Katherine Wolkoff

For those who have been following this blog from the beginning, you may remember a post about Katherine Wolkoff and her silhouette portraits. Katherine has made a practice of alternating between pictures of people and landscapes but what connects them is always the specific physicality of the person or place and the technical virtuosity of the prints.

Katherine’s latest series are photographs of deer beds, and they are both subtle and stunning. (Deer sleep in beds of deep vegetation they press down with their bodies in order to hide from predators. They never lay down in the same bed twice, but the imprints can remain for several days.) What we see in the photographs are swirls of trampled grass, wild flowers, and a shadow outlining the hidden impression of the deer’s body. What we feel is the animal’s spirit, if not something deeper

I spoke to Katherine for some background on the pictures and she explained that she had made the work on Block Island, following deer trails in the fields until she found the beds. It was an incredibly emotional experience. She chose to make the prints 40 by 50 inches - close to life size - so that the viewer can enter the space more easily and ponder the connection between what is there and what is not.

A number of the photographs can be seen for the first time in the Chisel exhibit curated by Kathy Ryan - part of the forthcoming New York Photo Festival which opens tomorrow.

Masked!

It never ceases to amaze me how certain themes miraculously present themselves. Last week this card (above) arrived from Phillips auction house promoting their upcoming London sale, followed the next day by the catalog itself. The day after I was browsing in Rizzoli's bookstore and two different books on display presented photographs of masked women. They were both striking pictures so I snapped them on my iPhone and filed them in the back of my mind. This weekend I was in the gallery organizing j-pegs of some of the pictures in my collection and noticed that there were two mask pictures - an Arbus and an Elliott Erwitt. Finally I was looking up Adam Fuss on Artnet and discovered an entire series he had done on masks that I had never seen before!

If you were to ask me what my least favorite subjects for photographs are, I would say without hesitation: clowns and mimes. So you would think masks would be next in line, but there's something different and intriguing about masks - the play of concealment and revelation, the graphic boldness of the shape, the power they bestow on the wearer. The depiction and use of masks goes back as far as the cave paintings of Lascaux so there's something inherent in the human character that compels us to use masks. The making of elaborate masks was a vital part of Greek, Roman, African, Japanese and Chinese culture. Not so surprisingly, in America masks seems to have more sporting than cultural associations. Think catcher's mask, goalie mask, football helmets, etc.. I can't think of another country whose sports need more protection. The Canadian artist Brian Jungen made an enormous art world splash a few years ago with masks made entirely out of reconstituted Nike Air Jordans, tying together a critique of consumerism and the co-opting of native culture with the creation of compelling and original new works.

To finish off this mask round-up, I Just saw Iron Man which was as good as I hoped it would be and the metallic armor and mask the Robert Downey character creates is probably the best made superhero outfit ever. (Subject for debate?) In addition I pulled out a few of my other favorite mask pictures.

Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinez Matoodhin from The Phillips catalog

Peter Lindbergh

Albert Watson

Irving Penn

Diane Arbus

Robert Capa

Elliott Erwitt. Candice Bergen at Truman Capote's Black and White Ball.

E.J. Bellocq

An Adam Fuss photogram

Brian Jungen

Ironman

Weekend Video

The Raveonettes are a Danish rock duo whose music is characterized
by two-part vocal harmonies inspired by early American pop coupled with hard-edged electric guitar overlaid with liberal doses of noise! Their songs juxtapose the structural simplicity of 50s and 60s rock with intense electric guitars, driving beats and dark lyrical content, similar to The Velvet Underground. "We are not scared of being blunt about what the references are in our music," says vocalist Sharin Foo. "For instance, if you look at our name, The Raveonettes, it's a complete direct reference to The Ronettes and Buddy Holly Rave On!" They’ve even had Ronnie Spector (lead singer of the Ronettes) guest on one of their recent albums.

I first heard their music on WFUV two nights ago and was mesmerized by the song “The Beat Dies” based on Angelo Badalamenti’s theme music for the t.v. mini-series Twin Peaks. For anyone who remembers that show and the music, this song goes straight to the subconscious. (On the radio Foo decribed it as burlesque meets rock and you can hear the bump and grind drum beat at the opening of the song.)

The sound quality is pretty bad on all the video clips available, in fact almost unlistenable, so this is more of a trailer to encourage you to go to iTunes and download the song, although be warned - the sound is somewhat murky on the album too. But I do really like the song, the color and unintentional verité feel of the film (above) and I really love the still that illustrates the clip.

Also below, a short clip of Sune Wagner and Sharin Foo talking about the song.

Michel Mallard

Don't tell Michel's brother.

More Freedom

Catherine Burks

Many thanks to those who e-mailed with additional information on the Freedom Riders pictures. As Eric Etheridge pointed out in his e-mail, “I think the Mississippi Freedom Rider mug shots are a great addition to the Civil Rights visual record, especially given their provenance (they were collected and filed by the state agency dedicated to thwarting the Civil Rights movement.)”

And thanks to Frank Ezelle for providing the correct link (it’s hard to find) to where the The Mississippi Department of Archives and History keeps the full visual record of these mugshots.

I have made another selection of some of the pictures I felt were the most interesting, as I can't keep from feeling what a beautiful portrait of America they make! On a most superficial level, it's also interesting to see how up to date pictures from the 60s look. (By the 70s and 80s the clothes and haircuts had became so specific to the period they could just as well have been from a different century or planet!)

