PARALLEL 03 (SUITE)

Never before published, Terril Jones’s view of Changan Avenue in Beijing on June 5 1989, shows “tank man”, in the distance at left, framed by two tree trunks, on the verge of his confrontation with the tanks in the distance at right.

WORLD PRESS PHOTO

The World Press Photo Organization in collaboration with The Mondriaan Foundation and the VSB Foundation is launching their new online archive. Going all the way back to 1955, it includes every year's prize-winners in chronological order. Covering over 50 years of award-winning images, the archive features around 10,000 photographs, each of which has been carefully scanned and labeled. It’s a monumental project , I can’t even begin to imagine what it represent in terms of technicalities. Probably more photos than you’ll ever need but unquestionably a truly unbelievable reference for documentary photography. Photo by Malcom W. Browne, 1963.

SIMONEAU GUILLAUME

My new website is online. I am drinking Champagne tonigth. Check it out at www.simoneauguillaume.com and let me know what you think.

PARALLEL 01 (SUITE)

Persian plumes seen from the window of an instrument packed environmental assessment Convair aircraft. Photo by Sisse Brimberg, National Geographic Vol. 181, NO.2 February, 1992.

SAM TATA

I recently picked up a book by Sam Tata entitled A Certain Identity: 50 Portraits by Sam Tata. The book was published in 1983 by Deneau Publishers and foreworded by Geoffrey James. Sam Tata was born in Shanghai in 1911 and lived in Montreal from 1956 to 2005 where he died at the age of 93. The following portraits are, in order: Québec's playwright genius Michel Tremblay, living legend Leonard Cohen, animation pioneer Norman McLaren and the one and only Robert Frank.

PARALLEL 04

Top image by Ryan Carter and bottom image by Eamon Mac Mahon. Thanks to Todd Brown for pointing this one out to me.

BENOIT AQUIN

A couple days ago my dear friend Benoit Aquin was awarded the first Prix Pictet. The Prix Pictet is a major new global prize in photography that focuses on perhaps the greatest single issue of the twenty-first century: sustainability. This year's thematic was water. Benoit's work entitled The Chinese Dust Bowl was selected amongst a very intimidating selection of striking series from everywhere around the globe.

NIK MIRUS

People and Quiet Spaces is the title of Nik Mirus new solo show opening November 6th at Visual Voice Gallery (Belgo building on Ste-Catherine). Vernissage is from 18h to 21h and the show runs from Nov. 6th to Nov. 15th. Gallery is open from Tuesday to Saturday 12h to 18h.

RETOUR SUR BILL EWING

Yesterday's lecture by Mr. Ewing, entitled Jack's True Calling, was, in a nut shell, a crash course on visual literacy (v.l.) focusing on the highly calculated "candidness" of advertising photography. Having been interested in the subject of v.l. for the past couple years, I would like to respond to his lecture by showing you a fantastic piece that was brought to my attention last year by Evita Karasek. The wide open iconic June 1985 issue of the National Geographic showing the back cover and the cover next to each other. As in Mr. Ewing's Jack examples, the greatest irony and fantasy does not reside only in the striking visuals but in the small print that accompanies them...Here, the first sentence reads: "Declare your independence. Bust out. Take off."

BILL EWING

Internationally recognized curator and writer on photography William A. Ewing (Director of the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland) will be giving a conference tomorrow tuesday the 21st of October at 18:30h at Concordia (1515 Ste-Catherine St. West EV-1.605). You can listen to a radio interview here.

LIU BOLIN

I often foolishly think that today's reality barely justifies the need for fiction. But when reality and fiction actually meet on common ground, I have to admit that great things can happen. The work of Beijing based Lui Bolin reminds a lot of Werner Herzog's Grizzly Bear in that sense. Thanks to Scott at The Incubator for the heads up.

KAREN IRVINE PART 1 OF 4: AUTOBIOGRAPHY

In case you missed Karen Irvine's presentation in Montreal (organised by DHC/ART), here's a 4 parts visual summary/teaser of some work produced by the photographers she refered to in her lecture. In order: Jen Davis, Nikki S. Lee, Nan Goldin, Eileen Cowin, Tracey Baran, Lilly McElroy, Hrvoje Slovenc, Kelli Connell, Gillian Wearing, KayLynn Deveney (flower), Jim Goldberg, Tracey Mofatt, Julie Moos, Jason Salavon, Karen Yama, Paula McCartney, Jeff Wolin, Polly Braden, Tina Barney and Yeondoo Jung.

KAREN IRVINE PART 2: VOYEURISM

In order: Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Michael Wolf, Shizuka Yokomizo, Merry Alpern and Mélanie Manchot.

