Exhibition on black and white photography to open in Hong Kong’s M+
Photography
8 Black Female Photographers to Watch in 2024
During Black History Month, we asked Black Women Photographers’ founder Polly Irungu to spotlight the work of creatives from their platform.
Black History Month (BHM) is an annual observance that originated in the United States, dedicated to acknowledging people and events associated with the history and heritage of the African diaspora. This year we renewed our connection with Polly Irungu, the founder of Black Women Photographers, to discover and celebrate black female creatives. Founded in 2020, BWP is a global community, directory, and hub of over 2,100 Black women and non-binary identifying photographers, spanning over 60+ countries and 35+ U.S. states. Their mission is offer support in every stage of their professional development through free access to educational programming, portfolio reviews, grants, and photo meet-ups, to provide tangible support with the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary for a long-lasting and successful career in this industry.
Farren van Wyk is a South African and Dutch photographer and mentor. She graduated from the University of Arts in 2016, receiving her BA degree in photography after an extensive visual project with (ex-)gang members in the South African colored community in her hometown, Port Elizabeth. This project is shifting towards an ongoing exploration into the history of colored communities, of which Farren herself is a member. She has lived in The Netherlands for over twenty years, and her dual nationality is the crux of her work.
Since falling in love with photography whilst visiting Cape Town, South Africa, April Alexander has continued to have a spirited desire for creative self-expression through portraiture, commercial, and fashion photography. Alexander’s unique viewpoint enables her to guide her clients in the best possible way, enabling them to feel confident and relaxed in their own skin, regardless of whether being a muse is an alien concept to them.
Bre Johnson is a photographer based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work specializes in editorial, fashion, and commercial photography. As a self-taught photographer, Johnson has been able to tell captivating stories around the world.
Ebun Lauren Andu is a passionate photographer based in Manchester and London. She has a background in Architecture, with a first degree in Architecture from Birmingham City University and from the Manchester School of Architecture. Andu’s passion for photography has enabled her to transform ideas into captivating visual stories, helping clients bring their visions to life. A natural light approach on location and with lighting in the studio creates her flattering and beautiful images.
Alexandra Obochi is a multidisciplinary creative based in Abuja, Nigeria. Most days, Obochi creates beauty, fashion, and lifestyle Afrocentric creative content. On other days, she doubles as a professional photographer, creative director, and makeup artist. As a queer artist and fashion brand owner, Obochi is passionate about creating inclusive, gender-fluid fashion and work.
Kourtney Iman is a photographer and creative director based in Atlanta, Georgia. She currently attends the Savannah College of Art and Design, pursuing her MFA, focusing on fine arts. As a multidisciplinary creative, she focuses on the overall notions of Black life with an effort to highlight and aid underrepresented creatives.
Tola Olawale is a photographer and creative director currently based in Houston, Texas. Olawale specializes in portrait, documentary, editorial, and music photography. Her personal works are an attempt to explore different facets of her identity and feed her cultural curiosity. New to the photography world, Olawale seeks to expand to other creative mediums eventually. “I’m excited to grow, learn, build, and see where my camera takes me.”
Schaun Champion is an artist-photographer, director of photography, and instructor specializing in natural light, portraiture, fine art, and cultural documentary/archival work. She creates intentionally cinematic and honest imagery using digital and analog cameras. Inspired by classic films, music, and all things vintage, her intention is to use themes of nature, diversity, and nostalgia to illustrate the drama within the familiar.
—
Polly Irungu is a multimedia journalist, digital editor, self-taught photographer and founder of Black Women Photographers. As a photographer, Polly’s work has been published in numerous publications, including BBC News, NPR, Refinery29, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, CNN, HuffPost, OkayPlayer, OkayAfrica, and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Black Women Photographers aims to disrupt the notion that it is difficult to discover and commission black creatives. Launched in July of 2020 by Polly Irungu, Black Women Photographers (BWP) is a global community of over 1,000 active members from around the world. Through honest dialogue via social conversations and workshops, the platform seeks to ensure that more Black women and non-binary photographers are empowered to make the industry as colorful as it ought to be. Doing so by supporting their members through online and in-person exhibitions, events, webinars, educational programs, and annual grant funds with Nikon Inc, as well as sharing and promoting their work in an active database of photo editors, directors, curators, and art buyers.
