Helen Levitt

Helen Levitt, c1938-48

Kids in New York

Helen Levitt [not been able to find date or title for this image]

Place of the Upside Down

Place of the upside down, Roger Ballen,

Prowling

Prowling, Roger Ballen, 2001

Room of the Ninja Turtles

Room of the Ninja Turtles, Roger Ballen, 2001

Twirling Wires

Twirling Wires, Roger Ballen, 2001

Judith Scott

Judith Scott, Leon A. Borensztein, 1999

Judith Scott

Works by Judith Scott, photographs by Sylvain Deleu, 2010

Judith Scott

Works by Judith Scott, photographs by Sylvain Deleu, 2010

Eugene Andolsek

Untitled (353C, 347 and 349), Eugene Andolsek, n.d.

Eugene Andolsek began to make pictures in 1953 after moving from working as a stenographer at the State Department to a job for the Railroad. His life was complicated by his mother coming to live with him, fleeing an abusive husband. Eugene would become her caretaker through years of illness. After retirement and the passing of his mother he continued to draw until failing health and eyesight led him to seek help. It was only after a caregiver at a retirement home saw his art work and recognized their uniqueness that they were brought to the attention of the director of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

more here

James Wong

Untitled (W056) and Untitled (W0747), James Wong, 2007, permanent marker on bristol paper, 22 x 30 inches

Unithematic Drawing no. 1

Unithematic Drawing no. 1, Charles Benefiel, 2008, red ink on paper, 12 x 9 inches

Red Devil

Barbara Suckfüll, (1857-unknown)  


All Suckfüll’s drawings, which have an aerial perspective, depict the domestic objects that were brought to her cell. There is no three dimensional space and each flattened object is outlined with a succession of 2s, crosses or pinpricks which form chains in an attempt to establish boundaries. (Dissolving of the ego in psychosis leads to the inability to determine where the subject ends and the Other begins.) Suckfüll, it appears does not have the co-ordinates with which to understand the physical world. As there is no fixed view point she found it necessary to turn the paper as she worked. With both the object and the name placed on the paper via the gesture she attempts to stop meaning from sliding off.In an attempt to build herself a structure each word is pinned down with a full-stop. Here the nurse or ‘Red Devil’ brings in a washbasin:

And.Today.It.Is.Sunday.Too.The.First.Sunday.After.The.Assumption.Too.And.So.It.Will.Be.The.Twentyfirst.This.Is.Fine.I.Think.And.That.Is.the.Washbasin.You.See.I.Have.Drawn.That.Too.One.Time.Too.And.Then.Today.The.Redhead.Brought.Cold.Washing.Water.It.Was.Too.Cold.What.She.Brought.Today.And.The.Second.Devil.Was.On.The.Lookout.I.Heard.That.Myself.Too.


From Art and Psychosis by Miranda Argyle

Written Language

© Sophie Tottie /BUS 2012. Written Language (line drawings) XV 2009, ink on paper, 216 × 113 cm. Photo: Marcus Schneider. Courtesy of Andrae Kaufmann gallery

Brush II

© Sophie Tottie /BUS 2012. Brush II 2010, ink on paper, 216 × 113 cm. Photo: Marcus Schneider. Courtesy of Andrae Kaufmann gallery

Untitled, 1966

Untitled, Eva Hesse, 1966

Forest and Sun

Forest and Sun, Max Ernst, 1927

The Museum of the Void

The Museum of the Void, Robert Smithson, 1969

Dark Black Lonley Space

Deep inside my heart, Louise Bourgeoise and Tracey Emin, 2009—2010, archival dyes printed on cloth, 76.2 x 61 cm

Formless

Formless, Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1983

March 8 1860

Dear Sir, 

I am in a Madhouse and quite forget your name or who you are

You must excuse me for I have nothing to communicate or tell 
of and why I am shut up I dont know I have nothing to say so 

I conclude 

Yours respectfully,
John Clare 

(Letter to J. Hipkins)

John Clare was an English poet who was born 13 July 1793 in Helpston, Soke of Peterborough, 
Northhamptonshire and died 20 May 1864 in Northampton General Lunatic Asylum.

London 1960

London 1960. Girl with Kitten. Bruce Davidson


In 1960, I purchased a Hillman Minx convertible, which wasn't a very expensive car in those days, and drove around England with the top down. It was an American-drive car, which was an advantage because I could snap people on the sidewalk more easily. I also had a sports coat made with the side pockets larger, so I could fit my Leicas in them.

