Andre Kertesz on the block at Phillips de Pury NYC

Phillips de Pury auction house New York are having a photography sale tonight and amongst the various lots are several of my all time favourite Andre Kertesz photographs. The works are all signed and are open editions, but none-the-less the estimates, (between US$6,000-8,000) seem quite low to me. Also in the sale are several Eggleston dye transfer prints and another image that always knocks me out, O Winston Link's Hot Shot Eastbound.

Here are the three Kertesz images that caught my eye.
Meudon, 1928; Satiric Dancer, 1926 and Chez Mondrian 1926

John Gossage talks about books on photo-eye

I came across this conversation between John Gossage and Jeffrey Ladd in the magazine section of photo-eye's site... http://www.photoeye.com/magazine/

What I read reinforced my view about how much I like John's thinking, not to mention his work. And of course how special it is that he and Alec Soth are coming here in January for the AUT St PAUL Street gallery workshop.
Clearly I'm not the only one who has this view as the workshop was fully subscribed with 48 hours of it being made public.

Here is the start of John and Jeffrey's conversation.

Jeffrey Ladd: I'll ask the silliest question first. With all the books that you are surrounded by, if you had to pick one — if you had to pick just one of your favorite children which would it be?

John Gossage: A funny way to answer that is that the most classic ones — ones that have meant the most to me — are pretty much ingrained into my brain now. So I really don't need to carry Robert Frank's The Americans with me to our desert island because I can pretty much go through it page by page in my head. But the ones that are most special are all of the classics.

Jeff: The usual suspects.

John: Exactly. I would probably pick something I felt I hadn't grasped yet. Again it's one of those hard to answer questions except in a glib way — I take one of my own books of course. (laughter) Probably at this moment, I would take Shimmer of Possibility because I own it and I've looked at it some, but I think it has more to offer. Especially in how Paul is dealing with the pictures and everything and I don't have it addressed to memory. I think it's a serious work and I would like to understand it more.

Jeff: That gets into my next question of what are the contemporary book works that you consider to be important in the past few years.

John: I'll turn the question a little - one of the things that Martin Parr and Gerry Badger and I would talk about during their extended process of editing the Photobook History was about doing a section based on the major bookmakers like Ed Ruscha and these people who pull off things that engage me. Where the next book always adds something to change the rules of the game. I am always interested in seeing what Christian Boltanski does, he's one of the major book artists - not a photographer per se - but who would ever thought of doing the Scratch book that he did where you have to scratch everything off like a lottery ticket? He's continually thinking out of the box and that always educates me.

Image: Behind the Japanese embassy, Kobisstre 1989 from Berlin in the time of the wall.

John Gossage and Alec Soth for AUT workshop

A unique opportunity to spend 3 up-close days with John Gossage and Alec Soth two of the most influential American photographers working today.

Friday January 16th - Sunday January 18th 2009 AUT School of Art and Design, ST PAUL ST Gallery, Auckland City

Facilitated over three days by Harvey Benge, John and Alex will talk about their working methods and outline the strategies they have developed to shape their own unique photographic styles and approaches. From a position that "anything is possible" the workshop will look at photo based art practise in a post-modern digital cyber world where the possibilities for making and showing work are endless. Participants will also have the opportunity to have their work constructively reviewed by John and Alec who will offer feedback and suggest ways forward.

Photographer Bruce Connew comments on a previous workshop.."I must congratulate the AUT School of Art and Design for hosting an extraordinary workshop with Harvey Benge, Peter Biolabrezski and the incomparable Antoine D'Agata. All are world class, at the top of their respective games, while one in particular is on his way to greatness - should he survive the journey. These workshops offer a rare and honest insight into world class photographers practices and the varied and complex world of photo art. They give each participating photographer a way forward, no matter the stage of career. That AUT should be involved in assisting Harvey Benge to bring such an intellectual and accomplished level of photographer to New Zealand is an absolute credit to the School's commitment to photography. Very, very well done....these workshops are career-defining days for any photographer."

John Gossage born in Staten Island New York in 1946 is noted for his artist's books and other publications using his photographs to explore under-recognised elements of the urban environment and themes of surveillance, memory and the relationship between architecture and power. He has shown his photographs in solo and group exhibitions since 1963 and his work is held in numerous private and public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C His publications include Berlin in the Time of the Wall (2004), The Romance Industry (2002), Empire (2000), There and Gone (1997), The Things That Animals Care About (1988), Three Days in Berlin 1987 (1987), and Hey Fuckface! (1984). After a number of years with Nazraeli Press his usual publisher is now Loosestrife Editions and Steidl Verlag. He has taught at the University of Maryland, College Park, and curated several photographic exhibitions. He lives and works in Washington, D.C.

