Kip Praslowicz
quotations, thinking about photographs

Dismissal via Snapshot

Quote
Kip Praslowicz. Chester Park. Duluth, MN. November
Kip Praslowicz. Chester Park. Duluth, MN. November

Start with the snapshot. Start with the connection. Figure out why grandma cares about the subject and make that the keystone in a photograph. Then pile on the better gear, experience and technical tricks to make it a better damn photograph than grandma can take.

(via Dismissal Via Snapshot | Kip Praslowicz)

Yes! Yes! Yes!

The irony of dismissal via snapshot is that “snapshots” are almost always the most-posed and edited photos in the album. Seriously. Think about all the photos your parents, relatives, friends’ parents, etc. took of you. “Everybody get together. Smile. Stop screwing around! You too! Okay let me back up and get everyone in. On three. Okay, I think someone blinked, let me take another just to be safe. etc. etc.”

Aspiring to take meaningful and good family photos is all I truly care about in my photography. That this is somehow an inferior practice? Please. Those are the only photos most of us really care about.

Anne Geddes, Down in the Garden.
photographers

Flower pots

Video

“Look, I’m one of these people, I do not have a green thumb. I look at plants, and they wither and die. And so I had this empty flowerpot that was sitting in my studio, and a mother came in with this little 6-month-old baby, who was wearing a little woolen hat, a little fluffy woolen hat, and I saw the flowerpot and I thought, well, wow, she’d look like a lovely little cactus. And so we sat her in the flowerpot, and it was a black-and-white image, and that was that.”

(via Anne Geddes “in a very lucky situation” with baby photography fame – CBS News)

From humble beginnings to a publishing powerhouse. And yes, it’s totally important to look at photographers who are popular but not necessarily good or important* since it forces you to confront issues of taste and why you like or dislike something.

*More on the popular vs good vs important discussion. Also relevant to this is where I decide to call this kind of photography kitsch.

Geddes is easy to use as a punchline. But she’s popular and a ton of people want to ape her style when taking photos of their kids. I have my photographic influences as well. I’d like to think that I’m not aping them just because I like what the images look like.

New People Cinema, San Francisco, 2014 | © Franck Bohbot
photo series

Movie Theaters

Image
The Paramount Theatre III, Oakland, California, 2014 | © Franck Bohbot
Franck Bohbot, The Paramount Theatre III, Oakland, California, 2014

These have been making the rounds on tumblr. I like them—quite a bit actually. At the same time I can’t help comparing them to Sugimoto and trying to figure out why I like Sugimoto’s better.

Hiroshi Sugimoto, Movie Theatre,Canton Palace, Ohio, 1980
Hiroshi Sugimoto, Movie Theatre,Canton Palace, Ohio, 1980

It’s not because my first reaction was “Sugimoto in color.” This isn’t color vs. black and white nor is it a who-did-it-better thing. Whereas Sugimoto’s photos use the screen itself as the only light source, most of Bohbot’s photos are taken with the house lights on—resulting in photos which are about the theatre itself, not the movie’s impact on the theatre. And I think that’s the difference. Bohbot reminds me of the joy of anticipation and settling in to watch a movie in a classic theatre. Sugimoto reminds me of losing myself in the movie.

Monika Anderson, Jakob
photo series

Off the Radar

Gallery

In a new series called Off the Radar, LightBox asks celebrated photographers to write about image makers whose work they admire yet may be unknown to a wider audience. Here, Mark Steinmetz celebrates a group of women who documented life in the Northeastern United States in the 1980s.

…

I would like to call attention to some remarkable photography made in the late 1970s and early 1980s by nine women in Massachusetts.

—Off the Radar: Mark Steinmetz

Joan Albert, Martin at 20, May 1985
Joan Albert, Martin at 20, May 1985
Mary Frey, Girl with Hairdryer.
Mary Frey, Girl with Hairdryer.
Sage Sohier, Americans Seen, Cambridge, Mass., 1981
Sage Sohier, Americans Seen, Cambridge, Mass., 1981
Judith Black, Erik, 1988
Judith Black, Erik, 1988
Monika Anderson, Jakob
Monika Anderson, Jakob
Mary Tortorici, Kristi and Michael, 1980
Mary Tortorici, Kristi and Michael, 1980
Cathy Griffin, Sheep, Amherst, Mass., 1980
Cathy Griffin, Sheep, Amherst, Mass., 1980
Lynn Whitney, Sisters, Still River, Mass., 1984
Lynn Whitney, Sisters, Still River, Mass., 1984
Sheron Rupp, Hanging Tub, Northhampton, Mass., 1985
Sheron Rupp, Hanging Tub, Northhampton, Mass., 1985

So this is cool and important. It’s always nice to find out about new photographers and I really like the “off the radar” idea. It’s also great that the off-the-radar choices are a different demographic than the person doing the choosing. All too often we pick someone like ourselves in this situation so props to Steinmetz for not doing so.

All that said, I’d still like to see women photographers get featured who aren’t primarily taking photos of people.

Henry Hargreaves. No Seconds.
photo series

No Seconds

Image
Henry Hargreaves. No Seconds.
Henry Hargreaves. No Seconds.

(via No Seconds — Henry Hargreaves)

Am very intrigued by this project. Also, yeah, that we have a traditional pre-execution meal in this country. As well as the whole ritual of execution which forces the prisoner to take part (choosing a special meal, etc.) in his execution.

But as a project? There’s something powerful about this in that it assumes that we all know the execution ritual and forces us to see humanity in the condemned by distinguishing how different they all are.

There’s also something primal about food that we can all relate to. Especially since the other implicit question here is, “What would you choose as your last meal ever?”

Entire, Indivisible