Documentary Screening and Lecture: 10/22

This Friday evening, October 22nd, at 7:30 pm, the San Diego City College Photo Club will be hosting a free screening of the Christian Frei documentary about photojournalist James Nachtwey entitled War Photographer, followed by a lecture by San Diego photojournalist Hayne Palmour of the North County Times. To rsvp, email us your name and the number of people in your party to sdcityfoto (at) gmail.com. Seating is limited, so respond early and guarantee yourself a spot!

-Jason Reimer

Samples of Hayne Palmour's work:

And some by James Nachtwey:

And finally, a clip from the documentary:

Chiaroscuro: Diver & Aguilar after Caravaggio

This afternoon I stumbled upon these photographic remakes of some classic Caravaggio paintings, by Diver & Aguilar. I've always been a big fan of the simple yet dramatic "Rembrandt"-style lighting, and these photographs have it in spades.

- Jason Reimer

(Via Behance Network. Thanks Josh Boston!)

New Stuff

As I mentioned in the previous post, and as pretty much all of you in San Diego who have any connection with the City College photo department know, this summer we moved into a ridiculously amazing new facility, which very soon will be the envy of photographic educators the world over. On September 24th at 6pm, we will be hosting an opening reception for the first exhibit in our new gallery, Luxe. This exhibit will feature the work of the faculty and staff of the City photography department; there are some great pieces (some of which will be for sale), so come take a look!

- Jason Reimer

Here are some photos from moving day:

Jeremy & Claire Weiss: Polaroid Portfolio

Well, I know it's been a while since I've posted here, but this summer was a busy one working on getting the brand new City College photography building up and running. It's now mostly done, classes are in full-swing, and there's a lot of cool stuff on the horizon for the photography department (more on that later). In the meantime, I thought I'd share some raw portraiture work by Jeremy and Claire Weiss.

- Jason Reimer

(Via Oh, Snap!)

Lens Blog: Autochrome's Enduring Allure

Via the New York Times' Lens blog, a cool little story about the turn-of-the-century color process known as autochrome:


Looking through a loupe at the grain that makes up the gossamer colors of an autochrome is like looking at a pointillist painting, a miniature Georges Seurat.

Autochrome is a process developed in 1903 by the Lumière brothers in which glass plates were coated with a layer of potato starch mixed with color dyes that filtered light before it reached the emulsion. It yielded a grainy, positive image of muted pastels on a glass plate: a stained-glass window of the recent past. 

Read the rest here, and check out the entire National Geographic autochrome exhibit's website at the Steven Kasher gallery in New York.

-Jason Reimer

The Green Book Materials: Phos Pictures

It's been a few weeks since I've posted anything here, but you can thank a crazy couple of weeks of final exams and portfolio-making for that. I'll try to make up for it with some good stuff, though.

Today I ran across this short film on the New York Times' Lens Blog, and really enjoyed the work these guys produced, part of a new wave of creative stuff being unleashed by the new video dslr's. My one quibble is that they lean a little too heavily on the shallow depth of field stuff sometimes, but that's minor, because the film is beautiful, moving, and full of empathy. (Phos Pictures is Jason Wood and Eliot Rausch doing the producing, directing and editing, with camera work by Luke Torver and Matt Taylor.) I've embedded it below, take a look.


The Green Book Materials from phos pictures on Vimeo.

I also enjoyed this one on their Vimeo page, about Phos producer Jason Wood telling the story of his dog that he's having to have put to sleep after a long battle with cancer. Again, some powerful storytelling..


Last Minutes with ODEN from phos pictures on Vimeo.

-Jason Reimer

Joey Lawrence (no, not that one): Transcendent Environmental Portraits

A friend recently forwarded me this link from Graphic Exchange. Lawrence does some stunning work with available light and some strategically placed strobes, with amazing results. His work totally floored me, take a look.

-Jason Reimer

Colors of Cuba: Michael Eastman

Via Trendland, take a look at the work of Michael Eastman:

http://trendland.net/2010/04/12/colors-of-cuba-by-micheal-eastman/

-Jason Reimer

John Delaney: Kazakh Golden Eagle Nomads

This is one of my favorite photo essays of all time (at least so far), so I had to share it. John Delaney is a master darkroom printer, and you can see his printing skills in evidence here, as well as his photographic eye and his feel for cultural textures and nuances. There is a depth and richness to these, and a sense of adventure that makes me want to drop everything and get on a plane for some wild country with my camera (and then come back and spend some quality time in the darkroom). Go check out the essay, and enjoy!

