Paolo Pellegrin, Italy

Type of Photographs :

Reportage

Useful Links : 

His page on Magnum site and a blog entry he wrote about his stay in Guantanamo.

An interesting article about him on pdnonline (Please have a look at the gallery linked to it).

His moleskine.

Rough Information and Comments :

After trying architecture, it seems that Paolo Pellegrin found his way in photo-journalism.

He says himself : "I'm more interested in a photography that is 'unfinished' - a photography that is suggestive and can trigger a conversation or dialogue. There are pictures that are closed, finished, to which there is no way in."

Indeed, lots of his pictures, in Haiti, Sudan, Kosovo or Guantanamo for example seem to have been taken "on the fly". Without paying much attention to the estethic beauty, but focusing more on capturing an impression, a feeling. 

Some of his works are more structured, seeming almost posed. They also convey mostly a very strong emotional dimension.

It's interesting to see how those two types of pictures coexist in his work, playing on two different medium to make us feel the situation. 

What ever, watching Paolo Pellegrin's pictures is more likely than not going to make you feel as if you just received a blow in the stomach.

When I see this kind of work, it's hard not to talk about Art. So much more alive and powerful than the "all too cosy" pictures coming from "studio photographs".

Jean-Claude Bélégou, France

Type of Photographs :

Portraits, "vision-like" pictures, experimental.

Useful Links : 

www.belegou.org

Rough Information and Comments :

Jean-Claude Bélégou is a "theory guy". He's been into photography since almost 40 years now, and his work involves a huge number of pictures, organized in series tracking his successive investiguations and experimentations on photography.

Premiers Visages - 1989

Alone or inside a group of artists (like "Noir Limite" 1986-1993), he focused mainly on the following concepts : the human body and the notion of limit or border (between the fabric and the flesh, between the hair and the skin, between sleep and consciouness, between inside or outside, life and death, between real and unreal).

Being an adept of the photography as an intelectuallized and organized art (versus spontaneity), his "world" often has an "unreal" or "dream-like" feeling to it. Indeed, it mimicks daily situation, but in a very artificial and scenarised way.

Women being an obvious magnet for him and his art : it's obvious that he has a particular tenderness for young thin women with long brown hair :)

Les Vierges - 1988

Even if his website is a bit "dense" and disorienting, it's worth having a look at his different periods, especially "Premiers Visages", "Empreintes", "Les Vierges" or his most recent colour series. The website displays diptycs in an original manner : the image flickers into another as you pass the mouse on it.

After a huge exploration of black and white technique, he recently switched to color photographs:

Both above and below : Les Beaux Jours - 2005-2008

Among his latter works, the serie called "Les Choses" is showing another facet of his work, away from the body, and yet not so far : even absent the body is evoked, by the juxtaposition of 2 pictures.

This is typical, since his bodies of work are mostly sub-divided into diptycs, triptycs... like the two above.

I'm not going to mention the numerous selfportraits, since every artist has to deal with his own image, and his aging too, but it's clearly not my favourite part.

Andreas Bitesnich, Austria

Type of Photographs : 

Mainly nudes, but also portraits and travel pictures.

Useful Links :

www.bitesnich.com (official website)

Interesting interview

Rough Information and Comments :

I discovered Andreas Bitesnich in an exhibition in Vienna called "More Nudes".

As I was walking through the exhibition, I had a strange feeling about the pictures, but couldnt tell what it was. 

It took me 30 minutes to figure out : On about 60 pictures, you could see only once the eyes of the model opened. Either the eyes were out of the pictures (see above), or closed, or hidden. This artistic choice left me with a cold impression of body used as clay to sculpt a shape.

Indeed, Andreas chooses most of his nudes models for their physical capacities and puts them in acrobatic postures (as you can see on the interview above in usefull links). He also claims to be seeking "balance" within his frames. Obviously such a trick avoids to slip into erotism and sentimentality, an easy slope while doing nudes.

The 'acrobatic' shots are clearly not the ones I prefer from him.

