Frida's Fiestas

 

This is one of the most enjoyable books I have read in a while. Written by Frida's stepdaughter, it offers a warm glimpse into Frida's life, including over 100 of her personal recipes. The photos are an absolute pleasure. Don't you just love recipes with great photos so you know what the dish is supposed to look like? The book captures not only Frida but the colors and traditions of Mexico I have so grown to love.

Selfies: a celebration of a modern-day obsession

Nearly 500 female and female identifying photographers responded to the open call for this exhibit at the Royal Photographic Society.

Selfies as an obsession these days is certainly an understatement. As a photographer I rarely took a self portrait and still rarely take a selfie unless texting friends a picture of my new haircut.

Some of the 50 self-portraits in this exhibit are pretty straight forward some have been manipulated and are more complex. I find nearly all of them interesting. A link to the complete 50 follows my favorites, I posted here.

Do I Sit Well

Dee Robinson

Robinson won second prize for Best Black and White - Peoples' Choice. So simple but so elegant.

Garden Lockdown Selfie

Wendy G. Davies

I love taking photos that are reflections. This selfie in a wine glass is so clever. Going to have to think about how she took it from such a distance without with camera showing. 

Pandemic Ghost

Nina Stangle

Self, 2022

Julie Derbyshire

I often cut up my paintings and re-arrange them as a collage. On my To Do list, cut up a portrait.

Torn Apart

Helena Jones

At first I thought this torn self portrait was framed. Then when I looked closer I saw that it was a selfie screenshot taken on her computer. 

See more of the show here ... https://rps.org/groups/women-in-photography/selfies-gallery/

iPhone Photography - Creating a Series

  

Anybody who follows me on social media has been seeing lots of photographs of gardenias. I tried for 30 years to grow gardenias and finally, after moving my plants out into the sun, I am getting blossoms.

This is the first series I have done in quite awhile. I have 46 photographs taken and edited on my iPhone and currently have about another 40 buds. It has gotten me thinking about photographing series. There are some fabulous photographers who have done them. Here are some of my favorites.

The Brown Sisters

Nicholas Nixon started annually photographing his wife Bebe with her three sisters in 1975. And he is still at it. I really love this series. Wish I had started one in the 1960s or 1970s. MOMA exhibited the series called Forty Years of the Brown Sisters. You can see it here...

The Kitchen Table

in 1990 Carrie Mae Weems did a series that continues to be one of my all time favorites. She photographed what happens at her kitchen table. You can see the series here... 

Rene Magritte

Rene Magritte was known for his surrealist paintings, often using as his model a man with a bowler hat. Photographer Duane Michals visited Magritte in Brussels when he was 33 and Magritte was 65. He created a series using the painter's bowler hat called From a Visit to Magritte. You can see it here... 

Riace - We Are Here

Riace is an Italian village that for the most part was abandoned by locals and adopted by migrants. Caroline Gavazzi created a series of three dimensional photographs of Riace's new residents. She printed each subject's fingerprint on plexiglass and placed it over their photographic portrait. You can see more here... 

Warhol Polaroids

Andy 

Warhol was known for his photographs of famous people. His one of a kind polaroids were taken from 1958 to 1987. You can see an exhibit of this series here... 

Thomas Finkler

German photographer Thomas Finkler creates what he call minimal landscape photographs, his favorite subject being trees. You can see more of his work on his website here...

Coney Water

Photojournalist Massimo Vitali launched his beach series in the 1990s, a time of political turbulence in Italy. His goal was to photograph beach goers during the tense time in Italy. The Coney Water image alone sold for $37,500 in 2014. Massimo has a blog which you can read here...