But, now I ask myself:
How much it is important to know about an artistic project background?
How important is it that these people are online friends and not colleagues or everyday friends?
How would my appreciation of these portraits change?

From 140 streams of 140 letters to 140 characters on a white canvas…maybe it makes sense only to the artist.
Indeed, it it his bokonian karasss, and not ours.

140 Characters
Chris Floyd

Host Gallery
1-5 Honduras Street
London EC1Y 0TH. UK

I try to approach new artworks asking myself two questions.
1. What do they make me feel?
2. How do they change my way of seeing the world?

In the case of 1503 & Dame Di Cartone the answers are the following:
1. Indifferent.
2. They don’t.

I presume one could argue the value of these works with artsy rhetoric on how they link past and present via a skilful use of the photographic medium, etc. etc. Or one could lean on the hardship of the creation process itself, on how the artist meticulously confectioned the costumes or layered the cardboards, but will it matter? This is not photojournalism, where we might need to know what is going on. For me, an artwork has to speak strongly by itself, not matter how the result has been achieved, be it chance or hard work. I believe that knowing the background can help better comprehend motives and relationships, but it must not be the main appreciative argument.

Cut Out & Keep
Christian Tagliavini

03 Nov 2011 – 07 Jan 2012
Diemar/Noble Photography
66/67 Wells Street
London
W1T 3PY

Here is the official press-release:

Canon launches the flagship PIXMA PRO-1 – ultimate quality A3+ printer for photographers

Core Facts

• Canon launches the world’s first A3+ printer to feature 12 separate inks – the PIXMA PRO-1
• The flagship model features an EOS-inspired design and produces the highest possible print quality in colour and monochrome – ideal for professional and serious amateur photographers
• The PRO-1 features a unique 12-ink system for greater colour gamut and new Chroma Optimizer for increased black density and uniform glossiness
• Five monochrome inks produce professional quality black and white prints
• Next generation LUCIA pigment inks provide outstanding image permanence
• The PRO-1 features a new Optimum Image Generating System and a Canon FINE print head with 12,288 nozzles, as well as supporting 1200ppi input resolution
• The PIXMA PRO-1 can produce a gallery-quality prints in approximately 2 minutes 55 seconds

24th October 2011 - Canon today announced the launch of its new flagship PIXMA Pro series model, the PIXMA PRO-1, which is the world’s first A3+ printer to feature 12 separate inks. Featuring an EOS-inspired design, the stylish model produces the highest possible print quality in colour and monochrome, and is ideal for professional and serious amateur photographers.  Exceptional levels of productivity make it suitable for studio use and commercial exhibitions.

Groundbreaking 12-ink system for superb results
The unique 12-ink system significantly expands colour gamut in most areas and features new Chroma Optimizer for increased black density and uniform glossiness. Five monochrome inks produce professional quality black and white prints with excellent detail in shadow and highlight areas, as well as smooth tonal gradation and suppressed graininess. Next generation LUCIA pigment inks are used for outstanding image permanence, allowing prints to be sold or exhibited with confidence.

Exceptional quality colour and monochrome prints
The PIXMA PRO-1 supports 1200ppi input resolution (double compared to previous generations of PIXMA Pros) to reflect the increasing number of pixels available on professional cameras and produce smoother prints with high resolutions of up to 4800x2400dpi. The new Optimum Image Generating (OIG) system analyses the photo colour and precisely calculates the optimum ink combination and volume of ink droplets, which are then accurately placed on the paper by Canon’s FINE print head with 12,288 nozzles.

The OIG system enhances colour reproduction, natural tonal gradations and uniform glossiness in each print mode and media type, to produce print quality so realistic it almost jumps off the page. Smooth tonal gradations in colour and monochrome prints are achieved through 16-bits per channel printing capability. The new PIXMA PRO-1 also features three colour modes, including the new Photo Colour print mode which reproduces fresh blues and greens to match people’s memory of colours. Linear Tone mode reproduces colours with linear tone curve, while the ICC Profiles mode means users can utilise paper-specific colour profiles or create their own using the Colour Management Tool Pro software.

Productivity on a commercial scale
The PIXMA PRO-1 can produce a gallery-quality print in approximately 2 minutes 55 seconds[1], down from 7 minutes 55 seconds[2] for the PIXMA Pro9500 MkII. A 2.5x larger ink tank capacity compared with the nearest model ensures longer running periods can be maintained between ink changes. Front-opening panels enable easy access to the tanks either side of the main printer body, and for efficiency the rear tray takes up to 20 sheets of photo paper, while the manual feed slot accepts photo paper up to 356mm (14″) wide and heavier fine art papers.

