Wednesday 28 October 2009

Daniel Lillie
























All images © Daniel Lillie

I got introduced to Daniel Lillie at Chris Steele Perkins´ book launch a few weeks back. Let me just say, not only is he a delightful young chap but his work, for which he won the August edition of theprintspace competition, is outstanding. The images shown here are taken from his project I´ll see you on the far post... and this is his introduction to the series:

"Historically, socially and culturally the working man has been seen as a figure of strength and integrity, a foreboding presence both in the family and the community. These images are about what men do with their time, be it with their family, friends or alone. They are about working and not working. Work is not guaranteed for these men, it is insecure and transient.

These images also offer a portrait of a small estate in Newport, South Wales. They look at the ideals of family, friendship, kinship and the intimacies and relationships which are formed in a close knit community. They also look at the changing domestic role of the male within the family, as the roles clash and men re-negotiate their lives and relationships after the prospect of industrial stability has waned. They are about the in-between times, time spent in the company of other men. They’re about killing time; or time killing us".

Daniel was born Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1986 and graduated with a B.A Hons in Documentary Photography from the University of Wales, Newport in 2008. He has been working on the project I’ll see you on the far post… almost exclusively since 2007 but he also works as a freelance assistant in London. The project has been published in Black and White Photography Magazine, winning their reportage assignment and also came second place is Ag magazine’s ‘Brilliant Book Awards.’ He has been invited to present the work at The Photographers Gallery in 2009 and had a solo show in Exit Gallery at Claire de Roeun Books, in London. He is also a shortlisted finalist for the Magnum Expression Award 2009.

Monday 26 October 2009

Paris Photo 2009






















Lorraine, 2009 © Mauricio Anzeri, Courtesy: The Photographer’s Gallery, London

Geographical diversity and discovery. Spotlight on Arab and Iranian photography

1000 Words Photography is delighted to announce our new partnership with Paris Photo. We have eight day passes valid for one person during the fair for sale at £10 each so get in touch if you are in need of tickets (they normally cost £15 but we are offering them at a discounted rate to our readers). Email me at tim(at)1000wordsmag(dot)com for more details.

Held at the Carrousel du Louvre from 19 to 22 November Paris Photo, the world’s leading fair for 19th Century, modern and contemporary photography will feature 102 exhibitors including 89 galleries and 13 publishers. With 75% of selected participants coming from 23 countries, the 2009 edition is remarkable in terms of its geographical diversity. With 11 galleries Germany is first among the foreign participants, followed by the United States with 10 galleries,the United Kingdom (7), the Netherlands (6), Japan and Spain (5 galleries each), Italy (3), two each from South Africa, Denmark the United Arab Emirates, Finland,Tunisia, and finally one for Austria, Belgium, China, South Korea, Hungary, Portugal, Russia,Lebanon and Morocco. France is represented by 21 galleries, among which several newcomers make their debut such as La B.A.N.K, Patricia Dorfman, Dominique Fiat,Françoise Paviot and la Galerie RX.

With 31 first-time participants, the emphasis in this year’s selection is placed firmly on renewal and an up-and-coming generation of promising young galleries such a Motive from Amsterdam, Kuckei+Kuckei from Berlin, Nusser & Baumgart from Munich, or Pente 10 from Lisbon. They come alongside established and prestigious names such as Goodman Gallery,South Africa’s historic gallery founded in 1965, and Munich’s Fine Old Masters, a regular at TEFAF Maastricht. In addition, Denmark’s Bo Bjerggaard is back while both Robert Koch Gallery of San Francisco and Toni Tapiès of Barcelona are coming for the first time.

An unprecedented exploration of the Arab and Iranian scene

In 2009, Paris Photo proposes to undertake an unprecedented exploration of photographic practices in the Orient. Photography arrived in the region in the 19th Century. It has become the dominant medium in what is today a diverse and autonomous contemporary art scene that is now attracting considerable interest internationally. Catherine David, Director of Documenta X at Kassel in 1997 and the author of numerous exhibitions and publications on Arab contemporary artistic production, will present the major characteristics of this emerging and poorly documented scene, in three parts. First is the Central Exhibition showing a selection of rare images from the collections of the Arab Image Foundation in Beirut. The Statement* section will provide an overview of emerging talent form Tehran to Damascus, Beirut to Cairo and Tangiers to Dubai. Finally, the Project Room will offer a programme of video screenings, testimony to the growing interest for the dynamics of this
medium among the artists of the region.

