photo-eye | BLOG: October 2017

Concorde. By Wolfgang Tillmans.

Walther König, 2017.

Christian Michael Filardo selects Concorde, by Wolfgang Tillmans, from Walther König, as Book of the Week.

The first time I can recall actively becoming aware of Tillmans’ photographic work was when I saw his picture Dan at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2015. I’d heard the whispers and hype. The vertical of the freckled red head shot from above towered over me, it must have been at least six feet tall. Working at Johns Hopkins I’d occasionally escape during lunch and find myself in the museum’s contemporary wing gazing up at Dan. Later that year I bumped into Tillmans’s work again at David Zwirner in New York while on tour. I can vividly remember taking pictures of people in front of a large image of a scrotum in the exhibition. I’d wait for people to stop and look at it and linger far enough away on my phone to steal moments with the ball-sack. Needless to say, I’m a fan of Tillmans’ work, a big fan. I’m even fond of his 2016 techno house single “Make It Up As You Go Along.” When I found out that Concorde was being reprinted I thought I’d take a shot at saying something about the contemporary classic.

One of only two modes of supersonic transportation, the Concorde was an anomaly in the sky that stopped flying in 2003. Remarkably terrible for the environment and essentially a really fast sardine can that could go twice the speed of sound, the luxury aircraft was expensive to take and a rare collaboration between the French and the British. Sleek and beautiful, the Concorde appeared as the future slicing through the sky. A symbol of affluence, the Concorde was a short-lived dream that most people can only imagine experiencing.

Tillmans’ Concorde images are often presented to the viewer in a grid so you can witness his compulsion and dedication to capturing those last ascents of a monolith in aviation. The Concorde is witnessed from a wide variety of places: decaying shacks, air fields in nowhere, from beyond barbwire fences. Strangely, the Concorde seems to become Tillmans’ friend; it seems like a reason to get up in the morning. I can almost imagine him thinking to himself, “time to wake up and go see the Concorde again.” The dedication feels gentle and sweet, like an archivist slaving away to preserve an ancient text. However, in this case, it's a “techno-utopian” invention as Tillmans refers to it.

While the monograph isn’t all that different from the grid described above, I’ve found a few things particularly engaging about the book version of this work. Firstly, the pages are a nice sort of luxury type of glossy that make you imagine the speed of the Concorde breaking the sound barrier. In addition, the book is easy to flip through and almost feels like a flip book at times, an animation of the ascent and descent of the winged marvel. Lastly, it encapsulates a contemporary conceptual work that I’m sure most artists wish they made. Concorde is a testament to Tillmans’ ability to create something both beautiful and conceptually mythical! Now in its fifth edition, Concorde is a requirement for any decent photobook library. If you skip this one, you’re making a massive mistake.

Concorde. By Wolfgang Tillmans. Walther König, 2017.

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Christian Michael Filardo is a Filipino-American composer and photographer living and working in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He recently had a solo exhibition called Tumbleweed Replica at Current Space in Baltimore, MD and is the current shipping manager at photo-eye bookstore.

Dress Rehearsal, Archival Pigment Print, 26x22" Image, Edition of 15, $3500 – © Julie Blackmon

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays at photo-eye, and to celebrate the spookiest of seasons we've selected a handful of images by gallery artists such as Julie Blackmon, Kate Breakey, and Michael Kenna, that represent the dramatic atmosphere and sense of play so essential to this time of year.

Pumpkin, Archival Pigment Ink on Glass, Platinum Leaf, 8x8" Image, Edition of 20, $1425 – © Kate Breakey

Brown Fiddle Spider, Gelatin-Silver Print, 3x3" Image, Edition of 7, $440 – © Kate Breakey

Southern Gothic, 2001, Archival Pigment Print, 15x15" Image, Edition of 15, $2800 – © Maggie Taylor

Glastonbury Tor, Study 3, Somerset, England, 1990, Gelatin-Silver Print, 8x8" Image, Edition of 45, $3500
© Michael Kenna

