Carte Blanche Photography: 2011

Thursday, December 29, 2011

I made a list or six...

It’s that time of the year again. A time when we look back at the year we spent and a time when we try to look into the future and plan what next year will be made of. A time when we reflect on what we’ve accomplished this year and what we’d like to accomplish for the next one. A time when we like to make lists. Best of, wish list, good resolutions… But why do we like to make lists so much? Because it’s easier to highlight a few things we liked, a few moments we enjoyed, a few things we think might happen in the future than to look back into the narrative of our lives or try to imagine a story not yet written. Also probably because we’d like to keep track of a few references witch have put rhythm into our lives. By making lists we can forget the flow of events, the consequences, we can finally reduce 365 days into a best of we want to remember.

Seeing so many lists around I started to wonder about mine. Why would I want to make a list? And what should I include in this list? Why making my personal list when so many people already have? Well I guess making a list, any list is a personal statement. You can read more into a list than just the words it represents. Every choice should be important and should represent something not to forget. The power of a list is probably less in what it represents now than what it might mean in 2, 5 or 10 years. For me it is definitely more about a personal introspective than about what it might mean for others…

So here we go, here is my 2011 best of in 6 top 6… in photobooks, photo sites, photo projects, tumblrs, TV series and music. They all represent an inspiration, a memory, a milestone that I’d like to not forget! (And believe me, it’s a lot harder to make a top 6 than a top 20… sorry to all missing great ones…)

Top 6 photo sites/blogs

- Wayne Ford’s posterous: wayneford.posterous.com

- LPV magazine: lpvmagazine.com

- A photo editor: aphotoeditor.com

- David Campbell: david-campbell.org

- Des livres et des photos (the printed space): deslivresetdesphotos.blog.lemonde.fr and in English: theprintedspace.wordpress.com

- Burn magazine: burnmagazine.org

Top 6 tumblrs

- It’s never summer by Wayne Bremser: bremser.tumblr.com

- MPD by Mark Drolet: mpdrolet.tumblr.com

- Urbanautica by Steve Bisson: urbanautica.com

- Photojojo: tumblr.photojojo.com

- This city called earth by Nigel Christian: thiscitycalledearth.tumblr.com

- One year of books: oneyearofbooks.tumblr.com

Top 6 photobooks

- A by Gregory Halpern (J&L Books).: gregoryhalpern.com

- Gomorrah Girl by Valerio Spada (Cross Editions): valeriospada.com

- Sasha by Claudine Doury (Le Caillou Bleu): cailloubleu.com

- Is this place great or what? by Brian Ulrich: notifbutwhen.com

- American Studies, by Jim Dow: jim-dow-american-studies.org

- Deck of chords by Lauren Henkin & Kirsten Rian: laurenhenkinblog.com

Top 6 photo projects

- Laos, Tomas Van Houtryve on emphasis: emphas.is

- Postcards from America (Magnum): postcards.magnumphotos.com

- Prison photography on the road on kickstarter by Pete Brook: kickstarter.com

- Flak photo & photobooks networks on facebook by Andy Adams: facebook.com/groups/flakphoto/ & facebook.com/groups/flakphotobooks/

- Fototazo by Tom Griggs: fototazo.com

- The indie photo librairy by Larissa Leclair: indiephotobooklibrary.org

(Once magazine should also be in this list, but I don’t have an ipad yet…)

Top 6 TV shows

- How to make it in America, season 1

- Treme, season 2

- Breaking Bad, season 4

- Community, season 3

- The good wife, season 1

- Sons of anarchy, season 4

Top 6 music albums

Metronomy - The English Riviera
Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
Keren Ann – 101
Arctic Monkeys – Suck It and See
Chromeo - Business Casual
Justice – Audio, Video, Disco

Happy New year everyone!!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Is green the color of silence? (part 1)

It’s been a while since I wrote my last post and a lot has happened since. I launched Carte Blanche website and opened Carte Blanche gallery & bookstore in San Francisco. I’ve been so busy with these exciting projects that I didn’t get (or take) the time to concentrate on writing. But since I started this adventure, and searching, looking around, discovery, questions and answers I find through photography have became part of my life.

So once again after excitement and the stress of the launch, I turned to photography to find a moment of quiet and peace. And as I was wandering through photographic projects and experiences I found what I was looking for. A silence, a pause, a time to think and resource myself.

