Klavdij Sluban. East to East

Klavdij Sluban is a French photographer of Slovenian origin based in Paris. He was born in 1963 and now in age of 48, he continues the development of his rigorous and coherent body of work. Sluban learnt the subtleties of black & white printing under the guidance of Georges Fèvre. Although he held a Masters' degree in Anglo-American literature, little by little, he gave up teaching to commit wholly to photography.

Never inspired by immediate and sensational current affairs, Sluban's numerous photography trips are permeated with literary references ­ for example, Beckett, Milton. The Black Sea, the Caribbean, the Balkans, and Russia can be read as many successive steps of an in-depth study of a patient proximity to the encountered real. His deep blacks and backlit silhouettes convey to his photographic style uprightness and accuracy free of didacticism or exoticism. In 1997, his work Balkans Transits, which he published with François Maspero, was awarded the RFI (International French Radio) prize.

In 1995, Klavdij Sluban created a photography workshop for teenagers in the Juvenile Detention Centre in Fleury-Mérogis (South of Paris, the biggest jail in Europe). The Adolescents were taught a creative approach, development and printing in photography. Their work is regularly shown inside the jail. Photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson attended several times a year from the beginning of the project, as did photographers William Klein and Marc Riboud who also attended to encourage the participating adolescents.

Τhis commitment was pursued in the disciplinary camps and prisons of Eastern Europe - Ukraine, Georgia, Moldavia, and Latvia ­ and in the disciplinary centres of Moscow and St Petersburg. By offering us pictures of those places he is familiar with and of their inhabitants to whom he is a true partner, Sluban unveils the problems of closed spaces and constrained horizons. And by doing so, he brings to both our consciousness and senses the fractures of a confinement enhanced by the internalization of perceptions.

Klavdij Sluban is a traveller for whom high seasons and travel commerce mean little. From countries generally considered unvisitable, too poor, too sad and grey, he brings back a harvest of pictures, always in black and white. The basis of his photography is time and people - people he would not dream of staring at. For Sluban is no paparazzo of reality, he is a photographer on a human scale, aware of the shifting frontiers of a profession which allows so many different interpretations, including the most idiotic ones.

His new book "East to East" brings together photographs that he has made during extensive travels in the East, frequently following the route of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Sluban's use of deep blacks and backlit silhouettes embues his work with a highly individual photographic style. These powerful images are remarkably moody and atmospheric and permeated with a strange melancholy and an overwhelming sense of isolation. This is deeply memorable work.

This explains the way he constantly calls his work into question, often remaining silent for long periods as if he suddenly doubts his strength at the threshold of his own eye. This inner silence, which is at the origin of all his pictures, is in fact his most precious asset. He brings before our gaze those who, in Haiti, in Cuba or in the republics around the Black Sea, stubbornly exist far from our well-worn clichés of social success.

But it would be useless to see these pictures as appeals for witnesses. In the East as in the West, Sluban works alone, a free spirit, with no commitments other than those he imposes on himself, and expecting nothing in return.

His tools are a good pair of shoes, a black box, and his Leica. In his pocket, a book and his faithful compass.

From the interview with Brigitte Ollier (in "Klavdij Sluban, Transverses", published by Editions Paris Audioviuel/MEP).

A simple question : What's the Black Sea like ?
Really black! It's the poor relation of the Méditerranean, which is luxuriant, flamboyant, bluer than blue. In autumn and winter there's an atmosphere of desolation which probably continues in the warm seasons. In winter the greys are really striking, everything is interiorized, everyone hibernates within his own thoughts. Everything is the opposite of demonstrative, but it's not empty. Intensity is never where you'd expect to find it.

The Black Sea borders seven countries, from Turkey to Bulgaria. Did one of them have a particular impact on you ? 
No, I have no preference. Of course I have a soft spot for the self-proclaimed republic of Gagauzia, in Moldavia. And I'm also fond of the self-proclaimed independent republic of Transdniestria, even if it's not such a nice place to live.

Is it hard to come back to Paris after this kind of trip ? 
I only allow myself to drift during a trip because I know I'll be coming back home afterwards. I'm aware of the limits of this, but I need to work within such a frame.; otherwise I'd probably never accomplish anything. Even for my trips to prisons, I proceed in the same way: I stay three weeks inside.

