Category Archives: photo series

Ruth Prieto Arenas. Blue.
photo series

Safe Heaven

Gallery

This project is a new interpretation of immigration using color as a unifying metaphor of diversity and acceptance. Each woman will be identified with a color palette so that a mosaic of color represents diversity.

—Ruth Prieto Arenas

Ruth Prieto Arenas. Red.

Ruth Prieto Arenas. Red.
A waitress at stands at the counter where she hands back the check and the tips.
Ruth Prieto Arenas. Yellow.
Details on the wall reveal Juanita’s partner main hobby and their devotions. A ferrari and a vigen of Guadalupe hang on the wall as details of culture and preferences.
Ruth Prieto Arenas. Yellow.
Lluvia sits on her bed with a pink dress bought for special occasions.

Ruth Prieto Arenas. Yellow.

Ruth Prieto Arenas. Yellow.
Juanita sweeps the floor of her house. When she doesn’t get a job from her maid agency, she stays home and cleans.
Ruth Prieto Arenas. Blue.
Delia is on the phone with her boyfriend. She lives in a house of two rooms with her two sisters. She shares her room with one of them. In the other room lives her other sister Mirella , mother of two and her husband.
Ruth Prieto Arenas. Blue.
Typical food from Oaxaca such as Tlayudas is sent over by Delia’s mother. Tlayudas are a type of tortilla made out of blue corn and slighty bigger than common tortillas. Its taste and consitency is different due to the way is toasted and how it is prepared.
Ruth Prieto Arenas. Blue.
La Virgen de Guadalupe has a beautiful altar at Delia’s house. She is full with red roses and candles that adorn her everyweek.
Ruth Prieto Arenas. Purple.
Maribel (21) lives in two bedroom apartment. She shares one room with her husband a two daughters. They live with another Mexican.
Ruth Prieto Arenas. Purple.
Maribel has been pregnant for six months. married for two years. Her husband works double shifts and gets home very late. She takes care of Sherlyne (2) and Evelyn (9 months)

I am presenting the lives of Juanita in yellow, Delia’s in blue and Sabel in green. Homes have deep emotional meaning. Through their homes we get to know them, their motivations, their thoughts and aspirations along with the conditions they live in that reveal how much they have achieved and struggled. They have painted and decorated their rooms according to their own personal story and choice. I am exploring the notion of safety and confidence in relation to space.

—The NYC Mind

Another project which caught my eye on Tumblr. Artspeak and ambitious goal aside, I really like these as representations of a community by someone kind of in that community. These are photos about people, not just of them and the way that so many have of them have detailed captions is as important to the story as just the images.

Also, I really love the way Prieto Arenas is using color. It’s not just the colors of the walls, there’s a lot of subtle lighting and color temperature stuff going on which gives each series an internal consistency.

SFAC2
photo series

The Valley/El Valle

Gallery

The Valley/El Valle features twenty diverse prints taken by staff photographers over the past decade. The Chronicle images serve to emphasize the diverse citizens and lifestyles in the Central Valley and include subjects such as members of a mosque in prayer, Hmong dancers and rodeo stars.

—San Francisco Arts Commission

SFAC1

SFAC2

SFAC3

SFAC4

SFAC5

SFAC6

SFAC7

SFAC8

I was a bit annoyed that there were no photographer credits on SFAC’s original tumblr post. It’s even more annoying that the SFAC official webpage didn’t have any information either.

Still, I liked these. A lot. I may admittedly be a sucker for images from the Central Valley* but I also like images which show people working and having fun and living in a California which is vastly different from the California which people travel to see. This is the California people travel through on the interstate where they can ignore and avoid everything in these pictures.

*Previous posts have touched on Alec Soth, Lisa M. Hamilton, and Ken Light. And I’ve actually posted some of my own work from the Valley too.

It’s also interesting to see these photos online without any of the context in the exhibition. Especially since they’re all photojournalism literally from the news archives. I don’t feel like I need the stories when I see them this way. There’s a sense of place and life that I get when looking at these as they are. Maybe that’s just me filling in my own context as a native Californian. But it’s still something worth noting.

photo series

Gendering Portraits

On the 4th, I saw this awesome photo in my Twitter timeline:

Harnaam Kaur by Brock Elbank

The tweet linked to a Daily Mail 1 article on Harnaam Kaur, the only female subject in a series of epic beard photos by a photographer named Brock Elbank.

