More Bangkok Work

Lara Day..."Positive Tension"
       

                                    

                                          

                               

                        

                                     
                                          
                                             
                                                
Kloie Picot..."Faith"
                        

                                     

                                       

                                             

                                             

Comments

[bobblack]

wow! :)))))

In many senses, this pairing represents (to me) the spectrum of "documentary" photography: the intense, mystery and personal ghost-discovery of the cinematic silent-film of Lara's oneiric (sp?) poem...i love the use very much of chiaraoscuro (in photography, painting, life ;) ) and this gorgeous tension between what is seen and what is obscured in her series: what is "unclear" often defines more clearly what is "seen" (see 2nd last, for the gorgeous relationship between woman in foreground and woman in window-reflection, and 2 men in last image with strange person in background (with slanted light on packbad))....dreams....

and also Kloie's gorgeous dream-song cinema...which im not surprised by considering her experience in film (documentary)making...i love this vibrancy of red (the heart of all faith, is it not) and the strange magnificent images of the months draped by a dragon-blanket of red (2nd last) and these odd, surreal mannequins....and, of course, this profound image of the Muslims...a religion not often thought of vis-a-vis Thailand (a nation of faith)...it's a strong and personal and, above all, celebratory (of the sublime and the odd) essay: what else can bespeak of faith if not the sublime and the absurd...

terrific essays both :)))

cheers
bob

[bobblack]

that should read "the MONKS draped by a dragon-blanket of red (2nd last photo)..."...not "months draped by a.."

....but, i've mentioned before about my typing and spelling acumen ;))))

running
bob

[asher]

Both series are fantastic. Lara's images are reminiscent of Harry Callahan and Trent Parke's street work (Trent is possibly my all-time favorite B&W street photographer!).

[Paul Treacy]

Wow! I just had something interesting happen to me. Thought the above monochrome images are very good indeed, I have just come to the realization that I no longer have any interest in black and white. It just doesn't do it for me anymore. Not one iota. This surprises me.

[Daniel Belenguer]

Very good color!!, I love this serie, congratulations, I don't speak enough English, so I can't speak too much

cheers
dani

[Herve]

I am trying to post a comment but get anti-spammed filtered. Is this happening to others?

(all I can think of, is making mention of Gilles Peress and his Iran book, but if this came thru, that couldn't be the reason why!)

[Aga Luczakowska]

I am really impressed!
really good work..
i just love colors in 2nd story about Faith!

[cathy scholl]

Good work.

I just had a realization too. I can appreciate most documentary photography and certainly student work where one is "stretching" themselves in new directions but...I am as "straight" as they come.

For me to get excited an image has to be absolutely f&*%ing gorgeous. Think Bruce Davidson's image of the girl looking at herself in a cigarette machine or his Circus work (which I just saw for the first time) or David's Boy in front of the church in Trinidad from Divided Soul. It can be mysterious and out of focus but it better be f*&(ing gorgeous too.

[chris bickford]

I am really impressed with all the work that has come out of the Bangkok workshop. What a fantastic group of photographers! I'll bet the energy was really strong there.

[Herve]

For me to get excited an image has to be absolutely f&*%ing gorgeous.
---

Interesting comment, Cathy, but I think there is more to photography (and the excitement of) than images, and even gorgeous images. I even believe yourself get excited with photography just as you would in other areas of life. The secret is that we are all Mozart, not Salieris and one Mozart. Remember, we are all Buddha natures inside.

It's the realization of the uniqueness and the whole in each one of us, that creates the excitement.

There are some images that cry out genius!, but they hardly fill a whole book of any photographer, be it HCB. I think the other images are there for a reason, which is believe is not to be unexcited!

(I have tried so many time to post my comment about the WS above, get spammed out. David, aren't you able to authorise those after review?).

[Herve]

Not sure why I mentionned Mozart and Salieri. Please, omit!

There is something hot from the oven from the WS (but the road trip blog and links too) that can easily be of greater interest to me, and excitement, than one image in one book published some years ago (though its time does come back again!).

[cathy scholl]

Herve,

Thanks for the "we are all Buddha" reminder and glad you got your link straightened out. Haven't had a chance to look thru everything but the shot of the young gopi in Fremont is really lovely. I see you like to travel to the same places I do so I'm sure I will enjoy looking thru your work.

