Yuba on Flickr. View high resolution

Yuba on Flickr.

Kyoto on Flickr. View high resolution

Kyoto on Flickr.

untitled on Flickr.

untitled on Flickr.

Harajuku manshon on Flickr.Separate beds for newlyweds. View high resolution

Harajuku manshon on Flickr.

Separate beds for newlyweds.

Shinjuku babe on Flickr. View high resolution

Shinjuku babe on Flickr.

bremser: Alfred Eisenstaedt photo with design element by Hoochie Magazine One of the most iconic and seemingly uncomplicated photographs of the 20th Century is being re-interpreted. For decades, most everyone that has seen this photo sees a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square, celebrating the end of WWII. A happy moment between a couple. But, after interviews with the couple in question, it turns out the euphoria of the day (and some beers) motivated the sailor to grab a woman he did not know, the nurse. What’s remarkable is this decades-old photograph overlaid with the text, designed by Hoochie magazine, has 140,000 notes on Tumblr. Whether the photograph documents rape culture will be debated, but it’s clear this photograph now has a backstory, a backstory that is spreading quickly. The photograph is currently all over the New York subway system in its old context, used by the New York Historical Society to advertise a new exhibit about WWII. This is no longer a photograph just related to WWII. As its new context spreads, it’s unlikely that Alfred Eisenstaedt’s most famous photograph will be used for something like a subway poster or cover of a book. View high resolution

bremser:

Alfred Eisenstaedt photo with design element by Hoochie Magazine

One of the most iconic and seemingly uncomplicated photographs of the 20th Century is being re-interpreted. For decades, most everyone that has seen this photo sees a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square, celebrating the end of WWII. A happy moment between a couple. But, after interviews with the couple in question, it turns out the euphoria of the day (and some beers) motivated the sailor to grab a woman he did not know, the nurse.

What’s remarkable is this decades-old photograph overlaid with the text, designed by Hoochie magazine, has 140,000 notes on Tumblr. Whether the photograph documents rape culture will be debated, but it’s clear this photograph now has a backstory, a backstory that is spreading quickly. The photograph is currently all over the New York subway system in its old context, used by the New York Historical Society to advertise a new exhibit about WWII. This is no longer a photograph just related to WWII. As its new context spreads, it’s unlikely that Alfred Eisenstaedt’s most famous photograph will be used for something like a subway poster or cover of a book.

(Reblogged from bremser)
mpdrolet: Olaf Martens I took a photo of this guy back in 2001. I’m so glad to know his name, now! View high resolution

mpdrolet:

Olaf Martens

I took a photo of this guy back in 2001. I’m so glad to know his name, now!

(Reblogged from mpdrolet)
Cafe du Monde

Cafe du Monde

Flickr is still great

Wayne Bremser has compiled a list of great photographers who have been active on Flickr recently, with this introduction:

Recently I looked at my Flickr account, and of my 768 contacts, 240 have uploaded in the past week, 360 this month. This was before the new iOS app and Instagram TOS meltdown. These are impressive statistics, considering I’ve been a member since 2005. After hearing it declared “dead” and “irrelevant,” this is a community of people that care about what they are putting up. So much so that many of them pay for it. Flickr is already the paid alternative so many people are clamoring for. Your photos will not be used to create “meaningful brand engagement.” Years after Flickr ceased to be an exciting business story, it remains one of the most important places for photography culture online.

His list demonstrates the incredible diversity of good photography on Flickr, beyond what shows up automatically in Explore. This kind of list is why I think curation is so important for Flickr.

(Reblogged from bremser)
A Laputan robot at the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka.

A Laputan robot at the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka.

Osaka at night on Flickr. View high resolution

Osaka at night on Flickr.

