subject echo: that pensive gaze

when i saw the top image (taken by Jocelyn Lee) of Dr. Rachael Phelps in a New York Times Magazine article on "The New Abortion Providers" it brought to mind Hellen van Meene's photograph of another gazing lady.

the photo pair gives me the uncanny thought of van Meene's teenage subject—with her blond curls, set mouth, baroque hand gestures, and her expressive and introspective gaze—growing out of her awkward adolescence (van Meene's specialty) and into the visual role of the calm and caring doctor.

in the Times article, Dr. Phelps speaks about how chronic pain she experienced as an adolescent girl is what led her to her path as a doctor at Planned Parenthood.

i think you can see the deep feeling we associate with adolescence transform into empathy—on the part of both the subject and the viewer—in the images above.

subject echo: the power of images

i recently re-read Regarding the Pain of Others and Regarding the Torture of Others by Susan Sontag.  with the news lately, i have been thinking a lot about the cultural and political discourse around images of torture and war, and the way that our reactions to the images take on a life separate even from the referent (the act of torture) depicted within them.

much has been written about the ways in which war photography often echoes iconic religious imagery.  but i have been wondering how, in turn, the iconography of the new war and torture photography is also influencing fine art photographers today?  

no matter where you come down on the questions surrounding whether these photographs should be released (though i imagine most photographers believe that the images should be released and talked about), they inarguably seep into our individual psyches and ultimately have a profound affect on our cultural consciousness.

one example: today i was looking at photographs from a personal self-portrait project in which none of the images are explicitly politically-motivated, and saw in one of them traces of the Abu Ghraib torture photos.  perhaps i just have this on the brain, or perhaps the connections are there in a larger or sub-conscious sense.  as always, i'd love to hear your thoughts and see other connections.

above top, 2004 image of a prisoner being tortured at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, capture from a news video.

below, "Origin," from the series Bend So Not to Break by Jessica Somers.  more images, and a project statement, available at f-stop magazine.   Somers says that her self-portrait work "explores the struggle and balance between the choices one makes and the uncontrollable circumstances that intervene with these choices."  the images attached to the subject above appear to be old family photographs, but it is interesting to think of how we might interpret the final image differently if the photos depicted within it were diferent.

subject echo: that distinctive sprawl

nice, Ms. Hutchinson!

top image: "Nude, 1936" by Edward Weston, bottom image: "Inspired by Edward Weston 1," from the Model Husband Series by Kate Hutchinson.

here's what Kate Hutchinson has to say about her Model Husband series:

Looking at the intimacy and trust that must exist between two people in order for one to photograph the other throughout their relationship, I take as models these men who used their wives as subjects. I examine their methods and approach through mimicry. How did these artists balance the need to create with the need to preserve something so dear? The relationship between artist and muse is at stake but so is that between husband and wife. How did they, and how do I, resign the two? Futhermore looking at a potential shift in gender roles over the past century I also wonder: are we telling the same story now but in reverse?

subject echo: dreams of flight

what is it about toy planes?

(Shane Lavalette, Alec Soth, and Corinne Vionnet.)

subject echo: ectoplasm!

i saw Helga Härenstam's work on Conscientious, and enjoyed checking out her project "House of the Extraordinary." i especially liked reading the images in this series as contemporary, color explorations of the way technology and light can manifest as creepy and miraculous.

this reminded me of a book a friend recently gave me: Brought to Light: Photography and the Invisible 1840 - 1900 (from the SFMoMA exhibition). the book explores the early use of photography to capture "the realm beyond our everyday vision," from space photography to microscopic particles, X-rays, and even spirit photography.

Helga Härenstam's image (top) instantly reminded me of this 1912 photograph of a medium (and her viewer) from Brought to Light.

whether photography is attempting to capture ectoplasm, the human spirit, or the connection that happens the moment the shutter clicks, i think the best of it is still searching for that realm beyond our everyday vision.

bratislava (from slovenia to slovakia)

i was looking through the portfolio of Slovakian photographer Andrej Balco, and i was struck by his "Suburbs" project from a few years back.  these are a bit more documentary than my usual taste, but i especially liked his eye for color.

