Augenblick, Blog on Photography : On vacation

Well is time to have a break from the blog, Christmas time which I will use to go back to my beloved Yunnan in south China ( away from all the bad habit humans developed during these festivities).
I will be back next year with more post and more interesting photographers , plenty already in my list to be listed. I choose this beautiful image from Joseph Mougel from Series "The Day before" .
Merry Christmas to all the readers....

Augenblick, Blog on Photography , Magazine : Lapus #03

Lapsus magazine , one of my favorite web-zine on Photography is out with a new edition, the number 3, always a pleasure to navigate through .

Augenblick, Blog on Photography , Profile : Chris Jordan

Chris Jordan Latest work Midway, message from the Gyre is amazing and sadly shocking, I think is for sure one of the most important documentation on Environmental issues which should be looked closely:

These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking. To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world's most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.

Augenblick, Blog on Photography , Profile : Simone Donati

Italian photographer Simone Donati explored the Berlusconistan so called Italy, interesting project which I hope some magazine will pubblish... The projects show how many idiots (sorry I meant italians) following one of the most corrupted person alive... I wish this could be only a nightmare but is all true.... (cover photo of this article a model during a political meeting from the Berlusconi Party)

Augenblick, Blog on photography - Exhibition : Ouka Leele

Spanish artist Ouka Leele has opened an exhibition in Shanghai called "Delirous Reality" which is a collection of Painted Photographs. The showcase has been presented by the Cultural Section of the Spanish Consulate at 198-208 Anfu road.
here some not on the artist:
Ouka Leele´s artistic career begins in a Spain undergoing a severe transition, where a spirit of renewal pushes to leave behind the old and face a future with a new attitude, which is able to strike a spontaneous and uninhibited
movement, called Movida Madrileña (Madrilenian groove) in the case of Madrid.  This breakthrough provides an arena where to conceive modernity as a fiction of reality. The artist became a relevant documentarian of this period, in front and behind the camera, and today, three decades later, she continues to portray magic-realist scenarios.Her lens is provocative and curved with a suggestive sense of humour able to establish Ouka Leele as an icon of her time, a feminine voice to counterbalance the predominating male art panorama. In the creative field, her work strikes out for the personal method of blurring the limits between photography and painting, as well as for the continuous exercise of the imagination to search for beauty as the main subject matter in her photos.

AUgenblick, Blog on Photography : Profile , Kurt Tong

"People Square" is a remarkable project by photographer Kurt Tong. The Honk Kong born Photographer explored the desolated landscapes of Chinese City parks . People Parks were so named after the cultural revolution and still are considered the main green area on each city. I like the work and the showing of his parent's photos from the 70s.

Augenblick, Blog on Photography , Profile : Andrew Miksys

I like the series Bingo from American photographer Andrew Miksys

Augenblick, Blog on photography : Profile, Matthew Sleeth

Australian photographer Matthew Sleeth has done different projects in Japan such as Kawaii Baby and Women in Uniform  and for sure the funniest web site for a photographer... click here to see... (tricky).

Augenblick, Blog on Photography , Exhibition : Akent'annos by Mauro Bottaro

Happy to introduce an exhibition from my friend Mauro Bottaro . The exhibition "Akent'annos" is a showcase of the many people who overcross the 100 years of age over in Sardinia . The prints will be displayed at the Piola Libri Bookshop in Bruxelles.

Augenblick, Blog on photography , Books : Assignment Shanghai by Jack Birns

My friend Rosa Chen, photographer and great help for my current project on Cosplay series has brought me to look at a interesting book from Life Magazine's photographer Jack Birns called "Assignment Shanghai", I have to be honest I did know his name and I cannot find much from him in the net. The book shows the City of Shanghai in the eve of the Revolution which took Mao Zedong in power and he witnessed the terrible years of the civil war . The photos were done with a Rolleiflex depicting the end of the golden days of the Chinese metropole. The book was published in 2003 and it is an important document for Shanghai history.

Jack Birns worked one year in China at the age of 28 and he has done many assignment for Life Magazine. He died in 2008

Augenblick, Blog on Photography , Profile : Orang-Utan Nonja

Well i do like some photos taken from Orang - Utan Nonja , she is a female photographer living in a cage, often being visited by zoo fans, I have spoken about a great body of work from Korean photographer Jeong Mee Yong done in a zoo. Now is quite unusual to speak about the other side of the barricade ... although i would love to see a series from Nonjia to portrait visitors... we will see next projects.. she does not have a web site but a fan page in Facebook here we go (her photos also there.. )
I think she will get some work here in Shanghai, she is social enough (it is enough to work as commercial photographer here in shanghai .....)

