The Americans
features Robert Robert Frank Frank
“Parade—Hoboken, New Jersey,” 1955.
This This months months topic, topic, identity, identity, is is inspired inspired by by Robert Robert Frank Frank and and his his series series “The “The Americans” Americans”
Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I've ever known.
identity. Issue 04
April/May 2018
CHOSEN TECHNIQUE: TOY CAMERAS
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CHOSEN TECHNIQUE: TOY CAMERAS
Robert Frank
The Americans
features
“Parade—Hoboken, New Jersey,” 1955.
This months topic, identity, is inspired by Robert Frank and his series “The Americans”
This issue explores the concept of Identity. What it means to us and how it is shaped.
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Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth. -Alan Watts
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identity
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Editors Note
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Editors Note
features
The Americans
Robert Frank
The question of identity boomed at the moment in history when stories needed to change, and when the language was no longer considered as given. The Postmodernism philosophy, in particular, dominates around the topic of identity and identity art. The question of the “I”, and issues around representation, self-representation, and the staging of the “I”, influenced artists of different movements and periods in Art history. From the Renaissance period, artists investigated the self through portraits, or through the representation of the unreachable body of the angels. With the development of the painting medium and the birth of the photography, creators moved inward and approached the painted surface as the record, as the documentation of the marks that the artist’s” I” leaves behind. With the birth of photography, and the development of technology, not to mention the civilization as a whole, the questions around the presentation of the “I”, and the construction of the self, became a dominating topic for artists, as well as theoreticians and philosophers.
“Parade—Hoboken, New Jersey,” 1955.
This months topic, identity, is inspired by Robert Frank and his series “The Americans”
In the contemporary society, the shared view around the topic of identity and the identity artworks seems to be the one that suggests that the identity is fluid and under constant construction. The search for the understanding of the world around us demands also for the subject to understand the place it holds and the different roles that need to be acted out. The idea that the identity is not fixed creates the sensation that this term is often linked to the search and the position of vulnerability, not to mention the rejection of the dominant roles that certain groups were placed in. This rejection of the principal roles was more than investigated before with female artists that helped with the development of feminism thoughts and ideas. Possibly the pioneer figure that played around the female identity was Cindy Sherman. Sherman presented a sustained, eloquent, and provocative exploration of the construction of contemporary identity and the nature of representation. Drawing from the unlimited supply of images from movies, TV, magazines, the Internet, and art history, Sherman captured herself in a range of appearances and personas. To create her photographs, the artist took on different roles of photographer, model, makeup artist, hairdresser, stylist, and wardrobe mistress, and created an intriguing world of different characters that rejected the stereotypical female roles. Exploring the roles and identities given to women, Sherman questioned the real, the artifice and fiction that label and restrict the freedom and the expression, and with her creations investigates the presentation of the self and the role-play that is often needed. It is very difficult to speak about the true identity or to investigate the different approaches to the presentation of the self that many artists engaged themselves and their work in. The variety of starting points and mechanisms used to investigate the identity in this article is only lightly touched upon. From the early Renaissance art to the Contemporary art of today, the artists investigated the self. The alter ego’s, the influence of the different dominating and restricted roles, were challenged by the artists today and also of the artists in the past. The existential questions will always shape and push the artist’s spirit forward. Always asking for freedom and self-expression, many different artists to follow will for sure engage in the research of the search for the self.
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CONTENTS Issue No. 7 April/May 2018
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Featured Content
CHOSEN TECHNIQUE: TOY CAMERAS
Featured Content
Technique
The Americans
Robert Frank
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Editors Note
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Future of Photography: Toy Cameras
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Toy Cameras Under $20
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Best Cameras for beginners
28
Awesomecameras: Joey
features
Challenge 42
Challenge Features
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The Americans, Robert Frank
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Issue No. 8 Challenge
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Portraits, Angélica García
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Film experimental, Laurence Demaison
16 18 20 33 34 36 38
“Parade—Hoboken, New Jersey,” 1955.
Challenge: Double Exposure
This months topic, identity, is inspired by Robert Frank and his series “The Americans”
Photography
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Atomic Punk, Berber Theunissen Work in Progress, Alexander Missen Intersections, David Goldblatt Hope Land, Adam Birkan Scanography, Whitney Justesen Women Crying, Anne Collier Experimental Portraits, Ellie Polston
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Robert Frank
The Americans
features
“Parade—Hoboken, New Jersey,” 1955.
