Photo history – christianehoej.dk

Women in politics and photography

March 11th, 2015March 8th, 2014

On a recent trip to Berlin I happened to buy a couple of photo books. One was about Tina Modotti (1896-1942), whom I already knew vaguely, another about Edith Tudor-Hart (1908-1973) whom I frankly had never heard about before. The book was still wrapped in cellophane, so I could not take a look inside, but I decided to buy it based on the text on the back-cover alone.

Accidentally, Modotti and Tudor-Hart seem to have had a lot in common. They were both women, obviously, and not very far apart in age. They both lived most of their lives in exile or as immigrants. And they were both very much involved in the political struggles of their time, as communists and antifascists.

Photographic value – a comment

March 22nd, 2015February 13th, 2009

Mike Johnston at The Online Photographer (TOP) has written a thoughtful post on the subject: what makes photographs valuable for the future. As usual, the post has caused a lot of comments. The following is my own contribution, as posted on TOP. Please go here to read Mike’s original post and all the other comments.

What this interesting post and the comments illustrate nicely, is that “value” is not something absolute or intrinsic to an object, but something that is attributed to the object in a certain context. And as the context change, the value may change likewise.

Kodachrome

March 22nd, 2015October 21st, 2008

Kodachrome, they give us those nice bright colours
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the worlds a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a nikon camera, I love to take a photograph
So mama dont take my kodachrome away

Paul Simon

Alas, mama is going to take our Kodachrome away. At least that is what is being suggested in an article from AP, quoted in a number of net media. Kodak has gradually phased out most versions of the well known 35mm slide film, with the 64 ISO version being the only one remaining.

Downfall of a picture?

March 23rd, 2015October 7th, 2008

…a note on photography, reality and history

In an article on the 3^rd of October, the newspaper Politiken writes about an upcoming exhibition in the Barbican Art Gallery in London. The exhibition is supposed to shed new light on the old discussion about Robert Capas famous photo the fallen soldier: is it a fake or not?

Capa’s negatives resurfaced

May 3rd, 2015January 29th, 2008

A number of Robert Capa’s negatives from Spain, believed to have been lost during WW2, has resurfaced in Mexico. The collection allso includes pictures by Davis Seymour and Gerda Taro. The New York Times has the story.