—
This article is part of the work PhMuseum has started to support and promote underrepresented photographers as well as reignite the debate on gender and racial equality in our industry. Our dedicated initiatives include an annual Grant and several collaborations such as our online exhibition in partnership with MFON, IWMF and BWP, a work that has included also the Prize in collaboration with African Artists’ Foundation.
We’re always working to improve our knowledge of projects from under-represented photographers in the industry. If you are a photographer or artist please do create a free PhMuseum account and upload your projects. You can also get in touch with us at support@phmuseum.com
The Rarely Seen Color Photographs of Garry Winogrand
Feature image: Houston, Texas, 1964. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
I saw Garry Winogrand deliver a slide lecture—a string of intermittent, axiomatic comments—at Fordham University in 1982. Winogrand was, I recall, a cheerful, broad-bodied man projecting a quality of laconic bravado. He was both reticent and loud. His axioms were rehearsed, available to anyone who had read his interviews—“I photograph to find out what some-thing will look like photographed” and “There is nothing as mysterious as a fact clearly described”—and the slides he clicked through were his classic black-and-white pictures covering a range of periods and places.
Most of the images shuttled by without verbal accompaniment; he was assured enough to let pictures speak for themselves. Near the end of the proceedings I raised a hand and asked if there had been any kind of continuity between the photos he took while working on commercial jobs and the personal pictures we were looking at now. (I was thinking about Walker Evans, one of Winogrand’s avowed heroes, and how a recent exhibition had directed attention to the fact that some of Evans’s most personal, eventually iconic images originated as assignments for Fortune magazine.)
Garry Winogrand (self-portrait), New York City, c. 1955–58. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
” data-image-caption=”
Garry Winogrand (self-portrait), New York City, c. 1955–58. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
” data-medium-file=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork04-300×202.jpeg” data-large-file=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork04-1240×836.jpeg” class=”size-large wp-image-232739″ src=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork04-1240×836.jpeg” alt width=”1240″ height=”836″ srcset=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork04-1240×836.jpeg 1240w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork04-300×202.jpeg 300w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork04-768×518.jpeg 768w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork04-60×40.jpeg 60w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork04-1536×1036.jpeg 1536w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork04-2048×1381.jpeg 2048w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork04-50×34.jpeg 50w” sizes=”(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px”> Garry Winogrand (self-portrait), New York City, c. 1955–58. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
Winogrand’s response was like a wind blasting back in my face. He denied any connection between commercial assignments and personal photographs. He had no respect for advertising and magazine work, dismissing the culture and climate by which he had barely earned a living during his early professional life. “These people,” he concluded with a scornful smile, “give themselves awards!”
The 45,000 Kodachrome and Ektachrome slides (roughly counting) that Winogrand shot between the early 1950s and late 1960s were often taken between assignments, when the photographer, working on his own, developed and refined an approach to his medium that was increasingly open, independent, and radical. He routinely photographed with two cameras strapped around his neck, one loaded with color film, the other with black and white. He was often, plainly, primed to feed an ad agency’s appetite for stock imagery. The Center For Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, where the mass of Winogrand’s work is archived, could provide content for multiple Garry Winogrand color calendars featuring pictures you’d never dream were taken by Winogrand: views of glittering streams, unpeopled oceans, midwest-ern roads in diminishing perspective, and sunsets galore. But the best of his color work—a high quotient of which, we’d like to think, is collected here—reflects an aesthetic resourcefulness, and a view of the world, that’s specifically human-centered, and can be as urgent, assured and unexpected as Winogrand in black and white.
New York City, 1962. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
” data-image-caption=”
New York City, 1962. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
” data-medium-file=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-085-300×202.jpg” data-large-file=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-085-1240×836.jpg” class=”wp-image-232920″ src=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-085-scaled.jpg” alt width=”2000″ height=”1348″ srcset=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-085-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-085-300×202.jpg 300w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-085-1240×836.jpg 1240w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-085-768×518.jpg 768w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-085-60×40.jpg 60w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-085-1536×1035.jpg 1536w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-085-2048×1380.jpg 2048w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-085-50×34.jpg 50w” sizes=”(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px”> New York City, 1962. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
The slides feature a terrific variety of characters: families, couples, lone figures and crowds in public and private spaces, people displaying self-possession and unease in equal measure. As Ingrid Sischy has written, Winogrand had a gift for distilling and describing the American psyche in intimate detail, and his color work presents a cumulative chronicle, revealing a land of promise and disappointment, emptiness and glut, anxiety and joy.
