Random

American photographer Eric Mencher.

Jochen Lempert is a photographer with a background in biology. That shows in his work. Lempert's images look like formal renderings of a man viewing the world with a scientifically formal gaze.

But Lempert's images are a lesson in looking.

The picture is called Plastic Bag, yet you are looking at a transparent mushroom, or is it a jellyfish? A wall with 47 different species of  Great Auk (he wants to photograph all the species in the world) shows a scientific collection. You start looking at details you would not have observed. A close-up of a plant what could also be the plumage of a bird, or is it?

You can now watch Blade Runner 2049 on Netflix. I watched it last week and found it an unexpectedly good movie.

I had never watched the original Blade Runner, but now I had become curious about that one. Last I watched Blade Runner with our own cult actor Rutger Hauer.

What a great film! I understand now why Rutger Hauer got his reputation from this movie. His acting blows away even Harrison Ford as main character of the movie.

Why I love this book (in mind-popping order):

• The Edges book is in landscape orientation, which avoid pictures breaking over the book the fold in the middle.

• Harry Gruyaert takes pictures that many consider boring.

• Grainy-ness is a great feature.
• Gruyaert does not shy away from taking pictures from a distance - versus close Robert Capa quote (mis)interpretation "a picture is not good enough if it is not close".
• The colors.
• The broccoli picture.
• Simplicity (deceptive).

“Once a photographer has learned a few ‘tricks’, they are presented with a choice: keep chasing gimmicks or formulas, or look deeper. It’s OK to be lost. It’s OK not to know what you’re doing. It’s OK to fail. It’s absolutely fine to feel insecure about your work. In fact, all of these things are very cool because they state very loudly that a person is trying, striving, exploring and searching in a very personal sense…. call it what you will.”

Thomas Stanworth