Don’t shoot Johnny-5, he’s alive!

…make sure you go and check out work by Jesper Ulvelius. Better yet, click through his photo diary here. You will not be disappointed. His photos are simple, but that’s partly why they’re so great. They’re not so much about the technique, but about the content, and his subjects. He takes beautiful portraits. There is a comment thread in A Photo Editor that discusses “visually acceptable” photography, and one commenter says:

Without the content, or copying someone’s images because they have the look of the day, seems like chasing after someone else’s dream. Examples that I remember are the Hosemaster Phase in the late eighties, the overpower the sun Octabank phase in nineties, the make the subject look like an idiot short-lived fad in business magazines in the eighties to the lens-baby throw it out of focus trend, the over-exposed FL look on color-negative, the list goes on and on.

If the image has content and a purpose, then you remember it or are impacted by it. If it is just the trend of the moment, it glosses by.

Jesper’s images are just this. There is a lot of this point and shoot style going around right now (I’m guilty of shooting this way too), and I’m not quite sure if it’s a fad, or a cop out (more on this later), but when you throw out the complications of bulky equipment and fancy cameras, what you’re left with is pretty much a raw image. What you see is what you get, and this where the content becomes important. Take a look at Jesper’s pictures and see for yourself. I think you’ll agree that his content is what carries his pictures.

William Hundley takes pictures of ghost, and I really like them.

*all photos on this post © William Hundley

Davin Youngs, check him out. He has some beautiful work over at his site thesearemypictures.com. This Midwestern boy takes pictures in Chicago, and you should really check him out. Here are some of the gems I found…

*All images on this post © Davin Youngs

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Brad Troemel’s work and blog at Very Young Millionaire. He’s doing some great things right now with the way he’s herding up and rallying troves of young photographers who share a similar aesthetic. He’s showing some great work, and writing some nice posts that have started some good dialog. In his most recent post, I’m Boring Myself, Brad talks about shooting in a safer style that results in a more bullet proof crit. In doing so, he came to the realization that in shooting this way, his work has become boring and soulless. But what is it to shoot less safe? what makes work safe, and what makes work risky? or groundbreaking? I think photographers are constantly asking themselves this, to see how their work stacks up. I know I have. I do think my work is safe. Sometimes. Okay, a lot of the times. But why is this so? Shoot in the moment! Really, shoot in the moment.

The camera is an extension of yourself, like a finger, or your dick. Think less, shoot more? I’m not sure, but I think a big reason that some of my work is so safe is because maybe I’m using the camera as more of a tool than an appendage. It needs to be more personal. In all my years of shooting, I have never really shared my shots of my family, or my lovers. I mean really shared. Like the gritty, the sexual, the ultra-personal. Is it too personal? Probably not- but it’s my way of keeping something for myself. Something that no one else sees, something that’s mine only. One of my favorite comments from this post was the following:

really interesting. i didn’t know we were the same age. your desire to want to shoot “mid-laughter, mid-awe, mid-shock, mid-boner” is exactly what i’m afraid of. to publicize too many private moments in my life via a camera is my version of slaughtering a “sacred cow”.

I think it’s time to get over it and just slaughter the sacred cow already, or at least break it’s leg. What do you think?

*All images on this post © Brad Troemel