street + urban

A last minute reminder that tonight is our final class. You’ll each be presenting your work to the class as part of our last crit session. I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone has come up with.

Nick Turpin redfines what street photography is. I don’t entirely agree with him, but I like the track he’s on.

Though the work is unrelated to street photography, Chris McCaw’s statement about his SUNBURN series, http://chrismccaw.com/SUNBURN/SUNBURN.html, is a good example of an artist’s statement. He talks about the genesis of the project, his intent and his process–both technical and conceptual. You’ll wach want to do something similar with your statement, though a shorter statement is fine.

ASMP did a comparison of most of the print on demand publishers. You can see the results here: http://sharpernewyork.blogspot.com/2009/07/print-on-demand-book-test-results.html. They’re a little vague about how they scored the publishers and give only an overall rating. Value doesn’t seem to come into play much, nor does publishing quirks such as AdoramaPix’s one sided only pages on photo paper. It is a starting point, though.

In class on Monday I’d mentioned that a website can be more than simply a bunch of photographs tacked to a virtual wall.

I singled out one in particular, Pixel Press, and its director, Fred Ritchin. Fred has been and continues to be one of the most precient thinkers on photography and the digital revolution over the past 25 years. Pixel Press presents work in ways that go beyond simple web galleries to create more complex narratives that make use of the the broad possibility of the web. It is also a socially engaged organization, which appeals to me. Check it out here.

Once I’ve combed through my bookmarks, I’ll expand this post later.

I should note that photographers, designers and writers have been trying to push narrative boundaries long before the web came about. The first book that leaps to mind is Gilles Perez’ Telex Iran, which incorporates the photographer’s communications via telelgram with his agency into the book of his photographs taken during the Revolution. It is a book that speaks not only to events on the ground but also the personal experiences that are intimately tied to recording those events. Another approach is Susan Meiselas’ Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History, which acts more like an archive of a people than it does a book of photographs; it is not pre-internet.

General art supplies:
Pearl Paint: wide selection of art making supplies including folios, mat board, storage boxes and albums. >www.pearlpaint.com
Talas: a wide selection of bookmaking, archival storage and conservation supplies. >www.talas-nyc.com

Labs and Printers:
Adorama Pix
L&I
Elco Color

A selection of print on demand book publishers:
Blurb
Apple
Lulu
http://www.fastbackbooks.com
Mag Cloud (POD magazines)

Issuu, magazines online

Basic DIY Web portals or gallery sites:
Go Daddy
Photo.net
Photoshelter (Not Free)
flickr
Weebly
MySpace
PhotoEye’s Photographer’s Showcase and Visual Server services (Not Free)

Blogs:
Wordpress
Blogger
Typepad

I’m not endorsing anything here; just putting things out there for you.