CPN Europe has a wonderful interview with David Burnett on his work covering the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

Film, slow ISO’s (Kodachrome and Tri-X, even Tri-X @ ISO 400 qualifies as slow these days), slower lenses, manual focus, maneuvering to get the film out of the country, a different time. But Burnett makes the case that even though technology has advanced over the interim, people and history remain quite similar.

Additional interview and story at NYT’s Lens blog from last September.

Burnett’s book, 44 Days: Iran and the Remaking of the World, and web site.

There is another great portfolio of images by Platon in this week’s New Yorker (publication date, 2/15/10.) Titled, The Promise, it captures portraits of the leaders of the civil rights movement.

Photographs: Platon

I think The Promise and Platon’s other recent series (Service and First Dance) establish him as the heir to Avedon’s Portraits of Power.

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Polaroid, once a cultural touchstone, enhanced its aura through the use of its Artist Support Program. It allowed Polaroid to get direct feedback from artists on their products, it helped the artists, and it enabled Polaroid to build one of the most unique, diverse, and enduring collections of art.

Now the collection is being sold off to pay the debts of a Ponzi scheme, a result of one of the companies which owned Polaroid in 2008. While only a fraction of the collection is being auctioned, it will most likely be the last time any significant grouping of the images will be seen together in public.

This spring Sotheby’s will have a public six-day viewing of the work prior to the two-day auction on June 21 and 22.

New York Times article – From That Instant Thrill, Enduring Art, Now for Sale.

Hey, I admit it. I Google myself every once in a while. It’s a good way to keep up on how my web site and my blog are being indexed. It’s also a convenient way to find out if photos of mine are appearing online. You never know what you may find…

A few days ago I came across this:

It’s the home page of an Austrian art gallery, Fotoforum West. They are having an exhibit of Miles Davis pictures, highlighting portraits of him along side his paintings and prints. Pretty cool. Even cooler is that that’s my photo as the lead image for the show. Cooler still is that I’m in great company – Annie Leibovitz and Anton Corbijn. You can’t ask for better than that.

The show is getting a lot of press in Austria and I’m even being lumped in with Annie and Anton as a starfotografen. Google translates that as a “star photographer” though it’s more likely a “photographer of celebrities” than the other way around. Not bad for an image of mine which is just over 22 years old.

There’s only one problem… I didn’t know anything about it. No one contacted me and asked me for permission. But what’s odder still is I don’t know how this gallery came up with a print. The photo has been published twice. Once in Rolling Stone (1987) and once in the book, The Art of Miles Davis (1991.)

Miles Davis, Rolling Stone, November 19, 1987.

I’ve never sold or given away a print of the image. So, as much as I am surprised to see the image re-surface, I’m curious to know what path it took. The only method I can think of is that someone copied the photo out of the book. I have begun to see if I can find out. The gallery in Austria has not returned my emails and a gallery in England (the exclusive agent for Davis’ artwork in Europe) knew nothing of the show nor my image.

An interesting side note to this – the portrait was taken within a few months of my having started out on my own. I was freelancing in New York and had fallen in with a publicist whose core group of clients was nightclubs. Davis had a show of his work at the Tunnel.

I remember getting a frantic phone call from the publicist telling me to hightail it over to the Tunnel to photograph Davis for Rolling Stone. Just like in a movie, I could be heard to say, Rolling Stone – this is my break! First problem was that I didn’t own any lights outside of a couple Vivitar flashes. So, I ran over to Lens & Repro, rented a Norman 200B, a stand, and an umbrella, and then cabbed it over to the Tunnel.

I set up my light and waited my turn. I was waiting a long time when I was told, “We don’t need you. Rolling Stone sent their own photographer.” I couldn’t believe it. This was my break, I was not giving it up. I don’t remember who I spoke with but I pleaded my case, pointed out the expense of having rented equipment (something the Rolling Stone photographer did not do), pointed out that I was already set up and ready to go, and asked for a minute or two with Mr. Davis.  They gave me one.

1o to 15 seconds of it was spent photographing.  I got off 6 frames in color slide on one camera, 6 in b&w on another. The remainder of the time was spent getting Davis to move back into position. He kept wandering over and standing directly under the one light. Long story short, the Rolling Stone photographer somehow messed up. His images didn’t come out so Rolling Stone ran mine.

In the end, I can’t say if this was my break (is there ever one?) or that it led directly to other assignments. A few years later, Davis passed away. I was able to see one of his last U.S. concerts. It was an amazing experience made all the more so by having had a few moments with him at the start of my career.

Miles Davis, November, 1987.

I spent most of this week shooting portraits in Williamstown, MA. It was fun to be up there and out of the usual locales. Williamstown is wedged into the upper left corner of Massachusetts. Ringed by mountains, its a place of great beauty, and quite isolated considering that it’s part of the denser populated Northeast.

One of the gems in town is the Williams College Museum of Art. I hadn’t been there in close to twenty years and I’m glad to say it didn’t disappoint. One of my portrait subjects, Mike Glier, has a show of landscape paintings exploring environments from the arctic to the equator which happen to fall on the longitude line which passes through his studio in Hoosick, New York. The paintings are rich and engaging. I liked how each location was clearly distinct, while still working together as a whole. His New York body of work has shades of Stuart Davis underneath it. Very nice.