Augenblick, Blog on Photography , Profile : Zhu Feng

Zero Shanghai is perhaps the most interesting project of photographer Zhu Feng, in his web site you can view many different approach , different techniques and different idea on how use the camera.

Augenblick, Blog on Photography , Profile : Martin Kollar

European Parliament is the latest project from the Slovak Photographer Martin Kollar . It is interesting and funny expecially...

Augenblick. Blog on Photography , Books : Italian Riviera by Mark Cohen

Book on Italian Riviera with photographs by Mark Cohen released last year

here the note from publisher :

Mark Cohen adheres to the fundamental principles of street photography. He uses small format equipment and chooses the urban context as his unique field of action. Despite this he does not haunt large metropolises but, almost without exception, produces his work in small towns and, above all, in his hometown of Wilkes-Barre, a coal mining suburb of Pennsylvania, where he was born and where he has always lived. This is also true of the series he produced along the Levante Riviera in Liguria, during his stay in Rapallo. The scale of places in which the American photographer moves, as well as his attitude, is essentially unchanging. Unlike fellow photographers working on the streets of New York, Paris or London, Cohen is actually unable to disappear into the crowd and remains constantly visible. The act of photography becomes a veritable performance for him, made up of ambushes, agility and a rapid encounter/collision with his subjects the moment the shutter is released . . . The aesthetics and the content of the American artist’s photographs are essentially the same on the Ligurian coast as they are just a few steps from home. Wherever he is, Cohen continues to use the same method and remains sensitive to similar influences. His work presupposes a strong ability to plan. Although, as we mentioned earlier, his work contains the street photographer’s instinctiveness, this acts within the boundaries of a plan which corresponds to his idea of the world and of photography. Beyond the genius loci (geography, even if recognisable and typical, proves to be a chance element in his work) and the decisive moment, in Italy as elsewhere, Cohen uses photography to tell his own story.

Photographs by Mark Cohen. punctum, Rome, 2008. 96 pp., 35 black & white illustrations, 6x8½".

Augenblick. Blog on Photography , Profile : Zhang Xiao

Was really a pleasure to meet up with Chinese Photographer Zhang Xiao in Pingyao festival. Zhang Xiao is one of the most interesting iconographer in China , he can combine the reality of life in city like Chongqing (one of the most interesting and massive experiment of Chinese Urbanization) with the surreality of people using the Holga Camera. Was hard to choose a photo from the cover of this post , I do have many I like. I am also waiting for his latest project as he told he has 150 rolls still to develop.....

Augenblick, Blog on Photography , Profile : Pawel Jaszczuk

I spoke about Steven Ahlgren which has done a series on corporate office life and today I will talk about polish photographer Pawel Jaszczuk which has worked on after work life of so called "Salary Man" . Is quite common in Tokyo as in other big cities in Japan to see typical employee getting pissed and drunk.

Apart from this project also have a look at Kinky City... quite interesting nightclub life in Tokyo....

Here a note on Salary Man:

Same suit, same tie, same suitcase. Hundreds of thousands of individuals. 8 AM jump in the train packed with dozens of salaryman. Arrive in the office in some fancy building in central Tokyo. Sit on their desk, don´t share their own ideas, never question their boss´s judgement. Accepted boring jobs without question. Salaryman’s lifestyle revolves entirely around work at the office. Nobody challenge the system and the system will provide for all.

If some coworker senior to you (sen pai) wants to go drinking after work, you go. Hang out with colleagues and clients into the night in outdoor standing bars in Shimbashi. Karaoke in Shinjuku, cigarettes, sake or shochu everywhere.

It´s already midnight and salaryman not even thinking of the last train. Exhaust, death-drunk collapse after a night of heavy drinking. Some of them manage to get to a capsule hotel if they know one, some make it to a taxi, and some others just try to make themselves as comfortable as they can wherever they fall.

In Japan heavy drinking is a naturally accepted and sometimes compulsory catharsis for the hard working salaryman. They don’t really care about having their suitcase or they mobile phone stolen. This is Japan, and as easy as it may seems to pick their wallet, drunk salaryman are part of the urban landscape, respected by everyone. A million ways different from the West, where young people get wasted and break the limits as an accepted crazy young attitude, but where for respectable family men it’s shameful to be cought totally drunk by a neighbor.

