“There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment.”—Robert Frank
April 28 Sunday 2024  08:11 AM (MDT)

READINGS by DARIUS

Works, by Mona Kuhn

The Recesses of the Soul

A box of ten photographs by Diane Arbus

A box of ten photographs

Sarah Anne MacNear and Denise Wolff

The Photographer in the Garden

INTERVIEWS

Episode-11-Darius-Himes
THE HALFTONE: EPISODE 11

Life-long love of photography.

VIA INSTAGRAM

dariushimes

Works, by Mona Kuhn

Thank you to everyone who joined my Instagram Live interview with Mona Kuhn this past Friday. In today’s reading, I’m sharing the essay I contributed to Mona’s brand new book WORK from Thames & Hudson, titled,

“The Recesses of the Soul”. The essay begins with two poetic, prayerful supplications. I hope you enjoy.

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    The One who floods the private sanctuary
    I’ve built, who takes away sleep,
    Who drags and throws me under,
    That Presence is the joy I speak.
    —Rumi

    O my God! This, Thy servant, hath advanced towards Thee, is passionately wandering in the desert of Thy love, walking in the path of Thy service, anticipating Thy favors, hoping for Thy bounty … intoxicated by the wine of Thy gift.
    —Baha’u’llah

    “Deserts have long held a special position in both sacred and profane art and literature as a geography at once harsh and unforgiving and yet infused with promise and the presence of the Spirit. The desert is where prophets and poets have repaired for refuge and sought to commune with the Divine, a place of wandering, of profound search, of sleepless nights yearning for communion with the Beloved. To be in the desert is to be alone and exposed. It is a place of meditation. It is a place of Revelation. It calls forth a mode of being, an orientation to the landscape that is best suited to the seeker.

    No one enters a desert and emerges unchanged.”

    @monakuhnstudio

    @thamesandhudson

    @thamesandhudsonusa

    #christiesphotographs

    #desert #spirituality

    #seeker #seeking #photography

dariushimes

Unveilings by Lynn Stern

Tonight’s reading is from a humble book that has been on my bookshelf for many years. The New York photographer Lynn Stern, a friend of mine, published this book the year I graduated high school, in 1988. Her concerns are quite formal, and she often uses a simple element of the natural world as a catapult to contemplate larger, existential questions.

 

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    Her photography is very traditionally based. In her words, “There is a particular quality of light – indirect, natural light – which looks uniquely beautiful when rendered in the gelatin silver black and white process. It becomes an ambient glow that seems to emanate from within and to be part of space itself. This quality of light characterizes and connects all my series regardless of the subject matter, from the radiant glow of the Extended Landscapes and Interior Light series to the diffused luminosity of the translucent scrims used in my studio work.”

    I read from her Introduction and also from a brief essay by the poet Diane Wakoski.

    I hope you enjoy. (Do I look tired?!)

    #Unveilings

    #gelatinsilverprint 

    #Photography 

    #blackandwhitephotography 

    #death #mortality 

    #formalism #contemplation

TAKE A BREAK

  • LYRIC

    Mosura ya Mosura 
dongan kasakuyan indoo muu 
rosuto uiraadoa, hanba hanbamuyan 
randa banunradan tounjukanraa 
kasaku yaanmu

MOTHRA NO UTA by THE PEANUTS (1964)

Mothra no Uta

 

Mona Kuhn: Works

by Rebecca Morse (Author), Simon Baker (Author), Chris Littlewood (Author), Darius Himes (Author), Elizabeth Avedon (Author), Mona Kuhn  (Photographer)

A stunning career retrospective of Mona Kuhn, one of the leading figures in contemporary art photography.

Mona Kuhn is one of the most respected contemporary photographers of her time, best known for her large-scale photographs of the human form. Throughout a career spanning more than twenty years, the underlying theme of her work is her reflection on humanity’s longing for spiritual connection and solidarity. As she solidified her photographic style, Kuhn created a notable approach to the nude by developing friendships with her subjects, and employing a range of playful visual strategies that use natural light and bucolic settings to evoke a sublime sense of comfort between the human figure and its environment. Her work is natural, restful, and a reinterpretation of the nude in the canon of contemporary art.

Kuhn’s distinct aesthetic has propelled her as one of the most collectible contemporary art photographers―her work is in private and public collections worldwide and she is represented by galleries across the United States. Mona Kuhn: Works, the artist’s first retrospective, features images from throughout her career, accompanied by insightful texts by Rebecca Morse, Simon Baker, Chris Littlewood, and Darius Himes. An interview with Elizabeth Avedon provides insights into Kuhn’s creative process and the ways in which she works with her subjects and locations, and achieves the visual signature of her imagery. Published to coincide with a traveling international exhibition, opening at Fotografiska in New York, this book introduces Kuhn’s distinct aesthetic to a wide popular audience., It is an essential volume for anyone with an interest in the human form in contemporary art.

180 color and black and white illustrations

 

 

Diane Arbus: A box of ten photographs

by Diane Arbus (Photographer), John P. Jacob  (Contributor)

 

In May 1971, Artforum, bastion of late modernism, featured the work of a photographer for the very first time. On its cover and in a six-page spread, it published selections from Diane Arbus’s portfolio, A box of ten photographs. In the words of the magazine’s editor and photography skeptic, Philip Leider, “The portfolio changed everything . . . one could no longer deny [photography’s] status as art.” At the time of Arbus’s death, two months later, only four of the intended edition of fifty had been sold. Two had been purchased from Arbus by Richard Avedon (the first for himself, the second as a gift for his friend Mike Nichols); another was purchased by Jasper Johns; and a fourth by Bea Feitler, art director at Harper’s Bazaar. Arbus signed the prints in all four sets; each print was accompanied by an interleaving vellum slip-sheet inscribed with an extended caption. For Feitler, Arbus added an eleventh photograph, A woman with her baby monkey, N.J. 1971.

Acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, in 1986—and the only one of the four completed and sold by Arbus that is publicly held—that portfolio is the subject of an exhibition on view at the museum from April through September 2018. This exceptional book replicates the nature of Diane Arbus’s original and now legendary object. Smithsonian curator John P. Jacob, who has unearthed a trove of new information in preparing the book and exhibition, weaves a fascinating tale of the creation, production, and continuing repercussions of this seminal work.
Published by Aperture in association with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

 

 

 

The Photographer in the Garden

by Jamie M. Allen (Author), Sarah Anne McNear (Author), Denise Wolfe (Editor)

 

This book explores our unique relationship with nature through the garden. From famous locations, such as Versailles, to the simplest home vegetable gardens, from worlds imagined by artists to vintage family snapshots, The Photographer in the Garden traces the garden’s rich history in photography and delights readers with spectacular photographs. The book explores gardens from many angles: the symbolism of plants and flowers, how humans cultivate the landscapes that surround them, the change of the seasons, and the gardener at work. An informative essay from curator Jamie M. Allen and picture-commentaries by Sarah Anne McNear broaden our understanding of photography and how it has been used to record the glory of the garden. The book features photographers from all eras, including Anna Atkins, Karl Blossfeldt, Eugène Atget, Edward Steichen, Imogen Cunningham, Edward Weston, Lee Friedlander, Stephen Shore, Robert Mapplethorpe, Nobuyoshi Araki, and Collier Schorr, to name a few. This sublime book brings together some of the most stunning photography in the history of the medium.