Greetings readers.  This is just a quick update on what the Facebook’s new groups product means for readers and followers of The Photo Playground.  Fortunately the new groups product has made significant improvements over their previous groups product.  Although it does seem that Facebook is always in the middle of some sort of controversy involving privacy, we believe that the new features better secure your privacy based on how you decide to control your information in regards to The Photo Playground’s group and how to limit or maximize the amount of information you receive from The Photo Playground on Facebook.  We have created a new Facebook group and intend to delete the old one within the next week, although an exact date has not been set.  We expect to delete the old group sometime next weekend.  All of the Facebook links on this site have already been changed and link directly to the new Facebook group.  To join the new group please click the large Facebook graphic at the top of the page.  We do not foresee any changes being made our Facebook Page.

A major plus to the new groups is that it allows users to submit photos viewable to all members.  This is beneficial in that it supports peer critique and affords you the opportunity to present your work for consideration at The Photo Playground.  I have all current options and features selected, which essentially offers you the greatest amount of potential interaction with our Facebook group.  Members can post to the wall, publish images, publish videos, engage in discussion, etc.

As a reminder we also have a Flikr group where users can submit photos and enter into discussions.

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Today I bring a sample of work by Simon Bates, an Irishman living in Finland.  Bates has a BA in architecture and plans to begin work towards an MA in Fine Art next year.

What drew me in with these photographs is Bates’ attention to and use of spacial relationships. Whether the images have a human element or are of inanimate objects there seems to be a careful consideration of it’s orientation in regards to it’s surroundings.  I think this approach (environmental orientation) combined with many of his straight on shots creates a sense of confrontation, these confrontations with his subjects is what really made me interested. I remember talking about this briefly awhile back about another photographer that appeared on the site. I love being confronted with imagery and in this case it very successful.

Via our Flikr group.

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I was first introduced to Chris Jordan’s work about midway through my undergraduate studies.  The series was “Intolerable Beauty.”  My photography professor at the time showed a few of the images via digital projector.  I still remember that particular session of class.  Since my first exposure to his work, I have become aware of his series “In Katrina’s Wake,” “E. Pluribus Unum,” and both “Running the Numbers” series.  And now he has released “Midway,” the series in which the photos above belong.

I believe that Jordan is one of the most culturally significant and relevant artists working today.  His images directly address many of the issues that arise from mass consumer culture in America and could arguably be ideologically applied to other developed nations and even developing nations.  Unlike current environmental platforms and platitudes, however, Jordan’s work is not overtly aggressive.  In fact, I would say that the initial reaction upon viewing these pieces is that they present as passive, but due to their sheer enormity the greater issue informs the viewer of its importance and has the potential to overwhelm.  Jordan’s work leaves the viewer with the decision to act.  He is not compelling you to move; he is informing you of how we live.

In 2008 Jordan was invited to speak at the TED conference in Monterrey, California.  The video, itself, is short, but very well informed and awe inspiring.  Do yourself and favor and give him 12 minutes of your day by watching the video here.  You should also head over to his website – look at the pictures and read the statements.  Plan on spending at least an hour there.  If you can’t afford that much time in one sitting, bookmark it and go back to it.  You’ll be hard pressed to find an artist so adept at exposing the deep set cultural illness that we’ve all been exposed to in this, our consumer culture and disposable society.

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I found Paula’s work while cruising through Flikr.  Her photostream is light with fewer than 200 images.  It was easy to browse and nearly every single image is fantastic; she is definitely not one of those people that posts every single image she captures, unless of course every picture she takes is gold.  It was incredibly difficult picking these images, as I fell in love with most of the images in her photostream.  Her representation of human banality and emotion is spot on.  As time passes, I believe her work will only get better and become more relevant.  Congrats on the great pictures Paula.

Join our Flikr group.

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Today I bring you Neil Richards.  Although not a professional photographer, per se, he is prolific with the camera.  By day he is a web designer and runs several sites.  Jetpac Magazine is an online arts and culture magazine that is downloadable as a pdf.  Both issues are huge files with tons of pages and definitely worth looking into. According the one of his sites, issue 3 is in the works.  He has a blog here and his professional site is here.

