I'm not sure how Jason found time to put together a photography book, in between walking the Gambia with a large format camera and going on a 50,000 mile round-the-world assignment, but... he has and "
Makasutu - Mecca in the Forest" looks fabulous.
Read about the project.
Buy the book.
Ismaila Denba, Gambian boat captain
It is 70 years ago today that Winston Churchill made his famous pronouncement in the House of Commons: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
Of his famous session with the PM, Karsh said "My portrait of Winston Churchill changed my life. I knew after I had taken it that it was an important picture, but I could hardly have dreamed that it would become one of the most widely reproduced images in the history of photography. In 1941, Churchill visited first Washington and then Ottawa. The Prime Minister, Mackenzie King, invited me to be present. After the electrifying speech, I waited in the Speaker's Chamber where, the evening before, I had set up my lights and camera. The Prime Minister, arm-in-arm with Churchill and followed by his entourage, started to lead him into the room. I switched on my floodlights; a surprised Churchill growled, "What's this, what's this?" No one had the courage to explain. I timorously stepped forward and said, "Sir, I hope I will be fortunate enough to make a portrait worthy of this historic occasion." He glanced at me and demanded, "Why was I not told?" When his entourage began to laugh, this hardly helped matters for me. Churchill lit a fresh cigar, puffed at it with a mischievous air, and then magnanimously relented. "You may take one." Churchill's cigar was ever present. I held out an ashtray, but he would not dispose of it. I went back to my camera and made sure that everything was all right technically. I waited; he continued to chomp vigorously at his cigar. I waited. Then I stepped toward him and, without premeditation, but ever so respectfully, I said, "Forgive me, sir," and plucked the cigar out of his mouth. By the time I got back to my camera, he looked so belligerent he could have devoured me. It was at that instant that I took the photograph."
Watch a reenactment of the making of the photograph on the
Karsh website.
Winston Churchill, 1941 © Yousuf Karsh
Dipping in to the Karsh archive to get some more prints digitized, I just cleaned up Warren Buffett. Buffett became a billionaire on paper in 1990, the year Karsh photographed him.
In October,
East Meets West Music, the official recording label of The Ravi Shankar Foundation, will release a remastered 'Raga: A Journey into the Soul of India'. Originally released in 1971, the film documents the life of the sitar master in the late 60's.
The Estate of Yousuf Karsh supported the Foundation with the use of this photograph of Shankar from 1966.
Read more /
Watch the trailer.
Joanna Steichen met Edward through Carl Sandburg in 1959 and Yousuf Karsh photographed them at their home in Connecticut in 1965. When they married, she was 27, he was 80. She died last month, at home in Montauk.
Edward and Joanna Steichen, 1965 © Yousuf Karsh
In conjunction with
ClampArt,
aCurator Magazine is honoured to publish a selection of photographs from
Dave Anderson's project 'One Block', a series about a single city block, post-Katrina, whose residents are attempting to rebuild their homes.
"'One Block', Anderson's third show at ClampArt, is a powerful body of work which follows the reconstruction of a single New Orleans block in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, delivering a compelling portrait of the storm's ongoing physical and psychological impact on the city and its residents. Using portraiture, still life, and abstract images, Anderson documents the evolution of both the street and its houses as residents literally rebuild their lives, exploring the very nature of community while testing its resilience.
Anderson's compassionate treatment of the neighborhood's straitened financial circumstances and its courageous reconstruction has drawn comparisons to coverage of the Great Depression by Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and other Farm Security Administration-funded photographers. Seventy years later, between the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the crippling recession, the stability and permanence of the American home is once again at stake." - ClampArt
'One Block' is exhibited at ClampArt through August 20th and the monograph is now available from
Aperture.
Herman Leonard had a breath-taking life, from his early days assisting Yousuf Karsh to his years spent in Paris photographing fashion to his nights in Harlem photographing jazz legends, and on throughout the years. I interviewed him for
ZOOZOOM about his fashion work, and felt lucky to be able to also chat with him about the famous sitting with Albert Einstein on which he assisted Karsh in 1948. I didn't meet Herman until he was well into his 80's but he behaved like a young man, enthusiastic about photography, forward-looking and creative with his archive. His
prints left damaged by Hurricane Katrina make for moving viewing.
"Quincy Jones once said, 'I used to tell cats that Herman Leonard did with his camera what we did with our instruments. Looking back across his career, I'm even more certain of the comparison: Herman's camera tells the truth, and makes it swing. Musicians loved to see him around. No surprise; he made us look good.'"
Herman Leonard, 1923 - 2010 © Yousuf Karsh
Kate Simon has a photography exhibition opening in East Hampton, NY on August 21st.
Murphy and Dine looks like a gorgeous, big space; I'm not sure what else Kate is showing, she has a wide variety of legendary subjects, but I'm assuming there will be some of her fab photos of William Burroughs.
MaD Wainscott, 39 Industrial Road - by East Hampton Airport
© Kate Simon
Opening at
Project Space in Los Angeles this Thursday, August 12th, is a new exhibition of the work of aCurator favourite
Janette Beckman, curated by Jen DiSisto of
Art Duet.
"Janette Beckman's photography exhibition marks the third artist
installment at Project Space. Beckman culls works from her time in
London during the punk era through the hip-hop decade in New York and
Los Angeles. The show will feature artifacts and photographs of
musicians, their fans and youth culture."
LL Cool J © Janette Beckman.Rocks
"My ongoing body of work, 'Still Points in a Turning World', explores our universal cross-cultural truths: the importance of family, community, ritual and the amazing diversity of its expression.
My earliest memories are of spinning a globe, always drawn to the last mysterious corners of the world. Photographing the people, festivals and sacred sites in the tribal areas of Asia, my passion is to visually capture the rituals that define our lives and to create images that explore our human connections as they are formed. This series is from my travels in the Winter of 2010 to Southern Rajasthan & Gujarat exploring the tribal cultures of the Rabaris, Garasias, Bhils, Wadha and the reclusive Jats. Highlights of the trip were visiting villages where the traditions of different millennia co-exist side by side and the Baneshwar Mela where the tribal Bhil women performed early morning bathing rituals.
My work is interpretive in nature. The photograph is the first step in the process. My technique often involves creating imagery using the invisible infrared light spectrum. I shot infrared film for many years. Now, I use a digital camera converted to infrared and the digital darkroom to create the split-toned imagery. It adds an element of mystery when creating the work, which, I feel, suits the subject matter and the timeless quality of the images.
The differences between our many world cultures are fading away. We all lose when ancient skills and visionary wisdom are forgotten. As a 'visual archeologist', photography has become my way to honor and celebrate an existence that may soon vanish and what it is that makes a people unique. I believe that sharing these stories and rituals can have a positive impact by providing a window on our common humanity." -
Terri Gold, July 2010
View the magazine photo feature.Gujarati Shepherd © Terri Gold