I prefer, the impressive serenity flowing out of this portrait :

Or the fun symmetry of that one : 

But above all, my favorites are his portraits rather than nudes, that can be found in the "portraits" tab of his website, or while browsing his book called "Travel".

Petra Rainer, Austria

Type of Photographs :

Portraits and details of Nature or objects

Useful Links :

Please visit her website that features a lot of pictures. My favourites are in the "lithuania", "farm", "poland", "en detail" and "brunnenmarkt" tabs :

www.petra-rainer.at

Rough Information and Comments :

It took me only one single picture to fall in love with Petra Rainer's art.

In the context of the month of Photography, she has a show in Vienna till the end of November.

It seems that Petra is obsessed by time, by the "old", and by passing time. On all of her pictures, there is at least a small element reminding of the action of time on things : a crack on a rock or on a piece of wood, a torn and rusty metal part or the wrinkles on the faces, even the younger ones.

About her portraits : 

When I try to find what makes her portraits so perfect and magic to me, I come across the words "trust" and "welcoming". 

This little girl with closed eyes, this man lying in his bed looking at the ceiling, or this people standing or seating in the middle of the picture staring at the camera. They all seem to accept us in their intimacy or proximity. Petra Rainer went passed the moment when people have a tendency to pose, and she also took the shot before that moment when they will be bored to wait for the picture to be taken. In that narrow time period, people are "natural", just as they would appear if the picture would have been taken by a family member.

About her "details" : 

At first, I discarded her "details" as secondary. There is something too clean about the way she structures her pictures fences, doors, wood sticks, roofs, china cups, or other bottles. I thought, that was her way to rest from the complexity of portraits : she can control these objects perfectly, study the composition of the picture, come back to take another shot with a better light... I first thought it was all too easy and looking too much systematic and like an "exercice de style".

Then, it occured to me that these details were actually adding depth to her succession of portraits. All these tiny details allow us to fill the gaps between these people we see, to position them in a space, in their world. In a way, people in her portrait are "eating" so much of the picture, that you can not acutally see there environment. These details allow you to do that. To an extent, they work like the "cutting shots" in the cinema after a close up shot, where you can see what the character is doing after seeing his face in detail.

Anyway, I'm glad to introduce you to Petra Rainer, and I hope you'll enjoy her art. By the way, there's been books published from some of her pictures...

Photographies above, all taken at her show in Vienna, don't give justice to her talent. Her site will give you a better idea. 

Cédric Gerbehaye, Belgium

Type of photographs : Black&White, reportage photographs.

Useful links : 

World Press Photo

Agence VU

Rough information and comments : 

I first discovered Cédric Gerbehaye's work at the World Press Photo 08 exhibition.

The shots selected for this exhibition were taken in Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo), mostly in the Kivu province, at the border with Uganda. 

The two examples below will be sufficient to convince you of the might of his pictures :

The picture above is just amazing ! It features Laurent Nkunda himself posing in a casual manner. Note the 2 cell phones (one black, one white), the sun glasses, the guards and the inscription in french on the wall saying : "Justice is given in the name of the People"...

With the recently increased tension in Congo between the official government and Laurent Nkunda's rebels, it's about time to have a look at Cédric's work, since it describes with realism and emotion the situation in this country.

As most 'classical reportage photographers', Cédric favors informative content to "beautiful" pictures. Which doesn't mean he is not able to do both !

Cédric Gerbehaye is also a contributor of the Agence VU and he's been covering independently the Palestino-israelian fights, as well as Kurde people reportages.

One Week // One Photographer, an Introduction

Dear Readers,

November, as the Month of Photography across Europe, is a perfect choice to start this new Blog.

It will be dedicated to photographers famous or not, professional or not, good or not, using digital or film. 

The initial concept is to have a new post every week, but time will tell if this proves doable !

This Blog aims at providing photography fans with :

• key information about the photographers 
• a personnal vision on their work
• a selection of places (web, books or exhibitions) to find out more about them 
  

I hope you will enjoy reading it and adding to its content with your valuable feed backs and comments.