December 07, 2006
Blogs about photography
After talking last night with three Silicon Valley internet superstars about ways to improve www.lensculture.com, we came to the realization that what we at lens culture really want (more than money, which would be nice, too) is to create a forum for dialogue about photography and its impact on our daily lives, our cultures, and how we perceive reality, art, propaganda and more. Call it an international community of people with shared interests.
I truly enjoy the give-and-take conversations I have with smart, talented, passionate photographers, as well as others who are equally informed and passionate (like curators, gallery owners, publishers, critics, educators). I am inspired by work that reveals new points-of-view on our ever-changing world. And I love to discover photography (new or old) that pushes and plays with the limits of the medium and what it can show us. I find that photographers and photography lovers are often some of the most articulate people I have met.
It is also a delight to discover more and more blogs that talk about photography (rather than blogs that merely show photographs). As I've mentioned before, Magnum photographer Alec Soth has been publishing his thoughts and insights in a wonderfully prolific way on his personal blog. And Joerg Colberg, a long-time respected blogger, has just published an interview with Alec Soth about blogging, and why he does it.
One reason Soth has become so enthusiastic about blogging: "I discovered that I had a real hunger for the exchange of ideas. I’m extremely lucky to make my living as an artist, but the lifestyle isn’t very romantic. I spend the bulk of my time dealing with office work (printing, shipping, billing, pricing, etc). Since I have a family, I’m not hanging out in smoky lofts debating aesthetics. The blog has become my virtual smoky loft."
A CALL TO ACTION:
So, we are now reaching out to you (anyone who is reading this) to ask for advice on ways to make the lens culture community more active and interactive and engaged — with voices and informed opinions and images and ideas from all over the world. Who are you, and what are your interests? We are eager to hear from you. Please comment or email.
Thanks!
Comments
we scan a lot of sources for our site which is dedicated to promoting imaging. at the moment there does not appear to be any rss or xml connectivity to lens culture. it would certainly benefit all involved if it were active and prominently displayed at the top of the home page. the site is very informative...
What Alec said about "a real hunger for the exchange of ideas" rings true to me. Sometimes making photographs and running a photo business is a lonely pursuit, of course depending on subject matter etc., and one that begs for interaction with others who may have a somewhat parallel existence
It's not my site but the feeds are here:
www.lensculture.com/webloglc/index.rdf (RSS)
www.lensculture.com/webloglc/atom.xm (Atom)
I would agree it would be a good idea for the site to link to those so that those users not using Firefox can find them ;)
Are you talking about a literal "forum" or bulletin board model where topical threads are the means of creating community or something more akin to a group blog where a variety of artistic viewpoints co-exist under one roof?
We briefly discussed the idea of running a forum on MakingRoom but were wary of the photo.net syndrome where it's really difficult to filter opinion from knowledge from insecurity. Forums are always delicate places where ego can sometimes ruin the possibility of unique discussion.
I wouldn't let that scare you away because a string core group can also pull in the "right" community.
why not begin by having a section that hosts links to various photobloggers, and maybe have some sort of rating system to help organize them.
brandon--
that's a great idea. what do you think about blogs that post photos only vs. those that talk about and point to photography? it's kind of a haiku dilemma for me.
Jim
You could organize by what they do that's unique, what they do best, or just by general categorizations of your choosing. One thing that I'd like to see (and perhaps it's just plain impractical) is a site listing and reviewing new photo books on an international basis.
I occasionally write on 'art' and photography and fairly regularly link to interesting images on flickr and elsewhere.
A regular discussion point on flickr is the issue of photo-manipulation - for example to many people on flickr (flickr management included) the images from Palla in a previous post here would not be photographs!
I thought this quote was interesting in that context (http://thephotofinishes.com/effectOrton.htm):
"One of the debates raging within photo clubs across the world, as many cross over from film to digital camera usage, is what should be allowed in the post processing of digital images. One community is for minimal post processing. Another group would like to see only what could be done in a wet darkroom be allowed. And finally there is a third group that says anything goes."
I'm certainly interested in work that pushes the boundaries technically as much as in content, so I suppose I'm in the third group.
This is a long-overdue response to Davin Risk's thoughtful comments and questions from December 10.
I am eager to host a core group of 'select' contributors to generate a more broad and open sense of dialogue and community on the subjects of photography and its intersections with various cultures and various other forms of art and communication. It would be great to have diverse voices and points of view here at Lens Culture -- without the inappropriate interruption or de-railing of conversations that seems to occur so often in free-for-all bulletin boards. Yet I'm not sure how to get such a thing going.
Are there some good models out there?
I think a magazine might be a useful option, it's a form which certainly beats having to wade through message-boards filled with piffle and wedding photographers. Downloadable PDF magazines seem to be hot at the moment. There are also excellent print-on-demand publishers such as www.lulu.com ? JPEG magazine and louviere+vanessa have published with them, among others. My own weblog at http://www.d-log.info covers a lot of art photography and related publications.
Sorry for my delay in coming back to this topic. It's hard to say what the magic formula is for fostering interesting and lively discussion about art. Clearly it can happen somewhat spontaneously as it has happened on Alec Soth's blog (the variety and depth of his interests and his honest tone certainly help).
I wonder if some sort of online "panel discussions" which could be followed by further open discussion make sense? So the idea would be to hand-pick 3-5 people from whichever disciplines and have them discuss a topic in a closed chat format (or something) and then publish that as a transcript which could then be discussed publicly.
Here's an example of something 37 Signals have done: http://www.37signals.com/svn/archives2/fireside_chat_richard_bird_jim_coudal_and_carlos_segura.php
That's one thought anyway.
Hey Jim,
I absolutely agree with your push to create a more vibrant dialog/discourse on photography. I'm back in San Francisco and have realized that I, too, thirst for more energy in the art community here.
For my part, I just the other day started a blog about the art world the the Bay Area http://artproper.blogspot.com adding my two cents and hoping that this new forum would allow a two-way critique of exhibitions, lectures and what not. So much of what we get about our local community is one way and blogging allows for much more back and forth than traditional media.
Anything I can do to help you with this, just let me know!
Kate