to move up and down
Visual Lust
A photography blogfolio of Ivo Kwee. Camera junkie and visually addicted.
Carolina R. (Lugano, January 2012).
Johanna (Switzerland, December 2011).
Xabi - just 5 days old
Christelle (Lugano, december, 2011).
QUOTES ON PHOTOGRAPHY
To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them. —Elliott Erwitt
A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense, and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety. —Ansel Adams
The photograph itself doesn’t interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality. —Henri Cartier Bresson
I think the best pictures are often on the edges of any situation, I don’t find photographing the situation nearly as interesting as photographing the edges. —William Albert Allard
Photograph honestly, let the Camera do the lying. —Mike Dowson
Never believe in yourself, ever, because complacency and vanity will creep in to your work, always be full of doubt, doubts about your work but never about yourself. Boldness is the key to being a ‘good’ photographer, boldness and being completely uninhibited. Don’t allow other people’s opinions to influence you. Take your work seriously but not yourself. Never acknowledge ‘mistakes’ because they do not exist in photography.
A photographer who doesn’t photograph women is no photographer, or only a third-rate one. Meeting a woman anywhere teaches you more about the world than reading Balzac. Whether it be a wife, a woman encountered by happenstance, or a prostitute, she will teach you about the world. In fact I build my life on meeting women and I have hardly read a book since primary school. … I think that all the attractions in life are implied in women. —Nobuyoshi Araki
"Adrienne, tha’ sex-bomb. I love doing high-key, reminds me that heaven is like this… Her website is http://adrienntiszeker.com/
Natsuki got several warnings on Facebook after posting some of our nekkid pictures, so I made her these “censored” versions (Araki’s koshoku-style!). Actually, I quite like them this way…:) (September, 2011)
Natsuki and the Dragon (September 2011).
Japanese photography
If there is one country in the world that makes the most pictures, it must be Japan. But they are not only made only by the Japanese tourists but also by great photographers. Recently I got more and more interested in Japanese photography. I am going to compile a list of websites of Japanese photographers that I like:
- Nobuyoshi Araki http://www.arakinobuyoshi.com/
- Daido Moriyama http://www.moriyamadaido.com/
- Eikoh Hosoe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eikoh_Hosoe
- Kazuyoshi Usui http://kazuyoshiusui.com/
- Natsumi Hayashi http://yowayowacamera.com/
And general websites on Japanese photography:
- http://www.japanexposures.com/
- http://www.ajapanesebook.com
- http://japan-photo.info
- http://photoguide.jp
the philosopher and the trickster: daido moriyama and nobuyoshi araki
There is so much written on western photography, rarely I find well written articles on Japanese photography. This is a great essay on the differences (and common things) between Moriyama and Araki. Quoting (my favorite part) from the original essay by Stacy Oborn:
[…] for example: one is taught by practicing artists and in academia that it is extremely desirable to have a “project.” that you will, in fact, have many of them, and that they should be somehow connected. lauren greenfield’s girl culture; larry clark’s tulsa up through kids; joel sternfeld’s on this site, to mention a few that are well known. all of these works are polished and thought through, but where they fail is that that they are often not felt through and throughout. they become exercises, they become the finishing of a “project.” they are not chiefly concerned with discovery, but about confirming a bias or a prejudice, whether visual, cultural, psychological or all three at once. moriyama’s project is about exploring the gap between seeing and feeling, about a semantic divide that is both verbal and non-verbal. his is an investigation of self, but not for the reasons of western autobiography nor does it use its methodology. his questions and answers (and then the new questions that get asked in the face of those answers) are not of one book or project, but all of them: those made in the past, those being made now, in the present, and the ones that have yet to be asked, yet to be made. […] his photographs ask over and over again: who am i in relation to this event, or this person? how is this moment unlike any other i have ever known, or will ever know? what else exists outside this view, the frame i may select, the things i am not photographing? can a photograph ever pretend to know any of this? can i?
Zurich street scapes, July 2011.
St. Moritz Art Masters photo workshop (part 2), September 2011. Shot with Panasonic Lumix GH2 20mm f/1.7 and 100-300mm zoom.
St. Moritz Art Masters photo workshop (part 1), September 2011. Shot with Panasonic Lumix GH2 20mm f/1.7 and 100-300mm zoom.
August 2011. Fun studio session with my little niece and nephew from Holland. The lighting with the blue backdrop was intended to be “Jill Greenberg”-style, two backlights crossing from behind, one main light (softbox) in front, and one spot for the backdrop. I am quite satisfied with that setup. The lighting with the grey backdrop is a single softbox and hairlight from above. I am amazed how little postprocessing is necessary if the lighting is done correctly. Definitely need to more precise with my lighting in future.