November 2011

Moa Karlberg lives and works in Stockholm where she works on long-term projects in Sweden and abroad. About this work she writes:

The project ‘Watching you watch me’ is discovering how a photographer can get as close as possible to others, without acting illegal. I have taken portraits of people through a mirror, when they are totally unaware of the camera inside. This way I get shots of people watching themselves. Since the pictures are taken in public spaces, I can publish them however I want to. At least in Sweden, where the laws are generous to journalists and artists. But in which forums and publications does the single individual feel insulted? ‘Watching you watch me’ is an effort to create debate on laws and ethics within the photographer’s role.

Kevin McCollister is a Los Angeles-based documentary photographer. He worked for several years as a deckhand on the Mississippi River before moving to L.A. He has been working on this photography series, East of West L.A., for over six years. He writes:

‘Just to be clear, I’m more Walt Whitman than Ansel Adams. I’ve taken only a handful of photography classes, never shot film or stepped in a darkroom. If the digital sensor had never been invented, you wouldn’t be reading this. But it was invented and I’m taking total advantage of its ability to present the easily misunderstood city of Los Angeles. Yes, it’s a ‘mission’ but the only thing at stake is whether or not someone sees something new’.

We are giving away a copy of his book, East of West L.A. To enter, leave a comment under this post with the first thing you think about when you think of Los Angeles.

How long have you been photographing street life in East Los Angeles?
‘I started photographing in August of 2005 with just a small hundred dollar Kodak that a friend gave me. I wanted to send my sister-in-law photos of Los Angeles by using a blog, even though I barely understood what one was. But once I started to see how much there is to Los Angeles in the way of people and places, it just took off. In addition to knowing very little about blogs or the Internet, I also knew nothing about cameras or photography. But eventually, I got better cameras: a Canon 40D and then a Lumix. I now have close to 950 photos on my blog.

‘And, by the way, regardless of the title, it’s not just East Los Angeles that’s my turf. East of West L.A. is, for me, more of a socio-economic area that can include Venice and parts of Santa Monica. If you’re familiar with David Hockney’s Los Angeles paintings of swimming pools, sunshine and total comfort, ‘East of West L.A.’ is everything that Hockney’s work leaves out’.

Is this something you do everyday?
‘No, I have an office job. And I don’t think I would to do it everyday as a routine, as something I had to do for financial reasons. I go out quite often at night, and my weekends especially revolve around going out and taking photos. That’s when it can get obsessive. I admit it. And then there’s the editing; getting rid of the ‘What was I thinking?’ shots. It’s time consuming, but I actually like editing what I’ve shot. I put on some Ben Webster from the fifties and it’s kind of relaxing. As for editing, I have Photoshop Elements 9. Anything more complicated and I’m lost. Plus, I don’t think it would be true to my work to have anything that’s overly processed’.

What inspires/drives you to photograph people down on their luck?
‘Yes, that’s a good way to put it. They are “down on their luck.” I rarely take shots of anyone who’s drunk or high. That would be taking advantage of them and it’s not really what I’m after. Aside from that, I don’t think there’s any denying I was born with just a little bit more empathy than some other people. It also seems like I have a little more natural rapport with them, although I am by no means extroverted. It might come from having lived in New Orleans for several years. And let me tell you, you meet all types of people in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

‘But that’s only part of it. This country’s economy has cratered so badly that people with absolutely no money, the people I’m drawn to, are probably more indicative of our current state of life than they have been since maybe the Great Depression. I also think this part of L.A. has been really under-represented. As I said regarding David Hockney, to just pick one example, everyone is familiar with ‘Rich L.A.’, but a lot of people have no idea what a small fraction of Los Angeles that really is’.

As for inspiration, I look at the work of many other photographers: Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Walker Evans, Lisette Model, Diane Arbus and now Vivian Maier. Just incredible stuff’.

You’ve included some beautiful photos of religious symbols and flowers in this body of work. How does this subject matter fit in with the overall picture?
‘Subject matter – content – is everything for me. And again, I would say that a lot of people have only a general idea that Los Angeles has such a visually rich Hispanic/Catholic life. And although I’m seeing only a small part of it, it’s fascinating to me. As for the flowers, I just like to try different stuff. Sometimes I think people might get the idea I’m like the May von Sydow character in “Hannah And Her Sisters,” the gloomy, “Why doesn’t everybody just jump off a building” artist. But I don’t think that’s accurate about me or my work.

‘There’s also the fact that, because Los Angeles is so damn sunny, and sometimes before eight in the morning, I simply don’t have the weather for photography. I, nonetheless, have the urge to photograph something so I just go down the street to buy some flowers’.

How does your background as a poet and writer inform your photography and which images you choose to put out into the world?
‘A lot. In a very unpremeditated way, all the Walt Whitman and the William Carlos Williams I read and studied really trained me to see images and to see how it is or isn’t an ‘American, of the moment’ image. And before, it was with the idea of writing about them, but I somehow made the jump to directly photographing them’.

Stanley Kubrick was a writer and director famous for movies such as: Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange and The Shining.  Before he began directing he was a photographer for LOOK Magazine from 1945-1950.  The Museum of the City of New York and VandM have recently chosen 25 of Kubrick’s photographs out of 10,000 negatives to sell with the majority of the proceeds going to the Museum of the City of New York.

