From the series Battlefields, by Jos Jansen
A number of themes absolutely central to photography meet in this wonderful series of pictures by the artist Jos Jansen. He calls them Battlefields. As often enough, I come to them late. They were published in an award-winning book in September 2015. Continue reading
Nigel Shafran, from Visitor Figures. Not selected for the V&A’s Annual Review
“For those who like that sort of thing,” said Miss Brodie in her best Edinburgh voice, “That is the sort of thing they like.”
― Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
I have recently been writing quite a lot about how we could possibly set standards by which to judge photographs. It is not just a recent preoccupation; it’s one I’ve been gnawing away at for a long time. Put very simply, I recognize the absurdity of applying any one family of criteria to all photographs (and the arrogance of any one person setting themselves up to do that). But do we really have so little common ground in judging them, torn between all the hundreds of different criteria that could apply, that we have to make a profound revelation of ourselves as users of pictures before we can make even a moderate assessment of the pictures themselves ? Continue reading
There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.
And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.
Luke 16:1 – 16-2
I published last month a short article in The Conversation [ http://bit.ly/1RdmhpD ] on the breaking up of the holdings of the National Media Museum. Here, with the kind permission of the editors of The Conversation, is the longer version of that article. Continue reading
![Otto Steinert Die Bäume vor meinem Fenster II, 1956. [The Trees in Front of my Window II, 1956]](https://francishodgson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/the-trees-in-front-of-my-window-ii-1956-by-otto-steinert.jpg)
Otto Steinert
Die Bäume vor meinem Fenster II, 1956.
[The Trees in Front of my Window II, 1956]
This is a non-review of a show which may be good or bad, but which contains some things I like very much and which Londoners don’t get to see all that often. Continue reading
Stanford II , 2012
Alejandro Guijarro, from the Momentum series ,
The Cloud of Unknowing is a well-known fourteenth century anonymous mystical text in Middle English. (As pretentious first sentences go, in a blog on photography, that’s not at all bad, but let it pass). I read it years ago (in a Penguin edition) and not much of it stuck — I hadn’t spared it a moment’s thought since, and would struggle to tell you much about it beyond the title. But it’s such a great title that I’ve carried that around with me. Now I feel I have a use for it. Continue reading
Frank Brangwyn, Preparatory study for the Skinners’ Hall Murals, c.1905.
In photography we have no or few shared standards. The camera club virtues (perfection in the craft skills of photography at the expense of any or every notion of expressiveness) are not by any means to be mapped to the virtues aimed at by the members of World Press Photo, artists working in photography, or professional wedding photographers.
It is not, in general, a very controversial thing to say that “we have standards”. It is not awkward to expect that some jobs are better finished than others.
Try to get a little more specific than that, though, and standards are fiercely difficult to apply. Continue reading
[A piece to accompany an exhibition of works by Mari Mahr in a small gallery in Brighton.] Continue reading
Francis Hodgson is an interviewee in a long and wide-ranging conversation on matters photographic which appeared on Vikas Shah’s Thought Economics in April 2015. http://bit.ly/1JjAcUO .
Library of Birmingham photography collections under urgent and pressing threat.
Veronica Bailey, Lectures on Art by Henry Weekes, 1880, from the Hours of Devotion series, (2006)
If you look at the date of today’s post (22 December 2014), you will see that I’d rather be with my family, winding down and gearing up for Christmas. But I can’t. On this occasion, I don’t think it possible to stay silent. Continue reading
Francis Hodgson 