alternative photography (1) – Cyanotype

During my primary school  teaching career, I discovered that ’sun prints’ allowed me to provide ‘alternative photographic’ experiences for my students without the ‘danger’ of using chemicals. The students,mainly 9-10 year olds really took to the process and not only produced some excellent sun prints but also wrote creatively about the experience. What was useful,as a teacher, is that the process was very portable -so on field trips we could take some light sensitive paper and make our sun prints from whatever natural materials we could find and make a record of them to take back to school (see Anna Atkins examples from the Victorian era below).  Now I have learned that the cyanotype process can also be used with fabric, such as cotton and silk.

Cyanotypes

The cyanotype process for making prints was invented by Sir John Herschel in 1842 and came from his discovery of the light sensitivity of iron salts.

John Herschel-Julia Margaret Cameron

Cyanotypes became popular because it was a simple process and didn’t require a darkroom and very little equipment. Interesting to note, the process was used to copy architectural drawings, hence the term “blueprint”. John Herschel   developed the process as a means to copy his notes.

A sheet of paper was brushed with iron salt solutions and dried in the dark. The object to be reproduced – a plant specimen, a drawing or a negative – was then placed on the sheet in direct sunlight. After about 15 minutes a white impression of the subject formed on a blue background. The paper was then washed in water where oxidation produced the brilliant blue – or cyan – that gave the process its name.

Cyanotypes are one of the earliest photo processes.

Anna Atkins

Anna Atkins produced the first photographically illustrated book and is recognised as the first female photographer, with her three-volume British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions appearing in instalments from 1843. Atkins used the Cyanotype process which had been invented in 1842 by Fox Talbot’s associate Sir John Herschel.

Anna Atkins

Cyanotypes are fairly long-lasting, as some of Sir John Herschel’s originals from the 1840s are still clear. More modern forms were developed in time using different mixes of chemicals, but the process remains basically the same. The cyanotype process was popularly used in copying architectural plans but was made obsolete (fairly recently) by computer printers and photocopying. Cyanotypes remain to this day one of the most beautiful and unique processes in early photographic history

Anna Atkins

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Cyanotypes are made by combining two chemicals, potassium ferricyanide and ferric ammonium. Paper is coated with the mixture and left to dry in the dark. Negatives can be placed on the paper or objects are laid down and exposed to sunlight. Once the paper is exposed, it’s given a water bath. This produces a white image on a blue background.

The process in detail:http://www.photogs.com/bwworld/cyanotypes.html

Originally, Cyanotypes (called “ferro prussiate”) were used in conjunction with scientific recordings of mathematical tables, a diverse range of plant specimens and architectural structures. In fact, the first woman photographer, Anna Atkins, used Cyanotypes to print “Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns” and was the very first book of printed photographs and text.Anna’s work and details of a variety of early photographic processes can be found on the V&A website.

Cyanotype processing involves two stock solutions which need to be kept separate from each other in dark glass bottles until required for coating. Stock Solution “A” uses Ferric Ammonium citrate Stock Solution “B” uses Potassium Ferricyanide Both of these chemicals are very toxic and care for yourself and the environment muct be taken at all times. When handling the chemicals, wear protective clothing and gloves, plus a dust mask when handling the powder form. OK! Enough of that….what you do to start making blueprints….

STOCK SOLUTION A:
Ferric ammounium citrate      90g
distilled water                         8 fl oz (124ml)

Adjust water temperature to 75 degrees F (23.8C). Using a funnel, pour 90g (124ml) ferric ammonium citrate into a clean glass beaker. While stirring, add enough water to make 8fl oz (250ml) of solution. Stir until dissolved throughly and pour into a labeled brown bottle.

STOCK SOLUTION B:
Potassium Ferricyanide        50g
distilled water                        8 fl oz (124ml)

Adjust water temperature to 75 degrees F (23.8C). Using a funnel, pour 50g (65ml) Potassium Ferricyanide into a clean glass beaker. While stirring, add enough water to make 8fl oz (250ml) of solution. Stir until dissolved throughly and pour into a labeled brown bottle. Both solutions should last several months, and longer sometimes, if kept in tightly sealed containers and in a dark, cool cupboard. Make sure you keep these bottles clearly labeled and away from animals and children.

To use the solutions, shake each bottle then mix together 1oz (29ml) of both A & B together in a glass or ceramic bowl. This will coat around eight 8×10 in sheets of paper (any type of thick printmaking/drawing paper). Dip a wide haired or foam brush in the mixture and apply a small amount to the paper, coating the yellowish mixture evenly in long strokes to cover the area needed. Dry by a cool fan or hairdryer or lay flat until dry.

The Process

To expose the paper, place it on a backing board and cover it with the negative you have made to the same size as the paper. Sandwich it all together with a sheet of glass and clamp it with bulldog clips. Place the frame under direct sunlight or another strong ultra violet source. The exposure times will vary from around 5 minutes to half an hour or longer depending on the level of light. You will be able to see when the emulsion is ready when it changes colour from yellowish green to blue/green to bright blue.

