Lomography

Lomography - History
In the early 1990s a couple of students discovered a small, enigmatic Russian camera, the Lomo Kompakt Automat, and created a new style of artistic experimental photography with their first unorthodox snapshot cavortings. The approach: taking as many photographs (Lomographs) as possible in the most impossible of situations possible and from the most unusual positions possible, and then having them developed as cheaply as possible. The result is a flood of authentic, colourful, crazy, off-the-wall, unfamiliar and often brilliant snapshots. These are mounted on panels to form a sea of thousands of Lomographs which regularly astonish viewers with their sheer colourfulness, diversity and power of expression. Ensuing major exhibitions in Moscow, New York, Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Havana, Zurich, Cologne, Madrid, Cairo, Tokyo and many other cities, where up to 100,000 Lomographs were shown at a time, established an international reputation for Lomography.

Lomography as a brand is definitely about film and analog photography, in particular, photos taken with lomo brand cameras.

I do lomography because it's refreshing to go back to the basics of photography. Just to capture a moment or subject and not have to worry about whether the focus, camera settings or the lighting is perfect. I just want to have fun and make a creative image.
Photography for many people is now just about camera specifications and camera features. They are too focused on having the best camera with the best lens and have forgotten what photography is really about. To save a memory and have fun while you do it!

preserving Lomo's concept:
10 lomo's golden rules
1.Take your camera everywhere you go.
2. Use it anytime, day and night.
3. Lomography does not interfere with your life, but is a part of it.
4. Try the shot from the hip.
5. Approach the objects of your "Lomographic desire" as close as possible.
6. Don't think.
7. Be fast.
8. You don't have to know beforehand what you captured (forget LCD).
9. Afterwards, either (forget LCD review).
10 Don't worry about any rules.

long exposure

Emotions Joy

the more, the better: multiexposure

Reference:

http://www.lomography.com/

http://www.lomography.com/photos

http://www.lomography.com/photos/tags/long%20exposure/popular

http://www.lomography.com/photos/tags/multiple%2520exposure/popular/281257

http://www.lomography.com/photos/tags/joy/popular/5858165

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNUHFJ5nLWw&feature=player_embedded

Slinkachu

Slinkachu has attracted a cult audience for his photographs of tiny, hand-painted figures in unlikely urban settings. The street artist’s tiny world exists for a brief moment before it is washed away, eaten by animals or trodden underfoot by the unsuspecting public. These tiny narratives are then photographed by the artist, providing evidence of their brief “lives”. Slinkachu’s recent book, Little People in the City (with an introduction by Will Self), has become a best seller.

Slinkachu leaving his usual urban setting for the first time and his photographs will show tiny day-trippers facing everyday dramas within the grounds of Belsay.

The “little people” project has seen dozens of the tiny characters left around the city in a variety of poses, with begging for coins twice their size, being senless by mini-muggers.

Slinkachu has inspired by graffiti artist Banksi and wants to hide his identity. Only admitting to being a 26 years old Londoner.

A lot of recent miniature-model-photography work that is similar to Slinkachu work done in the '80s and '90s, but Slinkachu had steps further and his work is really clever and fun.

Slinkachu work reminds me of the Italian artist Olivo Barbieri a photographer of urban environments .He is recognized for his innovative technique creating a miniature still photgrphy from actule landscape by simulating shallow depth of filed via the use of the til-shft lens photography.

Belsay Hall, Newcastle

Reference:

http://slinkachu.com/

http://little-people.blogspot.com/

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.21356

http://slinkachu.blogspot.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40878105@N00/

Gregory Crewdson

Is one of my favorite photographers the way he planned his scene and how he choose the perfect time to creat the magical moment in the image. Every detail of these images is meticulously planned and staged, in particular the lighting. In some instances, extra lighting and special effects such as artificial rain or dry ice are used to enhance a natural moment of twilight. In others, the effect of twilight is entirely artificially created.

All the images propose twilight as a poetic condition. It is a metaphor for, and backdrop to, uncanny events that momentarily transport actors from the homeliness and security of their suburban context. Crewdson has drawn inspiration from the town of Lee, Massachusetts, where his family has a cabin: it was the setting for his Natural Wonder series (1992-97), which fused the natural and domestic worlds in surreal, vividly colorful images.

In some of my I images I have taken in the twilight I achieved in some of my images without a crew it’s by me and my camera, its not easy to capture what I really want to be in my frame because its not been planned like Gregory Crewdson but I’m trying to capture the best twilight moment that I’m looking for to be in my frame.