New York City, 1967. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
” data-image-caption=”
New York City, 1967. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
” data-medium-file=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork02-300×202.jpeg” data-large-file=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork02-1240×835.jpeg” class=”size-large wp-image-232738″ src=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork02-1240×835.jpeg” alt width=”1240″ height=”835″ srcset=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork02-1240×835.jpeg 1240w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork02-300×202.jpeg 300w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork02-768×517.jpeg 768w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork02-60×40.jpeg 60w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork02-1536×1035.jpeg 1536w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork02-2048×1380.jpeg 2048w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork02-50×34.jpeg 50w” sizes=”(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px”> New York City, 1967. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
I ventured to Tucson with my friend Susan Kismaric, who had been a curator in the Department of Photography at New York’s Museum of Modern Art for thirty-five years. Sorting through the CCP collection, we were looking for needles in a vast archival haystack—tens of thousands of images, boxes within boxes of largely unscanned, obscurely organized color slides in their original cardboard mounts. We spent four weeks at it, spread across three trips, between June 2016 and August 2017. Susan, wearing latex gloves, would array a dozen or so slides on a compact lighttable and we’d take turns leaning in to look through a magnifying loupe. A selected slide was then slotted into a separate viewer, and I hovered with an iPhone to make an inventory. The airless confines of the study center, the limited hours available to us, and the expected but nevertheless overwhelming too-muchness of Winogrand’s approach left us more than a little weary, if not, at times, stupefied, but there was an exciting yield of strong, striking, even fascinating pictures—images previously unpublished, utterly unknown.
White Sands National Monument, New Mexico, 1964.
© The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
” data-image-caption=”
White Sands National Monument, New Mexico, 1964.
© The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
” data-medium-file=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork01-300×197.jpeg” data-large-file=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork01-1240×816.jpeg” class=”size-large wp-image-232737″ src=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork01-1240×816.jpeg” alt width=”1240″ height=”816″ srcset=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork01-1240×816.jpeg 1240w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork01-300×197.jpeg 300w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork01-768×505.jpeg 768w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork01-60×39.jpeg 60w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork01-1536×1010.jpeg 1536w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork01-2048×1347.jpeg 2048w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork01-50×33.jpeg 50w” sizes=”(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px”> White Sands National Monument, New Mexico, 1964. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
The idea for Winogrand Color was triggered by thirty tantalizing color photographs in Trudy Wilner Stack’s Winogrand 1964—published in 2002, long out of print—a remarkable book placing Winogrand’s color work alongside ninety black-and-white pictures made in a profoundly productive, Guggenheim-sponsored period of cross-country car trips throughout the United States. One of his very few written statements, Winogrand’s Guggenheim application—submitted in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which had plunged him into despair—has been frequently and extensively quoted for good reason. The sentiments confided by the 35-year-old photographer remain relevant for anyone trying to confront anguish over the clash of commerce and culture, fantasy and reality, in contemporary America:
I look at the pictures I have done up to now, and they make me feel that who we are and what we feel and what is to become of us just doesn’t matter. Our aspiration and successes have been cheap and petty. I read the newspapers, the columnists, some books. I look at the magazines (our press). They all deal in illusions and fantasies. I can only conclude that we have lost ourselves, and the bomb may finish the job permanently ,and it just doesn’t matter, we have not loved life.
Winogrand’s transition here from “I” to “we” tracks a lunge of empathy and self-criticism that few grant applicants, I’m guessing, would be inclined to risk, and his next sentence feels equally, bitterly brave: “I cannot accept my conclusion, and so must continue this photographic investigation further and deeper.”
