OK, this is a completely self-celebration post, but I want to share it with my readers.

This blog was started in 2009, in the blogspot platform with the name in35mm, then transmigrated in my official website in 2011. 10 years of activity which have inevitably been affected by the influence of my growth path. If we look at the old posts we can see how the formula was in the line of what you expect from a photography blog, but today the blog has its own unmistakable trademark.

Pretty far from the usual and the banal, in particular through 2 columns I try to give something more “adult” to the photography blog scene: at the moment of writing this piece I count 154 posts for INSPIRATION, and 200 for TECHNIQUE: 

It was recognized as the best entertainment center in Mexico. Located in Colonia Juarez, El Patio was for a long time the meeting place of prominent figures, it was known as an elegant place and a label, which was attended by national and international artists  like Édith Piaf and prominent politicians.

On October 12, 1938 El Patio officially opened its doors El Patio becoming the busiest place to attend the presentations of the fashion artists of the time. The place was exclusive and the prices to enter were high, since in addition to attending the show you could also taste a delicious dinner and a good wine.

The decline came to El Patio in the 90s.

“I am looking at the landscape for what it reveals about the human moment… This is the surface of the earth and what we do with it tells us an awful lot about ourselves”- Joel Sternfeld, Interview  “New York Voices”

An interesting text that I would recommend is A Place in the World?: Places, Cultures and Globalization (Shape of the World) by Doreen Massey and Pat Jess. You can find it on amazon: click here

The “sense of place” is  part of the systems of meaning with which we give meaning to the world and to our existence.

The place is a physical thing: but it is also something made of social interaction, a structure of feeling, a center of meaning. The place as a reality of encounters, the location of the intersections of particular quantities of activity spaces, of connections and interrelations, of influences and movements.

The place is essentially not fixed, seeing it from this perspective, is essentially a meeting space that live by overlapping, co-presence, interaction even when not direct.

From a photographic point of view the place becomes the essence and the opportunity to observe all these connections: I am not photographing only a place, I am photographing a series of events happening in that moment in that place.

 

In 1963 the seminal pop artist Ed Ruscha created the conceptual book 26 Gasoline Stations.

His reverb had in photographers like Stephen Shore the consequences we have admired in the photograph that investigates the American landscape. Of course my humble homenage, made without many claims from the bus where I was at the moment, is just a note to myself to back in the place and possibly making a better photograph.

Source: Pag. 71, Photography and the Non-Place: The Cultural Erasure of the City –  Jim Brogden – Springer, 2019

The gasoline stations are a perfect representation of the journey, an inevitable stop for highways travelers. Their structure presents a photogeny due to the geometry of the spaces, where the landscape photographer can have the opportunity to enclose interesting compositions of daily activity in a frame.

Lewis Baltz and the rigorous compositions are always kept in mind in certain urban landscape, and the gasoline station represents also today decades later, still a non-place where elements of the vernacular journey help us to bring to mind the feeling of the experience in motion. I think is pretty interesting when an image is overloaded with symbolism and where it doesn’t stop only at the essence of the image itself and therefore at the elements present, but rather also at those evoked.

 

 

 

Please note: I did have my hard time this month with the magazine. Many submissions I received lack of the minimum of quality to consider a feature in the magazine. I am talking about the selection of the images, how to present a set of images no matters if from a unique project or just a selection of best street shots. Finally I chosen two good works, but arrived to issue 53 never happened something like that so far. But I need to explain something.

FIRST OF ANYTHING…

I don’t consider a photographer just someone taking photos. Today anyone can take photos. Also your mother in law. This is not the point if you think to make serious things with photography or you aim to make something important. If we are talking about documentary photography (and I include on the speech street photography) skills requested are the ones referring to the VISUAL NARRATIVE. If you lack in visual narrative, ROGER WE HAVE A PROBLEM.

