Category Archives: photography

Grotesque photography

The Grotesque in Photography. Coleman, A. D. Summit Books, 1977.

The death of Fakir Musafar led me to A. D. Coleman‘s study of the grotesque in photography.

How?

Like this: Charles Gatewood directed Fakir Musafar’s Dances Sacred and Profane, Gatewood also wrote Sidetripping (1975) which was praised by Coleman, which led me to Coleman’s book The Grotesque in Photography (above).

The grotesque is one of my favourite sensibilities.

I’d like to own this book. Can anyone tell me which photo is on the cover?

Introducing Anton Solomoukha and Icon of Erotic Art #53

Via Ponyxpress comes Anton Solomoukha

via vonneumannmachine.files.wordpress.com

Anton Solomoukha (born 1945, Kiev) is an Ukrainian painter and photographer, currently living in Paris, France. He graduated from the Fine Arts School of Kiev and left the USSR in 1978. His works are mostly neoclassicist; Sigmund Freud, eroticism and psychoanalysis are recurring themes in his works.

Introducing Mr.Fox: Darker Deeper

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYN5fB_k-uw]

Mr.Fox: Darker Deeper[1][2] is an Anglophone visual culture blog with a focus on transgressive black and white photographs founded in May 2008.

As of May 2009, its most recent entries included Deus Irae Psychedelico [3], Robert Gregory Griffeth [4] , Rik Garrett [5] , Laurie Lipton [6] , Simon Marsden [7] , Sanne Sannes [8] , Jeffrey Silverthorne [9] , Edward Donato [10]

As of May 2009, the blog was connected with Blind Pony, EDK, Fetishart, Indie Nudes, Medieval Art, Morbid Anatomy, Ofellabuta, SensOtheque, With the ghost and Woolgathersome.

RIP Helen Levitt (1913 – 2009)

poster in the city of Amsterdam: Helen Levitt In The Street by Jarr Geerligs

Helen Levitt exhibition poster photo by Jarr Geerligs

Helen Levitt (August 31, 1913 – March 29, 2009) was an American photographer. She was particularly noted for street photography around New York City. Street photography is connected to candid photography, both practices are becoming cumbersome in the internet era with regards to privacy.

Edward Steichen @130

The Pond-Moonlight

Edward Steichen (1879–1973) was a pictorialist American photographer, painter, and art gallery and museum curator, born in Luxembourg, Europe. He is known for such photos as The Pond-Moonlight.

Pictorialism was a photographic movement in vogue from around 1885 following the widespread introduction of the dry-plate process. It reached its height in the early years of the 20th century, and declined rapidly after 1914 after the widespread emergence of Modernism.

Crime scenes fake and true

“Half Prada” from High Fashion Crime Scenes.
(c) Melanie Pullen (in the public domain as long as the orignal author is credited)

I find Melanie Pullen‘s High Fashion Crime Scenes[1] photo series by E-L-I-S-E. Pullen is a thirtiesh American photographer noted for her series based on the reenactment of true crime scenes.

I decide to investigate.

The first thought that entered my mind is that obviously, Pullen is influenced by the aesthetics of French photographer Guy Bourdin [2], especially his take on the aestheticization of violence.

I continue searching.

A trip to the Tomorrow Museum (searching for Pullen/Jahsonic) brings Luc Sante‘s Evidence: NYPD Crime Scene Photographs: 1914- 1918.

I hear an echo of Weegee‘s work.

Can Pullen be classified as crime photography?

And then, the work of Ashley Hope![3] Her paintings are based on crime scene photographs of murdered women, exclusively. Transgressive.

A cemetery in Hoboken, Belgium

Cemetery of Montjuic

Montjuic cemetery in Barcelona (photo by Stefan Cermak)

My first conscious experience of liking cemetries comes from climbing Mont Juic in Barcelona and seeing what appeared from a distance as a high-rise city. In reality that high-rise city was a multi story cemetery.

Last week I visited the neighbouring cemetry from where I teach.

It looks something like this:

… and is rather smallish compared to the huge and worldwide known (to cemetry enthousiasts) Schoonselhof cemetry, the artist’s cemetry of Antwerp.

The pictures are of photos mounted on the graves, usually aureoled by oval frames. I like the washed-out spooky ones. One of the joys of photographing is photographing photographs. After Sherrie Levine: After After Edward Weston.

A cemetery in Hoboken, Belgium

Gratuitous nudity #16

The Naked Venus

The Naked Venus is a 1959 nudist film directed by American director Edgar G. Ulmer*. With Patricia Conelle, Don Roberts, Arianne Ulmer.

The current entry of gratuitous nudity does not even feature nudity … only hints at it (see innuendo). Can’t be careful enough these days! Ask the Undead Film Critic.

*Edgar G. Ulmer (1904 –1972) was an Austrian–American film director. He is best remembered for the movies The Black Cat (1934) and Detour (1945). These stylish and eccentric works have achieved cult status, but Ulmer’s other films remain relatively unknown.

What the Butler Saw in Düsseldorf

The butler visited Diana und Actaeon – Der verbotene Blick auf die Nacktheit with a fellow butler and a maid.

He was thrilled to see Étant donnés[1] by Marcel Duchamp. And he did not realize it also looked like this[2]. He saw the famous metal doll sculpture[3] by Hans Bellmer and Bad Boy by Eric Fischl. He saw the most beautiful penis in post-war photography, yes he meant the Robert Mapplethorpe one[4].

He saw and liked photographs[5] of the Linley Sambourne collection, paintings by French figuratist Jean Rustin [6], paintings by Michael Kirkham [7], his first viewing of the fauvist Erich Heckel [8], Phryne [9] by French academic cult painter Jean-Léon Gérôme, waxworks by Belgian sculptor Berlinde De Bruyckere [10], and paintings by Roland Delcol [11].

The butler was also very much taken by Johannes Hüppi [12]; his first viewing of his fave John Currin [13]; his first real Félix Vallotton; and a Lisa Yuskavage [14]. But not that one.

Butler wants you to know that the works he pointed to are for reference only and may not correspond to the works at the exhibition. He also wants you to know that some of the links may be NSFW.

Bettie Page (1923 – 2008)

Bettie Page, Bizarre nr. 14

If your interest goes just a little bit beyond vanilla sex, you’ve probably come across Bettie Page.

Bettie Page (April 22, 1923 – December 11, 2008) was an American model who became famous in the 1950s for her fetish modeling and pin-up photos, taken by Irving Klaw.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0Ynlp7sxZs]

American 2000s documentary

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysclVAOLOd8&]

Bettie’s Punishment

The whole of her is Icon of Erotic Art #38.