New York City, 1966. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
” data-image-caption=”
New York City, 1966. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
” data-medium-file=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork08-300×202.jpeg” data-large-file=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork08-1240×835.jpeg” class=”size-large wp-image-232743″ src=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork08-1240×835.jpeg” alt width=”1240″ height=”835″ srcset=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork08-1240×835.jpeg 1240w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork08-300×202.jpeg 300w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork08-768×517.jpeg 768w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork08-60×40.jpeg 60w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork08-1536×1034.jpeg 1536w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork08-2048×1379.jpeg 2048w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork08-50×34.jpeg 50w” sizes=”(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px”> New York City, 1966. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
Before Wilner Stack’s book, there was precious little public evidence that Winogrand’s “investigation” involved a true engagement with color, though the photographer’s foremost curatorial champion, John Szarkowski, chose to project eighty of Winogrand’s color slides in New Documents, the Museum of Modern Art’s landmark 1967 show in which Winogrand, Diane Arbus, and Lee Friedlander each exhibited thirty-two black-and-white prints, filling separate galleries with work declaring a generational shift in the history of the medium. Szarkowski was aware of the pessimism inflecting Winogrand’s work—Szarkowski was, for years, the undeclared judge and administrator of the Guggenheim Fellowship for photography; he awarded Winogrand the validating grant—but his show’s wall text downplayed the inner agitation informing the pictures on display, offering a brighter, more suggestive summary of what the three artists were up to:
Their work betrays a sympathy —almost an affection — for the imperfections and frailties of society. They like the real world, in spite of its terrors, as the source of all wonder and fascination and value. . . . What they hold in common is the belief that the commonplace is really worth looking at, and the courage to look at it with a minimum of theorizing.
State Fair of Texas, Dallas, 1964. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
” data-image-caption=”
State Fair of Texas, Dallas, 1964. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
” data-medium-file=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-116-300×202.jpg” data-large-file=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-116-1240×834.jpg” class=”wp-image-232923″ src=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-116-scaled.jpg” alt width=”2000″ height=”1345″ srcset=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-116-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-116-300×202.jpg 300w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-116-1240×834.jpg 1240w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-116-768×516.jpg 768w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-116-60×40.jpg 60w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-116-1536×1033.jpg 1536w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-116-2048×1377.jpg 2048w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Winogrand-Color-116-50×34.jpg 50w” sizes=”(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px”> State Fair of Texas, Dallas, 1964. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
A couple of weeks into the exhibition, a malfunctioning projector burned eleven of Winogrand’s slides, resulting in the removal of the carousel and the termination of Winogrand’s official identity as a color photographer. He continued to shoot in color but less frequently, never printing, exhibiting, or publishing the pictures, his color output dwindling significantly in the late 1960s.It seems to have boiled down to a matter of cost. Sasha Waters Freyer’s captivating 2018 documentary, Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable, contains a 1977 audio recording of Winogrand talking in a restaurant with photographer Jay Maisel, asserting in a confident yammer that when the technology of color photography catches up with him, when he can afford to print as many color pictures as he’s inclined to shoot, he would continue with color in earnest.
Coney Island, New York City, c. 1952–58. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
” data-image-caption=”
Coney Island, New York City, c. 1952–58. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
” data-medium-file=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork09-300×202.jpg” data-large-file=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork09-1240×836.jpg” class=”size-large wp-image-232745″ src=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork09-1240×836.jpg” alt width=”1240″ height=”836″ srcset=”https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork09-1240×836.jpg 1240w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork09-300×202.jpg 300w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork09-768×518.jpg 768w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork09-60×40.jpg 60w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork09-1536×1035.jpg 1536w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork09-50×34.jpg 50w, https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9781936611188_artwork09.jpg 2000w” sizes=”(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px”> Coney Island, New York City, c. 1952–58. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Twin Palms Publishers.
Winogrand died on March 19, 1984 age fifty-six, succumbing to cancer within six weeks of its initial diagnosis. Nearly forty years later, his depiction of the American experience—in Szarkowski’s words “the fabric and texture of our life since Truman”—is often compared to a novelist’s multivolume outpouring, with Norman Mailer and Philip Roth registering as plausible literary counterparts. Indeed, few writers or photographers can be said to match Winogrand’s passionately alert, omnivorous observation of the country’s surface turmoil and unsettled nerves, the sense of a panoramic national portrait. But it’s also possible to see in Winogrand’s color—in the brighter, often blazing, sun-splashed subjects and scenes—a temperament that’s less raucous or savage.
Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita comes to mind, and the Russian master’s other American novels, filled with tender descriptions of what John Updike termed “our monstrosity.” Nabokov, Updike wrote, reveals “not only the landscape—the eerily arboreal suburbs, the grand emptiness, the exotic and touchingly temporary junk of roadside America—but the wistful citizens of a violent society desperately oversold, in the absence of other connections, on love.” Winogrand’s color work confronts us with a similarly intimate, flashing mirror, disclosing yearning and loss within American commotion and plenitude, all the while serving up sharp glimpses of the commonplace—the face of a sleeping boy gilded with Coney Island sand, a young woman’s profile suspended over a half-eaten plate of eggs—that cross into the realm of lyric contemplation.
