Deer fence. Near Irkutsk, Siberia.1995platinum-palladium print, 8 x 10 in
Archive: August 2008
The Wire magazine has been having a happy back and forth with Steve Barker. This is one mix, with jumps to others, by Wire’s Lisa Blanning. Bliss. (A nice slide into post-Olympic Chinoisserie – Thanks Mr. Barker!)
cow, itself, here
I have just created a new wiki and resource area for documentary photo work based on communities and small cultures. The site is at the earliest stages of development, and is itself designed to be a community effort. Please take a look. I hope to spend most of next year working on this.
One small example of how business and corporate interests are undermining the democratic process: the Sign Task Force in Nashville. This is a (small) call to action. The issue reminds me of Edward Abbey’s “Monkey Wrench Gang“.
Martin John Callahan: I Want To See All Of The News From Today
Currently a teaching fellow at the Slade School of Art in London, Callahan’s sparse electronic work touches the rawer nerve-tips of our media-immersed selves. This current piece is typical of his approach.
“Borges’ map, described in “On Exactitude in Science”, imagines an empire where the science of cartography has become so exacting that only a map of the same scale as the empire itself is sufficient. This seems prescient of the increasing digitization, both of the world about us and correspondingly of our own lives. The world’s fastest computer in 2006, IBM’s Blue Gene L, has more processing capability than the 500 most powerful computers of 2001 combined. Blue Gene L is 15 times more powerful than its predecessor: within five seconds it can produce a volume of data equivalent to the total information held in the British Library”. The data collected by our networks, in data warehouses and elsewhere, vastly exceeds that which could be recorded about our world and knowledge on the 1:1 scale Borges imagined.”
Martin John Callanan, December 2006
Allan Jones.
1992. platinum-palladium print.
8 x 10 in
My friend, Allan Jones came by to visit today. I made this portrait of him sixteen years ago while he was still a student at Sewanee. He is still thinking. And painting. Thanks for swinging by Allan! And for the gift of this wonderful painting.
Allan Jones: Water Tower
Luca, Brassai-eye.
August, 2008
Polaroid Type 779
It is the mid-anniversary of photographer Brassai’s death and birth (real name Gyula Halász, Sept. 9, 1899 – July 8, 1984). This Polaroid, in honor and memory of him.
John Loengard: Brassai’s Eye, Paris, 1981
Gelatin Silver print