Augenblick. Blog on Photography , Profile : Yang Yankang

One of the best work on Tibet done by Chinese Photographer Yang Yankang which is also represented by Agence VU in France.

Augenblick, Blog on Photography , Profile : Steven Ahlgren

Living in a corporate city like Shanghai means living daily with the business talk, working eventually in some corporate events and have the chance to buy good version of TV serial "The Office" ( by the way i do prefer the english version...) . Apart from this personal (and sad) experience.. I have the chance to see some work from photographers who were able to describe this world. I have a couple in mind and today I will post the link of Steven Ahlgren , american photographer who had done different project. Have a look at Inside the corporation series , as well the Outside the corporation one.

Augenblick, Blog on Photography , Profile : Cang Xin

Photographer and Artist Cang Xin from Heilongjiang province has developed different art projects which is worth to have look. Main focus on his works are the different issues related to Identity . I do like the series on Communication and Identity Exchange Series from which I use the photo done on Wedding.

Augenblick, Blog on Photography :Exhibition : Lu Guang at Beaugeste Gallery

Exhibition not to be miss at Beaugeste gallery in Shanghai, the 2009 Eugene Smith award winner Lu Guang will present his big project on Pollution's effects on China. The exhibition curated by Jean Lohn is titled "Requiem for Mountain & Waters" and will showcased impressive photos from different places which depict the heavy consequences of the rapid industrial progress of  Asian's biggest country. Lu Guang will be attending the event which will open the 21st of November at 3 Pm. Looking forward to seeing you there.

Augenblick. Blog on Photography , Profile : Li Wei

I like the work of Li Wei, simple and intimate , especially his project "Earth" that investigate Innner Mongolia province where he is coming from.

Augenblick. Blog on Photography , Lecture : Peter Dixie on Constructed Spaces

Peter Dixie will hold an interesting lecture on the use of the human figure in landscape photography, its historical roots, meaning and use in the works of Kalle Kataila, Weng Fen & Peter Bialobrzeski. The lecture will take place this coming Saturday at 3Pm at the Kunstlicht Gallery in Shanghai. I think is a good occasion to be introduced to good photography. Dont miss it.Here some note from Peter Dixie:
What does the human figure stand for in landscape photography?
Behind every image, there is more than “V” signs in our hands and big smiley faces, the use of the human figure in landscape photography can be traced back through the development of European Landscape Painting, the Chinese tradition of Shan Shui and German Romanticism. Also, during the lecture we will be discussing the boundaries between land and human, spiritual and religious, our inner and outer soul.
Our lecturer Peter Dixie, a British Photographer, will also be introducing known photographers from around the world, Kalle Kataila (Finland), Weng Fen (China) and Peter Bialobrzeski (German), in order to elicit the meaning of the human figure in landscape.

Augenblick. Blog on Photography , Books : Paolo Ventura "Winter Stories"

While I was spending my time in Italy (last may) I am picked up an  interesting work and publication from Italian photographers, Paolo Ventura . He has a peculiar work using miniature to represent a reality. He works since some years in America.
Winter Stories is a new book from Paolo Ventura.
here a note from the publisher:
In this luxuriously produced limited edition, Paolo Ventura invents an imaginative series of photographs depicting scenes from the memory banks of an old circus performer as he looks back on his life.What the performer revisits are not moments of great drama, but rather fleetingly recalled glimpses of an everyday life,“images that he had thought to have never seen, quick moments he unknowingly observed as he raised his eyes to the clock hung at the corner of the block.” Using his own childhood memories, beautiful miniature figures and sophisticated sets, Ventura re-envisions a simpler time in 1930s Italy, but his darker vision—with its shadowy backdrops and retreating figures—reminds us that this is not quite Eden. Skillfully crafted and hauntingly evocative, the work is filled with the sweet melancholy of an era, but remains timeless in its ability to resonate with contemporary audiences. This monograph contains an engaging sequence of images, ephemera from Ventura’s working process and a selection of the artful drawings he creates as guides to his elaborate sets.
Photographs by Paolo Ventura. Text by Eugenia Parry. Aperture, New York, 2009. 120 pp., 65 color illustrations, 11½x14".

Augenblick. Blog on Photography , Festival , Lucca DigitalPhotoFest

A little bit of everything at the Lucca DigitalPhotofest , workshops and lectures and some good exhibitions. Among other photographers like Alex Majoli , Richard Avedon, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Ernesto Bazan and Martina Bacigalupo will exhibit. Indeed an interesting retrospective of Japanese Photographer Eikoh Hosoe from which I post the cover photo of this article.

