Weekly post Dorthea Lange by Alli

Dorthea Lange (1895 – 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist who was most known for her photograph Migrant Mother, which is the first image shown here. She worked during the depression era for the Farm Security Administration, formally known as Resettlement Administration, which was established to document the living conditions of thousands of farmworkers profoundly affected by the economic conditions of the times. Migrant Mother is a photograph composed of a woman and three children filling the entire frame. The woman is placed in the center of the frame looking off in the distance while holding a sleeping baby. Her face appears worried, there is a bit of a frown in her face, and with her right hand she is holding or possibly slightly pinching the side of her face. On either side of her are two little boys who are leaning on her shoulders with their backs turned to the camera and hiding their faces. Dorthea Lange had approached this woman while she was working on an assignment for FSA. She was traveling around central California photographing migrant workers. While driving one day she passed a sign that read “Pea Pickers Camp”. She was already completed with her assignment and although she was compelled to visit this site she did not want to. After driving 20 miles Lange decided to follow her instinct and turn around to visit the camp. When Lange arrived she immediately saw the woman and approached her. She did not approach this as she would traditionally. Instead, she was alone and she did not have a long conversation with the woman like she normally would with her subject. She spent 10 minutes photographing the woman and then left, not investigating any others that lived in this camp. She says that it was as if the woman had been waiting for her the entire time.

Weekly Post: Paula Luttringer

Paula Luttringer's The wailing of the Walls are photographs that she took after revisiting areas in Argentina that were used as torture chambers during the "Dirty War", a political war where many people were kidnapped and tortured, something never to be seen again, known as the disappeared. She herself was kidnapped during this time while pregnant, and was separated from her child after birth.

Her photographs are a visceral black and white documentation of the places that were used to perform such atrocious acts. They have a haunting sense to them, that although the dirty war is long over, these remnants still remind us of the gruesome crimes that these places bore witness to. The decision to have these photos be in black and white to me enhances the documentary feel to them, as well as create a deserted feel to them.

Weekly post: Julie de Waroquier

Julie de Waroquier is a self-taught French photographer. She usually works with a square format and beautiful lighting. A lot of her photographs appear to be photo manipulations done in photoshop. I can feel a lot of emotion from the girls in each photograph. Here is part of her artist statement:

"With my pictures, I try to show the limits of the post-modern pessimism, reminding us the value and the depth of the human being. That is why, through symbolism, I explore the invisible world which resides inside human minds and hearts. Fears, desires, and passions.

Weekly, Thomas Ruff

In the summer of 1974, Ruff acquired his first camera and after attending an evening class in the basic techniques of photography he started to experiment, taking pictures similar to those he had seen in many amateur photography magazines. In his studio between 1981 and 1985 Ruff photographed 60 half-length portraits in the same manner. Passport-like images with the upper edge of the photograph situated just above the hair, even lighting, the subject between 20 and 25 years old, taken with a 9 x 12cm negative, and without motion blur due to flash.

Weekly Post: Vesselina Nikolaeva

Vesselina Nikolaeva's School nr. 7 is a documentary of the first generation after the Cold War in Bulgaria and depicts growing up in an adolescent society. The country is a place, where the old stereotypes have disappeared, but are not jet replaced by new ones. A place, where young people are facing a future of unlimited possibilities to build the life they want for themselves, but where proper guidance is lacking. Contrary to western societies that are characterized by continuity and where children can easily take their parents as an example to follow, in country like Bulgarian, having experienced dramatical changes after the downfall of Communism, this is impossible.

Weekley Blog: Bill Ray

Bill Ray was once a staff photographer for Life Magazine during the 60s.  During his work for Life Magazine he also documented The Hell Angels bikers as the second photo shows.  He documented celebrities of that time from Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Marilyn Monroe, and even the Kennedy's before John Kennedys assassination.  He also captured key moments in history like Marilyn Monroe singing happy birthday to President Kennedy.  Their were a lot of photographers for Life Magazine during the 60s that shined for the company and Bill Ray was in no means a slacker on his part.

Weekly Post By Jessica Fee: Juno Calypso

Juno Calypso did a series of self-portraits of her oppressed alter ego, featured on Featureshoot.com

London-based photographer Juno Calypso mutates into a horrifying caricature of feminine angst and exhaustion in her series Joyce I & II. Frequently compared to the ground-breaking work of Cindy Sherman, Calypso stages herself in a series of bizarre images saturated with pastel boredom and suffocating kitsch. Whether buried behind a desk in a twisted sense of 1980s independence or drowning in a plethora of pink beauty products, Joyce is both unresponsive and blank, staring at us with deadpan desperation. It is the juxtaposition of swallowing scenery and quiet emptiness that makes the work so unsettling. Calypso hints that the expectations of female perfection and beauty is not a history removed, but an ever-present burden to each new generation of women struggling forward.