Another solarized sun discovery.

Hans-Christian Schink, 2/23/2006 4:04 pm - 5:04 pm N: 34° 03.712' W: 118° 20.979', 2006, Silbergelatine-Abzug, Auflage 5+3

Amazing how the internet has brought work together that was made around the same time. Just ten years ago it would have been very hard to find other artists working with similar themes around the world. Maybe because of this there are also more artists working today? just a theory.

So, I was looking through Mrs Deane a blog about photography run by Beierle + Keijser and I came across this post: congratulations hans christian schink! Hans Christian Schink, represented by ACE gallery in America and GALERIE ROTHAMEL in Europe. He recently won the newly created "REAL Photography Award" brought to you by ING Real Estate. The award was announced in March of 2008 so the sustainability of this award is certainly in question considering the current state of financial markets and especially real estate. But all economic worries aside I am quite interested in Schink's project and the parallels between it, Chris McCaw's Sunburn project and my Black Sun Project. I wonder how many from the Award show's jury were aware of McCaw's work which is quite similar? And, if they were what were their thoughts on them and why one is more worthy of the award that the other project.

Make Me a Real Man

nice clip on Current tv from by filmmaker Stuart Kershaw.
from the pod info:

What makes a man? How do we come of age in the 21st century? In a world where you can still be a boy at thirty, One young-ish filmmaker sets out on a belated quest for manhood.

With a little internet digging I noticed this history of this quote. Originally written by Wilhelm Stekel who was then quoted in J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye as saying, "The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one" (p.188). This quote is also used in the anime Ghost in the Shell.

I also enjoy the pod's discussion of the roll of war, the warrior and how the military can act as a coming of age. As these topics relate to my final project in school and I am still working them out for myself. Holden Caulfield's musings of what the world means are not that far off from this film maker's. As society moves further away from Caulfield's era will we develop new rites of passage into maturity? Or are these very rites passe and the sequence itself flawed?

Another Emerging Photographers Auction

Sarah Palmer, Smog, South Mountain, 2008 E1DA

Daniel Cooney Fine Art is staging their second Emerging Photographers Auction via iGavel. The bidding began on January 2nd and will end on 21st. It's interesting to see the online space for 'art' photography grow. I don't think ultimately this will be the new way that people buy art. It seems like it might be degrading the value of art and moving it more into commerce. Sure its easier, more accessible to a wider audience and as convenient as buying is on eBay but it doesn't make economic sense to buy at auction a piece in an edition that's not sold out. How can value be determined when there are still 5 or more prints unsold? I'm all for selling art prints online in the right way with open and set prices. It just seems a little ahead of the game to auction an editioned print before the edition is sold out.

Either way there are a bunch of good pictures included from a large group of Photographers: Juliana Beasley, Timothy Briner, Nina Buesing, Tom Chambers, Megan Cump, Clayton Cotterell, Adrienne De Boer, Matt Eich, Sam Falls, Jon Feinstein, Mark William Fernandes, Amy Finkelstein, Lucas Foglia, Kyle Ford, Chuck Hemard, Oded Hirsch, Whitney Hubbs, Michael Itkoff, Dave Jordano, Christopher La Marca, Nyra Lang, Shane Lavalette, Pixy Liao, Walter Lockwood, Jennifer Loeber, Oz Lubling, Sara Macel, Jay Matthews, John Mann, Eri Morita, Carolyn Monastra, Nik Mirus, Sarah Palmer, Lydia Panas, Toni Pepe, Bradley Peters, Jeffrey Rich, Nadine Rovner, Noel Rodo Vankeulen, Shen Wei

You can bid on the Auction or just browse and watch the spectacle/experiment(?) of the commerce of emerging art.