prism #17 is here!

prism #17 is here featuring 9 photographers: Antoine Bruy, Michael J Keane, Dominic Hawgood, Nikolas Ventourakis, Marianne Bjornmyr, Anna Kieblesz, Fabrizio Albertini, India Lawton, Edyta Dufaj and an article on the Photo Album of Ireland by Darren Campion.

Erin O’Keefe: Surface and Depth

Erin O’Keefe: Surface and Depth

by Darren Campion

Given that we are surrounded by pictures and make constant use of them, it might seem inevitable that we should understand how they work, how the space within them operates to produce a certain kind of meaning – the cultural and practical saturation of images that we experience should ideally result in an equally pervasive measure of fluency when it comes to visual media, especially with regard to “reading” photographs, which obviously make up the vast majority of images that we both consume and produce. There are any number of reasons why this is actually not the case, of course, most of them related to the general qualities of photography as a medium and our assumptions about it.

The Flatness #1 / Erin O'Keefe

Apart from its self-consciously aesthetic uses, photography also has a range of other applications where the conditions of the medium tend to disappear, so when it comes to reading those images we see through the photograph itself in the belief that we are actually dealing (more or less directly) with its subject. In certain contexts this does make sense, but at the same time we are always confronting a subject that is seen photographically, that is to say, a picture specifically and not whatever reality that might have preceded it. In her work Erin O’Keefe is explicitly concerned with exploring the mechanics of photographic space, its material as well as conceptual terms, at a time when such questions are more pressing than ever. Hers is most obviously a studio-based practice, taking the still life tradition into a newly fragmented – one might almost say post-digital – direction.

The Lyrical Subject - Interview with Kuba Dąbrowski

The Lyrical Subject

Kuba Dąbrowski talks to Joanna Kinowska

All Images are presented are part of “Film obyczajowy produkcji polskiej” Exhibition / Zachęta Warsaw Gallery / Images © 2013 Kuba Dabrowski / Courtesy of the artist

Joanna Kinowska: The basic question — are you a photographer?

Kuba Dąbrowski: I work as a professional photographer. I pay taxes as a photographer, have a degree in photography, and use professional equipment. So from this point of view, I am a photographer. And as far as my artistic practice is concerned, I prefer to think of myself as ‘someone who takes pictures’ rather than a photographer. On the one hand, I earn my living from photography, but on the other hand, I do my own thing and the two don’t necessarily overlap. I’m a different person for different people: an advertising agency executive perceives me differently than a magazine photo editor, and the photo editor differently than a photography curator or historian. Each of them needs me for different purposes, and the different people or communities are often actually unaware of the other spheres of my work. As for ‘my own work’, I usually put it like this: you can play the guitar, you can write poems, and you can take pictures — the basic point is to manifest your sensitivity and share a story, not to create attractive images. I like to think that the pictures I take are not made for photography buffs but for people who share my kind of sensitivity.

prism #16: Happy B-Day!

This May, we celebrate the 3rd anniversary of prism Photography Magazine!


Over the past three years we have done our best to provide our audience with eighteen amazing issues, each one completed with a great selection of contemporary photography. Each year, prism has provided us with new challenges and new experiences, which have been very rewarding for us. We were always thrilled to celebrate established names and happy to promote emerging artists and numerous photographic initiatives. We were delighted to have partnered with photographic festivals and have always been looking forward to setting up new goals and meeting new friends!

We have created a stable and growing platform for international audience to be exposed to 'what's hot' in the contemporary photography. We have launched a blog platform to provide you with articles, previews, reviews and interviews. We have organised a few very exciting exhibitions, both as our own initiative and also as part of PhotoIreland Festival: a very successful International Instant Photography Exhibition, numerous group shows and collective exhibitions in the past or the exhibition of Marian Schmidt, founder and director of Warsaw School of Photography, a photographer known for his humanistic approach to photography and his masterful composition skills.

We are also proud to be actively supporting photographic prizes and events introducing their winners to our audience. Last year we have actively promoted winners of The Grand Prix Fotofestiwal Lodz (Poland) and POPCAP - piclet.org's Prize for Contemporary African Photography. This issue is no different and we bring you the profiles of four shortlisted artist for the prestigious Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2014: Alberto Garcia-Alix, Jochen Lempert, Lorna Simpson and Richard Mosse.

prism has always been committed to be partnered with festivals and photographic organisations: Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal, PhotoIreland.org, Belfast Photo Festival, piclet.org (Germany), Neu Now, Slideluck Potshow Dublin, Actual Colors May Vary, PhotoMonth Krakow, Fotofestiwal Lodz and Warsaw Photo Days, to name few of our good old and new friends.

All our efforts have been met with very positive feedback, which has reassured us that our work is noticed and appreciated. We couldn't have expected a better reward.

