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Originally Posted by Struan Gray  There is a school of bleached Becherdom which is - surprise surprise - strong in Germany. But then here in Scandinavia we have the sickly-green documentary style pioneered by J.H.Engström. And the USA has it's static documentary school of Alec Soth, Brian Ulrich et al, which has adopted the deadpan German look, but with a lusciousness of tone borrowed from Eggleston and Shore.
Jem Southam and Simon Norfolk are more suble than most, without descending into deadpan.
If there is a problem, it is that strong, bold colour seems to have been co-opted by the sentimental and commercial worlds. But there are exceptions even to that: Julian Thomas, Eric Fredine, David Maisel and Cig Harvey are all rather formal in their concerns, but all very different.
So I think you are wrong about what is out there. You may be more right when it comes to what is the current darling of the top-flight art scene, but that's more about fashion and the desire to sell a branded product than a reflection of the wider photographic world. |
I am sorry, I should have stressed that the focus of my original post was on younger photographers--Mid 20's-early 30's-- basically people that are out of school and trying to make a place for themselves in the market-- unfortunatly that is what it is coming to be- just a market.
By the way, I have Jem Southam's
Painters Pool and think it is incredible. And the other photographer you listed are what I mean by working from a personal place, but there are relatively few of those when it comes to younger photographers. But maybe, it is because they are just that-- young.
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