For saleable prints, real-time droplet control stabilises colour and ink density ensuring consistency of colour output from print to print. Reliability in a commercial environment is assured through the use of features commonly found on wide format professional printers, including a mist fan with an air circulation system and a tubular ink supply system separate to the print head. An Ethernet connection ensures the PIXMA PRO-1 can be shared easily over a network.

Simplified workflow and professional colour control
The PIXMA PRO-1 comes with Easy-PhotoPrint Pro plug-in software which simplifies printer settings and allows batch printing. Support has now also been expanded to the full Adobe Photoshop® family as well as to the Canon Digital Photo Professional software package. The printer can also automatically select the correct ICC profile for each Canon paper, and an expanded range of ICC profiles is available for fine art papers from well known manufacturers.

The Colour Management Tool Pro software, which can be downloaded from http://software.canon-europe.com, supports x-rite colour management tools, including Colour Munki Photo and Colour Munki Design, and enables users to create custom ICC profiles to ensure the optimum output quality. The PIXMA PRO-1 also includes the Ambient Light Correction feature so that users can select the type of lighting under which a print will be displayed. The print colours are then automatically adjusted to ensure the very best colour reproduction under different viewing conditions.

Canon PIXMA PRO-1 – key features

• The benchmark A3+ printer for photo professionals
• Groundbreaking 12-ink system with exceptional colour gamut
• Chroma Optimizer for uniform glossiness and crisp, sharp blacks
• Optimum Image Generating system enhances colour reproduction
• Stunning black and white prints with 5 monochrome inks
• New LUCIA pigment inks ensure outstanding photo permanence
• Create a gallery-quality A3+ photo in approx. 2 minutes 55 sec
• High capacity ink tanks ensure long periods between replacements
• Wide range of media support including 356mm (14″) wide and thick media
• Easy-PhotoPrint Pro plug-in for efficient printing workflow

Mid-September stroll in Hyde Park, the air already chilly, trees shedding their first leaves. Reminiscing about the august holidays abroad, capturing the weakening English sun rays, we walk along the lake shore towards the Princess Diana memorial, before visiting this year Summer Pavillion at the Serpentine Gallery. Young swans pluck and clean their feathers near the shore, an adult nearby, its livery an unspoiled blinding whiteness. But it is the youths’ livery that attracts me: it has more texture and the darker tones emphasize the intricacy of the plumage.

Vico San Bernardo - Genova

Out-of-focus Flims by Moonlight

The in-focus version kind of loses some magic, but obviously gives a more detailed description of the place, including some moonlight shining on the snowy slopes of the background mountains.

Flims by Moonlight

Wet-collodion (or wet-plate) negative
(1851 to early 1880s)

Published by Frederick Scott Archer in 1851, the wet-collodion process was faster (that is, more sensitive to light) than the calotype, and enabled photographers to produce negatives on a glass rather than paper base, free from the grainy texture of paper negatives. Collodion – a mixture of commercially available gun cotton dissolved in ether or alcohol with iodide salts added – was a tensile, syrupy substance. This was applied evenly to a glass plate, which was then sensitized in a silver-nitrate bath. The sensitized plate was exposed in the camera, while damp, and developed before fully dry.

Despite its obvious disadvantages – it was a very fiddle process and required a darkroom wherever the photograph was made – the collodion plate produced images capable of rendering great detail and a long tonal range, and quickly supplanted the calotype and the daguerrotype. A variant of the wet-collodion method, the dry-collodion plate, was even trickier to useso never became widely popular. ‘Dry’ photography became feasible only with the introduction of the dry plate in 1871.

The wet-collodion method is still used today by artists such as Sally Mann and others, among whom Joni Sternbach, a recent discovery for me. In fact, I should thank Flak Photo for sending the daily email with one of Sternbach’s photographs from the Surfers series.

The series is impressive. The photographs seem taken last century and the contemporary subjects emerge from a fictitious past to question us about permanency and time. The images also evoke a strong feeling of connection with the boundary between the land and the sea, an ever-changing locus where the surfers weave transitory relationships with beaches and waves.

At times the photographs exude a rawness, an energy that comes both from the landscape and the subjects, as if that was the instant before they turned into wholly marine creatures and disappeared.

Add to this the eerie and unavoidable effect of the wet-plate collodion technique, that forces the viewer to perceive the image as a relic, a testimony of a time that is gone and will pass.

Surfers - Hannah (copyright Joni Sternbach)

After the Canon S90, will this be my next compact camera?

Samsung unveils TL500/EX1 with fast f/1.8 lens

Samsung TL500/EX1

Scientific American magazine Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina talks about the January issue, including articles on the chances of conditions conducive to life elsewhere in the multiverse and the growing practice of virtual gold farming, in which legions of online game players in developing countries acquire currency in the game that they sell to other players for real money.