Augenblick, Blog on Photography , Exhibition : Chen Wei Solo Exhibition

Chen Wei will showcase his work from 2007 to 2009 at M97 Gallery in Shanghai, opening on the 14th of November. The exhibition will display 30 recent prints from the photographer.

Augenblick, Blog on Photography , Profile : Lars Tunbjork

I like editorial photography when can tell something new and open my mind to a different world, is the case of Lars Tunbjork which has faced an interesting story on Radovan Karadzic second life.Better to read the presentation from the reportage and understand the incredible funny series ( I have choose the most funny one people holding strange antenna to defend themselves from magnetic fields...)

On the run for 12 years, Rodovan Karadzic lived using the fake identity of Dragan Dabic, natural medicine specialist, when he was arrested in Belgrade on the July 22nd 2008.The former chief of Bosnia's Serbian people is accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.At the time of his arrest, Dragan Dabic was quickly becoming somewhat of a celebrity in Belgrade: he had his own column in a national magazine and he was collaborating with a well-known sexologist on a novel form of sperm-rejuvenation therapy.

Lars Tunbjork went to Belgrade and photographed those who met with him during these 12 years. From a nationalist bar keeper to followers of alternative medicine, they are numerous to mention the unusual magnetism of “Doctor” Dabic.

This new life was stopped dead in its tracks as Karadzic was sent off to The Hague last July to stand trial for war crimes.

Augenblick, Blog on Photography / Exhibition : He has a female name by Andrei Liankevich

Young Belarusian photographer Andrei Liankevich will be part of the exhibition "Gender Check" which will open today at the Museum of Modern Art in Vienna. His project "He has a female name" is a collection of photos in Black and White which show the life of Lesbian community in Minsk.

Augenblick, Blog on Photography , Profile : Hiroshi Watanabe

I have been looking at many photojournalistic work from North Korea, it seems media wants to know more about and send photographers hidden as tourist to shoot the most sealed country on earth, the result is often repetitive , same photos of metro station, sad people walking by the big statue of the great leader and some hidden photos done in the many boring museum and site which tourist are obliged to look. Although the difficulties to work in North Korea Japanese Hiroshi Watanabe was able to work deeper and produce a great essay of photos which ended up also in a book titled "Ideology in Paradise" . I like the portraits and the urban situation, the photographer seems he had quality time to shoot and be part of this mysterious country . Click here to see his gallery on this project.

Augenblick. Blog on Photography , Festival : Rencontre de Bamako

A good way to look deep into African Photography is certainly the Rencontre De Bamako (Biennal of African Photography) which will be opening this year on the 7th of November , the photo festival will display a good collection of photographers from the forgotten Continent. The festival will not only include exhibition but also screening, lectures and meetings in order to better understand African Photography and perhaps better promoting in the world. Among the many photography which will introduce their work Jodi Bieber (South Africa) , Kadar Attia (Algerie) , Yo-Yo Gonthier (La Réunion) and indeed an interesting retrospective on Malik Sebide' (Mali).

Here some words from their official presentation:

While the Bamako Encounters have achieved recognition over the years as an opportunity for African photographers and professionals from all over the world to exchange ideas and discover each other's work, one of the aims of this year's edition is also to turn the Encounters into an event and a celebration for the local population. The focus placed on photographs of "everyday life", the activities and exhibitions assembled in some of the major and popular locations within Bamako (National Museum, Palace of Culture, District Museum, INA Gallery, French Cultural Centre...) and the campaign organised ahead of the event to publicise the Encounters in schools and universities are an integral part of the desire to occupy the city's urban space and involve its inhabitants. At the same time the Biennial’s international network will continue to expand, especially with the new Arles Encounters/Bamako Encounters partnership and the presentation of the series Luxury by Martin Parr, the invitation from the Michael Stevenson

Gallery of Cape Town, which will feature a film look at two of its artists: Pieter Hugo and Nandipha Mntambo, as well as introducing international artists and projects. These programmes will enhance the national visibility of the Encounters while at the same time develop its key role internationally in spreading African photography.