-Jason Reimer

John Delaney: Kazakh Golden Eagle Nomads

Hermit Mountains: Chinese Skyscrapers

Via designboom, take a look at this interesting skyscraper design. Here's a quote from their article:


this structure draws its form from various sources including classical chinese landscape paintings of the lijiang river, the natural environment and the culture of local ethnic groups. the design goal was to find a balance between the rapid urban development and landscape protection within the city of lijang. the daily activities of the local ethnic groups, which include farming, mountaineering and meditating was taken into consideration in various aspects of the skyscraper design. this is evident in the meditation terraces, housing units, recreational parks and agricultural fields which are all housed within these structural towers. 


The concept art reminds me of story boards from a sci-fi movie, and it's a fascinating take on the growing trend towards making our man-made structures fit into the natural world a little more smoothly, with fewer obvious, gaping seams.

-Jason Reimer

C215: Street Art

New York City street art by an artist by the name of C215, courtesy of unurth.
-Jason Reimer

Nicholas Hance McElroy: Photographs

Courtesy of butdoesitfloat, take a look at the barren, moody, and foreboding landscape photographs of Nicholas Hance McElroy.
-Jason Reimer

Iceland: by Gunnar Konradsson

Today I found this landscape video about Iceland while reading Lens, the New York Times' photo blog. In what seems to be a hugely growing trend, Mr. Konradsson shot it with a Canon 5D MkII, and as you will see, it's beautiful. I love the way this guy sees things. The Icelandic soundtrack doesn't quite do it for me; some Sigur Ros would have been more to my liking, but hey, it's still amazing.

Take a look, and while you're at it, look at the Lens post for the other multi-media features in the article, they've posted some interesting stuff.

-Jason Reimer


ICELAND from Gunnar Konradsson on Vimeo.

Jim Megargee: Interview with a Master Printer

Hippolyte Bayard's blog recently ran an interview with Jim Megargee, a New York-based master printer and founder of MV Labs. A teaser quote for you all:


"With a silver gelatin print you are placing the image into the paper – not on top of the paper. [...] It is what people are usually referring to when they say there is something 'different' between a well printed ink jet and a well printed silver print.
They are responding to the physical nature of the printed images." 


Read the interview here, and be inspired to push your printmaking technique, whether it be digital or traditional methods.


-Jason Reimer




Here's a couple of Megargee's photos that I enjoyed.

Jodi Niemela: Landscape Photograph

Just wanted to share a beautiful landscape shot I stumbled across the other day, by Finnish photographer Jodi Niemela (via Design You Trust). -Jason Reimer

The Sandpit: short film

I stumbled across this amazing time-lapse video by Sam O'Hare that uses a simulated tilt-shift effect. Take a look:


The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

You can read the interview here to see how this was done.

-Jason Reimer

Heather Morton Art Buyer on multi-genre photographers

Via Heather Morton's blog, here's a discussion of Thomas Broening's work in still life, environmental portraits, and the studies he sets up for himself in order to challenge and refine his style. For those of you that are thinking through the issues involved in creating a portfolio of your work and asking yourself what you represent as a photographer, namely, "who am I and what is my story (either that you are a part of or that you're trying to tell)?", this article will give you some food for thought.
-Jason Reimer

Here's the link:

Heather Morton Art Buyer discusses Thomas Broening

The Desert is the easy part.

I've run across a lot of interesting work on Africa this week, which really should come as no surprise, but I thought I'd share some more of it with you all. Having lived there as a kid, I'm probably biased, I'll grant you that, but this is a fascinating story. This particular essay comes via The New York Times' great blog Lens, and to me it encapsulates a lot of what is true about Africa: adventure, suffering, struggle, resilience. Check it.
-Jason Reimer

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/showcase-131/

Marcus Bleasdale: The Rape of a Nation

Powerful photo essay on conditions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, by Marcus Bleasdale, via Burn Magazine. Check it out, take a minute to contrast your own life with the life you could have had if you had been born in a place like Congo, and consider how or whether your camera, your money, or your service might be able to help.
- Jason Reimer

http://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/marcus-bleasdale-the-rape-of-a-nation/

San Diego City College Photo Club Blog

 Hello everyone, welcome to the blog of the City College photo club. Bookmark us, add us to your blog feed, whatever you have to do, and we'll do our part by posting student work, info about the photo club's activities, as well as links and articles on photo, design, and art-related topics.

With that, here's something to check out, for those who are interested in design and architectural and interior photography; follow the link to an article discussing the concept behind the building, and for more photos:

Vitrahaus

(via Design Milk)