documentary Archives - s2z Photography Blog

The 25 Photos That Defined the Modern Age

A Gordon Parks colour photograph from the 1950s, depicting a black women and child on a street outside a movie theatre. Source:-https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/03/t-magazine/photography-robert-frank-gordon-parks.html — Gordon Parks, “Department Store, Mobile, Alabama,” 1956 Source https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/03/t-magazine/photography-robert-frank-gordon-parks.html

In my inbox recently, from Jorg Colbert came a link to an article by a panel of experts at the New York Times who decided what the 25 most infulential images since 1955 are.

Definitely an arbitary date to choose from and some obscure images which I had not heard of and a couple of insigtful texts to accompany some of them.

It begins by lisitng the obvious omissions, Berenice Abbott, Ansel Adams, Robert Adams, Richard Avedon, Dawoud Bey, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Imogen Cunningham, Roy DeCarava, William Eggleston, Walker Evans, Robert Mapplethorpe, Helmut Newton and Irving Penn.

A group of experts met to discuss the images that have best captured — and changed — the world since 1955.

They were: the Canadian conceptual photographer Stan Douglas, 63; the Vietnamese American photographer An-My Lê, 64; the acting chief curator of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, Roxana Marcoci, 66; the American documentary photographer Susan Meiselas, 75; the American photographer Shikeith, 35; and Nadia Vellam, 51, T’s photo and video director.

Sadly behind a paywall. A definite add to my bookmarks.

About the author.
Stuart Murdoch is an Artist and Part time Photo Educator, with over 30 years of teaching experience. He contemplates many things photographic. His ruminations include his own work as well other’s and the aspects of technology that impact on the sharing and consumption of Photographs. And of course the act of making and taking photographs in the 21st century.

Project’s end?

Eight years after I began making the same picture on each day I was at work. Always at 8:30. Always from the same position. The project has now ended.

The changes in the scene that were most notable, were the weather. Others included the tree.

Often the picture made at 8:30 in no way reflected the weather for that day either before or after 8:30. Which isn’t reflected in the imagery itself.

The linchpin, that helped me decide to end it was the removal the tree. The tree had suffered some damage in the storms we had 10 days or so prior, and in the interim someone decided it needed to be removed entirely.

Here’s the first picture made in February 2014.

And the last made in December 2021.

Some West Suburban Bungalows

In 1966, Ed Ruscha photographed ‘Every building on the Sunset Strip‘ in Los Angeles. It became a book and the original is highly sought after. I have seen the copy the NGV has in its collection. Such a simple and elegant idea. The book is one long accordion type book. It is small but intriguing. I have attempted my own version of the idea twice now. Once in Yarraville with a small stretch of houses that have since been demolished, for the Regional Rail Link. The ‘album’ is on flickr it is entitled Buckley Street Seddon. It took approximately 40 minutes to make those pictures.

I did the same recently, only this time I walked along Wright Street, Sunshine, from Stanford Street to Hampshire Road.

I started at the Stanford street and walked West, the numbers on that side of the street are even numbers. I excluded the corner houses. The photography component took all of 20 minutes.

There was one empty block primed and ready for redevelopment. And two other blocks with for sale signs on them. Big changes are indeed afoot. What form shape or size they will take remains to be seen I guess?

Throwback Thursday [Pandemic Edition #2]

An film shot image from nearly 10 years ago says a lot about where I was at in my image making — Highly designed urban living in the Docklands. A source of fascination for me in the early 2000s.

In 2009, it seems I was working in and around the Docklands precinct of Melbourne. Using colour film and my Hasselbald. This work is likely to sit in my archive its use undetermined. I had begun working there as early as 1993 or so. In those days the site was still a lingering industrial wasteland. See image below shot on 5×4 and black and white film.

The Doclands circa 1993 — An area of the docklands undergoing reclamation. This time shot on 5 x 4 black and white film.