Sunday 17 June 2012

Michael Wolf on 'peeping'



Photographer Michael Wolf on photographing streetview and exploring the city... Fascinating!

Maskull Lasserre

I've referred to the Colossal blog on here a number of times - it's a great resource, if a little repetitive and with an overly keen emphasis on boring-but-technically-impressive portraiture.

This find that they've flagged up is indeed colossal though - the magnificent carving skills of Canadian artist Maskull Lasserre. 




Saturday 16 June 2012

Marcus Lyon studio visit

This week, I was fortunate to be part of a studio visit to meet photographer Marcus Lyon.

Aside from showing us around his stunning premises at 'The Glassworks', Marcus talked us through his new work.




These astonishing images are in fact digital composites, enhancing and emphasising the vast human migration taking place across the world right now, as the human population moves toward urban dwellings.  They're taken from two series, 'BRIC' and 'EXODUS'.  Predictions suggest that world's urban population will double in the next 40 years, with cities in the developing world accounting for 95% of that population - the cities of the BRIC economies.




Marcus was generous with his time, explaining both the socio-economic contexts involved, and the laborious process of producing the images themselves. He also offered considerable insight into the commercial side of his business, and the practicalities of placing his carefully editioned photographs with major clients. Not only that, but he very kindly offered those of us there a special free print from a one-off edition of his 'Trabants' series - what a guy!

Lyon is currently chairman of the global think tank and advocacy network 'The Consortium for Street Children', which you should also check out.


 

Sunday 10 June 2012

Zones of Exclusion

Following on from the work of Bendiksen in my previous post, I've been looking at the tragic scenes found in Robert Polidori's photographs of Pripyat and Chernobyl.

Fifteen years after Chernobyl's nuclear disaster, Polidori returned to take this astonishing series of photographs, capturing the ghosts of human habitation.

For some of his more recent work, see this link.




Friday 8 June 2012

Jonas Bendiksen

I don't know how I haven't stumbled across this photographer before, but thankfully I finally have (courtesy of a footnote in Geoff Dyer's engaging but quirky book 'Zona', about Tarkovsky's masterpiece, 'Stalker'). Anyway - Jonas Bendiksen - Magnum photographer.

Born in 1977, Bendiksen originates from Norway. His first book, 'Satellites', was published in 2006, focusing on the fringes of the former Soviet Union in a series of photo essays.


I find this image remarkable. Apparently, when rocket debris re-enters the earth's atmosphere it frequently smashes to the ground in Kazakhstan. Rumours abound of toxic rocket fuel polluting crops and killing cattle. Local farmers scavenge from the debris. Here, what looks like ash or snow billowing around the scene turns out to be a cloud of butterflies. Astonishing.



His work really is remarkable. If anyone wants to buy me a copy of the now out-of-print and thus massively expensive book, I wouldn't say no...