Nancy Rexroth. Iowa: a Diana camera work dating from the 70s

[joam boam]

I recently came across the work of nNncy Rexroth. "Iowa" is a seminal

photographic project using a Diana camera. Please feel free to check

the link bellow. What do you think?

 

http://www.josephbellows.com/dynamic/artist_artwork.asp?artistid=74

[connealy]

Hard to believe her stuff is 30 years old, isn't it? I've been reading Newhall's <u>History of Photography</u> lately and am struck by how often photographers reinvent the wheel. Someone really needs to do an update as Newhall's was written in '39, I think. It is going to be quite a challenge, though, and you have to wonder if Diana and her children will get their due.

[kwang_lee]

I like Annette Fournet's stuff as well on the same site.

 

Compiling a history of photography seems like a task for

a prophet or a fool. Perhaps both.

 

Though the chapter I would love to read (in such a history)

is the one about digital photography. I read somewhere

that the rise of digital is related to the Renaissance need

for perspectival control. I think there's this almost

antiseptic quality to many digital photos that are so "clean"

and "commercial"-looking that it makes it seem like reality

can be totally and virtually evoked without any nod to process

or the fact of actually being there (I'm thinking of photos

where creative cut and pasting creates the image).

 

I like Holga and pinhole images because the imprecise nature

of actually being "there" and taking a picture seems to be

part of the 'photographic act'. I guess this is a complicated

way of saying that I like the blurring, vignetting, and sudden

colors and shapes that Holgas and pinholes sometimes create.

 

k

[connealy]

Well, I think you are right that digital is kind of seamless, and that is partly why I shoot film 95% of the time. However, I would say the important thing about digital is that it is everywhere all time. Just about any event these days is recorded on someone's digital whatever. If I had a need for a cellphone, I'd be there doing it too.

[sprouty]

I like the look of the images and her compositions are quirky (and varied) enough to hold my attention, and in my mind, they stand the test of time.