Following on from my earlier question "Does large format inhibit your creativity" I would be grateful if you could share with me your favourite web sites showing CONTEMPORARY CREATIVE photography taken on large format equipment.

It would seem that it does indeed exist but is not that easy to find. I am particually interested in photographers personal work.

Many thanks

Keith

-- Keith Laban (keith@laban.demon.co.uk), January 13, 2002

Answers

Keith,

Forget the WWW and go down to your local library or bookshop and browse. You will find things you like, things that resonate with YOU. Books have a tendency to draw you to them once you're amongst them ... and monographs are where portfolios are best viewed to be understood; where images can be seen presented in series, sequenced, sized and in volume. Most web sites present a highly edited capsule of an artist's output, usually to promote a show or book.

Look for Bernd & Hilla Becher, Andreas Gursky, Lewis Baltz, Gabriele Basilico, Kenro Izu, Richard Avedon, Sally Mann, Jock Stuges, Joel Sternfeld, Joel Meyerowitz, Irving Penn, Arnold Newman, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Paul Caponigro, Lois Conner, Horst Hamann and Wright Morris to name a few ... and leave out the chestnuts of Adams, Weston, Strand, Stieglitz, Evans. Some of these photographers are contemporary and some are passed. All are creative in their own with subjects ranging from child nudes to brick walls.

Walter Glover

-- Walter Glover (walterg@netaus.net.au), January 13, 2002.

Unfortunately large format is a minority sport in the UK and bookshops tend not to stock anything other than Adams!

-- Keith Laban (keith@laban.demon.co.uk), January 13, 2002.

Hi Keith

It is of course a minority the LF girls and boys but a fine one if I look at the trash from 35mm and some digiworkers and sometimes they call it art! Its just my a point of view!

-- Armin Seeholzer (armin.seeholzer@smile.ch), January 13, 2002.

If you have the time and inclination, you might contact off the list some of the list members who are reasonably accessible to you to see if they are willing to spend a day or so with you out doing/talking/looking LF. My gut tells me you are standing neck deep in LF Contemporary Creative Photography right here.

-- Paul Coppin (coppin@execulink.com), January 13, 2002.

I did an online search for 'CONTEMPORARY CREATIVE large format photography' and got mostly hits concerning college courses. If you're looking for ideas, then this link will probably provide plenty of possibilities:

http://wwar.com/categories/Online_Exhibitions/Medium/Photography/Color/

-- Roger Urban (roger_urban@yahoo.com), January 13, 2002.

Woops, didn't tunnel down deep enough on the link. Here's the section on Large Format photographers:

http://wwar.com/categories/Online_Exhibitions/Medium/Photography/Format/Large_Format/

-- Roger Urban (roger_urban@yahoo.com), January 13, 2002.

"Unfortunately large format is a minority sport in the UK and bookshops tend not to stock anything other than Adams!"

If you are near London, go to the bookshop at the Tate Modern - great photography section, + some real Gruskys and Struths hanging on the walls... (love people in a gallery looking at Struths pictures of people looking at pictures in a Gallery... especially as they are hung by the elevators! Got some nive shots of that...)

tim a

-- Tim Atherton (tim@kairosphoto.com), January 13, 2002.

"It is of course a minority the LF girls and boys but a fine one if I look at the trash from 35mm and some digiworkers and sometimes they call it art! Its just my a point of view!"...

wow - the pompous LF photographer didn't die out with the death of the pictorialist movement...? Who would have known it :-)

You mean some of those people like Eggleston or Cindy Sherman or Ralph Gibson (ok to some art), Nan Goldin and many others. More "art" in all that than in 1000 cubic feet of endless Azo contact prints of LF rocks, rivers and trees. It certainly isn't the format that makes for "art". There is plenty of LF dross to prove that point!

Tim A

-- Tim Atherton (tim@kairosphoto.com), January 13, 2002.

Keith,

Whilst in the UK I purchased a number of books of this genre in the bookshop of the V&A and Royal Photographic Society. There was also a bookshop in Notting Hill gate that had a reasonable variety.

May require a bit of travelling about but could be well worth it.

Cheers ... Walter Glover

-- Walter Glover (walterg@netaus.net.au), January 13, 2002.

i am rather fond of this website

-- Ellis Vener Photography (ellis@ellisvener.com), January 13, 2002.

I'm looking at "CONTEMPORARY CREATIVE photography" websites regardless of format. Any suggestions? The exact phrase in a search engine doesn't produce much of interest. Some examples could provide a way to define the phrase.

-- Gary Frost (gary.frost@onemain.com), January 13, 2002.

have you looked at the following website? http://www.greenspun.com/boohoo/related.tcl?page_id=TuanLF

-- Ellis Vener Photography (ellis@ellisvener.com), January 13, 2002.