KAREN IRVINE PART 3: PERFORMANCE

In order: Ma Luiming and Marina Abramovic.

KAREN IRVINE PART 4: FICTION

In order: Ben Gest, Anthony Goicolea, Beate Gütschow, Curtis Mann and An-My Le.

TAKES ON TROOPS

In order, Jeff Wall, Sanchez brothers and Tom Stoddart.

PARALLEL 03

Original Tiannenmen Square photograph by Jeff Widener vs. interesting emulation done for the QuébecKyoto coalition vs. a Lego emulation by Balakov.

OLIVIER HANIGAN

Powerful new work from Afghanistan by photographer Olivier Hanigan.

WOMEN WITH FIREPOWER

As Felicia Feaster would say: "A woman with a gun defies our most ingrained notions of feminity. Women are "supposed" to be nurturing and peacable. But a woman with a gun suggests other possibilities: independance, fury, the ability to shoot a hole through your neck quicker than the reflex to bake up a plate of snickerdoodles." The selection of work presented here came naturally to me over the past couple weeks. First shot (#1)is by Georgia State University photography professor Nancy Floyd who just published a book entitled She's Got a Gun on temple University Press. As you can imagine the book is an hybrid between an academic journey into the world of females with firearms and a photography coffee table book. Second photograph (#2)is by world renowned Martin Parr. #3 is from J-A fox collection, #4 is by Benoit Aquin and is part of a much larger body of work about hunting wich parts of it will be on display in the form of a collective exhibition called Hunting at Stephen Bulger Gallery from the 27th of sept to the 25th of oct. 2008. #5 is a family photo archive courtesy of Hajra waheed, #6 is a classic Steve Mccurry head and shoulder shot, #7 is by Magnum agency member Patrick Zachmann, #8 is by Robert Capa (Budapest, October 22, 1913 – May 25, 1954), #9 is an outtake from a new series called "Seven Portraits of Sergeant Veteran Caroline Annandale" by myself Guillaume Simoneau and #10, last but not least, is by canadian master Larry Towell...I know I kinda cheated on that last one but those armadillos are soooo damn cute.

EROS HOAGLAND

This fantastic photo from Eros Hoagland published in the NewYork Times last week illustrating an article about Iraq's insurgency is straight out of a Roy Andersson movie.

MICHAL CHELBIN

Strong new book on Aperture by Michal Chelbin. Her work reminds me a lot of Van Morisson's music... I'll let you figure out why...

THE FADER

Big up to Phil Bicker and John Francis Peters at The Fader magazine for having such incredible photography months after months. You guys have no idea how inspiring you are to so many people on so many levels. WORD. Photo by Andrew Dosunmu.

CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR...

They say ask and you shall receive, right? Well a couple weeks ago, a package came in the mail from London's Carl Freedman Gallery. A thousand thanks to the anonymous sender for this incredible present. (yes I will eventually frame it properly, I am just saving money right now)

RICHARD PRINCE

This week, a new record has been set for most expensive photo sold at auction. The artist is not Andreas Gursky but Richard "I'm gonna show those fools what appropriation art really is about" Prince. The photo sold at Sotheby's for 3,401,000$ measures 100 by 66 inches and displays a section of a Marlboro cigarette ad (not photo above).
Now..., here are 2 quotes that sums up pretty well this whole situation. First quote is by Richard Prince himself and it goes a lil something like this: "No one was looking. This was a famous campaign. If you’re going to steal something, you know, you go to the bank." The second quote is by Jim Krantz, one of the original photographer behind Richard Prince's bank robbery/work: “If I italicized ‘Moby-Dick,’ does it make it my book? I don’t know. But I don’t think so.”
Here is a non-direct link to an "interesting" 4 parts interview Vice magazine did with Richard Prince not so long ago. (Just scroll down the episode menu on the right to find part 1 to 4.

QUEEN MATTER

(Top) Queen of England by Annie Leibovitz, see interesting video about the photo shoot here. (Bottom) Queen of England by Chris Levine, see more of his work here.

STEPHEN SHORE

Stephen Shore (American Surfaces, Uncommon Places, Nature of Photographs) talks about spending time at the Andy Warhol's Factory.
www.dazeddigital.com/tv/inside_art/stephen-shore/

LARRY TOWELL

New work by canadian master Larry Towell for the New York Times illustrating an article entitled "Patients Without Borders".

MISCELLANEOUS 02

Here is a story about Nina Simone (yes the one and only High Priestess of Soul) in Montreal in 1980. From her biography by David Brun-Lambert (Flammarion 2005). Click on text to see a bigger *read-friendly version of the page.

