Suburbia Mexicana, Photographs by Alejandro Cartagena.
Published by Photolucida/Daylight, 2011.

Suburbia Mexicana
Reviewed by Jonathan Blaustein
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Alejandro Cartagena Suburbia Mexicana
Photographs by Alejandro Cartagena
Photolucida/Daylight, 2011. Hardbound. 108 pp., 36 color illustrations.

Ostensibly, Alejandro Cartagena's exquisitely crafted photographs taken around the Mexican city of Monterrey are meant to examine a localized tale of environmental degradation amidst rampant development. And they do. This monograph, which represents several of Mr. Cartagena's interconnected mini-series, definitely brings together the narrative of a place in time. The photographs are supremely well composed, and deal with color and light with equal measure. The project, published here in a joint effort between Photolucida and Daylight, was immensely well received over the last few years, and the book makes it easy to see why.

Suburbia Mexicana, by Alejandro Cartagena. Published by Photolucida/Daylight, 2011.

 I actually think the strength of the project lies in its ability to humanize and symbolize the impact of Globalization in the 21st Century. Images of high-end global brands like Porsche and Louis Vuitton open the narrative, which then glides smoothly into a depiction of the mushrooming mini-concrete housing developments that sit at the base of majestic mountains. Like our global economy, the two are hopelessly interconnected. While it's easy to giggle at the potentially ironic depictions of the tiny houses, which disappear into the vanishing point, Cartagena doesn't really push it in that direction. And as all his portraits are humanistic, he keeps the story grounded in reality.

Suburbia Mexicana, by Alejandro Cartagena. Published by Photolucida/Daylight, 2011.

 I've spent a good deal of time in Mexico over the last 10 years, and have seen such housing developments in the Yucatan peninsula as well. They've sprouted up all over the country, as campesinos flock from dirt poor country villages to newly booming cities. They trade ramshackle huts with dirt floors for those tiny concrete homes with indoor plumbing. It's the Mexican equivalent of the American Dream, really now the Middle Class dream for societies around the planet. Across the world, and particularly in the rapidly developing BRIC countries, (Brazil, Russia, India & China), people are escaping poverty daily with the goal of owning their own home with a bathroom, television, and washing machine. Once that's achieved, then the aspirations tend towards more conspicuous consumption in glamour palaces like the aforementioned Louis Vuitton. Of course, the rise in living standards often, if not always, comes at the expense of the environment. Messy stuff.

Suburbia Mexicana, by Alejandro Cartagena. Published by Photolucida/Daylight, 2011.

 Suburbia Mexicana captures the essence of this story. And it does so with respect and grace. I believe it's a monograph that will be a future reference point for global society in the beginning of the 21st Century.—Jonathan Blaustein

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 Jonathan Blaustein is a photographer and writer based in Taos, NM. His work resides in several major museum collections and has been exhibited widely in the United States. For more information, please visit www.jonathanblaustein.com.

Photographs 1969-2009, Photographs by Roger Ballen.
Published by Kerber, 2011.

Roger Ballen: Photographs 1969-2009
Reviewed by Jonathan Blaustein
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Roger Ballen Photographs 1969-2009
Photographs by Roger Ballen. Text by Ulrich Pohlmann.
Kerber, 2011. Hardbound. 148 pp., 268 black & white illustrations, 11-3/4x11-3/4".

I was late to the party for HBO's The Wire, and didn't get around to seeing it until last summer. So of course now I like to talk about it all the time. It's kind of the opposite of discovering a band before everyone else. When you're behind the curve, there's a perverse kind of pride.

It's the same with Roger Ballen's work. I'd heard his name a lot in the last couple of years, but never saw more than a small jpeg here or there until I picked up the book today. Wow. I get it. Everyone's talking about this guy for a reason. His work is transcendently good, and mashes up so many different strands of photo history.

But this article is not about Ballen's genius, it's about the new monograph of his work, Roger Ballen: Photographs 1969-2009. Well, it's fantastic, lyrical and disturbing. The plates are gorgeously printed, with a terrific use of grayscale and a sharpness that speaks well of his lens quality. The pictures start out firmly within a humanistic documentary tradition, slowly edge past crime-scene style reality narratives, and end up in an assemblage, sculptural studio-style. Everything is black and white. The evolution feels natural, and his vision remains consistently precise and primal throughout. Animals, razor wire, children and mentally challenged South Africans recur.

