Mag : Dead Porcupine

Adam Wiseman - Moving Portraits

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:12:00 +0200

A few days ago, Adam Wiseman, a very talented and clever photographer, sent us his video “Moving Portraits” here’s what Patricia Mendoza former Director of the Centro de la Imagen of Mexico City wrote about it:

Moving Portraits is a series of approximately one minute filmed portraits that capture a moment of un-guarded introspection.

Interested in how modern technology can change the vocabulary of traditional documentary photography, Wiseman uses a combination of documentary portraiture techniques and available technological advances in high quality video to take “filmed portraits” of his subjects. Paradoxically, in the interest of capturing an honest moment, Wiseman lets the subject believe that he or she is having their picture taken when in-fact they are being filmed. The portraits are then edited and only include sections from a one-minute period where the photographer leaves and the subject is alone. Once the filmed part is completed Wiseman tells the subject what he has done and proceeds to create a traditional portrait where subject and photographer collaborate.

The result is a series of subtle yet intense moments, the viewer is immediately engaged. Appealing to the voyeur in all of us we stare but also feel uncomfortable when we realize we are there, with the subject, within their intimate space.

“…these are not moments detained but moments contained… they go beyond the individuality implied by a portrait… what has been achieved is a paradox”

As photographers we found this short film very intense, intriguing yet very frustrating. I have to admit I played with the space bar all the time trying to stop the images in the moment i felt right for a portrait, isn’t what we all photographers do? Freezing the time? This reminded me on how photography compresses the time to be processed in our mind, in our own imagination, with our own time. That’s why watching the subject moving, was a sort of torture for me, it didn’t give time to my fantasy to make up things. Of course that’s what Wiseman’s provocation wanted to achieve…and it did very well! As Patricia Mendoza says, this “paradox” brakes our control and pushes us firmly to the ground frame by frame. On the other side it’s very funny to watch what we photographers do actually see during a portrait session and this reminds me about how fictional, selective, fortuitous and limited a single photo portrait can be. Another great paradox I liked a lot, is how this video lingers on the imperfections behind a portrait, the subjects’ preparations to appear as “natural” as possible, which we don’t obviously see in a single “perfect” picture, this made me empathize a lot with them, as their human behaviors are shown. Wiseman showed us both conflicting sides of photography, its evocative power and its narrative limit.

Video and images © Adam Wiseman

IPG project - In Search of the Crying Lady

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 13:32:56 +0200

In Search of the Crying Lady is a poetic and dark tale about a search for a tradition that never gets found.

The Crying Lady refers to the term Plačky who were professional mourners in Slovakia. Plačky used to be an essential part of the Slovak death ritual and were hired by the family of the deceased. The tradition was believed to still exist in certain areas of the country. Despite the encouragement that IPG received from ethnographers and people they spoke to along the way, the Plačky were never found. The journey had therefore turned into a search for the tradition that disappeared before anyone that IPG encountered had realized. In Search of the Crying Lady is essentially a collection of moments that crossed IPG’s path along their road to failure.

IPG is an experimental collaborative project of photographers Yoshi and Tamara Kametani. Yoshi and Tamara established IPG in 2010 and are currently based in New Jersey, USA. In Search of The Crying Lady is their first self-published book.

The book can be purchased directly at ipgproject.com For more information contact IPG at ipg@ipgproject.com

All images © IPG project

Youngsuk Suh - Wildfires

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 14:18:00 +0200

The Wildfire series was initially started by my need to revisit and reevaluate some of the subjects explored in my earlier “Instant Traveler” project. The common thread running through the two projects is my perception of nature as a highly engineered and civilized institution. Through the images in the “Instant Traveler” series I intended to contemplate on the failure of the familiar nature-culture dichotomy. The human struggle to tame the ‘untamable’ has historically been rendered as a heroic victory of our civilization and brought us the concept of management in our relationship with natural environments. What used to be wilderness became remote memories petrified in national parks, the primary subject of the “Instant Traveler” series.

