Photographers whose work I like - No31/ Susan Lipper

Susan Lipper is a New York based photographer. I have long been an admirer of her work. With hard-edged honesty and lack of sentiment Lipper's practice delves deep into the American heartland. Her pictures nod their head to both Lewis Baltz and Robert Adams and yet Lipper's voice is distinctly all her own. Here are images from her desert series. Begun in 2012 and ongoing, these pictures have a crime scene forensic quality to them, superficially it seems that nothing is happening. But everything is. Lipper knows that the devil is in the detail. Susan Lipper is no stranger to the photobook, her 1994 book Grapevine is an American classic, long out of print, if you can find a copy grab it.     

Susan Lipper says this about herself:  Born and raised in New York City. After studying English Romantic poetry in college with a concentration on Yeats (including her junior year abroad in London), she graduated with an MFA in photography from Yale School of Art in 1983. Later she received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and most recently the 2015 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. Public collections include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and The Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 

You can see more on Susan Lipper's website HERE.

Paris Photo 2016 - exhibitor list announced

The 20th edition of Paris Photo will run 10 to 13th November in the Grand Palais. The list of exhibitors have just been announced.

Here are the participating publishers and art book dealers:
Actes Sud / André Frère* / Aperture Foundation / Art and Theory Publishing* / Artron Art* / Chloé et Denis Ozanne / Contrasto / Damiani / Delpire* / Dirk K. Bakker Boeken / Filigranes / Harper's / Hatje Cantz / Kehrer Verlag / Komiyama / La Fábrica / Librairie 213 / Mack / Only Photography / Photosynthèses* / Radius Books* / Rm / Taschen / Textuel / Tissato Nakahara / Xavier Barral.  Those marked with an asterisk are new exhibitors.

You can go to the Paris Photo site HERE.

THE TRAVELLER - Now available on pre order at Book Depository and Amazon

 

My most recent book - THE TRAVELLER - from Dewi Lewis UK, is now available on pre-order at both Book Depository and Amazon.

The photographs in THE TRAVELLER span a period of 15 years or more and cover my many journeys from Auckand through Asia to Paris, my European spiritual home. 

The book is part fiction, part autobiography and deals with the recurring themes of loss, and, as the self portraits attest, impermanence. THE TRAVELLER is a personal reflection of the world where strange connections occur. My photographs never offer answers, only questions to tempt the curious. This democratic view is an acerbic, wry response to the world in free-fall where nothing is certain. Yet, hopefully readers will discover there is humour, affection, hope and unexpected beauty. 

You can go to Book Depository HERE and Amazon HERE.

Wolfgang Tillmans - NO to BREXIT

From day one, like many artists, Wolfgang Tillmans has been a passionate and vocal advocate for a NO to BREXIT vote which is looming on Thursday, June 23. Tillmans' writes:
 
Dear Friends

This is the second email about the EU referendum you’ve received from me since I uploaded my posters at the end of April. We’ve now updated the posters, shifting the focus from voter registration to getting people out to vote Remain on 23rd June.

Please go to my website www.tillmans.co.uk to download both jpgs for social media and a PDF to self print posters. Please forward this mail and encourage friends to do the same. No need to hashtag me when posting.

A couple of nights ago I wrote a comment piece for Time Out London magazine and website to be published on Monday. In it I use an image that came to my mind the other day -

Should a Leave vote happen next Thursday, Britain’s message to the 444 million remaining EU members will feel a bit like this:

We lived together for over 40 years in this apartment building of 28 flats. Every member having a key to their own flat and some having even an extra lock on like Britain. We lived together in peace and got used to each other’s oddities. We even got down the utility bills, like phone and air travel and many more, but now I can’t stand living with you any longer. I hate it so much that I want to move out.

Brexiters shelter the public from having to think about what a snub this would be. The EU is not a machine; it is the representation of 508 million people.

Please post the posters and messages, maybe one a day to keep Brexit away.

The xenophobic Vote Leave campaign is part of an international mood to break things. Whether it’s Trump or Johnson, these attacks on the pillars of our society all reflect the same divisive mood.