Alec Soth born in 1969 and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is the recipient of several major fellowships from the McKnight and Jerome Foundations and was awarded the 2003 Santa Fe Prize for Photography. His work is represented in major public and private collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Soth's photographs have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including the 2004 Whitney and São Paulo Biennials, Jeu de Paume (Paris, France) 2008 and Fotomuseum Winterthur (Winterthur, Switzerland) 2008. His first monograph Sleeping by the Mississippi, was published by Steidl in 2004 to critical acclaim. Since then Soth has published Niagara (2006), Fashion Magazine (2007), and Dog Days, Bogota (2007). Soth is represented by Gagosian Gallery in New York, Weinstein Gallery in Minneapolis, and is a member of Magnum Photos. http://www.alecsoth.com

This is the fourth in AUT's series of photographic "master-classes" and promises to be as rewarding and exciting as the previous.

As interest is high and places limited to secure a place please contact Neil Cameron Registrar AUT School of Art and Design on email: neil.cameron@aut.ac.nz

Fee for the Gossage / Soth workshop is $600 payable by November 7th. Payment can be made direct to Gossage/Soth Workshop ASB Bank Ponsonby, Auckland, New Zealand, Account No 12-3019-0770674, cheques to Gossage/Soth Workshop PO Box 47373 Ponsonby, Auckland.

Image:
Charles, Vasa, Minnesota, 2002. From Sleeping by the Mississippi series.
Copyright Alec Soth

Shanghai Zoe

One of my projects in Shanghai this last week was to make a series of portraits with locals and my daughter Zoe. This was all about chance encounters, really just waiting to see who might come along, who might like to be photographed. The idea fits with my on-going investigation into "parallel lives"...one culture here another one there....here are four pictures.

Shanghai People

It's the people that makes China so special. Always a smile. Always welcoming. Always curious. As China becomes more westernized hope that these values never change.

Shanghai Daze

Just back from a week in amazing Shanghai. The city busier and faster than ever. Setting out everyday from the central and solid 1930's Metropol Hotel, always something new around every corner. This my third visit and I'm sure not last....here are three images.

Auckland - sunny spring Sunday morning

Early morning walk in the quiet sunshine of Ponsonby Road. Sun not high in the sky yet and few people in the street. Here are two pictures to remember the moment....

Amsterdam, Tulips with Watermelon

Strange connections. Here is picture of the tulips my daughters gave me for Fathers Day, together with a postcard that arrived this morning from Amsterdam. The card was sent by my friend Mirium and is an invitation to the opening of a show at Amsterdam's Foam Fotografiemuseum. The photograph, Melon 1997, is by Marnix Goosens. Behind the tulips you can just see an image of Woody Allen. Strange connections that mirror life.....

China Stories - Galerie Lichtblick Cologne

China Stories opened at galerie Lichtblick in Cologne on Saturday night.... pictures from me (as a projection) and Oyvind Hjelmen, Norway; Ferit Kuyas, Switzerland and Pok Chi Lau, USA.

Auckland walk - Saturday September 6th

At last time to walk and look and photograph. Walking in Saturday's late afternoon Spring light. The same path I often take....
from my house down Ponsonby Road, K Road and back. An hour is all I need to get my studio and computer out of my system. Here are three pictures.

Victory of the Trivial - Installation

Here are two installation pictures of my show at the Satellite Galllery in Auckland.
Pictures that deal with photography's power to transform.

Victory of The Trivial

Here are some images from a new series of pictures that I will show at the Satellite Gallery in Auckland, opening Tuesday August 26.
Gallery director Shelley Hargis writes,
"The photographs in this new body of work from camera artist Harvey Benge are a departure from his usual take on cities and the urban landscape. Victory of the Trivial none-the-less continues Benge’s exploration into the nature of things and the signification to be found in the banal, the ordinary and the overlooked. Despite the apparent insignificance and banality of the subject matter, these disposable $2 objects seem to take on a life of their own and through his lens we find questions, narratives and strange ambiguities. Here Benge is commenting on systems of production, consumption and value and humankinds ceaseless quest for fulfillment through desire. The victory of the trivial."

Auckland winter

I continue to make pictures in Auckland walking every day, looking and shooting. Winter here now and for me the first full Auckland winter for many years. Not too cold, not like a Paris winter. Today, a sunny Sunday with a high of 16deg. Nice. This weekend its full on at Les Rencontre d'Arles. Be great to be in the Place du Forum drinking beer with friends. Not to be. Not this year. Here is an Auckland winter picture made in Ponsonby Road 5 minutes from my home.

A Short History of Photography - John Daly-Peoples reviews

Arts writer John Daly-Peoples of New Zealand's National Business Review writes:

Harvey Benge invents a new history of photography.
Most artists are copiers, inspired and guided by other artists. In many cases this stylistic appropriation is obvious as with work by Michael Parekowhai in his borrowings from McMahon, Walters and Moore. However for most artists the borrowing is not intentional and not immediately obvious with influences continually refined and redefined.
Appropriation in its various forms is the history of art. No artist is really free from the ideas, processes and styles of the past.
In his latest book of photographs A Short History of Photography, Harvey Benge has acknowledged his connections to other photographers and the history of photography.
Initially he noticed that one of his pictures reminded him of a Friedlander, another of someone else. Picking out his Friedlander and his Parr and his Baltz he embarked on a collection of contemporary photography featuring some of its biggest names.
So the book lists the names of these photographers on the cover of his own version of the history of photography.
Its generally easy to see the connections although sometimes as with his industrial tower work it is really just a witty reference to the Bechers work.
It is a nice conceit, the idea that one person can embody the history of an art form and Benge pulls it off partly because his own approach and style are still obvious.
In many of the examples where he has seen connections between his and other photographers work the similarity only alerts the viewer to the fact that there are other connections.
So when he uses one of his seascapes to show the similarity to the work of Sugimoto the work could equally well be a nod to the seascapes of Laurence Aberhart.
Similarly when he links his shot of a high flying plane to the work of Tillmans there is as much a connection with a similar work by Peter Peryer.
And his beach scene by Vitale looks like the famous Brian Brake image.
One could probably go through his appropriated works expanding the linkages and connections with a host of other photographers.
The introduction to the book by Gerry Badger makes some perceptive comments about photographic style noting that Susan Sontag believed that “Style in photography… is a function of subject matter. In short it is usually a matter of the style for the job.”
Badger also makes the point that “It is also important that the pictures here did not arise from a conscious stylistic exercise where Harvey Benge set out deliberately to make a Shore or Koudelka. These images emerged from his normal practice as a street photographer.”
While the book is interesting from the point of view of guessing the photographer they real pleasure with this book is that it is another set of the photographers work in which he takes an idiosyncratic look at the world, seeing humour, drama, eroticism, dysfunction and unity in the world about him.

Rome - Posters and Pines

There is something that always hits you in any city and becomes a sort of visual leitmotif. In Rome's case two recurring visual elements would have to be the endless variations of the torn posters that grab you at almost every step. I had to photograph these, even at the risk of producing Aaron Siskind me too, look alike cliches. The variations roll on in their tattered beauty and are a great way of taking the current political temperature, which in the case of Italy is often bubbling if not boiling. Then there are the pine trees, impossible to miss and a constant reminder that Rome is a southern Mediterranean city. They are tall and ragged reaching for the sky and light between the apartment blocks and down the median strips of endless avenues. And what a beautiful green against the ochre yellow earth colours of the buildings. And the smell hits you too, a waft here and there. Here are three torn posters and pine trees with a cross thrown in. A cross because they too are impossible to avoid in this ecclesiastical city.

Rome - Time passing

I can think of no other place where the sense of time past and time passing is so evident. In the streets, in the trees, in the landscape. In the air. Time is on my mind when in Rome.

Rome - polarities

Rome, a city of incredible extremes. Polarities that make this place so special. So profound. The ancient and the modern, the sacred and profane, substance and trivia, the real and unreal. To illustrate, here are three confessionals and a green shed with old stump.

Polish people (are wonderful!)

The wonderful Poles....charming, friendly, delightful, smiling and hospitable. Here are three people I photographed; a guy at the train station, a young woman from Warsaw in Lodz to see the festival, and a gentleman whom I took to be the mayor of a little town outside of Lodz where photography students were showing work in an abandoned prison.

Polish style

My May European travels took me to Poland, mostly in Lodz for the Photography Festival -http://www.fotofestiwal.com/2008/ and with a few days in Krakow with time to take in their month of photography - http://www.photomonth.com.
Although today very much a part of greater Europe there seems to be evident a particular sense of Polish style, a particular visual look in their design. A sort of modernist thing it seemed to me. Here are two photographs that have that look.

A Short History of Photography - Launch in Auckland

Next Tuesday night June 10th between 5 - 7pm at John Leech Gallery in Auckland I will launch my latest book A Short History of Photography.This is published in New Zealand by Random House as a co-edition with my British publisher Dewi Lewis. Gerry Badger, British photography critic and writer in his introductory essay writes: "While looking through his contact sheets, Harvey Benge noticed that one of his pictures reminded him of a 'Friedlander', another someone else. All photographers do this, and if the photograph in question apes another photographer too closely, it's usually a cause for rejection. But Benge did the opposite. Picking out his 'Friedlander' and his 'Parr' and his 'Baltz' he decided to make an 'anthology' of contemporary photography featuring some of its biggest names. Yet they are all genuine, original Benges. They are also all good pictures, not mere pastiches of the 'originals' of which they gently but insistently remind one. This may be a game, but games can be very serious, and this fascinating book is both a serious and light-hearted exploration of photographic style."

Satellite Gallery - They Were Young Once

In the company of Bruce Connew, Marti Friedlander and Gil Hanly I will show at the Satellite gallery in Auckland, this image,
BL Medici, made in 2003. The show opens on Tuesday June 3. Also opening same night is a group show at The John Leech Gallery where I will show images from my new book A Short History of Photography. Work from this book is also showing in Paris at SPREE, 16 rue la vieuville in the 18th.

Paris - Small Anarchies

Back from Paris, just. Here are some preliminary images from random wanderings in the street. No real idea in mind. Chance and circumstance. Looking through what I shot, Paris life seems to have taken on a sub human quality, where humanity, has become secondary to the constructed, the ephemeral, the unreal. A Baudrillard simulacrum, where the hyperreal has become truth in its own right. There are many readings, many pictures and many edits too. What to make of this?