___________________________
From Garry Winogrand: Winogrand Color, edited by Michael Almereyda, Susan Kismaric. Afterword by Michael Almereyda. Text copyright by Michael Almereyda, 2024. Used with permission of the publisher, Twin Palms Publishers.
Dancer Series, 2020 by Fatoş İrwen, Mixed media on photography, 26 x 21 cm (1)
Get Access
Join Ocula to request price and availability of artworks, exhibition price lists and build a collection of favourite artists, galleries and artworks.
Thank you for joining us. Just one more thing…
Soon you will receive an email asking you to complete registration. If you do not receive it then you can check and edit the email address you entered.
Thank you for joining us.
You can now request price and availability of artworks, exhibition price lists and build a collection of favourite artists, galleries and artworks.
Welcome back to Ocula
Enter your email address and password below to login.
Reset Password
Enter your email address to receive a password reset link.
Reset Link Sent
We have sent you an email containing a link to reset your password. Simply click the link and enter your new password to complete this process.
Save the Date: A unique Photography Exhibition and Empowerment Evening on 14 March 2024
Watch more of our videos on Shots!
and live on Freeview channel 276
This special event is held in remembrance of Sharon Berry Rothero; a former photography client who sadly passed away shortly after her shoot and made a lasting impression on Hannah with her strength, positivity and outlook on life. A donation of the profits from this event will be made to Florence Nightingale Hospice in her honour, at the request of Sharon’s family.
“I will be showcasing a collection of photographs that beautifully capture the essence of authenticity and reality, in the hope that they inspire people to embrace their bodies with love and appreciation, no matter what society says. In Sharon’s words, life is too short to not love what you do with it, and this applies to our own self worth and confidence too”, Hannah explains.
The event will allow people to step into a world where all shapes, sizes, and identities are celebrated with open arms, with each image telling a powerful story of self-acceptance, diversity and strength, direct from the subject themselves.
Hannah said “the evening of empowerment and inspiration will leave you feeling uplifted and ready to conquer the world with confidence. You will have the opportunity to take part in tailor made workshops, be entertained by live music from Lex Gibbon and hear from special guests who have walked the path of self-love and body acceptance; I hope this will inspire you to start or continue your own journey of self-discovery and love.”
Everyone is welcome to come as they are, to bring their friends and family, and immerse themselves in an evening of acceptance, joy, and empowerment that will leave them feeling inspired and ready to embrace their beautiful self!
The event is at 7.00pm on Thursday 14th March at Library Bar, Aylesbury, HP20 2RN.
Tickets are available online (a small booking fee applies) and can be found here.
Tickets include entry, welcome gift, programme and drink on arrival.
Recommend age 12+ (photos do show nudity in places).
Taliban’s Media Restrictions Continue: Photography a ‘Major Sin,’ Women’s Phone Calls Deemed Moral Corruption
Taliban, seeking extensive restrictions against media outlets, this time have labeled photography and videography as a “major sin.” A senior official of the Taliban’s Department of Invitation and Guidance from the Ministry of Propagation for Virtue and Prevention of Vice stated that media outlets must refrain from photography. He mentioned that many journalists have “corrupt minds.” Concurrently, Taliban security commanders in Khost province have warned media outlets that if they facilitate phone contact for girls with the media, they will be summoned and interrogated. This Taliban directive targets media outlets that have created conducive environments for girls’ education and social programs. Taliban security commanders in Khost province stated that some private media outlets are promoting moral corruption. However, the Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC) has described these Taliban actions as concerning.
Mohammad Hashem Shahid Waror, the Taliban’s Director of the Invitation and Guidance Department, stated during a seminar in Kabul: “Media employees, you too should grow beards and refrain from such actions. Do not spend all your time taking pictures. Indeed, taking pictures is a major sin.” He further stated, “Journalists almost have corrupt minds.”
This Taliban official has accused media outlets of distorting the world’s mindset against this group. He added, “When it comes to a quality statement, they distort it and only publish the part that seems negative, portraying it negatively to the world.”
Taliban’s Director of Invitation and Guidance Department had previously stated in response to assertions regarding the obligation of education for women and men in modern sciences, that the acquisition of modern sciences is not obligatory, and only the learning of Islamic sciences is obligatory for women and men.
