Correspondencia

The more I become involved in the digital questions surrounding contemporary media, and in particular the niche of fine art and photography publishing, I see the emergence of ever more sophisticated and well produced print publications that celebrate and embrace our subjective ecology to such tactile things. Correspondencia is a new publication that features two of my favourite photographers who seduced me in the early ‘90s and continue to make sublime images to dwell in, Wolfgang Tillmans and Mark Borthwick.

Mars

Lovely found drawings from early 1900s depicting Mars. from The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4), by J. Arthur Thomson. But would it be better in print…? I’m not sure anymore. If you think in terms of who this is available to now, the money and the resources saved. Distribution is the biggest benefit of online publishing.

1} Drawings by Prof. Lowell to accompany actual photographs of Mars showing many of the
2} canals. Taken in 1907 by Mr. E. C. Slipher of the Lowell Observatory.
3 Drawing by Prof. Lowell made January 6, 1914.
4 Drawing by Prof. Lowell made January 21, 1914.
Nos. 1 and 2 show the effect of the planet’s rotation. Nos. 3 and 4 depict quite different sections. Note the change in the polar snow-caps in the last two.

Robin Schwartz

Tim Barber over at Tiny Vices continues to support some fantastic visual artists. I know that whenever I pop into his site I’ll find some nice work and it looks like he’s now teamed up with Aperture to produce some books. One of which is Amelia's World, by Robin Schwartz, which I think this photo belongs too. Love the feeling of these blue tones. It feels quietly nostalgic.

Olivier Zahm

The guy who runs Purple Fashion, Olivier Zahm, has his first show at New York’s Half Gallery  until 2 Jan 2010. I came across Purple in the ’90s and loved it straight away. Back then it was A5 and came as Purple Sex, Purple Fashion and Purple Prose – and whose primary benefactor was Comme des Garcon. I quickly started collecting them and found so much inspiration. Purple Fashion is now something so much more glamorous. I like it, but it’s like having a friend who’s rich, more beautiful, got nicer tits and leads a much more exciting life than you do, i.e. it can make you feel a bit insecure and excluded, and if I am honest a bit sick. But that’s my problem not his. Purple Fashion makes the best fashion iconography, say along with, Italian Vogue and he’s a great photographer. I often visits the Purple Diary, but don’t do that on a day that you’ve eaten too much or are feeling a bit mousy. You have been warned!