During recent bathroom renovation work, upon removing an ancient toilet water tank I came across this scene:

All this time and for many decades before, hidden behind the water tank laid a secret pond where two swans sailed (looking at each other) and a small fishing boat rocked gently near the shore. 

A photographer I have recently come across is Marc Shoul, whose beautiful series Flatlands reveals the fabric of life in post-Apartheid South-Africa in the densely populated landscape of Johannesburg's inner city.   

Was out and about taking some pictures for another project tonight when firework displays started to erupt all over the London skyline.

Some shots of the Apple Day Festival, celebrated in "true" pagan style at the Borough market at the weekend.

Scribbling the landscape on a night flight. The journey recorded here was from Lisbon to Pombal, I drew without stopping or looking at the paper until twelve minutes into the flight, city lights completely disappeared under the clouds. Flying at night over cities always reminds me of Stereolab's song, Etoiles électroniques:

^{"Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more.}    

^{Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something.}  

^{You are not here long" (Walker Evans)}  

"Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance & the Camera"

The current photographic show at Tate Modern plays on the ambiguity of the term «exposure» as a double-edged sword. The whole notion of «exposure» is intrinsically linked with photography: as an act it lies is at the core of the photographic development process, as a medium, it lays bare infinite aspects of human life and facets of reality. The sheer power of the photographic image has shaped perceptions and has had an undeniable influence in determining certain human behaviours : the whole notion of celebrity (we are promptly reminded in the blurb that accompanies the show) "is inseparable from the invention of photography".

The show claims to deal with the notion of "voyeurism" (from the French "voyeur", "the one who sees"), usually associated with the powerful illicit position of an onlooker having one-way access to someone’s private moment. It suggests an urge to lay bare a person’s emotions and intimate sphere and is perceived as an invasion of privacy.  

Surveillance (again from the French surveiller "to look out/to watch out") on the other hand uses the notion of "exposure" invertedly; it still involves monitoring and recording behaviour but this time with the inherent suggestion (promise?) that it will expose threats, dangers, crimes, injustices; "voyeurism" carried out in the name of safety.

By juxtaposing a huge amount of photographic work from various genres (photojournalistic, paparazzi, forensic, arts), the show fully explores the ambiguity between "voyeurism" and "surveillance" and the relationship between the camera and the notion of "exposure" (being exposed/exposing). Each room is filled with work that challenges the viewer about the complex dichotomy between the notions of " looking at" and " being looked at" and the role of the camera (and by extension that of the photographer) as a powerful tool to reveal, lay bare, suffuse. By the end one may be better informed and at last able to answer that burning question asked at the very beginning of the exhibition: Is photography an invasive act and if so, is such invasiveness inherent to the medium itself?

Merry Alpern  -  Dirty Windows

Harry Callahan - Women Lost in Thoughts

Found this post-it note yesterday on the floor of a changing room at Gap. How did it ever get there? (one cannot help but ponder)... Coincidental phenomenon or the result of a practical joke?

 

René Maltête (1930-2000): the quirkiness of his surname seems to have transcended the photographer's vision at its core and tinted his recording of everyday life's incongruities with equal amount of wit and humour. An assistant to Tati on "Jour de Fête" and a collaborator on Jacques Prévert's « Paris des rues et des chansons », Maltête had an eye for the poetic and successfully captured the visual puns that would otherwise fleetingly pass us by. 

In rural Switzerland as in many other European countries, slaughtering the pig was a winter ritual (a tradition now on its way out). It used to start early morning and go on until the night; friends and family would gather together for a long day of fresh-meat cutting, curing, salting and sausage–making (accompanied by much food and drink!). Here a picture from the 1920s depicts my great-grandparents, neighbours and friends as they toast to the sizeable catch. Note how the animal’s weight (275kg) was dutifully recorded on the pig's body, directly etched onto the photograph.  

A family group portrait from circa 1919 depicting my ancestors posing in soiled clothes and pitchfork in hand, which suggests it was taken after a day of hard labour harvesting the fields nearby. A typical portrait of early 20th century farming life with garments and large-brimmed hats strangely reminiscent of the Ingalls family’s wardrobe (from late 19th century American West). The young girl with her head tilted to one side and an air of utter exasperation is my grandmother. 

"...ssport ...graph of ...be af...ed ... the ...ng... 6/10/73"