Flat Pictures You Can Feel manipulates and repackages how we see (and feel!) images on screens, on walls, and in our hands.

Some of my favorite photographic series are ones that seep ambiguity. While I love typologies and projects with a clear beginning, middle, and end, pictures and sequences that at first bewilder me or make me think “What is this photographer actually thinking?" "What's going on in this image?" or ” Why are these photos organized like this?" often have the most staying power. Will Douglas’ latest book Flat Pictures You Can Feel, published earlier this year by Ain’t Bad, does just that.

Images of bullfights volley against religious iconography, photos of smashed surfaces, gravesites and others balancing soft and hard, peaceful and violent, immediate and metaphoric. Some are Douglas' own photographs, others are appropriated images from advertisements, rephotographed on walls or digital monitors. It's often unclear which are his own, and which are borrowed, but it doesn't really matter. The notion of "feeling," them, pulled from the book's title, is central to them all. Douglas collects and collates these haphazard moments into a strange meditation on how the process of viewing an image – whether it’s on a screen or in physical form – can change or even numb how we understand their place in the world.

After meeting Douglas at Portland, Oregon’s 2019 Photolucida portfolio reviews, I followed up to dig deeper into his ideas, process, and clarify the confusion that first drew me in.

Jon Feinstein in conversation with Will Douglas

PostedJuly 3, 2019

AuthorJon Feinstein

CategoriesArtists, Publications, Portfolio, Photobooks

TagsWill Douglas, appropriation, masculinity, Flat Pictures You Can Feel, Ain't Bad Books, Photobooks

A new book uses strange, sometimes mystical imagery to retell a fragmented family memoir.

"Magical," “Narrative" and "Storytelling" are three words photographers and tech brands often overuse to describe work and products that often don't actually imbue any of those characteristics. Sure, humans love to tell stories – we're drawn to them like cave sketches, right? They bring us together and make for a sticky TED Talk intro. But do they actually tug at us with just enough "mystery" to keep us guessing? With Paul Thulin's new book, Pine Tree Ballads, published by Candela Books, the answer, said in both a shout and a whisper, fist wrapped around the heart, is absolutely fucking yes.

Pine Tree Ballads takes us on a wonderfully confusing journey through the reenacted fantasies of Thulin's family history set in a small community in Maine. His great grandfather settled there in the early twentieth century, drawn to its resemblance to his Swedish homeland. Thulin reenacts these stories using a dreamlike sequence of images. Some feel staged, some feel like found family relics, and others rest somewhere in between.

As viewers, we're able to weave in and out of Thullin's consciousness with a dreamlike fluidity. Subtle photos of notes written in cursive text and an unexpected balance of black and white, color, and alternate-processed images help to pace, break up, and chapter-mark nearly 100 images that somehow, despite their volume, feel like an immaculately tight edit. Oh, and the inside front and back covers are peppered with glitter.

I emailed with Thulin to learn more about his journey.

Jon Feinstein in conversation with Paul Thulin

PostedMay 10, 2019

AuthorJon Feinstein

CategoriesArtists, Publications, Portfolio, Photobooks

TagsPaul Thulin, Candela Books, Pine Tree Ballads, New Photography, 2019 Photobooks, Photobooks

A new photography book combines religious kitsch, southern mythology, and eerie occult horror.

A crucifix made from Kraft cheese slices sitting on a dirt road. Poltergeist-y mist coming seeping through a sunlit door. Two bedsheet ghosts driving a car. These are just a few of the funny and strange photos included in Maury Gortemiller’s new book Do The Priest in Different Voices, a collection of images inspired by the photographers’ bible-heavy childhood memories. Growing up, religious illustrations helped him conjure the unseen and make the Bible’s written words – which felt abstract and inaccessible – feel tangible, palatable and worth contemplation. His work is a peculiar, contemporary take on these narratives, often infused with mythology from the American South where he grew up and currently lives and works.

We spoke to discuss everything from the project’s origins to Gortemiller's relationship with religion and his love for horror movies.

Maury Gortemiller in conversation with Jon Feinstein

PostedApril 18, 2019

AuthorJon Feinstein

CategoriesArtists, Publications, Portfolio, Photobooks

TagsMaury Gortemiller, Southern Photographers, Occult Photography, AIn't Bad, Photobooks, Photography Books

© 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

© Jay Turner Frey Seawell from National Trust — © Jay Turner Frey Seawell from *National Trust*

In 2011, Washington DC-based photojournalist-turned-art-photographer Jay Turner Frey Seawell began photographing political architecture in the United States as a metaphor for the structures and relationships of power they represent. As 2012 approached, he expanded his focus to capture the media surrounding the United States presidential election, a larger series he titled National Trust. Using various locations around the country as his backdrop, Seawell approached this landscape with images ranging from news reporters, to the somber historical architecture and its looming facades. Anchormen appear silhouetted on stage curtains, reporters seem disfigured behind LED lights that cast them as strange mechanical robots. Smart phones and dictaphones swarm candidates, grabbing for a sound byte.

Pulling apart the seams of contemporary news production, National Trust, published at the end of 2016 by Skylark Editions, humorously explores the spectacle of politics, power, and the stories that report on them. In some ways, Seawell's work calls to mind the playwright Bertholt Brecht, who famously made stage cues and other mechanics transparent to his audience, revealing their alienating intents. While initially shot an election-cycle ago, Seawell's work feels increasingly current, especially in light of today's tumultuous relationship between the media, public, and those in positions of power.

I corresponded with Seawell to learn more about his work and ideas.

Interview by Jon Feinstein

PostedMay 18, 2017

AuthorJon Feinstein

CategoriesPortfolio, Artists, Publications

TagsJay Turner Frey Seawell, New Photojournalism, media literacy, Washington DC Photographers, Photobooks, Skylark Editions

Will Douglas' New Photobook Flattens and Complicates Our Relationship to a Screen-Based World

Paul Thulin Retells His Family's Folklore with Photographic Magic

Maury Gortemiller Conjures the Unseen With Terror and Cheese

5 Online Photo Fundraisers We Think You Should Support This Weekend

Jay Turner Frey Seawell's National Trust Investigates Media and Political Power in the United States