And then came the shot

Mindfist

2009-06-27T00:27:00.004+01:00

Slowly, mindfist is growing and developing. We're a collective of photographers with intentions. I think we got together because we know how we can do things, not really knowing what things to do. Maybe I'm tired, but it's a bit like those Pistols lyrics of "I don't know what I want but I know how to get it". It's a melting pot, a small one, but the good thing is that we're all motivated. Not the best photographers or curators, but hopefully we are aware of our limitations and stick to small pieces of work that are achievable with our limited talent. Well, maybe not that limited.

Mat Newton drives his photography sideways, I think. When things start to work, he'll get interested in something different and bring it to a visually finished point somehow. He has his urban growth gallery on mindfist. Cyril Costilhes is stuck in a small town. He dreams of travelling but all he has to shoot is a corner of the French riviera. A sunny but dark town which walks the line between being empty and overcrowded, where the elderly come to die under the sun. His Down the Riviera gallery is on mindfist. Gareth Jelley is chasing the dragon. The subject of his photographs seems to have just disappeared at the blink of the eye or be at some distance in the future. Often, they are fragments of diaries to which the viewer has no access. Other times, they are stories that draw from cinema. He has been working on several series on mindfist. Then we have Philip Koch and Diada. Diada is pure photography. So pure she's not had time to put the camera down to stop and show what's going on inside her head. I've seen the stuff, and I know it's coming up soon. There's some faith you need for the waiting as there's some faith you need for getting into her images. Philip is mad, and will prove it too. He's sort of both the black sheep and the ingenious mastermind of mindfist. I have two sets in mindfist. Each tries to be presented in its own fashion, the way that resembles the most the way they would be presented in a physical form.

Into the mainstream

2009-06-25T20:44:00.003+01:00

I shot a handfasting (sort of a wedding) last weekend. In nice sweet 220 colour film in square format. It's kind of fun to give a go to what is the ultimate breadmaker of the professional photographer. I got the film processed pretty fast, so I'm already making a dummy of the book. This is misleading in the speed, as I only got low res scans of the film, and the final copy will need rescanning of all the images that are bound to be printed.

Anyway, a truly enjoyable experience.

Shortcuts in photography: nudity = intimacy

2009-05-20T15:34:00.002+01:00

It's quite surprising how bad photography is for capturing certain things. The lack of narrative of single images and even sequences is a large handycap compared to mediums better suited for such things (as literature or cinema). One of the main 'cheap tricks' that this has led to, I think, is the equation nudity = intimacy in photography. As soon as we have somebody naked in a remote location (tree, lake, desert) or in an enclosed space (hotel room, house), there is this tendency to give intimacy to the shot. In some cases this is the case, as with Sally Mann's Immediate Family, where the artist photographed her own children for years. But more often than not, just an illusion of closeness is created. The nudes of 100th East Street by Bruce Davidson comes to mind. I like the work, but, what's their purpose and how did the photographer get there? It's not as clear cut as Mann's work.

Anyway, if you like the nudity = intimacy equation, you might want to sign up for the newsletter Nofound(secret). It's limited to 5000 subscriptors.

Fuck, let's do it, and cheap

2009-05-15T11:18:00.003+01:00

For me one of the main problems I have with photography is that there's not much for show where I live. Yeah, we have the ffotogallery that's cool but it's a) miles away, and b) very small. When I look at prints (and I've seen loads), I don't see them as extremely expensive items. Of course, with speculation some pieces might go for ridiculous prices, but if I asked a photographer mate of mine to send me a dozen of 8x10'' prints, it wouldn't cost him that much. That's why I set up the Dr Karanka's Print Stravaganza, which is now on a world tour. I mean, come on, if you love photography you can move your butt and send a few cool prints. And I can do my part and stick them up somewhere. And you, lurker, pop by and have a beer. Seriously, that simple, and with good results.