Photographs 1969-2009, by Roger Ballen. Published by Kerber, 2011.

Photographs 1969-2009, by Roger Ballen. Published by Kerber, 2011.

 Really, this book is a keeper. It's meant for all lovers of great photography and art, with the sole exception of those with weak stomachs. I have to include that qualifier, if for no other reason than it's an important way to talk about the work. It's tough stuff, but the best often is. I found myself thinking a few times, while page-turning, that it was almost a shame to try to codify my thoughts for this review, as the work is the kind of mysterious amalgam of images that tends to defy the need for words at all. (Essays included.) It's a magnificent book of pictures, and I look forward to returning to it for years to come.—Jonathan Blaustein

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Jonathan Blaustein is a photographer and writer based in Taos, NM. His work resides in several major museum collections and has been exhibited widely in the United States. For more information, please visit www.jonathanblaustein.com. 

Invisible, Photographs by Trevor Paglen.
Published by Aperture, 2010.

Invisible
Reviewed by Jonathan Blaustein
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Trevor Paglen Invisible
Photographs by Trevor Paglen. Text by Rebecca Solnit.
Aperture, 2010. Hardbound. 160 pp., 69 color and 8 duotone illustrations, 9-1/2x10-3/4".

Radical transparency is chic at the moment, hence Julian Assange's ridiculous celebrity. I was dubious, at first, about the WikiLeaks firestorm. But then the Tunisian people revolted, in part because they read of their leader's disgusting decadence in some of the cables Assange leaked. So my mind opened.

Trevor Paglen's new book is a visual extension of that determined mission: to make visible the invisible, to do the dirty work and heavy lifting for the lazy masses, content not to know what we don't know. It's a pretty fascinating collection of information, both photographic and written. The opening essay by Rebecca Solnit is a great reminder to me why I'm a photographer first and writer second. It will likely be oft-quoted in the coming years, both for its cutting honesty and intellectual heft.

The book is broken down into compartments that represent Paglen's various conceptual, investigative projects. Some are far more visually interesting than others, and that is the crucial piece of information I must communicate in a fair review of this book. The first and fourth segments, entitled, respectively, "Limit Telephotography" and "The Other Night Sky," are as gorgeous as they are politically important. In the former, Paglen uses astronomy-based optics to capture the innards of off-limits military bases and unofficial black sites buried in the deserts of the American West. He hikes up onto mountain peaks, often at night, to capture the light emanating from miles and miles away, like some photo-geek superhero, all in the name of showing what we're not meant to see. Despite his own admission that his aesthetic choices are limited, the photographs are lovely and haunting. They of course need accompanying text to illuminate their meaning, but text and books do well together.

Invisible, by Trevor Paglen. Published by Aperture, 2010.

 "The Other Night Sky," is not dissimilar, as Paglen again uses complex technology to photograph secret US Government spacecraft in orbit in the night sky. Some images also include desert foreground, but all are alluring and well made and I'd love to see the huge prints in one of Paglen's many international exhibitions. This series, as well as the one previous, owe a debt of gratitude to Richard Misrach, patron saint of American West skulking, but are in no way derivative.

Invisible, by Trevor Paglen. Published by Aperture, 2010.

 The other three sections in the book are really more about presenting politically charged information than giving photobook lovers the eye-candy thrill. They are word heavy, and represent the visual evidence of years worth of Paglen's research efforts to keep an eye on the nefarious, underground workings of our purported democratic government. I can imagine that some book collectors would skip right through, or find the pages boring. Either way, the great pictures elsewhere will likely lead them to open the book again and again. The book closes with a concise explanation of technique and motivation. Many would place that at the beginning to explain ahead of time what the reader will encounter, but I think it was wise the let the imagination wander until the end.

Invisible, by Trevor Paglen. Published by Aperture, 2010.

Aperture has published something genuinely important here. The production quality is high, befitting a collector's expectations, but really it's beside the point. This book is a record of obsession; a passionate desire to fight an unwinnable battle against a superior enemy. Geeks can't damage governments with only the power of information and technology -- or so I thought a few weeks ago...—Jonathan Blaustein

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Jonathan Blaustein is a photographer and writer based in Taos, NM. His work resides in several major museum collections and has been exhibited widely in the United States. For more information, please visit www.jonathanblaustein.com. 

Wrong, Photographs by Asger Carlsen. 
Published by Morel Books, 2010.

