Keep Yer Coins

I came across this photo on Peter Gowland’s webiste .  I understand the strangeness of it, but it’s still completely bizarre!  I’ve looked at it again and again, and it always has that striking strangeness.

The Psychoanalytic Framework of Looking

In order to understand the act of looking as socially structured, we must first embrace some concepts of psychoanalysis that relate to the constitution of human sexuality in childhood.  The first concept, Fetishism, is known to all of us and our understanding of it is not far from Freud’s theory.  A second notion is Lacan’s mirror stage as a formative function of the I.  At this point, it is too early to jump to an explanation of these concepts, but I will resume with their theoretical considerations further on in this essay.  We will see how Freud’s idea of Fetishism, influences scopophilic desire and voyeuristic tendencies in adulthood, and how Fetishism and the Fetish can be expanded into the realm of photography and film to understand the psychological and sociological processes of looking which occur in the spectacular apparatus, but also how these two types of media have been used to reflect upon it’s own condition.  Furthermore, we will see how Lacan’s “mirror stage” can be used to understand subconscious processes of spectatorship in the cinematographic spectacle through ideas of desire, sexuality and identity.  After this has been laid out, I will conduct an analysis of Canadian artist Michael Snow’s work Powers of Two, and present considerations on how the gaze and the notion of spectatorship work in classical Hollywood film, taking Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window as an example.

» Read the rest of this entry «

Subverting Emic and Etic Perspectives in a Commodified and Central Cultural Apparatus.

On Cultural Exchange and Global Markets.

Division and bipolarity are not new to humanity. In the twentieth century only, we have experienced various forms, such as axis and allies, democracy and communism, east and west and Pictorialism and formalism. Today, these divisions seem to have vanished, as if the line that separated these diverse but recurrent opposites has been blurred by globalization and cultural migration. But to what extent have these divisions been obscured? This essay attempts to analyze the current situation of the cultural apparatus in the global context. To start with, we need to understand the world in terms of Centre and Periphery.
Cultural centers such as London, New York, Copenhagen and Berlin are usually referred to as cosmopolitan and multicultural. Between these two terms there is a very small difference yet very important. Two differences can be distinguished here: the first one relates merely to people from different territories, the second, to alien cultures and ethnic groups integrated within a society. I would like to leave ethnicity aside, and take the term culture and society for the purpose of this essay.
Let’s take London as a case study. In this city we find various cultures.
But can we say London is multicultural, merely cosmopolitan or both? If we were to make a culture-geographical map of London, following the line of the psycho-geographical maps that the Situationists constructed, we could clearly map different territories for different cultures in the city. The most evident differences could be drawn in the periphery. In the center, we would find a multicultural pastiche or hybridization, closer to what is considered as English culture. The main cultural institutions are found in the center, and cultural flow occurs from center –where the dominating cultural institutions are found- to the periphery. We can see cultural influence from the center in the periphery, and an adaption of the central ideas of culture. The center in turn, allows cultural difference of the periphery, but expects the periphery to adopt the center’s socio-cultural ways. This is a condition to exist within society and also have access to the center. The peripheral cultures are manifested in the center as well, but this manifestation occurs only in an academic level and through political interests.
In an analogy to the global village, this example comes as close as no other; the difference being, that the periphery remains territorially independent – although never culturally independent. Still, cultural flow happens from center to periphery and in order for the periphery to be taken as a form of culture, there must be an adoption of central ideals of culture. Otherwise, the periphery runs the risk of being considered as a lower form of culture, or even as an enemy of hegemonic culture.
This problem of cultural flow manifests in the periphery. In a way, it does the opposite in the center: it helps it’s citizens in accepting their hegemony in the world, allowing an easier understanding of the peripheral world, and reinforcing the idea that “they are not so different after all”.
In the case of Latin America, this unidirectional cultural flow has interrupted the process of cultural identity formation that has been going on for only two hundred years. » Read the rest of this entry «

Who doesn’t want one of these… if film was cheaper. The later models have a sonar focusing system which allows you to focus in complete darkness (?? what for ??).

The representative of Granada addresses the Conference.

I spend my morning watching the proceedings of the COP15 through a live webcast.  I made a few screenshots out of which I really liked this one here.  In the back we have the representative of Granada addressing the conference.  I don’t know who the two persons in the front are, but they seemed to have noticed that they are on screen.

Photo by Weegee

I’ve always liked his photographs, Im not a sadist, although there is a derived pleasure when looking at images like this. I guess that’s what makes Weegee such a great photographer.

There is an exhibition at the Michael Hoppen Gallery in London running until the 9th of January 2010. I sure will have to make some time to go and see it this week. I was a bit confused when I read at their web page that they are including photographs by Sergei Vasiliev and Stan Healy. The first photographer that comes to my mind before these two is Enrique Mentinides.

photo by Enrique Mentinides

I ‘ve just erased a paragraph I wrote. In it I spoke about how art is governed by the market, etc, etc… Anyway, my point was that it would be good to see an exhibition of Weegee and Mentinides side by side.

We are all aware of the proceedings which are taking place in Copenhagen at the moment. If you want an insight, Sunny F.16 will have a photographer reporting from the inside of the COP15. To view the new story on the conference click here. Also, if you wish to recieve image updates on the conference I suggest you subscribe to Sunny F.16.

The photographer making this possible is Tomas Cochello, I suggest you have a look at his work.

I have started an independent blog on photography with my friend Lorenzo Durantini.  He is both a photographer and writer, and most of the time we share our views on art & photography.

We intend to create a forum blog where we can review and comment on what we consider great fine art photography (and what we consider bad photography), and  readers can discuss the use and misuse of today’s most mainstream visual medium.

I give you, Sunny f.16 :

Pieter Hugo… he’s been around for some time, but only last year he managed to impress most of us with The Hyena & Other Men. An amazing series of photographs about the creolization between wilderness and urban, and the relation between man and other species.

His new book, Nollywood, is a mix of horrific characters from the film industry of Africa and reality. Some of his images were at the Paris Photo and he is currently exhibiting Nollywood at Galleria Extraspazio in Rome.

Hugo seems to be going in the direction of an amalgamation of visual, cultural and social elements which give a sense of the fantastic to the worlds he constructs, and at the same time documents.

Abdullahi Mohammed with Mainasara, Lagos, Nigeria 2007

This year the westPhoto event will be big.  With many guests from the photographic industry it will be a good chance to network and enjoy a new years/x-mas drink.

I will surely be there harassing academics and curators…

Oh, and the poster/eflyer is by me.

The time has come to get my fingers back on the keyboard.  I’ve managed to avoid typing all along the summer in London, which by the way, everybody knows the summer here has nothing to do with what the rest of the world knows it for.   » Read the rest of this entry «