After a successful pinhole workshop at the Ann Arbor District Library in August, photographer Matt Callow is curating an exhibit of work created by the workshop participants, to be displayed at the Malletts Creek branch along with a selection of photos of the workshop in action.
Opening reception Friday, 22 September, 2006 at 7pm, at 3090 East Eisenhower Parkway, Ann Arbor, MI, US.
Details at the library Web site.
Following this month’s 33rd Annual Siggraph Conference in Boston, MA, a research team at Mitsubishi Electric is catching the attention of camera manufacturers for their photo motion deblurring technology, called a flutter shutter camera.
The flutter shutter camera is a modified camera that can capture moving objects at an exposure time of over 50 milliseconds, like high speed motion cameras. Using a coded exposure sequence, the new flutter shutter camera could recover text from a speeding car and sharpen images, according to the researchers.
Introduced in early August, three Mitsubishi Electric researchers presented the abstract, "Coded Exposure Photography: Motion Deblurring using Fluttered Shutter" at the largest computer and graphics conference, Siggraph. After one year of research development, Mitsubishi Electric Research Lab (MERL) senior researcher Ramesh Raskar, MERL visiting researcher Amit Agrawal, and Northwestern University computer science assistant professor Jack Tumblin launched the new prototype with the goal of deblurring photos.
Continue reading this article at DigitalCameraInfo.com or read the paper at Mitsubishi.
The sample photos are nothing short of jaw-dropping. This combined with Ren Ng‘s plenoptic camera that allows post-exposure refocussing [see previous post] would be a truly amazing thing.
Aaron Muderick has written a solid primer on Polaroid photography:
Every film photographer will tell you about the shots they lost because the lens cap was on, the film was bad, the camera setting was incorrect, or their own technique was mistaken. In the film era, one only found out about these critical mistakes days or weeks later when the film was developed and processed. By this time, the shot was lost forever. Digital changed all of this with the tiny video screen on the back of each camera.
However, the inventors of the digital camera were not the first to solve this problem of image turnaround. In 1947, a Harvard dropout was driven to invent by the impatience of his three year old daughter: “Daddy, why can’t I see my pictures NOW!”. His name was Edwin Land and his company was Polaroid.
Continue reading at Omnimatter
This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to see some of the most famous images in photographic history in their original form as vintage black and white prints. Because of their age and calibre these prints are very valuable. The photographers include some of the best-known names from early to mid 20th century, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Andre Kertesz, Eugene Atget, Josef Sudek, W. Eugene Smith, Man Ray, Bill Brandt, Mario Giacomelli, G.H. Brassai, Manuel Alvarez-Bravo and others…
Continue reading at PATAKA
The show runs through 10 September, 2006, at PATAKA, Norrie Street, Porirua, Wellington, NZ.
Via GRINZ
This exhibition features the work of contemporary photographers who choose to have direct contact with the photographic process in its most basic chemical and alchemical form—instead of working with current digital technology, these photographers have chosen to revive archaic 19th century techniques.
Artists include Chuck Close, Sally Mann, Jerry Spangnoli, Christopher Bucklow and Abelardo Morell.
The show runs from Thursday, 26 October, 2006 – Thursday, 7 December, 2006 at the University of Central Florida Art Gallery, Orlando, FL, US. The gallery is open 9:00am–4:00pm, Monday through Friday.
More info at the gallery’s Web site.
Via Pinhole Visions
An article in the Chicago Tribune begins:
Faced with opposition from railroad enthusiasts, the Union Pacific Railroad announced today it would once again allow people to take pictures from Metra station platforms on the Chicago-area routes it operates…
Via PhotoPermit.org
Photographer Matt Larkin is working on a book of wet plate collodion ambrotypes documenting people doing ritual body suspension. While some may find the subject matter challenging, I find the photography incredibly compelling—it captures both the intensity and the peace that I’ve heard can come from the suspension experience.
You can see more of Larkin’s wet plate photographs in his gallery at AlternativePhotography.com.
Photos © copyright 2007 Black Barn Editions. Used with permission.
UPDATE: The book is out, I’ve posted a review and ordering information here.
The Exposure-Mat is a free printable "light meter"—it’s an expanded cheat sheet for the Sunny 16 rule, where you judge the light by eye/Use The Force. It only goes up to ISO 800, but once you’ve got the reading, you can easily compensate.
Learn more & download from expomat.tripod.com. Free for personal use.
Brown & Baker Books press release:
SIGNS OF LIFE: SURVIVING KATRINA
An Extraordinary Photographic Collection of Survival: One Sign at a Time
Brown & Baker Books is pleased to announce the publication of SIGNS OF LIFE: SURVIVING KATRINA ($23.95 paperback). SIGNS OF LIFE is a moving collection of photos of the hand-made signs that appeared in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina. Profits from sales of the book will go to two organizations still working in the area: Common Ground Relief and Hands On Network.
Hand-made signs—spray painted on houses, on cars, on refrigerators—were some of the first "signs of life" to appear after the flood waters receded. The signs range from the sacred to the profane, from defiant to defeated, from frightening and encouraging. The signs reveal a powerful story of those who survived the deluge.
Compiled by Eric Harvey Brown and Lori Baker, New York–based photographers and writers who volunteered in the Gulf Coast after the hurricane, SIGNS OF LIFE shows not only the traces of the violence of the storm, but also that much devastation remains one year later. The pictures in SIGNS OF LIFE come from more than forty photographers—including local residents, relief volunteers, and those just passing through. The images were found on flickr.com and other photoblogs, and have been donated by the photographers for use in the book.
The messages in SIGNS OF LIFE remind us that everyone has a story to tell. "It’s impossible to speak for the people who lived through Katrina. Far better to let them speak for themselves," says Rob Walker, author of Letters from New Orleans. "That’s exactly what these sad, hopeful, funny and enraging images capture—and it’s exactly what SIGNS OF LIFE is about."
"SIGNS OF LIFE is not your typical art book. Yes, the images are poignant, even beautiful," says author/illustrator Josh Neufeld, who wrote the foreword. "These are documentary photos, a recording of history, giving voice to those who left, those who stayed, and those who were left behind."
SIGNS OF LIFE: SURVIVING KATRINA is available for purchase at www.lulu.com/signsoflifebook.
All profits go to the following organizations:
Common Ground Relief is a grassroots volunteer organization that was formed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to provide immediate aid to residents in the Gulf Coast region and long-term support in rebuilding their communities in just and sustainable ways. Since September 2005, Common Ground has an average of 150-300 volunteers on the ground at any time and a network of over 8,000 volunteers. They have provided relief to 70,000 residents in seven parishes including Orleans, St. Bernard, Plaquemine, Terrabone, St. Tammany, St. Charles and St. Marys.
Hands On Network brings people together to strengthen communities through meaningful volunteer action. We are a growing network of a half million volunteers changing communities inside and outside the United States. Since September 2005, Hands On Gulf Coast has: mobilized more than 2,500 volunteers from nearly every state in the country; provided over 270,000 hours of service; gutted more than 660 houses; and delivered volunteer labor valued at $4.86M.
I know the editors personally, and when they say 100% of the profits are going to these organizations, I believe them. Buy the book from Lulu, more info at www.signsoflifebook.com!