Augenblick. Blog on Photography , Books Not Niigata by Andrew Phelps

A new book by Andrew Phelps on the Japanese city of Niigata. I have spent a day in Niigata, one of the best rice and fish I have eaten and some nice coastline view . Apart from that the book is an interesting interpretation of the city by the american photographer. Here the note from the publisher:
When traveling in a foreign place, I tend to be fascinated with both the exotic and the mundane. The two are often one and the same, especially in a place where the gap between old and new is astronomical. But what does it mean to photograph with the pretense of documentation? I find it is easy to get caught up in chasing an illusion of what I think a place should look like; preconceptions are powerful and the quest to understand a place often leads to a greater misunderstanding. The best I can do is tell the story of my traveling and responding visually to a place I don’t necessarily understand. It is the story of not understanding Niigata. -by Andrew Phelps
Earlier this year, Andrew Phelps was comissioned to take photographs in Japan’s Niigata Prefecture for the »European Eyes on Japan Festival.« The volume Not Niigata presents the artist’s selection from the hundreds of images he brought back from his trip.

Augenblick , Blog on Photography : Magazine : Ahorn Magazine new issue

Shen Wei and Susan Worshan are the main profile on the new Ahorn online issue. I spoke already about Ahorn Magazine and I will try to keep you update with the new interesting editions which come up online.

Augenblick, Blog on Photography , Exhibition : In Asia by Susetta Bozzi

"In Asia" is the title of the exhibition of Italian Photographer Susetta Bozzi which will open today within the 10th edition of AsiaticaFilmMediale (Festival of Video , Movie focusing Asia).

The exhibition is a collection from different reportage around Asia, Susetta is a Beijing-Based Photographer and she travels all over to compile many different features. I wish her a great success for the exhibition!.

Augenblick, Blog on Photography : Exhibition "Postcard" By Rodney Evans

Australian photographer Rodney Evans is presenting his project "Postcard" at the Foundry Gallery here in Shanghai. The project is focusing on the Chinese during their vacation or leisure time .

Exhibition : Bill Viola at the James Cohan Gallery

Multimedia artist Bill Viola is presenting his work at the James Cohan Gallery in New York. The exhibition opened on the 23rd of October will showcased his last two decades of work including Pneuma and Ocean without a Shore.

Profile : Shao Yinong & Mu Chen

Shao Yinong and Mu Chen have have worked in some interesting photographic projects which , as happen with chinese photographers, is hard to find in the web. Nevertheless the two photographers (a married couple) worked in a very interesting topic which I am happy to talk about in this blog. The Idea of shooting at empty "Assembly Halls" which were spaces and theather used by Communist Party during the Cultural Revolution to "educate" people and remarks the sense of Policy of Mao Zedong. I found the project deep and original.

Books : Bye Bye Polaroid by Daido Moriyama

There is a lot of talk about polaroids, perhaps it will be back with a new managment, what we know is that many good photographers have proved the magic of working with this instant film. To give a good example is one of the many books produced by Daido Moriyama which title the sad end of this beautiful media , Bye , Bye Polaroid:
As the title “bye-bye polaroid” suggests, Polaroid has stopped the manufacturing of instant film. The decision comes into force this summer following the growing strength of the digital market and the subsequent decrease in demand for instant film. Moriyama has photographed the city of Tokyo to pay homage to polaroid, a medium he has used unrelentingly for many years. In a style that hasn’t changed for 40 years, he roams the streets, smoking out the sights and smells of the city. Alleyways, advertisement boards, posters, commercial displays, and pedestrians… The Moriyama world you have seen in monochrome, can here be seen in color.
aka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, 2008. 112 pp., 105 illustrations, 9½x7¼".

Profile : Pieter Hugo on Nollywood

Pieter Hugo is one of my favorite photographer, I came across on his latest work on Nollywood, the Movie industry in Nigeria. Portraits are stunning and great humor. Here the statement on the project written by Federica Angelucci.

Nollywood is said to be the third largest film industry in the world, releasing onto the home video market approximately 1 000 movies each year.

Such abundance is possible since films are realized in conditions that would make most of the western independent directors cringe. Movies are produced and marketed in the space of a week: low cost equipment, very basic scripts, actors cast the day of the shooting, “real life” locations. Despite the improvised production process, they continue to fascinate audiences.

In Africa, Nollywood movies are a rare instance of self-representation in the mass media.

The continent has a rich tradition of story-telling that has been expressed abundantly through oral and written fiction, but has never been conveyed through the mass media before.

