Vivian Maier, Discovered

Vivian Maier, Self Portrait

John Maloof bought a box of negatives and unprocessed rolls of film at an auction and what was inside was a document of Chicago's streets and World travels by an aloof French emigre. There are over 100,000 images that Maloof is currently processing, scanning and archiving. You can follow his blog here. Maier died in 2009, before Maloof could talk to her about her photography.

Thanks to Helen, Paul and Pina for finding this!

Cristina Garcia Rodero (Magnum Women No.4)

"I tried to photograph the mysterious, true and magical soul of popular Spain in all its passion, love, humor, tenderness, rage, pain, in all its truth; and the fullest and most intense moments in the lives of these characters as simple as they are irresistible, with all their inner strength, as a personal challenge that gave me strength and understanding and in which I invested all my heart." - Cristina Garcia Rodero

Born: 1949, Spain

Joined Magnum: 2005

Full Member of Magnum: 2009

Old cinema studios, Almeria, Spain. 1991

Holy Saturday, Canossa di Puglia, Italy. 2000

Paseo al atardecer. 2002

Three Flames. 2005

Spiritual Cleaning, Maria Lionza, La Diosa de los Ojos de Agua. (Date unknown)

Martine Franck (Magnum Women No.3)

"A photograph isn't necessarily a lie, but nor is it the truth. It's more of a fleeting, subjective impression." - Martine Franck

Born: 1938, Belgium

Joined Magnum: 1980

Full member of Magnum: 1983

Children's Library, Clamart, France. 1965

Swimming pool designed by Alain Capeilleres, Le Brusc, France. 1976

Bresson on his balcony, Paris. 1992

Tulku Khentrol Lodro Rabsel with his tutor Llagyel Shechen in the Bonarth Monastery, Nepal. 1996

Olivia Arthur (Magnum Women No. 2)

'When I am asked about my work, one of the questions that often comes up is 'How much difference does it make that I am a woman?' And I have to agree that it does make a huge difference, that plenty of the situations I have been in would not have been accessible to a man, or if a man had been present the atmosphere would have been very different.' -Olivia Arthur

Born: 1980, UK

Magnum nominee: 2008

Fatima says her midday prayers. A poster of her uncle, who is a wedding-dj, on the wall

(Iran: Beyond the Veil)

A young married couple in a migrant-worker community on the edge of Tehran

(Iran: Beyond the Veil)

(In the Name of God)

(In the Name of God)

Koran School for Girls. Faith, Turkey

(The Middle Distance)

Getting ready for a wedding party. Istanbul, Turkey

(The Middle Distance)

The prison dining room. Tibilsi, Georgia

(The Middle Distance)

Corrine Day

1962 - 2010

Photographer of the Waif, the Heroin Chic, the bare-faced model.

You will know her for those first images of Kate Moss.

But I like the light, the colours, the ratty hair and frightening spine of this photograph that somehow comment on the fallacy of the fashion world: the glamour is ripped open to reveal the structure that supports it.

Eve Arnold (Magnum Women No.1)

'If a photographer cares about the people before the lens and is compassionate, much is given. It is the photographer, not the camera, that is the instrument.' -Eve Arnold

Born: 1912, USA

Joined Magnum: 1951

Full member of Magnum: 1956

Bar girl in a brothel in the red light district, Havana, Cuba. 1954

US actress Marilyn Monroe on the Nevada Desert going over her lines for a difficult scene she is about to play with Clarke Gable in the film The Misfits by John Huston. 1960

Malcolm X collecting money for the Black Muslims, Washington D.C. 1960

The Queen on tour, Cheshire, UK. 1968

A woman wearing a veil, the colour of which indicates her tribe, Cairo, Egypt. 1970

Horse training for the militia, Inner Mongolia. 1979

Magnum

'Magnum is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually.' -Henri Cartier-Bresson

Magnum meeting, Paris, 1957

There's an amazing exhibition about Magnum Photos and the 'New Role of Photography' at the C/O in Berlin. Magnum is a photography cooperative, owned by its photographer-members, that 'chronicle the world and interpret its peoples, events, issues, and personalities'. Magnum was started by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, David "Chim" Seymour, George Rodger and William Vandivert in 1947.

The exhibition mainly focusses on the amazing photographs of its founding members, but it also displays other and more recent Magnum members. What struck me was that there was not a single woman photographer within this exhibition. As you can see in the photograph above, in 1957 there were four women in Magnum and there continues to be female Magnum members to this day. Where were they?

Eve Arnold

Olivia Arthur

Martine Franck

Christina Garcia Rodero

Inge Morath

Alessandra Sanguinetti

Lise Sarfati

Marilyn Silverstone

My next few posts will highlight the work of these women.

[I should say that at the Berlinische Galerie there was a fantastic exhibition of women photographers of the Weimar Republic, with Marianne Breslauer as the main draw.]

Elles at the Pompidou

They say it's worse in Europe.

I have just returned from Paris.

They have women artists on show there!

The Pompidou Centre has dedicated an entire floor (and it is a large floor) to the women in its collection. See the website here for more.

By no means does it mean that this should be your only dose of female artists in the canon, but it's a start.

Marianne Breslauer

Documenting the New Women of the Weimar Republic.

Shorter hair and hems.

Access to the city and workplace.

Incomes.

Sexual liberation.

A new level of (nearing) gender equality.

Be Prepared... The Girl Guides are on the march!

The Girl Guides are launching a petition to have airbrushed photos labelled as such. These girls and young women no longer want to only see and aspire to unnaturally 'perfect' images of women. Body confidence and self esteem is at a low (with 50% of a survey of over 1000 girls aged between 16 to 21 stating they would consider surgery to change their looks) and they want to change that. Their petition will be online tomorrow, so sign up on their website here.

If the Girl Guides was this proactive when I was in them I wouldn't have led a strike and been asked to leave!

Feeling the Uncertain

Whenever I'm feeling uncertain I take a strange comfort in the work of Francesca Woodman (1958-1981).

Stepanova

'The 'sanctity' of a work as a single entity is destroyed. The museum, which was the treasury of art, is now transformed into an archive'Stepanova with a cigarette, Rodchenko, 1924

'Composition is the contemplative approach of the artist.'
'Technique and Industry have confronted art with the problem of construction as an active process and not reflective.'
For Susie

Photograph of Patti Smith

This photograph of Patti Smith reminded me of the texture and reverie found in the photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron.

Patti Smith by Annie Leibovitz, 1996. Julia Jackson by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1867.