Rosa Parks in Montgomery Bus

“People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in…. When I declined to give up my seat, it was not that day or bus in particular. I just wanted to be free, like everybody else.” – Rosa Parks.

It was an unintentional protest. Around 6 p.m., Thursday, December 1, 1955, in downtown Montgomery, Rosa Parks paid her fare and sat in an empty seat reserved for blacks. As white-only seats in the bus filled up, the bus driver demanded that she gave her seat up. When Parks refused to give up her seat, a police officer arrested her. Two hours after her arrest, she was released on $100 bail. By midnight, a plan had been hatched for a citywide bus boycott, which a young Baptist minister named Martin Luther King Jr. would later be elected to direct. The boycott lasted 381 days, until the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was illegal; its success ignited the modern civil rights movement.

The next year, United Press International staged a photo-op of Mrs. Parks sitting in front of a white man on a different bus. It was a UPI journalist Nicholas Chriss who posed as the hard-eyed white man behind Parks. It was taken on Dec. 21, 1956, the day after the United States Supreme Court ruled Montgomery’s segregated bus system illegal. Other famous photos of Parks, a mug shot and a picture of her being fingerprinted, don’t date to Dec. 1, 1955, either. They were taken on Feb. 22, 1956, after about 100 black Montgomery residents were indicted on charges that they violated a local antiboycott statute. (Via Iconic Photos)

Boulevard of Broken Dreams

James Dean, Times Square, 1955
© Dennis Stock
"Art is a well-articulated manifestation of an aspect of life. I have been privileged to view much of life through my cameras, making the journey an enlightened experience. My emphasis has mainly been on affirmative reactions to human behavior and a strong attraction to the beauty in nature."
D'autres photos de Dennis Stock sur le site de Magnum

Miroslav Tichy

Pendant des années, Miroslav Tichý a photographié des femmes – à leur insu – dans une petite ville tchèque, où on le prend pour un fou. Tichý est né en Moravie en 1926. A la fin des années 1940, il entame une carrière de peintre et de dessinateur qui s’annonce prometteuse, puis se tourne vers la photographie. Ses rapports avec le régime communiste sont houleux, ce qui lui vaut de passer dix ans en prison et en hôpital psychiatrique. Quand il n’est pas enfermé, Tichý ne chôme pas : marginal par choix, l’artiste crée entre 1955 et 1985 une œuvre photographique très originale d’excellente qualité dans sa forme. Pour son travail, il se sert – probablement pour des raisons économiques – presque toujours d’un appareil qu’il bricole à partir de boîtes de conserve, de verres de lunettes et de caisses en bois. C’est ce qui fait en partie l’originalité de son œuvre.
Jusqu'au 9 mai, exposition de Miroslav Tichy à
International Center of Photography
1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street
New York

Jeremy Edwards

Le site de Jeremy Edwards ici

Cig Harvey : The Impossible Tasks

D'autres photos de la série The Impossible Tasks sur le site de Kevin Longino

Stefano Bernardoni

"...it is an instinctive process, I don't plan anything. I often have my camera with me and when I come across a place or a person that "connects" with my memory or subconscious I begin to work. But I don't know what I am doing on a rational level at that particular moment. It is only after printing the image that I will maybe begin to understand & rationalize,but not always! So my visual threshold it is the border or "bridge"that exists between the timelessness of the unconscious mind and "reality..." (AG Magazine, janvier 2008). D'autres photos ici.

Stanisaw Witkiewicz

Janina Illukiewicz.

"Les œuvres du photographe et écrivain polonais Stanislas Ignacy Witkiewicz témoignent de la perte du contact immédiat avec l’expérience du réel. Ses images nous montrent des visages scindés en une multitude de fragments : un soi fragmenté par la modernité, en somme.
Cependant, les œuvres de Witkiewicz recèlent également une sorte d’espoir messianique, celui de voir un jour arriver quelqu’un, quelque part, qui pourra venir témoigner de son expérience. Ainsi, les yeux de Janina nous dévisagent à travers le glacis de la photographie, à travers le produit de cette technologie que Witkiewicz, précisément, décriait." (Joshua Craze)
Trois textes consacrés à l’œuvre de Witkacy : en tant que penseur et écrivain, dramaturge et artiste, ici.

Ben Fink

Jason Eskenazi

Son site (via dvafoto)

Susan Burnstine

"As a child, I suffered vivid nightmares that stayed with me for days. Often, I would walk around not sure if I was dreaming or awake, as the lines between the two remained blurred. Existing within the shadows of the unconscious made life a curious synthesis of magic and reality. Portals to the unknown emerged, offering me pathways that seemed to bridge the gap between real and unreal, life and death. Though the intensity of my dreams did not lessen as an adult, my response transformed. Initially, I was lost within the haze of my dreams. But now, it is through my dreams that I truly see."
Son site ici (via Lenscratch)

Voices from the Day of Slavery

Esclaves du général F. Dryton, mai 1862. Photo Henry P. Moore.
"The almost seven hours of recorded interviews presented here took place between 1932 and 1975 in nine Southern states. Twenty-three interviewees, born between 1823 and the early 1860s, discuss how they felt about slavery, slaveholders, coercion of slaves, their families, and freedom. Several individuals sing songs, many of which were learned during the time of their enslavement. It is important to note that all of the interviewees spoke sixty or more years after the end of their enslavement, and it is their full lives that are reflected in these recordings. The individuals documented in this presentation have much to say about living as African Americans from the 1870s to the 1930s, and beyond."
Lire la suite et écouter les interviews : Voices from the Days of Slavery, Audio interviews, American Memory from the Library of Congress

Don McCullin

Marine US, Hue, Vietnam, février 1968. © Don McCullin.
"Shaped by War", une exposition de 50 ans d'images de McCullin à l'Imperial War Museum, Manchester, Royaume Uni, jusqu'au 13 juin. Lire l'article du Guardian sur cet homme remarquable qui, à propos de ses reportages de guerre disait : "Sometimes it felt like I was carrying pieces of human flesh back home with me, not negatives. It's as if you are carrying the suffering of the people you have photographed."
Via l'excellent blog Politics, Theory & Photography

20 ans aujourd'hui

L'album d'Auschwitz

Cet album de photos sur l'arrivée de juifs hongrois à Auschwitz en mai 1944 a été découvert après la guerre par Lily Jacob, une survivante du camp. C'est le seul document de ce type. L'album d'Auschwitz