Movies tell stories that appeal to and reflect the lives of its public: stars are local actors; plots confront the viewer with familiar situations of romance, comedy, witchcraft, bribery, prostitution. The narrative is overdramatic, deprived of happy endings, tragic. The aesthetic is loud, violent, excessive; nothing is said, everything is shouted.

In his travels through West Africa, Hugo has been intrigued by this distinct style in constructing a fictional world where everyday and unreal elements intertwine.

By asking a team of actors and assistants to recreate Nollywood myths and symbols as if they were on movie sets, Hugo initiated the creation of a verisimilar reality.

His vision of the film industry’s interpretation of the world results in a gallery of hallucinatory and unsettling images.

The tableaux of the series depict situations clearly surreal but that could be real on a set; furthermore, they are rooted in the local symbolic imaginary. The boundaries between documentary and fiction become very fluid, and we are left wondering whether our perceptions of the real world are indeed real.

Words by Federica Angelucci

Film : Robert Frank , The films

I spoke already on the exhibition on Americans at the Metropolitan in New York but apart from the great event C/O Berlin will introduce the films series from Robert Frank, a retrospective on american daily life and all the contradictions of the
country. Here the presentation of the films series taken from C/O Berlin web site:
In his films, Robert Frank examines the public and private aspects of
American everyday life—the modern odysseys, the familiar
speechlessness, bacchanalian revelries, and sexual freedom—without
pathos, but with a touch of irony. Frankʼs films are unsettling
because they do not draw clear boundaries between genres; biographic,
documentary and fictional elements are seamlessly intertwined.
C/O Berlin .Postfuhramt, Oranienburger Strasse 35/36

Photographers from all over the world unite !

Is funny to see the first time photo of a photographer strike (perhaps they were other strikes and I never see a photo of it ... )... happened in Rome two days ago, the photographers protest at the opening of the Rome Movie Festival, they protest for the thiny space their photocall is given... well I would have hoped that the strikes was done against Flickr or against the many unprofessional people who are working as Photo editor or in marketing giving jobs to networkers rather to photographer... but a strike is a strike and I pay respect for them...

Exhibition : Susana Raab at Kunslicht Gallery in Shanghai

American Photographer Susana Raab will be presenting her work "Consumed" at the Kunslicht Gallery in Shanghai. The opening will be on the 17th of October.

The work focus on the fast food impact on american society.

Ma Jian on Tian An Men square

I would normally try not to be political and neither post anything relating to photojournalism but since my blog like many others are blocked in China I am obliged to write about an interesting debate and photo presentation happened in Cagliari (Sardinia) from a dissident writer Ma Jian. Thanks to Italian Newspaper L'Unita' who presented the photo gallery.

Ma Jian , author of "Stick out your tongue" (Small Daily Life stories from Tibet) and Beijing Coma ( a fictional novel based on the Tian An Men riots in 1989), presented some rare images of the Beijing riots where many young students has been killed. The photos taken from Ma Jian (who lives as refugee in London) are few and cruel, show how a country have "eaten" his own children. Students laying on the ground over crossed by tanks and killed to educate the mass. I visited China one year after the riots, Beijing was controlled and tight on the eve of the first anniversary of such atrocity, the ideals were washed out and the brain washing was already started. Nowadays students dream to buy a car, an apartment, watching silly show like in italy or in USA.....

Photography has a deep sense of truth, even when is subjective but is this case is witness of an historical time, many chinese dont know what happened that day in Tian An Men, some who knows never see these photos....

Exhibition : Robert Frank , The Americans at the Metropolitan

What will be contemporary photography without Robert Frank? The book Americans is the beginning of what we know modern era of fixing a shadow in a film. The Metropolitan Museum Of Art in New York will present a special exhibition by displaying all the original prints from the book, 83 photos that have changed the world of photography. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Book which was in the beginning criticized back in 1959. If you happen to be there dont miss the show.

Books : Fake Holiday by Reiner Riedler

Austrian Photographer Reiner Riedler has presented his latest project launching it as a book called "Fake Holiday". The Book is the result of a documentary work which took him to travel in different part of the world photographing the many artificial way to go holiday.

Here a short essay written by Jens Lindworsky

When wishes are out of reach, simulation is taking over our leisure time and our holidays. Imaginary worlds are created, often under massive technological exertion, in order to offer us experience as reproducible merchandise. Although the quality of these adventures on demand sometimes proves to be rather dubious, the boom does shed light on one thing: the yearnings and dreams underlying people’s daily lives.

Back on Posting but for how long?

