Camera Clara Award 2019: “A moment of suspension”
Camera Clara Award 2019 went to the French photographer Delphine Balley at a ceremony held at the elegant Folia gallery in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood in Paris. Created in 2012, this award recognizes artists working with a view camera as well as previously unpublished work of authorship, presented in a series.
VIDEO – Interview with Bruno Serralongue
The photographer followed the evolution of the “jungle” of Calais, a huge shantytown where thousands of migrants have gathered in France in recent years. His photographs taken at the photographic chamber are exhibited at the Centre Pompidou. Interview with Bruno Serralongue.
What you can learn from the architectural photographer Ezra Stoller
How the photographer created architecture’s most memorable images.
This year’s major photographic events
The year 2020 will be punctuated by several must-see events in the world of photography. Following is a brief overview of some of them, from the most highly anticipated to the most unique.
The power of images
The new Centre Photographique of Marseille (CPM) is currently showcasing an exhibit on the vast theme of Power. The objective of the CPM, which opened just one year ago, is to introduce audiences to contemporary photography and give people tools with which to better understand today’s images. At a time when images play such a crucial role in society, what could be more important than to reflect on the relationship between photography and power?
Nelly Rau-Häring: Germany from East to West
A world traveler, cab driver, and teacher, Nelly Rau-Häring is, above all, a photographer. Born in Switzerland in 1947 she made Berlin her home in the mid-1960s. Like no one else, she recorded the city’s life, boredom, joie-de-vivre, struggle, and exuberance. A selection of her photos of West and East Berlin spanning over four decades are showcased in at f3–freiraum für fotografie in Berlin.
The Gourmet and the Grotesque
This group exhibition at The Photographer’s Gallery in London is about so much more than just food. It brings together work from a broad range of artists; Nobuyoshi Araki, Nan Goldin, Martin Parr, Man Ray, Cindy Sherman, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Weegee. Each of them harness tropes of food photography to express wider themes. The resulting works evoke deep-seated anxieties about wealth, poverty, consumption, tradition, desire, revulsion and domesticity.
Steven Smith, The Call of the Suburbs
In Your Mountain Is Waiting, Steven Smith studies the nuances—and absurdities—of subdivision life.
EDITORIAL – 2020: the beginnings of a new era
As New Year is just around the corner, Blind detects three major phenomenons that will play out over the next decade
Prison: from inmates to guards
La Friche la Belle de Mai in Marseille is presenting a major exhibit on the prison world. Through the eyes of two photographers, a man and a woman, La Friche has brought together opposite viewpoints on these places of confinement. On the one hand, there are prison guards hiding their faces, and on the other, women inmates posing for the camera.
Golden Hour, Blue Hour: When is the Best time to take Pictures Outside?
There are certain moments during the day that naturally create more vivid colors and generate more beautiful light. The so-called blue hour and golden hour, more than any other time of day, are favorable to creating stunning images. We will show you when is the best time to take photos outside and how to take advantage of these unique moments.
The Lianzhou Photo Festival 2019: Kanthy Peng in the shadow of young girls in stone
The Lianzhou Photo Festival has become a must-see event in contemporary photography in China. The fourteenth edition of the festival, titled A Chance for the Unpredictable, brings together seventy international artists selected for their unique attentiveness to the unexpected. On the occasion of the festival’s opening on November 29, Blind offers you a peek at some of their work.
Irving Penn: Traces of passage
The American photographer Irving Penn’s still lifes capture moments in passage or the remnants of a meal. These meticulous compositions are on view at the Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery in Paris.
Vintage Christmas!
The Anonymous Project breathes new life into thousands of anonymous photos taken between the 1950s and 1980s. We are pleased to present a special Christmas selection handpicked especially for Blind.
INSIDE THE FRAME: The tears of St. Lio
On the occasion of the Pierre & Gilles exhibition Factory of Idols at the Philharmonie de Paris, Blind takes a closer look at one image by this artistic duo who have immortalized some key figures in the world of music in their hand-painted photographic portraits that break the boundaries of the genre.
