Roadtrip 2011

Dogme 95 @ Brandts

During our weekend excursion to Western Denmark, the roadtrip took a pit stop at Brandts, a large art museum in Odense. After touring the installations (see John’s post), we enjoyed a three-hour workshop with Lise Kapper, the Brandt’s media and photography workshop coordinator. The group drew inspiration from the Dogme 95 school, a small collective of Danish filmmakers strongly devoted to low budgets and aesthetic rules. With their working philosophy and our cameras, we undertook a short photo-montage exercise.

We had ninety minutes to shoot five images that documented a motif from different perspectives. In groups of three, we conceived the project, shot images, and tuned up in photoshop before editing and exporting for a final presentation. Each team took surprisingly different approaches, some emphasizing thematic restrictions, others stressing graphic and formal restraints. Whether you’re a photographer or filmmaker, we learned the value of producing a work within strict time limitations. A group critique rounded out the afternoon, giving CAMSers another opportunity to share work with industry professionals. 

- Josiah Burns

Rudolph Schwarzkogler & Thomas Florschuetz

The Roadtrip is off on a three-day excursion to Odense, Skanderborg and Arhus, Denmark, where we will visit a variety of museum exhibitions, photographers, and have some fun, too.

Brandts, the art and media museum in Odense we had a curator-guided tour of two photo exhibitions. The first was a series of pictures of (rather than by) Rudolf Schwarzkogler, a member of a group of artists in the 60's known as the Vienna Actionists. "Actions" designated what we typically think of as Happenings in the United states. Part of a reaction against the commodification of art in the 60's and 70's, many artists moved toward dematerialized conceptual performances and away from producing things...for sale. Schwarzkogler's Vienese variant was rather more violent and visceral, and the pictures exhibited here were of private performances  undertook for friends, and the camera, in his apartment. The pictures themselves are documents of artistic acts rather than artworks in their own right.

We also were taken through a large of show of large photographs (5' x 5' and larger) by the Berlin photographer Thomas Florschuetz. To generalize, his images are abstractions, frequently from architectural elements. He's not a documentarian; rather looks to pull abstract form from concrete architectural spaces. Frequently his images are diptychs or triptychs in which the camera is realligned only slightly within the scene, producing not a "stitched" panorama, but rather an oddly, and attractively, formalistic meditation of architectural spaces. Although superficially like photographers form the Düsseldorf school, Florschuetz is rather more emotional in his imagery, a formalist rather than a visual notator of mute facts, and a unembarrassed colorist.

- John Schott

Anders Clausen

Born Again Christians. Vacuum Salesmen. Refugees.

If you're still trying to connect the three, I'll save you some time. All are subjects that Danish photojournalist Anders Clausen has covered.

In presenting some of his work to us, Clausen shied away from speaking at us and instead engaged in a conversation with us. We were able to discuss what the selected photos meant to us and how we interpreted them, a rare discussion when the photographer himself is present. 

"Intention" seemed to be the word of the day. Photography is, after all, about intention. It is hard (if not impossible) to approach a subject without some sort of agenda. That, however, is exactly what Anders Clausen addressed. While you may be following a certain agenda and intending to show your subject in a certain light, most everyone else will interpret your work in a completely different way. This was apparent in our discussion of what various photos conveyed to us. To one person, an image of a man trapped in a locker was silly and lighthearted. To another, it conveyed the claustrophobia the man felt. To yet another, it conveyed the futility of an attempt to escape.

Clausen was key to point out that there is not necessarily a correlation between your intentions and the photos you're presenting. We tend to take photographs as reality, which as a photographer can be an intimidating and powerful role to fill. As Clausen pointed out, the crucial thing to recognize is that in interpreting images you "don't need to be right or wrong. Just enjoy where the image takes you." 

Anders Clausen is a Danish documentary photographer and professor of photojournalism at DIS in Copenhagen. To view examples of his work, please visit his website.

