photo-eye Magazine Blogs - Daniel Espeset

Photographs From the Ongoing Turmoil in Greece

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 13:45:00 -0400

A riot policeman stands outside the National Technical University of Athens Tuesday amid the thick smoke caused by tear gas on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2008. © AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris

Like much of the western world I've been reading about the current rioting throughout Greece, sparked by the December 6th police shooting of 15-year-old student Alexandros Grigoropoulos in Athens. The protests have received woefully little coverage in the North American media but are a monster story in Europe, where solidarity protests and even rioting have spread throughout Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Denmark and the UK. The unrest is an incredibly complex and significant event not just for Greece, but for the western world as a whole; indeed, it marks the first case of widespread domestic turmoil in a western democracy since the start of the current global economic crisis. Admittedly, soon after learning about the riots my thoughts turned to imagining the photographs that would eventually surface. Right now there's a great 2008 Greek riots feature up on Boston.com with photographs from a variety of press agencies, while a cursory search of flickr returns a load of results. Both have the expected range of quality / approach and there are certainly some powerful images in the mix; however, I can't help but wonder if there's a fledgling Greek Koudelka out there somewhere, waiting to provide the as-of-yet-undiscovered definitive viewpoint — only time will tell.

The Complete and Compelling Archives of L'officiel de la mode

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:51:00 -0400

L'Officiel de la Mode n°563-564 de 1969.

L'Officiel, the French luxury magazine responsible for launching the careers of Christian Dior and Yves St. Laurent (among many, many others), now has an online archive of every single issue from 1921 - 2008. The archive includes each issue scanned in it's entirety -- advertisements and all -- and features a sophisticated search engine (want to see every Dior ad from 1947?).

Spread from L'Officiel de la Mode n°301 de 1947.

Aside from the obvious fashion interest, it is a stunning visual archive of photography, illustration and design. A real treat from one of the longest (perhaps the longest, anybody know?) continuously published fashion magazines in the world. Though the website is in French, most of the navigation is via thumbnails. (tip: click "PLEIN ECRAN" to launch the full-screen viewer.) This is exactly the sort of thing that I'm excited, and expecting, to see a lot more of over the next few years. UPDATE: The lovely Ms. Sarah Bradley has just informed me that Harper's Bazar (now spelled Bazaar) has been in publication since 1867! We can only hope they'll follow suit and make some of their own history accessible online.

William Eggleston's Stranded in Canton

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:28:00 -0400

As a follow up to Rixon's post from yesterday, I thought I would point out that Eggleston's own work with video is finally going to become available on DVD. In 1974 Eggleston shot the 77-minute Stranded in Canton using a Sony PortaPak -- here are a couple excerpts (presumably these were not taken from the "newly restored" version soon to be released):

Until now Stranded in Canton has been largely unavailable outside the occasional festival or institutional screening, which is why there's been a lot of excitement around Twin Palms forthcoming Stranded in Canton book / DVD (to be released in January). The book includes 40 enlargements from the newly restored footage and an appreciative essay by director Gus Van Sant. The DVD contains the original film, plus more than thirty minutes of bonus footage and an interview with Eggleston from the 2005 Toronto Film Festival. If you happen to be in New York then make sure to catch Stranded in Canton at the Whitney, screening as part of the exhibition William Eggleston: Democratic Camera - Photographs and Video, 1961-2008, up through January 25th, 2009.

Book Dummies Exhibition at ICP

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:40:00 -0400

Victor Sira curates what should be a fascinating show at ICP:

Book dummies is an exhibition that gives insight into the process of making a photo book. It reveals the many layers of the process, and gives a step-by-step view of the approach used by each of the photographers whose book dummies make up the exhibition.

I have a personal affinity for exhibitions that deal with the working process, and am especially excited (for obvious reasons) by news of this one. With dummies from Morten Andersen, Stephanie Cardon, Yuichi Hibi, Leigh Ledare, Esther Levine and Pax Paloscia, it should prove fascinating — not least of all for any photographer interested in producing a book of their own. The show runs October 25th - December 27th, 2008 at the ICP Education Gallery. The opening reception is on Friday, October 24, from 6:00-8:00pm.

More information.

Lay Flat

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:21:00 -0400

Ridderkerk II, 2003 by Raimond Wouda

photo-eye contributor Shane Lavalette has recently announced Lay Flat, a new, ongoing publication project with the goal of presenting the best of contemporary photography and writing on the medium. Issue One: Remain in Light (co-edited by Karly Wildenhaus) will include 20 unbound photographs from an impressive list of international photographers (including Raimond Wouda, Ed Panar, Nicolai Howalt & Trine Søndergaard), alongside text by Tim Davis, Cara Phillips, Jason Fulford, Darius Himes and Lavalette himself. It's unclear if the portfolio format is going to be carried through to subsequent issues or if the production itself is subject to the same ongoing curation as the content, but either way it looks bound (no pun intended) to be a stunning series of publications. While ordering information and the edition size have yet to be announced, there are a lot more details available on the Lay Flat website including a complete list of contributors, submission guidelines, a newsletter and a way to donate money toward the publication.

Art for Obama

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:00:00 -0400

This has been all over the photo-blogosphere the last few days, but in case you haven't heard about it yet make sure to take a look. It's a pretty extraordinary event, especially considering that I understand it was organized in an incredibly short period of time. It should surprise no one that the vast majority of people in the contemporary photography world have this particular political leaning: Art for Obama is an online auction of photographs to benefit the Obama campaign. The whole thing was put together by photographers Ahndraya Parlato, Elizabeth Moy, Gregory Halpern, Whitney Hubbs and Dru Donovan. It's slated to run for 1 week and bidding begins October 1st, so get ready — the list of artists who've donated work is pretty spectacular:

Nubar Alexanian
Uta Barth
Nina Berman
Walead Beshty
Ellen Brooks
Elinor Carucci
Eileen Cowin
Doug Dubois
Jason Evans
Wendy Ewald
Larry Fink
Harrell Fletcher
Tierney Gearon
Jim Goldberg
Frank Golke
Emmet Gowin
Katy Grannan
Sharon Harper
Todd Hido
Jeff Jacobson
Eirik Johnson
Ron Jude
Lisa Kereszi
Michael Light
David Maisel
Susan Meiselas
Richard Misrach
Cathy Opie
Shana & Robert ParkeHarrison
Laura McPhee
Carter Mull
Laurel Nakadate
Mike Slack
Alec Soth
Larry Sultan
Peter Sutherland
Hank Willis Thomas
Catherine Wagner
Jim Welling
Mark Wyse

For more information, images and to begin the difficult process of deciding what to bid on, visit artforobama.net.

Welcome to the New photo-eye Magazine!

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:20:00 -0400

Over the last several months I've thought about what I might say on the occasion of our launch. It's been difficult, the urge to celebrate is conflicting with my instinct to see this as simply the first step on a long but gratifying road. My hope for the magazine's new incarnation is to continue on the path of our physical predecessor, to create a forum for furthering the consideration of the photographic book as art form. It's a lofty goal, but one I'm confident is possible given the array of fantastic contributors we've lined up and the incredible feast of wonderful publications coming out with an almost intimidating frequency. [More]