tokyo-camera-style: The Japanese news site 47 News, part of the Kyodo News Network, has since 2006 commissioned a feature devoted to the work of Nobuyoshi Araki with Happiness as its central theme.   The series is called 「アラーキーの幸福写真」(Araaki no koufuku syashin), a title which might best be (literally) translated as “Araki’s photographs of happiness” but is possibly even more charmingly put into English on the site as “Happy photograph that Araki took”.  With an assistant or two Araki visits local events and areas to photograph those he meets. Happiness does indeed show up, often due to the fact that what nearly everyone is doing when they meet the photographer is done out of personal interest or even love. His own chatty charisma seems to amplify those feelings in every subject.  The selected results from each outing gets its own online gallery/article with text by the photographer as well.  Clicking on the links below the thumbnails will take you to each section. Several entires have two parts (上 and 下 being signifiers to look for). In addition to monochrome still images, many galleries offer a short clip (most just slightly over a minute) of Araki at work.  While he’s internationally known for his photographic explorations into the concept of Eros,  in these video clips you can watch him photograph seven year old skateboarders, female boxers in Setagaya, salarymen on ice-skates, aspiring comedians in Nakano, studious 10 year olds at an abacus school,  rowdy toddlers taking an English conversation class, tatami mat makers at work, a twelve-year old Shogi genius in Kichijoji, kite flyers, and even a hula dancing class for golden girls.   Clips from previous years have been compiled together into two 10 minute youtube videos: Part 1 & Part 2.  Photos made in these videos were shot during outings for his books「幸福写真」Photography of Happiness and 「東京愛情」Tokyo Aijo, which is available at Japan Exposures.   In a sense this happiness theme is a continuation from a book published in 1999 entitled Hitomachi, a collection of portraits of people living in the traditional neighborhoods of Yanaka in Tokyo shot over the course of a year. Excerpts from Hitomachi are well reproduced in the excellent Phaidon-published tome Self, Life, Death from 2005, complete with three short essays about photographing the people he met, and even the “nondescript” photos which he made that carries over well to the current web work.   In case you’re wondering- since this is Tokyo Camera Style— he’s shooting Leica M7s (seen here), mostly with the 35mm f1.4 Summilux and Leica flash SF 20. In Kameido it looks like he’s using a 35mm Aspherical Summicron. I’ve heard that his black chrome M7 was a gift from Leica (complete with his name engraved on top) for taking part of their “hands” campaign from a few years ago. As far as film goes I’ve been told he shoots Fuji Presto 400.   In regards to shooting with a Leica, he says in Self, Life, Death that: “You need a Leica if you’re going to shoot real life and happiness. Kind-heartedness, life and people: it all boils down in the long run to love and affection. The Leica has just the right lens, shutter noise, and style to make it go perfectly with this kind of feeling.  Like I said before, the Leica makes its presence in an incredibly reserved way. You get the impression that even the subject of your photo looks calmer and gentler.   It looks really refined and expensive as well. That’s another thing I like about it. With a cheap and shoddy camera all you can take are cheap and shoddy photographs. The photographs you take are a reflection of the camera you’re using!” At 72 Araki is still working and it looks like “Happy Photograph That Araki Took” is updated every two months or so.  It’s worth bookmarking to see what pops up next.  View high resolution

tokyo-camera-style:

The Japanese news site 47 News, part of the Kyodo News Network, has since 2006 commissioned a feature devoted to the work of Nobuyoshi Araki with Happiness as its central theme.  

The series is called 「アラーキーの幸福写真」(Araaki no koufuku syashin), a title which might best be (literally) translated as “Araki’s photographs of happiness” but is possibly even more charmingly put into English on the site as “Happy photograph that Araki took”. 

With an assistant or two Araki visits local events and areas to photograph those he meets. Happiness does indeed show up, often due to the fact that what nearly everyone is doing when they meet the photographer is done out of personal interest or even love. His own chatty charisma seems to amplify those feelings in every subject.  The selected results from each outing gets its own online gallery/article with text by the photographer as well.  Clicking on the links below the thumbnails will take you to each section. Several entires have two parts (上 and 下 being signifiers to look for).

In addition to monochrome still images, many galleries offer a short clip (most just slightly over a minute) of Araki at work.  While he’s internationally known for his photographic explorations into the concept of Eros,  in these video clips you can watch him photograph seven year old skateboarders, female boxers in Setagaya, salarymen on ice-skates, aspiring comedians in Nakano, studious 10 year olds at an abacus school,  rowdy toddlers taking an English conversation class, tatami mat makers at work, a twelve-year old Shogi genius in Kichijoji, kite flyers, and even a hula dancing class for golden girls.  

Clips from previous years have been compiled together into two 10 minute youtube videos: Part 1 & Part 2.  Photos made in these videos were shot during outings for his books「幸福写真」Photography of Happiness and 「東京愛情」Tokyo Aijo, which is available at Japan Exposures.  

In a sense this happiness theme is a continuation from a book published in 1999 entitled Hitomachi, a collection of portraits of people living in the traditional neighborhoods of Yanaka in Tokyo shot over the course of a year. Excerpts from Hitomachi are well reproduced in the excellent Phaidon-published tome Self, Life, Death from 2005, complete with three short essays about photographing the people he met, and even the “nondescript” photos which he made that carries over well to the current web work.  

In case you’re wondering- since this is Tokyo Camera Style— he’s shooting Leica M7s (seen here), mostly with the 35mm f1.4 Summilux and Leica flash SF 20. In Kameido it looks like he’s using a 35mm Aspherical Summicron. I’ve heard that his black chrome M7 was a gift from Leica (complete with his name engraved on top) for taking part of their “hands” campaign from a few years ago. As far as film goes I’ve been told he shoots Fuji Presto 400.  

In regards to shooting with a Leica, he says in Self, Life, Death that:

“You need a Leica if you’re going to shoot real life and happiness. Kind-heartedness, life and people: it all boils down in the long run to love and affection. The Leica has just the right lens, shutter noise, and style to make it go perfectly with this kind of feeling.  Like I said before, the Leica makes its presence in an incredibly reserved way. You get the impression that even the subject of your photo looks calmer and gentler.  

It looks really refined and expensive as well. That’s another thing I like about it. With a cheap and shoddy camera all you can take are cheap and shoddy photographs. The photographs you take are a reflection of the camera you’re using!”

At 72 Araki is still working and it looks like “Happy Photograph That Araki Took” is updated every two months or so.  It’s worth bookmarking to see what pops up next. 

(Reblogged from tokyo-camera-style)
Cody Cobb View high resolution

Cody Cobb

neon.tambourine View high resolution

neon.tambourine

Shinya Arimoto View high resolution

Shinya Arimoto