Category: Travels
Look3: Photographers on Honesty and Objectivity
Last week, I attended the Look3 Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville, VA, and was struck by the conflicting opinions on the role of photographic images. Ashley Gilbertson delivered an impassioned talk about why he photographs the empty bedrooms of young soldiers killed in conflict. “I don’t believe in objectivity,” he explained, “I believe in honesty.” Spending weeks telephoning families of deceased soldiers and traveling around the world to photograph empty bedrooms is not a neutral endeavor. That evening, Massimo Vitale, famous for his large wall-size prints of crowds on beaches, provided a directly opposing view: “I’m all for objectivity,” he […]
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Caochangdi and 798
On recent trip to China, I visited two of Beijing’s arts districts. A good map and a working knowledge of Mandarin go a long ways in navigating these reclaimed industrial zones. I had neither. I showed the taxi driver a piece of paper with the words “798 arts district” written out in Chinese. After making our way out of the center and onto the airport road, he stopped next to a pedestrian bridge and motioned for me to get out of the car. All I saw was an enormous electronics store, but around back was the start of the arts […]
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Pictorialism and Truth
“We very much fear that … photography … has been degraded to the level of a mere sport, and many take it up as they do lawn tennis, merely for an amusement, without a thought of the grand and elevating possibilities it opens up to them.” As the tools of photography became widely accessible in the late-19th century, some artistically-inclined photographers worried that the medium would be diluted by hordes of amateur picture makers who reduced the creative process to the mere click of a button. The pictorialists sought to save photography from this fate by elevating it to the […]
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Miami Marine Stadium
The Miami Marine Stadium was built in 1964 at a cost of $2 million. Designed by Cuban-American architect Hilario Candela, the grandstand seats 6,566 under a “hyperbolic paraboloid roof structure” made entriely of poured concrete. It is a dramatic piece of architecture. The stadium was originally used for power boat and hydroplane races, but became a site for concerts and other events over the years. However, the site was closed in 1992 after Hurricane Andrew. While the structure was deemed sound, repairs estimated at $1 million were never made by the City. Since then, the stadium has remained unused and […]
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Buckner Building, Whittier, Alaska
Following World War II, the town of Whittier, Alaska, became the site for a major military installation. The Buckner Building, an enormous complex built in 1953, housed most of the population and included, under one roof, a theater, industrial kitchens, and medical clinics and laboratories. The complex was isolated from the outside world, accessible only by boat or airplane. Today the Buckner building is still standing. The presence of asbestos has thwarted efforts to demolish it. The site is easily accessible and has become a hangout for local youth and grafitti artists. However, its condition is rapidly deteriorating due […]
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New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape
I recently saw this exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. “A turning point in the history of photography, the 1975 exhibition New Topographics signaled a radical shift away from traditional depictions of landscape. Pictures of transcendent natural vistas gave way to unromanticized views of stark industrial landscapes, suburban sprawl, and everyday scenes not usually given a second glance. This restaging of the exhibition includes the work of all 10 photographers from the original show: Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore, and Henry Wessel.” While […]
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The Icon
Less than two years ago, in December 2008, condo mogul Jorge Pérez unveiled his $1.3 billion self-proclaimed “legacy,” the ICON Brickell in downtown Miami. With 1650 residences and a 150 room boutique hotel in three 50-story towers, it is Florida’s largest condominium development. The complex features “signature designs” by Yoo and “inspired by” Philippe Starck, including a unique entryway “envisioned by Starck as a dark cave illuminated by light emitted from the watchful “eyes” of mammoth columns” shaped like carved human faces. Marketing materials also promised a 28,000 square-foot state-of-the-art spa, a two-acre terrace and pool deck […]
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The Past is Not What it Used to Be
The walk to the Centro de la Imagen, on the Plaza de La Cuidadela in central Mexico City, took me past 20-foot-high temporary steel barricades and hundreds of police in riot gear, in preparation for a massive protest the same day. The main exhibition, titled Presencia Flagrante, showcases the work of contemporary photographers Marcos Lopez and Ruben Ortiz Torres. While I’m already a fan of Lopez’ colorful staged scenes, commenting on consumerism and Latino stereotypes, Ortiz Torres’ work was new to me. This body of work, titled “El pasado ya no es lo que era,” focuses on archeological treasures the […]
Read MoreLook3
Look3: The Festival of the Photograph was great fun — three days of browsing photography exhibits, seeing presentations from luminaries in the field, and hanging out with lots of photographer friends. However, the photography on display I found less than inspiring. The exhibits and shows were heavily weighted towards serious photojournalism. The implication here was that photography needs to communicate a very direct social or political message. Indeed, the Saturday morning breakfast session, where James Nachtway discussed his body of work on highly drug resistant tuberculosis, was titled “How Can Photography Improve the World’s Health?” But my favorite body of […]
Read MoreNew York Photo Festival
I checked out the New York Photo Festival last month in DUMBO. The neighborhood itself, becoming a focus for photography galleries and studios, made for a worthwhile destination. In fact, the weather was so nice I saw more photographers spread out on the grass alongside the river than inside the exhibition spaces. ANTI-Plano at the Latin American Pavilion, an exhibition of work by two Ecuadorian artists curated by Katya Cazar, was one of the more interesting displays. Geovanny Verdezoto creates panoramic urban scenes by stitching together multiple images. This is especially challenging to do effectively, as most of his photographs include […]
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