By Tom Devriendt – (Sourced from Africa is a Country)
We’ll pretend we did not see Alex Perry’s clichéd description of Liberia (including a reference to Liberian Kreyol as “a patois that is both thuggish and warm”) to a Time LightBox feature on the work of photographer Glenna Gordon, and concentrate on her work instead. Instead we’ll turn to Glenna’s–we interviewed her here about her favorite photographers–own description of her work: “I have now been working in Liberia for the better part of the past three years,” she writes “and while much of the work I do is for publications or organizations, the work I feel most strongly about is my own documentary project which focuses on understanding Liberia’s past and desire to embrace the present.” (Read Further)
The demise of the cheap compact camera was inevitable, and we’re all street photographers now. But given the chance, would Cartier-Bresson have swapped his Leica for a smartphone?
With a camera constantly to hand to capture that decisive moment, we’re all Cartier-Bressons now – but would HCB have used a cameraphone himself? He famously employed a Leica because it was small and, importantly, quiet – he liked to be as unobtrusive as possible when photographing street scenes. Would the artificial mechanical sound of a cameraphone annoy him? Or perhaps we’re so accustomed to people taking photographs all around us today that it just wouldn’t be an issue. (Read Further)
Swedist artist Gunnel Wåhlstrand reinterprets her old family photographs as a link to the father she never knew
By the Window, 2003–2004, by Gunnel Wåhlstrand. Photograph: Björn Larsson/The Michael Storåkers Collection
Old family photo albums are lost worlds. They speak of yesteryear’s styles, bygone ways, and who our parents were long before we were twinkles in their eyes. What Swedish artist Gunnel Wåhlstrand shows us from her family album is no exception. Read Further.
The following article on nostalgia and new ventures drew somewhat insightful references to Kodak, and the way that advances in technology affected the former leader in the photography industry. The article was scanned from page 10 of the Wednesday January 11 2012 edition of the Financial Times. See, especially, paragraph 3.