TAKING AS MODEL THE STREET PHOTOGRAPHER NOTEBOOK

If you think to send a submission to me, please consider before:

– The project now presents the opportunity to be featured in e-books or printed books editions. In both cases to offer an high quality magazine photos need to be maximum dimensions from the camera, 300 dpi;

– Be concerned with maintaining a visual narrative in the case of a project and at least a consistent rhythm, intent and aesthetics for the selection of single shots;

– a propaedeutic referring to photographic language, meaning all those approaches oriented to give beginners a first, essential level of design knowledge.

– a visual literacy that allows the codification of the basic principles of the photographic discipline;

– putting into practice that requires an educational dimension in which we can learn elements of problem-solving and learning through real experience;

– the work of selection, which thanks to the first two concepts, allows us to become editors of ourselves and realize, through a visual awareness, the true corpus of the photographic project;

– be aware to include a brief bio/artist statement of your path so far, and in the case of a specifici project a description. Please include also your website. A recommendation: a website is better than a social network link. Through a website I can understand more of you as photographer;

For my magazine 20/30 pictures are fine. If you aim to a monograph you can arrive to 60, better from 2 projects. In a general way to approach be sure you are familiar with the magazine where you are submitting and that fits the standards of that editorial project.

I really hope this can help the ones willing to be featured. Looking forward to work together!

I DECIDED TO MAKE THIS LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHERS, BECAUSE I CONSIDER THEIR WORK REALLY INSPIRING

Don’t expect only a genre represented. I think photography needs to be considered going beyond the labels and genre divisions. I given priority in my choices in photographers showing a vision and a planning in their work. As a photo editor to me is fundamental to see photographers with personality. 

Please note: the authors here don’t even know about this post. I used photos taken from their facebook accounts sometimes. If you think the selection reflects my current taste, yeah, you are right. I can only say a big thank to them for their inspiring work.

Stephen Cysewski

Landscape photography at its best. I discovered him not long ago, and I am impressed by his approach, using photography as a personal diary and showing the wild of Alaska and the urban.

website: http://www.cysewski.com/

Paola Rossi

Interiors and landscape where Paola’s poetic gaze is concentrated, with authorial strength of the highest level. Visions that are good for the brain and the spirit. Paola Rossi’s Photography is literate, owning a strong narrative connotation. For me Paola is currently one of the best photographers in the world.

website: https://www.instagram.com/occhidipaola/

Massimo Tolardo

Again, landscape photographs that whispering say many things. I am enjoying a lot his work through facebook.

website: https://www.flickr.com/photos/27525543@N05/

Mauro Quirini

I know Mauro since the times of photo4u. I followed his path because he was a great street photographer, but now his photos are close to that conceptual landscape that follows the noble Italian tradition. Always a reference to me, because from an author like him you can just learn.

Marco Guidi

His polaroid are a refuge that warms the heart. Marco’s photography speak us of the place and the sense of the existence. Poetry.

Niko J. Kallianiotis

His America By Trance is the project showing America and I enjoy to see compositions with many details and, in fact, they are a document of the human condition. Inspiring work from ones of the best photographers today.

website: http://www.nikokallianiotis.com/

Tania Franco Klein

Intense. Elegant. Sophisticated. And what I say for Paola Rossi, I could repeat it for Tania. Poetry made image.

website: https://www.taniafrancoklein.com/

Marta Bevacqua

Marta Bevacqua is simply one of the most important photographers today. Period.

website: https://www.martabevacquaphotography.com/

I hope you appreciated this post. And I hope the photographers selected too. Before to be a photographer and a photo editor, I am a photography fanatic, and I get excited when I see a good photograph. When I find photographers showing a path and a constancy, combined with an intense and personal look I immerse myself in their photography and learn.

 

In the last day I published on my Italian blog fotoreportando an article where I take the distance from the street photography term.

Yesterday, checking out the dashboard of my wordpress, I noticed something that made me happy. “neo landscape photography italian photog” is among the top searches this week on my website. We are improving and finally getting away fom that “street photography” term. Eclipsing fom that term more and more because I am a documentary photographer, and for me photography is and always has been something with a remarkable content. Photography to me needs to have a documentary value, where the form is put at the service of the content.