Scout & the Cape (Red Riding Hood), Rockport, Maine, 2015, Dye Sublimation Print on Aluminum, 40x40" Image,
Edition of 5, $8500 – © Cig Harvey

Totem, Archival Pigment Print, 20x20" Image, Edition of 20, $1200 – © Tom Chambers

Winged Migration, 2009, Archival Pigment Print, 16x24" Image, Edition of 20, $1400 – © Tom Chambers

The Fencer, Archival Pigment Ink Print, 14x18" Image, Edition of 25, $950 – © Zoë Zimmerman

Marina Ema & Kazusa Ito, Matsuo Kabuki, Toned Gelatin-Silver Print, 10x10" Image, Edition of 30 – © Hiroshi Watanabe

A Dream Half Remembered, 2004, Toned Gelatin-Silver Print, 15x15" Image, $2000 – © Ken Rosenthal

All prices listed are correct at the time this post was published, but are subject to change as the images are available in limited editions. Please reach out to the gallery for the most current information.

For more information, and to purchase prints, please contact Gallery Staff at

505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com

IOWA. Photographs by Nancy Rexroth.
University of Texas Press, 2017.

IOWA
Reviewed by Blake Andrews.

IOWA.
Photographs by Nancy Rexroth. Afterword by Mark L. Power. Foreword by Alec Soth. Text by Anne Wilkes Tucker.
University of Texas Press, Austin, USA, 2017. In English. 168 pp., 77 duotone illustrations, 10x10".

The Diana is about as basic as a camera can get. The focus knob operates by guesswork. The aperture dial ranges from "Sunny" to "Cloudy." There is just one shutter speed aside from bulb. Most users peg it around 1/60th second, although it can vary from camera to camera, or even from day to day. The flimsy body is entirely made of plastic, including the lens, and feels noticeably heftier loaded with film. Altogether the Diana looks like a cheap prize you might find in a cereal box, and that's not far from the truth. The camera was initially marketed as a child's toy in 1960s Hong Kong before being adopted as a photography teaching aid at Ohio University in Athens. It imposed upon students a return to essentials and a sense of whimsy. Its imprecision fit the early-1970s gestalt of exploration and experimentation.

IOWA. Photographs by Nancy Rexroth. University of Texas Press, 2017.

From Ohio, the Diana spread like a virus to other art departments. By the mid-1970s it was established as a niche phenomenon. Jonathan Green included Diana photos in Aperture's 1974 Snapshots monograph. A few years later there was a large national exhibition of Diana photographers in San Francisco, and a nice book by David Featherstone to go along with it. The Diana was hip, at least for a time, among a certain subset of outsider amateurs.

Four decades later the Diana wave has long since crested. That brief 1970s heyday may be hard to imagine now, but a few high water marks remain extant. Chief among them is Nancy Rexroth's 1977 book Iowa. Rarely has a photographer been so closely associated with one camera and one style as Rexroth and the Diana. Iowa is the book which put her on the map, and her camera with her. Rexroth's inimitable collection of pastoral, personal, architectural, and dreamy interiors — shot with Dianas over a six-year period in the rural Midwest — was as acclaimed as it was mystifying. The photographs were blurred, shaken, discolored, and creepy. But they exuded a distinctive voice. "My own private landscape," she called Iowa, "a state of mind."

IOWA. Photographs by Nancy Rexroth. University of Texas Press, 2017.

Iowa has since matured into something of an underground classic, yet increasingly tough to find. By the time I began shooting a Diana in the late 2000s, it was a rare book indeed. I could locate some of the photos online and held them in high regard. But the actual book? My university library had a copy, and that was about it. In fact, there weren't many Diana photos in any photobooks, period. The legacies of photographer, camera, and book were seemingly conjoined permanently under the radar.

Into the breach comes the very welcome reprinting of Iowa, this time by the University of Texas press (the original was by Violet Press). The new Iowa maintains the core of the original while also adding a few significant alterations. It is well-timed to create a new generation of fans and to fill a void in the book collections of Diana enthusiasts.

IOWA. Photographs by Nancy Rexroth. University of Texas Press, 2017.