PARALLEL 02

Drumskins by Patrick Tosani 1976 and Pascal Grand Maison 1998.

PARALLEL 01

When Saddam Hussein's troops retreated from Kuwait in February 1991, they set afire hundreds of oil wells. There were more than 450 individual fires in the Sabriyah field to the north (right) and the Ahmadi field to the south of Kuwait City. Soot from the plumes stained the sand near the fires and can still be seen today. The satellite photos of the recent California fires reminded me directly of these with a different kind of smoke.

EAMON MAC MAHON

Recently chosen by Magenta Foundation to be amongst the 2007 Flash Forward Competiton winners, Eamon Mac Mahon's work makes me wanna build a house with lots of windows. See more of his work here.

ELIZABETH ATTERBURY

I really appreciate the work of Madame Atterbury. If I had a secret society I would set it up in there. See more of her work here.

MATHIEU LAVERDIÈRE

Mathieu Laverdière keeps his cards real close to his chest but every once in a while, if you're lucky, he will let you peek for a second.

GEERT GOIRIS

Saw that posted somewhere a while ago, got stuck in my head. Weird and beautiful work.

PIETER HUGO

Brilliant work.

LARS TUNBJORK

Lars Tunbjork is as much a genius as his work is hard to find online. His earlier work is the bomb. Kaboom toute explose!

STEPHEN SHORE

MISCELLANEOUS 01

In 1967, Haile Selassie I (Emperor of Ethiopia / true icon of the Rastafari) came to Montreal to visit Expo 67. To thank Montreal for the Ethiopian pavilion, he gave 2 lion cubs to the city. Word. That’s class. Jah bless.

FONDS DOCUMENTAIRE

Here is a link to 120 photographers from Québec. It includes 7000 photographs from 1950 to today. (photo by Iva Zimova)www.voxphoto.com/fondsdocumentaire.html

BENOIT AQUIN

Check out the work of local photo genius Benoit Aquin. See more of Benoit's work here.

WAYNE F. MILLER

Work produced on the south side of Chicago in the mid 40s.

MAGAZINE: FUCKLET

Here is the work of Mihail Piskhunov. I know absolutely nothing about him or his work except for the few images I was PAINFULLY able to get from www.fucklet.com Fucklet is a self published photography magazine I stumbled upon while in Barcelona. I would assume they are based in Spain but you can order this clever looking little folded paper flower online through the website (wich is, once again, a painful and frustrating navigation experience). Enjoy/good luck!

MIKE BRODIE

Ok, maybe I am not posting Mike Brodie's work "en exclusivité" but since this blog is about good photography I felt highly self-pressured to post it anyway.

THE ARAB IMAGE FOUNDATION

Two images taken from a precious book titled 'Mapping Sitting' containing 905 photographs from Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine and Jordan taken between the 1920s and 1970s. Book was published in 2002 by Mind the gap and Fondation Arabe pour l'image.

GARETH MCCONNELL

Each time I get to make a wish (birthday candles blowing, shooting stars, minutes matching hours on clock, etc...) I wish for an original print of this photograph by Gareth McConnell.

GUNNAR KNECHTEL

Check out the work of this guy www.gunnarknechtel.com I saw some of his prints in a boutique in Barcelona (beside the CCCB) run by a very friendly guy named Luke. Beside being a clothing store owner, Luke also runs a website (with his friend johnny) called www.feedmecoolshit.com

THOUGHTS 01

In the first 2 hours, I experienced 100 nuclear explosions, had dinner with Jaques Cousteau and slept with Pamela Anderson. After a week and a half I had been living with 7 mennonite communities, been growing purple haze in the mountains of Jamaica, had attempted Milosevitch's trial,met the most tatooed man in the world, spent six months in Brooklyn´s worst crack house and rode Robert Kennedy's funeral train.

It's not the first time I come across such experience, its actually the 3rd. The first time was in Rockport Maine.Unfortunately slash thank god, I was way too in love at the time to realize anything about it.The name of the place was Timothy Whelans bookstore. The second time was 2 years ago in Oaxaca, Mexico at Centro Fotográfico Alvarez Bravo.At that time, I did realize enough of what was going on to change my plans and stick around for a few months, but not enough to fully absorb it all...I still wasn't ready I guess...

This time around, I had to adapt my whole weekly schedule in order to satisfy my obsessiveneed of going through every single book that store had on shelf.I am now in Barcelona and the name of the bookstore is Kowasa.

A few years ago, cinema genuis Andrei Tarkovsky (above polaroid was taken from a beautiful little book called Andrei Tarkovsky's polaroids) said that it was impossible to pass on experiences to others or learn from other's...That we had to live our own experience, that we could not inherit it and that unfortunately, by the time we had enough of our own, we no longer had the time to use it...

