Graham Miller - Suburban Splendour

Graham Miller, born in Hong Kong 1966, is a photographic artist and co-founder of FotoFreo a biennial international festival of photography based in Fremantle, Western Australia. His work has been exhibited internationally and throughout Australia.
 

Miller says " 'Suburban Splendour' materialised from encounters observed while driving through the United States, from the direct observation of daily life, from eavesdropping and casual conversation, but more often than not the photographs were inspired by literature and cinema. Films by Paul Thomas Anderson and Ray Lawrence contributed, as did writing by Richard Ford and the painting of Edward Hopper. But the background soundtrack that remained constant was the voice of the American short story writer Raymond Carver. Carver's vision depicts ordinary blue collar people living lives of quiet desperation, people who are feeling their way in the dark with the hope that maybe next week things will get better."
 
"Like Carver’s stories and Hopper’s paintings, these images depict everyday struggle and ordinary tragedy. They touch upon areas of experience simmering just below the surface, and explore the notion that the lives of others, no matter how close we are to them, will always remain fundamentally unknowable to us. That, in essence, we all exist as unitary individuals. These characters are troubled, but not irretrievably lost; they carry a dignified endurance and a sense of bruised optimism. These people are survivors. They have a desire, as we all do, to be transported from darkness into light."

Danny Lyon - DOCUMERICA

Danny Lyon, born March 16, 1942 is a self-taught American photographer and filmmaker. He is also credited as an accomplished writer to accompany his photographs. He studied history at the University of Chicago, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1963.

Lyon’s early documentary career was established and defined by his gritty photographer-as-participant approach. His first book, The Movement (1964), evolved from his experiences as a staff photographer for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee during the Civil Rights Movement. In the Bikeriders series(1968) Lyon rode and lived with the bikers he photographed. Lyon’s work belies the standard detachment of documentary humanism and objectivism in favor of a more complicated subjective involvement.

Danny Lyon’s photojournalistic style is marked by its staunch pursuit of the unembellished moment. “You put a camera in my hand, I want to get close to people,” he said. “Not just physically close, emotionally close, all of it. It’s part of the process."

DOCUMERICA was a program sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency to photographically document subjects of environmental concern in America from about 1972 to 1977. Lyon photographed America's inner city, it's ghettos and it's slums showing the lives and humanity of the young people who resided there.

After years of continued critical success, books and exhibitions Lyon now takes things easier. Although he's still working, he fishes quite a bit these days, in the Chama Valley in New Mexico and in Maine, where he has a cabin.

Up There

UP THERE from Jon on Vimeo.

Please watch this film it's only 12 minutes long. It's a short documentary called "Up There". It documents the dying business of hand painted building ads. Vinyl ads have made their business nearly obsolete with the exception of major markets like New York and LA.

The cinematography and score are wonderful.

Gone are the days of such craftsmanship.

Julius Shulman

Julius Shulman (October 10, 1910 – July 15, 2009) was an American architectural photographer best known for his photograph "Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960. Pierre Koenig, Architect."(Top picture above). The house is also known as The Stahl House.

Shulman's photography spread California modernism around the world. The clarity of his work demanded that architectural photography had to be considered as an independent art form.

Each Shulman image unites perception and understanding for the buildings and their place in the landscape. The precise compositions reveal not just the architectural ideas behind a building's surface, but also the visions and hopes of an entire age. A sense of humanity is always present in his work, even when the human figure is absent from the actual photographs.

Through his many books, exhibits and personal appearances his work ushered in a new appreciation for the movement beginning in the 1990s. His vast library of images currently reside at the Getty Center in Los Angeles.

Roswell Angier

Roswell Angier was born in 1940 and has taught photography for over 35 years; he currently heads the photography course at Tufts University.

‘A Kind of Life’ is a photo essay of strippers and strip clubs documented over a period of two and a half years in the early 1970’s in Boston’s Combat Zone.