written by: Justina HanI began photographing in Asia about ten years ago. I started doing documentary photography in New York when I was studying photography, and moving on from there I photographed in Vietnam, Cambodia and, of course, Korea, where I was born and raised. In the past four years, I have photographed very extensively in Bhutan, the last Buddhist kingdom of the Himalayas, and that work has resulted in two gallery exhibitions and a book, called Simply Bhutan—Land of the Thunder Dragon. I think all my Asia work is similar in theme. I like to photograph people in their everyday lives, not Read more »
written by: RyuijieI began photographing in the mid seventies. The Monterey Peninsula has a vibrant photographic tradition (think Ansel Adams and Edward Weston), and has attracted many photographers to its stunning landscapes and shorelines. Surrounded by this kind of community, I became obsessed with photography. I spent every spare moment with my camera or locked away in the darkroom. Those first few years were amazing; each new print seemed to be getting better, and my understanding of the medium was expanding. Then one day nothing seemed to be working. I could not make a photograph that satisfied me. The harder I tried, Read more »
written by: Michal GiedrojcMy adventure with photography started quite long ago, but I have been taking photographs with conscious engagement for just four years. During this time I have learned how to use the possibilities which software programs offer to create my own imagined world. Creative photography helps me in multi-stage work, and I do not limit myself to clicking the shutter. To this should be added the conceptual stage, the selection stage and the most beautiful for me, the production stage. Several hours, or several dozen hours, spent on creating an image, or rather on photo manipulation, is a kind of purification Read more »
written by: Ryan Spencer ReedThese are not the ruins of Rome nor the tombs of Egypt. While the echoes of the past resonate, this community is extinguishing in the present. The story of Detroit is one of the most significant representations of a nation in transition. As a photographer, I began an anthropological exploration there in the spring of 2009 and continue today through a kind of architectural archaeology. This is a story about things left behind painted with a heavy heart by dim and murky light — a story told amidst the death of the American Industrial Revolution. Like the structures depicted, the Read more »
An Interview with Pierre Cordier
written by: Douglas CollinsPierre Cordier (born 1933) is a Belgian artist. A former lecturer at the École Nationale des Arts Visuels in Brussels, he is known in the art world through his practice of the chemigram technique. He lives and works in Brussels. After exhibiting at MoMA in New York (1967), the Musée d’Art Moderne in Brussels (1988), the Centre Pompidou in Paris (2008), and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (2010), he is currently having a show of his early photographs of the French poet and singer, Georges Brassens, at the Cité de la Musique in Paris. New York cameraless photographer Read more »
Working with a Pinhole Camera
written by: Craig BarberAs a boy, I grew up in a small village where farming was important and my free time was spent hiking in the woods and exploring the natural world. My village was straight out of Norman Rockwell − with me, a freckle- faced boy bicycling past farm houses and white picket fences, tree lined streets, waterfalls in the middle of town, country stores, barking dogs and kindly neighbors. Then, when as a young man my country sent me off to war, my youthful ideals were altered in unimaginable ways. Now, years later my work is very much about memory and Read more »
written by: John BonathPhotoshop can be an important tool in the image-making process, but as such it is only part of a means to the end (and not an end in itself by any means). Knowing visual “mark-making” conventions that have been invented and that have evolved over centuries of art history is critical in order to maximize the possibilities that lie within Photoshop. The visual structure of an image not only includes formal attributes such as design and color theory but also the psychology of visual communication. The visual conventions that we use to read three-dimensional space from flat two-dimensional surfaces makeup Read more »
An Interview with Maggie Taylor
written by: Maggie Taylor, Paul SchranzMaggie Taylor is a digital artist who lives amid the moss and live oaks at the edge of a small swamp on the outskirts of Gainesville, FL. She explains that most of her childhood in Cleveland, OH, was spent watching countless hours of television. She received a philosophy degree from Yale University and later an MFA in photography from the University of Florida. Luckily, advances in computer science have enabled Maggie to move beyond making strange little color still-life images with a camera and film, she says. Now her digital composites of scans, drawings and photographs are exhibited around the Read more »
An Interview with Wildlife Photographer Michael Poliza
written by: Michael PolizaSituations which lead people to becoming professional photographers are many and varied. Few, however, are as fascinating as the route taken by internationally recognized wildlife and travel photographer Michael Poliza, who started his working career as a popular young German television actor who in a later incarnation became an extremely successful businessman in the field of computer technology. Then in his early 30s, he says found himself with both the desire and the opportunity to make a career move that would actually make him happy. I spoke with him recently about his journey on land, sea and through the air Read more »
written by: Douglas CapronThe Hydrology series is a study of natural patterns that occur momentarily when water begins to transform into ice at the onset of winter. I was fascinated by the elaborate, unpredictable and beautiful shapes that were forming and morphing on a small lake in an urban park as winter temperatures started to descend. This particular crystallization process lasted approximately a week, as the temperature fluctuated, eventually evolving into solid ice. My intention was to express and share the ephemeral mystery of these patterns announcing the arrival of winter and to provoke reflection and an internal dialogue regarding the energy, complexity Read more »