First I had it at home. It was pretty cool, but there wasn't that many people. The space was ok, but to make the most of it everything worked by blue tack and no attempts of framing:

Then I found a social club that gave me a room to show in. Again, very few people, but a pretty cool place to show with nice atmosphere and good beer. The show was further smartened up by using frames:

Then the whole lot of prints went to Bologna, Italy. We had a whole social house in an old market to work in. I mean, it was massive. Luckily the guys of Fotografi di Strada (twelve, fifteen of them?) were around for a good six hours of work sorting through prints, editing, sticking, gluing, making panels, hanging stuff. This time we had so much space that we arranged some 'solo' walls. On top of that there were three bands and two dj's. The whole thing carried on till 7am.

What I'm trying to say is, if you love photography, it's time to stop complaining and starting to do stuff. It doesn't need to be expensive, you don't have to do it every week, but let's just fucking throw a ball every now and then. If I get any kind of random invitation I'll most probably accept than decline, and most probably promote it too. I must say I'm quite busy, though, trying to get the photography collective I am part of into an organization that can also promote some shows. But also trying to sneak some vans displaying photography into Rencontres d'Arles. I must say this last idea is by Laura Rodari, but it's too cool to not think about it.

(Photographs, in order, by Joni Karanka, Maciej Dakowicz, David Wilson and pizzafellas.)

Dr Karanka's Print Stravaganza @ Bologna

2009-05-06T22:36:00.004+01:00

Dr Karanka's Print Stravaganza keeps on growing and opens on Saturday at XM24 in Bologna. The event will have also plenty of music and assorted mayhem. If you're around that bit of Italy, pop in for a beer and say hello. You might even enjoy the Bitchy Heart Killers, who knows.

Diane Arbus in Cardiff

2009-05-03T09:58:00.003+01:00

There will be an exhibition of 69 prints by Diane Arbus at the National Museum here in Cardiff on the 9th of May (although I can't find it on their site). If you can, contact the Museum about the opening event taking place on the 7th of May...

I managed to find a note about the whole thing in USA Today. Worryingly little publicity about this, so I'll try to confirm my rvsp.

Dr Karanka's Print Stravaganza - Tonight at the New Park Liberal Club

2009-04-17T15:45:00.003+01:00

I'm going to hang the stuff for a week tonight in the New Park Liberal Club. There are some images of the last Stravaganza:

Starting at 6pm the a part of the same photographs (I got submissions from 60 photographers) will be hanging at the Club, that looks like this:

East of the river Taff

2009-04-09T11:51:00.002+01:00

As of late I've been shooting during the day around the neighborhoods of Cathays, Roath, Penylan and Splott. I like the chaos of the back alley.

Dr Karanka's Stravaganza: aftermath

2009-04-08T12:19:00.004+01:00

This is what the walls looked like on Saturday:

I'm probably hanging the prints next Wednesday on the wall of the New Park Liberal Club in City Road for about a week. After that they are shipped to Bologna for the following event there. If you live around Bologna, stay tuned.

(Photographs by Maciej Dakowicz)

Daily Telegraph steals the photographs of my mate, adds them enfuriating captions and publishes the whole lot

2009-04-07T14:56:00.002+01:00

The Daily Telegraph has published online this set of photographs, that are the work of Maciej Dakowicz. This was done without asking for permission, with no payment and not even credit on the photographs. Some of the captions have been twisted on the interest of the Telegraph, even if they are untrue. I've sent them a complaint, but I wonder if they'll read it. Here it goes:

Regarding your article on "shocking photographs of drunken behaviour in Cardiff" (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/5119650/Shocking-photographs-of-drunken-behaviour-in-Cardiff.html)

You migh at least want to contact the photographer (Maciej Dakowicz), as I doubt he has given his consent in the online publication of these photographs. Among others, his name has not been cited anywhere. Also, some of the claims that have been added as captions to the photographs are untrue. One of them is that people in one of the photographs are being beaten and kicked, which I think might not be the case although the editor has happily claimed so. Another claim is that people perform sex surrounded by other people. Such sexual acts are not depicted in any of the photographs, so I think that it's again the fault of a "trigger happy" editor.

Photographers are not very keen on having their work robbed by established magazines and newspapers, so I'd like to ask for this article to be removed or ammended with the consent of the photographer.