This months topic, identity, is inspired by Robert Frank and his series “The Americans”
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features
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This influential photography book, first published in France in 1958, appears highly relevant today. These images are important because they challenged the notion that the American way was/is the best way. Some of the images are rough, grainy and dark. He wanted to capture moments rather than frame beautiful pictures. Frank’s images show class, wealth, poverty, race and especially loneliness.
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This is the photo book that redefined what a photo book could be — personal, poetic, real.
“Charleston, South Carolina,” 1955.
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A. Untitled, 1962 B. “Marilyn Dead, Massachusetts,” 1962
A. “Canal Street, New Orleans,” 1955
features
B. “Trolley, New Orleans,” 1955
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features
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Angélica García is a photographer and artist from Venezuela. This experimental photo series by Angélica García includes obscure photo manipulations of portraits. She used different effects like drops of water, blurred colors and distortions to achieve this obscure style.
CHOSEN TECHNIQUE: TOY CAMERAS
features
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features
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The photographic work of Laurence Demaison is exclusively constituted by self-portraits from 1993 to 2009. Since 2010 she occasionally uses mannequins or dolls. The used techniques - shot, development, print - are analogicals and realized by the author. No particular manipulation intervenes beyond the shot (except chemical inversion of films for some series).
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features
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technique
THE FUTURE OF FILM PHOTOGRAPHY: INSTANT TOY CAMERAS. The hashtag #filmisnotdead has over 1 million posts on Instagram, but #film leads the analog-love graduatory with 11.5 million posts, followed by #35mm – the most popular photographic film – with 2 million. If you’re wondering about the current and future health of film photography, hashtags, data and numbers may offer a little prediction. In the improbable but increasingly popular hybrid marriage between analog and digital, pixels and rolls, Lightroom and darkrooms, these numbers speak of a predictable, still potentially interesting trend. Clearly, film is not dead, but there have certainly been some concerns about the health of the industry, and consumers have felt an urgency to express their lasting commitment to the traditional format through mobile apps’ language. Despite the love, major photo companies have experienced harsh setbacks in film product sales – particularly in color – with a dramatic impact on production triggering a domino effect that has ultimately fallen on customers. “In the last 10 to 15 years, film photography made a transition, but this is not necessarily a general crisis in film photography,” Sally Bibawy, president of Lomography, writes in an email. “Especially [the] younger generation is looking for more creative and experimental ways within photography, as film photography enables them to influence their work in a more personal way.” With a strategic distribution that has turned to fashion boutiques and technology stores, Lomography, Polaroid and Fujifilm have won younger generations with the “old plastic toy camera.” “Those cameras have become widely popular over the course of the last few years, and the whole idea of shooting with a toy camera and taking artsy photographs has become very interesting to the younger demographic,” Liem says.
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“I like to be a little messy to allow beautiful action to happen, to explore something I hadn't really anticipated before” If the film’s resurgence related to instant and toy cameras draws mostly from amateur photographers who value “the accidental blurriness and happy mistakes of analog photographs,” as Bibawy suggests, then professional photographers might value an opposite approach, praising the pace of digital photography when it comes to their work flow. “I like to be a little messy to allow beautiful action to happen, to explore something I hadn't really anticipated before,” Finke says. “It’s a really cool creative place to be because I take a picture that I might not normally have considered at the time. And then to make the decision afterwards, I think that is really great too,” he admits, valuing the postproduction process in front of a computer as much as in a dark room.
FILM UNDER $20 Pentax IQZoom $3-$5
Yashica T4 $3-$5
Minolta AF BigFinder thermal $15
Ilford HP5 $12
Demikin 110 ďŹ sh eye $18-$20
Ilford XP2 $13
Split Cam $5 Pop Cam 4 lenses $4
technique
AWESOMECAMERAS BY JOEY READY
technique
Awesomecameras is a webside by Joey Ready dedicated to his love for film and cameras overall. He has a podcast, youtube channel and a blog where he talks about different film cameras. He goes out to shoot, based on a theme or challenge and then posts the result online.
Joey, along with his friend recommend the best toy cameras, compare them among each other and a lot of times shares cool finds on amazon or thrift stores for all photography lovers out there! He also has some videos for beginners where he talks about some of his camera recommendations for people who are just starting out as well as other pointers. He is a great example of experimenting with toy cameras and materials overall. Some of his expired film photos end up looking the best out of the whole series.
technique
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technique
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Robert Frank
This months topic, identity, is inspired by Robert Frank and his series “The Americans