Welcome Magnum Blog readers.

I have been meaning to say this for several days now...

First of all, welcome to all the Magnum Blog readers that have been stopping by lately. Please look around and check out my blog and website-go ahead use some bandwidth and feel free to email me (me(at)harlanerskine.com) If you have any comments or questions.

Secondly, I have to say thank you to Martin Fuchs for including me in this post and subsequent Magnum Blog links page. Martin Fuchs also has personal blog of his own that is currently down (hey Martin how long are these repairs going to take?) called Journal Of A Photographer. I will make another post when that is back up and running.

By the way, I have to apologize for not posting in a few weeks I have been nailed down to schoolwork and trying to juggle everything. I have a few post I have been working on coming up and I will try to post at least once or twice a week in the future.

Fall Auction Season begins

Last Saturday and Sunday, I visited the Phillips de Pury & Company auction house in Chelsea for their Fall Photography Auction preview. Auctions provide a great opportunity to view artwork up close and to inspect it in atypical ways. For example, if the artwork that is not in an artist's frame you may ask them to un-matt and inspect the print-there is usually interesting writing and markings on the back of the work and you can see how the print is aging. When you see the art out of its frame you get to know the print in a completely different way. Sometimes the print was yellowing and sometimes you could see that it was even more stunning then any catalogue or mechanical reproduction could ever match-take that Walter Benjamin! Below are a few choice shots of their artwork viewing room.

Alec Soth's Cadillac Motel, 2005 "Color coupler print. 40 x 32 in. (101.6 x 81.3 cm). Signed in ink on a label affixed to the reverse of the frame. One from an edition of 7." On the wall at Phillips during sunset.

The art examination room at Phillips. Back wall left to right: Alec Soth, Elger Esser, and Lucinda Devlin.

Leni Riefenstahl's Nuba Portfolio on a viewing desk. "Berlin: Fine Art Photography, 2002. Thirty color coupler prints. Each approximately 22 3/4 x 17 in. (57.8 x 43.2 cm) or the reverse. Each signed and titled in pencil on the mount; each numbered 13/15 in ink, copyright credit and reproduction limitation stamps on the reverse of the mount. Two colophons, one in English and one in German. Contained in two linen clamshell cases."

Common Themes: Falling in Contempory Photography (UPDATE)

fall5 © elijah gowin. 2006 All rights reserved.

La chute © Denis Darzacq. 2006 All rights reserved.

Porch © kerry skarbakka. 2002 All rights reserved.

Its always interesting to me to see how different photographers approach the same themes. Notice how the environment, coloring and location set the mood as well a composition. If you're up in new york you have a chance to go see Elija Gowin's project at Robert Mann Gallery on 210 Eleventh Avenue between 24th & 25th Streets.

Thanks, "Anonymous" for pointing out two other Falling/Jumping works. One is by Yves Klein, a French Artist who worked in the 50s and early 60s. In 1960 he documented a performance of him jumping off a ledge and the resulting phtoograph as documentation entitled Saut dans le vide (Leap into the Void).

Saut dans le vide (Leap into the Void). © yves klein. 1960 All rights reserved.

The other Artist mentioned is Bas Jan Ader who is another performance biased artist whose work is now largely preserved at photography.

Broken Fall (Organic) © Bas Jan Ader. 1971/94 All rights reserved.

I also just remembered that Young British Artist group member Sam Taylor-Wood has a whole series of falling and suspensions that are also strikingly along the same lines as the works above.

Self Portrait Suspended I © Sam Taylor-Wood. 2004 All rights reserved.

Self Portrait Suspended VII © Sam Taylor-Wood. 2004 All rights reserved.

Bram Stoker's Chair II © Sam Taylor-Wood. 2005 All rights reserved.

Falling VI © Sam Taylor-Wood. 2003 All rights reserved.