Inspirations: Tom Parker

© Tom Parker

Tom Parker’s weblog, Dispatches from Kansas, is just packed with great photography. His Winter Solstice project is truly inspirational. He’s not a bad writer either.

Work in Progress

Baby, I’ve been waiting,
I’ve been waiting night and day.
I didn’t see the time,
I waited half my life away.

- Leonard Cohen

 

Best Documentary Films: On Photography

I’ll be doing a new mini series on my favorite documentary films. Call me quirky, but I choose the real deal over fiction almost every time, whether it’s film, books or photography. I’ve been a film buff from around the time I took up photography and watch some 300 flicks a year, although I’ve increasingly replaced films with TV-series since they started selling them on DVD. Naturally I love documentaries on photography and photographers (too bad there are very few of those), but here’s my list of must see films:

Manufactured Landscapes (Edward Burtynsky) (2007)
Edward Burtynsky is in my opinion on of the most important photographers working today. His work deals with subjects regarded as unaccessible, yet he has managed like no other to capture the industrialization of China. Director Jennifer Baichwal has done a great job, not only highlighting Burtynsky’s work, but also complementing his work with stunning videography. The opening scene alone is reason enough to watch the film.

William Eggleston in the Real World (2005)
I regard William Eggleston to be the greatest photographer to walk the face of the earth. No other photographer has through his work so clearly communicated an understanding of what photography is and what it is best capable of communicating. Director Michael Almereyda has made an intimate and seemingly honest portrait of Eggleston. The visual aesthetic of the film fits perfectly with the often rough and candid look of Egglestons photographs.

The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams’ Appalachia (2002)
The beautiful photography of Shelby Lee Adams is highly controversial, right up there with Sally Mann’s groundbraking portraiture of her own children (both Southerners I might add). Adams is working in an ethical minefield documenting the lives of Appalachian mountain people, which have been subject to much stereotyping and public ridicule over the years. The film is directed by Jennifer Baichwal, who also made Manufactured Landscapes. I still have a love/hate relationship with Adams work, but as the film shows, who am I to judge?

War Photographer (James Nachtwey) (2001)
In this film by Christian Frei we follow documentary photographer James Nachtwey around the world for two years. We learn as much about how he works as how he tries to cope with what he has witnessed. The film was unsurprisingly nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary. 

Inspirations: Mythologie des lucioles

© Guy Ferrandis

Some stunning work is featured in Eva Truffaut‘s blog Mythologie des lucioles. Highly recommended!

Work in progress

Most of my portfolios happen by accident. Sparked by this post from Justin James Reed’s blog From This Moment I dived into the archives and picked some 40 photographs – of which I will probably select a final 10. The theme should be obvious from the above picture – Shopping malls, Arctic style. There’s more to it than that of course, but I’ll leave that for the portfolio statement down the road. The above depicted “mall” house a beer shop (monopolised by municipal law), post office, library and a candy store. What more could you possibly need?

Crocodile killed by Hippos

As a photographer I’ve quite often entered a rut thinking that everything great has been done.  Nature photographer Václav Silha got the shoot of his life when quite unexpectedly a crocodile was attacked and killed by angry hippos. It just goes to show that if you keep at it long enough opportunity will knock eventually.

Featured in Things Magazine!

Thanks to the great folks at things magazine for featuring my blog. It’s an honor, especially since things is one of my favourite places to go for inspiration!  What is things? Here’s a summary in their own words:

things has built a reputation as a home for new writing – essays, reviews, short stories and poems – about objects and their meanings. The website contains a weblog, photography galleries, special projects, searchable archives and the occasional on-line only article.

Photographic Truth

The Kiss

It is no big secret that I am among those photographers most interested in the cameras capabilities of telling the truth as opposed to Photoshop’s ability to distort the truth. Working within the genera of documentary photography is like walking a tight rope. The slightest breeze can get you into big trouble. Where to draw the between telling the truth and constructing a different truth is never easy.

When large renowned publications like National Geographic and The New York Times get caught publishing manipulated photographs it does something to the reputation of all photographers. It is not image manipulation per se that I detest, it’s when the truth isn’t disclosed in the caption accompanying published photographs. Professor Hany Farid has made a very nice compilation of manipulated photography. Well worth a look.

