Salton Sea - documentary photography

[marcelina_korczewska]

<p>Watch and tell me if you like this presentation:

[Uhooru]

<p>Its ok Marcelina, I liked it. Here's a set I put up here in photo.net on the Salton Sea area. http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=988746</p>

[lachaine]

They are Ok, but I think Scott London's Salton Sea photographs are hard to beat.

[Spearhead]

<p>I think the presentation is terrible. The music and the inability to pick and choose what to look at makes it as enjoyable as some wedding photography sites. They don't add in any way to Scott London's series, it almost looks like it was copied. And Barry's photos, with their Eggleston-ish matter of factness, are more interesting. And Kim Stringfellow's work is probably the holy grail of Salton Sea photography. Check her work out.</p>

[starvy]

<p>I liked the images but just wish they were not presented in a video format. I like to look at images in still frame where I can blow it up and analyse and bits I like. There is much potential here though.</p>

[eric friedemann]

I'm partial to Richard Misrach's color images of the Salton Sea- e.g.:

 

 

[luis_g]

<p>I find Scott London's compositions repetitive, and (gulp) agree with Eric on Misrach. There's a remarkable lack of cohesion in the Liu photographs, they're more like singlets grouped together. </p>

[frank_skomial]

<p>That "resort for the rich" never materialized. It was rather promissed boom that many rich spent money investing in surrounding property, and lost. Loosers and con artists are born every day, but that one was a big one.</p>

[Uhooru]

<p>Hey Jeff, thanks. Kim Stringfellow's images are certainly awesome. Thanks for the tip. I know I was trying to capture the washed out feeling of the place. Kim's does that as well, but she uses has really rich colors and she's a really good photographer. I'll probably have to buy the book now.</p>

[david_henderson]

<p>Like some others I prefer to see photographs at my own pace and without the distraction of music. That aside the photographs look ok, with the following two caveats</p>

<p>Increasingly there aren't that many great photographs left around the Salton Sea failed resorts. There comes a point in the life of a building or artifact when it simply becomes a pile of rubble that IMO anyway, isn't worth photographing. Much of the stuff around the Salton Sea has reached or passed that point. Either that or its been cleared away to make way for the boxy new towns that were springing up near the shore when I last visited in 2008.<br>

Second, this means that everyone who visits tends to shoot the same few things that are left. A good half of your photographs sit on my computer too, and I could say that Scott London's work is also very similar. I think the Salton Sea is badly in need of some new perspectives- maybe including the factory scale farming that now surrounds it, or the aforementioned boxy new towns that seemed to be getting built without any facilities other than schools. </p>

<p>I think Jeff Alu's stuff is better, partly because it was made a while ago; though he's reorganised his site and its hard to find his Salton Sea photographs now. </p>

[Brad_]

With the presentation aside, I like the images as fine-art photos.

 

There's plenty to explore there, requiring a different approach. Especially relating to the people. Seems no

one wants to go deep with a fresh perspective though...

[AJHingel]

<p>I'm kind of out of touch with what people here are referring to.<br>

I don't know Kim Stringfellow,Richard Misrach or Jeff Alu and neither their photos of "Salton Sea", that I don't know of either. Result is of course, that I look at the presentation Marcelina kindly asked us to watch, without any pre-justice or bias.<br>

<br /> Personally I do not mind, from to time, looking at a video presentation of a series of photos, especially when the series is totally new to me. It is well done and sufficiently short to steer up un interest in the photographer, the place and the photos. The black and white photos are fine art in my eyes (as far one can judge from what one can see on a screen!) with good and interesting scenes and compositions. I agree with Luis, however, that it is more a short series of single images than a coherent series.</p>

[Spearhead]

<blockquote>

<p>I don't know Kim Stringfellow,Richard Misrach or Jeff Alu and neither their photos of "Salton Sea", that I don't know of either.</p>

</blockquote>

<p><br /><br>

It's not that hard to track them down, Misrach is quite famous, Stringfellow is published. </p>

[paulie_smith1]

<p>Nice, quiet, B&W, relaxing and for me, too short.</p>

[tonmestrom]

<p>different photographers, different approaches. The goal seems mainly to be to create aesthetic beauty out of decay. Hardly a new approach (hence the comparison to Scott London's work I suspect) but expertly done. It indeed results in fine art photos as Brad point out rightly. But whatever that means, for me personally they are mostly pretty pictures. Very good ones yes, but still. The problem is always finding a new angle to a deadbeat subject. Barry's approach I see as more conceptual and as a result as far more interesting.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Seems no one wants to go deep with a fresh perspective though...</p>

</blockquote>

<p>or perhaps not that many are able to</p>

<p>As for the short video, too much text and not enough photos</p>

<blockquote>

<p>It's not that hard to track them down, Misrach is quite famous, Stringfellow is published.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>True Jeff. But then not all of us are as knowledgeable about (contemporary) American photography/photographers. I suspect, generally speaking, that the same is true of the knowledge most Americans posess about European photography/photographers. That's one of the nice things about a site like this, it brings you in contact with the work of photographers whose work you may never have seen before.</p>

[Spearhead]

<p>Good point, although I have always been interested in photographers from Europe (especially Italy), Latin America and Asia. Misrach is a very big name here, well-known on the museum circuit. Stringfellow I happened onto a while back, and didn't even notice the connection to Salton Sea at the time, so it was really just an internet thing. Alu I know from photo forums on the web.</p>

[Brad_]

>>> Seems no one wants to go deep with a fresh perspective though...

 

>>>> or perhaps not that many are able to

 

That's partially it. But mostly it takes some thinking outside the box. Having photographed there a couple

years ago and being somewhat disappointed with what little remains after a decade or two of bulldozing and

demolition, I put some thought into a few project perspectives/approaches which I think would be fresh

and interesting.

[tonmestrom]

<p>I know Jeff, same here. As I said, generally speaking.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>I put some thought into a few project perspectives/approaches which I think would be fresh and interesting.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>in that case Brad I'm looking forward to the results</p>