Best wishes

Wolfgang

PS:
A large number of artists and designers have uploaded pro-EU anti-Brexit posters onto this fantastic website: www.eu-uk.info
Please check it out and tell others about it. 

AAPO HUHTA - BLOCK, New York on Speed

 

An unexpected and surprising discovery at Photo London back in May was the work of Finnish photographer Aapo Huhta. Kehrer published Huhta's bookwork BLOCK in 2015. It's a compelling, strange work, which drags you in offering more questions than answers. The photographs were made in New York in 2014 and 2015. Making pictures is Manhattan is a risky proposition and immediately invites comparisons with the likes of Paul Graham. Yes, there are elements of PG in this work, but Huhta's take on NYC is Paul Graham on speed. I liked the loose ends, hanging like dangling conversations. What really is going on here? The work is about what it's like to be human, how time marches on. Are we trapped in a dark Matrix? The MISSING PERSON image is a curved ball, a stone in the shoe. Is this what the work is about? An essay by Jenny Hollowell, A HISTORY OF EVERYTHING, INCLUDING YOU adds another existential layer that refuses to elucidate. BLOCK is a profound and authentic WTF work. Highly recommended.

Aapo Huhta says this about BLOCK -  ...is a photographic essay, amassed as a set of visions, offering hints for storylines in a murky, dystopic scene of the city witnessed by a stranger. Focusing on gray, concrete features with some people as spectators, narrowing down the elements in the frame, driven most often by the observation of the shapes the light creates, it alludes to a mute perspective toward contemporary city life and the people’s role in it. Simultaneously it is a story where the photographer plays the role of a protagonist in the big city that throws a newcomer into its infinite whirl of new people and peculiar surroundings.

Here are some images from the book. You can see more of Aapo Huhta's work on his website HERE.

London - this Sunday the VAUXHALL CAR BOOT FAIR

If you're in London this Sunday don't miss the wonderful VAUXHALL CAR BOOK FAIR.
The Art Car Boot Fair returns to Brick Lane on June 12th and it's all hands on deck to bring you our most incredible line-up of artists, art and frivolity yet. Last year we went to the dogs for inspiration with a celebration of our four-legged friends. This year we’re making it all about the hand. Slap! As well as bootfuls of art, hand-made, drawn, painted, thrown, tooled and printed, there'll be astonishing glove -puppet performances, palm readings, sleights of hand, artisanship and thrilling things to do with your own hands! Originals, limited editions and maybe even a few second-hand objets... who knows? A bird in the hand is worth two in the boot at this year's super exciting Art Car Boot Fair! Our stellar line-up below.

Join us on June 12th, doors open at midday at the corner of Brick Lane and Buxton Street.