To develop the paper, simply remove it from the frame and hose it in a sink with cool water until the rinsing water is clear. You can then intensify the print by making a brightening solution with 2 capfuls of bleach to 2L of water and rock the print in a tray of it until the image turns a deeper blue. Wash the print throughly for 10 minutes, blot dry and hang on a clothesline or use a fan or hair dryer.

The process itself is very very simple and the results are strikingly beautiful. As with most alternative proceses you can experiment and combine processes such a Van Dyke and Cyanotype, although print the cyanotype first or the blueprint will obscure the print underneath. You may also like to try and experiment with placing objects such as ferns etc on top of the emulsion…the variations are unlimted.

For a wide range of ‘alternative ‘ photographic processes see the alternative photography website.

Using photoshop to produce cyanotypes

If you dont want to go traditional and get your hands wet -you can copy digital photographers who  have been trying to recreate early photographic processes using photopshop. Today’s cyanotypes, like the one pictured above, also fall under the umbrella of Photoshop Duotones. These are made with black, blue, and cyan ink; sometimes the smallest amount of green is added. See the tutorial from Digital Black and White

Also check out this Photoshop creative magazine article

Step One:
Select your images
Open the image statue and butapest and place both images in one photoshop file. Name the file “Cyanotype”.

Step Two:
Transform and Blend
To remove the black background behind the statue, switch the statue layer’s blend mode to Screen. Then transform the layer’s scale to work with the Budapest background. Be sure to hold the shift key down while transforming the image so that it will stay in proportion.

Step Three:
Bring back detail
Create a new layer sandwiched between the Statue and teh Budapest layers. Then with a large brush set to about 150 pixels, paint by dabbing over the statuue with a middle grey color. (R-128, G-128, B-128)This will bring back some definition in the statue while creating a grainy look.

Step Four:Add some grain
Select the Statue layer and add some extra grain via the filter/ pixelate/mezzotint. Select medium dots. Now fade the filter, edit/Fade by 30%. When done select the eraser tool, and use a large soft edge rush to erase around the statue where the mezzotint sprinkling has crept into the statue’s background.

Step Five:More Grain
Select the Budapest layer and apply some added grain, filter/texture/grain. Set both intensity and contrast to 50 and use the regular grain type. When done, save your image for backup and then merge the layers. Layer/merge visable.

Step Six:go vertical
With the image merged into a single layer, go back into the grain dialog again and then use Vertical as teh grain type. Now enter 18 for the intensity and 0 for the contrast.

Step Seven:From RGB to GReyscale to Duotone
Convert the image to greyscale, image / mode/ greyscale. click ok when asked to discard color information, click the ok button. Then immediately convert from greyscale to Duotone, image/mode/ duotone. The duotone dialog box opens.

Step Eight:The duotone dialog
The duotone dialog separates the image into printing inks. click on the color swatch under the black swatch and choose a cyan blue color hex value 024C7B for the duotone. click into the box with the diagonal line next to the black swatch and make a point in the center of the box and drag the point downward. Click ok. Click into the box next to the blue color and when the large dialog box cmes up click into the center and drag the point up to increase the blue tint. continue changing the amount until you have a nice combination of blue and black int he image.

Step Nine:convert to RGB
convert back to RGB mode and copy the layer and name it blue overlay. Switch the blend mode to overlay and make the opacity to 33%. Now apply a gaussian blur, filter/ blur / gaussian blur with a radius of 20. Finally desaturate teh layer, image/ adjust/ desaturate.

Step ten:Add some text
Select the foreground color to access the color picker and choose a light blue violet RGB 198,204,255. Pick the type tool and use a script font to type several lines of text until it fill s the screen. use the character palette on the options bar to ensure the text is closely spaced and overlaps slightly.

Step Eleven:Random transparency
Teh text is for effect, not readability, so to push it further into the background and make it look randomly scattered, add a layer mask to the type layer and apply the difference clouds filter three times on the mask. Filter/ clouds/ difference clouds.

Step Twelve:Add a border
Add a rough edge around the image by creating a new layer at the top of the layer stack. Select a chaulk or dry brush and dab at the edgeing all the way around the image. Use more than one brush to build the effect. Now change the layer’s blend mode to screen at 955. ‘ Save your work.

If you want to take it further and make semi real Cyanotypes you can purchase prepared light sensitive paper or fabric on which  you can place objects and negatives (which you can process in your image software programme by turning an image into a negative, increase the contrast and print out on transparent film ) and expose them to the sun, when rinsed under the tap , the images appear.

Take a look at

For fabric cyanotypes -take a look at Blueprints on Fabric:

Another artist who uses cyanotypes creatively is Katie Knight:

I print on paper or on fabric, with a fondness for silk. Its various textures influence transparency, saturation, and how the cloth hangs. After concocting the emulsion and coating it onto paper or cloth, I find myself making nests of natural materials, arranging them onto the sensitized surfaces. Watching birds and animals make their nests during my spring residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, I began composing nests as an expression of my interest in shelter. I layer the objects over the course of the exposure, playing with both time and distance from the surface. I can use the cyanotypes on fabric to construct sculptural forms that become nest-like houses. Alternatively, I can build them into boats that drift in air currents, whimsical or haunted with the spirits invoked by images.