Wildfire and fire management are another aspect of the same interest. Despite the media saturated rendering of wildfire as a destructive force and firefighters as heroic individuals protecting our civilization, the modern firefighting has become a highly complex web of activities involving numerous government and private organizations. My interest, however, is in the position of individuals, often found in the fringe of this colossal system of ‘nature-management’. No matter how marginalized it seems, the desire of the individual subject is the primary focus of the new series.

It is the ‘anxious desire’ that drives us to nature, in which the desire to be ‘in nature’ is continuously prolonged of its fulfillment. Individual encounter of nature is often accompanied by illusoriness that perpetually defers the concrete experience. The smoke in many of the photographs mediates this very anxiety. It is the shapeless nature that we encounter in the thick smoke of our own anxiety. I am attracted and feared simultaneously by this airborne beauty.

The luminous tones and colors of the photographs are used ironically. Modeled after the 19th century American painters such as Bierstadt and Gifford, the picturesque sunset is enhanced by the haze of the smoke from a nearby fire. Like honeybees that are numbed by smoke before harvesting of honey, fire burns through the history of the representation of nature and tranquilize our senses. The romantic tradition also tells me that nature is as much an invention of the modernity as history.

The mundaneness that I depict in many images in this series also denotes a characteristic aspect of the modern fire management and disaster management at large. It is the result of a sophisticated social engineering that is aimed at total control of public psyche, which is achieved by careful control of the visibility of any disastrous events. Individuals are often ‘protected’ from the direct contact and left with mediated images seen on TV and newspapers. One’s own sense of threat is replaced by the color-coded ratings determined by the authority. Once this process is established, the wildfires are no longer a threat in a real sense. The thick smoke seems to transform the real event into a remote memory.

All images © Youngsuk Suh

Tom Griggs - Medallo

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 00:03:00 +0100

In 2010 I immigrated to Medellín, Colombia, my wife’s hometown. The photographs that form this project weave a personal and lyrical vision of the city together from the people, experiences, and spaces that have defined my life and experience here. The images come from backyard family asados and hospital vigils. They include portraits of students made during a break in class or in their barrios. Made from a point of intimacy created through an expanded interaction with the city, the project also retains a sense of my inescapable position as cultural outsider, seen, for example, in the long-view landscape photographs of the city that reflect a feeling of my relative distance and isolation here.

In addition to being a personal exploration of the city based in the experience of immigration to “Medallo” – as it is affectionately known locally – this project also substantively augments the shallow range of media and artistic images of present-day Medellín. While a register of the city’s complex dynamics is not part of the project agenda - and may not be possible - the photographs consciously move beyond the exhausted, one-dimensional narratives typically tying Medellín to its notorious violent history and Catholicism. It re-images a metropolis allowing it to be better seen for what it is, not what it was, at an important moment in the city’s history as this complex, diverse city recently named the most innovative in the world rapidly reconnects with the international community.

All images © Tom Griggs

Douglas Ljungkvist - Middletown USA

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 13:22:50 +0100

In 2007 I started a personal photography project, Middletown USA, which is still ongoing. During research I learned there are 16 US states that all have a town named Middletown. Pennsylvania actually has four in four different counties.

Having grown up in Sweden I’ve always been fascinated with how, why, and where American’s live outside of New York and other major cities. I was also interested to experience how different or similar the Middletown’s would be, feel, and look.

I think it’s safe to say that the Middletown’s are not often destinations or vacation spots. They are usually, as the name “Middle-Town” indicates, a spot on the map between two large places going back to the stage coach days. Thanks to the interstate road system it’s not that likely one would ever visit a Middletown, unless you live, work, go to school, or have family there. Geographically, Middletown is mostly a Northeast and Midwestern occurrence. Kentucky and Virginia in the South and California in the West are the only exceptions.