In open contrast to the expressive chiaroscuro of Ansel Adams, the New Topographics photographers produced lighter, even-toned prints, exalting the banal.  The New America, its demographic expansion and the advancement of cement to the detriment of nature,  were the main topic of Robert Adams, Joe Deal, and Lewis Baltz, among others. The construction of structures in the middle of the desert, and elements of pop culture, cars, beer cans, gas stations, road signs became important elements and subjects to be photographed.

I photographed several times in 10 years this mural. Unlike many walls in Mexico, especially in the barrios, which are constantly changing with new subjects, this mural belonging to the tortilleria alongside resists. I think is pretty interesting to observe as a mural can provide many descriptive elements of a given place, its essence and also the atmosphere that actually creates. Yes, a graffiti contributes to create sensations on the place to the point to identify that place with the mood of the painted subject.

 

 

I THINK MOST OF THE STREET PHOTOGRAPHY BLOGS ARE BAD

One of the issues with street photography are the blogs. Most of them are banal, stupid, written by people who can’t write. Unuseful posts with the same topics repeated endlessly. I save just a few. This generates an audience composed of idiots, because idiots are the writers of these blogs.

I spend a good part of the day working on making photos or curating a book layout. Of course, I write. A lot. I have 2 blogs, this one and fotoreportando, and I am collaborating to a generalistic photography blog too. The fire inside keeps me burning the flame. The flame of the passion called photography.

Last days were crazy for me, with a burned oven and a gas leak, invoices to be made to receive payment from a customer, business meetings in person or via skype and,  in the middle of this psycho-drama, I walked in and around the monster, the monster city,  exploring for new views and new stories, with anything that might spark my interest, and guess what, I achieved to make some good photos.

Mexico City in new places, new encounters, new barrios. And the state of Mexico, the rude and dangerous EDOMEX.

In a way I am photographing my life, through a simplicity that grew inside me, that has always been present on me: 

– This is where you are!

Exactly. Most of the times a photograph is about this.  

Photography is about the life experience. If it is a thing detached from this it is seen and usually doesn’t work.

And here I continue. Sharing my life. My life that is photography.

Yesterday it has been a very busy day. 

Curating photos of others is a hard work. In these days we have seen shaed again the thoughts of Sebastiao Salgado about his idea that photography with a mobile phone is not photography. 

I don’t agree.

In fact, I think photography is not the one with excessive use of photoshop and bad taste. I am sorry, but I have seen too many “cartoons” yesterday: at the point I thought there is a sort of mental disturb in some persons that  doesn’t allow them to see how false images so heavy elaborated are. They caused me a headache.

Actually, I know only one way of doing photography: it’s to get closer to reality as much as I can. To do so within the scene, I immerse myself, breath with the breath of where I am.

I often see photos that I don’t like. I don’t like them because they are far apart, and I do not mean the physical distance. They are emotionally distant and this generates algid images, without the compromise that is at the base of the game in documentary photography.

Another important thing is to deal with a narrative. That has nothing to do with taking as many photos as possible and then choosing, as many do. The documentary narration takes place in the moment, and the evolution of the actions allows us to support this story.

It’s not about taking a nice or nice photo. And excessive perfectionism would only ruin the genuineness and spontaneity of the recovery. It is often said that photographs lie, and I can agree. But what they don’t stop returning is a revealing heart of the photographer’s intentions, and we should take this into account. I think I have an advantage because my work as an editor gives me the luxury of observing, in a critical way, a lot of photography. This influence, in fact and inevitably, my vision as a photographer.

I elaborate so many thoughts on the ontology of photography, about who we are and where we would like to go.  I analyze myself and my photography.

I think a documentary photographer should be worry to guarantee veracity, narrative and coherence. I try to do it all the time. 