Rexroth's photos remain the central attraction in the new version. They're segmented into a twist on the three-act play, a sequencing Rexroth explains "as a kind of psychic journey from one emotional state to the next." Chapter one sets the scene, chapter two adds protagonists, and chapter three delves into the interior. If this is the story of a journey, it's not obvious. Instead, it's spoken in tongues and tough to untangle. As for the individual photos, they remain as expressive as they are odd. A photo of buildings behind branches feels foreboding. Children playing in leaves look like an abstract painting. A close up cow face is laugh out loud funny. And who is this jolly Emmet character? Many images enjoy camera shake or improper exposure. All of them blur and vignette into surreal forms. They're photo gems but roughly cut — "a species of antiphotography" in the words of Lyle Rexer. Printed full-frame on a sea of white space, the photos recede shyly into the page, forcing the viewer into proximity. But even at close range, it's tough to get a fix on what's happening. Even the title misleads. This isn't Iowa after all. It's mostly Ohio.

What distinguishes Rexroth's photos is a bewitching blend of alienation and intimacy. She was somehow able to travel through and capture a variety of strange locales and people. Yet no matter where her lens aimed, the scenes gravitated back to their creator. Photographs that might seem impersonal in other contexts — plain white buildings, brush-scapes, fences, acquaintances — were given a Copernican twist by Rexroth's Diana. Everything revolved around her! After all, the seventies were the "me" generation.

IOWA. Photographs by Nancy Rexroth. University of Texas Press, 2017.

As I hinted above, the new edition has several changes from the original. In addition to the book's original essays by Nancy Rexroth and Mark Power, new ones have been added by Alec Soth, Anne Wilkes Tucker, Power, and Rexroth. A few contemporaneous portraits of Nancy Rexroth are included, and the endpapers and typesetting slightly altered.

The biggest change is the addition of 22 previously unpublished photographs from the project. These new images have been sprinkled into the initial mix and each chapter is given a good stir. Although the chapters remain in the same sequence, each has been reshuffled within. Thus, while the new edition may contain most of the same photos as the original, it's not quite the same book. The new additions and editing are a radical shift, yet they don't diminish the book's power. It's as dreamy and mysterious as before.

IOWA. Photographs by Nancy Rexroth. University of Texas Press, 2017.

Despite the changes, the same set of images still bookend the start and finish. They are the title page —a photo of theatre seats paired with a blank field— and the last page on which the blank field is repeated. The photo is empty and quiet, but seems to announce "End of film!" It's the perfect note to finish on. Maybe the whole thing was a movie (as Alec Soth's essay implies), or a dream?

But with the new edition of Iowa, Rexroth's legacy has solidified into something very real.
— Blake Andrews

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BLAKE ANDREWS is a photographer based in Eugene, OR. He writes about photography at blakeandrews.blogspot.com.

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South & Pershing Street, 2017 – © Julie Blackmon

photo-eye Gallery is pleased to introduce three new works by Julie Blackmon. According to the Los Angeles Times, Blackmon's images are “absorbing, meticulously orchestrated slices of ethnographic theater ... that abound with tender humor but also shrewdly subtle satire.” Blackmon's works have often focused on the social, cultural and familial, but the tumultuous political landscape of the United States and the world have challenged Blackmon to turn her eye to political themes for the first time – and the results make an impact.

Sidewalk, 2017 – © Julie Blackmon

“When I began taking pictures,” Blackmon says, “ I was primarily interested in documenting the lives of my five sisters and myself as we raised families in the Ozarks in the 21st century. My goal was to capture the mythical in the ordinary, and I gradually began introducing narrative strands into the photos, hoping to create visual fables that reflected deeper truths. I wanted to explore and critique the way we live today, so there have always been snakes lurking in the backyard gardens of my imagination—someone once told me that my work was one part Norman Rockwell and one part Norman Bates.”

Weeds, 2017 – © Julie Blackmon

Blackmon’s latest works retain her signature combination of compelling visual allure and subtly off-kilter incidents—in some cases with a more serious edge, as the artist probes the fever dreams of a restless nation. Still hewing to her deliberately restricted, yet ever expressive, palette of subjects—jungle-gym jealousies, yard-sale intrigues and sibling smackdowns—Blackmon finds ample room to explore political developments.

