A Short History of Photography

My new book, A Short History of Photography, published in the UK by Dewi Lewis with an essay by Gerry Badger launches in London at The Photographers Gallery on Thursday November 1st at 6.30pm. I leave for Paris next week and willl be in London for the launch. Here are two images from the book...guess the photographers!

China - Three Pingyao portraits

Here are three of the many portraits I made in Pingyao, a city so different from Shanghai and the people too I suspect.
I wonder about their stories......

Stephen Shore on the diptych

Stephen Shore in his small but perfectly formed artist's book WITNESS NUMBER ONE comments. "...the form of the book adds one element...to the subject, which is the relationship of the pictures to each other...A simple example is the diptych and why there are very few uninteresting diptychs...You can take two ordinary pictures and put them side by side as a diptych and...improve them both." So here is another, made in China.

China - new diptychs

Here are four new diptychs from images I made in China last week. They speak for themselves. Or do they ?
You work it out!

China - Robert Frank at Pingyao opening

This was the scene at the PIP Festival opening on the morning of Wednesday September 19 at Pingyao's Ancient County Magistrates Office. As it was last year the mood was electric, complete with fireworks, flags, banners, balloons, pidgeons, dancers, drum and cymbol musicians and more photographers with longer lenses than I've ever seen together in one place. Robert Frank opened the festival and here he is on stage......

China Story PART 2

Back from 2 weeks in China! A week in amazing Shanghai and then to Pingyao for the festival, along with Robert Frank and 100,000 others. China as bizarre, strange, wonderful and captivating as ever. Made special by the friendly, smiling people.
Here are three new pictures, which tell only part of the story......

China revisited....

Back to China this week, to Shanghai and then to Pingyao for the PIP Festival. I'm told Robert Frank will be among the western visitors. Here are two pictures I made in Shanghai in September last year. This city is so strange and full of contrasts. Amazing!
I wonder why it took me a year to get back?

$2 shop sticky strips and hearts.....

I gave my friend and artist, Sid, the dummy of my TEXT book with the request that she make some constructive observations.
The book came back with some amazing brain-flash insights written on day-glo $2 shop stickies. Re-photographed they make a work in their own right....Thanks Sid for helping to make a better work from me plus a new work from both of us......

Harder not easier....

Somebody told me the other day that they had overheard a gallerist says that they didn't "get" my work. I took this as a great compliment and my resolve (as always) is to make work that is harder not easier. After all too much photography is made that doesn't rise above being "decoration" for the living room wall. So here are some new diptychs. Some of this and some of that.............. now you work it out.

Made this picture today.....

Sunday and spring is out there at last. Worked on my new portrait series editing and sequencing with a friend who has a fine mind and a good eye. Special! And still time to make this picture, thinking of Richter. What might he have done.....

Measurement.......

Why is it we have a fixation on measurement? On performance. Measure this. Measure that. Height. Depth. Width. Breadth. Length. Light. Heavy. Deep. Shallow. Reaching.....and all the same in the end.

Auckland looking east - 7am Thursday August 9

Early morning. Early Bird. Getting lighter now each morning. Nice.

Auckland looking west - 3.06pm Wednesday August 8

Winter light. Wires. Red light. Red arrow. Stop. Clouds touched with rain. Band of cool infinite blue. Waiting.

Baghdad comes to Auckland

Today, Sunday, I shot some production stills for a music video for a band called The Symphony of Screams. My friends Phillip Peacock directed and Suzi Jowsey produced. Made me think about art imitating life and the reality of the terror in Iraq. Came home into my world past my local supermarket New World. How strange......

Lens Culture... new edition

Jim Casper has posted a new edition of Lens Culture. As always well worth a look.............. at http://www.lensculture.com
Here's a picture by Vee Speers from her Birthday Party series. Compelling.......

Shooting at last....

Why does the computer takes up so much time? When was the last time I made a photograph? Need a picture fix!
Here are two shot last night on a dull Auckland winters night as dusk descends......feels good!

Not In Arles

Talked last night to Jim Casper whom I knew was in Arles. As I suspected he is having fun in the sun and Arles is as wonderful as ever. I'm pissed to have missed the Lou Reid performance!! Jim told me Tina was not at the Rencontre this year, so I've just phoned her in Cologne. Seems Cologne weather is just like Auckland right now. Cold and wet. Reminded me of an early morning walk we had together along the Rhine after an all night celebration of my birthday back in July 2005. Here is a picture... grey and gloomy.... quite the opposite of my friends in Cologne!

My House My Head - Bowen Galleries Wellington

Monday night in Wellington for the opening of My House My Head at Bowen Galleries.

Cold winter morning here....

... but now past the longest day. Winter has set in. Far better to be somewhere in the South of France. Arles perhaps! Cold beer, friends, conversation. No rush. In the second picture, made from the terrace of my studio, the early morning wind drags at the flag on top the Catholic Bishop's Palace. No longer a palace but still the flag. And in the first, my studio and piles of work waiting. A good way to keep warm.......or at least forget about the cold.

My House My Head at Satellite Gallery

My House My Head opened last night....a lot of people and they seemed to like the pictures. Got some interesting comments about the possible readings of the works.....the balance between content and form and the relationship between the images in the diptyches. Nice. Now on to the the next project!

Mail with bises and pictures from Paris

Mail from Cat Soubbotnik in Paris. Sending me New Year wishes in June. Better late than never. I like her pictures, here is one..... well two....

No Photography

Spoke at the Auckland Museum today to a small but perfectly formed audience. Spoke about the Seresin (small but perfectly formed) collection of modernist photography. Despite the warning signs Julia Durkin managed to make this picture. Will we be invited back?

My Head Double Take

Abby, Shelley and I have just finished hanging my show My House My Head which opens tomorrow at Auckland's Satellite Gallery. Have included in the show Martin Parr's image of the back of my head which he made in Rome in April of last year. Shelley made a picture of me looking at me and here it is.......

Empty Mind Empty Sky (Auckland June 3)

If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few. SUZUKI-ROSHI. Ain't that the truth!

Images Against War

Tina Schelhorn is a photography gallerist, curator, critic, festival organiser and friend. Based in Cologne Tina has created a website, imagesagainstwar.com, where she has assembled images from over 650 photographers to make a visual statement against war. The collection is also a touring exhibition and has been shown in cities across Europe and in the United States. Here is one of my images against war, made in Prague in 1997 and from my book Vital Signs. The web-site continues, you can add an image if you wish. Contact Tina at lichtblick@web.de

My House My Head in Cologne

Mail from Steff Adams in Cologne this morning. Steff atttached this picture of My Head and My House, pictures I sent for her COME HOME exhibition. Now in her studio in her house. Nice. Thanks Steff. The world of photography is very small and there are some great people in it!

From my studio again, 7.10am, June 2nd

Making this picture reminds me of the movie Smoke made in 1995 with Harvey Keitel. Writen by Paul Auster and directed by Wayne Wang, the film is about a small Brooklyn neighbourhood tobacco shop where the proprietor, Keitel, every day makes a photograph looking across the street from the same spot. When I saw the film the audience laughed at this scene and this idea. To me it was the best part of the movie. You can see it's cooler here today and rain is in the air. Winter.

From my studio, Auckland - 7.10am June 1st

This morning I will go to the Auckland Museum and look at the Seresin collection of photographs which includes images made by Andre Kertez. After having made this picture I think of the pictures Andre Kertez made from his New York apartment window out onto Washington Square. There is a history of photographers looking out their windows and shooting.... after all you can make pictures of anything.