That now leaves me very perplexed.

I do beleive strongly in Mr. Tarkovsky's theory but I also am a strong beleiver in the way my guts feel period.And right now they do feel like they have knowledge in all of those fields,as akward and random as they are.
So I ask the following questions:

what is it that we cannot inherit?

Is it the pain, the happiness?

The sum of all stimulus involved in experiencing?

Have I inherited something?

Have I inherited anything?

Is it possible to partially inherit from someone else's experience

and change our own consequently?

Is that what we are trying to aim at when we teach others?

Did I just spotted a hole in Mr.Tarkovsky's shirt?

Could Neanderthal men and women dream OF A falling bridge? (...they never saw one...)

When I dream that my mother is being chewed on alive by phosphorescent high pitch screaming hyenas....(actual dream).......why do I wake up scared, sweating and with a fast heart beat?

Did I experience that for real.....?

Could any input (wether it be images, words, smell, touch or sounds) help
create directly or indirectlyan experience?

Is Mr.Tarkovsky theory under-estimating or neglecting the power of the subcounscious and its role in the experiencing/learning/decision making process?

HOT PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS

This is a list I recently made while browsing through thousands of photography books at Kowasa bookstore in Barcelona. The books (mostly non-mainstream) that made the list are books that moved me either by their subject matters, by the strenght of the visuals or by their overall originality. (or simply because of sheer genius). I took the freedom of highlighting a few titles in red to point out their hotness.

Alec Soth: Sleeping By the Mississippi

Alec Soth: Niagara

Alex Webb: Crossing / The sunshine state / Istanbul

Alfred Seiland: East coast West coast

An-my Lê: Small wars

Andrei Tarkovsky: Instant light (because the guy was a real genius)

Artek: un été en crimee

Bas Princen: Artificial arcadia

Boogie: Its all good (very dark book)

Brian Rose: The lost border, the landscape of the iron curtain

Carl de keyzen: Zona

Charles "teenie" Harris

Christopher Morris: My america

Cristobal Hara: An imaginary spaniard

Danny Lyon: The destruction of lower Manhattan

David Yellen: Too fast for love

Dereck Henderson

Diane Arbus: Revelations

Disfarmer: Vintage prints

Eadweard Muybridge: Complete human + animal locomotion (3 books)

Gareth McConnell: Gareth McConnell

Geert Van Kesteren: Why mister why

Hellen Van Meene: Portraits

Hellen Van Meene: New work

Jacob Aue Sobol: Sabine

James Perry Walker: The reverend

Jem Southam: Landscape Stories

Joan Liftin: Drive-ins

Joel Sternfeld: American prospects/On this site/Stranger passing/Sweet earth/Walking the high line

John Cohen: There is no hope

John Ganis

Larry Towell: The World From My Front Porch, The Mennonites, etc...

Lauri Eriksson: Suomi pictures

Lise Sarfati: The new life

Luc Delahaye: History

Lui Zheng: The chinese

Marco Van Duyvendijk: Mongolia

Michael Light: 100 suns

Michael Reisch

Mitch Epsteins: Work

Nan Goldin: The devil`s playground

Nathaniel Welch: Spring Broke

Nikolaus Schletterer

Patrick Shanahan: Esperantis

Paul D`amato: Barrio

Paul Fusco: RFK`s funeral train

Paul Seawright

Pep Bonet: PositHIV+

Peter Bialobreski

Peter Granser: Coney Island

Phillip Toledano: Bankrupt

Philippe Chancel: North Korea

Philip-Lorca Dicorcia: Philip-Lorca Dicorcia

Philip-Lorca Dicorcia: A story book life

Richard Renaldi: Figure and ground

Robert Polidori: After the Flood / Metropolis

Sally Mann: Immediate Family / Deep South / What remains

Scott Peterman

Simon Roberts: Motherland (good book but too small)

Stefan Ruiz: People

Stephanie Schneider: Stranger than paradise

Stephen Hugues

Stephen Shore: Uncommon Places/ The nature of photographs

Sze Tsung Leong: History Images

Terry Falke: Observations in occupied wilderness

Thomas Struth: Museum photographs / Still

Todd Hido: Roaming / Between the two

Vincenzo Castella: Photoworks

Virgil Hancock 3

Xavier Ribas

INSPIRATION

As I am still trying to precisely define the exact format this blog is gonna take, I would like to first and formally send my regards to the founder of http://www.iheartphotograph.blogspot.com/ wich as been a direct inspiration for the creation of this blog. WORD.