Three weeks for the trip - how long does it take you to prepare ? 
I usually know a long time in advance that I'll be leaving. It starts with an attraction for a country, and in this waiting period I often meet someone who has already been there. The way I perceive things comes from what I read, written texts that help me feel things from the inside. When I get to the country, I feel ready in my own way. Leaving itself is one of the worst forms of torture ever invented. I fight against it, but when I'm on a trip, I'm so completely involved that I sometimes realise almost by accident that I've got to go back home. When this happens I'm like a diver coming up to the surface in stages. Then I'm quite happy to come home and I stay in Paris long enough for the next trip to take shape

When you get back do you grab your contact prints to check the "results"? Or do you calmly wait for the next stage ? 
I'm not impatient, I wait. On the other hand I love getting back from Moldavia for example and looking at the year-old contact sheets from Haiti. This way of distancing myself from experience is essential for making the right choices, and it can only happen with time. As there are failures, my trips in preparation allow me to make more incisive choices. There are boxes for the first selection, boxes for the second and boxes for the third - like divisions in football. And it's been known for third-selection pictures to get promoted to first division! All this goes on at night, when I'm alone; I arrange the pictures into groups, always working towards an ideal.

All photographs ©Klavdij Sluban

You can visit his website for more info and photos  http://www.sluban.com/

Elliott Erwitt. What makes different a really Great Photographer.

"Photography is not brain surgery. It’s not that complicated. It’s easier now than it was before, but before it wasn’t that hard. It was reasonably easy. It’s not the ease; it’s what you do and how you do it and how you construct your life and your vision.”

 -Elliott Erwitt

Elliott Erwitt is a great example of what it takes for a photographer to be really Great, to be a Master. When asked by TIME to reflect on his favorite photographs in a post honoring his work, he initially pointed to a stack of his published books but paused. Then he replied : "I hope that most of [my favorites] are not in any book and they haven’t been taken yet. But I realize that we can’t show pictures that haven’t been taken.”

When you are 83 and busier than ever, When International Center of Photography is choosing to honor you with Lifetime Achievement Infinity Award and you give that kind of answer that the best is yet to come, That is what makes a Great Photographer!!

Speaking of the Lifetime Achievement Infinity Award, Elliott  Erwitt, in his deadpan humor, remarks, “I was very pleased of course, but I must say that I’ve had four lifetime awards in a short period of time…so I guess my life must be over pretty soon.”

Lets find out what is his remarks about some of his Great pictures he reflect as favorites

 

"This picture here of two kids with masks was taken in Paris in 1949. I was in the army at that time and and I was on furlough in Paris. Why is it a meaningful picture to me? It's meaningful because I think it’s a good picture — no particular story in it. It’s a snapshot. In fact, most of my good pictures are snaps."

"Here we have a picture that I’m quite fond of. It was taken in Siberia at a wedding palace and shows a wedding couple and their best man. The best man seems to know something that the wedding couple are timid about. Anyway, it's a picture that’s kind of funny...it makes you think. You can supply your own judgment about what is really on the mind of these people. I give this picture to friends of mine that are either getting married or divorced."

"I am an amateur photographer as well as a professional photographer. When I'm in places that are interesting, I whip out my camera and take pictures. One such place is the beach. I love to go to the beach and I love to take pictures there. It’s a wonderful situation — most of the people are exhibitionists and don’t mind being photographed if they notice you. I’ve done a number of books on beaches. This is one of my favorite pictures from Rio de Janeiro."

"This popular picture of mine was taken quite recently around the corner from where I live. A dog walker and his two bull dogs. I walk my dog and so I see him often in the park."

"This is one of my daughters at the Metropolitan Museum. This is daughter number six — Amy is on the right."

"This is my dog. I like this picture because it's at the beach and it's about a dog — the two subjects that are close to me. That's my dog, Sammy, who is blind and deaf but still here. Now he’s almost 17. He was a German dog that came with my wife but he’s lost his language and barks in English now."
 

"This was a picture that I didn’t know I had until 25 years after I took it...and it become a popular photo for galleries and exhibitions. It's at the end of Route 66 in Santa Monica or Pacific Palisades. It was kind of a place where you went to look at the sunset and muck about."

All photographs ©Elliott Erwitt
"This is my best known photo that was in the Family of Man. It shows my first wife, my first child and my first cat. I know exactly when it was taken 'cause my baby was six days old — 1953. It was in New York in my very first apartment."

What is his Favorite published book?

“I suppose the book that has my favorite photographs is called Personal Best (teNeues). As the title implies, it has my better pictures. This kind of  book is a compendium of my work. Its just going through my checkered career and picking stuff out that seemed to be a good picture or story or good situation and them putting it together in some kind of design-y way — that’s how you do a book. Or at least this kind of book…a retrospective.” 