Finally, for those interested in attending the book launch for Eric Etheridge’s book Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders, it will be at the Steven Kasher Gallery at 521 West 23rd Street, New York City. Wednesday, May 21. 6 – 8 pm.

Stokely Carmichael

C.T. Vivian

Jane Rosett

Jean Thompson

Charles Myers

Clarence White

Gwendolyn Green

Joan Trumpower

Mark Lane

Geraldine Edwards

Albert Lassiter

Jorgia Siegel

Reverend Grant Harland

Rita Carter

Jessie James Davis

John Lowry

Karen Kytle

Leo Blue

Freedom Riders

Fred Clark

We are so used to seeing mugshots of intoxicated celebrities it’s easy to forget that this type of picture can have a more serious police purpose – or as is the case in the pictures above and below – can be a visual record not of justice served but of massive injustice.

These mugshots were taken of the Freedom Riders arrested by the local police in Jackson, Mississippi, in the summer of 1961. The men and women pictured had boarded buses in Washington and were heading through the deep South to challenge states who were upholding Jim Crow laws and flaunting the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision prohibiting segregation on public transport. They were met by violence at almost every stop and after one of the buses was firebombed in Alliston, Alabama, CORE leadership wanted to call off the rides. However, an undaunted (and integrated) group of protesters continued to Mississippi where they were arrested and jailed. Far from being intimidated, their example encouraged even more civil rights workers to head south, and before long Jackson’s jails were bursting.

While it would take considerably longer for the situation to improve even slightly, if you want to see what dignity and courage look like – these pictures say it all. You can only be awed by the courage displayed by people who had every right to fear that their lives were in danger, but whose moral certitude allowed them to stare down a police photo- grapher, hold their head up, and in the case of Helen Singleton even allow a knowing smile to cross her face. (She just knew that history would prove her right.)

Celebrating these heroes, the photographer Eric Etheridge has just published a remarkable book, Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders in which he tracked down over 70 of the former Freedom Riders, took their portraits and recorded their stories. His contemporary portraits appear alongside many of the original mugshots, and as you can see in the very last picture, Helen Singleton has lost none of her twinkle!

Helen Singleton

Robert Singleton

Richard Steward

Helen Singleton by Eric Etheridge

Thinking Pink

Here's a promise: this will be the last post on cherry blossoms for at least a year! However, biking through Central Park this weekend with camera in pocket, this tree was hard to resist. To me the most resonant moment of the cherry blossom cycle is when the petals fall and the grass is carpeted in pink before the petals start to turn brown. I was initially the only person photographing here, but as the picture shows, within minutes it became a hot location and I realized that pictures of people taking pictures of other people underneath the cherry blossoms was a lot more interesting than the blossoms themselves. It helps to click and see this picture in a larger size, but I love the matched pair posing demurely in the middle with their faces obscured and the guy on his back on the left. However, I'm well aware that this is more of a "snap" than a "photograph" in the artistic sense of the word.

To see what I mean by this, you just have to go to Tod Papageorge's recently published book. Passing Through Eden, a collection of pictures he took in Central Park from the 1970s to the 1990s. It's a book that is at once documentary, sensuous, and allegorical. Revelatory both because Papageorge who heads Yale's graduate photo program has been famously absent from the exhibition world and because the pictures are so good. As well as being decisively and artfully composed every one of Papageorge's photographs hint at more complex narratives underneath and all have a certain intensity and edge.

Papageorge has said, “One of my attractions to photography was that I felt it was much closer to writing and literature than any other visual art.” which helps explain why he stuck to black and white photography while his peers made the move into color. More importantly, like writing his work seems to be where the outside world and the inner voice meet and even the most random moments are brought together into some kind of highly personal order.

From Passing Through Eden:

Think Pink

Here's a promise: this will be the last pot on cherry blossoms for at least a year, but biking through Central Park this weekend with camera in pocket, this tree was hard to resist. To me the most beautiful moment of the cherry blossom cycle is when the petals fall and the grass is carpeted in pink before the petals start to turn brown. I was the only person recording this when I started, but within minutes as the picture shows, it was becoming a hot location and I realized that pictures of people taking pictures of other people underneath the cherry blossoms was a lot more interesting than just the blossoms themselves! I love the demurely posing pair in the middle with their faces obscured and the guy on his back on the left. But as I have stated many times, however, I am not a photographer.

To prove this, look at two truly great pictures taken in Central Park by two truly great photographers. The first, by Tod Papageorge

Think Pink

Here's a promise: this will be the last pot on cherry blossoms for at least a year. But as I was biking through Central Park this weekend with camera in pocket, this was hard to resist. I think the most beautiful moment of the cherry blossom cycle is when the petals fall and the grass is carpeted in pink before the petals start to turn brown. I was the only person taking pictures of this
tree when I started but within minutes, as the picture shows, it was becoming a hot location!

Weekend Video

I’ve been holding on to this video for a while not quite sure what to do with it. It’s a tribute clip to the Dylan song “Make You Feel My Love” from SoniaGS of Spain, who's posted 115 videos over the last year, mostly Dylan tributes. You have to admire that kind of devotion! Other than the song, which I love, I just like the combination of homey film-making mixed with a drifting Bruce Weber-y camera quality. A lazy kind of pre-summer video for a grey weekend.