After being bullied as a teen, the teaching assistant tried waxing, shaving and bleaching to hide her facial hair.
Once baptized Sikh, a religion which forbids cutting body hair, the 23-year-old decided to embrace her body as it was.
‘When I first started growing my beard it was for religious reasons but as the years have gone by I’ve kept it for more personal reasons.
‘It makes me feel like a brave, confident woman who isn’t afraid to break society’s norms,’ she added.

So great, right?

From a photography standpoint, it’s interesting to compare Kaur’s portrait to those of the men which the Daily Mail included for comparison:

I have very little in the way of formal photography education, and what little of that there is, was mostly dedicated to retro technicalities like darkroom work. But one of the things that I found fascinating (and not a little disquieting) was the centrality of gender in standard portrait lighting and posing.

The photography program in question is of the trade school flavor, and so the focus habitually was on workaday commercial representations—actor headshots, for example, or photos of business folks businessing. In those applications, representing the gender of the subject in a way that makes them appealing and hireable is one of the main considerations.

That gender is something actively constructed and performed is something I’ve understood for a long time, but until I was actually being taught portrait 101 stuff, it never occurred to me that a photographer has to play an active role in gendering a portrait subject. In my habitual way of thinking, another person’s gender identity and expression is primarily their business, and aside from not misgendering them, not something I need to do anything about.2

So this idea that before I could start working through a portrait of somebody, I’d have to make decisions about what sort of masculinity or femininity I would be building for them was super, super weird. I could (and did) question a lot of what the instructor had to offer in terms of received wisdom for what women and men should look like in portraits—but there’s no easy alternate wisdom to swap in. One can make different choices about this, but one cannot not make choices about it.

  1. Not normally a source of awesome things. ↩
  2. I don’t know if that’s necessarily the best default stance; it’s just how I’ve processed this stuff for as long as I can remember. ↩
Lebgaa Fanana, 42 years old. Timimoun, Algeria. Chicken and vegetables CuosCous.
photo series

Delicatessen With Love

Gallery

Gabriele travelled around the world and, next to thousands of other adventures, turned into a curious and hungry grandson for the grannies of all the countries he visited. Appealing to their natural cooking care and their inevitable pride in their best recipe, common factors to all grandmothers in the world, Gabriele persuaded them to do their best in the kitchen.

—Arianna Rinaldo

Pan Guang Mei, 62 years old. Chongqing, China. Hui Guo Rou (twice-cooked pork with vegetables).
Pan Guang Mei, 62 years old. Chongqing, China.
Hui Guo Rou (twice-cooked pork with vegetables).
Laura Ronz Herrera, 81 years old. Veracruz, Mexico. Vegetarian Tamal.
Laura Ronz Herrera, 81 years old. Veracruz, Mexico.
Vegetarian Tamal.
Grace Estibero, 82 years old. Mumbai, India. Chicken vindaloo.
Grace Estibero, 82 years old. Mumbai, India.
Chicken vindaloo.
Fernanda De Guia, 71 years old. Manila, Philippines. Sinigang €“ (tamarind soup with pork and vegetables).
Fernanda De Guia, 71 years old. Manila, Philippines.
Sinigang €“ (tamarind soup with pork and vegetables).
Melanie Hill , 50 years old. American Fork, Utah, U.S.A. Chocolate Toffee Trifle.
Melanie Hill , 50 years old. American Fork, Utah, U.S.A.
Chocolate Toffee Trifle.
Serette Charles, 63 years old. Saint-Jean du Sud, Haiti. Lambi in creole sauce.
Serette Charles, 63 years old. Saint-Jean du Sud, Haiti.
Lambi in creole sauce.
Regina Lifumbo, 53 years old. Mchinji, Malawi. Finkubala (Caterpillar in tomato sauce).
Regina Lifumbo, 53 years old. Mchinji, Malawi.
Finkubala (Caterpillar in tomato sauce).
Julia Enaigua, 71 years old. La Paz, Bolivia. Queso Humacha (vegetables and fresh cheese soup).
Julia Enaigua, 71 years old. La Paz, Bolivia.
Queso Humacha (vegetables and fresh cheese soup).
Ana Lucia Souza Pascoal, 53 years old. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Fejoada light.
Ana Lucia Souza Pascoal, 53 years old. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Fejoada light.
Lebgaa Fanana, 42 years old. Timimoun, Algeria. Chicken and vegetables CuosCous.
Lebgaa Fanana, 42 years old. Timimoun, Algeria.
Chicken and vegetables CuosCous.
Normita Sambu Arap, 65 years old. Oltepessi (masaai mara) Kenya. Mboga and orgali (white corn polenta with vegetables and goat).
Normita Sambu Arap, 65 years old. Oltepessi (masaai mara) Kenya. Mboga and orgali (white corn polenta with vegetables and goat).
Miraji Mussa Kheir, 56 years old. Bububu, Zanzibar. Wali, mchuzina mbogamboga (rice, fish and vegetables in green mango sauce).
Miraji Mussa Kheir, 56 years old. Bububu, Zanzibar.
Wali, mchuzina mbogamboga (rice, fish and vegetables in green mango sauce).
Wadad Achi, 66 years old. Beirut, Lebanon. Mjadara (rice and lentils cream).
Wadad Achi, 66 years old. Beirut, Lebanon.
Mjadara (rice and lentils cream).
Marisa Batini, 80 years old. Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy. Swiss chard and ricotta Ravioli with meat sauce.
Marisa Batini, 80 years old. Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy.
Swiss chard and ricotta Ravioli with meat sauce.
Brigitta Fransson, 70 years old. Stockholm, Sweden. Inkokt Lax (poached cold salmon and vegetables).
Brigitta Fransson, 70 years old. Stockholm, Sweden.
Inkokt Lax (poached cold salmon and vegetables).
Valagerdur Olafsdòttir, 63 years old. Reykjavìk, Iceland. Kjotsùpa (lamb and vegetables soup).
Valagerdur Olafsdòttir, 63 years old. Reykjavìk, Iceland.
Kjotsùpa (lamb and vegetables soup).
Inara Runtule, 68 years old. Kekava, Latvia. Silke €“ (herring with potatoes and cottage cheese).
Inara Runtule, 68 years old. Kekava, Latvia.
Silke €“ (herring with potatoes and cottage cheese).

