Joakim Almroth
Artist Feature
Every week an artist is featured whose single image was published by Der Greif. The Feature shows the image in the original context of the series.
Osma Harvilahti - New Colour
Nov 12, 2014
»Osma Harvilahti’s photographs stem from a wilful resolve to aestheticise the world to the point of abstraction, with his subjects – whether plant, person, or object – assessed and portrayed entirely on the level of colour, pattern, and form. Though based in Helsinki, the majority of Harvilahti’s work is documentary in nature: vivid shots of people and places captured during his frequent travels. In looking through his images, one is immediately struck by the sense that even as he finds himself in increasingly exotic locations, Harvilahti’s approach remains consistent in its discriminations, his only concern being the continuous refinement of his increasingly singular formal vocabulary. Responding in real time to the surrounding environment, he scans each scene that he encounters for points of pure visual interest, translating both the natural and man-made worlds into readymade arrangements of tone and shape that function primarily, if not entirely, as formal exercises. Throughout his work, Harvilahti’s tone is calm and unaffected, implicitly warm but somehow distanced, as he appropriates the basic methods of both street and travel photography but denies those genres’ ambitions of objectivity or meaningful description. Whether discovered or arranged, Harvilahti’s images eschew any pretence of lending insight into a given person or place, let alone the broader surrounding culture(s): there is only the aesthetically-charged fragment, vibrant in its formal ingenuity but entirely unconcerned with notions of context or narrative, exoticism or ubiquity.« Foreword for Osma Harvilahti's first monograph »Polychromatic (2013)« written by Christopher Schreck
Artist Blog
The blog of Der Greif is written entirely by the artists who have been invited to doing an Artist-Feature. Every week, we have a different author.
Published in:
»Der Greif #7«
A couple of thoughts on Luigi Ghirri, composition, instagram and still life as photographic practice
Nov 17, 2014 - Osma Harvilahti
mg class="alignnone size-full wp-image-39322" src="http://dergreif-online.de/www/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/luigi-ghirri-13.jpg" alt="luigi-ghirri-13" width="700" height="447" /> If I would have to name one photographer who's work has touched/inspired me the most, it would be Luigi Ghirri. Looking at his work today, it feels there's something really familiar in the way he captured his colours, scenarios and landscapes. I found his approach to the sometimes very »everyday« scenes ingenious and his use of colour impeccable. He framed his photographs in a certain nature that makes the elements of the photographs-whether walls, people or nature- turn into graphical and almost abstract forms, sometimes only building the visual experience rather than working as some kind of representational matters. Probably the largest trend in photography since »35mm film with lens flares-style« (ca. 2007-2011) lately has been the »still life/graphical compositions/photo-sculpture« thing. During the past year or so it has started booming and seen everywhere being practiced by artists, big names in fashion photography and kids on instagram alike. The starting point of this new wave (surely not the first one) of still life approach to photography could be tracked back to 2009-2010 and being practiced by artists like Roe Ethridge, the JSBJ collective (Études Studio) just to name a couple. Sure this photographic style is part of a bigger trend in art where the style of expression in painting, sculpture and installation has gone towards more and more abstract, often scooping themes from the mundane and the everyday. In fashion photography it's the new »boobs in the forrest«, which used to be the general code for credible art/fashion photography. In my eyes »everyday abstract graphical« is the new »sad boobs«. I don't like the word boobs. What I actually wanted to say is that I think it's incredible how fast and effectively the trends started by independent artists and the work seen in small independent publications spread, become popular and turn to saturate the whole visual culture and how about a million people shooting with fixed 28mm lenses (iPhone) compose their snapshots like an Italian artist that lived and worked in Southern Italy 40 years ago and even though Ghirri has sometimes been named as the most influential Italian photographer of the 20th century, no iPhone user arranging their everyday breakfast scenarios to abstract forms of colour and composition could track anything back to either Ghirri in the 70's, Ethridge or JSBJ. Then again, is there really any kind of connection there or did it really only start on another instagramer's witty sandwich, ketchup, black socks composition copied by another one. Zero research. What I do claim is that William Eggleston was the first dude to shoot colourful abstract car detail compositions and no one has done it as nicely as he once did. This is a challenge: 1. look at Ghirri's work 2. shoot whatever 3. post on instagram with the hashtag #sadboobsghirri www.mackbooks.co.uk/books/44-Kodachrome.html
Tony
Nov 16, 2014 - Osma Harvilahti
mg class="alignnone size-large wp-image-39315" src="http://dergreif-online.de/www/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/about2-1000x666.jpg" alt="about2" width="1000" height="666" /> I'm wondering how's it possible for one swedish guy to come up with all of this really good shit. tonycederteg.com www.libraryman.se instagram.com/cederteg
Charlotte Tanguy
Nov 13, 2014 - Osma Harvilahti
Today I'm showing you some of my favourite photographs by Paris based photographer Charlotte Tanguy. I had the pleasure to meet Charlotte at this years Hyères Festival in Southern France. The festival is unique especially because of its incredibly intimate atmosphere which makes it a nice setting for good talks. Some of the best I had with Charlotte and became both inspired by her work and the way she talks, looks at the world. The photographs attached are from her series »poem«. www.charlottetanguy.fr