Sincerely,
Joni Karanka

Dr Karanka's Stravaganza - Cardiff

2009-04-03T18:15:00.002+01:00

Tomorrow I'll be showing in my living room prints from a lot of photographers. I've been receiving these over the last month, and once they are placed in a box they will be sent to Bologna. Dates: tomorrow from 6pm in 41 Arran Street, Cardiff. On the 9th of May in XM24, via fioravanti 24, 20100 Bologna.

Some picks:

Cyril Costilhes

Joni Karanka

Vicky Slater

Ben Roberts

Jules Boast

Maciej Dakowicz

White Sea Black Sea - Jens Olof Lasthein

2009-04-02T16:34:00.004+01:00

I got today White Sea Black Sea by Jens Olof Lasthein. Its imagery is some of the busiest I've seen as of late. Each panoramic photograph is almost a portrait, street photograph and landscape all in one. Everywhere that you look in each frame there is something going on. One photograph has four geese walking on a line in a corner and I find it over the top. It is actually so busy that by reaching the end of the book I feel bloated. It is good though the story on the change of Eastern Europe has been done before. By the way, this pretty book is going at £15 on amazon.

A Thousand Portraits

2009-03-01T12:59:00.003Z

My mate Eamon Lane and Carlo Nicora have shot Thousand Portraits. In one weekend they shot 1000 people in London. This gives a very short term description (everybody there in one slice of time) of what you can find there. Reminds me of that Borges short story, On Exactitude in Science, in which the cartographers guild produces a map of the realm that describes the realm in a 1:1 scale, and so, occupies the whole realm.

Photographicon - Exhibition at Newport

2009-02-20T15:35:00.003Z

Next week I'm taking part in an exhibition by Newport documentary photography students (as a guest). It's entitled Photographicon and I just finished framing my photographs. Should be viewable from Monday evening till the next week, and takes place at the Newport School of Art, Media and Design.

(Photograph by Chiara Tocci)

Back

2009-01-23T20:07:00.001Z

Back into work. Replaced yesterday my laptop and started scanning again today. First picture comes from Somerset, and is from the first roll shot with my new half frame camera.

Things to keep myself busy

2009-01-14T15:26:00.002Z

I've lately been shooting sequences of images with a half frame. I've started to write papers out of my thesis to get something published. At the end of the month I'm going to Finland. First Helsinki, later Karstula. It will be freezing. I have to start scanning again (I don't have a laptop due to a burglary) to put things together. I bought a Mamiya 6, and hopefully it will make its way from Korea before travelling. There's some C41 in the shop around the corner, developing. I'll see if the Olympus Pen works or whether I'm wasting my time with the half frame. I bought it for 3 euros, and at a rate of 72 frames for a 36 roll of 35mm, it seems like a good deal.

If you have been missing street photography, check these interviews with Mike Peters at the b blog and Jesse Marlow at the f blog.

F double feature

2009-01-14T15:24:00.002Z

Some of the stuff I shot in 2008, at the f blog. Part 1 and part 2. Both from my slightly massive night project by now entitled last orders (this link leads to older images).

Bye bye November

2008-12-16T12:47:00.002Z

I'm back in Spain for Christmas. At the beginning of December I got my PhD. On November, I had a picture in La Pura Vida (check the slideshow).

I'm more busy over at tumblr if you want to see images that catch my eye.

Being Jack Kerouac

2008-11-12T12:59:00.003Z

As of late I've been reading The Subterraneans by Kerouac. At the beginning I thought that the chaotic speechlike style of the writing was making the book drag... the flow at points was pretentious and pompous in a way that caught more of my attention than the message the author was trying to get through. This changed in the second half, although I still don't know if this is due to a change in my own perception -getting used to the flow of the book- or a change in the writer -dropping the over the top style a bit and getting into the beat-. However, at this point the love story somehow manages to get the most out of the reader. It preys page after page in what I might have in common of Kerouac's experiences up to the point of exploding when he experiences jealousy. Somehow, the buildup to this part of the book works due to its anarchic style. Since the beginning we know that she's going to run out with Yuri, he has premonitions of what's going to happen and -as the book is more confessed than narrated- we have glimpses of past and future. I just find it hard to believe that any collection of photographs can produce emotional recognition of the same sort or stamp us with the feelings of the author. Reading The Subterraneans I get two impressions... on one hand I am Jack Kerouac watching Mardouc -Alene Lee- having fun with a friend at the back of a car and getting more and more insecure and jealous... and on another hand I'm myself remembering similar feelings once and again. I know what memories Kerouac is preying on, and I can sort of see how his confessional style can make the effect more intense. The fluidity of his prose at points reaches something that is either the blurred beat of the speach of a friend or the mental language we go through on our awake.

