Regarding Susan Sontag, 2014
Recipient of a Special Jury Mention at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, this documentary is an intimate and nuanced portrait of one of the most important literary, political and feminist icons of her generation: Susan Sontag.
Today we screened Contacts with Martin Parr.
Martin Parr is a chronicler of our age. In the face of the constantly growing flood of images released by the media, his photographs offer us the opportunity to see the world from his unique perspective.
At first glance, his photographs seem exaggerated or even grotesque. The motifs he chooses are strange, the colours are garish and the perspectives are unusual. Parr’s term for the overwhelming power of published images is “propaganda”. He counters this propaganda with his own chosen weapons: criticism, seduction and humour. As a result, his photographs are original and entertaining, accessible and understandable. But at the same time they show us in a penetrating way how we live, how we present ourselves to others, and what we value.
Leisure, consumption and communication are the concepts that this British photographer has been researching for several decades now on his worldwide travels. In the process, he examines national characteristics and international phenomena to find out how valid they are as symbols that will help future generations to understand our cultural peculiarities. Parr enables us to see things that have seemed familiar to us in a completely new way. In this way he creates his own image of society, which allows us to combine an analysis of the visible signs of globalisation with unusual visual experiences. In his photos, Parr juxtaposes specific images with universal ones without resolving the contradictions. Individual characteristics are accepted and eccentricities are treasured.
The themes Parr selects and his inimitable treatment of them set him apart as a photographer whose work involves the creation of extensive series. Part of his unusual strategy is to present and publish the same photos in the context of art photography, in exhibitions and in art books, as well as in the related fields of advertising and journalism. In this way, he transcends the traditional separation of the different types of photography. Thanks to this integrative approach, as well as his style and his choice of themes, he has long served as a model for the younger generation of photographers.
Martin Parr sensitises our subconscious – and once we’ve seen his photographs, we keep on discovering these images over and over again in our daily lives and recognising ourselves within them. The humour in these photographs makes us laugh at ourselves, with a sense of recognition and release.
– Thomas Weski
Michael Christopher Brown
USA. Washington, D.C. December 13, 2014. Thousands of demonstrators gathered for a “Justice for All” march in the nation’s capital to protest decisions in Missouri
For next week’s Single Image No. 2 assignment, post a photograph that was taken with your cell phone. On Monday we will talk about Michael Christopher Brown and screen HBO’s Witness: Libya.
Today we screened Which Way Is The Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington and discussed the work of Tim Hetherington including his book Infidel and the documentary Restrepo.
Take a look at Sebastian Junger’s organization RISC which “trains and equips freelance journalists in all media to treat life-threatening injuries on the battlefield. Freelancers comprise the vast majority of those who cover wars, and consequently make up the vast majority of deaths and injuries. Surviving a gunshot or shrapnel wound is often a matter of doing the right thing in the first few minutes, and our training focuses on that brief, critical period of time. It is our hope to make first aid training the industry norm – like having a flak jacket or sat phone – and to prevent unnecessary deaths in a job that is so vital to human dignity and human rights.”
Today we screened Somewhere to Disappear a film that follows the photographer Alec Soth as he travels across America looking for people who’ve retreated from society for his project, “Broken Manual.” Some live in mountain cabins, some in caves, others in the desert. It is through Alec’s eyes that we try to understand why those modern hermits want to escape. The photographer shows us a new fantasy, the dream to disappear.
Alec Soth’s work is rooted in the distinctly American tradition of ‘on-the-road photography’ developed by Walker Evans, Robert Frank and Stephen Shore. From Huckleberry Finn to Easy Rider there seems to be a uniquely American desire to travel and chronicle the adventures that consequently ensue. He has received fellowships from the McKnight, Bush, and Jerome Foundations and was the recipient of the 2003 Santa Fe Prize for Photography. His photographs are represented in major public and private collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Walker Art Center. His work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including the 2004 Whitney Biennial and a career survey at the Jeu de Paume in 2008.
His first monograph, Sleeping by the Mississippi, was published by Steidl in 2004 to critical acclaim. Since then Soth has published NIAGARA (Steidl, 2006), Fashion Magazine (Magnum, 2007), Dog Days, Bogotá (Steidl, 2007), The Last Days of W (Little Brown Mushroom, 2008), and Broken Manual (Steidl, 2010). In 2008, Soth started his own publishing company, Little Brown Mushroom. He is represented by the Sean Kelly Gallery in New York and the Weinstein Gallery in Minneapolis. Alec Soth became a nominee of Magnum Photos in 2004 and a full member in 2008. He is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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