Polliblog.

(via JordiGual)

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:11:56 -0500

(via JordiGual)

oh,sailor (via variationsonthewordslee p)

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 07:48:52 -0500

oh,sailor (via variationsonthewordslee p)

(via Margo Ovcharenko)

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:54:43 -0500

(via Margo Ovcharenko)

Went to Paris photo this weekend with 6 classmates in a crappy and way too big car, a pink cassette...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:52:06 -0500

Went to Paris photo this weekend with 6 classmates in a crappy and way too big car, a pink cassette player, a lot of food and even more redbull. We drove saturday at 2AM, so you can imagine us walking like zombies is Paris. When we got to the Louvre it was a real overload of photography, galleries and people. Wasn’t quite what I expected, but fun and inspiring anyway. One of the most inspiring photographers was Yumiko Utsu. I love the theatical, playfull way of photographing and the use of several layers like a collage.

YUMIKO UTSU

Born in Tokyo, 1978. Utsu was honoured the first prize of 26th HITOTSUBO award in 2006. Her works has been receiving a high praise through her solo exhibitions at magical, ARTROOM and Guardian Garden in Tokyo.

http://www.utsuyumiko.com - http://gptokyo.jp

Paris Photo

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:16:00 -0500

PARIS PHOTO 19-22 NOV. 2009

Click for more info. I’m definitely going, maybe see you there!

do NOT kill me

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:22:31 -0500

for not replying to submission mails just yet. I am terribly sorry and I will make it up to you. Promise.

via awkward family photos

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:20:22 -0500

via awkward family photos

184 (via leo postma)

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:29:59 -0500

184 (via leo postma)

Interview Erin Jane Nelson

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:02:00 -0400

I took a small interview with one of my favorites, Erin Jane Nelson. She studies photography in New York City, but is currently on an exchange in Sweden. Her photos are intimate, dreamy and sometimes a little weird. Erin Jane, we love you. So.. read, enjoy, get inspired, smile, take a cup of tea. Voila!

INTERVIEW WITH ERIN JANE NELSON BY LAUREN HILLEBRANDT

Who’s your favorite photographer

I get asked this a lot and it’s really hard for me to remember from day to day. There is different kind of work I like for different kinds of reasons. For instance, I love Lee Friedlander’s self portraits and shadow works, but much of his other photography annoys me. I love Gabriel Orozco’s photographs because he uses photos as little notes for his larger practice which is primarily sculpture. Sometimes, it’s just some weird little book of illustrative photographs that I like. One time I had this cultish meditation hippie book printed from the 70’s and it was all these huge full page grainy black and white pictures of faces and bodies in meditation and yoga positions. It was so so beautiful and looked like Ryan McGinley photos or something like that. So, in general, I’m more interested in photo work that is just simply seeing and not some big orchestration or production, like Gregory Crewdson or someone like that.

Where do you get your inspiration?

I read a lot. Well, not even that I’m reading for hours everyday, but when I read it’s not like brushing through a novel for fun, I am sitting there with furrowed eyebrows and a pencil taking notes and circling and writing in the margins. So, texts are a huge part of my thought process. I also really respond to drastic situations like being in a super-urban or super-rural or super-isolated place. Also: science, animals, food, movies, talking walks, riding my bike, not being able to sleep, waking up. The normal stuff, probably.

What do your photo’s say about you?

You’d have to ask someone else! Hah. I’m not sure. Whenever I meet someone who really has liked my photos for a while, I almost feel a little cheekish and nervous at first because I’m not sure if people realize that I’m not as serious or strange as my images (maybe I am, I don’t know…). But mostly, I try not to think about what the images say about me, but what the images are saying about the situations they are documenting. I hope people aren’t thinking about me as an author as much as they are thinking about the ideas within the images.

Your photo’s seem to be a document of your life: very intimate, unusual but daily looking situations, kind of like a diary. Is that the way you look at your photos, like a document of your life? Or are you creating a fiction life, more ideal from what it is in reality?

Well, I go to school for this stuff, can you believe it?! No, but actually this is a really good question. I have always been of the belief that the most sincere way to make work about a political or conceptual idea is to start within your everyday. A lot of times people will find a really estranged subject, something obscure that they feel a great deal of sentiment about and then they pursue the shit out of this other, seperate thing. For me, this process has never worked. I have to just be actively making images on my own account without rules and from there I can string together really sincere trends because I do have very strong ideas about gender, politics, psychology, etc. So, yes I think they are both: extremely diaristic, but also a really specific editing of my reality which ommits so much of the ugliness and banality of living in the 21st century that they do build a certain level of fiction.