I was discussing part of what you're commenting on during a just finished beach walk...my idea of f-ing gorgeous may not be anyone elses...but I find that "straight" or traditional documentary photography where you actually know what you are looking at (as opposed to something out of focus and very artsy) is what excites me. Some of the news agencies have their "Best photos of the year" features out now. Here are a couple I happen to have handy:

Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?collectionId=1067#a=1

Msnbc:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22200921/

There are a couple of photos in there somewhere, one of a kiln in China that looks like Hell (literally) that might be disturbing to some but to me are gorgeous...James Nachtweys work to me is gorgeous. Some people can't even look at it...so I realize viewing photography is as personal as making photos.

I do appreciate your comment about uniqueness creating excitement. You are right...I don't know if it is a lack of maturity on my part...or what...but I realize by looking at the student work that I definitely prefer things that are a little more "literal." Perhaps that will evolve...who knows.

[Joni Karanka]

Ha! This is brilliant! It´s the first time that I had seen some pictures beforehand because I had been already curating them in flickr (Lara´s). I must say that she shot quite a few of those in Bangkok and at one point I was a bit saturated because there were not many other photographers to alternate her pictures with :-D

[lara day]

Joni, ha, you must curate for HCSP! It's true, I did take quite a few, though you know what they say (and if they don't, they should): When in Bangkok...

Interesting to read the discussion about the spectrum of documentary photography (raised so eloquently by Bob). Also interesting to see how the question seems to polarise people. For me, it's exciting to look at the world through another person's eyes, especially when they're showing me something I may have overlooked myself. I don't mind if that comes across "literally" or more subjectively, so long as it's honest and fresh and somehow expands my vision of the universe.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. I can't really comment about my own work, except to say that Bangkok taught me how to put myself into my pictures, and I couldn't have asked for more. The end result may be good or bad or intriguing or indifferent, but it's a true reflection of how I was seeing and feeling at the time.

Speaking of which, I'm seeing my favourite pillow and feeling irresistibly drawn to it. Something tells me it's bedtime.

Happy holidays everyone!

[Herve]

Well, Cathy, maybe I read you too literally too, as if f&%^*$g gorgeous shots were only a very few, and thinking that probably no photographers would like to be reduced to only his best shots, and indeed any monography on a photographer goes beyond his/her best of.

It seems there are a lot of shots you find gorgeous or exciting, and so, you must be excited many times, here I am all with you, no hesitation.

On the other hand, most gorgeous shots, I would have found so before I even bought a reflex camera. exposing/involving myself deeper in the medium, with passion, looking at (not speaking shooting) people's work, has introduced the idea of personality, stance, visceralness, I can't name all the "ness", but all which goes beyond the pleasure of an image superbly done or an instant superbly caught.

There is very simply a bliss, a rush in the act of photography which is independant from the final result (you will always see that, anyway, even if to erase it) and I believe is quite unique in all Arts, and so the "live" aspect of recognizing that bliss in the WS above for example, becomes indeed an excitement, and one I can partake with by simpling going out the door with the camera.

This is, weirdly so, an unspoken sharing between us all, that will not happen by looking at a super duper shot, where I might as well be in a page-flipping museum.

I suppose this is what attracts me in David's photography, and people like Webb and others. this feeling of life caught on the sleeve, life which enters the composition, possible to the detriment of perfect imagery.

PS: I will try again to post my comment on the WS themselves after this. Last try!

[Herve]

With Lara' s essay, I am reminded of Telex Iran, by the treatment of the light and shade, which create the tension much more than the action and figures themselves, and also catching this tension by multiplying the happenstance of many ephemeral and trivial moments, with little linking each other, yet, as in much work done in photo-journalism (auto-journalism?) since the publication of Peress's work, making the unnoticeable as important and defining as the eventful capture.

Here, Lara, as I see it, you are at the same time catching which will not ever exist unless snapped/angled at photographically, but also using the camera as a pencil. All potential is not realized, and we may indeed be bothered by the nothingness of such unimportant happenstance, and what does it relate to, but what promises in these few shots already.

The second essay is definitely more descriptive and readable, however I must say it makes me realize ever more what is missing from so many good photographs related to travel or docu/coverage, my very own actually, which is what Lara titled her essay with: tension.

But in that regard, the 3rd shot, with the lifelike wax figures of monks meditating amonst the bustle and difference/indifference of the city, yet superimposed to it thru reflection (an apt rendition of the pervasiveness of Buddhism in thai people's life) is superb, open-ended imagery.

[Joni Karanka]

@Lara: yes, HCSP. Nice surprise to see this stuff around again.