See my tulips slideshow

21 April 2011.  It’s one of those typical things that happen to me. Although only at 20 km distance, I had never been to the world famous spring flower park in the world. Only in spring 2009, when two friends asked me to come see the tulips, I visited Keukenhof (Netherlands) for the very first time.

I was stunned by the variety of the tulips and other spring flowers as well as the (blossom)trees in the park. Although I think that the park could do with more contemporary flower bed designs (blends, shapes and colours), I promised myself that I  go back every following year to enjoy this flower delight.

This year I visited on Monday 18 April. Via Flickr a slide show is available for all tulip lovers.

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Do you look away from images of real-life horror, or look closer? A series of shocking photographs from Somalia asks disturbing questions about the ethics of bearing witness
The Guardian | Sean O’Hagan about World Press Photos ; plus all the comments from the readers

Farah Abdi Warsameh’s Stoned to Death, Somalia, 13 December. Photograph: AP

March 31, 2009 6:30 PM.
In conjunction with Into the Sunset, which examines how photography has pictured the idea of the American West from 1850 to the present, this panel features photographers, a filmmaker, and a writer in a discussion of how their work elicits and contributes to our collective imagination and narratives of the West. Participants include photographer Katy Grannan, writer Annie Proulx, and photographer, filmmaker, and actor Dennis Hopper. Eva Respini, Assistant Curator, Department of Photography, and organizer of the exhibition moderates a discussion.

mmhh, as I can’t embed the video : click this permalink

This weekend, Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 February 2010, Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam (NL) holds its second photo book weekend; with seminars, presentations, pitches, interviews, demos and a photo book market.

Last year I missed the first event, but this year I timely marked the weekend and timely bought a ticket for the Saturday. So, today I had an early train to Rotterdam, as I also wanted to see, prior to all the photo book activities, these exhibitions :

-  Nicholas Nixon: The Brown Sisters 1975-2009 | View the photo serie 1975-1995 |  Lees het artikel in de Volkskrant “Altijd samen” van Merel Bem

- Kingsley’s Crossing | See the documented passage here :  Permalink Mediastorm

The portraits of the sisters (fascinating and confronting!) had a strong impact on me, as had the story of Kingsley (among many other things, no family photo moments for him anymore…).
Yes, how about equal opportunities…  and comfortable aging…

The talk of young graduate photography Willem Popelier about this soon to be published photo book raised some emotions too. He explained his confusion, struggle and search for fact finding and his need to document, to visualise the abstractness of identity. He showed and told us how his notebooks turned from a photo book dummy into “X and Willem, documented record of a youth“. Also why he chose for a publisher versus being his own publisher. (I think I understand why he wants to share his (twin) identity search and youth story…).

Using an extensive family tree and photography, the narrative is systematically charted and developed. Portraits of individuals are created in the same detached manner as objects from the past, such as train tickets and the many keys to the twins’ various family homes.

A presentation of Hans Schoots was about the biography. I heard about the choice of telling a story with images only or with narratives/explanations, the (strong) relationship of text and visuals and the successful combination of written content and aesthetic photo essay.

The 2,5 book pitches that I joined were equally interesting and informative. Photographers talked about their project and book pursuit (from “Knoet”, “Sint Annawijk Tilburg” to “warm-cold roots & contrasts”). Questions raised by the experts (publishers) were about the why, what, how and the added value of the book as a means. Advice was given about strong editing, design, adding of own “signature” and the need for a matching publisher.

Julian Germain talked how three of his books (Steel, In soccer wonderland, For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness) came about.  The length of the Steel project, his choices and the opportunity to combine his own work with the vernacular photographs that he collects. Also about the collaboration with the designer, the strong needed editing in one book and the joy and freedom of doing scrapbook format in his soccer book, his difficulty with text writing, i.e. to convert Charlie’s answers to his questions into the ‘Charlie story’. Furthermore we heard and saw a bit about his photo presentations (framing) at exhibitions.