The Middletown’s vary, visually and in many other ways; from the upscale Middletown Rhode Island with its beautiful beaches and surf scene located next to Newport, to the hard hit industrial Middletown Ohio where unemployment is high and main street stores are boarded up. They also vary incredibly in size; from the smallest of 199 inhabitants in Missouri to the largest, in New Jersey, with 66,000+ inhabitants.

This is not documentary project about the decline of post industrial or small town USA. Rather it’s a personal search for vernacular beauty outside my urban comfort zone. I search through housing subdivisions, main streets, office parks, recreational areas, industrial sites, and more, for scenes that appeal to me, viscerally. Form is at least as important as content, as with all my work. Though I’ve added some portraits to the project the place itself is more important to me, than the people that live there now. I enjoy my role as the outsider looking in.

I have completed my first round of visits and photographed all 16 Middletown’s. My goal is to re-visit each Middletown during two or three extended road trips over the next couple of years, eventually resulting in a book.

All images © Douglas Ljungkvist

Bryan Schutmaat - Grays the Mountain Sands

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 17:03:44 +0100

“I wonder what my father saw in his most secret sight of the righ life. It’s my guess he wanted to live out his life surrounded by friends and children and fertile fields of his own designing. I think he wanted to die believing he had been in on the creation of a good sweer place.

Those old pilgrims believed stories in which the West was a promise, a far away place where decent people could escape the wreckage of the old world and start over. Come to me, the dream whispers, and you can have one more chance.”

William Kittredge, Heaven on Earth

All images © Bryan Schutmaat

Antone Dolezal - Ghost Town

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 15:19:00 +0100

Traveling through the High Plains of Oklahoma instills an immediate sense of loneliness. The very nature of this landscape cannot hide the abandoned homes and dying communities that have long plagued this part of the country. Flea markets are in abundance, offering a clear sign of the future for towns located in what is geographically referred to as No Man’s Land.

Ravaged during the Dust Bowl, the panhandle of Oklahoma was the epicenter of one of the worst natural disasters in American history. With great pride, the affected communities bounced back, becoming stronger and rebuilding sustainable farmland. But as the generations have passed, the reasons to stay have become fewer, causing many of these towns to once again find a communion with the dust.

The photographs in this series explore the myth of No Man’s Land. A land that during certain years was an unsustainable environment — spurring the violent uprooting of whole families and small towns — while in other years has produced record crop yields. It is a place that holds the heavy weight of history and tall tales. Legendary cowboys and outlaws have roamed through the High Plains of Oklahoma – the ghosts of the past becoming more intriguing than the realities of the present. And while the old tales and rough exterior may tell one side of the story, another can be found in the rare glimpse of ephemeral beauty that exists in this complicated land.

All images © Antone Dolezal

Jesse Chehak - Fool's Gold (Vol. I)

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:48:00 +0100

A promise of possibility has become myth in a vast expanse of land rich with natural resources and existential opportunity. The landscape speaks to the dissatisfaction of the rugged and strong-willed. Progress almost always requires staking new claims. Our extractions have realized big dreams and produced ineffable nightmares, as failure outweighs success here. This is a scarred and brutal landscape so often veiled by a resplendent golden light.

“Once caught by the golden lure you become a prospector for life, condemned, doomed, exalted— The search for what? They could not have said; neither can Is— anything as pretext. And how could they hope to find this treasure which has no name and has never been seen? Hard to say—and yet, when they found it, they could not fail to recognize it.”’

Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness (New York: Ballatine Books/Random House, 1968), 89.

All images @ Jesse Chehak

Shaw & Shaw - Sunday Morning

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 02:14:14 +0100

This series of images shot in Spain, Austria Germany and the England are a lament on the stillness of a Sunday morning and the tranquility of a day waiting to happen.