All three new works are currently available at their introductory prices in the following editions:

24x31"

Edition of 10

Starting at $4,000

36x46"

Edition of 7

Starting at $6,500

44x57"

Edition of 5

Starting at $9,000

Print prices are accurate at the time of posting, but will change as editions sell; please contact Gallery Staff for the most current price and availability for each image listed in today's release.

Contact photo-eye Gallery: 505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com

» Inquire about Purchasing Prints

» View More Work By Julie Blackmon

Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation. By Mathieu Asselin.

Verlag Kettler, 2017.

Laura M. André selects Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation, by Mathieu Asselin, from Verlag Kettler as Book of the Week.

“Better living through chemistry.”

My doctoral dissertation on space-age visual culture included a chapter on architecture. One of the research highlights of that chapter was learning about the Monsanto House of the Future, which stood in Disneyland's Tomorrowland from 1957 to 1967. Monsanto sponsored Disney's design for a prototype residence, replete with Monsanto technology, to show Tomorrowland visitors what domestic space might look like in the future.

The interior fascinated me especially, with its clean, efficient, mid-20th-century futuristic design, which seemed to anticipate the fantastic architectural interiors of 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Jetsons. But Monsanto's seductive, space-age House of the Future, together with its convenient agricultural products, masked the company's toxic and deadly greed. And it is with this House of the Future that Mathieu Asselin begins his inquiry into Monsanto's relentless conflation of progress with chemistry.

Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation, which includes an introduction by Asselin and a foreword by organic farmer Jim Gerritsen, is a searing, visually compelling indictment of Monsanto's insidious, destructive, and deceptive products and actions — all in the name of progressive innovation — that have earned the company its reputation as the world's most reviled corporation.

The book is a mix of archival material, including a bound booklet at the book's beginning, which presents a compilation of Monsanto magazine advertisements from 1949 to 1980, and contemporary photographs and texts that expose what Monsanto's future wrought. Asselin divides the book into three parts. The first section juxtaposes the House of the Future and Monsanto's PCB production facility in Anniston, Alabama, which all but destroyed the formerly idyllic town and its environment due to the unchecked dumping of toxic waste into creeks and landfills. The revolving door between Monsanto and federal agencies created a situation where executives and lobbyists and politicians colluded to cover up the dangerous effects of Monsanto's products and by-products.

Part two addresses Agent Orange, the infamous defoliant that the US military deployed widely during the Vietnam War to clear the Southeast Asian jungle, despite Monsanto's full knowledge of its carcinogenic and developmental toxicity. Part three investigates Monsanto City in Illinois, which is now one of the most polluted places in the United States due to high concentrations of PCBs and dioxins.

I think the most disturbing aspect of this book — and there is no shortage of disturbing aspects — is that despite ample evidence that Monsanto alone might be able to destroy the planet, you can go to any hardware store or big-box retailer today and see a steady stream of customers buying gallons of the popular weedkiller Roundup, which is perhaps the most widely used Monsanto product. The EPA says it is safe (the same EPA lobbied hard by Monsanto), but Roundup's long-term effects are just now becoming known. Its key ingredient, glyphosate, is a known carcinogen and is linked to other major health problems. Glyphosate is now so widely dispersed into the environment that traces of it are now even showing up in Ben & Jerry's ice cream. — Laura M. André

Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation is shortlisted for the 2017 Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation First PhotoBook Award.

Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation. By Mathieu Asselin. Verlag Kettler, 2017.

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Laura M. André received her PhD in art history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and taught photo history at the University of New Mexico before leaving academia to work with photography books. She is the manager of photo-eye's book division.

