Exhibition : Juan I-Jong - The Defining Moment in Chinese Contemporary Photography

Taiwanese Photographer Juan I - Jong has worked in photojournalism for 30 years, his retrospective will be showcased at the Guandong Museum of Art in China. He has also contributed as a curator and discovered Chinese photographers such as Lu Nan and Fang Dazeng. Indeed he has started the well know magazine Photographers International which deal with specific topic and issues and recognized as one of the best publication worldwide.

Books : Eclipse

The sky over Shanghai went dark today, well happening every night but not often at 9 in the morning, I experienced my first eclipse.... and with the occasion I could not avoid to talk about the book of Afghan Photographer Zalmai which has done a project calling with this mysterious word Eclipse, here a note from publisher

Afghan photographer Zalmai's extraordinary and unforgettable photographs capture the slow, distressing drift of exile and dispossession: spectral figures against a stormy sky, a sheared row of peaks frame a figure like a sacred relic, horizons of men, both of this world and of some timeless land. This is a documentation of a journey through ambiguous territories-from Cuba to India, Mali to the Philippines, Indonesia to Egypt, and a return to Zalmai's native Afghanistan/-wartorn once again/-a search for place when one's own land has been destroyed.

Photographs by Zalmai. Text by Atip Rahimi, and Daniel Firardin.
Umbrage Editions, New York, 2002. 112 pp., 70 duotone illustrations, 12x8½".

Exhibition : Entitled Tree by Myoung Ho Lee

Interesting exhibition at Yossi Milo Gallery in New York, the work "Entitled Tree" by Myoung Ho Lee will be presented. The work from the young photographer from South Korean has a quite remarkable impact using a concept of isolate the tree with a background. I found really interesting
here note from Yossi Milo artist' statement:
Myoung Ho Lee photographs solitary trees framed against white canvas backdrops in the middle of natural landscapes. To install the large canvases, which span approximately 60 by 45 feet, the artist enlists a production crew and heavy cranes. Minor components of the canvas support system, such as ropes or bars, are later removed from the photograph through minimal digital retouching, creating the illusion that the backdrop is floating behind the tree.
The series includes diverse species of trees photographed with a 4x5 camera in a variety of seasons and at different times of day. Mr. Lee allows the tree’s natural surroundings to fill the frame around the canvas, transforming the backdrop into an integral part of the subject. Centered in the graphic compositions, the canvas defines the form of the tree and separates it from the environment. By creating a partial, temporary outdoor studio for each tree, Mr. Lee’s “portraits” of trees play with ideas of scale and perception while referencing traditional painting and the history of photography.
Yossi Milo Gallery 525 West 25th Street New York, NY 10001 - Thursday, March 19, 2009, 6:00–8:00 pm

Profile : JeongMee Yoon

Following the older post I do often feel sad to visit a zoo, to see animal trapped into cages or into a diverse environment. Many photographer follow project on zoo such as the famous Central's park photos from Garry Winograd, one project which fascinated me most is from Korean Photographer JeongMee Yoon , here the note or presentation of the project :
JeongMee Yoon's black and white photos have our gazes wandering somewhere in-between animals and their habitats which is zoo. The state of wandering is generally perceived as a psychological reaction to a certain kind of deficiency or absence. Different from ordinary zoos with extravaganzas of curious people in festive mood and cute tricks of animals, the zoo in Yoon's photos suggests such dreadful scenes as an empty cage shown through the iron bars, a cement floor soaked with animal blood, and some animals barely resting on the corner, which evokes dreary yet hollow sentiment.
The space called zoo suddenly struck as a representation of wearisome and eeriness. At the same time, the zoo as a tangible space to store animals begins to draw more attention than the animals themselves. Animals in the photos provoke a feeling of sadness and isolation rather than that of affection or intimacy; the photos of an elephant with one ivory broken, an one-eyed owl, a gorilla leaning head on the window, and stuffed animals with kitsch paintings on the background. The images in Yoon's photos have certain remoteness from what we generally believe about zoo and animals. You may find your naive belief become fractured and finally break down in pieces.