All images © Shaw & Shaw

Emily Shur - Untitled Japan

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 16:48:00 +0100

I first visited Japan in 2004. Since then, I’ve returned at least once or twice a year solely to take pictures. I had no intention of beginning a project of any size when I first went to Japan, let alone a life-changing one. This project is not conventional or linear. There’s no beginning, middle, or end. There’s not just one motivation behind making these photographs, but many. This project has revived me. It has relaxed me. It has made me think harder. It has allowed me to not think at all. These photographs illustrate my self-discovery as a photographer and are a celebration of introspection.

Over time, I’ve found myself focusing on small, subtle moments and have come to view these moments as symbols of morality in Japanese culture. I identify deeply with the level of respect that nature commands there, as well as the mesmerizing attention to detail prevalent within Japanese life. This honoring of the natural world is indicative of a certain way of thinking; a collective consciousness that goes beyond simply caring for plants or animals or taking pride in one’s work. It is a way of life in Japan, and the way I want to live.

All images © Emily Shur

Daniel Farnum - Young Blood: Michigan’s Urban Youth

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 13:25:00 +0100

In recent years, the FBI has repeatedly designated my hometown Saginaw, Michigan as having the most violent crimes per capita in the country. Flint and Detroit are also frequently listed in the top ten. These photographs investigate young people raised amidst a backdrop of mass exodus after years of economic decomposition in the region.

Primarily I focus on the disenfranchised, the misunderstood, the urban pioneers, the aspiring thugs, and the hipsters whose youthfulness contrasts the harsh condition of the places in which they are photographed. I am interested in how these specific locations shape the aspirations, both lofty and shallow, and attitude of its residents. Of particular interest to me is how this under-populated yet developed urban landscape promotes a type of freedom due to lack of order. This commonality amongst the young inhabitants photograph poses questions about the fragile uncertainty of the region’s ability to renew itself.

I was born and raised in Michigan and personally witnessed how the economic nosedive affected friends, family, and communities. This is an important and pivotal time in the state’s history due to the recent national focus on this area brought about by skyrocketing unemployment, controversial automotive bailouts, and continuing crime. My background as a former resident allows me to view Michigan with a level of intimacy and familiarity that more fully addresses the physical as well as the mental ramifications of living in such a challenging place.

All images © Daniel Farnum

Shiftless review on Paesaggiocritico

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 13:17:46 +0100

We’re very happy and honored for the beautiful words Francesco Tonini wrote on Paesaggiocritico about or work Shiftless. Thank you!!

Check out the article in italian or the english translation.

Kenny Hurtado - Day Passing

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 20:46:08 +0100

Day Passing came together after picking up and leaving California without a destination in mind. I got on I-40 and drove east, landing in Memphis, TN. I was not looking to do a project on the South per se. Although, I was interested in the experience of transplanting myself in a place I knew nothing about. By the third month of living in Tennessee I began to dislike where I was. This experience had a strange effect on me emotionally and it changed the way I looked at the landscape. I was not interested in fully immersing myself into this new environment. Instead, I was floating above it without trying to penetrate it.

Piero Turk - Nowhere is Home

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 01:00:30 +0100

“Nowhere is home” started as a project to explore a peculiar area, “Quartiere del Piave”, next where I live, north east of Italy. The landscape there is totally different from what you can usually see in that region that is completely covered by industrial buildings, houses, factories, without any order and any aesthetics, with a lot of traffic and activities.

There you have very high hills with few old buildings and nobody around. It looks like humans disappeared, leaving behind traces of their lives. It’s a place of deep loneliness, emptiness, absence.

Going around there I had the feeling that the atmosphere was the representation of my needs of quietness, of my fear of being lonely and my will to be alone. My feeling of being displaced. Not sense any place like”home”.

Tina Hillier - In Passing

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 13:20:06 +0200

In Passing is a collection of images taken in different places over a period of years. For the most part they are taken during a journey of one sort or another, often whilst travelling to or from a commission or project. While the destination would be the job itself, I was also keen to respond to the moments that happen in between that were more personal. I think when you travel alone you are more receptive to the details of things. You experience new environments from a more introspective point of view. I remember being on a bus for hours driving through the bleak landscapes of Patagonia with only my book and my mind for company. We came across a post-box in the middle of nowhere, as if it was a portal to other lands; an affirmation that communication was possible in this hostile territory. As a whole they explore places of transition and the contemplative nature of journeys.