I chose these images because each one told me a story that I wanted to hear.  They are visually interesting and lately I have been incredibly attracted to images that focus on human elements, it’s probably a seasonal change thing or something, I know that soon I’ll be hibernating in my apartment for a few months, isolated from the world and it’s reassuring knowing that there are humans out there somewhere.

Via our Flikr group.

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Normally I write a little piece on the photographers that I present, but today I’m going to let Clare do most of the talking.  Below is how she explained her work on flikr to me:

“The images are mostly taken using my mobile phone camera, which is discreet and so simple to use. The photostream is my visual diary: art-lite. The images are unplanned and an intuitive response to my environment. More recently I have been making montages that echo the expanded cinema work I made in the 1970′s. I have also started to animate some of my stills and accompany the shorts with “found” sound.”

I really like this for a few reasons.  I love mobile phone cameras, in fact, I use mine religiously and am thankful that so many people use theirs in a similar manner.  What’s even better is that she takes her mobile pictures to next level, by making them more dynamic and interesting by placing them in groupings or montaging them together.  Her imagery is visually interesting and enjoyable to look at.  In some cases it’s difficult discern their meaning, but as she explains the images are an intuitive response to her environment, this works for me and I’m going to bet that it works for some of you as well.

Via our flikr group.

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It’s been a week since the last time I presented you with a selection of photographs to view.  Today I bring you Tommy Forbes from London England.  I’ve been meaning to get some of his work up for a few weeks now.  He was one of the first members of our flikr group and I knew after two pages of his photostream that I wanted to show off some of his work.  He shoots several different types of subject matter, all of them well I might add, but I chose to show some of his images that have the focus on people.  Excepting the first image the subject is staring at the viewer, involving him or her in the drama of the image.  I appreciate the confrontational nature of these images and I think that you probably will too.

Via our flikr group.

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Peninsular Tales is a small, self-xeroxed comic zine that Dan made awhile back.  Most of you wouldn’t know this, but I love zines, have a ton of them, and have made three of them myself (stay tuned I’m working on my next one, it’s photography related).  This one is very well done, with a heavy stock cover and relatively heavy stock pages.  The dialogue varies from very good to excellent and is definitely heavy to the excellent end of the spectrum.  The illustrations compliment the text very well and are fantastic.  I’m told that the supply is very limited, in fact, there may not be anymore of them left, but If per chance he does release Volume 2, you should try to get a hold of copy.  I know I will.  You may be able to keep up to speed by book marking Dan’s website called chalkstack.  He also sent along two ad cards and a nice photo card with a nice note.  Thanks a ton, Dan.  See below for a few shots of the zine.

Sorry about the photo quality, I shot them with my Motorola Hint.  I was too excited to slow down and take proper pictures.

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Today’s photo selections come from Vancouver based photographer, Ryan Maclean.  Ryan is a 15 year veteran in the photographic arena and uses a variety of formats to capture his images, including his Blackberry.  He only submitted one photo the flikr group, but after digging through his photostream I had to run this feature.  His subject matter varies depending on location, but most of them seem to carry the same air.  His photos are direct, somewhat minimalist, and slightly confrontational without really being overly overt or offensive.  My favorites in this selection are the shopping carts, as they remind me of Banksy’s sketches and paintings on commercialism.  It wouldn’t surprise me, in the least, if they were informed by a similar philosophy.  I’m also fond of the juniper peeking it’s head over the wooden fence.  I like it’s minimalistic approach, it’s use of complimentary hues, and the fact that it has warm tone while portraying a contained urban space, which are all to often, portrayed in cool or neutral hues.

via the flikr group.

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Today, I present to you the work of Therese Brown.  Therese is incredibly prolific in her photographic endeavors.  Her flikr account has almost 4,000 items.  No that isn’t a typo, 4,000.  I was unable to view everything on her flikr, I just don’t have the time, but over the course of three days I did view more than 2,000 of them.  Because of the quantity of work she has produced and various styles she employs, I have decided to present you with, what I think is, a good cross section of her work.  With that said, I wasn’t able to show a perfect cross section of her work, so I encourage you to take some time and check out her flikr account.  She has it organised very well and navigating her sets is very intuitive.

via the flikr group.

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