Foto Motel

Magazine Abundance

What to do with two years of PDN, Picture, Blind Spot, Photo Shop User, Modern Painters, and American Photo? I want to keep Modern Painters because it smells the best.

Stephen Crowley hits up "Tableaux Vivant"

Bought the NYT today at Starbucks on 7th & G because of the beautiful poster like image of Bush and Alito by Kevin Lamarque/Reuters on the front page. How could I resist the blurry absence of George and the lost-in-space puckered kiss of Alito. Well was I in for a pleasant surprise on page A18-A19. That's right, a Stephen Crowley spread. This guy's work and the forward thinking of his editors has produced an amazing image. I presume it to be two images again (see earlier post HERE). This is the newspaper version of the triple fold-outs Leibovitz does for Vanity Fair. See HERE & HERE. Frankly Alex, I'll take Stephen Crowley for the NYT for a dollar (in DC) over Vanity Fair any day. Though, I do a a sweet spot or two for it.

Talk about telling looks. Bush looks down. Alito spys on Bush to his right from almost closed eyelids. An empty chair to his left. The Alito family stand in the second panel. Daughter and son both look down. Maybe mesmerized by the positions the unseen photographers must take on the floor to make a picture of their father. Only his wife is seen proudly looking in the direction of the podium. Random photographers in foreground and one hiding behind a plotted plant. Not only is Bush pictured, but we get two others presidents as well. A Portrait of Kennedy is tucked away in the center of the image, arms folded looking down. Clinton's portrait beems above the Alito family. And wouldn't you know it, his painted hand appears to be on Laura Alito's shoulder. This image by Stephen Crowley is almost pure American "Tableaux Vivant" history painting.

Robin Gavhin, I hope you explore this nominee and his family through their fashion sense as you did Robert's earlier, HERE.

Who loves a magazine

The American Society of Magazine Editors announces their list of the top 40 magazine covers from that past 40 years. The 1981 RollingStone cover of Lennon & Ono doing their best ying yang for Annie Leibovitz, tops the list. HERE's the rest of the list. AL shot the number two cover-image of a pregnant Demi Moore on Vanity Fair in 1991. The controversy over that image was only barely surpassed by the one that surrounded a presidential candidate.

Thanks to the Reliable Source.

Abercrombie-Vogue

Some things I never got to post this summer:

• The Polaroid Book, from Tashen
• "Who is Platon?"
• My fantastical idea to collect every magazine cover by Herb Ritts.
• Pitt & Jolie's romp through W
• David Hilliard
• Being underemployed
• American & Other Works, by Andres Serrano
• Why I bought the 800 paged Vogue
• My desire to buy Abercrombie & Fitch catalogs from ebay. I bought a red hoody instead.
• Leitmotif: Photos of celebrities with guns; Madonna and here, Morrissey, Nancy Sinatra, Brad Pitt, Mapplethorpe

Jessica Dimmock

Jessica Dimmock is no longer just a NYT runner-up. A larger selection from her series, "Ninth Floor," is featured in New York Magazine. See it HERE.

cheerleader-Nazi-homo pie!

Joachim Ladefoged's portfolio in The New York Times Magazine opens up the door to look at the cheerleader in photography. See his work HERE. Not much is coming to mind as far as an extended look at cheerleaders in the form of a book. But you can take a look at the Professional Cheerleader Bog for starters. So I open the door a little wider to include gymnasts. Watch out here comes the flood. Anderson/Low's work with the Danish National Gymnastic Team comes to mind which is also seen in their book Athletes & Gymnasts. Its hard to ignore the similarities to the work of Gerhard Riebicke and Kurt Reichert. Who both worked with the nude in nature in Germany between the wars. You can see some of their work in the great book from Taschen, 1000 Nudes. This aesthetic was soon adopted by the Third Reich's propaganda photographers. Even the photography blog, Conscientious would agree. But not to worry to much, no downers here, the style is seen again and again in homoerotic imagery. Start with a little Herbert List and George Hoyningen-Huene, throw in Bob Mizer and our friends at Athletic Model Guild (Tom of Finland) and it not long before you get Mapplethorpe, Ritts, and Weber.

Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao

Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao, the winner of the "Capture the Times Photography Contest" has been given a beautiful spread in The New York TImes Magazine with Osama bin Laden on the cover (9.11.05). Read the essay to discover more about Jeff's work HERE.

Seperation of Cover & Ad

Wanna see George Clooney turn into Ralph Lauren?Then buy (well just browse) the premier issue of Men's Vogue. Its like a really really simple flip book. See GC in a camel cashmere double-breasted coat on cover. See Ralph in a camel cashmere double-breasted coat in ad on next page. At least Ralph knew better and keeps his hands in his pocket, unlike George who fell for the old "put one finger to your mouth cause its sexy" photographer's trick. Cause, well its sexy. That's as far as got.

I bought it so you don't have to. But you should make up your own mind.

Newsstand Marriage

A famous couple avoids being seen in public and eventually breaks up. But they are forced to meet on the newstand. Here's a close example, minus the breakup. See HERE and HERE.

Someone is ALWAYS Taller

I feel like I've been living in Bruce Gilden's recent work in T, The New York Times Style Magazine, my whole life. Click HERE, to see the slideshow, you may have to skip the ad. Now if we could just do something about those damn low hanging branches.

David in the sky with cameras

Bought Dwell the other day because of David Maisel's black and white photos of Los Angeles from the sky. For a blib of  a second I thought he had been a professor of mine while I was at RISD. A lass, it was not and my apologies to David T. Hanson, who's class was one of the best I took while at RISD.

National Geographic

National Geographic for the second time since 1959 has gone photo-less on it cover. See it here. Read the story in The Washington Post here.

BIG

I'm reading BIG's issue on Upstate New York today, mostly because of some familiar names.Richard Prince, Anthony Goicolea and Taryn Simon.