 - Linnea Bullion

Ditte Haarlov-Johnsen

We have been lucky to host a diverse and inspiring group of lecturers/guests during our travels. This past week, Danish filmmaker and photographer Ditte Haarløv-Johnsen talked with the class about her own experience as an artist-- her education, creative endeavors and unique approach to nonfiction work. Born in Copenhagen but raised in Mozambique, Ditte’s pieces empathize with the role of being an outsider. Her projects have included photo essays and documentaries— amongst others, a look into the lives of teenage mothers at a women’s shelter, a nonfiction piece on a group of gay men living in Mozambique, and a documentary film “Homeless,” which follows Greenland immigrants living in the streets of Copenhagen.

The devotion that Ditte brings to her work is striking—her projects are completely experientially and emotionally immersive, and in a way serve as records of her own life. Ditte recounted her first encounters with the people who would become her artistic muses, befriending intriguing characters on the street that would later be both close friends and the subjects of her work.

“One day walking home from the school I met Ingracia and Antonieta. They stood out from the crowd      as they strolled down the streets of Maputo, hips swaying. They were openly gay and for Maputo this was truly outrageous. I approached them and we spent an afternoon together. Gradually they allowed me to get a glimpse into their lives… I photographed the Sisters and got the feeling of a story that was so much deeper than what a few pictures could convey.”                                                                                                                           

And yet to the casual viewer the pieces are incredibly honest, with an integrity and authenticity that can only come from intimacy. In the film “One Day” (which was screened during the talk) Ditte was able to convey the strain of life as a prostitute in Copenhagen while respecting the privacy of her subject through a collage of reflections and close ups. The project was only made possible through Ditte’s persistence and stubborn will to tell the story, and was a product of both friendship and countless days spent convincing her subject that the risk was worth it.

Above all the visit was a reminder of what should be at the heart of nonfiction work. While film and photography can be misleading when taken as representations of ‘reality’, Ditte’s work shows that real truth can be crafted respectfully and artistically. Her pieces reflect a loyalty to the story and those involved, but also serve as beautiful works of art in themselves.

To learn more about Ditte and her work click here.

- Chisa Hughes

C/O Berlin and Fritz Eschen - Berlin Under the Makeshift Roof

Again, we revisit the reoccurring photographic theme of our trip: rephotography.  But never fear; the redundancy ends in the short synopsis. 

On Monday, May 16th, we walked a short block away from our classroom at IES to C/O Berlin.  Housed in the former Royal Post Office building in Berlin-Mitte, C/O Berlin calls itself, “an international forum for visual dialogues.”

C/O Berlin's project manager Ann-Chrisoin Bertrand, along with Marc Volk, led us on a tour of the exhibit on Fritz Eschen's post-war photography of Berlin.  Volk described his process in rephotographing Eschen's work while displaying the result on an iPad.  Sometimes the building no longer existed; other times he had to ask for help from locals who had lived in the neighborhood when the original photo was taken. In a perfect combination of old photography and new media, C/O Berlin guests can also view Volk's modern-day rephotos with their iPhones and iPads via an application created for the exhibit.

Born in 1900 in Berlin, Eschen was a Jewish photojournalist and portrait photographer.  He survived the era of National Socialism through his second marriage to Aryan wife, Gertrude Thumm.  The approximately 120 photos in the exhibit span from 1945 to 1955, capturing everything from the post-war ruins to the Berlin Blockade to the division of the city.  In addition to documenting political tensions of the time, Eschen also portrays the struggle of the people and the rebirth of Berlin's cultural life. 

At the end of the tour, we were free to explore the other exhibits, one of which corresponded with the over-turned car displayed outside the building's entrance.  Like a potential rephoto in itself, the former Royal Post Office was a gymnasium before it became a place for visual exhibition.  So ends another rephotography journey; another investigation into the past, and another modern day translation, this time in the care of Berlin.

 

Thomas Anschuetz

The afternoon of May 12th found the road-trippers assembled at the New School for Photography of Berlin, where photographer Thomas Anschuetz gave a talk recounting his career in the arts.

While our primary interest was in his photography, Anschuetz began his art career as a landscape painter. His first forays into photography were made in the pursuit of reference images for his paintings of rock formations. This proved to be something of a revelatory experience, and by 1980 he had moved to New York City and was producing works both on canvas and in the darkroom.