January 23, 2008: Afternoon at Haulover Bay, St. John, Virgin Islands, 83°F; ©2009, Mike Glier/Artist Rights Society

Mike’s work is shown along with another Williams faculty member, Amy Podmore. Amy’s got a range of work from sculpture to video. What got me the most was her video entitled, Disappearing Acts – Powder and Milk. One half of the screen is Amy in what can be best described as a white, plaster looking, breast dress. It has fifty or so breasts on it arranged in four rows. Amy spins in a circle as milk spots out of the nipple on each breast. The other half of the screen finds Amy in the same location. She is wearing a white loose fitting pants outfit with many pockets, each filled with white powder. Amy jumps around and bats at the pockets creating a large white cloud. She’s clearly having fun on both sides of the screen and it’s infectious. What could be forced is funny, and odd, and you can’t help but watch it.

Disappearing Acts - Powder and Milk, video still, © Amy Podmore

In other galleries at the museum are works by William Morris Hunt, Alec Soth, and Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle. Hunt and Soth are in a Niagara smack-down. Hunt painted the falls in the nineteenth century. Soth photographed them in the twenty-first. Hunt’s work is impressionism and it felt dated and blah. It was clearly skilled but it was no match for the beauty of Soth’s best work. I’ve been reading about Alec Soth for years and have seen his work in print and online. Neither matches seeing it in person. It’s beautiful and the key pieces are stunning.

Niagara Falls, 1878, by William Morris Hunt

An image of the falls, shot in winter, 4′x5′, is just glorious. The web can’t do it justice. There are tourists on overlooks, there’s a richness in layers of mist which is impressionism today. Unfortunately, much of the show is Soth’s motel work. I think someone needs to pull Soth aside and say, no more motels, no more motels at night, no more motels with old cars in front, and no more motels with brides (you can see a gallery here.) It’s not that this work isn’t attractive, I just feel like I’ve seen it before and that it’s a cliché.

Falls 02, 2005, © Alec Soth

Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle’s work is one video, Juggernaut, projected in HD on a large wall (~18′ high by 32′ wide.) It was shot at the salt flats of the El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve in Mexico. The blurb on the wall had some gobbley-gook curator speak about how the reserve is actually for whales and that by Manglano-Ovalle choosing to work with the salt flats and not the whales there is some connection to the whales. That did not ring true for me, it sounded like a leap, and it wasn’t needed. The video is engrossing enough on its own. Just over five minutes long, it presents a bleak white, flat landscape. The camera is moving slowing to the right while industrial trucks are moving slightly faster to the right. You see the trucks from the tires down but it’s clear these are huge machines. The sound is a layered combination of noise, static, and voices.

Juggernaut, video still, © Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle

The installation is large enough that if the gallery is empty you can walk into the scene.

Me watching Juggernaut, Series of 4, December 1, 2009

In New York City on Friday, to photograph a college dorm room.  In the adjacent hallway:

Left Over Halloween Decorations, NY, NY, 11/06/09

In Doylestown, PA, today to view the Jim Henson show at the Michener Art Museum.  In the adjacent room:

The Twins: Virginia and Jane, 1917, by Joseph Pearson, Jr., 11/08/09

In an interesting turn of events, artist Shepard Fairey has admitted to using a different photo than the one he originally claimed as the source for his Obama Hope poster. He’s also admitted that he made up information and destroyed other evidence, all in an effort to support his fair use claim in his suit against the AP. The end result is that his lawyers have withdrawn from the case citing the same points as the AP.

You are Shepard Fairey. Through skill, experience, and luck you manage to create what is the most iconic graphic image of your generation. Your career should be set. When questions arise about your source material you can admit to the source of the image, settle with the photographer and his representatives (*in this case the AP), and any issues will go away.  Or you can do what is described above. Hard to believe the latter route was even considered viable.

The full story at the NY Times.

*I don’t think it’s been resolved yet but there is a dispute between the photographer, Mannie Garcia, and the AP as to who owns the copyright to the images in question.  It has little to do with Fairey’s actions since Garcia created both photos.  It would only point to whom Fairey must deal with in resolving this.

My friend Cameron Davidson has the cover story including an eighteen page photo spread in tomorrow’s Washington Post Sunday Magazine. Cameron has been working on this project, documenting the Chesapeake watershed, for over a decade.

Online slideshow, narrated by Cameron, discussing the Chesapeake Project and his aerial photography.

Washington Post article, Beauty on the Brink, which accompanies the photos.

At time when the news out of Mexico and Mexico City is rarely positive comes the intriguing story of the Mexican Suitcase, three cardboard boxes containing 4,300 negatives.  The work of three photographers; Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and David Seymour; the cases most likely made their way into the hands of a Mexican diplomat stationed in Marseille in the late 1930’s and then to Mexico.

Contained within the cases are images of the Spanish Civil War by two of the founding members of Magnum and, between the three photographers, what is seen as the foundation of modern war photography.

New York Times Article

Slideshow of Images from the Mexican Suitcase