Helix and Trees, 2017 – © Mitch Dobrowner

I am honored to say that I have been working with Mitch Dobrowner as a gallerist for about a decade now, and I am inspired by Mitch not only because of the astonishing images he creates but also because of his genuine character. Dobrowner doesn't make photographs for monetary gain or celebrity status, but out of a desire to record images of the landscape not just as he sees it — but how he feels about it. Equipped with his camera, which he considers his paintbrush, Mitch's artistic approach is patient and reverent. Sometimes he works methodically, visiting locations that are remote, cold, wet, windy and without the comforts of civilization spending days and even weeks respectfully waiting for a specific light or the right clouds to click the shutter. Other times Dobrowner must work quickly responding to an ever-changing sky as he travels in the company of veteran storm chaser Roger Hill to track down the unique mixture of elements in the environment that result in epic storms.

In my opinion, “landscape" is a challenging subject because the genre is so well explored throughout Art History. Due to his unique vision, approach, and tenacity, Mitch Dobrowner makes a substantial mark in a very crowded field. In honor of Tempest, Dobrowner’s third exhibition at photo-eye Gallery and currently on view through Nov. 11th, I wanted to share some of my recent conversation with Mitch about his work.

– Anne Kelly

Volta Photo: 1965–85. By Ibrahima Sanlé Sory.
Reel Art Press/Morton-Hill, 2017.

Forrest Soper selects Volta Photo: 1965–85. by Ibrahima Sanlé Sory from Reel Art Press/Morton-Hill as Book of the Week.

"Volta Photo: 1965-85 is the first monograph by the Burkinabé photographer Ibrahima Sanlé Sory. Sory was born in 1943 and began photography as a teenager in 1960, the same year that the Republic of Upper Volta, now known as Burkina Faso, gained its independence. Shooting with a Rolleiflex, Sory created thousands of portraits, documents, and album covers over the course of his career. Largely unknown outside of his home country, Sanlé received little international recognition until Florent Mazzoleni, a French record producer, began working with the artist and curated Sory’s first exhibition in 2013.

While it would be easy to dismiss Sory’s photography as another Maier-esque outsider whose work was not 'discovered' until the end of their career, to do so would be disingenuous to the importance of the work itself. For over half a century Sory documented the culture of an emerging nation in the heart of Africa. With the elegance of Irving Penn, the regional specificity of Mike Disfarmer, and the cultural importance of August Sander, Ibrahima Sanlé Sory captured the people and culture of Burkina Faso in a way unlike any other photographer. With his hand-painted backdrops, Sory would bring his mobile studio wherever he was needed, which quickly made him one of the region's most notable photographers.

Honest, simple, and undeniably fashionable, Sory’s photographs have moxie. Like Avedon or Newton, Sory’s images are unquestionably “cool,” however; Sory also has a playful tone in many of his frames. The images aren’t a stoic documentation, but rather a joyful celebration. Life permeates through these photographs and the result is radiant.

Volta Photo: 1965-85 is a great introduction to this prolific photographer. With 40 photographs in the book, this publication just barely scratches the surface of a photographic legend in the making. Whether you are a fan of classic portraiture, or if you have an interest in African photography, this modest book is sure to intrigue and captivate." — Forrest Soper

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Volta Photo: 1965–85. By Ibrahima Sanlé Sory. Reel Art Press/Morton-Hill, 2017.

Forrest Soper is a photographer and artist based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico. A graduate of the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, he also has previously worked at Bostick & Sullivan. Forrest is the Editor of photo-eye Blog.
http://forrestsoper.com/

Shifting Views and Changing Places. Photographs by Rick Dingus.
University of Oklahoma Press, 2016.

Shifting Views and Changing Places
Reviewed by Blake Andrews.

Shifting Views and Changing Places.
The Photographs of Rick Dingus.
Text by Rick Dingus. Contribution by Lucy R. Lippard and Shelley Armitage. Editor by Peter S. Briggs. Foreword by Toby Jurovics.
University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK, USA, 2016. In English. 224 pp., 10½x12x1".

Anyone who has shared interior walls with young children knows that the marking impulse runs deep in humans. Whatever material is handy will do. Sometimes just a piece of paper, sometimes spray paint on a train yard boxcar or ocher in a secluded cave will do the trick. In every case the basic instinct is the same: to leave some visual residue.