BEWARE, PEOPLE WITH SOME CONTESTS AND AWARDS. I DECIDED TO PUBLISH HERE AN INVITATION RECEIVED ON 2017.

JANUARY 15, 2017

_______________________________________________________________________________

Dear Alex Coghe,

We’re launching 4th annual contest Monochrome Awards. As a co-organizer of the competition I would like to invite you to be one of our international online judges. Check out our website: www.monoawards.com

The online judges itself will consist of +15 people from all over the world (mostly renowned black and white photographers).

As one of international online judges, your name and profile certainly will get benefits from this exposure and viral.

The judging is completely online and would be in December 2017. The winner’s gallery will be in the January 2018 with your judging credit.

I will be truly honored if you accept my invitation.  Please let me know if you would be interested and I’ll add you to the list.

Best regards,
Sebastian Markis
www.monoawards.com

__________________________________________________________________________________

I accepted. I was published on the land page of the jury. After this I never received any message to select the photographs. NOTHING. And this is not cool, guys. Because they used my name.

I contacted after to know the reason because in the meantime they announced the winners. I never received their reply. I can only inform my readers to avoid this:

https://monoawards.com/

I read recently othe awards are a fraud. If they use the name of curators and then they don’t have a real judgement process is clealy something not cool at all. 

STAY SAFE AND YOU CAN REPORT HERE OTHER AWARDS.

OK, this post is clearly autorreferencial, but not just this. There are things maybe you don’t know about Mexico…

National Geographic elected Mexico City as best city to visit in 2019. San Miguel de Allende and Oaxaca best cities for Travel & Leisure in 2018. Oaxaca the best in the world for the delicious food.

NG defines vibrant, elegant and chill Mexico City, as you can read it in  this article: click here.

You know my work here. If you are here, you probably know and appreciate it. Mexico City is considered the New York City of LatinAmerica. As a photographer I can assure you this is a great place for street photography. You can find the surreal and the great compositions, kissed by a great light. Anything is pretty interesting: I am here fo 10 years now and guys, every single day this city surprises me. 

Mexico City is not just downtown where tourists go and where I recommend to stay if you are alone. The issue of security exists, but is not that thing some not knowing the city state often. Never happened something menacing my security in 10 years, and guys, I live in a barrio in the north side of the city, I take the microbus.

If you are a photographer, possibly you would visit places different from the classic tourist routes. I am offering this through several photographic experiences. Furthermore I know the best places where we can eat real Mexican food and not the tourist food in downtown. My offer is varied and distinguish, focused on real photographer experiences. I am a photojournalist and street photographer: the photos you will achieve with me, you hardly did it alone, because I know the places and I will bring you there.

In particular:

Street Photography Workshops

CDMX Individual Documentary Street Workshop

To photograph the  barrios is not any photographer can do, but thanks to my guide and tuition you will be able to photograph in places otherwise off limits in some popula neighborhoods and also in the EDOMEX (Mexico state) for someone coming from another country:

Barrios Photo Workshop

CDMX PHOTO TOURS

The photo tours are designed for tourists that want to know the city and taking at home some stunning photos.

Mexico, of course, is not just Mexico City. Since 3 years I am proposing workshops in Oaxaca. In Oaxaca I can offer you a customized photo expedition. In Oaxaca you will live a unique experience in the warm south of Mexico. You will know incredible places like Hierve El Agua or Mitla. If you are ad adventure photographer you will love this:

OAXACA WORKSHOPS

It doesn’t matter what is your choice. Mexico is a fantastic country for any person and photographers will love it. My experiences (wokshops and expeditions) give you something unique not offered by others. I am a real documentary photographer working not just in nice places, and you know by taking an experience with me you will photograph in total safety, in places otherwise impossible to make. Any expeience with me includes books and mentoring program after, with portfolio reviews and opportunities to be involved in editorial projects.

To know more:

WORKSHOPS

When I return to the barrio, the microbus passes through a flyover. At a certain point in front of you, you can see the mountain, half covered with houses. A varied and colorful cluster.