Archives For Documentary

Anselm Kiefer Documentary

January 10, 2016 — Leave a comment

With Anselm Kiefer now moving past 70 years old he seem to be even more consumed with time and the constant destruction and renewal of life itself. His production and energy seem to be at all time peak given what this wonderful video by Art Documentaries gives us. Not only do we get to finally see his incredible studios but also his humor, generosity and the power of what one can do with vast amounts of money coupled with extraordinary lines of thinking.

Here is a man who’s thoughts were once translated in paint, lead and straw are now expressed in his grand palace’s of the mind. Every artist who thinks they are an artist should view this film and start all over from the beginning – or just give up – as there is no one I can think of doing work on this scale of shear magnitude, raw talent and intellect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anselm Kiefer Documentary

In Art, Exhibitions, Film & Cinema, Sculpture , ,
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Documentary: The Ties that Bind

December 6, 2015 — Leave a comment

Say what you will about the music of Mr. Springsteen but I am always stunned by his ability to speak so eloquently about his art, music and mythic writing (that captures his american life so perfectly and profoundly). He is our great observer and this HBO documentary sums up so beautifully why he is one of our national treasures. Listen to a true master explain how he made his great double album, The River.

 

One of the things most overlooked is his pinpoint writings on love.
 
“She’ll lead you down a path
There’ll be tenderness in the air
She’ll let you come just far enough
So you know she’s really there
Then she’ll look at you and smile
And her eyes will say
She’s got a secret garden
Where everything you want
Where everything you need
Will always stay
A million miles away”

 

From: The Secret Garden

 

In Documentary, Film & Cinema, Music ,
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The Photographs of Danila Tkachenko

September 22, 2015 — Leave a comment

Congrats to the the winner of the European Publishers Award for Photography (EPAP) 2015 who is Russian photographer Danila Tkachenko with his project Restricted Areas which is a wonderful and haunting series of images on the Russian “technocratic future that never came”.

“The project “Restricted Areas” is about utopian strive of humans for technological progress.

I travel in search of places which used to have great importance for the technical progress – and which are now deserted. Those places lost their significance together with the utopian ideology which is now obsolete. Secret cities that cannot be found on maps, forgotten scientific triumphs, abandoned buildings of almost inhuman complexity. The perfect technocratic future that never came…”

Danila Tkachenko

 

Airplane – amphibia with vertical take-off VVA14. The USSR built only two of them in 1976, one of which has crashed during transportation.

Airplane – amphibia with vertical take-off VVA14. The USSR built only two of them in 1976, one of which has crashed during transportation.

 

Screen shot 2015-09-22 at 8.31.54 AM

The world’s largest diesel submarine.

 

Screen shot 2015-09-22 at 8.31.35 AM

“Bulgaria” ship lifted from underwater, 122 people drowned on it.

 

Via http://www.danilatkachenko.com/projects/restricted-areas/

All photos copyright Danila Tkachenko

The Photographs of Danila Tkachenko

In Books, Documentary, Photography ,
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One Photograph: Unintelligent Land Development

April 6, 2015 — Leave a comment

Entering its 3rd year of drought California is in a water crisis of unimaginable magnitude should this continue at the current rate. Yet the state continues to develop desert lands. There have been volumes written on this subject yet one photograph can say everything we need to know in mere seconds. Damon Winter nails it with a photograph that screams out why?

This is the power of documentary photography and a new series I will add to this blog.

Screen shot 2015-04-06 at 8.59.43 AM

 

via the New York Times

 

 

One Photograph: Unintelligent Land Development

In Documentary, One Photograph, Photography
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Simon Norfolk: Best Photograph of 2014

December 22, 2014 — Leave a comment

As the year draws to a close and most are listing their top 10 lists for 2014 I will leave you with what I think is one of the most profound works I have seen this past year. Part document and part performance piece, Simon Norfolk travels to Africa for the NYTimes to photograph the slow disappearance of Lewis Glacier on Mount Kenya due to the profound effects of global warming. His solution to depicting this reality of our world (quickly reaching the point of no return) is both poetic, beautiful and unnerving as he outlines the receding glacier by long exposure while carrying a torch. His description below says it all…

…”The mountain didn’t seem overwhelming or otherworldly now, but rather broken and vulnerable. As Norfolk worked, he could hear meltwater rushing down the glacier’s flanks. Standing next to that ice field, he says, was like standing next to “the exhausted remains of something that was once glorious.” He thought of nature documentaries, of scenes in which, say, a bull elephant is tranquilized by a researcher and crumples on the ground. “You can approach it now, because it’s safe,” Norfolk says. “But you feel its desperateness, as if it is opening one eye and looking back at you, saying, ‘What have you done to me?’ ”…

 

nytimes simon norfolk

 

 

 

Simon Norfolk: The Best Photograph of 2014

In Art, Documentary, One Photograph, Photography , , ,
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