(Jack Kerouac by Burt Glinn, 1959)

Instead, when looking at photographs I usually experience the shock of Webb or Gilden... those photographs stamped as with hot iron in my mind for months due to their graphic nature, the aesthetic of a poem spread out in a single layer of paper... but I rarely get the emotional recognition of what is going on in the image, that brings me back my own memories in the way literature does. This doesn't mean that photography can't touch me, although more often it does shock me yet not touch me. Anders Petersen and Tom Wood, do somehow touch me more, although I find it hard to put in words what would they prey on. Tom Wood, for example, doesn't seem to rely much on a narrative, and the feeling I get seems to be out of the raw beauty of his images. Petersen seems more predictable, being a close and more obviously emotional photographer that he is... all feels like getting out the notebook again...

Tate

2008-11-11T19:51:00.001Z

Photo taken at the Duveen gallery of Tate British, by the Tate.

Travelling: London

2008-11-05T16:01:00.004Z

I'll be in London from Friday till Sunday. On Friday evening I'll pop by the Tate British where one of my pictures will be shown. Part of the Street and Studio book by the Tate.

I wonder what it looks like very big:

Away, yet not slacking

2008-10-28T09:51:00.004Z

I have not been updating the blog, but if you need some refreshment, check Photohemorrhage.

These days I've been busier than it seems. I did some printing with Joe in Edinburgh and now I'm unemployed. I'll try temping for a while, and so, I'm writing and rewriting my cv and applying for all kinds of crap. On the side I'm writing grants on arts and sciences, for getting a research post next year and hopefully some photography funded as well. Not that I'm expecting it, but it would be a plus really.

It's sort of fun to try to water down my "hello, I'm an academic" cv into something that is more like "hey, I'm a guy that happens to have lots of experience doing research and giving talks (ups, sorry, forgot the programming)".

Question to readers... describing images...

2008-10-10T12:44:00.004+01:00

I'll try to describe this image in words. I'm quite interested in what you'll come up with, so I'll write my description in a train trip from here to Manchester tomorrow and post it at some later point.

Could you describe it as accurately as possible while being sort of evocative and avoiding too many technicisms? Or maybe there's so much variability in the descriptions that I shouldn't ask for any constraints...

Cheers.

You have it larger here.

Travelling: Manchester, Edinburgh, St Andrews

2008-10-10T12:43:00.001+01:00

I'll be in Manchester tomorrow evening and Edinburgh on Tuesday afternoon. On Friday I'll stop by St Andrews and then head back.

Common Diaries

2008-10-08T18:14:00.003+01:00

I started about a month ago to shoot something that I've started to call the Common Diaries. I think that most of my shooting has to do with what everybody has in common with each other, what is universal about the human experience. When shooting nightlife, my usual reference is the lust for life, the apetite for more than what is possible that is at some point broken into by reality -a body too fragile and a place too decayed-. When shooting adolescence -in a series with the working title The Fountains-, what started as peering into a group that I'm not part of has turned more into a work on my own memories. I think that both the primordial lust for life and the melancholic recollection of adolescence are universal human experiences.

Common Diaries tries to be a visual diary of things experienced by anybody, sort of my diary minus me. It is common or shared or universal. It was seeded by a single image that I have been trying to follow, and it has been lending itself towards being evocative and graphical. I try to produce images that will have a strong texture and no central elements. Something like a visual puzzle that is a bit too obscure to have a solution, yet interesting to peer into. After a few days fully shooting and now checking the contact sheets, more and more ideas emerge, and I'm fully enjoying it. Not all the images are follow ups of the original anymore, although I hope they work at an interesting beat. It also has an enormous chance factor. I don't know about the look of the images nor I'm interested in them until I see them on the negative. That frees me some time to actually just enjoy, lay back, and go shooting.