Alan Hunter - We are here

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 02:44:00 +0200

This project - tentatively titled We Are Here - is a collection of images taken over the last couple years during various road trips and travels around the U.S and my home state of Washington. Like much of the country, finding myself a bit lost, struggling with my chosen path and next steps, it is part literal road journal and part examination of my existential crisis. These are the fleeting moments of the journey that help me make sense of it all…

Our book Shiftless was finally published!!!

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 22:04:00 +0200

After so many months of waiting our book Shiftless was fully funded and published by Crowdbooks! We’re very proud of it and can’t tell how happy we are. This couldn’t have been possible without your support. We want to thank each of you:

Rocco Rorandelli, Emanuele Volpi, Massimo De Angelis, Dario Caregnato, Nadia Rubano, Daniel George, Cristiano Lucarelli, Chiara Mazzone, Christophe Le Toquin, Laura Gallo, Luca Spano, Marco Pannone, Sara Carpio, António Vieira, Vittorio Vitale, Andrea Tromba, Raffaele Gallo, Nicola Girardi, Paolo Giagheddu Gianni Romano, Nicola Montagner, Laura Ramos, Giovanni Sinico, Ugo Marinelli, Salvatore Santoro, Giovanni Lami, Martino Caliendo, Irene Fazio. Christopher Paquette, Francesca Errichiello, Thomas Wieland, Paolo Patrizi, Alfide Bruschi, Maurizio Strippoli, Jeff Rich, Roberta Frosini, Barbara Pretelli, Carlo Gianferro, Carmine Luino, Yoshi Kametani, Raffaele Bonivento, Roberta Severino, Leo Novel, Andrea Cocozza, Milo Montelli, Francesco Mazzone, Marco Saccone, Luca Matarazzo, Flaviana Frascogna, Simone Lago, Valentina Bruschi, Tommaso Rada, Loredana Colonna, Martin Petersen, Umberto Mancini.

A special thanks goes to Stefano Bianchi and all the staff at Crowdbooks Publishing, the authors Heidi Romano, Alessandro Gatto and Franco Arminio for their precious words and for believing in us. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! :)

More info and pics here. If you’d like to purchase a copy send us an email

Brian Kaplan - I'm Not On Your Vacation

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 08:54:00 +0200

This project is about Cape Cod, which is essentially a narrow spit of sand that sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean. For most people, the Cape is a place to go for a summer vacation at the beach. I’m fascinated by the “other side” of life on the Cape: What happens in the off season, when the population plummets and it’s quiet, lonely and raw. The characters who are drawn to “end-of-the-road” places like the outermost part of the Cape. The thousands of Jamaicans and eastern Europeans who come to the Cape each summer, not for vacation but to work long hours at multiple jobs. And, the tensions between man and nature, which seem particularly stark in a place that’s so beautiful but at the same time so exposed to the elements.

Shiftless book update: t-shirt printing!

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:52:00 +0200

Finally our t-shirts, proudly designed by our hawaiian brother K2 got printed and ready to get to you!!! Thanks to the guys at Pubblicarrelllo.com and thanks to you guys for you patience :)

Keep you updated!

Heidi de Gier - A Falling Horizon

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 22:25:00 +0200

“I have difficulty with the idea that humans are superior and can construct nature. Should you really manipulate nature, or design it the way you see fit? Because in order to do that, you have to remove something valuable as well.”

For years, Hannie de Vos and her children had a sheep farm on the Sophiapolder, a small island in a river in the Netherlands. Every morning they would row across the river to take care of the animals. But they were forced to leave their home. The dike will be breached to create new nature: a fresh-water tidal marsh. Photographer Heidi de Gier closely followed the family and the nature on the island for a year.

Check out also the book