Speaking of the truth, I’ve just ordered philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt’s book “On Truth” which I think will be an interesting read. I am interested to see how much of it can be applied to my own work and artistic process. And, speaking of books, has anyone said it better than Tod Papageorge when scolding one of his students: “Your work looks like it was made by someone who has never read a book”.

Flight Simulators – Not just for fun!

As a kid I loved aircraft, no doubt a result of growing up just outside the fence of a NATO air station. Naturally I had a thing for flight simulators and have tried most of them since getting my first computer in the late 1980s. Back then the simulators were nothing but simple games, but that has changed dramatically. The current flight simulator developed by Microsoft , Flight Simulator X, coupled with some additional software and hardware is good enough to use for basic flight training. More interestingly the virtual world in the simulator has reached a level of realism only limited by the power of the computer running it.

Add-on developers are now using photography to create the graphic world of the simulator. Real Environment Extreme for instance creates high definition textures for the simulator using drum scanned large format photographs. Others combine graphics with satellite elevation data and aerial photography to recreate the stunning landscapes of Australia, Switzerland and New York in the simulator. In 20 years I’ve flown from a world in 16 colors to an almost photo realistic one. In 10 years I’ve gone from a chemical darkroom to a much better and completely digital one. It makes me wonder, for how long will digital technology continue to develop with such speed?

This video is a brilliant showcase of how third party developers have transformed Microsoft’s simulator into an almost photo realistic virtual world:

The simulator can be used in many ways. The video above is a good example of how many amateur film makers are now honing their skills using the simulator as a virtual film set. For me as a landscape photographer it has some brilliant functions as well. I actually use the simulator as a three dimensional map to scout for locations. The simulator lets you move around freely (without flying) in its virtual world. By using a freeware add-on I get the Norwegian Arctic modeled in great detail including every lake, river, road and mountain in a way that makes Google Earth look pale in comparison. Choose your time and date, enter the virtual world, and you’ll know exactly where and when the sun and moon rises and sets! I’ve even used it to make better sense of the map when planning outdoor camping trips.

Welcome to the new weblog

Welcome to the new weblog! My former weblog, PHOTOheadlines, was originally intended as an e-zine, but I never found the time to fully develop it. It’s sort of a personality trait – I like to start things, but rarely finish them (note to self: subject for new blog entry). Instead I’ll be merging PHOTOheadlines with my old photoblog – which database crashed when my webhost changed servers. The most relevant posts from PHOTOheadlines have been moved here. This new weblog will be somewhat more personal, dealing with my inspirations and thoughts, spiced with the occasional photograph from the archives. In other words, just what the world needs: Another egocentric “me me me” web site!

Arctic Visions is the trademark of my fine art photographs. The name reflects that I am a Norwegian Arctic native working almost exclusively with subjects related to the Norwegian Arctic. Since picking up photography in 1998 while studying visual communication at University I’ve learned myself the craft by doing lots of different work. My first paid work was as a freelance aviation photographer/journalist, later I turned to stock photography and fine art landscape photography (the pretty oversaturated postcard type landscapes). Neither got my hear pounding so I decided to get a real job instead. In hindsight that was a good decision. Over the last ten years the photography business has changed so radically that it is almost impossible to fathom. Making a decent living from photography today is extremely hard, unless you are comfortable working within some very narrow niches.

Working almost full time with something completely unrelated to photography is both a blessing and a curse. The obvious benefit is a decent salary that allows me to do photographic work without worrying about costs. It gives me complete creative freedom. Secondly I’ve built a network of potential customers through my job that wouldn’t be otherwise possible. Most of my sales are a result of “word of moth” marketing that I had little or nothing to do with. Unfortunately I can’t have the cake and eat it too. My day job sucks me dry of energy and leaves me little time to actually do photography. But all in all it is a compromise I’m willing to live with for the moment. I have flexible hours and take additional time off without pay to work on larger projects. It isn’t much different from working as a commercial photographer all day with very limited time to do personal projects. I am trivializing the effect of not practicing your craft all day of course, but for the kind of photography I do, I need a slightly different set of skills.

So congratulations to me. Hope you’ll enjoy the new weblog!