How Much Is That Doggie?

Click on any image for an outstanding, larger view.



Click on any image for an outstanding, larger view.



Click on any image for an outstanding, larger view.







IF YOU HAVE EVER TRIED TO TAKE A GOOD PHOTOGRAPH of a pet, you know that it is not an easy thing to do. Sit still. Whoa. Look this way.... and without a trained animal and a handler the process can be much more difficult. Luck plays a big part for some animal photography, but you wouldn’t believe that to look at the photographs of Tim Flach. Flack maybe be one of the best animal shooters in the world, and based on these images from his website, you might believe it as well.

Flach and his assistants make sure all elements in the photo shoot are perfect for the animals, even down to having the temperature just right for the particular animal being photographed. Carefully orchestrated, every animal picture Flach takes is, as you can see, a work of art. What Flach wants is what Flach gets.

Via here.

19th Century Objects Incorporating Photographs

Unknown
Portrait of a suited young man
1890s (ca)

Mirror, photograph on reverse

Anon.
With the Compliments of Him Who Sells Goods Cheap at East Mason, Warren Co., Ohio
n.d.

Carte de visite size, photographic business card


Anthony Berger
Lincoln
1864, 9 February (taken) 1864 (created)
Campaign Pin

Anon.
Page from “A New Map of the River Thames from Oxford to London”
1872 edition by Henry W. Taunt
n.d.


Anon.
Case notes with photo of Cuthbert Charles Duguid Morrice, + inserted note with drawings
1898

Case notes with photo

Anon.
Four stick pins.
n.d.

Jewelry

Anon.
Hairband, made of four standards of human hair with a tinted albumen image, English
1865 (ca)


HERE’S A VERY INTERESTING ON-LINE EXHIBITION that has focused on 19th century objects where photographs have been added or incorporated to add to, inform or decorate. This exhibition is just one of many on Luminous Lint, the best and most complete web site/resource on photography today. Luminous Lint is the result of years and years of hard work by Alan Griffiths, who is leaving the world an amazing archive. What I love about Luminous Lint is that it is a living resource for photographers, artists, students, collectors and academics. While you are there, sign up for their free email newsletter.

Check out the entire exhibition here.

The Pencil and the Photograph

BEN HEINE IS A BELGIAN ARTIST/PHOTOGRAPHER who has been merging his drawing and photography in a new series called Pencil vs. Camera. To date, Heine has created his photo/drawing artworks in France, Belgium, and Portugal.

See more of Heine’s work here, on Flickr.

All images copyright © Ben Heine.

Touchless Automatic Wonder

(Above) Cover of the book “Touchless Automatic Wonder” by photographer Lewis Koch.

Click any image for larger view.



Click any image for larger view.



Click any image for larger view.




TEXT AND IMAGE, MIXED WITH WONDER AND SURPRISE are the stars of this new book by photographer Lewis Koch. Described as “found text photographs from the real world” Koch is a photographer whose works are in some awesome collections: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art-Chicago, and numerous major European collections.

Lewis Koch is a master at his craft and a master of his art. I get the sense that his is “an eye” that never rests—something all artists of any substance have. Koch has traveled the world to find these images, from Uttar Pradesh, India, to Hoodoo, Tennessee—and many countries, states and small villages in between. The printed, painted or scrawled word—these bits and pieces of visual language communication that tell us yes or no, follow this, turn here, buy that and so many things—Koch seeks the intersection of the two where wonder and mystery appear. Only through the lens of Lewis Koch will you (the reader) easily find these metaphors. You’ll find them easily because it has taken Koch much of a lifetime to bring them to you. He has captured them in his camera, developed them and presented them for you in this beautifully printed hard cover book published by Borderland Books, Madison, WI.

Koch will be doing a book signing in St. Louis next Thursday, February 4 at 7 pm at the famous Left Bank Books, an independent bookstore in St. Louis founded in 1969.

You can order the book here, or on Amazon here.

And one more thing. A big round of applause to Richard Quinney, editor of Borderland Books. Where would publishing be today without the small, independent press? Huzzah!