Simen Johan: Wilderness stories
Scandinavian photographer Simen Johan’s latest series, Conspiracy of Ravens, is on view at the Yossi Milo Gallery in New York, which has represented him and supported his work for almost twenty years. Simen Johan creates baroque fictions populated by animals and wild, picturesque settings. On this occasion, Johan’s world has become darker and more unsettling as human presence, although absent from these photographs, seems to paradoxically lurk in the background.
Tim Walker’s waking dream
The exhibition Tim Walker: Wonderful Things on view at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London retraces a dream sequence as experienced by Tim Walker. Oscillating between oneiric construction and mood-changing colors, this stunning retrospective showcases the worlds of the British photographer.
Tips on How to Take Better Family Photos
The holiday season is here and it’s time for family photos. This tutorial offers a few hints and tips for composing group shots so that you can take better photos of your family as you share this special time together.
Kazimiras Mizgiris: The life of the dunes
The Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung gallery in Berlin showcases the work of the Lithuanian photographer Kazimiras Mizgiris who has spent decades photographing the changing moods of a dune-covered landscape on the Baltic coast. Because the negatives are now lost, most of the photographs are unique and seem as fragile and ephemeral as the landscapes they portray.
Lianzhou Foto Festival 2019: Muge takes us behind the walls
The Lianzhou Foto Festival has established itself as one of the major contemporary photography events in China. This fourteenth edition, titled A Chance for the Unpredictable, brings together more than 70 international artists who have been selected for the unique way they approach the unpredictable. In conjunction with the opening of the show on November 29, Blind is pleased to introduce you to some of these artists.
Christmas 2019: the year’s best photography books
2019 draws to an end with a beautiful selection of books devoted to photography, as inventive in their form as they are fascinating in their content. As the holidays approach, let’s stop and take a look at works that left their mark on this year in photography, and that are perfect for slipping under the tree.
Behind the Scenes with Richard Avedon
Stories—and beautiful photos—from Avedon’s studio manager.
The Plaines of America by Joel Sternfeld
To celebrate an expanded edition of American Prospects (first ed. 1987), released by Steidl in November, the Xippas Gallery is showcasing for the first time thirteen photographs selected by the artist.
Afghanistan: Photographing a High-risk Country
The MuCEM in Marseille features a splendid exhibition of contemporary Afghan artists. They share the experience of living in a country fraught with danger and terror. Two among them are photographers.
VIDÉO – Interview with Noé Sendas
The photographer offers fine black and white shots around the shapes of the bodies and the visible/invisible relationship. His work is exhibited at Galerie Miranda in Paris. Interview with Noé Sendas.
The thousand facets of India
As we approach the end of the year, the Guimet Museum is devoting two temporary exhibitions to photography. One of them, India, in the Mirror of Photographers paints a portrait of historical India in the second half of the nineteenth century as revealed by the photography of European colonists.
How-to Snow Photography – by Christophe Jacrot
Christophe Jacrot has been photographing snowy landscapes for years, sometimes when it is raining big fat snowflakes outside. His book Neiges [Snows] was just released by French art book publisher hartpon. Jacrot was kind enough to share a few thoughts and tips on the art of snow photography with BLIND.
Bolivia: The new superheroes
A book produced collectively by a community of shoe shiners in Bolivia and the photographer Federico Estol spotlights an undervalued profession through a dialogue between contemporary art photography and social activism.
Lianzhou Foto Festival 2019: Jenny Rova turns her former lovers into artists
The Lianzhou Foto Festival has established itself as one of the major contemporary photography events in China. This fourteenth edition, titled A Chance for the Unpredictable, brings together more than 70 international artists who have been selected for the unique way they approach the unpredictable. In conjunction with the opening of the show on November 29, Blind is pleased to introduce you to some of these artists.
INSIDE THE FRAME – In the gold and the mud
In conjunction with the release of the book titled Gold by publisher TASCHEN, Blind takes an in-depth look at a photograph from Sebastião Salgado’s famous and seminal series on an open-pit gold mine in Brazil.
American Origami: a reflection on mass shootings
The book American Origami by Andres Gonzalez is the result of six years of photographic research on school shootings in America. Combining interview, original photographs and memorial archives, the book sets out to examine the post-tragedy and mourning period from an in-depth perspective.
