Aperture aggregates the best posts from this past week in the photography blogosphere.

• “It is almost impossible for me to shoot a photo where someone is NOT taking a picture or posing for one,” writes Martin Parr on his blog in a post titled, “Too Much Photography.” Prime examples of this can be found in his series Tourism Inc. which is being published by Reporters Without Borders for the 20th anniversary of their “100 Photos for Press Freedom” collection, accompanied by an exhibition at Galerie Photo Fnac Forum des Halles in Paris, La Lettre de la Photographie reports. His photographs of Atlanta for the High Museum’s “Picturing the South” series are also featured in the upcoming summer issue of Aperture 207.
• In further commentary on CNN’s controversial edit of Stacy Kranitz’ series on Appalachia, Joerg Colberg writes, “If we wanted to know what a place looked like we would need an infinity of photographs, taken from all possible angles excluding nothing, seeing everything at the same time,” a notion he thinks antithetical to the practice of photography, but increasingly possible, not only as Parr points out through the proliferations of cameras, but with the help of the Google Street View car, profiled by the Times here. Check out art made with photos pulled from the Street View service by Aaron Hobson, Jon Rafman, and Michael Wolf of the monograph Transparent City (Aperture 2008). And stay tuned for the upcoming re-issue and expanded edition of A New American Picture by Doug Rickard coming from Aperture in fall 2012.
• Perpetual shooting brings us to the post on APhotoEditor asking, “Is It Time To Eliminate Stills From Your Shoot?” due to the ease and success with which quality still images may be pulled from video footage as a result of the recent proliferation of HDSLR cameras on the market. Now with no need to pick the decisive moment, soon no need to pick where to focus, who’ll need photographers? Have a look through SFMOMA’s page “Is Photography Over?” and read about the dialectical relationship of aesthetics and distribution/media on Fotomuseum Winterthur’s blog Still Searching.
• On a different note, watch this great video from Feature Shoot, “Inside the World’s Only Tintype Photography Studio,” a photo gallery and walk-in commercial tintype portrait studio. Owner/photographer Michael Shindler says, ”I think what people seem to be looking for now is a kind of photography where the process itself is going to impart its own flavor to the finished image, a little bit of uncertainty.”
• American Suburb X  shares Kelly Dennis’ 2005 essay, “Landscape and the West – Irony and Critique in New Topographic Photography,” which explores the work of Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Joe Deal, Art Sinsabaugh and more. After reading, check out new-New Topographic photography in Camps & Cabins at G. Gibson Gallery in Seattle, the third solo show by Eirik Johnson, author of the monograph Sawdust Mountain (Aperture 2009), on view through May 26, 2012.
• LENS blog profiles the opening of “Gordon Parks: 100 Years” at the International Center of Photography, celebrating the centennial of the legendary photographer’s birth with an exhibition of his work presented not inside the center, but in their windows, on view to the street. Parks was featured in an essay by David Campany on “Precedented Photography” in Aperture issue 206. His writing also appears in the requisite volume, Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers on Their Art.
• Fototazo posts Part II of their three-part interview with Oregon-based photographer Blake Andrews of the popular blog B. During this exchange, they invite him to create a competition for photographers to rank and sequence famous photographs, and predict the most popular sequence. The results of the contest will be published on Fototazo and Andrews’ blog. Part III of the interview will be published on Fototazo May 24, 2012.

Seattle native and 2012 Neddy Award winner Eirik Johnson presents an artist talk at G. Gibson Gallery this Saturday, May 19, 2012 at 2:00 pm where his third solo exhibition Camps & Cabins, large scale photographs of Pacific Northwest mushroom hunters and their makeshift structures, is currently on view (through May 26, 2012).

Johnson, the photographer behind the 2009 monograph Sawdust Mountain, has had a long history documenting the Pacific Northwest, earning himself a role as forerunner of the second generation of topographic photographers. Sawdust Mountain was a four-year exploration of the “tenuous relationship between industries reliant upon natural resources and the communities they support,” throughout Oregon, Washington, and Northern California, he explains in a video interview conducted at Aperture Gallery.

