Seeing Being Seen: A Personal History of Photography. Cover Photo © Will Wilson

Michelle Dunn Marsh, one of photography's foremost champions speaks with Humble's Jon Feinstein on her new book, her love for the medium and its makers, and why visual literacy is more important now than ever before.

I first met Michelle Dunn Marsh at a random Chelsea coffee shop in NYC around 2008 when she was Aperture Foundation’s deputy director, and co-publisher of Aperture magazine. Humble's co-founder Amani Olu and I, a year into launching our platform, were Wayne's World "we're not worthy"-ing our luck in landing a meeting with her to discuss a potential collaboration. Dunn Marsh was direct, immediately inspiring, and encouraging, and made a significant mark on many aspects of Humble's vision in the years that followed.

Fast forward to 2013 and a move to Seattle. I was lucky to collaborate on many projects with her at Photographic Center Northwest, where she served as Executive Director through 2019. Michelle brings a critical and empathetic eye to photography, and her multi-decade support of its practitioners is nearly unrivaled.

Michelle's soon-to-be-published memoir Seeing Being Seen (Minor Matters Books) chronicles her life and work as a book designer, cultural producer, and publisher. Warm personal anecdotes about her experiences in the industry and working with some of photography's late and living legends direct the narrative. Punctuated by portraits of her by Stephen Shore, Larry Fink, Sylvia Plachy, Will Wilson, and Adrain Chesser, and work from her covetable, personal photography (and vintage car!) collection, it's a glimpse of her life and career over the past 25+ years.

With a few weeks until the April 1st, 2021 deadline to achieve the book's presale goal, Dunn Marsh and I caught up to dive into the book, her life, our shared passion for photography, and kinship as fellow Bard College alums.

Jon Feinstein in conversation with Michelle Dunn Marsh

On Monday, March 23, San Francisco Art Institute announced that it will close its doors, possibly for good.

The institution home to the nation’s first fine art photography program, founded by Ansel Adams in 1945 and led by a luminary faculty cohort including Dorothea Lange, Imogene Cunningham, Minor White, Lisette Model, and Edward Weston.

If SFAI remains shuttered, it will be a loss to art communities both locally and across the globe. Humble’s senior editor Roula Seikaly asked SFAI alumni and instructors to share their thoughts on the time they spent on the North Beach campus, and why the school and the people they encountered there were important to their personal and creative growth.

PostedApril 6, 2020

AuthorRoula Seikaly

CategoriesArtists, Galleries

TagsSF Art Institute, San Francisco Art Institute, Lonnie Graham, Rafael Soldi, Eirik Johnson, Meghann Riepenhoff, Marcela Pardo Ariza, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Janet Delaney

Photographic typologies can be boring. Serialized to death. A bit too literal or on the nose. (I say this as someone who still loves them, in spite of agreeing with Joerg Colberg’s New Year’s plea to photographers a decade or so ago to "stop making typologies," at least for a while, still can’t get enough of them.) So, when a photographer adds some warmth, digs deeper into the soul of a structure, I want to learn more.

Enter Eirik Johnson, who, since 2010, has been making typologies of seasonal hunting cabins built by the Iñupiat inhabitants of Utqiaġvik (formerly known as Barrow), Alaska through the extremes of the Arctic summer and winter, which culminate in his new book Barrow Cabins, recently published by Ice Fog Press. The cabins rest on the shores of the Chukchi Sea, part of the larger Arctic Ocean, and are built from a variety of makeshift materials – weathered plywood to old shipping pallets collected from the nearby-decommissioned U.S. Navy Base – whatever is on hand.

Rather than comparing structures purely for their architecture or photographing them under a monotonous, non-descript sky, Johnson’s point of comparison is the light and temperature itself. He describes it as a “meditation on the passage of time.” While on the surface, these photographs might appear to focus on the structures, they feel more like explorations of the emotional capacity of weather, seasons, and the metaphoric hunt for light and calm.

I spoke with Johnson earlier this month as he was preparing for the book’s release. BTW, you should get a copy.

PostedSeptember 26, 2019

AuthorJon Feinstein

CategoriesPortfolio, Publications, Artists, Photobooks

TagsEirik Johnson, Barrow Cabins, Ice Fog Press, Alaska Photography, Photographic Typologies, Jon Feinstein

From Ben Alper and Joy Drury Cox’s claustrophobic photos of tourist caves to Ka-Man Tse’s photos capturing LGBTQ communities in Hong Kong, these photobooks are worth your time (and – hint-hint – money!)

As we declared last year, just like our open calls aren’t “photo contests,” this is not a “Best Photobooks" list. It’s not a competition, and with just a few editors running the Humble show, feels disingenuous and unrealistic to declare it as such. Instead, this is simply a collection of photobooks that made an impact on us in 2018.

As editors and curators with a broad spectrum of tastes, we responded to critical socio-political discussions, adventurous technical or conceptual potential, new takes on photo historical icons, or just damn beautiful image collections. As you move through this list, we encourage you to dig deeper into these photographers’ work and show your support for their careers and practice by buying a few, preferably directly from the publishers or photographers themselves. Without further ado…

PostedNovember 20, 2018

AuthorEditors

CategoriesArtists, Portfolio, Publications

© Eirik Johnson - from his upcoming Photobook PINE — © Eirik Johnson - from his upcoming Photobook *PINE*

One of our New Year's resolutions was to devote more energy towards helping photographers get their projects funded. We haven't done the best job yet, but we're trying. This week, the following 5 projects caught our eye and their deadlines are rapidly approaching. Some have already reached their goals, but are so remarkable, we couldn't take them off this list. Check 'em out and forego that extra round of drinks this weekend to help these projects get off the ground.

PostedJuly 27, 2018

AuthorEditors

CategoriesArtists, Publications

TagsEirik Johnson, Romke Hoogwaerts, Zhou HanShun, Photobooks, kickstarter, photo fundraisers, 3D printed camera, Ellie Ramsden, Drew Niconowicz, Gnomic Books, Minor Matters Books

A Personal Memoir From One of Photography's Sharpest Shining Advocates

Artists Reflect on the Sudden Closing of San Francisco Art Institute

Eirik Johnson's New Book Captures Arctic Hunting Cabins Through Seasonal Extremes

Humble Booklist: 32 Photobooks That Dropped Our Jaws in 2018

5 Online Photo Fundraisers We Think You Should Support This Weekend