Book review: Friedlander, L. (1996). The desert seen

Friedlander, L. (1996). The desert seen. New York: D.A.P/Distributed Art Publishers.

I live in a desert and have seen plenty of it.  There are different kinds of desert.  There is the kind with soft rolling hills of orange sand, like ice cream or yogurt.  Not much grows in these deserts.  Then there are the rough and crumbly deserts, hills of cracked rock, valleys of soft-edged stone worn by years of occasional rain.  Stuff grows here, like acacia trees and thorny bushes.

In the Sonora desert of the western United States, you get all kind of odd shaped cacti, of which Lee Friedlander took many photos in the 1990s.  He’s known more for what might be called his street photography, but late in life he got into landscape and spent some time exploring the desert.

Contemplative Photography: Color 3

I’m wondering how much longer I ought to focus on color.  I had a chance to walk a bit through Qusais and managed a couple of interesting shots, one emphasizing color and form (the guy at the ATM), the other the quality of light (the eyeglasses).  Perhaps I can do one more round this weekend, and then move on to the next set of exercises. 

More images here:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/80283129@N03/albums/72157663263927130

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Film: Meshi, Naruse dir, 1951

It was an interesting film until the last five minutes.

Setsuko Hara and the changing face of Japanese womanhood

http://tinyurl.com/hj9p2tg

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Video: A Photojournalist Walks Away From His Profession

"I don't believe that photojournalism is a very important job. My pictures and the pictures of my colleagues, they don't really change anything...so let's not pretend like they do." 

http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/419754/a-photojournalist-walks-away-from-his-profession/

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Two views of Emperor Meiji

Theses two portraits Emperor Meiji, made one year apart by photographer Uchida Kiuchi, suggest how Japan used photography to shape its global image.  According to Fraser, govt officials were unhappy with the 1872 image as it portrayed the Japan as feudal, backward looking nation.  A second portrait was commissioned, shot a year later in 1873, with the Emperor seated in a western chair and dressed in Prussian military uniform, his top-knot replaced by a contemporary western hair style.  This image better displayed Japan as modernizing and an equal of the Western powers.  Fraser suggests this type of image may have been calculated to help Japan win better treaty conditions.  

Fraser, K. (2011). Photography and Japan. London: Reaktion Books.

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Book review: Steinmetz, G. (2009). Empty Quarter: A Photographic Journey to the Heart of the Arabian Desert

Steinmetz, G. (2009). Empty Quarter: A Photographic Journey to the Heart of the Arabian Desert. New York: Abrams.

This is perhaps the only photographic project of the Arabian desert shot from a motorized paraglider.  George Steinmetz had experience documenting desert environments in Africa and China before finally getting permission in 2002 and again in 2004 to explore the Rub al-Khail and fly his aircraft across four countries:  Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman and Yemen. The book opens with a text review of previous expeditions across this territory before documenting the extensive preparations required for this project.  The images are presented thematically, including:

In search of the anonymous American photographer who recorded the Indian countryside in 1945

Fascinated by old photographs found in a shoebox, a US couple travelled halfway around the world to trace its mysterious origins.

In 1988, a couple in the windy city of Chicago visited an estate sale of a deceased friend and stumbled upon a shoebox of old photographs tucked under a couch. It contained more than a hundred envelopes filled with negatives and contact sheets for photographs depicting India in 1945. The identity of the photographer: unknown.

How did this set of sepia-toned images end up at a sale in Chicago four decades after they were taken? Alan Teller and Jerri Zbiral, who ended up buying that box full of pictures for $20, have been trying to solve the mystery ever since. "We are curious people, we always want to see what's in boxes," said Zbiral. "We found these pictures and were immediately drawn to them." The curiosity of the two artists took them halfway around the world to identify this anonymous photographer.

More: http://scroll.in/article/801771/on-the-box-trail-in-search-of-the-anonymous-american-photographer-who-recorded-the-indian-countryside-in-1945