Damien Hirst has a recurring nightmare. His big auction here is about to begin, and the Sotheby’s salesroom is overflowing with collectors and dealers. The auctioneer opens the bidding. Suddenly the place goes quiet. Not a paddle is raised.
“The galleries have convinced everyone not to bid,” Mr. Hirst said last month, recounting the dream while overseeing the installation of “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever” his one-artist, two-day auction at Sotheby’s. Beginning on Monday night it will include 223 works that he has produced over the last two years.
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in Art & Design
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IN early 1968 Josef Koudelka decided to give up his job as an aeronautical engineer and devote himself full time to photography. It was a luminous moment in Czechoslovakia: the political reformist Alexander Dubcek had just come to power and lifted some of the Soviet-bloc-style restrictions on political freedom. The country teemed with excitement as the government ended press censorship and broached democratic reforms.
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Photograph by Brian SkerryI’ve been diving for about 30 years, and I can honestly say that I’ve had some amazing encounters with sharks, squids, and other whales. But the encounter with the right whales in the Auckland Islands was probably the best thing I’ve ever done. It was just that amazing.
in Interviews
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Leica D-Lux 4
Described as, the “Son of M8″ and looking neat in an all-black metal finish, the 10MP D-Lux 4 comes with a 1/1.63″ CCD image sensor, 3.0″ 460k pixel LCD monitor and wide angle zoom covering 24 to 60mm (35mm format) offering a bright f2 aperture, reducing to f2.8 at full zoom.
in Leica
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this DLP beamer boasts a native 1,920 x 1,200 resolution, 1,400 ANSI lumens, a 2,500:1 contrast ratio and a VARIO-ELMARIT-P f/2.8-3.1/33-42 mm high-speed lens.
in Equipment
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Pre-Photokina 2008: Leica has launched an updated version of its M8 digital rangefinder camera. The M8.2 features the same body as the M8, but includes the previously optional upgrades announced at PMA in January 2008. These include a low vibration, extra quiet focal plane shutter with the option to re-cock the shutter at a more convenient moment. The camera body also sports a new vulcanite finish and a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal cover glass for LCD protection.
in Leica
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Carl Zeiss has just announced that they have begun manufacturing a pair of manual focus Canon EF mount lenses called the ZE series. First available, a 50mm f/1.4, will be released on September 29th, and coming later this year an 85mm f/1.4,
in Equipment
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Michael Rubenstein is a photojournalist based in Mumbai, India. He enjoys long walks on the beach, 100% humidity, incredibly large crowds and odors of unknown origin.
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Like others at the Atlantic, I was appalled to read about the actions of Jill Greenberg, the freelance photographer who took the cover portrait that illustrates my article about John McCain. Greenberg doctored photographs of McCain she took during her Atlantic-arranged shoot, which took place last month in Las Vegas. She has posted these doctored photographs on her website, which you can go find yourself, if you must. Suffice it to say that her “art” is juvenile, and on occasion repulsive. This is not the issue, of course; the issue is that she betrayed this magazine, and disgraced her profession.
in Ethics
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Dan Price is the author of Moonlight Chronicles, a journal of his life which he has been hand drawing and distributing since the early 90s. Before that he worked as a photojournalist for numerous newspapers and was perhaps the only staff photographer in the country to regularly use Diana cameras on assignment
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Vewd is a documentary photography magazine continuing the tradition of storytelling through a visual medium.
Check it out here. Via APAD.
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We meet, for example, Leslie Bairstow, an expert on belemnites (the fossil remains of ancient squid-like beings) who joined the museum in 1932. During his tenure at the museum, Bairstow published nothing but collected everything, including the string from parcels that had been sent to him. When he retired, the string turned out to have been filed in boxes according to length; one box contained “pieces of string too small to be of use.”
in Books
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When The Atlantic called Jill Greenberg, a committed Democrat, to shoot a portrait of John McCain for its October cover, she rubbed her hands with glee.
in Ethics
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I’ve been playing with the new “5D Mark II” for the last month and I have to say, both Nikon and Sony are going to s*** their pants. Yeah yeah, I know, I’m biased, but seriously, it’s good. Japan won’t allow me to give you too much information as of yet, but since some of our NDA’s have expired today, I’m going to pre-empt the press and give you some more details.
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The final conference Saturday was probably the most interesting (and inflammatory) of the week. It focused on a photo that was made in South Africa by photographer Kim Ludbrook, who sent it to his agency, European Pressphoto Agency, which in turned pushed it to the wires. Jean-Francois Leroy explained that the photo had made it into one of the “year in pictures” slide shows for Visa before he found it and removed it. He reacted strongly against the image because of its content
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Throughout the show a member of the Killers’ entourage takes pictures from the side of the stage. These days he is the only photographer allowed to shoot the band live. After gigs, the media are invited to pick shots that the band have selected to put up on a special website. Later I ask (Killers’ singer) Brandon Flowers why such an edict is necessary.
‘Ah-ha-ha,’ he laughs nervously. He begins by saying that the ban on outside photographers was in response to publications tending to use the same kind of image repeatedly: him with his mouth wide open, singing. Or, as he puts it, ‘the screaming moment… It just to got to be – well, for me, I didn’t like it.’
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Photo: Steve Hannerthinking of the Bad Brains got me thinking of “I Against I”, how awesome that record is and how epic the lyric sheet photo is. I know, “epic” is a big word and one that people tend to throw around rather loosely, but f*** it, that photo really is epic.
in Punk Rock
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Some things you just don’t see coming – and those really tend to sting the most – and leave a mark.
The PhotoShelter Collection will leave a mark – and in more ways than one.
in Photography
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EOS 5D replacement will be announced on September 17, 8am.
It is a full frame, like its predecessor, but with 21 megapixel with Digic IV processor.
in Equipment
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in Art & Design