The Wall Street Journal has a nice commentary on Karl Blossfeldt and his place in the evolution of photography.

A key moment in photography’s change from a caterpillar into a butterfly was the 1928 publication of an eccentric book called “Urformen der Kunst” (Archetypal Forms of Art), assembled by a Berlin art-school instructor named Karl Blossfeldt. In thousands of austere, black-and-white, close-range photographs, Blossfeldt (1865-1932) used stripped-down leaves, stems, blossoms and pods as agents of transformation.

Couldn’t have said that any better…

Full Article on the Wall Street Journal

Another followup to the ongoing Ansel Adams “lost negatives” drama. Rich Norsigian claims he’s found some lost Ansel Adams negatives – he’s had them authenticated and appraised at $200 million… but who authenticated these? The Los Angeles Times has an interesting article explaining and pretty much validating my theory that people will do anything when they think they can get rich quick. He didn’t like what people were telling him, didn’t want to send them to a museum or other authority, so he assembled his own team of “paid experts”.

Alinder said it offended her that Norsigian’s motive now appeared to be money. “That was the end for me. I don’t think Mr. Norsigian is a bad person, but he wants so hard to believe this that he doesn’t see all the corners he’s bent.”

Norsigian responded through his attorney, Arnold Peter, whose Beverly Hills firm is helping him market prints priced at $7,500 and $1,500, with posters at $45. Norsigian offered Alinder a percentage of earnings from the negatives to serve as a consultant, Peter said, but she would not have been required to vouch for their authenticity. “He had basically hit a wall,” Peter said. “People would tell him these were Ansel Adams works but wouldn’t go on record, and she could help by opening doors, making introductions.”

Of course, anyone who understands what Ansel was all about will realize that the print was part of who Ansel was as an artist. How can prints made by an unknown photographer from questionable negatives be worth any more than the paper they’re printed on? This dude Rich Norsigian might consider stopping his goal of getting rich quick off of someone else’s legacy and get a real job.

Read the story on latimes.com

Herman Leonard, a photographer who created some of the most famous images of such jazz greats as Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and others, died Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. Mr. Leonard, 87, lived in New Orleans until Hurricane Katrina struck and destroyed much of his collection.

Article on NOLA.com

OregonLive.com has a wonderful interview today with documentary photographer Mary Ellen Mark.

Read on OregonLive.com

From the New York Times

The trip was shot by a National Geographic film crew for the NGChannel to air sometime in 2011. Makes me want to upgrade my cable package now…

Nicholas Nixon is probably best known for his series, The Brown Sisters which is a series of annual photos he took of his wife and her 3 sisters. Nixon is a very underated but accomplished photographer and this exhibition should be a good one.

Exhibition Details

SFGate has a cool writeup on the work of Czech eccentric Miroslav Tichy – one of my favorite obscure photographers.

Miroslav Tichy at SFGate

Steve McCurry on NPR

Some sad news from PDN. National Geographic photographer Wes Skiles died while on a shoot near Palm Beach, Fl. Cause of death is unknown, but it has been reported that Skiles was about to surface for more film, but was soon discovered unconscious on the ocean floor.

Some sad news, but how many people go out doing what they love? Skiles was 52.

Full story on PDN

Read the article at guardian.co.uk

He has no patience for long artist statements and paraphrases a colleague on the subject.

“If you have to write a story about a picture to get people to like it, you should be a writer not a painter.”

Read more:Warwick Beacon – Old fashioned print making Cranston resident does hands on photography

Photography remains another passion. An accomplished photographer whose work can be seen in the photo books Kenny Rogers’ America(1986) and Your Friends and Mine (1987), Rogers finds solace behind the camera lens. He shoots whenever he’s on tour, and he returned from trips to England, Scotland and Ireland in June.

“Photography is good for me because when I’m out on the road, I don’t have to sit in the bus the whole time,” he says. “It’s a time to go out and be creative. At one time it was an obsession, and now it’s become a passion. I think I’ve become a better photographer because I’m coming at it from a different place. The thing that stifles creativity is a lack of outlet. I’ve never made a dime out of photography. I don’t do it for that reason.”

Source – DallasNews.com