THE SONIC BLOG Fotografie ist Kunst | Photography is Art

Vanessa Puentener shows the Urner alps and their inhabitants in her series “Alp“. She approaches the residents and their way of life which is threatened from disappearing.

Vanessa Puentener, born 1973, finished the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague with a Bachelor of Art in photography in 2001. She lives and works in Zuerich, Switzerland.

“But that [creative writing] class, as helpful as it was, was not where I learned how to write.
Like most – maybe all – writers, I learned to write by writing and, by example, by reading books.”

Francine Prose, Reading Like a Writer

“Love in the First Person” is a personal and touching mix of photography, video and audio. Matt and Melissa Eich, with help from their friends, documented their life together when Matt won the College Photographer of the Year contest and Melissa found out she was pregnant.

Visit Matt Eich’s portfolio site as well. Recently he was listed as one of American Photo’s 15 Emerging Photographers 2007. A nice interview with him from 2006 can be found here.

“The project (Common Place) is a three-part series that unfolds to tell the story of one’s own personal evolution: the coming of sentience (the quality or state of consciousness). These images are about the idea of an evolution of one’s self. As one grows older, many changes come about, whether they be physically or mentally. Through the process of self-introspection and the development of sentience this concept is truly visualized.” – Mark Rubenstein

Mark Rubenstein, born in 1984, received his BFA in photography at the Savannah College of Art and Design. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Here is an blog entry of Mark Rubenstein on PDNedu from 2005 with some advice for emerging photographers. Still worth to read.

The photographer Nicolai Howalt followed young Danish boys boxing in Denmark and abroad. The result is the series “Boxer”, portrays of young boxers capturing the moment before and after the match.

The series “How to Hunt” is a fascinating study of hunting. In color photographs Trine Søndergaard and Nicolai Howalt describe the encounter of man, nature and animal.

Nicolai Howalt , born in 1970, lives and works in Copenhagen.

After the first volume “The Helsinki School – Photography by TaiK” represents the second book “New Photography by TaiK” unique approaches to the state of conceptual photography today.

Volume two is dedicated to sustaining the dialogue between one generation and another who have either taught, graduated, or attended the University of Art and Design Helsinki, Finland.

The book features more than 30 artists: Joakim Eskildsen, Miklos Gaál, Maarit Hohteri, Janne Lehtinen, Ville Lenkkeri, and many more.

Visit the homepage of the Helsinki school as well.

I’m always fascinated by portraits of strangers, created in, more or less, short and random encounters. Marla Sweeney’s series “Chance Encounters” is a nice example of this kind of work.

“These are photographs of people as I find them. They explore the tension between our personal and public selves, addressing our ideas about ourselves as a people and a culture.” – Marla Sweeney

Marla Sweeney, born 1969, holds an MFA in photography from the State University of New York at New Paltz. She resides in upstate New York.

Some more work of Marla Sweeney can be found here, here and here.

“On a really good day, I will fight to the death with anyone who tries to tell me that those sparks are not also love, fight with my bare hands or the jawbone of an ass or a broken stump of a sword. Metaphors matter to me, especially perfect ones.”

Carlos Eire, Waiting for Snow in Havana

On Sandra Stein’s homepage are impressive portraits of children (Untouchable) and musicians (Tausend Melodien).

Sandra Stein, born 1972, works and lives as freelance photographer in Cologne. She studied photography at the FH Dortmund and works for several magazines and music labels. She is a member of the international pool of photographers POC.