“I think I always have been drawn to photography because I want to construct a perfect world. I want to try to create this moment that is separate from the chaos of my life, and to do that I think I create enormous disorder. And I like that craziness because I think that it creates almost a sort of neurotic energy on the set, and through that there is a moment of transportation. And in all my pictures what I am ultimately interested in is that moment of transcendence or transportation, where one is transported into another place, into a perfect, still world. Despite my compulsion to create this still world, it always meets up against the impossibility of doing so. So, I like the collision between this need for order and perfection and how it collides with a sense of the impossible. I like where possibility and impossibly meet.”
Gregory Crewdson, from an interview on Egg (pbs.org)

Gregory Crewdson

Untitled from the series 'Beneath the Roses'

2004

References

http://filminfocus.com/article/gregory_crewdson

http://www.artnet.com/awc/gregory-crewdson.html

http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/photography/past_exhns/twilight/crewdson/index.html

http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/29136-popup.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdfUCQjYPCQ

Stephen Shore

Stephen Shore (born 1947 in New York City) is an American photographer known for his deadpan images of banal scenes and objects in the United States, and for his pioneering use of color in art photography. Stephen Shore was interested in photography from an early age. Self-taught, he received a photographic darkroom kit at age six. He began to use a 35mm camera three years later and made his first color photographs. At ten he received a copy of Walker Evans's book, American Photographs, which influenced him greatly. His career began at the early age of fourteen, In 1972, for instance, the New York native embarked on a road trip that was to offer what he refers to as his “first view of America.” A decade’s worth of summer road trips followed, including the one that took Shore to Coronado Street. In 1974, Shore began photographing with an 8×10 view camera. He thinks in his photography how is the elements related to each other and the balance to his point that seems central to the picture .

Stephen Shore, U.S. 97, South of Klamath Falls, Oregon, July 21, 1973

Stephen Shore is one other photography’s seminal figures. A pioneer in the art of color photography, his large format photos articulated new directions in the 1970s. the point that is central to the picture and using it to determine where to point his camera to be very interesting and informative. I felt that it helped me to improve my view of thinking be for taking my image.

Reference"

http://passurlalune.net/category/loose-subjects/

http://www.doppelgangermagazine.com/march/chris_brayshaw_march.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/18/arts/design/18shor.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5090&en=1b90ff9e22350ca6&ex=1337140800&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

http://www.mocp.org/collections/permanent/shore_stephen.http://www.masters-of-photography.com/S/shore/shore.html

William Eggleston

William Eggleston was born in Memphis, Tennessee and raised in Sumner, Mississippi.

Eggleston's early photographic efforts were inspired by the work of Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank, and by French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson's, First photographing in black-and-white, Eggleston began experimenting with color in 1965 and 1966. color transparency film became his dominant medium in the later sixties. “The dye-transfer process resulted in some of Eggleston's most striking and famous work, such as his 1973 photograph entitled The Red Ceiling, of which Eggleston said, "The Red Ceiling is so powerful, that in fact I've never seen it reproduced on the page to my satisfaction. When you look at the dye it is like red blood that's wet on the wall.... A little red is usually enough, but to work with an entire red surface was a challenge."

In this the red ceiling I love the way the image is been taken and how the red color makes it powerful as Eggleston says to work with entire red surface was a challenge .Eggleston photography in this image is one of contemporary art photography its strong and powerful as the way he thought to take the ceiling on that time .

Reference

http://www.egglestontrust.com/

http://www.farewellkodachrome.com/?p=98

http://www.masters-of-photography.com/E/eggleston/eggleston.html

Feminism

Saudi feminism, a hotel for women only

The Luthan hotel in the north of Riyadh will try to put an end to the problems of Saudi women who travel and work in the country, and who always need special authorization to reserve a room in 'mixed' hotels. The rhythm of a woman's life in Saudi Arabia is marked by the permits that male figures of reference must approve before she can do anything, from driving a car to reserving a hotel room to working. The Luthan spa is a hotel for women only, the first of its kind in the Gulf and the only one where no special permissions will be necessary. The hotel emerged from the idea of a group of businesswomen who wanted to resolve some of the difficulties that Saudi women face. The chairperson of the board of partners is Princess Madawi Bint Mohammad Bin Abdullah, who says they have obtained approval from Sultan Bin Salman, secretary general of the Saudi tourism commission.

The current laws in Saudi Arabia do not allow 'mixing' among the sexes, and businesswomen who travel for their work often find themselves in unpleasant situations when the moment arrives to check in to a hotel. The hotels of the kingdom will accommodate only women who are accompanied by a male family member, or in possession of a written permit granted by a manager at their workplace, or by the police.