Whether on paper or fabric, these delicate blue prints reflect the fragility of our blue planet, our dependence upon sunlight and water, and the vitality of dancing lightly with nature.

And a book to find out more about alternative photographic processes:

Learning Blues Harp – lessons,lessons,lessons

If you are wanting to learn blues harmonica (blues harp) the best place to start is with Adam Gussow.

Listen to one of his many and great lessons (you can see I am a fan!)

Having said this , learners learn in different ways, and so it is good to look up several teaching sites and try to learn what you can from each. Some provide some beginners lessons for free in the hope that you will join and pay anything from 4 USD per month upwards for membership. Some provide forums which can be very helpful,when choosing harps, learning specific techniques,knowing which key a particular blues tune is in or just exchanging ideas and realising you are part of a musical community. I will list a few of the popular sites with some of their particular features.

This is Dave  Gage’s site , harmonicalessons.com  A very comprehensive site – as well as lessons , he has forums, playing tips of the day . even information on making harp repairs, and a full list of playing techniques

Harmonica Techniques: Single Notes Holding Hand Effects Bending Breathing

Songs & Tabs:

Master Song List Tabbed Solos             List Scales (diatonic) Chromatic Songs

Blues Riffs “Jam-To” MIDI File Chromatic Harmonica

Full membership costs $37.95 but there are other membership schemes. Examples of the info available on the site:

About notation

“Number and Arrow” system of notation- The “up” arrows indicate blow (exhale) notes and the “down” arrows are for the draw (inhale) notes- The little “b’s” under the bent arrows are flat signs. One “b” is a half step bend and two “b’s” are a whole step bend (as shown in the graphic below).All riffs are played in the 2nd position- For more information on 2nd position, visit the General Overview section.Use your own timing- Except for the triplet riffs, you can use your own timing with these riffs to make them fit into whatever song you are playing with. Listen to the sound file below the riffs to help get you started.

Problem with the hole 2 draw- If you have a problem with the hole 2 draw you can substitute the hole 3 blow until you have the ability to make the hole 2 draw come out correctly.

For Intermediate and Advanced players- you can add a 4 draw bend between the 4 blow and the 4 draw of the “Almost Blues Scale” riff. This will make it a complete one octave blues scale.

“Jam-To” Blues MIDI File- If you would like a quick, easy background song to begin jamming to, you can use the “Jam-To” MIDI File in “G” to try out the different riffs and ideas outlined here. Additional MIDI files are also available.

12 Bar Blues MIDI File:
Here is a 12 bar blues MIDI file in the key of “G”, Slow_Blues_in_G.mid, that you can download and play/practice to with a standard key of “C” diatonic played in 2nd position. There is over 5 minutes of MIDI music that you can jam to (7 times through the 12 bar blues).

Once you click on the MIDI file it should download and begin to play. If it hasn’t started playing automatically, you can double-click on this file and it should open your operating system’s default MIDI player (Windows Media Player on a PC or QuickTime on a Mac).

Since the first four bars of the song is an intro, the first full 12 bar blues pattern begins on the 5th bar. You can start playing at anytime or wait until the fifth bar to begin the full 12 bar blues pattern.

To accurately come in on bar 5, hit the play button on your MIDI player, and then count 1 2 3 4, 2 2 3 4, 3 2 3 4, 4 2 3 4 (four beats or foot taps per bar), and you’re in. Another way to come in at the beginning of the first full 12 bar blues pattern, is to listen for the drums to do a short 2 beat pickup (or fill) just before all the instruments begin playing at bar 5.

About harmonicas:

And what about harmonicas. Hohner marine band harps have been favourites for decades but the move to plastic parts such as you will find on Lee Oskar harps, have become new stars with new harp players.

I can agree that Lee Oskars are really worth trying,not expensive, but good quality and a wide range of keys (try the Em!)

Another very comprehensive site is Mike Wills site :

How a Harmonica Works Breathing Holding the Harp Which Harp to Get Embouchure

Techniques such as  Bending Vibrato Tone Overblows and Overdraws

Amplified Harp Amps Mics Effects

Positions
Some  musical theory such as Circle of 5ths Note Layout on a Keyboard Note Layout on Manuscript Key of C Layouts Chords
How to Play Blues The Blues Scales Second Position Third Position First Position Fifth Position Cross Harp
Practice Tips
Maintenance Tuning Reed Gapping Reed Slot Embossing

You wont want much more than that to get you started!