With this exalted moment of celebration we are thrilled to have discovered and to present, in addition to Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2014 shortlisted artists, the work of talented photographers: ‘Woods The Walls and Wells’, a black and white tale by Goseong Choi, ‘The Insvisible’ by Jacek Ura - series of portraits of pupils of the School for Blind Children in Cracow, ‘The Flatness’ by Erin O’Keefe, ‘Logbook’ by Yanina Boldyreva, Interview with Kuba Dabrowski on his work and his recent show in Warsaw’s Zacheta Gallery, sensual work of Rachael Banks, ‘The Stationary Travellers’ by Karol Szymkowiak, ‘DOM (Document. Object. Model)’ series by Julia Borissova and ‘Human Visibility‘ short editorial seies by Ákos Rajnai.

We would like to thank all photographers, curators and editors who contributed to this and all previous issues, our friends from galleries, institutions and organizations for their support and positive energy, and finally, most of all, we’d like to thank you, Dear Readers for building such a strong, supportive community of photo enthusiasts that keeps us motivated to deliver more amazing material in the future.

Let the light in.

Karol Liver
prism Editor

Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2014 - Who and why?

Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2014

text by Grażyna Siedlecka

The four shortlisted artists for Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2014 have been announced. This year's finalists are Alberto Garcia-Alix, Jochen Lempert, Lorna Simpson and Richard Mosse.

The Deutsche Börse photography prize is one of the most prestigious art awards in Europe, founded in 1996 by The Photographers' Gallery in London, supported and sponsored by Deutsche Börse Group since 2005. The list of previous winners includes such notable individuals as Paul Graham, Juergen Teller, John Stezaker, Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin. The annual prize of £30,000 goes to an artist of any nationality, who has exhibited or published an outstanding body of work that has significantly contributed to photography in Europe (quoting the information provided by The Photographers’ Gallery).

Press Image l DBPP14 l Jochen Lempert, Untitled (girl in telephone booth), 1993-2011

The Deutsche Börse Photography prize 2014 jury includes Kate Bush, Jitka Hanzlova, Thomas Seelig, Anne-Marie Beckmann and Brett Rogers (the non-voting Chair). The winner will be announced on the 12th of May 2014 during a special ceremony at The Photographers' Gallery Before that happens, four nominated projects will be available for public viewing between 11 April and 11 June 2014 at The Photographers' Gallery.

The nominated works cover a diverse range of subjects and techniques, ranging from black and white self-portraits to experimental war documentary photos. The innovative thinking, groundbreaking ideas and broad-minded approaches is what makes these various pieces stand out.

RICHARD MOSSE

Richard Mosse (born in Kilkenny, 1980) is nominated for his exhibition “The Enclave”, which represented Ireland in the Venice Biennale 2013. This photographer has been getting more and more international attention since publishing his most recent work about the violent ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but what makes Mosse's photographs special? The photographer decided to use the virtually-obsolete Kodak Aerochrome film, which captures a spectrum of infrared light which is invisible to a human eye. This technology was developed by the U.S. military to be used for aerial surveillance. The project resulted in an eye-catching, psychedelic six-channel video installation and large format photographs, full of succulent reds and pinks, forcing a viewer to look at them again and again in attempt to understand what exactly is depicted in these beautiful pictures and the story behind them.

Richard Mosse, Safe From Harm, 2012 / Press Image / Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2014

Mosse is perceived as one who breaks with the clichés of war journalism. In a truly sparkling tactic, he attempts to challenge the generic convention of classical photography and questions the sense of realism used to represent such a complex phenomena as war.

prism #15

prism #15 preview

Welcome to 2014!

2013 saw prism release six regular issues coinciding with PhotoIreland Festival, Belfast Photo Festival and Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal. We also reached the finals of The Irish Web Awards 2013, being nominated for Best Online Magazine. 2013 was a brilliant year for us! However, it would not have been possible without the continuous support of our friends, contributors, editors and each and every one of you! So thank you!

#14 cover: © Chad Coombs 

Our mission here at prism has always been to provide a platform for emerging contemporary photographers, a place where discussions begin and a place for contemplation and reflection. In 2014 we have made our resolutions and we aim to become even bigger, better and brighter.

Our plan for 2014 is to continue to deliver the “crème de la crème” of contemporary photography and to stimulate the photographic communities in Ireland and abroad. We have ambitions to grow bigger and more beautiful, we want to surprise you. We have been working hard on new plans for 2014 to host a series of talks and events that will advance the visual art scene and culture.

We hope you can join us on this new adventure...

Whilst we were reflecting over the past year during the Holidays, we decided to include a retrospective our best picks from 2013, the ones that had the biggest impact on us! Check our new issue to see our picks!

Enjoy!

prism Team

prism #09, #10 & #11 now available to download

prism archival issues #09, #10 & #11 are now available to download free of charge from our dropbox account.

The best way to download files is to: 

1. go to our DROPBOX account
2. click on a file to view the document
3. you can now share or download document (top right corner)
4. ENJOY your digital copy of prism!

prism #00 - #11 and special issues #01 and #02 are also available to download. 

you can also visit our COVERS folder if you need any HQ cover of any issue of prism.