Lauren Henkin

For Lauren Henkin, silence is an orchard but it’s actually while I was looking through her series of cards (deck of chords) that I started to realize the relaxing power of photography. By flipping through Deck of chords, you find the peace of looking through train windows. The images of her series The lines between us ravel in front of your eyes or inside your head until you reach this strange state of mind between being awake and asleep, between reality and memories. The speed of the train, the souvenirs of the place you’re leaving and the thoughts of the place you’re trying to reach, all images are blurred, the landscapes escape the reality and take intangible soft colors. The images follow each other until they become part of your dream… Project after project and series after series, Lauren Henkin’s beautiful photography brings serenity to our lives.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

It’s always Summer… somewhere (Part 3)

Third and last part of my investigation into ‘Summer’ photography. Entertaining, sunny, relaxing, crowded, popular, we love it or we hate it: the beach is an inspiration for many photographers. It attracts everyone everywhere on the planet and its universality makes it an interesting and unavoidable social phenomenon to observe and analyze. So far we’ve been to Italy, France, China, Czech Republic, Spain and Brazil. To finish our around the world trip, let’s see what going to the beach means for people in Holland, the UK and the US.

Isabella Rozendaal

As a kid in France I used to travel every summer with my parents to one of the French or Spanish coasts to enjoy a month by the sea. Like a ritual, every year we would pack the car and drive south to reach a new and sunnier destination. It was not about the road trip but more about the stay: the tent, the swimming pool or the beach where all the kids would meet everyday, the lunches and dinners outdoors, my dad listening to the ‘Tour de France’ on his radio and my mum reading a book and gossiping with our campsite neighbors. In a book called ‘En masse, how Holland holidays’ that is exactly what Isabella Rozendaal depicts with humor and honesty. Of course I also remember the Dutch “invading” French or Spanish campsites every summer. It was for us a good way to practice our English!

Isabella Rozendaal

More: http://www.isabellarozendaal.com/en-masse/

Chloe Dewe Mathews

A quick glimpse at Chloe Dewe Mathews images and you might think you’re somewhere in Israel. As much as Gilian Laub’s images of Tel Aviv (that you might have discovered last week on Time: http://lightbox.time.com/2011/10/10/israeli-beach-gillian-laub/#13) might shake up a few clichés about Jewish people and could have been taken in Spain or Rio, Chloe Dewe Mathews’photographs reveal a totally unknown part of England. ‘Hasidic holiday’ is about the small seaside town of Aberystwyth in Wales. Every summer for the last 20 years it has become the meeting place of the British orthodox Jewish community looking for a peaceful retreat far from the noisy partying British crowds. Chloe’s images show us once again how aesthetic and artistic beauty can transcend a documentary style and reveal the power of photography.
You should also check out her compelling series Caspian, where she introduces us to life near the Caspian Sea, the world largest inland sea, between Asia and Europe.

Chloe Dewe Mathews

More: http://www.chloedewemathews.com/

Nguan

When you think about American beaches, what comes to mind? Miami, Hawaii, Venice beach, Santa Cruz maybe. Most foreigners and tourists don’t know that there is a beach in New York. And here it is: Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. It should probably have a sign at the entrance that says ‘Not for tourists’ because that is how it feels when you look at Nguan’s photographs. Nguan takes pictures at the beach as he does in the streets, sometimes invisible, sometimes with people’s approval. Candid, spot on, humoristic, colorful, his photographs show life and humanity.

Nguan

Friday, October 7, 2011

It’s always Summer… somewhere (Part 2)

Summer is already over in SF. The days are getting shorter, the rain has started, but the good thing about San Francisco is that it’s never winter either… Anyway, after viewing the beach from a distance, I wanted to get closer, to get to know the people, to put a face on those vacationers that we often to easily accuse of participating in mass tourism. Guess what? It’s everyone… You, me, us. Everyone, everywhere. Isn’t it the beauty of the beach? It’s open, it’s free, it’s there for us to enjoy. Have you noticed how the beach is probably the most multicultural place? How for once no matter your age, your nationality, your sex, your race, your political or religious views, you can all enjoy an activity together, or should I say next to each other?

Evzen Sobek

In Life in Blue, Evzen Sobek started to document the vacations of groups of people, who spend weeks and sometimes months on the banks of a reservoir in the southeastern tip of the Czech Republic. He tried to understand why they go there and regroup in a not particularly attractive environment. He is now taking a step further as he is pursuing his ongoing ethnographic project throughout Europe, ‘Europe in Blue’. With the same curiosity, he uses his Hasselbald to approach and make contact with people. Raw, with humor, sometimes with irony, his images depict the faces of Europeans enjoying time together and explore the reasons behind this local yet universal social phenomenon of beach vacations.

Evzen Sobek, Life in Blue

Evzen Sobek, Europe in Blue