LOL!!!!! Thanks Ellis but your website is so large on my screen I can't reach my controls!......Help!

-- Keith Laban (keith@laban.demon.co.uk), January 13, 2002.

I'll second the recommendation for the Tate Modern in London, if it's not too far for you. The bookshop is extensive, and the Gursky photographs have to be seen in person (well, most photographs have to be seen in person to be appreciated, but Gursky particularly). Also some Bechers and other interesting photographs on display when I was there a few months ago.

-- David Goldfarb (dgoldfarb@barnard.edu), January 13, 2002.

David,

You lucky man - Gurkys live along with Bechers. What was the title of the show. Gursky was a student of the Bechers I believe and so I immediately speculate that it was a joint exhibition.

Yours in envy ... Walter Glover

-- Walter Glover (walterg@netaus.net.au), January 13, 2002.

The Gurskys and Struths are part of the permanent collection (and rather strangely displayed in my opinion... but still worth seeing)

There was some good Lee Miller and Man Ray stuff in the Surrealism; Desire Unbound exhibit when I was there too, among other things

Tim A

-- Tim Atherton (tim@kairosphoto.com), January 13, 2002.

I know about the connection between Gursky and the Bechers. The images weren't presented as part of a group, and the connection wasn't made explicitly, but it was there to be found, if you happened to be looking for it.

The Surrealism exhibit mentioned above is excellent. The wall texts tend to foreground erotic themes to the neglect of other interesting issues (not that the erotic isn't interesting, but so is form), but it's an outstanding assemblage of objects.

Fortunately from New York, it's cheaper to fly to London than to most U.S. destinations, and my day job brings me to the UK once or twice a year of late.

-- David Goldfarb (dgoldfarb@barnard.edu), January 13, 2002.

I would just like to add to the list of great LF photographers--Josef Sudek. Thank You

-- Michael Franc (quelong@hotmail.com), January 13, 2002.

Sorry--I somehow missed the "contemporary" part. Never mind Sudek.

-- Michael Franc (quelong@hotmail.com), January 13, 2002.

Ellis- very, very nice site.

-- Paul Coppin (coppin@execulink.com), January 13, 2002.

Hi Keith - I am also based in the UK. Don't have any information on particular websites but can definetely recommend that you go to the specialist photography bookshops in London - Zwemmers is the best by far, but look also in the Photographers Gallery and Magma. All of these bookshops will have work by large format workers from Eugene Atget to Josef Sudek,Carleton Watkins to Walker Evans, Andreas Gursky to Elger Esser, and many more contemporary picture-makers. Don't leave out the 'old chestnuts' Weston and Adams, as a previous reply suggested. Their work is necessary reading I would suggest - for true knowledge of the range of work. Weston was contemporary too in his time, some might even say revolutionary, so at least make sure you see the work without prejudice. There are also lots of LF photographers in UK, covering a broad range of work from fine-art to commercial landscape and architectural photography. Try looking up people like Jem Southam, Thomas Joshua Cooper, Jim Cooke, Harry Cory-Wright, Joe Cornish etc. for a range of practitioners in landscape work. Thanks and best wishes.....

-- Stephen Vaughan (stephen@vaughanphotos.freeserve.co.uk), January 14, 2002.

Many thanks to you all for your responses, so much good information. Will keep me busy for a while.

All the best

Keith

-- Keith Laban (keith@laban.demon.co.uk), January 15, 2002.

Dan Burkholder's site www.danburholder.com check it out and see what digital can do in the hands of a true artist.

-- Jorge Gasteazoro (jorgegm58@prodigy.net.mx), January 15, 2002.

http://www.lenscraft.com/

This is an interesting example of contemporary photography with an unusual creativity and sensitivity to cultural/historical issues.I find his work also interesting for its use of form with colour,and very contemporary print format.With serious thought I believe anyone can produce work of original,content driven work that reflects "contemporary" ideas that we all have.A photograph becomes a document when it is treated as a means of relaying information,in whatever code/language that the artist invents or borrows.The translation of that code/language is the difficult part and where many fall into obscurity or enrage the "is it art?" debate.Mind you,a snapshot can relay information too,so perhaps it is rather the structured attempts by the artist to hold all that is necessary and remove all that is superfluous to the creation of an image that is able to emotionally and mentally communicate an idea/set of ideas to an audience. Photography is a very obscure subject,unlike any other media,and hence has been used by many "artists" who look at its structure rather than technology as a medium that is boundless and unique.I belive we could all do with regular doses of art history and theory whether it is photographic or not,to better understand the history of ideas which influence our lives and from which our evolution will continue."Everyone is an artist".Joseph Beuys. Thank you. A.

-- Andrey Belopopsky (sabaca10@hotmail.com), January 17, 2002.