This Taliban official deemed the eradication of neckties in Afghanistan obligatory. He stated, “The history of wearing neckties in Islam is clear. It’s a symbol of the Christians, its elimination is mandatory.”
This comes as earlier, Mullah Shirin Akhund, the Taliban governor in Kandahar province, instructed all governmental institutions in the province to refrain from taking photos and engaging in visual interviews with media outlets.
In a written directive, the Taliban official stated, “Upon receipt of this written directive, you are all ordered to refrain from taking photos and photography in your formal and informal gatherings, as the harm of these actions outweighs their benefits.”
In the latest development, the Taliban in Khost province have declared any phone contact of girls and women with radios and televisions in this province is prohibited. The Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC) has published a version of an official letter issued on Saturday, February 24, signed by Abdul Rashid Omari, the Taliban security commander in Khost province.
According to this Taliban notice, media officials in Khost province have been warned. According to this warning, if media outlets facilitate phone contact of girls with the media, they will be summoned and interrogated.
In this province, the Taliban consider the dissemination of school lessons and social programs involving girls as contributing to moral corruption. They stated, “Some private radios in Khost province contribute to moral corruption, with a prime example being the dissemination of school lessons or social programs where girls are prominently involved.”
While media oversight falls under the responsibility of the Taliban’s Information and Culture authorities, the security commanders of this group in Khost have commented on media educational programs contrary to the Taliban’s administrative protocols. They stated, “Through these educational and social programs, girls engage in unIslamic phone contacts with program facilitators during formal and informal hours, leading to societal moral corruption and violating Islamic principles.”
This Taliban action has stirred reactions from journalists and media-supporting entities. According to them, following their extensive prohibitions that restricted access to and free flow of information, the Taliban will now shut down visual and audio media outlets with their recent actions.
Meanwhile, Ahmad Qureshi, the executive director of the Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC), notes a discrepancy in the stance of Taliban spokespersons and other officials toward the media. According to him, Taliban spokespersons discuss modifications in the access to information law, awaiting the decree of Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of this group.
The Executive Director of the AFJC adds that the restrictions imposed on media reflect the internal polarization within different factions of the Taliban. He states that in some cases when female interviewees do not wear masks, media outlets become threatened by the Taliban. According to him, the Taliban have warned the owners of these outlets that repeating such actions will have dangerous consequences for them.
Mr. Qureshi comments on the recent statements by the Taliban, stating that this issue has raised serious concerns and affects the work of the media. He adds, “Women and men are entitled to equal rights under the law, and the law does not accept restrictions; however, by imposing restrictions, not only can they not work freely, but these restrictions also become problematic for the audience.”
The Executive Director of the Afghanistan Journalists Center emphasizes that Taliban restrictions cause media outlets to lose more audiences. He says, “The expectations that an audience has from a media outlet will not be met with Taliban restrictions. When media outlets face a shortage of audience, they do not have their intended effects. Overall, it harms the media themselves.”
Afghanistan Journalists Center has labeled the Taliban’s directive in Kandahar province as “illegal” and added that it will restrict freedom of speech.
Previously, the Taliban had also prohibited media from using images of humans and animals in their advertisements.
However, some Afghans argue that the Taliban fail to recognize poverty, unemployment, migration, and women’s exclusion from education, employment, and societal participation. They have forcibly seized government seats and now reduce all of Afghanistan’s challenges and crises to mere photography opportunities.
A pioneering photographer’s snowy street scenes soften the unruly 1890s city
Alfred Stieglitz has racked up an impressive roster of achievements as an artist-photographer.
[“Winter, Fifth Avenue,” 1893]
At the turn of the 20th century, Stieglitz helped make photography a respected art form, staging a successful show at Gramercy Park’s National Arts Club in 1902. He experimented with different photo technology and processes, and he furthered the careers of early photographers like Edward Steichen.
Steichen, along with Stieglitz, was a founding member of the Photo-Secession movement, which took a “’painterly’ approach to photographic image-making,” according to Artspace.
[“The Terminal,” 1893]
But the achievement I’m most impressed with is as an early Gotham street photographer.
Born in Hoboken in 1864 to German Jewish immigrant parents, he found his way to New York City in 1890 after studying the new medium of photography in 1880s Germany. During the next decade, Stieglitz “made New York City his central subject,” per the National Gallery of Art (NGA).
“He walked the streets with a handheld camera, which allowed for more spontaneity than a large camera mounted on a tripod. He concentrated, as he had in Europe, mainly on working-class scenes of daily life, albeit now conveyed with a greater immediacy,” continued the NGA.