I found this young woman quite by accident, as I was walking the London streets. I came upon a group of teenagers, and struck up a conversation. They took me into a cave, and then some kind of huge dancehall. I think it was on an island. It was getting late, and I needed to move on the next morning, so I didn't stay very long.

But I isolated this girl to photograph, holding that kitten, which was probably a stray she had found on the street, and carrying that bedroll wrapped around her body. There was a great deal of mystery to her. I didn't know where she had come from, and I didn't get her name, but there was something about that face - the hopefulness, positivity and openness to life - it was the new face of Britain.


from here

Ideal Laundry

Ideal Laundry, Arthur Leipzig, 1946

Winston

Winston, William Eggleston, 1983-86

Rejoined

William Eggleston: this and this

Untitled, 1970

Untitled, William Eggleston 1970. From Chromes.

Untitled, 1970

Untitled, William Eggleston, 1970

Untitled, 1972

Untitled, William Eggleston, 1972

Eudora Welty's Kitchen

Eudora Welty's Kitchen, William Eggleston, 1983

Untitled, 1970

Untitled, William Eggleston, 1970

Untitled, 1970

Untitled, Wiliam Eggleston, 1970

Arkansas

Arkansas, William Eggleston, 1992

Untitled, 1970

Untitled, William Eggleston, 1970

Untitled, 1971

Untitled, William Eggleston, 1971

Untitled, 1970

  Untitled, William Eggleston, 1970

Greenwood, MS, 1972

Untitled (Naked T.C. on Couch) Greenwood, MS, William Eggleston, 1972

Louis XV

Juergen Teller with Charlotte Rampling from Louis XV, Juergen Teller, 2004

Charlotte Rampling with Juergen Teller

Juergen Teller with Charlotte Rampling from Louis XV, Juergen Teller, 2004


It is the stuff of fashion folklore that the photographer developed a taste for hot pants while shooting the spring/summer 2004 Marc Jacobs campaign with the actress Charlotte Rampling. "I was thinking, Charlotte Rampling, she has to have a grand environment," Teller says. "And I knew she wouldn't be interested in just doing merchandising for a fashion house. I had to come up with something that went beyond that, something that would interest her, otherwise she would turn it down."

To complicate matters – and fortuitously, as it turns out – Teller, a busy man by anyone's standards, had been briefed to shoot both a womenswear and menswear campaign for the designer in question. Why not combine the two? And why not – or "fuck, why not?" as he puts it – cast himself in the male role?

"I was very selfishly thinking: I'm going to be the man. I want to be with Charlotte Rampling." What guy wouldn't, after all?

"Then, I got to Paris," – having agreed on a suitably grand location, a suite at the Hotel Crillon – "and to my complete horror I couldn't fit into any of the clothes. I was too fat."

His eyes widen. "I was really stressed out about it," he says. "I thought, oh God, what am I going to do now? My desire to be with Charlotte, that drive, had overtaken me to the point where I had overlooked that problem completely and it just wasn't going to work." Salvation came in the form of a pair of silver satin pants – "they are quite like these ones", he says, pointing at his shorts, "they were the only thing I could get into". Rumour has it, he wore them religiously from that day forward.

Whatever, a series of unforeseen – and potentially insurmountable – events resulted in some of the most arresting fashion images that had been seen for years. Here is Teller, in an unmade bed with Rampling, curled up, nearly naked and submissive as a small child in her arms. In another image, the actress rests her beautiful head in his silver shorts-clad lap. The pictures are both tender (suggestive of a love affair more than anything illicit), thought-provoking (Teller, the gentlemanly soul of discretion, says he doesn't know how old Rampling is, but it is safe to assume that she is approaching 20 years his senior), and humorous (he might be scantily clad in all his stocky glory but she is fully clothed to the point of prim).

But perhaps most remarkable of all, this was not a personal art project but a commercial exercise: the most important promotional vehicle for America's most important designer, no less, destined to be published in every glossy fashion and style magazine across the globe. Compare it to the product-focussed, coolly aspirational – and some might say alienating – biannual campaigns that come courtesy of most fashion brands, and this is a different beast entirely, one that, not to put too fine a point on it, makes most advertising appear sterile to the point of frigidity.

Didn't he feel exposed – physically or psychologically – by the publication of these pictures?

"What do you mean?" he asks. Teller can make any question approaching the censorious appear ridiculous. "I was in bed with Charlotte Rampling. I felt like the king of the castle."

