FOCUS: Wessel

"I begin start to live in the world of those photographs"

FOCUS: "Moscow! Hello! Goodbye!" by Andreas Herzoug

"In the 20s, Egon Erwin Kisch, considered to be the creator of literary reportage, described Moscow as follows:…”orgy of contrast, Asian villages with American skyscraper houses, Tinker toy cars and limousine buses, baroque palaces and wooden shacks, street bazaars and shopping centers”. This description pretty much still applies. Maybe the city has become more brutal, more crowded, more hectic, more wealthy, more impoverished, more motorized, but also more modern, open, and more melancholic than ever before."

in here.

Andreas Herzoug's website.

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Castro Verde (Portugal), nuno vieira matos, 2007 (gelatin silver print)

FOCUS: "Stuff i Gotta Remember Not to Forget" by Darin Mickey

"The concept behind Darin Mickey’s photobook is relatively straightforward, in 2001 he began following his father around, documenting his life at work and at home. This photobook has developed into a desire by the photographer to understand what his father did as a salesman and who he was. Mickey created a broader narrative by including his father at home, and those things about home that might define a person. As an investigation into identity, it was directed at his subject, his fathers and indirectly it is about his own identity."
in PhotoBook

Maybe because I have a certain fascination with rovers that wander away from the glamour spotlight of the 'travelers', this photo book from Darin caught my attention. The reason I am suggesting it here is because the execution is remarkable. You can see the complete body of work in it's website (link below).

Darin's website

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Sanabria Lake (Castile and Léon), nuno vieira matos, 2007 (gelative silver print)

FOCUS: "Seacoal" by Chris Killip

"During an intermittent period of fourteen months spanning 1983 and 1984, Chris Killip photographed a small hardworking, but tight-knit community, located on the Northeastern coast of the United Kingdom. His subject is the families and individuals who were making their living collecting and selling the coal found on the shore line of this shore line. The coal that is found was called seacoal as thought to be coal arising from the sea. Killip’s project lay dormant until recently resurrected and developed into a published photobook."
in The Photo Book

Killip's website
To buy the book

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Sanabria Lake (Castile and Léon), nuno vieira matos, 2007 (gelative silver print)

FOCUS: "Preppers" by Emil Hartvig

"Emil Hartvig, a documentary/art photographer based in Copenhagen, recently returned from the Midwest where he photographed ‘preppers’ in their homes and surrounds.  Preppers are those who are actively preparing for the end of the world—for society as we know it to collapse. These men, women and children study survival techniques as well as store weapons, ammunition and food in order to ready themselves for the end of modern society. They have varying beliefs on how the world will end including nuclear war, terrorism, natural disasters and/or economic collapse."
in Feature Shot

Theories of conspiracy can be seen as a legacy of the cold war, and these 'preppers' are just what is left of the paranoia that governments used as a major resource to control and repress the people. This body of work looks to me as an european perspective of these tribes of scared libertarians (US meaning). Personally, I get scared with these folks.

Emil's website

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Aveiro (Portugal), nuno vieira matos, 2007 (gelatine silver print)

FOCUS: "Shadow of the Condor" by João Pina

"In 1975, at the height of the cold war, six Latin American countries ruled by right wing military dictatorships created Operation Condor, a secret military plan to eliminate their political opponents. This plan which carried out over 3 years ending in 1978, resulted in “extrajudicial executions” of at least 60.000 people, largely young leftist youths inspired the Cuban revolution and its role models like Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.

Although Condor has long since ended, many relatives of the victims still don’t know what happened to their loved ones, and the majority of the of those responsible for their deaths and disappearances have never been brought to justice."
in Emphas.is

I remember the first book from João I had the pleasure to see, a book about the opponents of the portuguese authoritarian regime in Portugal that were imprisoned and tortured. A wonderful book dealing with something that I value much: memory. Now I see João facing the same challenge but with the ones that suffered from the dictatorships in South America. João had the good idea of getting crowdfunds for the project that was lay down in 3 phases. I had the opportunity and pleasure of backing João's project in the first 2 phases that were already concluded. Now, João is raising crowdfunds for the 3rd and last phase and I've already donated. Memory must be kept and the lessons must be embedded in our culture.

Please back João's project.

A detail a bathroom of Londres 38, a former clandestine detention and torture center during the miitary dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in downtown Santiago de Chile.

FOCUS: Fish-Work: The Bering Sea, by Corey Arnold

Corey Arnold, 1976, USA, is an Alaskan commercial fisherman as well as a documentary photographer. He received a BFA in photography at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. In 2011 he released the book Fish-Work: The Bering Sea which includes images that were made between 2003 and 2010 while he was working as a deckhand on the Bering Sea crabber f/v Rollo. (here)

Corey Arnold's website.

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Bragança (Portugal), nuno vieira matos, 2007 (gelative silver print)

Interior

Untitled, Nuno Vieira Matos, 2010 (polaroid) – click to enlarge

EROS: Rudolf Schneider-Rohan

Study, Rudolf Schneider-Rohan 1930

Interior

Untitled, Nuno Vieira Matos, 2010 (polaroid) – click to enlarge

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Baltimore, MD (USA), Nuno Vieira Matos, 2007 (gelatine silver print) – click to enlarge

FOCUS: A Wide View of a Hellish World, by Bruce Jackson

Using a Widelux (panoramic camera that makes 24 x 59 mm negatives), Bruce sarted to take photographs of an Arkansas prison which he described as "hell in Arkansas". Some of those pictures can be seen here.

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Baltimore, MD (USA), Nuno Vieira Matos, 2007 (gelatine silver print) – click to enlarge

Goodbye Gérard

Gérard Castello-Lopes, one of the best known Portuguese photographers died yesterday in Paris. Thanks to him, we now have a good illustration of the 50s in Portugal instead of the regime approved pictures. Some people called him the Portuguese Cartier-Breson. I prefer to say that Castello-Lopes was able to bring an European style to our endogenous country.

Thank you Gérard.

Away

Due to some projects happening in simultaneous requiring my full effort I've paused posting here. However, please be informed that the return is imminent.

Cheers

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Baltimore, MD (USA), Nuno Vieira Matos, 2007 (gelatine silver print) – click to enlarge

motion pictures: Bruce Gilden

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Baltimore, MD (USA), Nuno Vieira Matos, 2007 (gelatine silver print) – click to enlarge

motion pictures

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Baltimore, MD (USA), Nuno Vieira Matos, 2007 (gelatine silver print) – click to enlarge