Diane Arbus, Lisette Model, Christer Stromholm

MAO - Jan'06 Book of The Month.

And, so sorry for the lack of posts this week.. my other half, Dr. Quiz was away for a long time.. so I've been a very busy boy at the bars breaking hearts, at work and hanging out with big ass time trouble this week.

So..A new B&W photography book was out last month (Dec 15th), but many may have missed it during your busy holiday party schedules.  Clearly, it slipped most MAO friends Christmas shopping lists.. cause we actually had to buy our own copy of the book the other day, but that 5th pair of gloves, and a lovely salad spinner were much appreciated, Thanks!

Arbus, Model, Stromholm is a show catalog from the exhibition at Moderna Museet in Stockholm, published by Steidl Verlag, with essay's by the Museum's Curator of Photography Anna Tellgren.

(Pic # 1- Book cover)

The Show was called

"Autumn in black and white Arbus Model Stromholm" and it

ran from

Oct 1, 2005 until

Jan 15th, 2006.

I've included a few of my favorites photos.

(Pic #2 - Diane Arbus "A young man in curlers at home on West 20th street, NY, NY 1966"  I'm glad to see.. West 20th street has not changed much in 40 years!!)

There's just something about this image.. I luv her!

Diane Arbus was so brilliant!

I was very familiar with uber popular Diane Arbus (1923-1971), and her New School teacher Lisette Model (1901-1983) work, but the photography of Swedish legend Christer Stromholm (1918-2002) was somewhat new to me.

While he was born and lived most of his life in Stockholm, many of Stromholm's most profound images were taken in Paris and Los Angeles in the 1960's.

(Pic #3 - Lisette Model "Woman with Veil, San Francisco, 1949")

But it's obvious all three's impressive and haunting work in Urban Humanistic Documentary photography are closely linked.

All working roughly at the same time (Model was a bit earlier), they all seemed to focus their photographic eye on the fringes of their society, looking deeply into issues of outsider-ship, and subcultures.

(Pic #4 Chister Stromholm, "Los Angeles, 1963")

There are many more of Stromholm's images here.

While the book has several interesting quotes from the photographers.. My favorite 2 go to Lisette Model, both said in 1951. Her words are still so profound today.

"New images surround us everywhere. They are invisible only because of sterile routine convention and fear.  To find these images is to dare to see, to be aware of what there is and how it is. The Photographer not only gets information, he gives information about life."

"Speed, the fundamental condition of the activities of our day is the power of photography, indeed the modern art of today, the art of the split second"

I found this a great comparative photographic book, a MAO must have! I only wish the Arbus Estate would have allowed more of her photography in the book.. there are only 3 full plates, and 3 smaller Arbus photographs.

Comments

[Silvia Gahn]

Me encanto la exposicion de Diane Arbus, es fantastica yo no la conocia la conoci mediante una revista que viene con el diario ahi esta la pelicula que va a interpretar Nicole Kidman.
Me gustaría recibir algunas galerias y más sobre su vida si es posible en español.Soy de Argentina. desde ya muchas gracias.