Another good all round blues harp site is bluesharp

An example of a tabbed lesson from bluesharp lessons:

Lesson 3

Trills

There are two basic trills used by blues harp players, the hole 4 and 5 draw trill and the hole 3 and 4 draw trill. The idea here is pretty simple. You just draw in on the harp and move the harp back and forth across your mouth either with your hands or by shaking your head. Mastering these trills is not easy however. Again, you have to be careful to sound each note individually or the effect will not be the desired one. Once you have mastered the basic trills you can try things like bending the trilled notes while you trill. You can also experiment with finding other trills on the harp on your own.

The trills look like this:

4-5 draw trill

4     5     4     5     4     5     4     5     4     5     4     5
-------------------------------------------------------------------
D     D     D     D     D     D     D     D     D     D     D     D

Click here to download an audio file of the “4-5 draw trill” above played on a “C” harmonica:

4-5 draw trill .au format4-5 draw trill .wav format

Check out the introductory lessons at harmonica club on this site there is plenty of info about all aspects of harmonica playing,including a range of techniques and a useful forum.

TONGUE BLOCKING

$4US  per month-and for this you can download tabs/songs in the members area.

There is good introductory video at bluesharmonica

and at blues academy there are some free lessons to get you interested as well as sound files  and tabbed songs/tunes and membership starts  from $19.95

With the above links and the video starters below – just try some of the lessons first – as I have said, you really have to get the feeling of playing with the teacher – their teaching styles are very different, but you will learn something from all of them. Beware, there are some players with free lessons on youtube that will actually teach you bad habits -the ones below are the better ones to try first.

J.P.Allen has his own site with some good articles on playing the harp as well as listening to others:

Try out these other teachers/lesson providers:

Listen to Ronnie Shellist, who also has two sites harmonica123 and shuffletones

Adam Woodhall

Dan Gage is a youtube teacher with several vids on offer:

Some ‘advanced’ bending from Jason Ricci

Jon Gindick  has something different with his Jamcamp, where even Adam Gussow has been known to coach:

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V and A – history of photography

History of Photography at the Victoria and Albert Museum

On the 12th of February 1858, Henry Cole, the founding director of the South Kensington Museum, recorded in his diary: ‘Museum: Queen &c came to private view of the Photographic Socy, being the first exhibition in the Refreshment upper room’. The exhibition was not only the first to take place in that part of the museum. It was in fact the first exhibition of photographs to be held in any museum. Consisting of 1009 photographs, it was organised by the Photographic Society of London and included approximately 250 contributions from its French counterpart, the Société française de photographie.

As the Museum’s official photographer, Charles Thurston Thompson recorded the 1858 display with his camera, creating the earliest known photograph of a photographic exhibition. The view shows a densely-packed display of a wide range of subject matter, including portraits, landscapes, architectural views and reproductions of works of art, with even more photographs viewable through stereoscopes crammed onto tables in the middle of the room.

Today, the V&A (as the South Kensington Museum came to be called) holds numerous photographs shown in the 1858 exhibition. Three of these works are visible in Thompson’s view: William Lake Price’s Don Quixote in his Study, Roger Fenton’s Head of Homer and Thompson’s own Oak, Albury Park, Surrey. Other photographs in the V&A Collection that were also shown at the time but do not appear in the Thompson image include works by such major 19th-century photographers as Gustave Le Gray, Edouard Baldus and Francis Frith. The images below were all featured in the 1858 exhibition.

WilliamLakePrice1855

Robert Howlett 1857

Francis Frith 1858

Added to this is the History of Photography collection

Featuring classic, modern and contemporary photographs, this display outlines the history of the medium and includes work by some of the most influential figures to use photography as a creative art.  It also illustrates the wide variety of styles, subject matter and processes that can be seen in the V&A collection

Robert Frank 1924

Francis Brugiere 1920s

Don McCullin 1968

And occasional exhibitions,such as :

Curtis Moffat: Experimental Photography and Design, 1923–1935

Curtis Moffat, ‘Abstract Composition’,

Curtis Moffat created dynamic abstract photographs, innovative colour still-lives and some of the most glamorous society portraits of the early 20th century. He was also a pivotal figure in Modernist interior design.

Moffat was born in New York in 1887. He studied painting there and then in Paris, and in 1916 he married the English actress and poet Iris Tree, daughter of the actor Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. While in Paris, Moffat collaborated with Man Ray, producing portraits and abstract ‘photograms’, or ‘rayographs’.

Curtis Moffat 1925

Moving to London in the mid 1920s, Moffat opened an interior design company and gallery in Fitzroy Square. The company sold Modernist furniture by some of the best designers of the day, as well as African sculpture. It was here, throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, that Moffat also produced stylish photographic portraits of leading figures in high society and the arts. The enterprise closed in 1933, largely due to the Depression.

Bill Brandt

“Brandt’s pictures survive and enter the memory because they were constructed by an artist.” David Hockney

Bill Brandt 1952

The V&A celebrates the centenary of the birth of Bill Brandt (1904-1983), Britain’s best-loved photographer of modern times, with a stunning retrospective. With over 150 mainly vintage, gelatin-silver prints from the Bill Brandt Archive, the exhibition displays the finest selection of his rare and famous prints to be seen in Britain for over thirty years.

