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Some amazing captures by Brandon Stanton (see the video). So much diversity, yet the people seem somehow rooted in and belonging to NYC: they're unified as New Yorkers, even though they're often so different. It struck me how often the sitters blended into the background the were posing in front of, as though ingested by the place, literally incorporated, and belonging to it entirely.
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Stanton, who has no formal training in photography, told me that the real barrier to taking street portraits is the very normal human fear of rejection. “Especially when you start, a lot of people are going to say no,” he says. At first, the rejections sting. But he says that after all the thousands of interactions he’s had, he doesn’t really register them any more.
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street_photography nyc brandon_stanton photography cities diversity

Makes me laugh. Wall as nostalgist or NIMBY? Sad.
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The two celebrity contributors to the book, photo-artist Jeff Wall and novelist Douglas Coupland, have each produced short and somewhat quirky essays. Wall writes that the character of Herzog's 1950s and '60s photographs would be impossible to achieve today, for the obvious reason that many of the buildings they document no longer exist. He declares that Vancouver is now dominated by architecture that is "vulgar, cheap, ugly and even ridiculous," and extols the beauty and "gracious air of appropriateness" of buildings now lost, especially an old clapboard house in Herzog's 1957 image, New Pontiac. Contrarily, Coupland writes about the ways Herzog's photographs reveal how "utterly filthy" Vancouver was five decades ago. "Vancouver was ghastly back then," he declares. "What was society thinking?"
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Vancouver definitely was ghastly (even in the late 70s/ early 80s), present faults notwithstanding.

fred_herzog vancouver photography books jeff_wall

What a huge load of baloney. Iconology at its WORST.
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The critic and columnist Frank Rich wrote about [THIS PHOTO] in the New York Times. He saw in this undeniably troubling picture an allegory of America's failure to learn any deep lessons from that tragic day, to change or reform as a nation: "The young people in Mr Hoepker's photo aren't necessarily callous. They're just American."

In other words, a country that believes in moving on they have already moved on, enjoying the sun in spite of the scene of mass carnage that scars the fine day.
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You'd get an F in my class for this.

9_11 the_guardian photography iconology

Amazing photographs...
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As much as the project is about the quirkiness of childhood, it is, more strikingly, a commentary on class and on poverty. But the diversity also provides a sense of togetherness.

Everybody sleeps. And eventually, everybody grows up.
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Grows up into what...?

education childhood children james_mollison nyt photography class

Lovely series of photos of New York City, mostly from the 1940s, some from the 60s.
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Amateur photographer Charles W. Cushman traveled extensively in the U.S. and abroad capturing daily life from 1938 to 1969.

His works have been donated to and maintained by Cushman's alma mater Indiana University, which has kindly given us permission to publish his gallery of New York City photos taken in 1941, 1942 and 1960.
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nyc charles_w_cushman photography street_photography manhattan

Quite an interesting series of photographs (mugshots)...
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...musicians seem to land themselves in a little bit more trouble than people of other professions. Maybe it’s because they’re living the high life, thinking they can get away with it all, or maybe they’re just negatively influenced by their surroundings, but we think it probably has something to do with the same personality trait that makes them want to be performers in the first place. Just a theory, though. In any event, we were inspired to dig up a few vintage mugshots of famous musicians, many of which are actually quite beautiful in and of themselves, although that could just be Sinatra’s good looks shining through.
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Jimi Hendrix looks extremely dignified and intelligent in his 'mugshots.' Statesmanlike. A shame he died young.

flavorwire mugshots photography musicians celebrities prison

Amazing photos by Ryan McGinley.
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The photos — a mixture of black-and-white portraits and colorful road trip images — are different from his previous work in that some of the nudes are posing with live, wild animals. The results are strange, but stunning; a cheeky juxtaposition of the beauty and unpredictability of youth and the natural world.
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flavorwire ryan_mcginley photography