(this and more from The Independent)

William Eggleston with Charlotte Rampling

Marc Jacobs advertising campaign S/S 07, William Eggleston with Charlotte Rampling, Juergen Teller, 2007


I first encountered William Eggleston’s photographs in my early twenties. I was very intrigued, and I liked them immediately, but I wasn’t quite sure what they were all about. Still, they sucked me in and stayed with me. Then, six years ago, an American magazine asked me if I wanted to photograph him. I didn’t think twice about saying yes, because, by then, he’d become a real master to me. I sent my books to him before heading to Memphis (where he lives), so he could see I wasn’t just another idiot coming to shoot him.

William’s son Winston picked me up from my hotel and drove me to the Eggleston Artistic Trust building. But William was nowhere to be seen. We were in the archive room for ages before I asked him, “Where’s your dad?” I went outside for a cigarette and William was sitting on the steps up to the archive room, a glass of water by his side, chain-smoking. We greeted each other and sat there smoking for about an hour. Then, nervously, I said, “This is perfect. Let’s do the picture here. Don’t move.” He nodded and I began. I think he liked me from the start, and he invited me to his house that evening. William’s a keen musician and he played Bach on the piano until 4am.

I was due to fly out the next day, but William didn’t want me to leave. He even came in the taxi with me to the airport. “Juergen,” he said, “do you want to go on a road trip in Bavaria?” What could I say? “Of course!” I didn’t think it was going to happen; we were so drunk.

Three weeks later, I flew to Bavaria to meet him. It was three days of total madness. We brought our cameras, but neither of us took a single photograph. We found a hotel where, again, there was a piano, and we stayed up until 3am every morning, playing music, talking, doing nothing really. William is good at just being; that’s something I learnt from him.

Not long after that, I was talking to Marc Jacobs about who we were going to use as a model for his menswear campaign that year. I suggested William. It’s well known he’s a very stylish man, and I knew Marc loved his photography. Still, it took me two days to build up the courage to ask William. “Juergen,” he replied, “I’d do anything for you. When are we going to do it?”

William had been photographing Paris intermittently over the past three years, and he had seen Louis XV (the book I’d worked on with Charlotte Rampling, shot in the Hôtel de Crillon). We shot the Marc Jacobs campaign in the same hotel room. It took hours to get William dressed; it was 10.30pm before he was ready. Suddenly, he said, “I want to meet Charlotte Rampling. Maybe we could do Louis XVI?” I sighed, but called her anyway. “Do you recall me telling you about William Eggleston? He wants you to come over and have a drink.” She replied, “Give me half an hour.”

When Charlotte arrived, William became shy, like a little mouse in the corner. I wanted them both in the pictures, so they ended up – dressed – in bed together. They got on so well, I started to feel a bit jealous – that’s William’s power. He’s unbelievably charismatic and can charm people to do whatever he wants.

The following day, we were sitting on a bench under the Eiffel Tower. We had the same model of camera, with the same lens, slung around our necks. I glanced behind me and saw an orange recycling bag with a red Coca-Cola can in the bottom. “Look,” I said, “that’s an Eggleston picture.” “Sure is,” said William, and we both turned to take the picture. He took one snap, I took five shots – all the time thinking, “I’m going to have an Eggleston picture!” Of course, mine didn’t work, but William’s ended up on the wall of his show at the Fondation Cartier. 

He has a different way of seeing, of looking – it’s completely unforced. And he never gives a damn whether a picture comes out or not. I’ve never met a freer man; the sense of freedom he has in his every thought, decision and movement is extraordinary. His images give me hope; they capture the comedy and tragedy of life. He could never do what I do, I could never do what he does, but we respect each other’s work. As he once said to me, “Juergen, we have some things in common: smoking, drinking, and women. Photography just gets us out of the house.”

Juergen Teller in British Vogue 2010 (from here)

William Eggleston Self-portrait

William Eggleston (self-portrait), early 1970s

Lisette Model Self-portrait

Self-portrait, Lisette Model, undated

Lisette Model Self-portrait

Self-portrait, 55 Manhattan, Lisette Model, 1940s

Sally Mann Self-portrait

Self-portrait, Sally Mann, 1974

Self-Portrait with Orange Coffee Cup

Self-Portrait with Orange Coffee Cup, Richard Miller, 1939

I'm Dead

I'm Dead, David Shrigley, 2010