1963(Bill Brandt)

Bill Brandt remains one of the pre-eminent photographers of the 20th Century. His career as a photographer began in Vienna in 1928, before he moved to Paris where he assisted Man Ray. He settled in London in 1931 and became the great documentarian of British cultural and social life, exposing the vivid contrasts in society between the World Wars

Hanoi – 1000 years of Thanh Long -the recent photographic record

Hanoi has been inhabited since at least 3000 BC. One of the first known permanent settlements is the Co Loa citadel (Cổ Loa) founded around 200 BC.

Hanoi has had many names throughout history, all of them of Sino-Vietnamese origin. During the Chinese domination of Vietnam, it was known as Tống Bình (宋平) and later Long Đỗ (龍肚; literally “dragon’s belly”). In 866, it was turned into a citadel and was named Đại La (大羅).

In 1010, Lý Thái Tổ, the first ruler of the Lý Dynasty, moved the capital of Đại Việt (大越, the Great Viet, then the name of Vietnam) to the site of the Đại La Citadel. Claiming to have seen a dragon ascending the Red River, he renamed it Thăng Long (昇龍, Ascending dragon) – a name still used poetically to this day.

As a way of celebrating Hanoi’s history Philippe Chaplin has researched a wide range of images of Hanoi,from the last 150 years, most of which  are photographs. What is interesting is that although Hanoi is rapidly developing many of the scenes  represented in the photos can be seen today.

For example the pousse pousse

This is Hanoi 1862 while the cyclo is still a common site in Hanoi in 2009 (however with the rapid rise in 4 wheel traffic it is probably an endangered species.

The street barber (who also manicures the ears and nose with the deftness of a surgeon) is another common sight in Hanoi in 2009. A tree is normally all that is needed or corner of a building -enough to hang a mirror (and sometimes steal some electricity from an overhead cable) and to place a chair.

Barber,Hanoi. Ray Harris

The conical hat is still very common even in central Hanoi in 2009

Hanoi-2009-Ray Harris

Ray Harris - brickworkers,Vietnam

Singers may not be a common sight on the streets of Hanoi today but he Cheo performers (traditional opera) still perform twice a week in th newly upgraded theatre.

Cheo -Ray Harris

Chanteuses

Avenue De La Cathedrale

and the Cathedral still packs them in at Christmas and Easter!

10 more great blues harp players – listen and learn

For those wanting to learn to play the blues harp – you don’t even have to own a harp.

To start, just listen and learn.

There are many recordings of harp players from the last 100 years and these days compilations can be picked up for just a few dollars/pounds/euros/yen.

Listen to the different styles,see if you can differentiate between when a player is blowing or drawing a note. What about timing and  rhythm? What about the relationship between singing and playing the breaks or fill ins? Some great advice on Adam Gussow’s video lessons – as many already know.

For now – just sample some more from the following players:

Jimmy Reed

Jimmy Reed (Mathis James Reed)
BORN: September 6, 1925, Dunleith, MS
DIED: August 29, 1976, Oakland, CA

 

 

There’s simply no sound in the blues as easily digestible, accessible, instantly recognizable and as easy to play and sing as the music of Jimmy Reed. His best-known songs — “Baby, What You Want Me to Do,” “Bright Lights, Big City,” “Honest I Do,” “You Don’t Have to Go,” “Going to New York,” “Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby” and “Big Boss Man” — have become such an integral part of the standard blues repertoire, it’s almost as if they have existed forever. Because his style was simple and easily imitated, his songs were accessible to just about everyone from high school garage bands having a go at it to Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich, Lou Rawls, Hank Williams, Jr., and the Rolling Stones, making him a  most influential bluesman . His bottom string boogie rhythm guitar patterns (all furnished by boyhood friend and longtime musical partner Eddie Taylor), simple two-string turnarounds, countryish harmonica solos (all played in a neck rack attachment hung around his neck) and mush mouthed vocals were probably the first exposure most White folks had of the blues. And his music — lazy, loping and insistent and constantly built and reconstructed single after single on the same sturdy frame — was a formula that proved to be enormously successful and influential, both with middle-aged Blacks and young White audiences for a good dozen years. Jimmy Reed records hit the charts with amazing frequency and crossed over onto the pop charts on many occasions, a rare feat for an ‘unreconstructed’ bluesman.This is all the more amazing simply because Reed’s music was nothing special on the surface; he possessed absolutely no technical expertise on either of his chosen instruments and his vocals certainly lacked the fierce declamatory intensity of a Howlin’ Wolf or a Muddy Waters. But it was exactly that lack of in-your-face musical confrontation that made Jimmy Reed a welcome addition to everybody’s record collection back in the ’50s and ’60s. And for those aspiring musicians who wanted to give the blues a try, either vocally or instrumentally (no matter what skin color you were born with), perhaps Billy Vera said it best in his liner notes to a Reed greatest hits anthology: “Yes, anybody with a range of more than six notes could sing Jimmy’s tunes and play them the first day Mom and Dad brought home that first guitar from Sears & Roebuck.”