One could argue that all photography is a loose manifestation of this impulse. But Rick Dingus has taken it more literally than most. For a twenty-year period at the peak of his career, he drew on the surfaces of his many photographs using crayon, graphite, and silver-colored pencil. Seeking "to acknowledge photographs as constructed objects, neither neutral witnesses nor transparent windows on the world as it is," he left plenty of visual residues. They began as loose doodles on silver gelatin prints, scribbled experiments in texture. His technique progressed, and within a few years of steady practice, Dingus had carved out a recognizable style all his own. It's a blend of underlying photographs and superimposed markings, which combine to create graphic storms of photo-surrealism, a deft display of mastery and creativity. Whereas Winogrand famously said "I photograph to see what things look like photographed," Dingus's version might be "I alter photographs to see how scenes look altered."

Shifting Views and Changing Places. Photographs by Rick Dingus. University of Oklahoma Press, 2016.

These montages are just one aspect of a long and wide-ranging career. In addition to decades teaching photography at Texas Tech University, Dingus was a formative member of Mark Klett's Second View Rephotographic Survey, the author of a respected book on Timothy O'Sullivan, and the founder of The Millennial Collection at Texas Tech. Despite his various accomplishments, his photo drawings remain the work most closely associated with Dingus, and they form the core of his recently published retrospective, Shifting Views & Changing Places. A multi-sectioned chapter covering five projects over two decades, Photo Drawings occupies more than a third of the book.

Shifting Views and Changing Places. Photographs by Rick Dingus. University of Oklahoma Press, 2016.

Remarkably, Shifting Views & Changing Places is the first monograph to focus on Dingus' photographs. The task of curating 45 years of photographs into one book is not easy, and the resulting book is a broad chronological survey. In addition to photo drawings, the book touches on the later Dingus projects, such as Double Visions, Regarding Technology, Llano Estacado, Here: There, Star Party & Infrared Aerials, each with a short artist’s statement followed by a curated portfolio. Essays contributed by Toby Jurovics, Lucy R. Lippard, and Shelley Armitage supplement all of this material. There's plenty of rhetoric and analysis throughout, giving the book a scholarly tone. This is, after all, published by a university press and aimed squarely at the academic crowd. The word "landscapes" encapsulated in quotation marks drives home the point. But the photographs are accessible and interesting enough to entertain laymen as well as teachers.

Shifting Views and Changing Places. Photographs by Rick Dingus. University of Oklahoma Press, 2016.

Although Dingus shifted over the course of his career from "photo-drawing" into straight photography, several early themes remained consistent throughout. These include a fascination with place, landscape and artifact, exploration of museum/interpretive sites, the effect of photography on the photographed, and the nexus between humans and the natural world. In Dingus' words, "I'm interested in any situation that prompts contemplation of the curiously complex connections we share with the larger patterns of existence. Remote wilderness and rural settings, vernacular byways, urban environments, ancient pathways, ruins, historic, mythic and spiritual pilgrimage sites, scientific and technological research facilities, folks and professional museums, shrines, collections, displays, and dioramas all fascinate me."

Shifting Views and Changing Places. Photographs by Rick Dingus. University of Oklahoma Press, 2016.

Throw in the basic human urge to leave a mark and that's a lot to unpack. Dingus' early photo drawings bristle with the raw energy of someone trying to cram every such impulse into one image. In later years his straight projects untangled the creative rope and allowed space for each facet to be explored with less clutter. The book's chronological organization helps smooth out the bumps while drawing natural connections. Each project is highlighted in turn, allowing the general career thread to surface subtly. Overall, it's a great introduction to a prolific and — until now — somewhat overlooked American photographer. — Blake Andrews

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BLAKE ANDREWS is a photographer based in Eugene, OR. He writes about photography at blakeandrews.blogspot.com.

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photo-eye is thrilled to introduce a Special Edition of Mitch Dobrowner's SOLD OUT 2013 monograph STORMS published by Aperture. Working in collaboration with Dobrowner, the STORMS Special Edition includes a signed 6½x9½" archival pigment print of the image Supercell and Spires (pictured above) – the image is EXCLUSIVE to the STORMS Special Edition and only available at photo-eye. The Special Edition also includes a signed first and only edition of Dobrowner's acclaimed STORMS monograph and is available for $450 in very limited quantities for starting today.