The last  =very uplifting= 10 minutes of the day were about the wonderful “Red Balloon / Le Ballon rouge” book. Frido Troost called upon photo book lovers to look beyond expensive, “must-seek-after Parr-Badger books” and upon photographers to do more linear photo book (comics) stories and less conceptual art books ;+)

A photo book as a contemporary business card for photographers. Indeed photo books have become more mainstream and digital printing (on demand) offers additional opportunities. Yet what makes a (good) photo book?  (E-book and e-reader??)

There were also moments for photographers to meet and to talk about photo book projects and photography. Exchanges are useful. We, I, need more of such uplifting, informative and inspiring events. Bring them on!

(I’m reading Wikipedia | publishing)

p.s. Don’t hesitate to share your favorite photo book title (and url).

About Flickr and my public =membership= group

Flickr’s pointers for creating a thriving community:

1. ((Invite your friends and anyone you know who is interested in what you are interested in. Having group members is the first step in having a successful group!))  For my membership group applies : Verify and accept or decline membership requests
2. Visit the group frequently. Groups thrive with daily discussion, and with daily responses from other members of the community, in chat and on the discussion boards.
3. Moderate, moderate, moderate! Successful groups are kept in check by good moderation. Tend that garden; pull the weeds, mow the lawn, prune the roses, etc. To help you moderate your group, you can enlist other members to become moderators. Moderators don’t have full administrative power, but they can help you moderate pool submissions, keep tabs on discussions, and weed out the people who don’t play by the rules.

The group guidelines:

> 1 to 3 photos per week ;
> if opportune, tell us about the photo : why and/or where and/or how (aperture, shutter time, camera and lens…)
or
> ask us for feedback by tagging your photo “feedback”.

Please give critique back when you ask for feedback.

No other rules. The aim is to learn and to inspire each other.

That looks simple and straight forward yes? But often, also here, things are not what they seems. Although membership is growing and we have three moderators in the group, I am doubting the “thriving” part. What’s thriving? Comments, interaction? Is the group too divers? Can we improve on focus? Must look at other groups…  (to be continued…)

Interesting article about the delusional arrogance of some art students in ‘School of Saatchi’  and a bit more

The problem for art colleges is that genuine talent is very, very rare. And while some students accept that they’ll never be the next Francis Bacon, the majority – blindly encouraged by their tutors, despite their complete lack of talent – genuinely believe they have what it takes.

Read the full article in Telegraph | Art? Even Tracey Emin said it was rubbish | by Christian Adams

….. Because they say so ? …..

….. Because we say so ? …..

Luckily there’s still talent out there and ART that inspires people. This week I could watch a TV programme from the BBC  with the title “Imagine”. It was a true pleasure to watch one of the arts series presented by Alan Yentob. The episode I  saw : “A look at an Arts Council scheme that enables people from any walk of life to buy artwork”.  In this serie we saw people buying art at a gallery and eventually we saw two art lovers commissioning a work. I thought their commissioned art work turned out fabulous for both parties (no, a success is not always the result – commissioned art can be difficult*) …..

There is a new breed of art collector on the block. No longer do you need to be fabulously wealthy to afford a Blake, a Banksy or a Hockney over your fireplace. Imagine meets a variety of people who are part of a small revolution in the art world. A factory worker, a pig farmer and a policeman are just some of those whose lives have been changed by an Arts Council scheme called Own Art, which has enabled them to take out an interest free loan to buy contemporary artwork. Broadcast on:BBC One, 11:05pm Tuesday 1st December 2009 Duration:55 minutes Available until:11:24pm Tuesday 29th December 2009 Categories: Factual, Arts, Culture & the Media.

The Own Art scheme is designed to make it easy and affordable for everyone to buy contemporary works of art and craft including paintings, photography, sculpture, glassware and furniture.

Imaging and Own Art scheme, see more

What is art?   “Art is what you can get away with” – Andy Warhol .  This still remains my favorite art quote (see my fine art page)

* ArtLawBlog | Commission Without a Contract: What Now?

“Spending £1,000 or more on a book is an investment,” Taschen says. “A number of people are looking for a safe place to put their money, and the success of our limited editions have shown time and again that prices are often doubled, tripled or, in the case of Sumo, multiplied by 10. And while you’re waiting for your money to grow, you get to own something beautiful and rare. That’s what I call a good investment.”