Biography courtesy of All Music Guide to the Blues – Paperback -  2nd edition (1999) Miller Freeman Books; ISBN: 0879305487 – The online version of the All Music Guides may be found atwww.allmusic.com

George “Harmonica” Smith

“Although Marion Jacobs, Aleck Miller, and Walter Horton are widely regarded as the chief architects of post-war blues harmonica, any list would be remiss without George “Harmonica” Smith. Like his contemporaries, Smith was a master of the instrument and left behind a legacy that still echoes in the playing of several harmonica players of the west-coast school; a school built in large part by the man himself.”

George Smith was born on April 22, 1924 in Helena, AR, but was raised in Cairo, IL. At age four, Smith was already taking harp lessons from his mother, a guitar player and a somewhat stern taskmaster — it was a case of get-it-right-or-else. In his early teens, he started hoboing around the towns in the South and later joined Early Woods, a country band with Early Woods on fiddle and Curtis Gould on spoons. He also worked with a gospel group in Mississippi called the Jackson Jubilee Singers.

 

Smith moved to Rock Island, IL, in 1941 and played with a group that included Francis Clay on drums. There is evidence that he was one of the first to amplify his harp. While working at the Dixie Theater, he took an old 16mm cinema projector, extracted the amplifier/speaker, and began using this on the streets.

His influences include Larry Adler and later Little Walter. Smith would sometimes bill himself as Little Walter Jr. or Big Walter. He played in a number of bands including one with a young guitarist named Otis Rush and later went on the road with the Muddy Waters Band, after replacing Henry Strong.

In 1954, he was offered a permanent job at the Orchid Room in Kansas City where, early in 1955, Joe Bihari of Modern Records (on a scouting trip), heard Smith, and signed him to Modern. These recording sessions were released under the name Little George Smith, and included “Telephone Blues” and “Blues in the Dark.” The records were a success.

Slim Harpo (James Moore)

James Moore was born on January 11, 1924 in  Lobdell, LA.

“Probably the leading practitioner of “swamp blues”. His songs are typically slow, loping blues with a very soulful feeling. His harp playing was simple but very effective. He wrote most of his own material, and his songs have been covered frequently by everyone from the Rolling Stones (I’m a King Bee) to the Fabulous Thunderbirds (Rainin’ in my heart and others).”

 

 

In the large stable of blues talent that Crowley, LA producer Jay Miller recorded for the Nashville-based Excello label, no one enjoyed more mainstream success than Slim Harpo. Just a shade behind Lightnin’ Slim in local popularity, Harpo played both guitar and neck-rack harmonica in a more down-home approximation of Jimmy Reed, with a few discernible, and distinctive, differences. Slim’smusic was certainly more laid-back than Reed’s, if such a notion was possible. But the rhythm was insistent and overall, Harpo was more adaptable than Reed or most other bluesmen. His material not only made the national charts, but also proved to be quite adaptable for white artists on both sides of the Atlantic, including the Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, Kinks, Dave Edmunds with Love Sculpture, Van Morrison with Them, Sun rockabilly Warren Smith,Hank Williams, Jr. and the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

 

 

Several of his best tunes were co-written with his wife Lovelle and show a fine hand for song construction, appearing to have arrived at the studio pretty well-formed. His harmonica playing was driving and straightforward, full of surprising melodicism, while his vocals were perhaps best described by writer Peter Guralnick as “if a black country and western singer or a white rhythm and blues singer were attempting to impersonate a member of the opposite genre.” And here perhaps was Harpo’s true genius, and what has allowed his music to have a wider currency. By the time his first single became a Southern jukebox favorite, his songs being were adapted and played by White musicians left and right. Nothing resembling the emotional investment of a Howlin’ Wolf or a Muddy Waters was required; it all came natural and easy, and its influence has stood the test of time.

DIED: January 31, 1970, Baton Rouge, LA

Billy Boy Arnold

Billy Boy Arnold (born William Arnold, September 16, 1935, Chicago, Illinois) is a leading American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter.

Born in Chicago, he began playing harmonica as a child, and in 1948 received informal lessons from his near neighbour John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson, shortly before his death. Arnold made his recording debut in 1952 with “Hello Stranger” on the small Cool label, the record company giving him the nickname “Billy Boy”.

Arnold signed a solo recording contract with Vee-Jay Records, recording the originals of “I Wish You Would” and “I Ain’t Got You“.^[2] Both were later covered by The Yardbirds,^] and “I Wish You Would” was also recorded by David Bowie on his 1973 album, Pin Ups. “I Wish You Would” was also covered by Hot Tuna, on the 1976 album Hoppkorv.

Billy Branch

Billy Branch has followed a very non-traditional path to the blues. Unlike many blues artists, he isn’t from the South. Billy was born in Chicago in 1951 and was raised in Los Angeles. He first picked up a harmonica at the age of ten and immediately began to play simple tunes.