Anschuetz has since continued to experiment with the artistic applications of modern technologies, such as the early Macintosh computer he acquired in 1985, producing a diverse body of work, but perhaps his most compelling artistic endeavor would come about through the synthesis of his earliest fascinations. In 1990, having returned to Berlin, he began to experiment with the process of painting on transparent surfaces. By using these paintings as negatives in his darkroom, he found he could produce painterly images on photo paper, with a ghostly quality which resulted from the inversion of the light in the development process.

Today, Anschuetz teaches at the New School for Photography in Berlin, where he continues to seek out new and innovative photographic techniques - in describing his ambition, he quotes Star Trek, saying he wants "to boldly go where no man has gone before".

- Jonathan Hughes

Street Photography with Stefan Maria Rother

   


On the afternoon of May 6th , guest speaker Stefan Maria Rother gave a brief presentation on street photography.  Stefan M. Rother is a German photographer who works with magazines such as Stern, Spiegel, Focus, etc. He has also published six black and white street photography books.

He began his presentation with some background information about his work and how his passion for photography has grown. He then went into how and why he takes his photos, emphasizing the importance of taking digital photography. According to Rother, digital photography creates dialogue, which “brings people together."

Most of Stefan’s street photographs shown in the presentation had vivid stories attached to each image. This was so because in most of his work, he takes the time to know his subjects before or after he makes photos, and most of his subjects have interesting stories to tell. Stefan ended his presentation by saying that the key to a successful photo is to have a concept and through that concept the image is captured. 

For more information on Rother and his work click here. --Lucy Quagraine

‘Massaging the Medium’ with Joachim Schmid

On Tuesday, Joachim Schmid started his lecture with a short introduction. An artist both formally-educated and self-taught, Schmid— born in Balingen and now based in Berlin— is a conceptual artist/photographer, but eschews any formal label or movement to his work. Since his school days, Schmid has done work cultivated by his own self-education—fueled by his interest in photographic culture and what he has observed to be the unaddressed, unobserved facets of the medium as a phenomenon.

Schmid has made it his life work to address these gaps. His projects are diverse and fascinating, a thread of endeavors that chart his own interests and queries into visual media. Rather than focus on the craftsmanship of photography or the formal qualities of the art, his work explores the conceptual (while being relatable)— through the selection, accumulation, organization and presentation of other people’s work. One of his earlier projects, entitled “Pictures From the Street”, was based entirely around found photographs— memories meant to be thrown away or destroyed. These photos, some burned, others torn-up and disintegrating, not only serve as pieces of artwork in themselves, but contained another element not seen in formal works meant for exhibition. This new layer of information (the grime, the tears in the paper, the materiality and human touch of the photographs) speaks to the road of photography in everyday life. Stories and personal relationships are projected onto the photograph and the factors of time, subjectivity and the elements that alter or enhance its narrative are highlighted.

Schmid has continued his work in projects such as ‘Collective Portrait of a City’, in which he found and gathered the negatives of photos from street portrait photographers in Brazil. In more recent years, as photography has changed from an analogue to a predominately digital medium, Schmid has found equally absorbing material. In his ‘Sex Cam Project’, Schmid has photographed the spaces created by cyber sex workers— without the physical presence of the workers themselves. It is a meditation on the intimacy and the sterility of cyberspace, revealing the taste and fantasies of the contemporary audience being catered to. Other projects, such as “The Coach House: An Inventory” and ‘Nine Errors’, highlight the subtle way in which public space, and ‘objective’ resources are coopted and influenced/manipulated despite their innocuous reputation. In each of his works, it is clear that Schmidt is a meticulous observer— highlighting the humorous and surprising way that we relate to images and the nuances of visual culture.

Joachim Schmid's visit was thorough, fascinating, and exciting. Hearing about his thought process behind each investigation-- and his take on the postmodern state of the image in society-- was a breath of fresh air to the student preparing his/herself for a career in the arts. It is clear that Schmid’s work is an honest account of the artistic process of realizing curiosity—destabilizing the pretension of the art world and the elitism that has come from fetishizing the photo.

You can learn more about Joachim Schmid and his work here.