At the same time, a number of Western galleries in the general section will be presenting the work of established Arab and Iranian artists such as Abbas Kiarostami at the London gallery Purdy Hicks, Abbas on Iran at Magnum Gallery, Morocco’s Yto Barrada at Polaris, Egypt’s Youssef Nabil at Michael Stevenson, the Palestinian Taysir Batniji at La B.A.N.K and Lebanon’s Fouad El Khoury at Tanit. Other galleries have chosen to show Western visions of the East, in particular some of the earliest examples of orientalist photography presented by Baudoin Lebon, Serge Plantureux and Hershkowitz. Also on show will be the work of contemporary artists such as Gabriele Basilico on Beirut, Philippe Chancel on Dubai, Lars Tunbjork on Oman etc.

*artists in Statement
Assar Art Gallery, Téhéran : Mohammad Ghazali, Sadegh Tirafkan
B21 Gallery, Dubai: Reza Aramesh, Ramin Haerizadeh
El Marsa, Tunis : Lamia Naji, Mouna Karray
Galerie 127, Marrakech : Malik Nejmi
Selma Feriani London/Tunis : Raja Aissa, Sama Alshaibi, Rula Halawani
Sfeir-Semler, Beyrouth/Hambourg: Yasser Alwan, Wael Shawky, Akram Zaatari
Silk Road, Téhéran: Bahman Jalali, Gohar Dashti, Katayoun Karami
The Empty Quarter, Dubai: Fara Nosh, Asim Rafiqui


















Brenda, 2008 from the series Real Beauty © Jodi Bieber, Courtesy Goodman Gallery, Parkwood

The 2009 BMW- Paris Photo Prize
The BMW-Paris Photo prize is designed to support contemporary creativity and is awarded once a year to an artist/photographer for his or her work on a theme related to BMW France’s advertising campaign. For its sixth edition, the prize, reserved for artists represented by galleries participating in Paris Photo, will reveal the best in contemporary photography with work on the theme “When was the last time you had a unique experience?” The winner will be chosen from among the short-listed artists whose work will be on display during Paris Photo. The €12,000 prize will be awarded during a ceremony on Wednesday 18th November.

The 2009 Jury :
The jury is presided by Philippe Dehennin, President of BMW France
Robert Delpire, publisher, Paris, TJ Demos, Art critic and writer, London, Matthias Harder, Curator and Director of the Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin, Manfred Heiting, Collector, Los Angeles and Sandra S. Phillips, Senior Curator of Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

What’s happening in Paris during Paris Photo :
This November, Paris Photo coincides with several major photographic events in Paris : “Michael Kenna, retrospective” at the Bibliothèque nationale de France - « The Subversion of Images, Surrealism, Photography, Film » at the Centre Pompidou - « August Sander : Seeing,Observing, Thinking » at the Henri Cartier Bresson Foundation - « Delpire & Cie » at the Maison européenne de la photographie - « Federico Fellini, La Grande Parade » at the Jeu de Paume. In addition, the Middle East will be the main focus of exhibitions such as « Palestine,creation in all states » at the Arab World Institute, « Djân, Body and Soul» at VU Gallery, « 150 years of Iranian Photography » at the Musée du Quai Branly, or « Iran 1979-2009 : Between Hope and Chaos, 30 years of Iranian Documentary Photography » at the Monnaie
de Paris.






















Amorfosis 004, 2008 © Aitor Ortiz, Courtesy Galería Max Estrella, Madrid

Tessa Bunney
























All images © Tessa Bunney

Tessa Bunney got in touch the other day to share some images from her Home Work series which focus on domestic labour in the suburbs and villages in and around Hanoi, Vietnam. In her statement about the project, she writes:

"Currently, around 75% of the population of Vietnam are farmers. As Vietnam moves towards urbanisation, the country’s agricultural labour force faces the prospect of losing its land to urban projects - and its way of life.

With Vietnam’s growing population also making less land available for farmers to work, families unable to sustain themselves are turning to the creation of various products in rural areas. These ‘craft’ villages have become the meeting place between rural and urban, agriculture and industry.