Billy returned to Chicago in the summer of ‘69 and graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in political science. It was during these years that he was introduced to the Blues. He soon became immersed in the local blues scene. He spent a great deal of time at legendary blues clubs such as: Queen Bee and Theresa’s Lounge; he learned from such stalwart harmonica players like: Big Walter Horton, James Cotton, Junior Wells and Carey Bell.

His big break came in 1975 during a harmonica battle when he beat Chicago legend, Little Mac Simmons at the Green Bunny Club. He made his first recording for Barrelhouse Records and began to work as an apprentice harp player in Willie Dixon’s Chicago Blues All-Stars. He eventually replaced Carey Bell and worked with Willie Dixon for six years.

During this time, Billy formed the Sons Of Blues (S.O.B.s) featuring musicians who where the sons of famous blues artists. The original S.O.B.s consisted of Billy, Lurrie Bell, Freddie Dixon and Garland Whiteside. They toured Europe and played at the Berlin Jazz Festival. Shortly afterward, they recorded for Alligator Record’s Grammy-nominated Living Chicago Blues sessions, and Billy has been a regular studio player appearing on over fifty albums.

Billy has recorded and/or performed with an incredible list of Blues legends including: Muddy Waters, Big Walter Horton, Son Seals, Lonnie Brooks, Koko Taylor, Johnny Winter, and Albert King. In 1990, he appeared with three harp legends:Carey Bell, Junior Wells, and James Cotton on W.C Handy Award winner, Harp Attack! His most recent recordings for the Polygram label are entitled The Blues Keep Following Me Around and Satisfy Me.

Billy is also passing on the blues tradition to a new generation through his Blues In The Schools program. He is a dedicated blues educator and has taught in the Chicago school system for over twenty years as part of the Urban Gateways Project. In 1996, some of his finest students opened the Main Stage at the Chicago Blues Festival which was broadcast throughout the U.S. on National Public Radio.

Snooky Prior

Snooky Pryor (September 15, 1921 – October 18, 2006) was an American blues harp player. He claimed to have pioneered the now-common method of playing amplified harmonica by cupping a small microphone in his hands along with the harmonica, although on his earliest records in the late 1940s he did not utilize this method.

James Edward Pryor was born in Lambert, Mississippi and developed a Delta blues style influenced by both Sonny Boy Williamson I and Sonny Boy Williamson II. He moved to Chicago around 1940.

While serving in the U.S. Army he would blow bugle calls through the powerful PA system, which led him to experiment with playing the harmonica that way. Upon discharge from the Army in 1945, he obtained his own amplifier, and began playing harmonica at the outdoor Maxwell Street market, becoming a regular in the Chicago blues scene.

Pryor recorded some of the first postwar Chicago blues records in 1948, including “Telephone Blues” and “Snooky & Moody’s Boogie” with guitarist Moody Jones, and “Stockyard Blues” and “Keep What You Got” with singer/guitarist Floyd Jones. “Snooky & Moody’s Boogie” is of considerable historical significance: Pryor claimed that harmonica ace Little Walter directly copied the signature riff of Prior’s song into the opening eight bars of his own blues harmonica instrumental, “Juke,” an R&B hit in 1952. In 1967, Prior moved south to Ullin, Illinois. He quit music for carpentry in the late 1960s but was persuaded to make a comeback. After he dropped out of sight, Pryor was later re-discovered and resumed periodic recording until his death in nearby Cape Girardeau, Missouri at the age of 85.

Sugar Blue

“I needed a nickname… all the good ones were taken! You know ‘Muddy Waters’,'Blind Lemon’,'Sonny Boy’…until one night friend and I were leaving a concert – a Doc Watson concert – when somebody threw out of the window a box full of old 78s: I picked one up and it said “Sugar Blues” by Sidney Bechet…That’s it! I thought it was perfect…so here I am…

Born James Whiting – he was raised in Harlem, New York, where his mother was a singer and dancer at the fabled Apollo Theatre. He spent his childhood among the musicians and show people who knew his mother, including the great Billie Holiday, and decided that he wanted to be a performer. Blue received his first harmonica from his aunt, and proceeded to hone his chops by wailing along with Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder songs on the radio,   he was soon to be influenced by the jazz greats such as Dexter Gordon and Lester Young.
Sugar Blue has used this background to his advantage, though, creating an ultra-modern blues style and sound that is instantly recognizable as his own.

Blue began his career as a street musician and made his first recordings in 1975 with legendary blues figures Brownie McGhee and Roosevelt Sykes . The following year, he contributed to recordings by Victoria Spivey and Johnny Shines before pulling up stakes and moving to Paris on the advice of pioneer blues pianist Memphis Slim .

While in France, Blue hooked up with members of the Rolling Stones , who instantly fell in love with his sound. The Stones invited Blue to join them in the studio. Besides his work on the Some Girls album, he can be heard on Emotional Rescue and Tattoo You . He appeared live with the group on numerous occasions and was offered the session spot indefinitely, but he turned it down, opting instead to return to the States and put his own band together rather than became a full-time sideman. Before returning to the U.S. in 1982, Blue cut a pair of albums, Crossroads and From Paris to Chicago.

