We know. This headline might imply an association between these photographers and the many ills a certain small-handed circus leader denies knowing when called to task, and we apologize. This has nothing to do with Mr. Trump, though we suspect he (maybe) collects the "great" work of Peter Lik, right? Why are we even rambling about this? Moving on, here are some of our favorite photographers working right now, all who've hung out with us over the past few months for weekly Humble Arts Foundation Instagram residencies. Some are making Instagram their visual diary or sketchpad, while others are using it as a wider domain for sharing long term photo projects. Have a look, give them your follows, and be moved to keep up with their ever-inspired work.
Emailed Kiss Goodnight © Tabitha Soren
Three years ago, while on a redeye flight, '90s news reporter-turned photographer Tabitha Soren was reading a PDF on her iPad to pass the time. By the fourth chapter, the lamp above her seat was her only source of light, and at a certain angle she noticed it illuminating strange lines across the screen. As she continued reading, these lines grew into convoluted, gestural smudges – her fingerprints abstracted from continuous scrolling as she repeated the same motions over and over again. “At the end of the fourth chapter,” says Soren, “they had accumulated enough that I almost wiped the screen clean of them so I could read more easily, but before I did that I noticed how beautiful the marks were.” And thus began Surface Tension, a series of photographs that pulls apart the many layered ways people consume and engage with images online.
Inchworms © Melinda Hurst Frye
Melinda Hurst Frye makes pictures in the dirt. In her latest series, Underneath, worms, caterpillars, beetles, snails and anonymous animal skeletons intermingle with stringy roots and soil that are simultaneously mysterious and hyper real. They at once resemble homages to narrative painting and large scale Natural History museum dioramas, giving a private view into the world beneath our feet. The Seattle-based photographer creates these images in her yard - not with a camera, but with a flatbed scanner, rigging it to a power supply inside her house, and letting its slow, ultra-high resolution scan a landscape rarely explored with such intimacy. In her own words, “The surface is not a border, but an entrance to homes, nurseries, highways and graveyards.” In time for her solo exhibition, up through August at Seattle’s CORE Gallery, we spoke with Hurst Frye about the ideas and process behind this new work.
© Akihiho Miyoshi at Out of Site
Seattle isn't commonly perceived as the epicenter for cutting edge or blue chip art. Its more frequent associations (re: clichés) hang in generalizations about foggy weather (btw, it's beautiful and sunny AF right now, thanks), the growing tech boom and overzealous Seahawks fans. So last year when the Seattle Art Fair, and Out Of Sight came on the scene, not many knew what to expect -- it had been long since anyone could remember the presence of art fairs on the level of the New York City and Miami "elite." Eagerly embracing their return this weekend, we spent some time at both fairs, grabbing highlights (and bios) of our favorite photography-based work from each. Out Of Site will be up through the end of the month, and The Seattle Art Fair will be on view through Sunday, August 7th -- if you're in town, find a way to get a VIP pass and check them out.
Rachel Sussman speaking at TED 2010. Image credit: James Duncan Davidson / TED - courtesy of Rachel Sussman
While TED is largely known for their inspiring talks on science and technology, they're also the purveyor of some of the most impactful talks on photography today. They've compiled more than 80 of these online, ranging from oohs-and-ah's inducing National Geographic work, to necessary explorations of race and inequality in America, as well as discussions of how technology impacts the way we visually process the world. We narrowed down 11 of our favorites (plus two TEDx talks) from photographers we've been following over the past few years. If you haven't seen these already, watch them below, and dive into their full list here.