Fecal Face is an SF based art site, with an emphasis on stuff that looks like fun! (Including the Ladyscraper Video from the MP3 Friday post above.) It's full of great stuff. Check out this photography of MAJOR BONER KILLER. Now, if this band don't rock, I don't know what rockin' is!
Walker is famed for his very British, Alice-in-Wonderland aesthetic. He has shot Erin O’Connor as a goose, Lily Cole as a peacock girl standing awkwardly on a mantelpiece in a dilapidated mansion, a redcoated Otis Ferry crammed into a tiny room with a pack of beagles.
'A lot of people get confused when they see this image. They think it was done by computer, but we actually took pigment powder, mixed it with talc to get the right ice-cream pastel colours, and brushed it into the cats. ... they were so vain they loved it. ... There wasn't enough light to do the picture indoors - but, by a fluke, all the cats seemed to gravitate to this clematis at the bottom of some steps. I didn't arrange them. This is just what the cats did, and they all pretty much stayed where they were throughout. So it's actually quite a naturalistic portrait - apart from the colour.'
'Some of the coolest photographs I've seen recently are these long exposure shots of crowds in St. Petersburg, Russia. They were taken by Alexey Titarenko for a project called "City of Shadows."
'What I think is so interesting about this is that an otherwise unremarkable technique – the long exposure – has the effect of transforming these assemblies of people into demonic blurs, black masses moving through the city.
'In the photograph [above], for instance, the repeating glimpse of a hand pulling itself up the banister seems strangely unnerving.'
"Photography competition & exhibition in St Nic’s market.
Bristol snappers challenge us all to take a second look at our city.
An exciting new exhibition, in which members of the public can participate, is running in Bristol this summer.
The exhibition itself is being organised by Second Look, a local photographers’ collective, and will be hosted by Cyan Arts – a new local art gallery in St Nicholas Market. The Bristol snappers will be showing their ‘Second Looks’ at our fair city throughout August and will be inviting the public to send in their own photos for possible inclusion in the show.
‘The pictures we will be showing reflect each photographer’s personal views of the city. We want to use this event to encourage people to look around at their environment and think about their own views of it. Each week in August we will choose our favourites of the images sent in to join our own on the wall.’ (Lisa Furness, Chair/coordinator)
The Second Look photographers will be looking for pictures that show unnoticed aspects of Bristol, what we might otherwise pass by, the small things we might take for granted, details with hidden interest or beauty, places which people might not normally be able to see.
The competition will be running from July 21st to August 23rd, enter by bringing your prints down to Cyan Arts, 78 Covered Market, St Nicholas Market, Bristol, BS1, or emailing them to bristolasecondlook@hotmail.co.uk.
"My friend and I were photographing in the town. I spotted a man being detained by this security guard and a policeman, some kind of altercation was going on, i looked through my zoom lens to see what was happening and then moved on.
"Moments later as i walked away this goon jumped in front of me and demanded to know what i was doing. i explained that i was taking photos and it was my legal right to do so, he tried to stop me by shoulder charging me, my friend started taking photos of this, he then tried to detain us both. I refused to stand still so he grabbed my jacket and said i was breaking the law. Quickly a woman and a guy wearing BARGAIN MADNESS shirts joined in the melee and forcibly grabbed my friend and held him against his will. We were both informed that street photography was illegal in the town. Two security guards from the nearby shopping center THE MALL came running over, we were surrounded by six hostile and aggressive security guards. They then said photographing shops was illegal and this was private land. I was angry at being grabbed by this man so i pushed him away, one of the men wearing a BARGAIN MADNESS shirt twisted my arm violently behind my back, i winced in pain and could hardly breathe in agony. A policewomen was radioed and came over to question the two suspects ( the total detaining us had risen to seven, a large crowd had now gathered) The detaining guard released me, i asked the policewoman if my friend and i could be taken away from the six guards, she motioned us to a nearby seat and told all the security people to go. She took our details, name, address, date of birth etc. She wanted to check my camera saying it was unlawful to photograph people in public, i told her this was rubbish. we agreed to come with her and we sat in the back of a police car, she radioed back to the station to check our details, i explained to her the law regarding photography and handed over a MOO card, i asked to take her picture and she said no. We were free to go with no charge. I may press charges for unlawful detention and physical assault by the security guards, watch this space.