You study in New York. What place outside America would you go to right now if I gave you some (or a lot of) money?

Well, surprise! I’ve been living in Sweden for the last several months on exchange for a semester in Malmö. Of course, this was just the best situation available for me. Scandinavia is so strange! I used to be fascinated with it as a kid (I did this huge project on Norway, for instance) but I’m glad I am experiencing first hand now because I’m over the fantasy. If I had to pick a new place to visit, it would be nearly impossible. I’m interested in New Zealand but only because they have a lot of farms and beautiful landscapes. I’m really into the idea of farms and open spaces right now. My list of worldy interests is impossible to begin to think about. But, I’d probably go to some extreme corner of the world rather than some cosmipolitan cultural center. I’m sick of those, to be honest.

Film or digital?

Well, when I started making pictures five years ago, I started with film. Only film. I still shoot with that same camera and have only changed my choice of film a couple times. I love my 35mm camera. it’s clunky and manual so I can really still feel the impact of taking a picture, it has a sound and a feel and a weight. I also have a digital slr, but I have only used it for a couple of pictures. I’m not oposed to digital but until someone literally forces me to change my equipment that has basically become my second arm, I’m sticking with film.

How do you start taking a picture? Are you searching for a certain feeling or thought?

I’ve been simultaneously super interested in science and art my whole life. I would keep notebooks as a kid with drawings, poems, and science experiments (like writing a description of the kind of clouds outside everyday). I was really in love with the idea of learning the whole darkroom and chemical process of photography which is how I learned in high school. We started with shoebox pinhole cameras and worked up to black and white 35mm film. My first projects with the medium were mostly scientific with the pinhole, playing with chemistry and different ways of creating positives etc. Once I got that out of my system, it just became a great tool for me. I don’t like the idea of “going shooting” I just like to have this little arsenal of my camera with me all the time. Maybe it’s still scientific, but more psychology than chemistry!

What would you like to accomplish (after your graduation)?

To be honest, lately I’ve been thinking of pursuing some of my other interests for a little while: science, ecology etc. Who knows what I’ll end up DOING but I don’t think I’ll be ready to step out the door and jump into some career path once I graduate. I’ve already accomplished a lot of things I never imagined I would with photography, so I’m going to continue letting the accomplishments come as surprises rather than as some pre-determined goal. Maybe I’d like to learn how to be an excellent gardener, who knows.

Thanks Erin Jane! www.erinjanenelson.com

Photo

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:23:12 -0400

via Aaron Gustafson -Lauren

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:53:00 -0400

via Aaron Gustafson

-Lauren

Fresh meat

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:45:00 -0400

While Rebecca is forcing me to tell something about myself since I am the new contributor for Polliblog, I’m having a sudden writers-block. But no worries, luckily there’s always Google that can tell me who I am.

Google Search: ‘Lauren Hillebrandt’

Nice to meet you, hope you’ll enjoy my posts. :)

-Lauren

www.laurenhillebrandt.com

Panl Award (dutch photographers)

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 06:25:00 -0400

Panl Award (dutch photographers):

De PANL website staat nu open voor deelname aan de 19de PANL Sony Alpha Awards. Uploaden van je werk kan na inloggen op de website van PANL bij Awards. Studenten kunnen alleen uploaden bij Student Work.

Hyères Photography Competition

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 06:23:00 -0400

Hyères Photography Competition:

Please find the call for entries for the next International Photography Competition of the Hyeres Festival. Submission deadline is November 15, 2009.

(via bububob)

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:04:01 -0400

(via bububob)

ONWARD '10 — ONWARD '10 - A Journey for Emerging Photographers - Juried Photography Exhibition by Project Basho | Call for Entries, Photography Competition for Emerging Photographers, Photo Contest

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:52:00 -0400

ONWARD '10 — ONWARD '10 - A Journey for Emerging Photographers - Juried Photography Exhibition by Project Basho | Call for Entries, Photography Competition for Emerging Photographers, Photo Contest:

Project Basho is pleased to announce ONWARD ‘10, an annual juried photography competition exclusively featuring the work of new and emerging photographers with unique vision and talent. The theme for ONWARD is open, and any photographic medium from historical processes, traditional silver prints, chromogenic prints to digital prints can be submitted for consideration.