Should you have any problems downloading files please let us know on our email.

prism #14

prism #14: Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal 

+ Warsaw Photo Days 

+ more

Every second year Montreal, Canada features a month-long contemporary photography event called La Mois de la Photo à Montréal (The Month of Photography). The event promotes different tendencies in contemporary photography and creates international exchanges between photographers, the public, curators, the media and collectors. For this year’s edition, UK-based guest curator Paul Wombell, formerly the director of The Photographers’ Gallery in London, decided to organize 25 exhibitions around the idea of the Drone: The Automated Image. The event took place from September 5th to October 5th throughout Montreal's numerous galleries, museums and art spaces and featured local and internationally renowned artists.

prism #14 artist selection teaser banner

The term "drone" instantly evokes the image of combat drones, unmanned aerial vehicles operated by a faceless man from a distance, but it can be used as a metaphor for a much wider cultural shift - an inevitable integration of the machines into cameras and the automation of image-making process.

Every 120 seconds today we take as many photos as the whole of humanity took in the 1800s. Not only we shoot faster, we shoot integrated with modern technology. Images can now be sent directly to copious platforms that are connected to numerous devices that process them continuously in a volume hard to imagine. 300 million photos are uploaded to Facebook every day. The release of a shutter does not only capture an image anymore.  It captures the information and instantly processes it digitally, so that the content is understood by humans and machines. The high-quality cameras today are certainly developing their own life with other fields of technology.

Modern "drone-cameras" have the ability to recognise and tag our faces; they can detect our emotions (smile detection feature) and will correct exposure settings for us. Their intelligence is extended further to algorithms that can understand the content on the image, famous landmarks, public figures and even art works are recognised and detailed information about them is instantly displayed.

prism #14 covre. Image: Elina Brotherus, Le Chemin, 2011, from the series 12 ans après. Courtesy of the artist

This inevitable transition raises a question - how will technology serve us in the future? What is the core purpose of such shift? Will it benefit the greater good or will it be used for political, business or military purposes? How do machines extend our human vision and, finally, can creative process ever be handed over to machines entirely?

Those questions were the core of the debate for the main event and, despite the drones and robot-like intelligence, the human element, thankfully, happened to be very much alive and on the focus.

Be it Tomoko Sawada, a Japanese artist who changes her physical appearance and archives the results using photo booths; Finnish artist Elina Brotherus, who uses video and photography to work on the subject of self-portraiture, emotion and environment; Cheryl Sourkes who uses images from webcams and various social media sites to reflect on the relationship between voyeurism and surveillance and boundaries between public and private space or Canadian-Czech artist Jana Sterbak, whose video series shot by an automated camera attached to Jack Russell terrier call the human view of the world under question - all those and many other artists featured have managed to find a connection between our human perception and the automation of the image-making process. Although only few works made direct reference to drones, all the works in the festival have connected with the metaphorical overtone of the theme.

Tomoko Sawada, ID400, 1998, Detail
100 gelatin silver prints, 124.5 x 99.5 cm (framed), 10.3 x 8.8 cm (each print). Edition of 15
Courtesy of the artist and MEM, Tokyo ©  Tomoko Sawada

We would like to thank La Mois de la Photo à Montréal team, with special thanks to Director Chuck Samuels, Assistant Director Yasmine Tremblay and Curator Paul Wombell for providing us with absolutely great hospitality, an intelligent and visually engaging event and an amazing selection of photographers featured.

The following issue of prism is mainly dedicated to those photographers. We strongly recommend you to go and explore their websites for additional information on their current projects and artistic trajectory.

Also, we have prepared a brief recap on the main programme of the first edition of Warsaw Photo Days. The festival took place from 4th to 31st October in Warsaw presenting three collective exhibitions: “Female Metamorphoses of the Interwar Period” - a historical exhibition of Polish interwar photographs, “PHOTO-OBJECT” – an exhibition presenting the spatial objects created with the use of photographs, between the ’60s and present days and “Princesses” - a multimedia exhibition about the world of ‘girlish’ desires and fantasies depicted by contemporary Polish and foreign artists.

Have a great read!

Karol Liver, Chief Editor of prism

Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal 13: Interview with guest curator Paul Wombell

Established in 1989 to mark the 150th anniversary of the invention of photography, Le Mois de la Photo is a Montréal based biennale focusing on contemporary photographic practice. Since its inception it has pursued its goal of presenting the finest in local and international contemporary photography. Throughout the years the exhibition programming has demonstrated the organisation's ability to produce events that are artistically, intellectually and academically rigorous while still accessible to a large and diverse public.

Paul Wombell
photo: Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal

In September 2002, Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal became an autonomous organisation and this change in administration was accompanied by a shift in the artistic direction of the event. For each presentation a new guest curator is appointed to reflect upon and explore a specific theme. All the exhibitions, the publication, and the colloquium are organised around this theme.

Sarah Allen from prism Magazine sat down with UK based curator Paul Wombell to discuss the process of guest curating the 2013 instalment which took as its theme Drone: The Automated Image.

Sarah Allen: Could you speak a little about how you arrived at the theme?

Paul Wombell: Well I wrote the proposal over two and a half years ago during a period when the drone was receiving heightened media attention, particularly with regards to their military use in Afghanistan. I found the whole concept of using technology to extend the human body really intriguing. I am also very interested in the history of the camera so I wanted to draw these lines of enquiry together. Some works in the biennale connect directly to the theme while others address the overarching concept of how the camera is employed to extend human vision.