Tag Archives: portraiture

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.

Arthur Tress. Daymares.
photo series

Dark Side of Dreams

Gallery

The children would be asked means of acting out their visions or to suggest ways of making them into visual actualities. Often the location itself, such as an automobile graveyard or abandoned merry-go-round, would provide the possibility of dreamlike themes and spontaneous improvisation to the photographer and his subjects. In recreating these fantasies there is often a combination of actual dream, mythical archetypes, fairytale, horror movie, comic hook, and imaginative play. These inventions often reflect the child’s inner life, his hopes and fears…

—Arthur Tress

Arthur Tress. Daymares.

Arthur Tress. Daymares.

Arthur Tress. Daymares.

Arthur Tress. Daymares.

Arthur Tress. Daymares.

Arthur Tress. Daymares.

Arthur Tress. Daymares.

Arthur Tress. Daymares.

Arthur Tress. Daymares.

Arthur Tress. Daymares.

Arthur Tress. Daymares.

Saw these on Tumblr. Went looking for more information. I don’t have much more to add except that anyone saying that staged photography isn’t real probably needs to look at these.

Black Americana
photo series

Black Americana

Gallery

Creative Producer, Brandon Littlejohn, and Photographer, Rod Gailes OBC, are collaborating to create a brilliant four-part photography series that showcases classic American settings through an Afro-Elite lens. The “Black Americana” series encourages African Americans to challenge societal messages about Blackness, while aspiring to higher levels of art and education on their own terms.

—Taylor N. Lewis

Black Americana

Black Americana

Black Americana

Black Americana

Black Americana

Black Americana

Black Americana

Black Americana

Black Americana

When we weren’t marching, dodging fire hoses, and police dogs biting at our brown skin—when we weren’t singing songs of freedom, and training how to peacefully resist in southern sit-ins, we were doing what other Americans did—we went to the beach. “Island in the Sun”, a first installment in the ground-breaking series “Black Americana” re-introduces, and reclaims the image—the representation of free Black women and men living their lives openly and beautifully. The series seeks to offer a broader lens of Black American life not often seen—a restoration of Black bodies on a summer day in 1950’s America.

—Geneva S. Thomas

This came across tumblr with a link to an Indiegogo campaign from 2012. That campaign appears to have failed mightily. Which is kind of depressing since our retrofetish nature* NEEDS images like these. So much of our romantic view of the 1950’s ignores how divided society was at the time.** To that end, these photos serve two purposes.

*It may be interesting to read to my post on Cars. And its followup.

**For example. How many non-blacks know about the Green Books?

 

First, they force us to confront how much we expect these kinds of images to be only white people.* The photos read retro. And affluent. And black. And all of a sudden we’re in uncharted territory and questioning our assumptions. This is almost always a good place to be.

*Something Kerry James Marshall does a lot.

Second, we then get to think about what kind of retro images we expect to see black people in. My guess is that it’s probably very much like every single Hollywood biopic where the character grows up impoverished in the South. While it was obviously much more difficult to be Black in the 1950s than it was to be White,  picturing an entire group of people in such a limited way is dangerous territory.

I’m sad that the rest of this series didn’t get made. There are more images on the Tumblr but it’s been two years since the last update.

cp2
history, photo series

Bons baisers des colonies

Image

Ici, les femmes n’ont pas de nom, elles ne sont que des «types». Le corps est une marchandise comme une autre, soumise à une exigence d’exotisme.

[Here, women do not have names, they are only “types.” The body is a commodity like any other, subject to the requirement of exoticism.]

—Safia Belmenouar

Sure enough, colonial postcards were often a kind of soft core porn.

—John Edwin Mason

CP1

cp2

CP3

An exhibition of colonial postcards. It’s a shame more of these aren’t online (the featured image seems to change though) but even the three I’ve seen posted serve to remind us of the kind of baggage that comes with the colonial gaze.

It’s very clear what kind of appeal is being sold here. And what it means to be “exotic” and female. And why images of a mixed-race future when centered around whiteness makes a lot of non-white people uncomfortable. And why appropriation of native clothing for fashion photoshoots or sexy photoshoots perpetuates more than just the male gaze.