Photography And The Art Of Chance

As anyone who has wielded a camera knows, photography has a unique relationship to chance. It also represents a struggle to reconcile aesthetic aspiration with a mechanical process. Robin Kelsey reveals how daring innovators expanded the aesthetic limits of photography in order to create art for a modern world.

As anyone who has wielded a camera knows, photography has a unique relationship to chance. It also represents a struggle to reconcile aesthetic aspiration with a mechanical process. Robin Kelsey reveals how daring innovators expanded the aesthetic limits of photography in order to create art for a modern world.

Musician/performer, filmmaker, and photographer, Tav Falco guides us through the home towns and gravel roads of America s deep South, the backwoods spiritual sanctuary that he knows so well. AN ICONOGRAPHY OF CHANCE is a psycho-iconography in pictures, with a captioned intertext of the urban specters, rural fables and visual cliches that have made the gothic South a netherworld of dreams and a necropolis of terrors. Roadside icons in Arkansas, Louisana, Mississippi, and Tennessee evoke more than indexed/nuanced signs and meanings; they are infused with emotion, and through Falco s lens become living, breathing images. Whether overtly or discreetly conjured, these images resonate with the undercurrent of sentiment, of betrayal, of lost causes in which the photographer's pictures are soaked. The secret eye of Falco is drawn to that which was overlooked, thrown out and rejected by established norms of perception, whilst his decorticated compositional framing reveals the sadness and nakedness of America forlorn, adrift, and distracted with colliding identities. In Falco's hands the camera excavates an Orphic vision of the American South, penetrating like no other in his stated mission to agitate the dark waters of the unconscious. "

Fred Herzog's bold use of colour in the 1950s and 60s set him apart at a time when the only art photography taken seriously was in black and white. His early use of color make him a forerunner of "New Colour" photographers such as Stephen Shore and William Eggleston, who received widespread acclaim in the 1970s. Herzog images were all taken on Kodachrome, a slide film with a sharpness and tonal range that, until recently, could not be reproduced in prints, and his choice of medium limited his exhibition opportunities. However, recent advances in digital technology have made high-quality prints of his work possible, and in the past few years his substantial and influential body of work has been available to a wider audience. Fred Herzog: Photographs showcases this innovative artist's impressive oeuvre in a beautifully crafted volume of early color and urban street photography. Providing authoritative texts are four titans of the art community: Jeff Wall anchors Herzog's place in the history of photography, Claudia Gochmann sets his work in an international context and Sarah Milroy and Douglas Coupland provide additional commentary.

"Museum of Chance is the first publication of Museum Bhavan, which is a collection of museums made by Dayanita Singh in New Delhi. The museums hoiuse old and new images made by the artist. Each wooden structure can be placed and opened in different ways, and holds around a hundred framed images, some on view, while others wait for their turn in the reserve collection, also kept inside the structures. As Singh keeps adding images to the museums, the museums themselves give birth to other museums. For example, the Museum of Embraces comes out of the Museum of Chance, and the Museum of Vitrines is contained within the Museum of Furniture. This publication is a mass produced artist book for the museum by the same name. Each image in the book is a cover image on one of the books."--Colophon.

A moving new middle-grade novel from the Newbery Honor author of RULES. When Lucy's family moves to an old house on a lake, Lucy tries to see her new home through her camera's lens, as her father has taught her -- he's a famous photographer, away on a shoot. Will her photos ever meet his high standards? When she discovers that he's judging a photo contest, Lucy decides to enter anonymously. She wants to find out if her eye for photography is really special -- or only good enough. As she seeks out subjects for her photos, Lucy gets to know Nate, the boy next door. But slowly the camera reveals what Nate doesn't want to see: his grandmother's memory is slipping away, and with it much of what he cherishes about his summers on the lake. This summer, Nate will learn about the power of art to show truth. And Lucy will learn how beauty can change lives . . . including her own.

Situating Duchamp firmly within the literature & philosophy of his time, Herbert Molderings recaptures the spirit of a frequently misread artist & his aesthetic of chance.

"Inspiration is not a far-flung concept, out of reach to all but a few great artists, nor is it a matter of chance. As a photographer it's possible to train your mind to see the creative possibilities in any situation. Featuring the pioneering work of author Brooke Shaden and a selection of carefully chosen contributing photographers, this book provides the perfect balance of insight and instruction to help you find inspiration whenever you need it and capitalize on it every time."'--Cover flap.