Wrong
Reviewed by Jonathan Blaustein
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Asger Carlsen Wrong
Photographs by Asger Carlsen.
Morel Books, 2010. Hardbound. 88 pp., Duotone illustrations throughout, 8-1/2x8-1/2".
 
There's something about a good sci-fi movie that really sticks in your head -- especially if you see it during your formative years. I saw Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall in the theaters, so I must have been about 15 at the time. There were certain visuals in that film, ie. the three-boobed prostitute, that I can imagine at will all these years later. It just seemed so real, as far as futuristic visions go. Sometimes, an artist just gets it right on a conscious and subconscious level. And having spent some time with Wrong, by Asger Carlsen, I'm willing to ascribe such imaginative success in this case. It's a terrific book on multiple levels, and I'm glad I get to keep this copy.

Carlsen has taken the "of his time" wizardry of Jerry Uelsmann and brought it into the digi-verse, black and white and kooky as ever. I know it's not crazy original to make the comparison, as everyone who creates bizarre, surreal composites must resent the immediacy of the thought. But as a child of the computer age, I've never been able to grasp the sense of wonder people must have had when they first saw a good version of Uelsmann's work. That "I know it's not real, but it looks like it" feeling is hard to come by these days.

Wrong, by Asger Carlsen. Published by Morel Books, 2010.

 But Carlsen has nailed it. This book contains a series of black and white images of somewhat-normal looking scenes that have insane sub-themes grafted on, masterfully. Wooden leg frames, double faces, faces replicated on the back of heads, flesh mounds, bug eyes, there are a handful of tropes that Carlsen brings back again and again, each time with pleasure.

Wrong, by Asger Carlsen. Published by Morel Books, 2010.

 I've always thought, and occasionally written, that black and white photography has tremendous potential to manipulate temporal expectations in viewers. And here, it's just the perfect choice. The series of images reads like a quasi-almost normal series of pictures from 2150, once genetic engineering has had some time to settle in. They look like historical photographs of a history not yet lived. Genius. (Especially as the book's post-script reads "Based on a true story.")

Wrong, by Asger Carlsen. Published by Morel Books, 2010.

I suppose some might find these images creepy or disturbing. I'd understand if they did, but I practically giggled. They're funny in an absurd way, and yet the craftsmanship leaves not doubt as to the artist's seriousness. Just a great piece of work. Well worth the investment.—Jonathan Blaustein

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Jonathan Blaustein is a photographer and writer based in Taos, NM. His work resides in several major museum collections and has been exhibited widely in the United States. For more information, please visit www.jonathanblaustein.com. 

"I really wanted to like Shirin Neshat's handsome new monograph from Rizzoli.  It's a well-made, impressive object with terrific image quality.  It's got original text by Art World Superstar Marina Abramovic and über-critic Arthur Danto.  I was pretty excited when I first got my hands on it.  (The pictures are so shiny.)"

---  from Jonathan Blaustein's review of Shirin Neshat by Arthur Danto in photo-eye Magazine

     
Read the full review here.

"Why do we look at photographs? What drives the compulsion? I think there are several answers, of course. But chief among them is a desire to see things we haven't seen, to understand the world through someone else's eyes. Perhaps to read a visual language that will impact our own vision.

Celine Clanet's book Maze contains a set of photographs made among the Sami culture in Northern Norway, at the outer edge of Europe. She is not from there, but managed to ensconce herself enough among the locals that the images have a ring of authenticity. And they are lovely, to be sure. "
-- from Jonathan Blaustein's review of Maze with photographs by Celine Clanet in photo-eye Magazine.



Read the full review here.

Purchase a copy of Maze by Celine Clanet here.

Photographer and A Photo Editor correspondent Jonathan Blaustein has written a review and run-down of the summertime photographic offerings in Santa Fe galleries, starting with our own photo-eye Gallery.  Blaustein writes: "I began my little adventure at photo-eye, which is undoubtedly the photography institution in Santa Fe. The owner, Rixon Reed and his crew recently celebrated their 30th Anniversary. They offer a lot to the community, including a great photo-book store, a sleek photo gallery, and a program of public events and artist salons."  Aww shucks...

 Chris McCaw, Mitch Dobrowner and Edward Ranney, respectively

Our current show, "Elemental," features work from three artists, Edward Ranney, Mitch Dobrowner and Chris McCaw.

Read the rest of Blaustein's article here. There's a lot of great photography to see in Santa Fe this summer!