[“The Flatiron,” 1903]
To achieve the pictorial quality he strived for, he made a point of photographing city scenes in snow and rain—which lent an Impressionist effect to his images and bathed gritty streets in a glowy or misty softness, explains the Art Institute of Chicago.
“Stieglitz soon realized that technical challenges other photographers largely shied away from, such as rain, snow, and low light, could be a boon to his picture-making,” states the NGA. “Although such conditions were difficult to work in, they helped unify compositions, softened the unruly city, and tied it to nature.”
[“Winter, New York,” 1898]
But harsh weather conditions didn’t obscure the austerity of New York’s streets. Viewing “Winter, Fifth Avenue” showcases the raw, difficult conditions the carriage driver is facing as he struggles his way up the avenue.
Conditions were raw for Stieglitz as well, who wrote in 1897 that capturing this image of the carriage driver required that he stand for three hours with his “hand camera” awaiting “the proper moment” to shoot.
“An Icy Night in New York,” from 1898 (below), appears to be a benign nocturnal park scene. But the trees flanking the sidewalk can be interpreted as symbols of a menacing and mysterious city.
Throughout his life, Stieglitz continued to photograph New York City, with an increasing focus on the older New York of his young adult years subsumed into the modern skyscraper city.
He captured the Flatiron building, ringed by snow-topped trees, in 1903. Like most New Yorkers, the completion of this 20-plus story structure on 23rd Street made a big impression on him.
“I suddenly saw the Flat-Iron Building as I had never seen it before,” he said, per the Art Institute of Chicago. “It looked, from where I stood, as if it were moving toward me like the bow of a monster ocean steamer, a picture of the new America which was in the making.”
[Self-portrait, 1886]
The city was changing, and Stieglitz was determined to capture the shift.
“My New York is the New York of transition—The Old gradually passing into the New. . . . The Spirit of that something that endears New York to one who really loves it—not for its outer attractions—but for its deepest worth—& significance. —The universal thing in it,” he wrote in 1920, via the Art Institute of Chicago.
By this time, Stieglitz had earned a name for himself as one of the most accomplished photographers of the impending Modernist age.
[“From ‘Room 3003’ – The Shelton, New York, Looking Northeast, 1927]
As Modernism dawned in the early 1900s, Stieglitz would switch his style to “a more straightforward depiction of quotidian life,” states the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrated by this East Side snow-topped tenement panorama above.
[Top image: National Gallery of Art; second image: Victoria & Albert Museum; third image: Art Institute of Chicago; fourth image: Victoria & Albert Museum; fifth image: Art Institute of Chicago; sixth image: Wikipedia; seventh image: Art Institute of Chicago]
Tags: Alfred Stieglitz Flatiron Building, Alfred Stieglitz New York City Street Photos, Alfred Stieglitz Snow Street Scenes of NYC, New York City in Snow 1890s, NYC Photos 1890s, Photo-Secession Alfred Stieglitz
Nostalgic photographs of British tourists during the golden era of package holidays
In the mid-20th century, the trend of jetting off to the Mediterranean for a holiday gained immense popularity among Brits seeking sun-soaked adventures at an affordable price. A captivating new book filled with Trevor Clark’s vintage photographs and published by Hoxton Mini Press transports readers back to that vibrant period.
Curated by Jake Clark with a foreword by Jan-Carlos Kucharek, The Package Holiday delves into a bygone era characterised by leisurely days by the hotel pool, refreshing drinks, and endless sunshine, all captured through Trevor Clark’s lens in Mallorca.
Mallorca, a prime destination of the time, enticed visitors with its warm climate, stunning shorelines, and lively culture. The advent of budget-friendly air travel in the 1960s and ’70s led to a tourism boom on the island, prompting the rapid development of hotels and resorts to accommodate the growing number of holidaymakers.
Clark, seizing the opportunity, opened a commercial studio in Mallorca during this period. Using Ektachrome film and a Hasselblad camera, he meticulously documented the leisure and luxury enjoyed by British tourists, adorned in brightly coloured speedos, slathered in factor two suncream, and lounging with a cocktail and cigarette by a chlorinated pool while the kids learn archery.
