Paris / Lodz / Rome

Next week I leave for Paris where I will show my Short History of Photography work at galerie SPREE. After to Lodz, the second largest city in Poland where I will show my China Story pictures. These are a series I made in 2006 and 2007 when I was a guest at the Pingyao Festival in Shanxi Province China. The International Festival of Photography in Lodz is the biggest event of this kind in Poland. It is organized by Foundation of Visual Education and Lodz Art Center, located in a complex of 19th century factories. Every year in May over 50 exhibitions are presented. There will be shows of contemporary Chinese photography plus a 'Western Eye on the East' which includes my work and among others, shows from friends Nadav Kander (London) and Wolfgang Zurbon (Cologne). After to Rome where I will catch FotoGrafia International. Here is a picture I made in Shanghai in 2006.

Marks of Honour 2008 - 14 contemporary photographers pay homage

Photography in books has not only influenced collectors and curators, but also generations of photographers. Since Robert Frank published his Les Américains in 1958, the photobook is a source for artistic inspiration and creative reference.
Marks of Honour was initiated by Markus Schaden (Schaden.com photobookshop, Cologne) and Willem van Zoetendaal (Van Zoetendaal Gallery, Amsterdam) in 2005.
Then, 41 photographers paid a homage to a publication which was influential to their own work. These editions were exhibited at Van Zoetendaal Gallery and FOAM, Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam.
Now in 2008, the basic concept remains the same. MoH/08 is curated and organized In Cologne by Nina Poppe and Verena Loewenhaupt. Fourteen contemporary photographers have been invited to create a homage to a photo-book that has influenced their own practice. All participating works (limited to three copies), will contain the original photobook and its complimentary homage. Exhibitions and a significant catalogue will follow.
Included among the fourteen are: Antoine D‘Agata, Peter Granser, Mark Power, Alec Soth, and Jules Spinatsch. My entry will be a homage to William Eggleston's Guide published in 1976 by The Museum of Modern Art as a catalogue to Eggleston's ground-breaking exhibition. My contribution consists of an artist's book of 16 pages, with hand written text and four tipped in photographs, one inserted loose. Both books contained in a cloth bound slip-case.
You can read more at: http://www.marksofhonour.com/

Auckland - Dawn Parade

ANZAC day, Dawn Parade at the Auckland Museum. A Beautiful sunrise. A time to remember. Lest We Forget.

Auckland - the importance of what's left out

Here is another Auckland picture I made yesterday. To me it's a good example of a picture working by virtue of what's not in it rather than what is. I like the grassy green negative space and the feeling that something is going to happen soon. Something, somebody is about to intrude. But what? Who? I'm sure there are other readings, but this is mine.....

Auckland and two Hollywoods

Sunday, making pictures on this clear sunny very much autumn day. At Avondale to the old Hollywood Cinema famous for its regular screenings (complete with rice throwing) of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. And of course for it's wonderful old Wurlitzer organ. Today The Wurlizter Organ Trust had gathered for a performance. To quote from the program "great music and laughter guaranteed ...includes some short slap-stick silent movie comedies..." I arrived just as the happy audience was spilling out and made this picture of an elegant Wurlitzer fan and her Marilyn bag... key in hand she seemed ready for anything. Later in a pile of abandoned junk I found this single Hollywood shoe, sad and lonely, nothing like the other face of Hollywood that I'd just left.....

Auckland and Albert Einstein

The most wonderful thing we can experience is the sense of mystery. It is the source of all true art and science. Whosoever has never felt this emotion, who no longer knows how to stop and meditate and remain transfixed in fearful admiration, is like a dead man: his eyes are shut. Albert Einstein.

Images made Saturday April 5