"luckily my friend videoed some of this so it can be used in evidence.
I was reading a Times article about Boris Mikhailov's photography and was inspired to look further into his work. Have a read through the linked articles and see the highly selective retrospective I've included below.
"His photographs of naked women in the Soviet Union were banned by the KGB, and he was persecuted for his ideals. ... In 2001 he won the prestigious Citibank prize. But for years he was only able to take pictures as a dangerous hobby, under the watchful eye of the Russian secret police. Twice they nearly imprisoned him for taking forbidden photographs.
"More than a decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the restrictions that regime placed on everyday life seem almost inconceivable. Any images perceived as portraying life in the USSR as anything but ideal were forbidden. This included images of people smoking, drinking, poor, ill or nude. One photographer who took pictures of people holding cigarettes “in western poses”, for instance, was jailed for three years."
A brief retrospective:
From the Sandwich series of overlaid shots (1960s and '70s):
"I made these compositions at a time when people were more used to interpreting coded messages and signs, when people were on the lookout for any new information and studied images closely in search of their truth and meaning."
From the "Red USSR" series (1968 - 75):
Case History, 1999:
"portraits of homeless people he describes as “living out their last moments”, part of a series of more than 400 searing portraits he shot in the late 1990s called Case History"
Some time ago I found a thread on the Hijack board containing a copied and pasted story about someone getting into trouble with the police for taking photographs of CCTV cameras around Waterloo station. I was intrigued, but at the time couldn't find the original source or substantiate the story in any way, so didn't post it here.
I googled it again today and found the original Indymedia article from Feb of this year. It makes for interesting reading and if you read down through the comments you'll find the author has updated it as he's found out more information about the legal situation. It boils down to this:
"You can take photographs at [railway] stations provided you do not sell them. However, you are not allowed to take photographs of security related equipment, such as CCTV cameras." [network rail]
Worth knowing. However, that doesn't justify the behaviour of the community support officer as alleged in the story.
"The big breakthrough here is being able to compute very accurate 3D models from people's vacation photos," said co-author Steve Seitz, a UW associate professor of computer science and engineering. "The long-term vision is to be able to reconstruct the detailed geometry of all the structures on the surface of the Earth. Many people are working toward that goal, but by using online collections this work brings in a whole new source of imagery and level of detail."
Online photo-sharing Web sites such as Flickr and Google are popular because they offer a free, easy way to share photos. Flickr now holds more than 1 billion photos; a search for "Notre Dame Paris" finds more than 80,000 files. The study authors, experts in computer vision, believe this is the world's most diverse, and largely untapped, source of digital imagery.
Taken from the Flickr Camera Toss Pool. Have a browse, there are some great images in there. There's an associated discussion forum here including a thread of tossing tips here.
Dave Gorman posts an interesting story about police interference with his photography on his blog. Have a read. Incidentally, the previous story he refers to is here. It's ironic that just as the camera becomes ubiquitous and people everywhere are starting to document everything that happens to them, draconian protection measures kick in to prevent people doing so. I bet if a lone woman tried to photograph an empty fairground ride there wouldn't be a problem.
A few weeks ago Mrs P and I were on a flight home from visiting family in Germany. There was a call for an unaccompanied minor before anyone else boarded. We ended up sat in the back row and the loan child had the same row on the opposite side of the isle to himself. Mrs P asked the friendly and highly camp steward some general questions about how common it was for unaccompanied minors to travel, explaining that she is looking forward to our nephew being old enough to come a visit us. The steward explained how common it is and how the system works, with a member of staff keeping an eye on them at all times, them being handed over at one airport and to another adult at the other end, with paperwork to sign each time. He also explained that the child would never be sat next to a male adult. He felt the need to address me and explain that this practice was non-discriminatory, it was just, um, they didn't allow it. Now, I'm not arguing for a right to be able to sit next to kids on planes – keep the little bastards as far away from me as possible please – but how can they say it's not discriminatory? While you think about that bare in mind that the Word thesaurus offers the following alternative words: biased, prejudiced, unfair, bigoted and inequitable. Are we seeing a shift in the balance of power between the sexes? I thought it still hadn't swung to being entirely equal but maybe its about to jump the other way, with men always being treated with suspicion? I'm not coming down in judgement either way on that issue, although I'm sure there's a science-fiction story in it somewhere.
