Fanny Pack Not Included
While sitting through a recent lecture, a fellow photography student made it clear that school is where we begin to set ourselves apart from the average tourist armed with a point&shoot. Even though this statement has some sense of validity, what I find infinitely more interesting, however, is L.A. based photographer
Mark McKnight's suggestion that all photographers are essentialy tourists.
Tourism is arguably more complex than just travel for recreation. How far does one have to travel exactly? And is it still considered recreation if you're not having a good time? A more important question looms though; if tourist photos are simply trophies of things seen, or proof of one standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon, is that any different than Richard Misrach making sure the world knows that bombs are being dropped in the middle of the desert? Perhaps there is no difference, and an artist like Hiroshi Sugimoto sees a monument in the ocean, just like my Grandma would if she peered up at the faces on Mt. Rushmore.
It seems that what Mark McKnight implies has little to do with the "snapshot" vernacular attributed to say, a tourist and William Eggleston. His assertion, as I understand it, has much more to do with ideas of observation, evaluation, experience, and judgement, which is of course, the root of why any photographer would want to photograph, and why any tourist would want to travel. So with that said, perhaps Mark McKnight is right, and not only are all photographers tourists, but in many ways, maybe that's all we are.
You can see more of Mark McKnight's work on his Blog at markmcknight.wordpress.com
Painting on Pictures
The idea of painting on a photograph is not new. It has been going on since photography's inception. Although, early uses were more apt at removing or adding details that would allow the photograph to tell a deeper truth instead of a more conceptual aim. What does painting or drawing on a photograph offer? Can this combination successfully question and expand the ideas behind the photographic process and function?Gerhard Richter's abstract interventions into banal 4x6" snapshot landscapes are very crude and simple compared to his larger and better known paintings which deconstruct the photographic institution, but are able to offer abstraction a fresh utility. 
Another artist who imaginatively and overtly talks about painting and photography is Marc Luders. I am especially drawn to his early works where the paint becomes like a UFO discretely entering into the photographic spaces.
The artist Sebastiaan Bremer uses much more illustrative approach by applying precise points of ink to large photographs. The lightness of conceptual intervention here is made up for through shear visual intrigue at how Bremer as enlivened a seemingly irrelevant photograph. 
Photography and painting are two heavyweights in today's art discourse. Using them together, literally, can start to challenge the convictions and readings of both.
Michael Levin: Reveal
Reveal
Michael Levin
Watermark Gallery
Between December 2, 2006 and January 31, 2007 twenty-two of Michael Levin’s photographs hung in Watermark Gallery located in Houston. As you walked into the gallery, the photographs were hung on the wall to your immediate right. They lined the right side of the gallery as well as a portion of the back wall. The sizes of these large black and white prints ranged from 6” x 18” to 34” x 34”. Levin focuses on landscape photography, primarily using a large format film camera. Separating himself from traditional methods, he then scans the film and edits the image in Photoshop. Levin has these files printed digitally on color paper, rather than on fiber-based silver gelatin paper.
By his own admission, Michael Levin seeks to achieve a painterly quality in his photographs. He concentrates on the intrusions into nature (i.e. piers, docks, levies), and creates images in which the intrusions appear not only natural, but also beautiful. Levin’s work shares many similarities with that of the popular landscape photographer, Michael Kenna.
The quintessence elements in the majority of his compositions are sky and/or water. Utilizing exposures lasting up to twenty minutes, Levin transforms water into clouds and in doing so breaks down a seemingly picturesque landscape to create a paradisiacal image. In his photographs, the natural elements overpower the man-made. He has succeeded in transforming the man-made intrusions from an inappropriate eyesore into a graceful tableaux appearing as seamless and natural as nature itself. He has captured a quiet solitude, an effect that I would describe as peaceful.
Tending to facilitate transcendence, these photographs become Romantic in nature. For instance, Steel Pier, 2005 is an image created underneath a pier, but this viewer interpreted the image as an interior room with a long hallway. The critic Marjorie Perloff, in her essay “What Has Occurred Only Once”, views the punctum (the emotional impact experienced when looking at a photograph) as achieved when the viewer is able to turn the object back into a subject. The pier is the object in Steel Pier, 2005 but by giving the pier a different orientation, viewing the underside, he turns the pier into the subject and in doing so Levin epitomizes transcendence and achieves his painterly aspiration.
To view more of Michael Levin's work visit his website:
Michael Levin
Self Portrait as an Artist
Chicago based photographer,
Jason Lazarus, has found a new and contemporary way to breathe life into the genre of self-portraiture. Jason's series titled, "Self Portrait as an Artist" began as a comment on the ambiguous role of the contemporary artist today but has since grown in to a diverse body of work that extends beyond the art world and into the personal, the political and the culturally engaged.
The series of images strays wonderfully outside of the rules of the standard photographic project. Like much of
Tim Davis' work, the idea and concern is the only constant, as the visual style, the size, and the function of each piece has a playful and refreshing sense of variety.
Jason combines the power of a well executed photograph with titles that are full of wit and intelligence to create a series of complex images. The personal and the political have an intersect in images like Lazarus' "Standing Under the Same Moon as Barack Obama".
Like all successful work, there is a clear presence of personality and intention attached to each image. Jason shares with us, his highly visual way of connecting to and understanding himself in terms of what is going on today. In turn we are encouraged to look, to question and to actually think about our contemporary climate through personal introspection and curiosity.
"Self Portrait as an Artist" combines the power of idiosyncratic thought, cultural engagement and diverse image making stratagem to create a body of work that challenges and extends both the viewer and the medium of photography today.
Jason's work is currently on view at The Gahlberg Gallery at College of DuPage in an exhibition titled, On Death and Dying: Photographs from the Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago. January 25 to March 3, 2007. Other artists in the exhibition include: Harold Allen, Sophie Calle Catherine Chalmers, Barbara McDonnell, Vik Muniz, Esther Parada, Irving Penn, Gilles Peress, Michal Rovner, Mark Ruwedel, Alec Soth, Dennis Stuck, Stephen Tourlentes, and Brian Ulrich.
