eyecurious books etc

timelightbox: Photographs by Asger Carlsen Opening this evening...

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 12:00:23 +0100

Photographs by Asger Carlsen

Opening this evening in Germany: Hester, photographs by Asger Carlsen at Dittrich & Schlechtriem:

In HESTER, The figure is documented then re-presented disfigured and sculpted digitally. “They are anonymous beings. Stripped of their identities, they are distinguished only by the black and white color of their skin, their muscular or obese build, and small details such as birthmarks dotting their skin or painted toenails.“

Carlsen “captures images of models as well as additional imitations of body parts made of modeling compound. In the subsequent time-consuming process of digital editing…he assembles the individual parts that appear in the pictures so as to obscure the sutures. So the photographic act properly speaking is the work of a brief moment in relation to the creative process” which concludes the artwork.

For more information, visit the gallery’s website here, or visit Asger Carlsen’s website here.

Mack has had another strong year in 2012: they seem to be on...

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 11:40:47 +0100

Mack has had another strong year in 2012: they seem to be on most people’s best books of the year lists with Elementary Calculus, Another Language, Lick Creek Line or The Present. One of their recent books has become a personal favourite: Jason Evans’s NYLPT. I knew Evans mostly for his colour work, so this book of B&W multiple exposures from New York, London, Paris and Tokyo came as a bit of a surprise. Like its cover, the book is delightfully straightforward, a series of randomly layered street exposures that reflect the way that expectation blends with reality in our experience of the city. This could have been a sprawling mess, but his visual style works perfectly for this approach. The book also is a really enjoyable and unfussy object: I particularly liked the simple touch of the facing page for each image progressing from black to white as you flick through the pages. (For a man that has a website called The New Scent it’s also appropriate that this book smells inky-great).

Gomma Books have just released Mono, Volume 1, a collection of...

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 12:46:00 +0100

Michael Ackerman in Mono Volume 1

Roger Ballen in Mono Volume 1

Trent Parke in Mono Volume 1

Gomma Books have just released Mono, Volume 1, a collection of black-and-white contemporary photography. The list of participating photographers is long (Anders Petersen, Andy Spyra, Antoine D’Agata, Chris Rain, Daisuke Yokota, Devin Yalkin, Francesco Merlini, Gabrielle Duplantier, Giancarlo Ceraudo, Hans-Christian Schink, Jacob Aue Sobol, Jan von Holleben, Jukka-pekka Jalovaara, Keizo Kitajima, Kim Thue, Maki, Marco Vernaschi, Margaret M. de Lange, Michael Ackerman, Olivier Pin Fat, Roger Ballen, Scot Sothern, Sebastian Liste, Sofia Lopez Mañan, Stephane C, Susu Laroche, Tomasz Lazar, Trent Parke and Tricia Lawless Murray) but there is a strong current of photography in the Anders Petersen vein here. Interestingly they crowd-sourced the text for the book, asking bloggers, critics and curators each to write a few words about a particular series (full disclosure: I was asked to write the text on Michael Ackerman). As the title suggests there are two more volumes of Mono to come and there is already a shortlist of photographers for Volume 2 on the Gomma Books website. This is the second of two excellent collections of contemporary photography released this year, the other being Nocturnes by AM Projects which I also recommend checking out

(ed. Thanks to Mrs Deane for the correction re Nocturnes not actually being all black-and-white).

I first came across Luke Stephenson’s series, An...

Sat, 08 Dec 2012 19:15:19 +0100

I first came across Luke Stephenson’s series, An Incomplete Dictionary of Show Birds, when he was featured in Foam magazine’s Talent issue #24. The series has just become a book and the results are in keeping with the bird portraits themselves. It’s a delightfully simple little book that shows these incredible little creatures at their best and gives a glimpse into the crazy sub-culture that revolves around them.

It’s currently art fair madness in Miami and for the...

Sat, 08 Dec 2012 17:01:32 +0100

It’s currently art fair madness in Miami and for the occasion Paddle8 is organising (the first?) exhibition of animated gifs, Moving the Still, selected by a rather random assortment of people including James Frey and Michael Stipe. The exhibition is being hosted on Tumblr but there is also a ‘live’ exhibition in Miami. I’m not sure how you exhibit animated gifs or even if that is really necessary, but I would be fascinated to see what the curators have come up with… and how long it takes before the visitors’ eyes start bleeding.

phot(o)lia: 10x10 Japanese Photobooks: September 28-30, 2012

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 09:58:22 +0200

phot(o)lia: 10x10 Japanese Photobooks: September 28-30, 2012:

photolia:

2 venues for Japanese Photobooks: A Reading Room and An Online Space

Sponsored by:
International Center of Photography Library
Photobook Facebook Group
E-mail: NY10x10@gmail.com

10x10 Japanese Photobook Reading Room

Dates: September 28-30 2012, from 3 pm to 9 pm
Opening…

Forget about the Olympics. There is a great new exhibition now...

