Foto Motel

My Favorite Books from 2008

Including one re-issue and a pop-up book.

 

Sex Advice from Photographers

Sex advice from Photographers on NERVE. I doled out some advice to Will Doig of Nerve. What is there now is only partial advice, you'll have to become a subsrciber to read all of the advice. Hope it helps.

Documenting The Migrant Party-goer in a Polyester Suit

Its nice that technology has made a place for a good party photographer to stand along side Patrick McMullan. Merlin Bronques has done just that or so says the NYT HERE. Porn, Fun, Voyeuristic, or Party, its a good time. And you are only as good as last night. Check it out HERE. The 70s produced another chronicler of the times, Mapplethorpe. That's right, that famed banned photographer was a really good beautifier, documenting the gay under belly (and sometimes the tops and bottoms) of a scene, a party scene. When you are having that much fun don't you want everybody to know. Or don't you want to be reminded later. Sontag's rolling over in her grave right now. Thanks Mr. Bronques for focusing on people and not the celebrity. I hope you remain so pure. Just think of it Mr. Bronques you could be seen as an FSA-esq photographer of the millennial party set. Where is your "Migrant Party-goer" or "Denizen in Polyester Suit?" There will always be a playground, thank good ness.

Special note: Thanks for thinking of me JW, I'm thinking of you too. I thought I might want this to happen to me too. You may remember me stumbling in, jetting off, or just making a lot of nosie as I passed your door. It was the heels.

Cheerleader Pie, sans nazis or homos

"Cheerleaders escape the great pie of Nazis and Homos!" See HERE.

That's right you heard it here first. The cheerleaders in fine art photography do have a home. How I overlooked the work of Brian Finke, I don't know. My apologies Mr. Finke. See Brian's cheerleaders HERE. In more Brian Finke news, he has a new show opening at ClampArt on October 27th. Somebody please stop by and relay Foto Motel's best to him. The show is called Most Muscular. Oops. Looks like the homos were just added to the cheerleader-pie, but don't worry, from the looks of the images on ClampArt they're only 2% homo. Which may be a photographic advancement by Brian Finke. I've always wondered what body builders look like without the seemingly ever-present homo-voyeur filter.

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

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.

you can ring my bell

Cell phones to carry pornographic material. That's fine. That's nice. I guess. All I'm saying is that's an awfully small screen. Its already happening in Europe. Read it HERE in the NYT.

boys wil do

Looking forward to when Taschen publishes Tom of Finland: The Comic Collection. I love the picture of the huge female hand holding the entire boxed edition of "proud men having happy sex." You can find more on Tom of Finland, HERE.