STORMS Special Edition with exclusive signed archival pigment print by Mitch Dobrowner

Details:

STORMS Special Edition
Photographs by Mitch Dobrowner
Aperture, New York, 2013, 96 pp., illustrated throughout, 10¼x13¾"

6½x9½" Archival Pigment Print on 8½x11" Paper
Signed by Artist on Verso
Protected by crystal clear acetate
First and Only Edition – Now out of print

Hardbound: $450 - Quantities are very limited

Mitch Dobrowner has been chasing storms since 2009. Working with professional storm chaser Roger Hill, Dobrowner has traveled throughout Western and Midwestern America to capture nature in its full fury, making extraordinary images of monsoons, tornados, and massive thunderstorms with the highest standard of craftsmanship and in the tradition of Ansel Adams. Dobrowner's storm series has attracted considerable media interest (National Geographic, Time, New York Times Magazine, among others). The book features an introduction by novelist and poet Gretel Ehrlich that focuses on the phenomenon of storms and on the landscape tradition of the American West.
– Publisher's Description

» Purchase STORMS Special Edition

» View the Tempest Exhibition

» Read More about Mitch Dobrowner

For more information, and to purchase prints, please contact Gallery Staff at 505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com

In the nine years that he has been photographing storms, Mitch Dobrowner has often mentioned that no two atmospheric events are ever alike and that even given similar conditions storms tend to have their own unique personalities. In this Behind the Photo segment, we asked Dobrowner to share a few of his favorite storm stories and describe a few particularly memorable experiences from the field. Mitch Dobrowner's exhibition Tempest is currently on view at photo-eye Gallery through November 11th, 2017.

Mesocyclone

Mesocyclone, Archival Pigment Print, 14x20", Collective Edition of 45, $1,500

"It was the second day I ever went out photographing storms. We started the day in Sturgis, South Dakota as the storm began to form to our south. That day we chased for about nine hours, from Sturgis, through the Badlands of South Dakota, and into Valentine, Nebraska. As I got out of the vehicle a highly electrified 60,000-foot rotating mesocyclone appeared in front of us. The storm was about a mile wide and only a half mile away, with winds between 50 to 60 miles per hour and spinning in front of us. A big rig had pulled off on the road as it couldn't go any farther, and when he hit his air brakes I remember being pelted by the flying debris.

We stood in front of this storm for about 45 minutes while it stayed in the air and rotated in a field outside of Valentine. There were multiple lightning strikes every five or so seconds. The experience was so surreal and I was so awestruck that I turned to my friend Roger Hill and said "What the @!#uck are we looking at? You have to be kidding me!!" I could not believe what I was looking at. I felt like I was on another planet. We chased that storm into the night, and it was during this storm that I decided photographing storm systems would turn into a long-term project for me." – Mitch Dobrowner

Mesocyclone
Archival Pigment Print
14x20", Collective Edition of 45
$1,500

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Bear's Claw

Bear's Claw, Archival Pigment Print, 20x30", Collective Edition of 45, $4,500

"In regard to getting too close – this is the one storm that comes to mind.

We started tracking in South Dakota. We had chased the storm for three or four hours waiting for something to happen. Eventually, we ended up in Moorcroft, Wyoming where we stopped in a field just outside of town. We sat there for about ten minutes when right in front of our eyes the storm crossed over the hills and turned straight towards us. At that time we realized it was an extremely violent hail storm traveling at about 50 to 60 mph straight at us, dropping golf ball sized hail stones. We had to run quickly and I had just enough time to get off about 7 shots before I picked up my tripod and ran towards the van.

