You are currently browsing the archives for the Conceptual category.
February 15th, 2013
All images © Trevor Traynor
“Throughout my travels and transit time to and from shoots I started using the iPhone camera to scout locations and collect inspirational content for potential projects. I shot my first newsstand near Broadway and Morris Stretts in New York City and immediately found myself stopping to take portraits at every stand I passed. I’m drawn to the vibrant organized colors and compact product placement that provides an instant time stamp via magazine covers and headlines. The New York City newsstand is a staple in the Big Apple and its perfect square structure is an immediate attraction to the composition fanatic in me. The iPhone has a great dynamic range and its unobtrusive ability lets me shoot with a lot more ease. Paired with editing apps such as Snapseed & PicFx, the end-product emulates the qualities of my favored Hasselblad. I revisited a handful of newsstands with different cameras, and although each camera delivers its own advantage, the iPhone is my current first choice. This project is ongoing and recently I was able to expand the collection to kiosks in Barcelona and Paris.” –Courtesy of Trevor Traynor
To see more of the “NewsStand Project,” visit Traynor’s Instagram feed @ishootpeople or #NewstandprojectbyTrevorTraynor.
(more…)
Tags: New York, Newsstands, Photographer Trevor Traynor
Posted 12:00 pm ET in Conceptual, Documentary, Personal, Portraiture by Meghan Ahearn | 4 Comments »
February 14th, 2013
La Brasserie de l’Ile St. Louis, Paris, 1994. © Peter Turnley-Corbis. All rights reserved.
Photojournalist Peter Turnley, whose images have appeared on the cover of Newsweek 43 times and who is best known for his career covering conflict, also has a softer side. He has been documenting life in his “adopted home” of Paris since 1975–making images that explore love in the City of Lights. He explains that if “there were any justification for trying to bring greater attention to those suffering from oppression [and various forms of injustices],” it would be to also show that “life is beautiful.” In the 1980s he assisted Robert Doisneau, the French photojournalist and creator of the famous “Le baiser de l’hôtel de ville (The Kiss)“ photograph and says he is “proud to continue to underline the ongoing universal theme of beauty and romance and love” in his work. He is currently working on compiling his “French Kiss” series of nearly 40 years of work into a book with the same title.
To read more about his week-long street photography workshops, visit this link. For updates on his work, visit his Facebook page.
–Lindsay Comstock
(more…)
Tags: couple, French Kiss, Paris, Peter Turnley, Valentine's Day
Posted 12:00 pm ET in Books, Conceptual, Documentary, Personal, Photojournalism, Portraiture by Meghan Ahearn | 5 Comments »
February 13th, 2013
All images © William Anthony
“While on assignment for Portland Monthly magazine at the Oregon Historical Society’s storage ‘vault,’ I came across their stored archive of vintage mannequins, spanning decades, from the now-defunct department store Meier & Frank. And while we did not photograph these for the feature, I couldn’t get them out of my mind. So, a few weeks later I asked my contact at the historical society if I could return to photograph a selection of them. But instead of lighting them like artifacts, I chose to light them as portraits.
The results were uncanny. I was careful to not remove any visible signs that these are inanimate objects (Velcro, seams, etc.). My point isn’t to confuse or obfuscate, but instead to reflect on what it is that makes humans animate. Some of these are so lifelike, but at the same time there is something indescribable that betrays their insentience.” –Courtesy of William Anthony
(more…)
Tags: Mannequins, Portland, Portraiture, William Anthony
Posted 12:00 pm ET in Conceptual, Personal, Uncategorized by Meghan Ahearn | 1 Comment »
February 7th, 2013
All images © John Schabel, from the book Passengers
The images contained in photographer John Schabel’s recently released book, Passengers, published by Twin Palms, documents the in-between time of airplane travel and the state of mind of the traveler–a mixture of excitement, trust, wonder and reflection.
Schabel describes the series as a meditation on the strangers framed in little windows, waiting to take flight. “Suspended between departure and arrival, we sit 30,000 feet high, sealed in a metal tube, gliding over geography with a low hum,” he says.
The International Center of Photography in New York City will host a book signing event for Passengers on Friday, February 8, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.
(more…)
Tags: books, John Schabel, New York City, Twin Palms Publishers
Posted 12:00 pm ET in Books, Conceptual, Documentary, Fine Art, Personal by Meghan Ahearn | 2 Comments »
February 4th, 2013
All photos © David Galjaard, from the series “Concresco.”
Dutch photographer David Galjaard discovered an unlikely photographic subject in a slew of concrete bunkers, left over from the Albanian Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha, who had them built throughout Albania between 1945 and his death in 1985, out of fear of an attack from abroad. In a recent interview with Aperture, Galjaard explains that “bells started ringing when I read about the 750,000 to one million above-ground bunkers that were built in such a small country.” The construction of these bunkers was no small endeavor: For a country with a population of nearly 3.3 million, there is at least one bunker per four Albanians. Though the bunkers were never used for their intended purpose, they still dot the landscape, serving as a symbolic reminder of a nation wrought by more than 40 years of Communist dictatorship that came to a close with the creation of the Republic of Albania in 1991.
Galjaard has gained serious acclaim for his self-published book on the series, titled Concresco (2012), from a mention in PDN’s ”Indie Photo Books of the Year,” to the 2012 Paris Photo/Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Award for a first book.
– Lindsay Comstock
(more…)
Tags: Albania, books, bunkers, Concresco, David Galjaard, Enver Hoxha
Posted 12:00 pm ET in Books, Conceptual, Documentary, Landscape, Travel by Meghan Ahearn | Comments Off