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Technological change is ecological
From the ever-insightful Convivial Society newsletter, an essay about the new AI image generation tools that are doing the rounds now, including the image posted above, which won an art prize and made everyone very hot and bothered. Lonely Surfaces: On AI-generated Images – by L. M. Sacasas It’s interesting not just because it points…
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l’ve absolutely no idea what I’m doing anymore
A recurring theme here – I mean the title could apply to life in general, but that’s another story – unlearning the things that accrete over time, to give yourself the freedom to act with freedom. If photography is an art of choice – choosing where to stand, what to frame, when to press the…
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What picture is worth taking?
This is a tricky idea to articulate, so bear with me… I think there is an interesting question of when it is worth making a photograph. (Perhaps the same is true of making a painting, or some other kind of representational art. I’m thinking of those kinds of practices, rather than those that relay on…
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Family photography
Since photography was invented, people have been photographing family for all the reasons photographs are taken: money; love; the desire to document what’s important or fleeting; to capture a snapshot in time; to tell a fiction or fantasy; to construct an identity, or produce propaganda. We all do it, whether we call it art, commerce,…
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Bernd and Hilla Becher
This is the best photography book I’ve read in 2022 (and I’ve read a few this year!). It helps if you like the work of the Bechers, but it’s also very well put together, with useful, clearly-written essays, and a surprisingly revealing, wide ranging interview with their son, Max Becher, at the end of the…
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A day. This present day.
If I look back at the things I note when reading they fall into maybe two piles. Firstly, things about photography. Secondly, things about doing creative work. So maybe right now this blog is a blog about doing photography. I recently read 4000 Weeks by Oliver Burkeman (Amazon, Bookshop.org – £), which bills itself as…
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Photography Cliques
For a long time I’ve been baffled by the invisible lines that are drawn by those in the business of art theory and criticism between different types of photography. And in particular the status of those types, the people who make them, and who gets to call themselves an ‘artist’.
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One sheet zines
Another format idea – what’s the minimum viable zine? A single sheet of paper. This format has ben around for a long time; I saw it used most recently to promote the Looking for Spiders show at Brighton Photo Fringe. Austin Keon has a good write-up.
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Beate Gütschow: LS/S
I’ve had this book for a long time, but recently revisited it, as I’ve been thinking more about landscape photography. In the first half of the book – the LS (Land Scape) series – Gütschow recreates imaginary 17th Century landscape paintings with digital collage. The essays and quotes following this talk about many of the same…
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The details
I was thinking about details as I walked the dog this morning, and reflecting on my zine project, especially the finishing of that project. It’s easy to get to 90% in a project. The last 10% is the hardest, and it’s all about details. The minor details of sequencing and layout; testing out different types…