You tell me. A week into work, and everything is somewhat back to normal. I get used to having lunch at appropriate times, and to the necessity of wakefulness in the afternoons. I no longer can venture out during the day to sit at cafes or stand on sidewalks watching the sky dump snow on defenseless mailboxes. Sometimes, this feels right; sometimes, my mind feels like it’s still lingering someplace else. I think of the aisles in the Tokyu supermarket and tomatoes, of oden and cheap delicious ice cream, and of the perfect weather that happens only on vacations, and of songs that had played as buses rumbled along, through little towns and across highways built amidst the mountains and over half-frozen rivers.

Abelardo Morell makes damn gorgeous camera obscura photographs.

The Chrystler Building in Hotel Room, 1997

The Grand Tetons in Resort Room, 1997

Camera Obscura: View of Central Park Looking North-Fall, 2008

Grand Canal Looking West Toward the Accademia Bridge in Palazzo Room Under Construction, 2007

(Photographs from artist’s site)

Photo slideshow
Interview with Stephen Shore

(Images stolen from here and here)

Saw Xavier Comas‘ Pasajero as part of the TransportAsian exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum this evening. Thought it was pretty good stuff, and I made a point to remember his name (and its spelling) so I could google when I get home. I really like his works, especially his series Jiutamai 地唄舞 (Jiutamai being a form of Japanese classical dance).

From Pasajero:

From Jiutamai:

(All images from artist’s site)

山本昌男の写真が大好き。一枚で、一枚で、静かに、この騒がしい世界を静めさせる。

Sometimes the photographs that touch you most are the ones that are so small and quiet you can hardly make out what they are.

Photographs are taken from here.
Masao Yamamoto talking about his work (video)

So, the days of intermittent internet connection are still upon this household. The situation hasn’t gotten worse, but that is hardly any cause for joy because it sure ain’t getting better fast enough. Getting cut off every 3-5 minutes is not fun, nor is it an expected feature of our subscription. Our fingers sure don’t need the exercise that we have so patiently endured for the past four days, when we have to perpetually keep an eye on the connection status icon so that when it starts to blink again, we get a window of 2 minutes to refresh all our dead tabs before the connection dies again. So, dear Starhub, I sure don’t need PR-ish words to make me feel better. All I need and want from you, right from the start (it’s like you haven’t been listening!) is a fast and stable connection that I pay for every month.

In better news, my ibook which I gave up for dead in 2005 is once again alive! Thanks to a kind, generous, brilliant and regal friend who helped to swap a new hard disk and reinstall the OS. Woohoo. I think my cold war with this laptop is now officially over (yup, typing this from the relative comfort of my bed. Posture is all wrong but one night wouldn’t kill, I guess).

It is odd. I used to not like working on the laptop very much, but I am quite enjoying myself now. The screen is tiny (12″) and everything I dislike about the laptop has also been revived, but somehow this is a much better experience. Maybe it is enjoying the much privileged status of being a new-old toy. Maybe it’s got to do with the fact that I have another computer that I can go torture, should the need for more processing juice arise, but this is not bad for just doing light mindless tasks.

Went for a Film Fest screening yesterday afternoon. Laila’s Birthday was a great show. A light-hearted show set in much less cheerful circumstances, and there is much optimism even when the propensity for the opposite seems to rear its head at every turn (and for good reason too).

(But dear lady who was sitting next to me and yammering randomly through the entire show: Shut up, please. No one really cares for your observations. He’s having a nervous breakdown? We aren’t blind, and we aren’t deaf. If your friend happens to possess the emotional and intellectual capacity of a walnut, knowing that there is illy coffee in Palestine won’t do her much good. Really, that’s his taxi? Gee, didn’t see that coming. Actually, you know what, I think your friend wanted you to keep quiet too. You are the pistachio.)

During the summer of 2009, one thousand artists from around the world will document their lives in 24 frames using a simple disposable camera with a flash.

On September 25th, 2009, an exhibition housing over 24,000 photographs will be constructed to take you on an adventure through the lives of these thousand artists.

Sounds fun.

RIP, Helen Levitt.

(Image from here)

Mary Ellen Mark

USA American Characters: Photographers. The Character Project is:

[...] an on-going artistic initiative to capture the character of America and pay tribute to the extraordinary people, from all walks of life. Inspired by USA’s iconic “Characters Welcome” brand, and with the support of the not-for-profit photography organization Aperture Foundation, USA has assembled a team of 11 world-class photographers to create a powerful photography book entitled American Character: A Photographic Journey to be released by Chronicle Books in March 2009.

Photographers include Dawoud Bey, Anna Mia Davidson, Jeff Dunas, David Eustace, Joe Fornabaio, Mary Ellen Mark, Eric McNatt, Eric Ogden, Sylvia Plachy, Richard Renaldi, and Marla Rutherford.
(Sometimes all-flash websites make simple things i.e. making a list very difficult.)

I haven’t gone through the site yet (thus the listing for future power Google searches; and gosh, my nose is running a marathon), but I think it’s a great initiative.

As usual, I’m surprised at how fast time passes. It’s a damn pity Singapore doesn’t get seasons. I’m quite sure that time, when seasonal, is a much more magnanimous entity. I’m of the popular opinion that everyone fares better when regarded against the backdrop of an impending summer (rather than a continuous one). 

Running from Camera. I don’t think I’ll get very far. 

After browser-shopping on Amazon for a week or so and getting nowhere, I decided to pay a visit to the library. Libraries are also forgiving creatures, so I paid my fines and am myself a good library citizen again. And surprisingly, our libraries have quite a satisfying selection of photobooks. In hardcover, no less, and since no one ever borrows them out, most are in pristine condition. No dubious stains, nor is there any dried booger stuck between pages. I took out three books, one of which was Grim Street by Mark Cohen. I haven’t really heard of the photographer until now, though I do remember having seen a few of the images that are in the book elsewhere previously.

Mark Cohen – Bubble Gum

He definitely has (had?) an interesting style. A tad confrontational – I consider anyone who does street photography with a flash confrontational and brave – and I like that his photographs don’t conform to what I would expect from street photography. You get (intentionally) faceless or headless shots, close up shots of hair, tweed coats or teeth etc; there is seldom a ‘decisive’ moment or an obvious significance that you can pinpoint straightaway, but there is almost always something alive (and lively) and immediate about the images.

Mark Cohen – Boy in Box (left), Girls Playing under Box (right)

There isn’t a lot of information online, but here’s a decent selection of his works.

(Images from here)

Tierney Gearon’s Exposure. It was so hard to pick just two images since I quite adore every single photograph. Filing this under exhibitions I want to see. These will be quite quite gorgeous to see in real life. 

From the press release:

But instead of taking single shots she creates surprising, chance-narratives using the classic technique of double exposure in camera that she then prints without retouching or post work. By superimposing two, quite unrelated images into one, she invents scenes that are startling, surreal, and engaging yet also fleeting and ephemeral. They are vastly different in character from all of her previous photographs in that they present a multi-dimensional (sometimes kaleidoscopic) view of Gearon’s world that challenges perceptions of time, scale, and space. Her method of composing creates, within each work, contrasts of settings and the juxtaposing of themes.

[...]

Because Gearon’s complex, layered compositions simultaneously capture elements taken at different times and places, they subvert the conventional idea that a photograph represents just one instance. She evokes the chaos of life, exploits the allowed unpredictability of photography, and distills the “organized accidents” that result from her unusual approach to picture-making.

(link via Conscientious)