With:  Sir Peter Blake . Tracey Emin & Emin International . Gavin Turk . Polly Morgan . Ben Eine . Pam Hogg . Rachel Howard . Marcus Harvey & Turps Banana . Keith Coventry . Pure Evil . Charming Baker . Vic Reeves . True Rocks . Darian Leader . Olivier Richon . Camille Phoenix . Bob & Roberta Smith . Art on a Postcard with Topolski, Tabby Costo & MoYou . Christian Furr . Colin Self . Moniker Projects . Jessica Albarn . Herrick Gallery with Jeffrey Disastronaut & Michal Cole . Sadie Hennessey . Jealous Gallery . Nina Fowler . Cob Gallery . House of Fairytales . Tom Crawford . Jimp . LM-6a Projects . Steven Whitehead . Schoony . Maria Teresa Gavazzi & Julia Maddison & India Roper-Evans . Jessica Voorsanger . Tracey Neuls . Artlyst PUNK 40 with Keith Levene (PIL),Mark Woods, Rebecca Scott, Michael Petry, Martin Sexton and Vanya Balogh . Cate Halpin & Julia Riddiough . Kristjana Williams . Stine Goetrik . Richard Strange & the Daylight Cabaret . The Idler Academy . Elli Popp . Holly Allen . Ian Dawson . Kate Knight . Wildcat Will . Bert Gilbert . Lily Rose Thomas . Paul Hodgson . Simon Bill . L-13 & James Cauty ADP Riot Tour . Cultivate with Sean Worrall, Emma Harvey, Quiet British Accent and Skeleton Cardboard . Boo Saville.  The Darren Coffield-Hedley Roberts Roadshow . Galerie Simpson . Carrie Reichardt . Keeler Tornero . Ben Oakley Gallery with Ray Richardson, David Bray, Guy Denning . Trolley Books . James Birch . Bumble & Earwig . Helen A Pritchard . Paul Stolper Gallery with Sarah Hardacre, Kevin Cummins & Susie Hamilton . Nick Reynolds . Vanera Obscura . X-Ray Fog . Cliff Pearcey . Ric Blackshaw & Scrawl Collective . Swifty. The Fabulous Binnie Sisters . Marty Thornton . Coriander Studio . Jeff Towns and Dylans Mobile Bookstore . Matt Rowe .  Smithson Gallery . Cullinan & Richards . Paul Sakoilsky . Joseph Gibson . Misha Milovanich. Nina Saunders & Red . Outline Editions . Ivan Black . David J Batchelor . Jake Clark .Kim Zoe Wagner . David David . Paul Kindersley . James Unsworth . Silvia Ziranek . Jessica Wilson and friends. Nicole Mollet & The Kent Cultural Baton feat. Bridgette Ashton, Nicole Mollet, Frog Morris, Sarah Sparkes, Hazel Stone, Duncan Ward and Jeanine Woollard . Kelly Davitt . Dan Chilcott & Knitted Swimsuit Troupe & Resort . Dion Kitson & the PBA's . Richard Clegg .  Tony Beaver . Artlyst . Art Club of Soho . Leigh Clarke and Crate . Rennaisance Selfies . David Stearn  . Limbo with Krztian Borst, Paul Hazelton, David Price, Gavin Toye, and Sara Trillo . Lucy Sparrow . Nick Walker. Mr Bingo . Simon Lawson and Worton Hall Studios . Sarah Staton and Demelza Watts's PeaProposals.

SFMoMA names Clément Chéroux as new curator of their photography collection

Clément Chéroux

Yesterdays San Francisco Chronicle reports that The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has announced the appointment of French curator Clément Chéroux as senior curator of photography. The position oversees the Department of Photography and its renowned collection of more than 17,000 photographs — half the works of art in the entire SFMoMA collection.
Chéroux takes over from the retiring Sandra Phillips. Over 29 years as head of the department, she built the collection to its position of prominence and set the stage for the establishment of the Pritzker Center for Photography, the largest such facility in any American museum. Phillips will become emeritus curator effective July 1.
Chéroux, 46, comes to the museum from the Musée National d’Art Moderne at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, where he is chief curator of the department of photography. He joined the Pompidou in 2007, having lectured on the history of photography at the University of Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne, the University of Paris III and the University of Lausanne. He has published some 40 books and catalogs on photography and served as executive editor of the magazine Études Photographiques, published by the Société Française de Photographie.

You can read the full piece in the San Francisco Chronicle HERE.

Photo London and Offprint London - a review from E-Photo

 

The E-Photo newsletter offers one of the most comprehensive overviews of the photo-world that you could find anywhere. In their issue number 225 which arrived in my inbox today, Michael Diemar takes a look at the in and outs, ups and downs of the second incarnation of Photo London and Offprint London that happened this last May.

The E-Photo newsletter is protected by copyright, and quite right too.... so here are just a couple of paragraphs to give you an idea of what you will find when you go to their website HERE.

On Photo London: Will they be able to repeat last year's success?"  That was the question gallerists, dealers and observers asked themselves as the organisers, Michael Benson and Fariba Farshad of Candlestar, opened the second edition of the re-launched Photo London at Somerset House on May 18th.The enormous success of the 2015 edition took most of the photography world by surprise.  It had been preceded by a great deal of doubt, and in the city itself, more than a little of good old-fashioned British defeatism and grumbling. 
The dealers and galleries specialising in classic photography who had exhibited at the first incarnation of Photo London, organised by Daniel Newburg, then taken over ever so briefly by Reed Exhibitions, who cancelled it after 2007, had had less than good experiences of the city.  And those experiences could be summed up as: "You simply can't sell high-end photographs in London.
Nothing much had changed on that score last year, but there was enough business in the mid-range to keep the exhibitors happy.  Somerset House, with its neoclassical architecture and rooms in different sizes made a welcome change from the standard layout of most art fairs.  Not that there weren't flaws last year.  A-list exhibitors were mixed with C-list and there was far too much of what Robert Hughes, in relation to painting, once described as "decorative indifference", a quality I would be tempted to call "Art Lite".

