It's there, just look less closely.

Canadian Geese Mate Where They were Born, From the Magnum Photo...

Wed, 30 May 2012 13:01:00 -0400

Canadian Geese Mate Where They were Born, From the Magnum Photo Workshop Day 4 on Flickr.

‘Ghost Foot’, from the Magnum Photo Workshop Day 2...

Mon, 21 May 2012 11:19:00 -0400

‘Ghost Foot’, from the Magnum Photo Workshop Day 2 on Flickr.

‘North Western Eye Associates’, from the Magnum...

Sun, 20 May 2012 07:16:00 -0400

‘North Western Eye Associates’, from the Magnum Photo Workshop Day 2

Stranger Portraits, No. 1 & 2.

Sat, 19 May 2012 10:49:40 -0400

Stranger Portraits, No. 1 & 2.

Michael Wolf's Tokyo Compression

Fri, 18 May 2012 14:04:03 -0400

Thrown from a Moving Car

Thu, 17 May 2012 11:25:00 -0400

Churches by David Spero

Wed, 16 May 2012 10:14:21 -0400

My neighbourhood is rife with pop-up churches. They are a curious entity, especially for someone who comes from a more traditional institutional background, such the good ol’ Catholic Church.

From a purely formal and architectural standpoint these churches, which typically overtake failed storefront retail businesses or rent out movie theaters in between screening times, are fascinating byproducts of the post-modern urban landscape.

This is why I’m fairly curious about David Spero’s examination of these barnacles of far-flung faith in increasingly religiously divisive and secular times. Spero does a nice job of staying somewhat removed from his subject matter, setting structural constraints for his picture-making (a certain distance, use of a large format camera, etc.).

Curiously, Spero does not go down the path of purposefully omitting humans from the frame, and instead just opted to photograph ‘whatever happened to be there at the time’, which I like. Far too often, photographers of contemporary landscapes tend to obsessively omit a human imprint from their pictures, perhaps because they believe that a space should be represented without the stain of human interference, as if these spaces somehow exist above and beyond our presence. Certainly, some landscape projects do better thematically without a human presence, but in this case I appreciate that Mr. Spero opted to take the risk and allow the blemish that is humanity upon these inherently human spaces.

*Note: the lead photo is my own, and not Mr. Spero’s (as his photograph would be much nicer to look at).

Watch an interview with Spero about the Churches project:

Alec Soth with Andrei Codrescu (by walkerartcenter) The...

Tue, 15 May 2012 13:51:00 -0400

Alec Soth with Andrei Codrescu (by walkerartcenter)

The ubiquitous Soth, always entertaining. His presentation of Niagara within the first 25 minutes is quite enjoyable and revealing.

Blue Glove / Blue Box

Tue, 15 May 2012 11:04:29 -0400

Fake Fruit Factory

Mon, 14 May 2012 14:54:00 -0400

Chick Strand’s 1986 experimental documentary Fake Fruit Factory is a series of close-ups sewn together with temporal jump cuts of a group of Mexican female factory workers that sculpt, you guessed it, fake fruit.

The complete film can be streamed after the jump.

Fake Fruit Factory is a fairly breezy viewing experience, with loads of cheeky banter between the women of the factory about sexuality, food and their boss, an American that does not seem to comprehend Spanish.

The film itself can also be seen today as an object of nostalgia. Of course, the texture and speed of 16mm film stock produces memories of a faded past — a time that for viewers today may seem thoroughly other, right down the the odd notion of a factory dedicated to hand-sculpting decorative fake fruit.

What I also found alluring was that this film works as a document of the particulars of a time and place with regards to class and gender, as well as the somewhat more complex relationship between the developed and the developing world than how this subject was typically framed at the time. Fake Fruit Factory opts to pose subtle questions about the relationships within this film, rather than bluntly beat one over the head with a facile pseudo Marxist critique.

Each rough section of the documentary is separated with a longish chapter break that is punctuated by an extra diagetic Mexican pop soundtrack, as well as a long single take that transports the viewer to the next act of the film.

Fake Fruit Factory subtly intertwines the mundane and the everyday of this group of women, their work and their play, with the expectations of the viewer that ‘something’ is going to happen. Of course, due to the rather leisurely, rhythmic and progressively hypnotic nature of the construction of Fake Fruit Factory, the sense of foreboding builds as you wait for that ‘something’ to take place. Instead, the film ends with the women back in the factory, finishing off the last shift of the week. They receive their cash payout for the week’s worth of work, and then leave on a bus that takes them away from the factory. As the bus fades into the distance, a series of subtitles indicate what is to come of the factory. The climax is an anti-climax. Viewer expectation is subverted with it’s nonchalant delivery of just what one had hoped for: the White patriarch is revealed to have run off with another woman, abandoning the factory and his Mexican wife and children. But the Mexican wife continues the factory and, as the closing subtitle reveals, is “now rich”.

Five Photographs from ‘Heading Out of Town’

Sun, 13 May 2012 22:07:09 -0400

Five Photographs from ‘Heading Out of Town’

From a Moving Train, a set on Flickr.

Fri, 04 May 2012 14:06:00 -0400

From a Moving Train, a set on Flickr.

Fries / Ketchup

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:07:00 -0400

Fries / Ketchup

Behind the Tree on Flickr.

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 08:34:00 -0400

Behind the Tree on Flickr.

Pink Hood on Flickr.

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 10:03:44 -0400

Pink Hood on Flickr.

Bird of Prey on Flickr.

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 09:26:00 -0400

Bird of Prey on Flickr.

Jump Shot on Flickr.

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:26:00 -0400

Jump Shot on Flickr.

A Bingo Night on Flickr.

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:10:00 -0400

A Bingo Night on Flickr.

Missionaries on Flickr.

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 09:57:00 -0400

Missionaries on Flickr.

Waiting for the Roses

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:35:00 -0400