Balco points out that more than 2 million Slovaks live in giant apartment complexes, many in the suburbs of Bratislava. 

he says: "I have many times come across an opinion that living in block of flats is characterised by plaster...and grey colour. I was trying to avoid this straight off simplified view. Instead I was trying to point out the colourfulness, variety and vividity of life in the blocks of flats."

bonus subject echo:

Balco's photo of a prone man with water and a mural reminded me of Miranda Lehman's artsy, fairy-tale-like take on the same basic scene:

subject echo: books as camouflage

when i saw the photo below by Helsinki-based artist Maija Luutonen on iheartphotograph, i thought of the above image by Dutch photographer Desiree Palmen.  

i definitely see their respective projects (called "Please let's pretend" and "Camouflage") as being in dialogue with each other; a real subject echo.

(i've been known to hide behind a book before, myself.)

subject echo: magnum contest (and the terror of beauty)

Alec Soth, blogging again over at the Magnum Photos blog, proposed a contest this week: match an image from the Magnum archive with a famous painting from art history.

it's a good game to play in between hitting refresh on all the news sites today...  and the commenters have some pretty great suggestions already.

above, fun with Steve McCurry and Caravaggio.   

i suppose these two images of Medusa continue this week's ugly/beauty theme.  after all, Melville (and many other poets and writers) have celebrated Medusa's "beauty strange with horror allied," while Structuralist mythologist Jean-Pierre Vernant describes Medusa as a symbol of where "the strange beauty of the feminine countenance, brilliant with seduction, and the horrible fascination of death, meet and cross."  my classicist friend points out that the Greeks were always crazy for terrible beauty.  and so am i—hot stuff.

subject echo: "nothing is more fascinating, complex, ugly and beautiful than human beings"

i was struck by Michele Abeles' creepy, artificial, and awesome portraits, which i saw on iheartphotograph.

Yale MFA grad Abeles says: "I am drawn to portraiture because nothing is more fascinating, complex, ugly and beautiful than human beings."

the subject and approach (and sheer blondness) conjured up references for me to Katy Grannan's subject Nicole from her project "Another Woman Who Died in Her Sleep." (discussed previously here, and shown below.) it is interesting how both subjects convey blank despondence and abjection with a similar, limited set of symbols (studios, skinnyness, fake-glamour, wigs, whiteness, beach, etc.).

subject echo: in inky dark water

today i was struck by the subject echoes in some of Esther Teichmann's and Yann Orhan's work:

two images by Teichmann, from her project "Viscosity:"

and two from Orhan's project "Nos Vies Invisibles:"

subject echo: evaporating sentiments

i couldn't resist this non-portraiture subject echo:


both Augusta Wood's "making way for the next thing to touch the ground near you" and Kotama Bouabane's "I'm Not Mad" feature dissipating messages written (on wood) in liquid or ice. also, houseplants! also also, they are both totally awesome and thought-provoking.

two prints from Kotama Bouabane's series "Melting Words" are up for sale at Jen Bekman's 20x200 right now.

i first saw Augusta Wood's work on iheartphotograph. i really like her snow photo, called "it turns into nothing on his tongue."

james cooper's underwater images

i happened across James Cooper's work on Tiny Vices and got a kick out of it. he seems to have a very specific world that he is documenting, and i enjoy the persistence of his vision.

Cooper lives in the Bahamas and mainly shoots digital underwater photographs.

