Honolulu, 1968. © Kenneth Josephson, courtesy Gitterman Gallery.

An exhibition on view at Gitterman Gallery in New York City through March 16 features rarely seen images by Kenneth Josephson. This early work of Josephson’s was influenced by Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan and made while he completed his master’s degree at the Institute of Design in Chicago. The exhibition features two continuous themes that have appeared in Josephson’s work since the 1950s: His exploration of abstraction with light, and his dialogue with nature.

Though much of Josephson’s work deals with conceptual ideas, formal concerns are integral to his vision. His early images have a syncopated rhythm of light which is echoed in much of the work he made in the 1960s. It is in his exploration of the abstraction of light in nature that this rhythm becomes almost meditative. In his later work, nature’s palette becomes more subtle and seemingly infinite.

–courtesy Gitterman Gallery

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  Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, September 2011. ©Darren Birkin

Emphasizing close-up action and breathtaking scenery, Darren Birkin’s BASE jumping photographs are a vicarious thrill. The Hertfordshire, England-based photographer has been photographing BASE jumping friends for about seven years, tagging along on trips with his climbing gear “so that I can safely hang off cliffs, wind turbines, stadiums or suchlike” to take pictures, he says. BASE jumpers launch from fixed surfaces, free falling, and use a parachute to finally break the fall. (Although Birkin is an experienced skydiver, he doesn’t BASE jump).

“When shooting BASE I try to get a sense of the action but also of the environment,” he explains. “I found that shooting with wide angle lenses often gives a distorted view and inaccurate perspective that doesn’t really do justice to the environment. To counter this I often use longer focal lengths to create multi-shot, panoramic images.” He then stitches the images together using Photoshop or Autodesk Stitcher Pro. “This technique can give a much better representation of the environment and also allows me to capture a field of view and perspective that wouldn’t otherwise be possible.” More of Birkin’s images are posted on his web site. (more…)

All images © Henrik Knudsen, from the series, “North Country”

As temperatures drop and northern regions begin to freeze over, it can be difficult to find the inspiration to create. When photographer Henrik Knudsen found himself caught on the road in the middle of a winter storm in upstate New York, he began photographing the people in the cars around him and the whiteout environment he found himself in along a stretch of NY-28, from the Catskills to North Country. The resulting “North Country” series, “became a meditation on isolation and disorientation in the middle of a storm,” Knudsen says.

–Lindsay Comstock

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© Alaisdair Jardine. Baumraum, Andreas Wenning, Between Alder and Oak, Osnabrück, Germany.

What was it about tree houses that so appealed to us as children? The idea of secluding oneself in a space entirely our own—up in the air away from the adult world that was maddeningly always trying to pull us back to solid ground—was certainly a part of the allure. Being closer to the natural world, to the birds, squirrels and other creatures we saw roaming the tress, probably also caused us to imagine having our own little palace in the sky. One look at the marvelous and varied structures in Tree Houses: Fairy Tale Castles in the Air, a new book by architecture writer Philip Jodido published by Taschen, and we are transported back to childhood, and begin wondering just why it is we can’t live in a tree house as adults? The book provides readers a photographic tour of 50 of the best and most interesting tree houses around the world, which vary from rustic to modern and chic. The book also makes us wonder whether our childhood affinity for tree houses helped pave the way for the concern for ecological sustainability that has become ingrained in contemporary society.

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All photos © Takeshi Shikama/Alan Klotz Gallery, NYC

Many of the images in Takeshi Shikama‘s series “Silent Respiration of Forests” are hand applied, platinum and palladium emulsion prints, on hand-made Japanese Gampi paper. His work is being exhibited through November 30 at the Alan Klotz Gallery in New York.

A native and resident of Tokyo, Takeshi has become an avid walker in forests. In Japan, an island nation where land is at a premium, forested areas are highly treasured, and to Takeshi the woods are mystical. As the gallery says of his Gampi paper prints, “The detail involved to create these prints, each requiring hand-coating the emulsion on the paper and contact printing the negative, reflects the intimacy and interaction that he feels towards his subject matter.”

Above: “Silent Respiration of Forests – Hokkaido Bihorotage, 2011″ (more…)