I really like the idea and it’s just a start of women’s problems issues with the special authorization like traveling as a women alone its must have an authorization from a father or brother, life women in Saudi Arabia is changing to the Good with King Abulla applauded a statement that women they will drive cars someday. Women then called for a dialogue to convince opponents of female driving to change their mis-conceptions. that the issue required patience, and he would not impose it against the will of the people. He noted that women drive on the kingdom's deserts and in rural areas. "I believe strongly in the rights of women", he said during his first TV interview adding: "I believe the day will come when women drive. In time, I believe it will be possible. And I believe patience is a virtue.

Women life in Saudi Arabia lives changing for the better in Saudi Arabia but slowly. The Ladies Kingdom has given several women the chance to start their own businesses, including an artist who has a small gallery. Women entrepreneurs will be able to rent office space in a soon toopen business center.

Reference

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fh52m

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWgmpUH0Mz8

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/hotels/2008-01-21-saudi-women_N.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7305549.stm

http://www.luthanspa.com/default.htm

http://www.allbusiness.com/mining/oil-gas-extraction-crude-petroleum-natural/584794-1.html

Modernism/post modernism

Modernism in Saudi Arabia :

The geographical region of the Arab land has frame the cultural background of the country relates to modernism of Arab world. The Arab world includes Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen, and spreads over the Middle East (or the Eastern Mediterranean. Most Arab countries gained their independence from British and French colonial rule between the end of World War II and the mid 1950s.

Modernists focused on innovative forms of expression and rejected realism and creating and shaping the world and Arab world (specifically art/architecture/things that make up culture). Modernism can be a way of thinking that supports the ability of humans to be able to change their environment in ways that make it more practical for their use. Although the political, economic and social environments since the 19th century have caused the decline of traditional arts in the Arab world It also rejects boundaries between high and "low" forms of art. By the middle of the 20th century, modern Arab had developed, based on Western aesthetics and norms; and by the end of the 20th century all Arab countries had extended modern art movements that reflected their cultural and artistic growth.

The Bicycle is a larger-than-life sculpture of a bicycle and is the most famous landmark in Jeddah

Example is The King Fahd Causeway is multiple dikes - bridge combination connecting Khobar, Saudi Arabia, and the island of Kingdom of Bahrain.1982

Example of a modernist building in Saudi Arabia is the Department of defence

Postmodernism: The modern is always historically at war with what comes immediately before it in this same sense, modern is always post-something. Postmodernism deals with the idea that if something is meaningless that it is not important to focus on finding meaning like how some gallerys end up in burnes empty rooms, it’s about having fun with creating it . Edge of Arabia, which opened on October 16th at the Brunei Gallery, school of Oriental and Africa Studies (SOAS) of the University of London, offers a unique opportunity to see the work of 17 contemporary artists from Saudi Arabia.

Installation art is an good example of post modern art.Ayman Yossri Daydban

The Choice photograph by Manal Al Dowayan

The Kingdom Tower in Riyadh is the tallest skyscraper in Saudi Arabia

Lionel Mill's film has unique access to Prince Saud bin Abdul Mohsen, one of the rulers of the rich, powerful and secretive Saudi royal family. This is a fascinating insight into the conflicts between tradition and modernity in one of the world's most conservative and autocratic countries.

References

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fh52m

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk_mvSp1xmA

http://worldslongestbridges.blogspot.com/2009/12/worlds-longest-bridges.html

http://susieofarabia.wordpress.com/2008/05/11/larger-than-life-bicycle-sculpture/

http://susieofarabia.wordpress.com/2008/11/14/skywatch-jeddah-sculpture/

http://www.saudiarabian.tv/?p=1140

http://www.menassat.com/?q=en/news-articles/5101-expressionism-saudi-fine-arts-its-time-document

http://www.thegarretboys.com/news/saudinews.htm

http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/nafas/articles/2003/modern_art_from_the_arab_world

http://www.galenfrysinger.com/saudi_arabia_modern_architecture.htm

http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/nafas/articles/2008/edge_of_arabia

http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/nafas/articles/2008/edge_of_arabia/photos/11_ayman_yossri_daydban

http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/nafas/articles/2008/edge_of_arabia/photos/08_manal_al_dowayan

http://www.djibnet.com/photo/saudi+arabia/kingdom-tower-1145676387.html

Introducing Postmodernism", by Richard Appignanesi (Author), Chris Garratt