If you look at the image you can see the ground is a little blurred. This is because of the 50+ mph winds we were standing in. The situation had quickly changed from us chasing the storm to the storm chasing us. We eventually got out of its way but sadly the storm did major damage to the small town of Moorcroft." – Mitch Dobrowner

Bear's Claw
Archival Pigment Print
20x30" Collective Edition of 45
$4,500

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Jupiter

Jupiter, Archival Pigment Print, 20x30" Collective Edition of 45, $3,500

"We got out of the van at about eight o'clock at night. It was dark but as I looked out into the field there was something out there. I could hear the rumble and random flashes of light in the distance. It was an approaching storm. Almost like a monster in the closet, where you could only see it when there was a lightning strike when it wanted you to see it. The wind began to increase and you could hear the approaching rain as it was moving across the cornfield heading towards us... I composed the shot where I thought there was potential for lightning strikes. It just happened to be at the right place at the right time when I clicked the shutter. Looking at the image on the LCD of my camera was the first (and last) time the storm revealed itself to me." – Mitch Dobrowner

Jupiter
Archival Pigment Print
20x30" Collective Edition of 45
$3,500

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» View Tempest
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Next week, in honor of the Tempest exhibition, Gallery Director Anne Kelly will be publishing an all-new interview with Mitch Dobrowner covering the artist's intention, inspiration, and process while creating his storm images.

Prices listed are correct at the time of posting; please contact Gallery Staff for up-to-date price and availability.

Mitch Dobrowner's exhibition Tempest is currently on view at photo-eye Gallery through November 11th, 2017. For more information, and to purchase prints, please contact Gallery Staff 505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com.

A Glass Darkly. By Kevin Lear. Mack, 2017.

Christian Michael Filardo selects A Glass Darkly by Kevin Lear from Mack as Book of the Week.

"Flash, bright and relentless, brings that which is shrouded in darkness into light for a short moment. Revealing what is normally hidden to the naked eye and making it accessible to view. I too have walked the streets alone at night with a camera ‘round my neck, flash attached ready to illuminate any willing subject in the void. In some cities, the quiet engulfs you, the delicate soft air of late evening surrounds. It’s an isolating feeling, being conscious and awake while the rest of the world dreams. For about 20 years Kevin Lear roamed the streets of Kent and London at night, in the quiet, alone. In their first monograph, A Glass Darkly, Lear reveals the subtle, isolated, monolithic brilliance, of his 20-year residency pounding the pavement.

The phrase ‘a glass darkly’ comes from the writings of the Apostle Paul. Essentially, we view life through a dark glass because our individual perspectives cloud our vision. Only at the end of life, when we meet God face to face, will we be able to see clearly. Oddly, this metaphor is fitting in regards to the nature of photography. The constant struggle between understanding what is real and what is not. Playing God within the context of documenting the everyday. Realizing that our eyes see much less of the world than we comprehend at any given time.

Lear is looking. Lear is looking very hard — or perhaps locating the slightly askew and mild disturbances in the mundane comes naturally to him. If you are looking to be shocked, this is not the book for you. However, if you are looking to really see something, then it’s your lucky day. At first, I was drawn to A Glass Darkly by the stark cover image of a round concrete orb illuminated by an aggressive flash. While, I wasn’t immediately struck by all of the images in the book, after a few times flipping through, I began to hear Lear’s whisper in the quiet of his images. Not only is Lear documenting his surroundings, he is revealing what might lie beyond his images — a world where people exist, a world where people once were and no longer are. Lear preserves the past in the present only for the present to become the past, like a peaceful apocalypse.

Lear shows us where we are allowed to go and where we are not allowed to go. Fences, walls, signs, all obstruct a point of entry. He mixes these images of vines and barriers, stark interiors of bars, and bizarre locations that are unrecognizable. The level of intimacy with the outside, urban, brutal infrastructure of the city is both ridiculous and incredible at the same time. In his own way, Lear is attempting to see just how clear he can get the glass, working it over to reveal a slice of reality in the dark.

Ultimately, we have a lot to unpack in A Glass Darkly — years of work, meditation, and concrete. Extremely English, extremely quiet, Lear’s first monograph is a triumph that proves good things come in time. Easily, one of the best books I’ve seen all year, you have to experience it yourself." — Christian Michael Filardo

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A Glass Darkly. By Kevin Lear. Mack, 2017.

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