Voices of the Past

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IF YOU HAVE EVER WALKED THROUGH an abandoned building, you know it can be a very unsettling experience. Voices of the past, long stilled by neglect and abandonment, can still be heard if your imagination is sharp. Natural creeks and groans of the building itself, the aggregated debris from decay, barrage your senses. The sound you make is amplified, echoing down the halls and announcing your arrival to God knows what or who. Nature, or it’s omnipotent power for change, is ever present, doing its job, taking its time—for nature has all the time in the world. You feel like an intruder. You will never “belong” to an abandoned building, you are always a trespasser even if you have permission (which you rarely are granted). Yes, abandoned buildings are simply repositories for the ghosts of another time. And if you enter one, you’ll probably already know that the only ones comfortable there are the bugs and mice and the voices of the past.

All images are © from various Flickr sites and were found via Pixcetera.

Ghost Image

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I LOOK FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGES THAT WERE NEVER MEANT TO APPEAR. Like this image— which, over the course of 100 years, seeped through to the paper backing on this glass plate image. I love the accidental mirror image we are left with— mysterious and unintended.

Pleasantville

Above: “Peeping Tom.” Click any image for larger view.


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VIOLENCE AND DEBAUCHERY IS COMMONPLACE IN PHOTOGRAPHER JONAH SAMPSON’S WORLD. In Sampson’s “Pleasantville,” everyday is not so pleasant. This is because of an abundance of peeping tom’s, sex in public places, ax murders, bear attacks and other everyday, mundane things.

Via Jonah Sampson.

An Extraordinary Photographer

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SCOTT FERGUSON IS ONE OF THOSE PHOTOGRAPHERS WHO SAYS “IF YOU CAN IMAGINE IT, I CAN MAKE IT.” Like a Hollywood producer who brings dreams to life, Ferguson has a natural gift for the theatrical. Let’s say you suggest something easy— like “a fantastic flying machine made of cobbled together bicycles cruising 100 feet over a farm field—populated by 8 actual chefs from local restaurants.” Scott will figure out the scenario, find the props, shoot the chefs, and with a Photoshop file over 100 layers deep, methodically make it happen. You could call Scott the man behind the curtain—the guy behind the scenes pulling the levers and adjusting the dials to give the tin man a heart, the lion his courage, the scarecrow a brain and Dorothy a ride back to Kansas. All in a day’s work.

At the same time, Ferguson is an equally gifted straight photographer who can capture your true personality or maybe the person you’d just like to be. If you’re quirky and fun, he’ll find it. If you are tough, he might make you tougher. And videos? His work is sensitively done, revealing a blend of his talented eye with thoughtful composition and perfect pacing.

With nearly 25 years of experience, Scott Ferguson has captured tons of awards and worked with art directors all over the United States. You can see more of his work at FK Photo. Or email his rep Teenuh at teenuh(at)fosterreps.com.

3-D Photo Sculpture by Gwong Osang

GWONG OSANG IS A KOREAN SCULPTOR WHO IS MAKING WAVES IN THE PHOTOGRAPHY WORLD. Yep, in photography. His recent sculptures involve the act of actually building the object he is photographing from hundreds of photographs he has taken of the subject. Osang’s original intent was to make light sculpture, as opposed to the traditonal methods of sculpture which often creates objects that are heavy. While Osang maintains that he is a sculptor first, it was the photography world who showed interest in these new and compelling works.

Yesterday and Today

(Above) New York State, 1970, from Ken Josephson portfolio, 1973/1975 via Artnet.

(Above) Photo by Ken Josephson.

(Above) L.A., 1982, by Ken Josephson portfolio.

(Above) Polapan, 1973, from Ken Josephson portfolio, 1973/1975 via Artnet.


(Above) Oregon State University

(Above) Sweetland Building, Carson City, Nevada

(Above) Thema Woche 23- Alt & Neu, Bild 1

(Above) Savannah Street

(Above) Carroll Street

(Above) Boy Scouts, U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C.

(Above) Inlet Bridge, Washington, D.C.

(Above) Thomas Circle, Washington, D.C.

(Above) 7th Street, Washington, D.C.

(Above) Peace sign (from the early 70s) in front of the Environmental Sciences Building on the U.W. - Green Bay campus.


I HAVE SPOTTED SOME INTERESTING CONCEPTUAL PHOTOGRAPHS ON FLICKR RECENTLY, WHICH triggered a memory of some similar photos I have seen in my studies of contemporary photography. But I just could not recall the photographer until I contacted my friend Alan Griffiths, proprietor of the voluminous and fabulous photography Web site Luminous Lint. I gave Alan a brief description and bingo! Alan nailed it instantly.

Alan reminded me that the photographer is Ken Josephson, who did a series of photographs back in the early 1970s of his own hand holding various photographs or postcards in front of various backgrounds. These conceptual photographs, some of which you see above, played a visual game with the viewer, testing the truths of perception.

The color images are photos from a site on Flickr here. Definitely pay the site a visit—it’s a great photo pool that includes many who have contributed images similar. The difference here is that the images on Flickr focuses on then and now—taking actual vintage photographs and putting them in the same spot in which they were taken. What you have is a visual time machine—then and now.

Kenneth Josephson was born on July 1, 1932 in Detroit, Michigan. He began making pictures with the family’s snapshot camera in 1944, and bought his own 4×5 view camera two years later. He earned a BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology (1957) where he studied under Minor White. Josephson was a professor at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1960 to 1997, and a founding member of the Society for Photographic Education. He is the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship (1972) and two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships (1975 and 1979). His work is in the collections of institutions including the Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Art Institute and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Bibliotéque National, Paris; and Foograficka Maseet, Stockholm.