Underdogs issue 6

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DOGS photography magazine / issue_6

Davide De Martino Rhi Ellis Steve Ferrier Courtney Hibberd Panagiota Karagiorgou Fabien Le Coq Daniele Pilenga JM RamĂ­rez-Suassi Denis Shelby

Curator/Designer/Editor: Isa Gelb Cover & back cover: Courtney Hibberd All images and text published in Underdogs are the sole property of the featured photographers.

NO image can be reproduced, edited, copied or distributed without the express written permission of its legal owner.

NO part of the publication may be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the publisher.

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In 2007, Alec Soth wrote a blog post titled “Where are the great pictures on Flickr?” (alecsothblog.wordpress.com/2007/08/08/where-are-the-great-pictures-on-flickr/).

It was a relatively brief post, consisting mostly of a provocative quote from Stephen Shore (“I went on to Flickr and it was just thousands of pieces of shit, and I just couldn’t believe it”) and an excerpt from an essay by Bill Jay on the odds against photographers and their works achieving fame.

Entering into a dialogue with those statements, Soth expressed his belief that “great pictures” exist on Flickr, but are not necessarily accessible to the public. (For example, there may be one or two in a “brutal” group like “Catchy Colors,” which included 36,091 members at the time.)

Soth concluded his post by posing the question: “Tell me, where are the great pictures on Flickr?” He received over 300 comments within a span of two months.

Some commenters answered Soth’s question directly, providing links to the photostreams or groups they thought featured “great pictures.”

Other commenters did not attempt to provide examples of “great pictures” on Flickr, but instead took a critical view of both Shore’s remark and Soth’s question. Many commenters dismissed Shore’s remark as not meriting attention due to being too harsh and overbroad.

A few commenters questioned the premise that one should expect to find “great pictures” on Flickr.

A more aggressive response was to turn the question back on Shore and Soth—who are both widely considered to be fine art photographers—by asking “Where are the great pictures in the museum?” or making statements such as “I went into MoMA, and it was just thousands of pieces of shit. . . .” Addressing the relativity of “great pictures” on a more “meta” level, one commenter wondered what Shore would make of the Flickr group created to collect photographs reminiscent of his work, simply titled “Stephen Shore.”

An interesting epilogue to this discussion is that in 2010, Soth eventually created a Flickr account (www.flickr.com/photos/alecsoth) and a group, “Alec Soth's 'From Here to There' Flickr Project” (www.flickr.com/groups/from-here-to-there/), in which he gave the public four photo assignments and selected winners at the end of each of them.

The distinctions between what make some photographs more desirable than others are fascinating to me. For my part, I am an admirer of Soth's work, and I cannot say that the “From Here to There” project closed the gap between his photographs and those of the contributors. That being said, the difference between them may be a fine line.

My personal opinion is that although not every photograph is a “great picture,” a diversity of persons can create “great pictures.” Even photographers who post to Flickr.

Readers of this Underdogs Issue 6—and even Mr. Soth—can find such pictures right here.

John Koch www.flickr.com/photos/orphotographer/

Isa Gelb www.flickr.com/photos/isagelb/ punkroyaltiger.tumblr.com/

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DAvID DE MARTINO

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DAvIDE DE MARTINO Sestri Levante / Italy www.flickr.com/photos/131324114@N08/ dedeselfotografie.tumblr.com davidedemartino.tumblr.com

HIS CAMERAS Contax G1, Contax TVS - TVS III Leica Minilux 35/70 - 40mm Nikon Ti35, Canon A1, Canon AE1 Program Olympus Mju and many other point & shoot.

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RHI ELLIS

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RHI ELLIS London / UK www.rhi-ellis.com www.ickr.com/photos/rhi-ellis/ instagram: rhi__ellis

HER CAMERAS

Various film cameras

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STEvE FERRIER

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STEvE FERRIER London / UK stuconflo.tumblr.com/ www.flickr.com/photos/stuconflo/

HIS CAMERAS Mostly: Mamiya 7ii But also: Contax G2, Contax T3

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COuRTNEy HIBBERD

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COuRTNEy HIBBERD Perth / Western Australia courtneyhibberd.com www.ickr.com/photos/caughtkneeh/ courtneyhibberd.tumblr.com

HIS CAMERAS Mamiya 6 & canon 5D II

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PANAGIOTA KARAGIORGOu

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PANAGIOTA KARAGIORGOu Grevena / Greece www.ickr.com/photos/prunak/ prunak.tumblr.com

HER CAMERAS As for the cameras, i started with an Olympus digital 800 but now i use a Nikon D3200 and a Mamiya ZE-2.

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FABIEN LE COq

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FABIEN LE COq Nantes / France lecoqfabien.tumblr.com/ www.ickr.com/photos/lecoqfabien/

HIS CAMERAS Canon 60d and Zenit-E for black and white

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DANIELE PILENGA 41

We see what we can see. Usually.

We see what we wanna see. Always.

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DANIELE PILENGA Caravaggio / Italy www.ickr.com/photos/im_from_caravaggio/ im-from-caravaggio.tumblr.com/

HIS CAMERAS

Nikon F60, Praktica MTL3, Zenit 12xp

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JM RAMíREz-SuASSI

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JM RAMĂ­REz-SuASSI Madrid / Spain http://suassi.tumblr.com/ http://www.ramirezsuassi.com/

HIS CAMERA Fuji X100 and Fuji GF670

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DENIS SHELBy

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DENIS SHELBy Amsterdam / Netherlands denisshelby.tumblr.com/ paperbulletsclub.tumblr.com/

HIS CAMERAS Camera : Nikon D7000 Lenses : 50mm prime and 35mm prime

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MANy THANKS TO DAVIDE DE MARTINO www.flickr.com/photos/131324114@N08/ dedeselfotografie.tumblr.com davidedemartino.tumblr.com cargocollective.com/dedesel soundcloud.com/dedeselwa

RHI ELLIS www.rhi-ellis.com www.flickr.com/photos/rhi-ellis/ instagram: rhi__ellis

STEVE FERRIER stuconflo.tumblr.com/ www.flickr.com/photos/stuconflo/

COURTNEY HIBBERD courtneyhibberd.com www.flickr.com/photos/caughtkneeh/ courtneyhibberd.tumblr.com

PANAGIOTA KARAGIORGOU www.flickr.com/photos/prunak/ prunak.tumblr.com

FABIEN LE COQ lecoqfabien.tumblr.com/ www.flickr.com/photos/lecoqfabien/

DANIELE PILENGA www.flickr.com/photos/im_from_caravaggio/ im-from-caravaggio.tumblr.com/

JM RAMÍREZ-SUASSI suassi.tumblr.com/ www.ramirezsuassi.com/

DENIS SHELBY denisshelby.tumblr.com/ paperbulletsclub.tumblr.com/

Next issue January 2016

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