Photo by Jo Ann Santangelo.

*Austin Faces AIDS: Portraits of people living with HIV and AIDS will be exhibited in Austin from December 1 through January 2, 2012 at the East Side Drive In (in a 40ft. industrial storage container). Opening reception is on Friday, December 2 from 6-9pm.

Ryan Young is a Los Angeles and San Francisco- based photographer currently attending Art Center College of Design and is set to graduate in the spring of 2012. The examination of people in their unaltered states is central to Ryan’s work; cities, houses, and car interiors act as contextual backdrops for his subjects. Depicting the imperfections and idiosyncrasies of people and the places they inhabit is a way for him to celebrate life—real life.

Recently, Ryan joined the production crew as photographer of a skateboard documentary titled Outside The Lines, a story about two young men pursuing their dream of becoming professional skateboarders while traveling to unique terrains and meeting skaters across the United States. The idea behind Outside The Lines was to plainly reveal the culture of skateboarding to an audience beyond skateboarders themselves. The unobtrusive style of Ryan’s photography helped achieve this goal.

Within media created primarily for committed skateboarders, a predictable aesthetic has been cemented in recent decades. The focus of the imagery shown in monthly skate magazines is the difficulty of executing a trick, with each skater displaying confident mastery over obstacles and environments. The photos Ryan produced on the trip buck this trend by exploring realities in the lives of a diverse sample of skaters that are often ignored. Inconspicuous, often filthy locations where skaters gather to avoid hassle from authorities, emotional moments before and after the struggle to land a difficult trick, downtime, unanticipated conflicts with outsiders and the nonstop journey from one spot to the next are all given close attention, making these moments equally relevant to the act of skateboarding itself.

This series of photos emphasizes the differences in mood held by each of the film’s personalities, uncomfortable travel situations and the relationships between skaters and terrains—a step in the opposite direction away from mainstream portrayals of what skateboarding is. -Travis Schirmer

Siri Kaur is a Los Angeles based photographer. She received her MFA in Photography from California Institute of the Arts in 2007, and an MA in Italian Studies (2001) and BA in Comparative Literature (1998) from Smith College. Kaur was the recipient of the Portland Museum of Art Biennial Purchase Prize in 2011. She has exhibited in numerous group exhibitions, including shows at the Torrance Museum of Art, California Institute of Technology, UCLA’s Wight Biennial and USC’s 3001 Gallery. This work is being shown at Blythe Projects (Los Angeles) through December 17, 2011.

In a world beset by fear, war and the specter of ecological disaster, yearning for a safe haven has become part of everyday living. Kaur uses photography to suggest a poetic counter-world while acknowledging the abysmal and the uncanny lurking beneath the surface of utopian fantasies. Her images, originating in diverse locations including Iceland, New England, Alaska and Southern California, reveal an artistic practice that is deeply personal, yet universal, oscillating between anxiety and yearning for a better world. [via Blythe Projects]

Photo by Julia Smirnova

Laura Pannack is a fine art photographer based in London. In 2010, her work received first prize in the Portrait Singles category of the World Press Photo awards. This work is from her series on Young British Naturists (YBN), a group for UK naturists aged between 16 to 30. She writes:

When I came across YBN, I was fascinated with understanding reasons why these young people wanted to belong to a group exposing such human vulnerability. I wanted to know why they felt the need to be naked or be part of a group where this was not only acceptable but also encouraged. I soon realized that naturism is more than just about being naked, it is a philosophy of life with physical, psychological, environmental, social and moral beliefs. Some would classify naturism as a religion.

YBN arrange camping activities and outings to meet and socialise with like- minded young people. At events, members get to know each other, play sports and relax. The group accepts all types of individuals, there are no rules; members can be any of race, religion, profession, political preference, economic status and need no specific skill or talent; individuals are accepted just as long as one is under 30 and has an interest in naturism. Perhaps this complete acceptance is one of the keys to its success.

Nudity is often associated with sex. However I discovered that this could not be farther from the truth within naturism. The human body becomes almost an irrelevance, something with which they become almost unaware of and is their own norm.

In order to fully understand my subject and gain the trust and respect of the people I wished to photograph I felt it was essential for me to cross over to their side and be naked. By placing myself in a vulnerable situation , the connection with my subjects was one of mutual understanding and equality. This ongoing project consists of young British naturists aged between 17 and 30. I aim to capture them as individuals, not just naturists.

Peter Andrew is an award-winning commercial and fine art photographer from Toronto, Canada. His body of work includes advertising, location, portrait and landscape photography. Of this Freeway series, he writes:

I was drawn to these structures because they are easily overlooked and yet ubiquitous in most western cities. Everyday cars flow over these highway junctions like the concrete arteries of city’s cardiovascular system. I love having the chance to watch them moving while I am shooting from above. I ask the viewer to closely examine the traffic, terrain, and surrounding architecture in the images. My interest is in observing the differences seen between them. Some are slick and chaotic while others appear chipped-up and old but at the same time neat and symmetrical. This is an ongoing series that will soon feature the highway stacks of the State of Texas.