Jake Clark, an artist and lecturer with deep personal ties to Mallorca, curated his late father’s photographs as a tribute to the work and the epoch it represents. Reflecting on the collection, Jake views it as both a personal journey through memories of “sunburnt childhoods and boozy parents” and a broader exploration of travel’s evolution. He has spent over two decades narrowing down thousands of transparencies, selecting images that resonate with him and that he wishes to transform into paintings. His favourite? “There is an image of a waiter in a wood-panelled pool bar,” Jake tells Creative Boom. “The composition, people’s expressions and flash photography give it real atmosphere.”
The carefully chosen selection highlights the era’s iconic trends, from bold swimwear and minimal sun protection to poolside cocktails, capturing the playful and somewhat kitschy essence of a time when international travel became more accessible to all. Jake notes the irony in his father’s dedication to capturing these holiday scenes without ever taking such holidays himself, a testament to his commitment to his craft. “He was too busy working,” says Jake, explaining that his father’s photographs often graced the brochures of major travel companies like Thomas Cook.
Today, Mallorca and the package holiday scene have transformed significantly. Gone are the days when you could book a break via Teletext and enjoy a week’s escape for the price of a weekly food shop today, staying in the same skyrise hotel with nightly entertainment. In the 2020s, there’s a new emphasis on sustainable tourism that focuses on local culture and cuisine. Despite these changes, the core desire for a break from the ordinary, to explore new places and experiences, remains unchanged, simply reimagined for the modern traveller.
The Package Holiday: 1968—1985 is a nostalgic journey through a pivotal chapter in British travel history, celebrating the discovery of new destinations and the enduring pleasures of sun, sea, and sangria. Through this collection, Jake Clark not only reconnects with his father’s legacy but also shares a slice of history that continues to resonate with today’s travel culture, reminding us of the timeless allure of adventure and relaxation.
Dates Announced For Spring 2024 Alphamarine Photography Red Sea Workshop
The dates of Alphamarine Photography’s spring 2024 Red Sea photography workshop have been announced.
The event will be held from March 12 through March 19, 2024, and will be hosted at the Red Sea Diving Safari’s Marsa Shagra Village.
During the event, there will be eight classroom presentations hosted by acclaimed underwater photographers Phil and Anne Medcalf. Between them, they have over 50 years of diving experience and have been taking underwater images for over 30 years.
The classroom sessions will cover different aspects and technical knowledge of underwater photography, including:
- Composition
- How to use light in underwater photography.
- Exposure and how it affects your images.
Aside from the 45-minute talks, both Phil and Anne will be on hand for the eight days to field questions. In addition, they will give every workshop attendee at least one hour of one-on-one time.
You can find out more information about Alphamarine Photography here and Red Sea Diving Safari here.
20 Instant Photographers You Need to Know in 2024!
Instant film photography has existed as a medium for over 80 years and is as revered today as it was upon its inception. Edwin Land founded Polaroid in 1937, originally creating ski goggles and 3D glasses for the United States military. A simple question from his daughter about why she couldn’t see a photograph of herself immediately sparked an idea within Land. In 1947, Polaroid released the first instant camera, and changed film photography as we know it with the release of the Polaroid SX-70 camera in 1972.
Polaroid was an essential tool and inspiration for numerous artists such as Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Keith Haring. These artists took Polaroid and instant film to new heights, cementing its cultural impact throughout the 1970s and well into the new millennium. In the words of Edwin Land, “An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.” The rise of digital photography may have weakened Polaroid’s grip on the industry, but not on the hearts and minds of the photographic community.
Instant film continues to provide tangible evidence of fleeting moments, creating time capsules for our most treasured memories. It combines artistry and chemistry, to produce striking imagery that develops right in front of our eyes. Even though we know how the trick is done, we’re still delighted by its magic.
The photographers we’ve selected showcase the full spectrum of possibilities that instant film provides. While some have advanced degrees in photography or decades of experience in the field, others have only recently discovered (or rediscovered) the wonders of instant film. Their work ranges from traditional portraits and landscapes to experimental techniques and alternative processes. These trailblazing artists are continuing a long history of innovation and creativity that is synonymous with instant film.
The Instant Film Society would not exist without a deep-rooted love and reverence for instant film, but more importantly, it would not exist without the instant film community. Our goal is to continue to highlight not just the 20 photographers we’ve selected, but the instant film community as a whole. Whether you’ve attended PolaCon in person, or follow us online, the Instant Film Society is open to all instant film enthusiasts across the globe. And with that, please enjoy our list of 20 Instant Film Photographers You Need To Know In 2024.
-John Munoz of Instant Film Society