Today is annual Non-Photography Day "Photographing something interesting or beautiful has become a natural reflex. Non-Photography Day is a calendar sculpture, a day formed for action and awareness. Taking part in Non-Photography Day is simple, on the 17th July leave your camera or recording equipment at home ... live in the moment, don't document it"
Counter argument from The Online Photographer (last year): "Yeah, yeah, I know all about "Non-Photography Day," and I think the whole idea is stupid. I photograph because it helps me see, deepens my experience, increases my awareness, and heightens my appreciation. There's absolutely no conflict, from my point of view, between photographing something and experiencing it. Nobody photographs all the time. But for me there's nothing to take a rest from, and no reason not to do what I normally do. I take pictures because I like to, not because I feel some onerous obligation to. I know one thing I'm going to do on July 17th: spend some time out and about with a camera."
:: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 :: Call For Gusset Photos
In album news I had a chat with Death$ucker head honcho Parasite over the weekend and we've finally slated a release date for the Gusset remix album that was now been THREE YEARS in the making. This September you will see a bargain priced CD of remixes from Gusset's Skidmark CD-R release (last few left on dSWAT). Ask Dr Kim – clever anagram, see? – will feature remixes from The Teknoist, Shitmat, Jason Forrest, Parasite, Binary, Atki2, hard.off, m||m, Hoonboy, Twocsinak and more!
We gave up on the slutty nurse photoshoot idea due to budget restrictions (ie, £0). So instead we will be making a collage of gusset photos. Please send photos of your gusset to: gusset[at]gmail.com. You don’t have to be wearing the item, just pose your pants and snap away. Photos will be used under a CC licence and you will get a credit in the artwork. You won't get paid mind, but you get the satisfaction of being able to point and say;
"Check this; that's my gusset on that album cover." "Get away!" your friends will say. "No really, look, my name’s on the 'thanks' inside, here," points. "You magnificent bastard!" they will declare.
If you browse the online shop it's best to search by Photographer rather than Keyword btw, as the images don't seem to be tagged very well. Love the way you can order prints of pretty much every image.
"...the only magazine in the world, which acts as a completely unbiased photography gallery, open to both emerging and established artists, and making affordable art available to all."
"JAPAN ISSUE RE-PRINT Our Japan issue went on-sale worldwide on March 1st and sold out in record time, as a biannual we make every effort to maintain at least a 5 month presence in stores, so we have decided to capitalize on the popularity of this issue by re-printing and re-distributing in the UK later this month across all key and major outlets. The re-print will feature the international cover version which was previously only available outside the UK so this is your chance to get both versions of our best issue to date."
"SOLD OUT ONLINE - NOW AVAILABLE ONLY IN SHOPS"
Found this in Boarders (£6.99) in the week. Stunning material. All fans on Japan, Fruits, fetish, fashion and just plane good photography should get this.
"Corrupt™ was first built with Proce55ing. The corruption process start by reading the binary of an image file [JPG or GIF], then some bytes are swaps [the number of replacement is a random value from 1 to 20]. The file is then "saved as" a new document. Depending on the number replacement and of the original compression, the image will have a completely different and unpredictable aesthetics. So from a single image the program can generate millions of corrupted versions. And because it is a real corruption system that damages the binaries of a file, some of the results can't be showed because they are too damaged... This online version is dedicated to anyone who desire to corrupt JPG files."
I've mentioned before my fascination with the strange juxtaposition of seeing someone riding a bike in high heels. You have to applaud the dedication to the cause of heel wearing when they are used in such inappropriate circumstances. Here's another example found by Mrs P in a magazine, along with a public health warning about the possible side effects of cycling.
[Sorry about the white space. I added that so flickr would centralise the thumbnail on the photo without cropping the text.]
Is it just my smutty mind or did this home builders' ad catch this woman at an unfortunate flesh gobbling angle? Click for innocuous contextualised full size version. SFW.