Work from that series has since been made into a limited-edition print, Freshly Felled Trees, as well as a limited-edition portfolio of three archival pigment prints, Adult Books, Firewood, and Truck for Sale, (Port Angeles, Washington), Weyerhaeuser Sorting Yard Along the Chehalis River, (Cosmopolis, Washington), and The Road to Forks, (Washington), all available at Aperture.

Johnson’s portfolio, West Oakland Walk, exploring the beauty of an urban landscape shaped by poverty, was also featured in Aperture issue 185.

Read a brief review of Camps & Cabins in Seattle Weekly or Visual Art Source, and hear what Johnson has to say about the project himself in a Q&A with CityArts magazine.

Artist Talk:
Saturday, May 19, 2012 at 2:00 pm
FREE

Exhibition on view:
April 19 – May 26, 2012

G. Gibson Gallery
300 South Washington Street
Seattle, Washington 98104
(206) 587-5751

Aperture aggregates the best posts from this past week in the photography blogosphere.

• LensBlog explores why Rodrigo Abd‘s photograph of a young Syrian boy expressing grief over the death of his father landed on the front page of three of the most prominent national papers in the United States.

• Time magazine’s photo blog Lightbox celebrated it’s one year anniversary, revisiting their first post and the continuing saga of War is Personal by legendary photojournalist Eugene Richards, of the controversial 1994 Aperture monograph Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue.

• Conscientious, GalleristNY and LVP Magazine weigh in on Cindy Sherman’s retrospective at MOMA and on the “unanimity” among critics in New York reviewing it.

• One year after a devastating tsunami hit the coast of Japan on March 11, 2011, The New York Times does a “Side-by-Side look at Distruction and Renewal.” The Big Picture at Boston.com, Huffington Post, National Geographic, and The New Yorker ran similar posts, as did Time’s Lightbox, featuring a slideshow of photos by James Nachtwey, whose work is in The New York Times Magazine Photographs (Aperture 2011) edited by Kathy Ryan.

• NPR prompts the question: “You know Ansel, But Who is Robert Adams (And Why Should You Care)?” Bob Adams, of the recently reissued Aperture monographs The New West and Summer Nights, Walking, has a traveling retrospective The Place We Live now on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

• Sarah Palmer was just announced winner of the Aperture 2011 Portfolio Prize for her series As a Real House. Read her 2009 review of Eirik Johnson’s Sawdust Mountain, Robert Adam’s Summer Nights and Joel Meyerowitz’s Legacy, from when she was editor at Metropolis Magazine.

• Finally, Jonathan Blaustein‘s intensely personal column on APhotoEditor.com reviewing Donald Weber‘s beautifully put together photobook Interrogations is one of the best-written posts we’ve read all week. Interrogations will also be reviewed in the upcoming second issue of The Photobook Review.

The holiday season is the perfect time to catch up on current exhibits. The following photography group shows are on view now and bring together diverse and exciting rosters of artists:

photo by Eirik Johnson

2010 James and Audrey Foster Prize Finalists Exhibition at the ICA in Boston

The Foster Prize is a biennial award and exhibition presented by the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. From the nine finalists selected this year artist Amie Siegel was recently announced as the 2010 Foster Prize winner. All the finalist’s works are on view at the ICA through January 17th, and feature a selection of challenging conceptually driven pieces in a range of mediums by Boston area artists. On view in the exhibit is an installation by photographer Eirik Johnson whose recent monograph Sawdust Mountain was released by Aperture in spring of 2009. Also featured in the exhibit are works by Robert De Saint Phalle, Fred H. C. Liang, Rebecca Meyers, Matthew Rich, Daniela Rivera, Evelyn Rydz and Stephen Tourlentes.