And Offprint: While domestic recruitment to classic photography is slow, it has been that much stronger in photobooks.  On Friday, May 22 and running for four days, Tate Modern gave up a large section of the Turbine Hall to Offprint, an art publishing fair with a focus on photobooks, with roughly 150 artists, independent and self-publishers, as well as dealers in rare photobooks taking part.  Prices ranged from five pounds (about $7) for photocopied publications to thousands and thousands for those rare titles.  The place was absolutely packed on opening night and the atmosphere was almost like a rave party.  It was mostly a young crowd, but I also spotted Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, whose excellent three volume "The Photobook : A History" has become the standard work.

Photo London offer a virtual visit on their website HERE.

Yvon Lambert - Paris, a chance meeting and a photograph

Harvey Benge - Yvon Lambert, Paris, May 2016

It was a pleasure and surprise to go into the Yvon Lambert bookshop in Rue Vieille du Temple last week and discover that the gentleman sitting quietly in a chair by the door was in fact Yvon Lambert. Bruno who manages the shop called M. Lambert over and the three of us discussed the merits of a selection of Araki polaroids that the shop had for sale. I preferred the more obvious Araki signature pieces, bondage. Yvon Lambert opted for some of the other more subtle works. M. Lambert graciously allowed me to make his portrait, which you can see here.

In 1966, Yvon Lambert opened his first gallery in Paris, and began to exhibit American artists. He showed founders of conceptualism, minimalism and land art such as Carl Andre and Lawrence Weiner. 1986 he moved to the glass-roofed space on rue Vieille du Temple where Lambert established strong relationships with artists such as Joan Jonas, Nan Goldin, Jenny Holzer, Thierry Kuntzel, Glenn Ligon and Anselm Kiefer.
In 2014, after five decades in business Yvon Lambert closed his gallery in Paris, although the bookshop remains. Although he has disengaged from the world of fine art, Lambert has certainly not retired. He plans to shift his focus to publishing more limited-edition artists’ books which will supplement what he has been doing in his shop which includes recent trade titles together with rare books and exhibition catalogs. And Lambert’s legacy continues, in 2012, he donated his personal contemporary collection to the French state, and it now can be seen at the Hôtel de Caumont in Avignon.

You can check out the Yvon Lambert book shop HERE.

Harvey Benge - Yvon Lambert, Paris, May 2016

Offprint London, my greatest hits...

Again this year photobook empresario Yannick Bouillis has produced his mind-boggling Offprint in the cavernous turbine hall at Tate Modern. This is a total mind bender, so many publishers, so many books, so much, almost too much. My approach is to zero in to the people I know, like and respect for what they do. This saves a lot of time and I get to the good stuff faster. Here, in no particular order, is my photographic list of go-to favorites...

Dan Rule and  team, Perimeter Books, Australia

The artists from Artists' Book Cooperative

London based independent publisher Maxwell Anderson

Corinne Noordenbos and friends at Royal Academy of Art, The Hague

Ramón Reverté and team from Spanish imprint EDITORIAL RM

The amazing Elisabeth Tonnard and Joachim Schmid

The incomparable Eleanor Macnair and Clare Strand at GOST

Ofer Wolberger mastemind of Brooklyn based Horses Think

Aron Morel and friend at Morel Books

Bruno Ceschel, of Self Publish, Be Happy

Yasunori Hoki, publisher, SUPER LABO, Japan

Yannick Bouillis with Ian Sternthal from Sternthal Books

And some links: Perimeter Books / Artists' Book Cooperative / Maxwell Anderson Bemojake / Royal Academy of Art The Hague / EDITORIAL RM / Elisabeth Tonnard / Joachim Schmid / Eleanor Macnair / Clare Strand / Horses Think / Morel Books / Self Publish, Be Happy / SUPER LABO / Sternthal Books / Offprint London 2016 /