Very well-done sophisticated images of women (models), but I'm not so sanguine as the photographer, regarding the meaning and message. I see good-looking women made to look perfect, and from that I see a narrative developing that tells all of us women that our natural state is never ever good enough. This isn't something that pleases me, irrespective of the visual pleasures these photographs may provide.

beauty fashion photography feminism women photoshop m_seth_jones

Self-explanatory. Brilliant photos.

victoria johnson_street_bridge photography flickr flickriver

File under "inspiration":
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Over the past two years, the Brazilian artist has created a series of photographs of the facades of contemporary architectural gems from a skewed point of view. Looking straight up the surface of modern skyscrapers, [Bruno] Cals composes pictures that look more like surrealist landscapes than depictions of buildings.
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architecture photography skyscrapers flavorwire

Flavorwire's interview with Michael Sean Edwards, who moved to the East Village from Toronto in 1977 and has been documenting it ever since. A set of his images from 1978 to 1985 is now available on Flickr. Flavorwire also includes a slide-show with commentary by Edwards.

michael_sean_edwards photography cities nyc east_village street_photography art flavorwire

Interesting docu-project by Richard Howe: photographing every street *corner* in New York City.

nyc photography richard_howe street_scape usage

From Wallflower dispatches.

Note: no overhead power lines. Yay. (And this photo is from 1927...!) Also: no trees or plants on boulevard ...hm. Not so yay?

*But* - people put flower pots and plant baskets on their window sills. (Not visible in this picture, because it's obviously not spring or summer; the subject is wearing winter clothes.)

Greenery in the city: did the individual "green" her city first?

I was born in Duesseldorf's Altstadt (Old Town), at home in an apartment house that looks like any one of the ones pictured here. There is a park across the street from 1 Bergerallee, and the Rhine flows nearby, flanked by a promenade/ park. But Bergerallee also has no trees or greenery, except for what residents provide in pots. It's nonetheless more than tolerable.

Note the wide, wide boulevards, perfect for summertime street furniture, cafes, children playing. How did Sander catch the city so deserted-looking, I wonder...?

photography memoir duesseldorf berlin august_sander

Fascinating project:
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Running the Numbers looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 32,000 breast augmentation surgeries in the U.S. every month.

This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. Employing themes such as the near versus the far, and the one versus the many, I hope to raise some questions about the roles and responsibililties of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.

~chris jordan, Seattle, 2008
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photography visualization statistics consumerism culture environment chris_jordan art_projects

Found via ...? Kazys Varnelis?, Geoff at BLDGBLOG? (can't place it, but at some smart blog I read), an essay by Bernard Languillier about how the digital process is changing our relationship with printed images. It's a to-read-later piece for me right now - haven't had time to read it thoughtfully yet, but it promises some compelling insights (something a bit better than Emily Gould's recent piece in MIT's Technology Review, "It's not a revolution if nobody loses," which ostensibly bases itself on Walter Benjamin's pivotal essay, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction").

embodiment disembodiment photography imagery digital_pictures printing bernard_languillier

Here's a sobering article on the general hysteria over "terrorism," which has resulted in getting street photographers arrested or detained or questioned. Anyone seen taking photographs, especially covertly or seemingly so, is likely to get in trouble these days. But how can you be a good street photographer if you don't conceal just a little bit the fact that you're taking photos in the first place? You want that candid moment, right?

freedom paranoia photography public_space street_photography terrorism

Interview with "Serbian photographer Boogie [who] grew up in the war-torn region of former Yugoslavia, documenting protests and the disturbing portraits of skinheads. After moving from Belgrade to Brooklyn in 1998, he started observing New York’s bleak street side of life with monochrome shots. Distinctively, his work isn’t emphatic. He doesn’t judge. He is more reporting on a not so distant universe with a fine eye for detail - and a lot of guts. He showed PingMag his depiction of Brooklyn gang life and junkies." Boogie notes: "'This whole life is a bunch of choices you make and they just made a couple of wrong ones,' says photographer Boogie about his series on junkies in Brooklyn."

boogie brooklyn drug_addiction gangs interview nyc photography ping_mag street_life