I will be back to post something again in this blog, has been a long time , the Chinese Government has blocked many sites since long time and even many proxy or filters which allowed me to write in this blog. Today I discover a new way to not be seen and it seems work fine but for how long?

In any case i am posting a screenshot taken on my new web site already online since some days. I try to change web site every sometimes, i get bored of my web site easily, also I must confess i get bored of my photos (but in this case I dont know how to replace them...)

I am trying to work more into different directions, less reportage and editorial style more in portraits and more intimate, it is quite hard , perhaps it will take me other few years to reach that, the web site perhaps shows this attempt, early to say but at least I found quite interesting to challenge myself into a different field, understand photography better and see the limitation of photojournalism (what i tried to do in the past). I tried to move on .....

Exhibition : Rafal MIlach at Pingyao festival

"The more I tried to understand Russia, the more I was lost" so start
the essay on Russia called 7 Rooms from Rafal Milach which is
exhibited at the
Pingyao photo festival in China (Until the 25th) . I had chance to
meet up with Rafal during his short stay in Pingyao and perhaps I
will be talking more about his work in future.His different projects
are always refreshing
and giving me insipiration and great sense of delicacy in how to face
pictorially the complexity of Giant Russia. The work focused on 7
different people in Russia and in between winter landscape of this
immense
place.

Exhibition : United Artists of Italy

A new exhibition at the Palazzo delle Stelline in Milan will showcase
a collection from the best classic Italian Photography. The exhibition
is called "United Artists of Italy" and it will last until February
2010. Here the list of the photographers:
Claudio Abate, Aurelio Amendola, Gabriele Basilico, Sandro Becchetti,
Gianni Berengo Gardin, Elisabetta Catalano, Giorgio Colombo, Mario
Cresci, Mario Dondero, Federico Garolla, Luigi Ghirri, Mario
Giacomelli, Gianfranco Gorgoni, Mimmo Jodice, Nanda Lanfranco, Uliano
Lucas, Attilio Maranzano, Nino Migliori, Ugo Mulas, Paolo Mussat
Sartor, Paolo Pellion, Ferdinando Scianna. (photo from Andy Warhol by
Sandro Becchetti)

Magazine : Ahorn Magazine

One of the best online magazine for fine art photography : Ahorn Magazine explore different aspect using simple galleries and well done interview on photographers. The magazine has been created by Daniel Augschoell and Ana Jasbar and it has an archives on the previous issues has been published.

Festival : Chinese Cosplayer at Pingyao Photo Festival

This time I will have to post something about myself.. I am very happy to exhibit my on going project on Cosplay in China at the Pingyao International Photo Festival which will open the 19th of September, the project is my first approach to the different youth subcultures which I want to work on in the next years. Not an easy project as I am intend to visit these kids in their home (rather than a park or in some official events) , I will be quite happy if one day I will come up with 15-20 good photos, at this stage I would say i am half of the way but already happy to have seen an interest from magazines and curators of Pingyao festival on the work.

I will write more about Pingyao as I am going there, there are some good photography to talk about furthermore in this blog.

Assuming the fact that working on a topic of cosplay could be tricky (many people already worked on it) I tried to set up a different view, try to dont let their mask taking over the portrait. To explain that I better post the statement written by Sara Vincenzi which she has found a remarkable text to explain my project. Here the statement :

Chinese youth's subucultures : Cosplayer

Fallen angels from heaven, wrapped in sheets garish robots, futuristic knights and princesses. In this way ', encased in heavy armor, transmuted by the speed' of change, Chinese’s teens take refuge in the imaginary dream, the ones of the epic heroes and characters of “Manga” and Japanese cartoons. They are the losers of the Chinese miracle, people born on the ashes of a generation speechless in its dreams and libertarians ideals.

”That day you covered my eyes and the sky with a red flag, you asked me what I was seeing, "Happiness'" I said ..... This feeling made me forget that I have no place to stay, you asked me which direction I want to go, I answered on your way... " Was singing Cui Jian , founder of Chinese rock, marking 'the end of that generation of the 80' who had fought and hoped.

Deprived of a past buried by the bulldozers of modernity 'and phagocytized by speed', the only unit 'of measurement of the Chinese metropolis of 21 th century, the new generations closing up in themselves, cover, disguise, dress, put colored wigs trying to live the real size of this elusive transmuting it into a fictional world where names, codes and social behaviors are re-invented and re-written in the language of the game.