During the last decade, along with rapid national economic development many craft villages have increased production up to five fold through small-scale industrial development. However, the consequence of this shift is increased waste and environmental pollution with the resources of the landscape becoming overused.

My work draws attention to observing details which we usually let slip by unnoticed and aims to contribute to the ongoing debate about the changing nature of rural life".

Home Work is currently on show at The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate, UK until 8 November and then will then be touring to Light House, Wolverhampton, UK (27 Nov 2009 to 13 Jan 2010).

Since graduating from West Surrey College of Art and Design in 1988, Tessa has worked as a documentary photographer undertaking personal projects and portraits and features photography for various magazines including Observer Life, Guardian Weekend and The Sunday Times magazine as well as a wide range of commissions and residencies nationally and internationally. In 2004, she completed a M.A. in Photography at De Montfort University, Leicester.

Previous projects include Moor and Dale, which was exhibited and published by The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate and shown at various venues in the UK including Hereford Photography Festival, 2004. Lamb, commissioned by The Culture Company, was shown at Impressions Gallery, York, in 2000. Eat Better, Eat British received an Honourable Mention in the Leica Oskar Barnack Award and was shown at Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles, France in 2000.

She is represented by the Klompching Gallery in New York and is currently artist in residence at Newby Hall, a private Georgian family home in North Yorkshire. She will also be artist in residence in Jyväskylä, Central Finland in early 2010 as part of Connections North, International Residency Exchange Project organised by Art Connections.

Wednesday 14 October 2009

Jake Stangel




















All images © Jake Stangel

Excerpts from Jake Stangel's series Pontiac Dream are showcased here as part of today's post.

"Pontiac Dream is an open-ended retrospective on America's transitioning identity, as it drifts away from a local mom-and-pop, industry-proud culture and moves toward a more corporately maintained society. The project memorializes a mid-point of this transition, focusing on the county's resplendent and iconic heritage in a way that straddles both currency and nostalgia. With an understanding of this evolution, it's up to the viewer to infer how such rich cultural seeds might sow America's future."

Jake Stangel was born in Montreal, raised on the East Coast, and now lives in Portland, OR. He shoots most of his work on a 4x5 camera, and informs me that he has "an eternal love for film and the wonders of ambient light". He also says that he has cycled across America three times, and the majority of his work, including Pontiac Dream, has been conceived and shot on these vagabond adventures. He also runs a very cool website called too much chocolate, if you don't know it, check it out! He studied visual communication – a combination of photography, marketing, and visual philosophy – at the Gallatin School of Independent Study at New York University. He graduated in 2008 with a B.A.

Monday 5 October 2009

1000 Words Photography Magazine #6






















© Anna Linderstam

Dear friends and colleagues of 1000 Words,

It gives me great pleasure to inform you that the Autumn issue, The Unfathomable, is online now.

To view it, please go to:

www.1000wordsmag.com

Featuring work-in-progress from JH Engström, a survey of recent Farnham graduate Anna Linderstam’s oeuvre to date, Kelli Connell’s Double Life series, a presentation on Gone Astray Details by Clare Strand; a special book review of Water Does Not Soak in Rain by Korean artist Atta Kim and an essay on Without Sanctuary – a collection of found and anonymous photographs of lynchings in America’s deep south – there are many different modes of representation in this issue, but all make strong statements both on and through photography and, we hope, will touch you in some profound way.

In addition, we also have book reviews of Nuevas Historias: A New View of Spanish Photography and Video Art, Viviane Sassen’s Flamboya and We English by Simon Roberts. Beside these publications, the Autumn issue includes an exclusive multimedia piece by Robin Maddock wherein he discusses his new book Our Kids Are Going to Hell, published by Trolley Books.

Don’t forget 1000 Words is offering its readers discounts on books such as Magnum photographer Donovan Wylie´s Maze and Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2009 winner Paul Graham’s Monograph, courtesy of Steidl. To order your copy please contact tim@1000wordsmag.com.

As always, thanks to all the photographers and writers and special thanks to Santiago Taccetti of CCCH Creative Studio, Barcelona for his stellar design work on this project.

See you at Paris Photo, but in the meantime, enjoy!

Best wishes,

Tim Clark

Editor in chief | Director
1000 Words Photography Magazine