–Chisa Hughes  [Above: a photo from Schmid's 'Pictures from the Street' Project]

Skate: Barcelona

The day I arrived in Barcelona, I remember sitting on the metro across from two boys holding skateboards.  I noted this to my friends but didn't think much more of it. Now, four weeks later, it seems appropriate that the first people I distinguished in Barcelona were part of a culture I spent so much time around.

Barcelona is, at least in the skateboarding community, widely regarded as the "skate capital of the world." No matter in which area of the city you are, there's bound to be a great skate spot (ledges, rails, stairs, banks, etc.). The Mecca of these spots? Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA). To a non-skater, MACBA seems just like any other square. Search MACBA online, however, and you will come across a throng of skate videos filmed there. Apparently, whatever stone the tiles are made of is perfect for tricks. It simply has more pop. Hang out at MACBA on any given day and there's bound to be plenty of skateboarders. Unfortunately, there's also bound to be plenty of cops.

Skateboarding and police seem to go hand-in-hand. Well, maybe fist against fist. Skateboarding is technically illegal in BCN. Skateboarding carries a fine of up to 1500 euro and the cops and confiscate your board. While I've never witnessed anyone getting cited for skateboarding, I know that it happens. I'm still confused as to why it carries such a heavy penalty. Barca attracts skaters from across the world (I've met individuals from the US, France, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, England, and Ireland, to name a few). In my mind, the city should be promoting skateboarding. Not only does it attract tourism, but it's a fantastic sport. And it truly is a demanding sport. Before coming here, I figured skateboarding was more of a hobby for most people. I never really understood how much time goes into perfecting skills and landing tricks.

For example, I watched a British skater try to land a trick for three hours. In the middle, he fell face flat to the ground. He quickly got up, feeling his teeth to make sure that they were all there. He asked his friends and, assured that no teeth were missing, got back up and tried the trick again. To some, that may be a sign of insanity. To me, it's sheer dedication.

I've met some amazing people in this city. At first, I was worried about being "that weird girl that's always hanging around the spots with a giant backpack." While I may have been that girl (or maybe still am), I've felt extremely welcome in the community. Skateboarders tend to have a bad rep, which for the most part couldn't be further from the truth. Someone was always willing to point me in the direction of a new spot, or to smile for the camera, or work on a trick and let me snap some photos.

 

I would strongly encourage you to watch some skate videos, or to pay attention the next time you see someone practicing skateboarding, and just stop for a moment to admire the work and time that goes into it. If you REALLY want to appreciate it, try getting on a skateboard yourself. Trust me, it's a lot harder than it looks.

If you would like to see my full skate photo set, please visit my flickr.

In Search of Duende at the Kowasa Gallery

This Tuesday our group made a trip to re-visit our fearless and feisty re-photography guide Natasha Christia at Kowasa, whose downstairs hosts one of the best photography bookstores in the world, and whose upstairs gallery includes more than 2,000 prints.

Being mostly students of digital photography and fairly naïve of the negotiation, pricing and presentation process for print exhibition, this visit was an informative look at photography from a curatorial perspective. Natasha, a photography enthusiast and scholar, walked us through the old vintage prints in Kowasa’s collection-- old Franco-era photographs, Robert Capa books, self-mounted Joan Colom pieces, and other rarities that would make any collector drool. Natasha schooled us in the differences between vintage, late, modern, and posthumous prints and how the biographical information of such photographs are translated into monetary value.

The dialogue that we hold with photographs takes on many different forms—as a wide-eyed group of photographers not yet privy to the realities and market of the art world, the visit made for an interesting look at the political, theoretical, and technical perspectives that must be taken into account when considering the work as a public piece. As a mediator between the artist, the work, and its audience, Natasha draws from a wealth of knowledge— photographic history, business, theory, and an understanding of the artist’s personal vision and the character of her/his work. The position requires negotiation, but most importantly, an eye for talent and the love and passion brought to the work. This ‘duende’-- the muse, the drive to create, is what makes or breaks the artistic endeavor, and according to Natasha, is the only thing that matters in the end. We left Kowasa not only with a new toolbox of curatorial vocabulary, but with a re-invigorated drive for the ever-elusive ‘duende’.

 - Chisa Hughes [photograph by John Schott]