2010 James and Audrey Foster Prize Finalists
On view through January 17, 2011

Institute of Contemporary Art
100 Northern Avenue
Boston, MA

photo by Toni Catany

The Spanish National Photography Prize: Connections and Confrontations at Aperture Gallery

The current exhibition on view in Aperture’s gallery through January 11th provides an expansive look at Spain’s changing photographic history with over sixty five works by fifteen photographers. Presented in collaboration with the Spanish Ministry of Culture and curated by Carmen de la Guerra and Javier Díez from Artendencias, the photographs in Connections and Confrontations by artists Juan Colom, Cristina García Rodero and Carlos Pérez Siquier alongside newer wave photographers such as Joan Fontcuberta, Chema Madoz, and Alberto García Alix, among others picture everything from Bull fighters, to country weddings to contemplations of form and shape, presenting collectively a country’s aesthetic history.

The Spanish National Photography Prize: Connections and Confrontations
On view November 19 – January 11 2011

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street
New York, New York

image by Ishmael Randall Weeks

Planet of Slums Group Show at Third Streaming

Curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud and Aperture Green Cart artist LaToya Ruby Frazier, Planet of Slums a group show on view at New York City’s Third Streaming gallery. Inspired by Mike Davis’ book Planet of Slums, this exhibit of the same name presents artist’s observing the current urban, economic and social concerns of urban populations. Participating artists include Manuel Acevedo, Erik Benson, Tony Buba, Nanna Debois Buhl, Zachary Fabri, Patrick Hamilton, Takashi Horisaki, Greg Lindquist, Ishmael Randall Weeks, Elisabeth Subrin, Rishi Singhal, Juana Valdes and Lori Waselchuck.

Planet of Slums
On view December 17, 2010 – February 5, 2011

Third Streaming
10 Greene Street, 2nd Floor
New York, New York

Thank you to Photo District News for throwing a fabulous party atop Tribeca Rooftop celebrating the the winners featured in the 2010 PDN Photo Annual issue. This year’s issue recognized a number of Aperture books and affiliated photographers  including Jonathan Torgovnik’s Intended Consequences; Doug DuBois’ All the Days and Nights; The Edge of Vision, by Lyle Rexer; Paolo Ventura’s Winter Stories, Eirik Johnson’s Sawdust Mountain; Joel Meyerowitz’s Legacy; and Robert Adam’s Summer Nights, Walking, as well as photographer Gabrielle Stabile who is part of the Aperture Green Cart Project.

Check out the fun had by all, thanks to Fujifilm Instax Cameras! Pictured above: Casey Kelbaugh of Slideluck Potshow, Editor of PDN Conor Risch, Photographer Wyatt Gallery, Andrew Hetherington of Whats the Jackanory, Photographer Gillian Laub and Aperture’s Lesley Martin, Photo Editor of Time Magazine Paul Moakley, Michelle Dunn Marsh, Photographer Paolo Ventura and Aperture’s Denise Wolff, including Photo Annual Winners Gabrielle Stabile, Rachel Barrett and Jon Smith.)

Click here to view PDN’s online gallery of works featured in the 2010 issue.

Western Larch Seedlings by Eirik Johnson

Eirik Johnson’s homage to the landscape and communities of the Pacific Northwest, Sawdust Mountain, is on view at Aperture Gallery through June 10th. For your viewing pleasure, now an accompanying podcast can be easily downloaded to enjoy an exhibition tour narrated by the photographer himself who shares the compelling stories of his subjects.

Click here to download Sawdust Mountain Podcast

Click here to purchase Eirik Johnson’s monograph Sawdust Mountain

Click here to read about the Sawdust Mountain exhibit in Artforum’s Critic Picks

Black Power by Hank Willis Thomas

The third annual New York Photo Festival (NYPH) Kicks off today!

This year the festival features Aperture Presents, a series of panel discussions at St. Ann’s Warehouse, curated by Aperture’s editors. Panels will take place each day from 4:30-5:20 p.m.

