in Brighton and Barcelona.

Studies of Social Anthropology at the University of Barcelona (1990) and Documentary Photography at the Newport School of Art and Design (1993). Since 2000 he is Senior Lecturer at the University of Brighton and visiting Lecturer at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (since 2004).

Xavier Ribas has participated in numerous exhibitions in many countries. Just to mention a few from recent years:

Solo exhibitions
2006 Invisible Structures, Galeria ProjecteSD, Barcelona, Spain
2005 Espacios transitorios. Fotoencuentros, Colegio de Arquitectos, Murcia, Spain
2002 Salamanca. A Photographic Project, Centro de Arte Contemporaneo, Salamanca, Spain

Group exhibitions
2008
L'arxiu universal. La condició del document i la utopía fotogràfica moderna. Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Oct 2008- Jan 2009.
Nou-Now. Contemporary Catalan Photography. F-Stop International Photography Festival, Leipzig.
2007
Beyond The Country. Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork, Ireland. Curated by Matt Packer
Itinerarios Afines. 10 Fotógrafos españoles. Canton Photo Biennial. Curated by Olive María Rubio
European Parliament, Goethe Institut, Frankfurt, 2007 (touring)
Non Tutte le Strade Portano a Roma, Fotografia International Photography Festival, Rome

Please visit Xavier Ribas homepage to find out more.
All photos © Xavier Ribas
invited by ulf fågelhammar

lost in the city...


warsaw/08

Paul Strand retrospective in Galicia, Spain

the F blog
When in Galicia, Spain you should not miss the opportunity to see the first ever retrospective exhibition to be held in Spain of the work of Paul Strand (New York City, 1890 – Orgeval, France, 1976). The exhibition, is the first full retrospective of Strand’s work to be held in Europe for at least thirty years. The exhibition is presented by The Fundación Pedro Barrié de la Maza and is held in A Coruña from through 14 September and in Vigo, from 2 October to 11 January 2009.

25 August 2008

invited photographer: Tread











"..from a series of images captured in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco Mexico a Mexican vacation spot once frequented by the Hollywood elite...now more for wealthy Canadians on tour boats. I purposely chose to not photograph the impoverished locals or day workers who make their livings based upon the tourist economy and instead just tried to capture moments that transcend locale and speak only of vacation for us members of the working class..."


















Text and photos © Tread

Tread was first invited to the F Blog in June 2007. It is good to have him back. Please visit his blog and website for more. invited by ulf fågelhammar
web: www.gotreadgo.com
blog: gotreadgo.blogtog.com

24 August 2008

Gordon Chapman becomes an author on the F Blog

I must say that I'm thrilled to be invited to become an author on the F blog. For me, the F blog is the most exciting photography site and most of my favourite contemporary photographers are already authors here or post on the site. I've been pleased to be an invited guest and to post here from time to time - you will know me by my initials - GC.

Photographers celebrate the world with a heightened visual passion, and I believe the world responds to that enthusiasm by providing us amazing things to photograph. I live in a small village just outside of Ottawa, and almost all of my photographs are taken within walking distance of my house or workplace.



I have been taking pictures since I first borrowed my sister's Brownie a very long time ago. Other than as a stint as a photojournalist in the 1970's I been doing it just for my own amusement. I shot with 35mm for a very long time, and then became absorbed with digital cameras. I loved the instant feedback one can get from a digital camera and I think that more than anything, using them allowed me to really understand how one can manipulate an image by understanding a camera's unique characteristics and how they respond to different settings. Ironically, shooting with digital led me back to shooting with film more often.

A few years ago I had something of a photographic ephiphany when my friend and F blogger Rhonda Prince sent me a Diana camera. I believe that she said something like "you need one of these". I circled around it for some time - it was an odd little beast, and parts of it kept falling off. I finally loaded it - the first time I'd handled medium format film in years - and began a love affair with the Diana that continues. I really think she has a vision of her own, so I subtitle my Diana shots "Dianavision" because she really is more than a camera, she is my co-conspirator.



I'm now shooting with a mixed bag of medium format, 35mm, and digital cameras and it probably speaks to my passion (or obsession with...!) photography that I seldom go anywhere with out at least three cameras.

I'm very happy to join the F blog and look forward to enjoying the amazing images that the authors and contributors post on the blog and sharing mine with you.