Utamakura

Bus Home, Yoshinogawa

A very interesting photographic project by John Tran, and I learnt a new word - Sabi:

"At the heart of this poem is the aesthetic ideal of sabi that infuses so much of Japanese verse. Closely related to the concept of yugen - the aesthetic of profound spiritual mystery - sabi was propounded by Fujiwara Shunzei (1114 - 1204) in the late Heian period and could be loosely described as a sense of beauty arising from the contemplation of desolation, solitude and stillness."

The poem in question is the following Basho haiku:

Lying over angry seas

and the distant Sado Island -

the arch of the Milky Way

John Tran has lots of great photographs elsewhere on his website, organised by conceptual theme, and the whole thing strikes me as being very much worth repeat viewing.

I used to walk past this view every day, which makes me warm to him even more :)

View of Electric Town From Ochanomizu (2004)

almost Friday song . . .

Friday Song

Guess who just worked out how to embed youtube clips? Dubious romantic message . . . great song though:

Encyclopedia Pictura

Bjork's not my favourite musician/artist but she does have a knack of getting the look of her videos, packaging etc spot on, so I was excited to see there's a new video on the way and even more excited to learn it's directed by the extraordinary Encyclopedia Pictura. Better still it's going to be in 3D, shot using a custom made stereoscopic camera. Not sure what MTV will make of it (does anyone even still watch MTV??) or how we'll be expected to watch it, but you have to admire the ambition. The video premiered at Deitch Projects Gallery, NY last night.

The poster reminds me of Where the Wild Things Are, which can't be bad:

And there are a few stills floating around the internet:

Another Encyclopedia Picture video, for Grizzly Bear:

And one for Seventeen Evergreen, presumably inspired by "Society":

Why my cameras will soon be worthless

A couple of weeks ago Polaroid announced they would no longer be producing their iconic range of instant film. This may have come as a shock to 95% of the camera using public, not because they are going to miss it but more likely because they were surprised to hear anyone still used the stuff. It's been a while since I've had cause to use instant film, and even then it was Fuji (still available) but it is a bit worrying to hear if you're still using any sort of analogue camera. Ilford went into administration in 2004 but was saved a few months later in a management buyout. Kodak slashed about 15,000 jobs in 2005. The general trend is not an encouraging one.

There's an article in the current edition of Monocle magazine about this very trend. They try to put a hopeful spin on the story but in the end I can't help thinking Hiroshi Sugitmoto has the right idea. In the spirit of doomsday survivalists everywhere he's stockpiling the stuff in freezers.

Corey Arnold

Fans of pinatas and trawlermen, swearing at swans and spider crabs should definitely have a look at Corey Arnold's excellent website. Well actually the website itself is a bit rubbish but the pictures are worth a peak.

The last image always makes me think of Tom Waits for some reason.

I don't know how it happened but Arnold was also one of the stars of National Geographic channel's "Deadliest Catch", a docu-drama about crab fishing which made me feel seasick. For a less-nausea inducing look at trawling I can heartily recommend Redmond O'Hanlon's book "Trawler". O'Hanlon is a sort of modern day Victorian explorer and a leading naturalist who's previously written about his expedition to find the Mokele Mbembe (the Loch ness monster of Congo). Basically he's very cool:

The Power of Myth

I used to work for a man who was obsessed with Joseph Campbell, but I never got around to reading any of his books. I can probably put that off for a few more years now. This is a link to a torrent to download all 6 hours of an interview/documentary Campbell did shortly before he died. You might want to keep a large pinch of salt handy while you watch.

Update: I started watching part one last night and my first impressions are mixed. On the one hand he clearly knows his stuff. It's fascinating to hear him re-tell some of the lesser known myths and draw parallels between different cultures. On the other hand his logic is sloppy and he's already made some bold assertions without offering any proof beyond saying "it's a fact!". Even the interviewer looks sceptical at times.

Regardless, I'm going to stick at it for a few more episodes and see where he's going. I have the idea that his arguments might build into something more substantial once he has the opportunity to hone in on specifics rather than giving us his general theory of everything.

Florian Maier-Aichen

Pretty good isn't he? I especially like his colour pics of LA at night, but since I can't find a decent jpeg to post these black and white photos will have to do.

This one makes me think of Pioneer exploration in America, although it could be Bavaria for all I know. Either way I bet they sell very well for his gallery. I also bet I can't afford to own one.

How Beasley!

When I'm scouring other people's online photographic portfolios, I always click on CV and Bio sections to check out how old they are. This is usually a mistake as discovering we're the same age/ I'm 5 to 10 years older and less than an 1/16th as accomplished/focussed/recognized (dammit!) can leave me feeling sorry for myself. Bitterness aside, I don't need to tell you there are some fascinating photographs out there.

Yesterday one of my colleagues alerted me to Juliana Beasley's site. Best of all she's almost 10 years older than me, although she did spend some of those years assisting Annie Liebowitz . . .

Juliana worked as stripper for a little while and somehow managed to get a camera into the club. She also managed to take a few more than half-decent photographs which have been collected in a book called Lapdancer.

Besides these Beasley has pictures of the mentally ill, victims of hurricane Katrina, Cambodian kids with less legs than they should have. . . you probably get the idea. I suppose her whole thing is "The Other".

Regardless of your reaction to this type of photography (by which I mean do you think it's exploitative and crass or is it about truth and enoblement? Probably somewhere inbetween, non?) it would be hard to argue that Beasley's images are dull.

Perhaps the lapdancer pics could work as a metaphor for her entire project, with us, the audience, encouraged to identify with the shocked/fascinated/shamed faces of the men in the club who can't tear their eyes away from the underwear and the flesh beneath.

But I could be getting a bit carried away.

Besides all this, I like the fact that in her Jen Bekman gallery bio Beasley mentions that she spends her spare time dancing with her dog. Whether she is as "talented" as Mary Ray, the undisputed star of Crufts 2008, has yet to be proven.

Friday song

Cass McCombs:
http://www.cassmccombs.com/downloads/thatsthat.zip
The rest of the album is pretty, pretty good too.