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 13:42:25 +0200

Forget about the Olympics. There is a great new exhibition now up in London at the Photographers’ Gallery on Contemporary Japanese Photobooks. Curated by Ivan Vartanian and Jason Evans, this is the first photobook exhibition I have heard of where you are actually encouraged to touch the books. They’ve also done a great tumblr for the exhibition with a list of all the photographers and books, and a discussion section so you can share your love for the Japanese photobook.

Hennessy Youngman has squeezed your $100,000 MFA onto a DVD and...

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 13:49:30 +0200

Hennessy Youngman has squeezed your $100,000 MFA onto a DVD and now it costs $4.99 (plus shipping and handling).

Great 5-min video narrated by Tom Waits on the artist John...

Wed, 16 May 2012 11:35:01 +0200

Great 5-min video narrated by Tom Waits on the artist John Baldessari who is great and who I really need to know more about. More videos like this please.

Full-length documentary on Daido Moriyama, “Near Equal...

Tue, 15 May 2012 09:10:46 +0200

Full-length documentary on Daido Moriyama, “Near Equal Moriyama Daido” (via American Suburb X).

The Hyères Fashion and Photography Festival starts tomorrow....

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:41:13 +0200

The Hyères Fashion and Photography Festival starts tomorrow. This little vid will tell you everything you need to know about Hyères 2012. The shortlisted photographers look great (once again) and with exhibitions by Jason Evans and Anouk Kruithof, there is bound to be no shortage of COLOUR this year. Sadly I have not become a permanent jury member and won’t be able to attend this year, but if you can make it, I highly recommend it.

The fifth edition of the Fotobook Festival opens Friday at Le...

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:07:21 +0200

The fifth edition of the Fotobook Festival opens Friday at Le Bal.

Jason Evans’s happy Tokyo accidents in the latest edition...

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 13:37:00 +0200

Jason Evans’s happy Tokyo accidents in the latest edition of Seesaw magazine.

Ikko Narahara, Tokyo, the ‘50s, 1954-58 I have always loved this...

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:50:51 +0200

Ikko Narahara, Tokyo, the ‘50s, 1954-58

I have always loved this image. A show of Narahara’s work opens tomorrow at Taka Ishii’s Roppongi space in Tokyo.

Shoji Ueda (1913-2000) was born 99 years ago today.

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:29:54 +0200

Shoji Ueda (1913-2000) was born 99 years ago today.

Foam magazine issue #30 - Micro is out with a text by yours...

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:13:08 +0100

Foam magazine issue #30 - Micro is out with a text by yours truly on Masao Mochizuki’s Television 1975-1976 as well as work by Boris Mikhailov, Rineke Dijkstra, Joris Jansen, Stephen Gill, Harold Strak, Corinne May Botz, Christian Patterson and an interview with Sophie Calle.

An exhibition on the development of the Dutch photobook since...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 10:18:02 +0100

An exhibition on the development of the Dutch photobook since 1945 has just opened at the Nederlands Fotomuseum. For my money, the Dutch have probably made the most interesting photobooks in Europe over that period so this should be worth seeing. Sadly I don’t see myself making it to Rotterdam in the next couple of months, but I’m told the catalogue is also excellent.

The Curator's Code

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 15:43:55 +0100

The Curator's Code:

The Curator’s Code is a system designed to make attribution on the web “consistent and codified”… a kind of code of conduct for internet linking. I think the term “curator” is missplaced and I don’t understand why the code was so overly designed, but the idea of trying to promote attribution online is definitely a positive one.

Do you recognise this face? The Composites is a great new tumblr...

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 10:23:06 +0100

Do you recognise this face? The Composites is a great new tumblr that creates portraits of famous literary characters using police composite sketch software.

(Above Keith Talent from London Fields by Martin Amis)

London’s Overthrow by China Miéville The British writer...

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 12:20:35 +0100

London’s Overthrow by China Miéville

The British writer China Miéville has written a very interesting essay on the London riots which has been published in full online. The essay is illustrated by a large amount of shitty digital pictures (which Miéville appears to have taken himself) which are woven in with the text in a very interesting way.