Piero Percoco: Fifty shades of Italy
Released in February 2019, The Rainbow is Underestimated by Italian Piero Percoco, now out of print, still brightened up the Skinnerboox stand at Paris Photo. This unpresuming publication has met with great success, bringing us close enough to the rainbow to see it in all of its nuances, more Italian than ever.
Chaumont-Photo-sur-Loire 2019: The desert at night and turbulent waters
The third edition of this young photography festival continues to forge a singular path, bringing together a diversity of perspectives on landscape and nature: a guaranteed mind-bending rustic walk!
Lianzhou Foto Festival 2019: Chen Ronghui’s millennials in the snow
The Lianzhou Foto Festival has established itself as one of the major contemporary photography events in China. This fourteenth edition, titled A Chance for the Unpredictable, brings together more than 70 international artists who have been selected for the unique way they approach the unpredictable. In conjunction with the opening of the show on November 29, Blind is pleased to introduce you to some of these artists.
Guido Guidi: In-between in Italy
Considered to be one of the major figures in Italian photography, Guido Guidi has spent years exploring northern Italian landscapes. In his latest book, In Veneto, 1984–89, published this fall by Mack, he brings out a series devoted to the eponymous region. We visit the artist whose Italy doesn’t fit into postcards.
INSIDE THE FRAME – With the back of a spoon
As part of the Patrick Tosani exhibition Reflets et transpercements at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, Blind takes an in-depth look at an image by this French artist who turned the photographic process into his field of artistic creation.
Lorenzo Vitturi: the gleaning photographer
Titled “Materia Impure,” the Lorenzo Vitturi exhibition on view at the FOAM through January 19, 2020 features a selection of works from several of the artist’s emblematic series. It’s an opportunity to gain an in-depth understanding of Vitturi’s approach, which encompasses sculpture, photography and a sociological reflection on the westernization and gentrification of big cities.
Linda McCartney’s Family Album
Inside a new book of McCartney’s previously unseen Polaroids.
Photo Contests: A Guide to Joining Photography Competitions
For nearly two years, Sophie Bernard, a journalist who writes about photography, and Chantal Nedjib, a photography image consultant, investigated the various photo contests that currently exist in France. They interviewed no less than 70 photography professionals and drew up a list of the best photography contests. Following is an interview with Sophie Bernard and Chantal Ndjib.
Valérie Belin’s precious reflections
Regarded as the most celebrated French photographer working today, Valérie Belin explores surface, identity and artificiality in her work. Each of these themes is given prominence in her latest series Reflection, which was commissioned by the V&A in London, and takes its inspiration from the museum archives
The Anonymous Project: A nice family story
Breathing new life into thousands of anonymous photographs is a vast undertaking carried out for three years by an enthusiast. Lee Shulman and his associates create upbeat exhibitions and publications.
The new Peruvian photography scene
Eight years ago, the famous fashion photographer Mario Testino founded the Museo Mario Testino (MATE) in Lima, Peru, in an effort to spotlight and disseminate Peruvian photography. The current exhibition, entitled Cámara Lúcida, presents the work of twenty-three young Peruvian photographers selected among portfolios submitted to the museum’s open call for projects. We take a look at these emerging talents.
World Press Photo 2019: from the migration crisis to environmental challenges
Since 1955, World Press Photo has been awarding prizes to the most stunning and poignant photojournalism images. This year, a great many of them focused on themes such as migration and the environment. An exhibit to visit now at the Fondazione Sozzani in Paris.
INSIDE THE FRAME – This is not a toy
On the occasion of Andres Serrano’s exhibition Infamous at the Nathalie Obadia Gallery in Brussels, Blind takes a closer look at one image by this New York photographer who has explored and reexamined racial stereotyping in the United States.
From the Sea to the Orchard: New Photography from Zhang Xiao
Sichuan based artist born at the outset of the 1980s, Zhang Xiao, rose to international recognition in the last decade with his series’ such as They (2006-2007) and later Coastline (2009-2013). The surrealism of his documentary images has been recognized for its ability to alluringly capture the perplexing situations caused by the rapid development of modern Chinese society. His newest, ongoing, body of work, Gong Xi Fa Cai (恭喜发财), introduced in this article, has brought him from the sea back to the land where the artist finds inspiration for a project of global significance in his hometown of Shandong province.