Aside from the fact that this series is limited to the families who can afford to host a traveler. And with the awareness that what host families feed their guests isn’t always what they actually eat every day.* I really like these. A very simple idea but one which I think works really well here.

*My wife and sister both have travel stories about how relieved their hosts were to find out they were vegetarian and didn’t impress their guests with meat. At the same time, there’s also something nice about seeing pictures of food which directly contradicts the stereotypes we have of these places in the west.

I always like watching experts work on things that they can do in their sleep but which they take immense pride in doing well. This is especially true of tasks which are often overlooked or taken for granted. Food preparation is one such task. It’s clear looking at these photos that every woman here is pleased to be recognized for this skill and proud of her creation.*

*One of the things that’s bothered me about the celebrity chef stuff (and a lot of foodie culture in general) is how male-dominated it is since, rightly or wrongly, domestic food prep is usually performed by women. Only glorifying the male celebrity version of cooking gets the essence of food wrong as well in addition to suggesting that the everyday essential food prep that women worldwide are doing isn’t worth celebrating.

There’s also something nice about how so many of the meals seem to match the rooms and the way the women are dressed. I’m curious whether this is intentional or if it’s an organic function of putting together a household and letting everything sort of grow together so nothing feels out of place.

Lastly, I really really appreciate how global this series is. Are there missing areas? Of course. But when picking the images for this post I found myself noticing that there are plenty of examples from all continents to the point where I don’t feel like anyplace is really being slighted. And that’s a rare thing nowadays.

Tatsumi Orimoto. Small Mama & Big Shoes.
photo series

Art Mama + Son

Gallery
Art Mama + Son
Art Mama + Son
Tatsumi Orimoto. Oil can.
Oil can
Tatsumi Orimoto. Small Mama & Big Shoes.
Small Mama & Big Shoes
Tatsumi Orimoto. Breadman Son + Alzheimer Mama.
Breadman Son + Alzheimer Mama
Tatsumi Orimoto. Tire Tube Communication: Mama and Neighbours.
Tire Tube Communication: Mama and Neighbours

Not a new series but I had long forgotten about Tatsumi Orimoto’s work—heck, I’d forgotten his name even—until one of his photos came across my Tumblr feed. Not much to say about these except that, as sort of mean as these are, I find them funny and they remind me of my grandmother.*

*My grandmother got dementia before she died. As tragic is it was to see her decline, we often couldn’t help but laugh at how she dealt with things. And it was always especially amusing to see her routine get shaken up and her not really notice at all.