The first panel taking place this afternoon will feature artists Justine Reyes, Brian Ulrich, and Hank Willis Thomas presenting their work and experiences securing funding, reviews, fellowships, and grants.

Tomorrow Aperture will bring together Amy Elkins, co-founder of Women in Photography; Ariel Shanberg, executive director of the Center for Photography at Woodstock; and Amy Yenkin, director of Open Society Institute, to offer insight on how artists can better benefit from the various opportunities available to them.

In addition Aperture will present a conversation with photographer Eirik Johnson (whose series of photographs Sawdust Mountain is currently on view at Aperture) and picture editor of Orion magazine, Jason Houston. The four day panel series will conclude with an artist’s talk by 2008 Aperture Portfolio Prize runner-up and emerging artist Jowhara AlSaud.

Emerging Artists’ Support Systems, Part 1
The Artist’s Perspective: Justine Reyes, Brian Ulrich, Hank Willis Thomas
Thursday, May 13, 2010

Emerging Artist’s Support Systems, Part 2
Funds, Fellowships and Reviews
Friday, May 14, 2010

Sawdust Mountain: Eirik Johnson and Jason Houston in Conversation
Saturday, May 15, 2010

Time Frames: An Artist’s Talk with Jowhara AlSaud
Sunday, May 16, 2010

NYPH 10
May 13th – 16th, 2010
St. Anne’s Warehouse
37 Main Street
Brooklyn, New York

Recently photographer Eirik Johnson gave an interview about his exhibition Sawdust Mountain currently on view at Aperture Gallery. The previously posted first part of the interview in which Johnson talked about key images in the exhibit is viewable here. Now, in the second segment of Johnson’s interview, learn more about Johnson’s moving portraits which explore relationships between subject and environment. Johnson shares the stories behind several of his encounters with inhabitants of the Northwest of all ages, touching on how these communities have adjusted to the decline of the region’s bedrock industries. Speaking about his portraits of the younger generation, Johnson raises questions about the uncertain future of these communities.

Click here to purchase Eirik Johnson’s monograph Sawdust Mountain

View Sawdust Mountain portfolio and Freshly Felled Trees limited-edition print

Eirik Johnson‘s Sawdust Mountain series, a culmination of four years photographing throughout the pacific Northwest, is currently on view at Aperture Gallery. Johnson gave an interview on location and shared the stories of several of his images from the exhibition. He discussed the spirit of the series, how he tried to convey the way he sees the relationship changing between industries based on natural resources in the Northwest and the communities they created, in a time of economic decline when these communities have had to adjust. Johnson also touched on his process from making the work to the sequencing of the photographs in order to tell a story with a consistent “tonal palette and mood” throughout the series.

The second installment of Eirik Johnson’s interview in which he discusses the portraits in Sawdust Mountain will be available next week! (more…)

Freshly Felled Trees by Eirik Johnson

A new exhibition of photographs from Eirik Johnson’s body of work and recently released monograph Sawdust Mountain will open at Aperture gallery April 15th and will remain on view through June 4th.

In Johnson’s words his photographs are “a melancholy love letter of sorts, my own personal ramblings.” This poetic sensibility is apparent in the images of Sawdust Mountain which consider the environmental impact and sustainability of industries reliant on the natural resources of Oregon, Washington and Northern California. Depicting towns at the heart of the worlds of logging and salmon farming in the U.S., Johnson captures the uncertainty that follows after an industry boom has ended as well as the hazy light and landscapes of the Northwest.

Eirik Johnson: Sawdust Mountain

Opening Reception:

Thursday, April 15, 6:00 – 8:00 PM

FREE

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th floor
New York, New York
(212) 505 – 5555

Click here to read Ahorn Magazine’s recent interview with Eirik Johnson

Click here to purchase the monograph Sawdust Mountain

Click here to view Aperture’s Limited Edition print of Eirik Johnson’s photograph Freshly Felled Trees