Introduction : No Culture Icons Photo

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:52:00 -0400

Introduction : No Culture Icons Photo:

No Culture Icons is an online photography collective, showcasing the best in new up and coming photographers from around the world.

wake up (via gidiculus)

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:15:01 -0400

wake up (via gidiculus)

Laina Briedis loves red nail polish. Who is the girl in the...

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:12:00 -0400

Laina Briedis loves red nail polish.

Who is the girl in the picture and was she very uncomfortable during this pose?
Haha! The girl in the picture is my friend Sara, and she was actually totally comfortable as far as I know- sometimes she bends that way when she’s about to put up her hair so I’m sure she’s used to it :)

Who are you and do you like red nail polish?
My name’s Laina (I’m a strange tree-creature from outer space), and as a matter of fact I do like red nail polish! I actually have it on my toes as I write this :D

Why do you like photography?
There are so so many reasons, my goodness! It’s a way to preserve past feelings and memories in something infinite, concrete and beautiful- and it is a wonderful means of expressing myself. Most of the reasons why I love it can’t be explained adequately with words, though.

Who are your favorite photographers?
There are so so many artists and photographer’s whose work I love- but I’ll try to narrow it down and give you a couple links:

margaretdurow.com/
www.flickr.com/photos/jessgough/
www.flickr.com/photos/ifyoubuildit/
www.linascheynius.com/
www.flickr.com/photos/cengman/
www.flickr.com/photos/half_ghost/
www.flickr.com/photos/littlegoldpoppy/
www.flickr.com/photos/joshwhitelaw/
www.atlantictreefox.com/

Do you have certain photography rituals?
Mhmm! I’m suuuuch a creature of habit. I have a whole bunch of different cameras but I tend to stick to one at time- I’ll use it for awhile and then switch again, always making my way back the original, haha (right now I’ve been mostly using my Nikon Nikkormat ftn). I’m the same way with film, my most current film obsession is Kodak High Definition 400, the versatility is wonderful and the film grain is the prefect combination of discreet and present. After I shoot (my pictures are usually taken on adventures!), I get my film processed and then scan the negatives or prints, depending if I’ve made prints or had them made, edit out distracting speckles / fix anything that needs fixin’- and that’s that! :)

Are you planning any cool projects at the moment?
I am planning colossal amounts of cool projects, but they’re still secrets!

Where will we find you in ten years from now if reality is not an option?
Reality is never an option! You’ll probably find me floating on a cloud or a rainbow with Pete Seeger playing my harp for all the woodland creatures below, taking all of my friends and family to Neverland via pixie dust, making magical breakfast in outer space or in an outer space cave, and conducting a rain orchestra on top of a lighthouse.

Joana Salta is pretty random. Who are you? I’m still...

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:10:00 -0400

Joana Salta is pretty random.

Who are you?
I’m still trying to figure that out and trying to find myself.

What did you have for breakfast?
Cereals and coffee with soy milk (I’m eating too much in the mornings)

What do you like about living in Switzerland?
What I like the most now is what I hated when I first moved here, i’m loving the peace and quiet! I also love the green parks and gardens and feral houses everywhere.

Who are the people in the picture and what made you press the button?
My friends Mafalda and Gabriel. I took that picture when I was still living in Portugal. Mafalda is living in London and she just came back for some holidays and the three of us got together after such a long time. We used to spent all our time together and we missed each other so much. They hugged after saying how they missed each other. It was such a honest hug that I had to ‘keep’ the moment.

It seems to me that you use your intuition a lot when it comes to photography, am I right about that or is this a typical ‘you see what you want to see’ situation?
Well I’m not a photographer and I don’t know much about photography… I literally take pictures of what I see… maybe when other people look at my pictures they see something completely different… I guess that’s the thing about pictures, you can actually see what you want to see.

Why do you like photography?
I started collecting cameras just because I loved them, I even loved them more taking pictures. At one point I started using all of them, and the feeling just started to grow. There are not many things I like more than the feeling of developing new pictures and seeing how they turned out. I guess is my therapy.

Who are your favorite photographers?
William Eggleston and Nan Goldin

Where will we find you in ten years from now if reality is not an option?
In the mountains living with cats and deers.