He says of his work: "I have a hard time putting words to my pictures, they are on one level very personal in that they are reflections of my own experiences, and yet once they become 'public' I want for them to be very open ended and universal. I actually try super hard not to over analyze my work, which helps me to just be responsive to my own ideas."

there's even a mini subject echo for me here (with Maura Biava):

subject echo: "who has the detonator?"

like several other Americans, i went to see Batman: The Dark Knight on opening night. a gray-area girl at heart, i admit that the theme of good vs. evil often elicits a bit of a yawn. so the Joker is a refreshing terrorist to me—preferring, as he does, chaos to evil.

the Dark Knight's refrain of "Who has the detonator?"—and especially the scene above, where the Joker holds a remote detonator in his right hand as he shuffles away from Gotham General hospital—reminded me very strongly of a few of Diane Arbus's most famous shades of gray: Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park (1962).


forty-six years later the tensions on display in this photograph are just as relevant—between childhood and adulthood, playfulness and violence, tensing up and letting loose, even the city and nature. (and i love a photograph with its own Wikipedia page.)

so, who has the detonator?

a child, a joker? (a privileged portrayer of freaks and outsiders, a big Hollywood director trying to aim a lens at our anxieties and desires?) or perhaps it's me, you, or some other? maybe that is the fear.

Arbus wrote:

"I have this funny thing which is that I'm never afraid when I'm looking in the ground glass. This person could be approaching with a gun or something like that and I'd have my eyes glued to the finder and it wasn't like I was really vulnerable. It just seemed terrific what was happening. I mean I'm sure there are limits. God knows, when the troops start advancing on me, you do approach that stricken feeling where you perfectly well can get killed. But there's a kind of power thing about the camera. I mean everyone knows you've got some edge. You're carrying some slight magic which does something to them.

It fixes them in a way."

subject echo: tiny bodies in the milky blue white sea

above: Sze Tsung Leong, from Horizons; Catherine Opie from Surfers, and Carlo Van Der Roer, from the series Orbs.

these are a bit like the float, but even more inscrutable.

got more to share?


p.s. update: read "A Picture You Already Know," by Sze Tsung Leong here, on Words Without Pictures. it's about repetition in photography (oddly enough).

subject echo: hair in branches

lately i have noticed a lot of ladies with their hair tied up in branches. it makes for pretty, romantic images. and perhaps it makes for thinking about girls, gender and long hair, nature, ties, and other metaphorical tangles. but what is it all about?

Julia Fuller-Batten's work (above, middle) is all about adolescent girls, so it would make sense to me if Hellen van Meene (top) were an influence. and Steffanie Halley, recently featured on Conscientious, is a recent SCAD grad whose project places women in the natural landscape... another theme we've seen a lot of lately.

my personal instinct would be that the bottom two are echoes—conscious or subconscious—that serve as aftershocks to the power of van Meene's image.

however, one commenter on Shoot! said that the second image above is a "direct reference" to Harry Callahan. is this true? if so, he would have set the trend off then, maybe even 50 years ago. but i am skeptical. i've seen Eleanor's hair, spreading out wet and stringlike. i've seen Eleanor's face, superimposed over grasses and branches. but i don't know an image of Eleanor's hair tied up into branches.

anyone care to school me? (or the commenter?) or share any other thoughts on this theme?


p.s. reader Suzanne's comment (below) is so right on—i definitely think that Sally Mann's "Yard Eggs" is another major influence here. the composition (and symbolism) is a little more complex than the three above, but the hair getting caught in the branches is definitely a punctum. it made me realize i've seen this image online, but not sure i have seen a print of it. the resolution of the jpeg is a bit soft, and i would love to see the detail better, especially in how the hair is caught (and not just blowing). thanks Suzanne!

the times imitates art

here's a bit of a subject echo that hit me today while reading the New York Times article "Operation Lets Muslim Women Reclaim Virginity."

here's Ed Alcock for the Times:

and Taryn Simon from her project the American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar:
both photos have that klieg-lit surgical theater of apotheosized artificial virginity aspect going for them.

don't get me wrong, i love cyborgs. but don't forget: your subject is your main enemy.

subject echo: pink sweats

a progression of melancholy ladies in pink sweats, from Amy Stein to Hellen van Meene to Alec Soth...