China is "cannibal" said Lu Xun, is like Kronos devouring his own children at the cyclical rhythm of history and that lets you naked in front of it. Stripped off from their Mao’s blue uniforms with white Student’ shirts, disillusioned by the "magnificent destiny and progress" that social inequalities have widened dramatically over the past ten years, throw in virtual worlds, live double lives where the peeling and moldy walls of China are razed with blows of lasers and magic wands."Learn from Lei Feng" shouted the young red guards holding the booklet of Mao in the 60s. But today's Communist ideals and Confucian’s patriotism squeaking against the advance of globalization and economic growth that sweeps away layers of millenary culture and identity '.

The "Riben guizi," the once "Japanese devils" are a renewed target of national pride but also, at the same time, inspired a new matrix identity in a fluctuating split between public life and private life, reality 'and dream.Language, as always, is 'the first archaeological finding of the future: generations of bloggers and internet users destructure language itself, the slogans of the revolution pop fade like old “dazipao” on the walls, emblems of a past whose memory is' a luxury bitter and the young remain for a few Jiong "spechless" An idiogramma that remains voiceless, a virtual scream, a linguistic mask of China's future apophasis on the search of a new identity.

Exhibition : "Lomo" by Lu Yuamin

New Exhibition at the Beaugeste Gallery in Shanghai, Jean Loh, curator of the gallery, will present the project of chinese photographer Lu Yuamin , a series done with a Lomo Camera, here in details the statement and presentation of the exhibition wich will open on the 19th of September:

Far ahead of 2010’s World Expo, from September to November 2009 the Beaugeste Gallery has chosen to present the most Haipai of Shanghai photographers, universally recognized and respected by his peers (*), Lu Yuanmin (born in 1950) and his most creative work so far : his vision of Shanghai through the viewfinder of his Lomo camera.

Starting in 2006 and for two years Lu Yuanmin, the most humanist and most classical, the most intimate photographer in China, who has been relentlessly photographing his Longtang fellowmen and his beloved Suzhou Creeks, has given up his old Seagull camera for a small Lomo. He then set out for a unprecedented creative exercise, carried away by the ease and the freedom brought by this semi gadget. He only stopped the Lomo shooting after he had used up his stock of over 500 rolls of China-made negatives and could no longer find any supply as the factory had closed down.

The exercise resulted in an astonishing “film noir” rich in tension and intensity, a very “black” vision of Shanghai in the sense of a thriller – (we remember Lu Yuanmin first job was projectionist in a cinema in 1968).

In this movie all sorts of characters form a strangest parade: mysterious Shanghai girls hiding their identity behind fancy sunglasses, couples in love or in fight, an elf-like girl picking her nose, an angel-like girl spread her wings, a bunch of dogs take part in this parade: two of them compete in lifting legs, a giant poodle threatens to devour the lens of the camera, a grand-ma lost in translation talking to a plastic doggie…the multiple faces of our microcosm revealed through the Lomo’s dark rings.

Lu Yuanmin was born under the sign of the tiger, says Professor Lin Lu, famous critic, but he is kind and gentle as a lamb. What we see in his Lomo series are the claws of a hungry wolf, the eyes of a lynx on the prowl, and the mocking irony of an alley cat that is watching us from above yet with a touch of tenderness.

Profile : Fabien Seguin

I visited the web site of Fabien Seguin , multimedia artist living and working in China (Wuhan), he has some interesting series such as Hulumbuir and the polaroid work done on series Otium and Pure Instant Male. Here the statement from Hulumbuir where is possible to understand the cultural blend experienced by living in a Megacity in China
"I've lived for more than two years in a megalopolis located in central China and day-by-day I can witness the worrying effects of an ever-growing pollution. As a photographer, the most shocking phenomenon is the constant veil of dust occupying the sky and covering the whole city. This cover virtually changes the color of the light and gives the impression of living on another planet. In August 2008 I stayed one month in Inner Mongolia (Chinese province), in the region of Hulunbuir, a city lost in the grasslands. There I discovered the same strong light, the same brightness, the same vast blue skies as those of my native Alps, with, in the background, a smell of grass similar to that of the Alpine massifs. This stay took me back to the world of childhood, to the clarity and freshness of life far from the cities, to a world where time and light can be felt again.Every image of this series is a moment where my eye was ravished by the quality of the light and by what was so strongly lit. Spontaneity is the rule of this work. This aesthetic of rapture is at least as necessary as the alarmist tone prevailing in the mass media when the discussion deals with environment."