The difference between a picture and a snapshot?
“There is no difference. A good picture is a good picture. I call them snaps because it’s an appropriate name and it’s something that you do quickly and them move on to the next thing. Go snap and gone…there is no difference. The only difference is between a good and bad picture, or a boring picture. A picture that engages you, that makes you think, that gives you some kind of emotion, makes you laugh or cry. That’s a good picture.”

How does he balance finding the time to make new personal work?

“I use a fast shutter speed.”

You can find more Photos and quotes in  Time LightBox

You can find an interesting interview that gave to his son Misha in New York Times

Frank Oscar Larson. Is this another Vivian Maier case?

Frank Oscar Larson was born in Greenpoint, Brooklyn in 1896, the son of Swedish immigrants who moved to New York in early 1890's. After serving in World War I as an artilleryman, Frank began working for the Empire Trust Company, a bank in Midtown Manhattan.  He remained employed by Empire Trust from 1920 to 1960, working his way up from auditor to vice-president. Frank passed away in 1964 from a stroke, brought on by lung damage he sustained from exposure to mustard gas in WW1.

Although he was always the family shutterbug, it wasn't until the early 1950's that Frank's passion for photography blossomed.  His weekend excursions around New York with his Rolleiflex camera produced thousands of images, which Frank developed and printed in his basement darkroom. Some he entered in local amateur photographic competitions where he won awards, but the majority of his work remained undiscovered until 2009 when his youngest son's widow found a box of negatives that had been packed away since Frank's death. Those negatives went on to become the images presented in "Reflections of New York" in honor of Frank's memory.

Throughout the latter part of his life, Frank Oscar Larson (1896-1964) would leave his Flushing, Queens home early in the morning with his Rolleiflex camera and embark on photographic expeditions to exotic places in New York City like the Bowery, Chinatown, Hell's Kitchen or Times Square, or to less exotic places like Rockefeller Center, Central Park, and the Cloisters. These photos compiled from negatives recently discovered in an old cardboard box 45 years after Frank's death, shows a unique and moving portrait of New York City in the 1950's.

These are a selection of photos who looks more interesting to me. You can find more in this link of NYTimes as well in the site http://www.franklarsonphotos.com/

David Gibson. An Interview

Please tell us something about yourself.  When and how did you start photographing? How did you first get started in street photography?

I came to photography relatively late having worked as a shipping clerk and then in social work for a number of years. I had a ‘proper’ camera when I was about 17 but it was more than ten years before an interest in photography became an obsession. My introduction was ‘humanistic photography’ which was mostly the photographers within Magnum such as David Hurn, Marc Riboud, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Elliott Erwitt.  The term ‘street photography’ never really gripped me until much later.

Describe the favorite street photograph you’ve taken. When and where did you take the photo, and why is it special to you?

It’s difficult to choose one absolute favourite photograph but I have to acknowledge ‘Audition’ that was taken as recently as 2008, Having probably learnt the craft of street photography over 20 years I know that the basic elements of luck and practice came together in that image.

I always feel that great street photographs are unearthed or discovered because they are always there. You just have to be ready and on that day - Feb 9^th 2008 - just off Shaftsbury Avenue in London I got lucky. Yes, I remember the day because that kind of day does not happen very often. There is a sense of excitement and relief when you ‘get it’.

Street Photography - color or b/w photography? What do you prefer and why? How digital time has influenced your photography?

Always a hard question, an unfair question even because why not both? At the moment I’m still hooked on colour, it seems right to pursue but I love both. I have more books with black and white photographs in them so that might be a clue to my true heart. But there must always be change and a challenge with photography. Digital as with many photographers pushed me towards colour but it surely comes down to whatever inspires you at the time. One point with digital is that so far I have never converted colour to monochrome. I always feel that is somehow ‘wrong’ but that might well change. I know a lot of photographers do that and I’m intrigued by the results

4. You are member of in-public (actually Nick Turpin invited you first of all the rest of the group), can you tell us something about this group?

It’s billed as ‘the home of street photography’ so in a sense it’s a home for all of it’s members. We feel comfortable there. We’ve been going more than 10 years and who knows what will happen but we do have a responsibility to street photography.

And we came into existence as the Internet truly began to enter people’s lives and therefore we’ve reached out to many photographers around the world. That’s what really matters. Nick Turpin and Matt Stuart deserve huge credit for that.

You are featured in the Street Photography Now book. What does that term street Photography  mean to you? How would you define it?

As mentioned previously I do feel a little uneasy about the term. I resist it a little feeling that I’m just a photographer who mostly takes photographs on the street. That’s a contradiction of course and maybe quite futile because it’s good to be known for any type of photography. It’s good to get recognition.

