Tag: film

Diana Reinoso – Untitled (2015)

So-called ‘lifestyle photography’ can be a huge drag. It tends to be folks performing cool in ironically coded ways that only their fellow hipsters shits are going to ‘get’.

Reinoso doesn’t seem to give a single fuck about ‘cool’. Instead, her work seems precociously fixated on the virtue of a panoply of experiences.Another way of putting it: sex, drugs and rock and roll are less the entry fee and more the perfectly curated opening act that whets appetites for the headlining band.

Consider the juxtaposition between this more formal photograph (which could be a reference to Clare Laude) and this more grungy strobe variation.

And this one where a pants-less, high-as-fuck guy pisses on a couch.

Or this one. No description. You just need to click on it. (Also, full disclosure: have done, would do again.)

I just can’t shake the feeling that much of the work features people who sexually aroused and are either about to fuck or are thinking about fucking.

I’m not saying it’s all great. But insofar as all of it is interesting, it’s at least good and there are glimpses of simple, candid greatness both in the more erotic work as well as in the quieter, more candid portraiture.

Laura Kampman – Untitled (2015)

I’d post this just based on the exquisite tonal range and use of the depth of field–the mid-ground is soft while the background (both actual and reflected are sharp).

But really this deserves to be celebrated as a testament to discipline.

Anyone who’s ever tried to take a Traci Matlock-esque mirror self-portrait without looking through the viewfinder, knows it’s nowhere as easy as it looks.

But here Kampman is using a TLR–so she doesn’t even have the benefit of a  straight forward view as I’m reasonably certain that Rolleis mirror left to right in the waist level finder.

And she’s set things up with very thin margins as far as composition, so this is emblematic of a degree of mastery I’ll admit I lack the patience necessary to cultivate.

Source: laurakampman.com

Jan Scholz – aliane (2014)

Scholz uses an arsenal of analog cameras, among them the  Pentax 67; given the shallow depth of field, I suspect this was made with the Holy Grail of Pentax 67 lenses: the 75mm F2.8.

I am not a fan of bokeh; focusing attention on the subject at the expense of reducing surrounding context to blurred abstraction isn’t my bag.

In medium format, the fastest lens is typical f2.4–or 1.5 times the depth of field of a 35mm format f1.4 lens.

It serves nicely here: clearly intimating a living room while thwarting any greater specificity. This could just as easily be the photographer’s domicile, the subjects house or some bungalow borrowed for an out of town weekend.

Scholz prefers Kodak Tri-X stock. Again, I really would be hard pressed to be any less of a fan; so it is startling for me to see someone coax such delectable tones from it.

Kara Neko and Brittany

Ibn Arabi, a venerable Sufi mystic, understood reality as the breath of Allah—praise upon him.

All was tohu va bohu until Allah—praise upon him—breathed out, creating the world. But, upon breathing in again this newly world vanished, returning to Him to be annihilated. Until he breathes out again, calling another completely formed reality into existence.

This notion is called continuous creation.

In case that is not entirely clear there is one of those rare perfectly serving metaphors: cinema. A reel of film consists of thousands of individual frames. Each frame only a little different than the one before and after it. As the strip runs through the projector at a continuous rate, a shutter that blocks each frame as it appears and before it disappears; thus the stream of discontinuous images appear to be continuous, fluid.

Over the last four years, I have spent a lot of time thinking about stories: making some up, listening to others them their own, stripping them down like that crazy uncle who thinks he can not only fix the toaster but make it work better if he can only get it put back together again.

And I am realizing that well-told stories are almost always acts of continuous creation.

Take these two exquisite young women in the above photograph image. (’Photograph’ as it’s likely this is a 6×7 image scanned from 120 color negative film. EDIT: Kara contacted me to correct this was taken with an iPhone by her boyfriend.) Despite the awkwardness of the framing—seriously we all see you are observing the rule of thirds but nothing was gained by this not being framed horizontally!)—this is a seed which contains an entire narrative within it.

Look at just what is within the frame: an uninspired bedroom in a small apartment, daylight streams through the windows (yes, plural—check the mirror over the bed).

Invariably, despite even Hollywood’s best efforts one lover always ends up undressed before the other. And here the naked one leans towards the other eyeing her bust line—her pose is assertive, communicating a physical desire but her distance is close enough to make her desire clear but still respectful of possible reservations. She of the bustier appears uncertain, her hands a mix of openness and hesitation.

The story is here. There are different ways it can go, yes. But one person is more in love than the other. Both see the edge of the cliff approaching but what you survive is always preferable to what might have been. The tension holds even though we already know how it all ends already.

Source: sookie-m