As we approach the holidays under a 2016 election cloud, there's talk of leaving, of escape, of anxiety over political family conflicts. For Democrats and Progressives, the ongoing joke in any election has been flight or permanent vacation to Canada, but we're probably not going anywhere soon. But how about outer space? There perhaps is no better way to enjoy this time of year than to get on a rocket or some sort of spaceship bound for another galaxy. Robert E. Jackson's growing collection of more than ten thousand snapshots contains dozens of absurdly outer space-themed vintage Christmas cards that have nothing, and yet somehow everything to do with the holidays. Like the Jaeger family, who superimposed themselves (along with their family dog), in front of a NASA photograph of the moon, all the while wishing peace on earth with the coming of Christ. Or a man named Asher D. Havenhill offering "Season's Greetings" through his telescope. These cards share a peculiar, yet heartwarming sense of holiday cheer, a brief and otherworldly pause as we approach the new year. Now if only we could find some intergalactic Kwanzaa or Chanukah cards, we'd all truly be at peace. See more of Jackson's collection by following him on Instagram.
In today's image-saturated-everything, truly unforgettable images, those that slow us down enough to interrupt our day to day are increasingly difficult to surface from the rough. The Billboard Creative aims to change that. Founded in 2012, the project connects artists with mass audiences by displaying their images on billboards in some of Los Angeles' most heavily trafficked intersections for an entire month. In 2015, they turned LA into what they described as an "open air gallery" with forty-five works ranging from established artists like Ed Rusha, to emerging artists like Shannon Rose. This year's exhibition, up through the beginning of January 2017, is curated by artist Mona Kuhn, and continues TBC's tradition with 45 artists of varying disciplines. We interviewed Kuhn to learn more about the project and her curatorial process, and we've included some of our photography-based highlights below.
Last year, we were awed by the launch of Seattle mainstay Photographic Center Northwest's publication Latitude 47, an annual photography magazine showcasing new work from the Pacific Northwest. Editors Michelle Dunn Marsh and Eirik Johnson just launched their second issue, a collection of work that, though divergent in practice shares a similar focus in their relationship to identity, personhood, and place. We're particularly excited for the inclusion of Jenny Riffle and Molly Landreth, some of the first photographers to participate in Humble's early exhibitions. We've included some highlights from the issue below. See more and purchase a copy HERE.
When I was a Freshman at Bard College in the late nineties, I was awed by Jill Frank's photography senior thesis To Die 4, a series of candid, yet immaculately lit black and white images of various competitions and nebulous college parties. They resonated through their ability to find poems among unsteady moments and transcend event-photography clichés. I didn't know Jill at the time, but these photographs have stood with me to this day. Fast forward more than a decade, and Frank has continued to make work that blurs the boundaries between tableaux, documentary and reportage. In her most recent series Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained, she approaches teenagers and young adults, focusing on the period of late youth that hovers on awkward and tender. Her mix of portraits and photographs of rituals like beer pong and keg stands tread somewhere between youthful nostalgia and an outsider's gaze, a tension she captures eloquently with her large-format 4x5 film camera. Throughout this work, there is a confusion about how much is orchestrated, what moments are genuine, and where Jill personally fits into the mix. I spoke with Jill to learn more.
Around this time each year, it's become a tradition for Humble and dozens of other photoblogs and online magazines to list their favorite photobooks, and it's often a bit arbitrary. After what John Oliver recently deemed to be a particularly heartbreaking year for many - from the deaths of some of our beloved celebrities, to the tragedy in Orlando, the murders of unarmed black men, the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline, and the bubbling face of reactionary politics worldwide (the list goes on!), we decided to use this space to highlight photography titles with a particular focus on social concerns and civil rights. These books cover territory ranging from race, cultural, and gender representation to global warming, and include a particular title that we think should have been published over a decade ago (we'll let you figure it out). We encourage you to support these photographers and publishers as you begin making the holiday purchasing rounds. We recognize these lists are subject to our own narrow gaze, so if you think we missed a particularly engrossing book, please drop us a line at submit AT hafny DOT org. View our previous lists HERE and HERE.