I would define street photography as any photography taken outside your front door, it is not set up and it depicts ordinary people going about their everyday lives. The essential point is that like the very word ‘street’ it has a little bit of attitude, it is real, a little dark, edgy and sometimes funny. It is real.

Street photography has become wildly popular with many exhibitions and documentaries springing up. You were a very active member of the Format festival as a member of in-public, What do you think is the future of street photography?

My description of street photography is hopefully it’s future. Street photography is real and people therefore respond to it. Trends in photography seem to go in cycles but street photography has always been there from the invention of photography itself. The future of street photography looks good, how can such a practice not be?  And the Internet is the future and street photography will inevitably thrive in that arena.

How often are you out on the streets shooting? Do you always have a camera with you and are you photographing on the streets anyway or are you only working with a clear concept or target in mind?  What is your favorite time of the day photographing in the streets?

I am much more selective about when I take street photographs now and I certainly don’t do it all the time. I wait for inspiration but realise that I often have to meet that inspiration half way.  The hardest part of street photography is in my head but I do have a camera with me on most days. Not having a camera with me is a risk.

I tend to avoid bright sunlight – so if I do have a favourite time of day it would probably be late afternoon.

Which contemporary or emerging photographers impress you? Which of the old Masters inspired you the most?

I’m not completely ‘up to date’ and perhaps it’s like music where you feel comfortable – or get stuck – with what you like. It requires effort to be aware of everything but I have become more aware of Alex Webb recently and Pinkhasov is an amazing and distinctive photographer. Blake Andrews of in-public is a fine photographer. His Picture of the Month (for April 2011) on the in-public site is a truly great photograph.

There are some very good Greek photographers of course. Nikos Econompoulos for example but none of these names can really be considered emerging but maybe they are less high profile.

It’s always good to return to the ‘old masters’ and Cartier-Bresson still resonates. I remember feeling the significance of his passing a few years ago but he’s now gone – and he hated colour. We have to move on. That’s the theory anyway but perhaps genius or class is timeless.

How do you define “beauty” when it comes to photography?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as someone said about women I think…so much the same can be said about photography. Elegance is also beauty. Beauty is everywhere and is something that we should seek out. I much prefer subtle beauty in photography rather than ugliness.

NickTurpin said describing your meeting back in 2000 that your work was witty and carefully observed with an edge of melancholy to many of your images of older people. How do you describe your work now?

An early subject matter was indeed the elderly that certainly had an air of nostalgia or melancholy about it. I think that I have moved away from that now but maybe there are traces of that ‘melancholy’ still there in my photography. I used to photograph a lot of children too when I first started so my subjects have shifted…and become more ‘colourful’ quite literally.

Looking at your photos a viewer can easily observe juxtapositions between subject and background. There are also the use of words and symbols.

Yes, definitely. I’ve always ‘used’ juxtapositions and sometimes they can be very effective. I love words too, always had a fascination for the graphic word and especially where it can act as a ‘subtitle’ in a street photograph.

In late March you led a street photography workshop in Athens. What is your experience from the workshop as well as from shooting on the streets of Athens?

Leading street photography workshops has been a major discovery for me because I never imagined that I would one day ‘teach’ in any way. It has become a source of inspiration and especially so when it is in a foreign city because it is a wonderful way to connect with people.  Athens was particularly satisfying because of the amazing enthusiasm amongst the photographic community there. That in itself was an eye opener and could well lead to more workshop opportunities in other places. The essential experience for me in doing these workshops is the sense of discovery and enthusiasm of the participants. In reality I learn more from them because it reinvigorates my own photography. Inspiration can often work both ways.

All photographs ©David Gibson

I know you planning some new workshops in the near future (London 28th-30th May) There is a lot of people just starting with Street Photography, can you recommend them something for better start?

Be inspired; seek out inspiration from the legacy of all the great street photographers that have gone before – and get connected with other photographers.  We are incredibly fortunate to live in the world of the Internet but don’t forget the pleasure of photographs on the page of a book. You can judge a photographer by their library of photographic books.

It’s essentially a question of soaking up the work of the best photographers and thereby knowing what is possible with your own photography. If you carry a certain standard in your head, then with luck and a lot of wandering…sometimes the magic can happen. I always return to the phrase about street photography that it is mostly about looking for the luck.

Thank you very much for this fantastic interview. It was my pleasure participating in Athens workshop as well wandering with you on the streets of Athens. I think is a privilege for me considering of you as my friend. Thanks David.