Blue’s decision to return home, despite his growing renown as a session player, was spurred by his desire to work with and learn from the masters of blues harmonica. Thus he came to Chicago and proceeded to sit in with the likes of Big Walter Horton , Carey Bell , James Cotton and Junior Wells . Blue went on to spend two years touring with his friend and mentor Willie Dixon as part of the Chicago Blues All Stars before putting his own band together in 1983. With his own band, Blue’s star continued to rise. He received the 1985 Grammy Award for his work on the Atlantic album, Blues Explosion, recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

Jerry Portnoy

Jerry Portnoy (born 1943 in Chicago, Illinois) is a harmonica musician who has toured with Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton. Jerry grew up in Chicago’s famous Maxwell Street neighborhood where his family owned a store. His exposure to the blues began there with Little Walter and other Chicago Blues masters.

He made a special guest appearance on Bo Diddley’s 1996 album A Man Amongst Men, playing harmonica on the track “I Can’t Stand It”.

Rod Piazza

Rod Piazza (born December 18, 1947 in Riverside, California) is an American blues harmonica player and singer. He’s been playing with his band The Mighty Flyers since 1980 which he formed with his pianist wife Honey Piazza. Their boogie sound combines the styles of jump blues, West Coast blues and Chicago blues.

In the mid 1960s, Piazza formed his first band The House of DBS, which later changed its name to the Dirty Blues Band. The band signed with ABC-Bluesway Records and released two albums in 1967 and 1968 respectively.^[2] The band broke up in 1968, and Piazza formed Bacon Fat that year. Piazza’s idol and mentor, George “Harmonica” Smith joined the band and they had a “dual harp” sound. Bacon Fat released two albums the following two years. Piazza left and worked in other bands before going solo in 1974.

 

Little Sonny

“Born Aaron Willis in Greensboro, Alabama, “Sonny” (His mom’s nickname for him) had been playing harmonica since he was a child. Seeing Sonny Boy Williamson preform in a Detroit bar in 1953, Willis saw his destiny as a musician.”

When Little Sonny wasn’t working local haunts with John Lee Hooker, Eddie Burns, Eddie Kirkland, Baby Boy Warren, or Washboard Willie (who gave him his first paying gig), he was snapping photos of the patrons for half a buck a snap.

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John Mayall

Although not the greatest harp player, and technically there are many better British harp players,  Mayall’s ability to bring on young musicians, particularly guitarists (no need to mention them) and gain a wide audience for the blues meant that his playing inspired many a young hopeful by introducing them to the blues.

Listen and enjoy Parchman Farm:

Although John Mayall is often called the ‘father of British blues’ but the honour probably should go to a lesser known musician Cyril Davis who along with Alexis Korner really ‘fathered’ the blues in Britain in the early 50’s.

Playing the devil’s music -Kings of delta blues -Tommy Johnson and Robert Johnson.

There are several connections between  Tommy Johnson and Robert Johnson. Both lived in the Mississippi Delta region, both were highly influential blues musicians and singers, both enjoyed ‘wine, women and song’ and both sport a mythology that they sold their souls to the devil in exchange for their extraordinary powers in music.

About Tommy Johnson…

“About that time,…, Johnson met the devil at the crossroads at midnight and handed him his guitar. When the devil handed it back, Johnson told them, he could play anything he wanted.”
- Keith O’Brien, in the Times-Picayune, Crystal Springs, M

Tommy Johnson

Tommy Johnson

Tommy Johnson (1896 – November 1, 1956) was an influential American delta blues musician who recorded in the late 1920s, known for his eerie falsetto voice and intricate guitar playing.

“Next to Son House and Charley Patton, no one was more important to the development of pre-Robert Johnson Delta blues than Tommy Johnson. Armed with a powerful voice that could go from a growl to an eerie falsetto range and a guitar style that had all of the early figures and licks of the Delta style clearly delineated, Johnson… left behind a body of work that’s hard to ignore.”
- Cub koda, All Music Guide

Tommy Johnson was born circa 1896, on George Miller’s Plantation near Terry, Mississippi, twenty miles south of the state capital of Jackson. One of thirteen children, Tommy and his family moved to Crystal Springs, Mississippi, around 1910. The Johnsons were a musical family. Tommy’s uncle and brothers Mager and LeDell played guitar, while other relatives played in a brass band. LeDell taught Tommy the rudiments of guitar about 1910, and by 1914 the Johnson brothers were supplementing their sharecropping incomes by playing parties in the Crystal Springs area.

In 1916, Tommy Johnson married Maggie Bidwell and the couple moved to Webb Jennings’s Plantation near Drew, in Mississippi’s Yazoo Delta region close to Dockery’s Plantation. Although Johnson would have several wives, it was his first whom he later immortalized in the song “Maggie Campbell Blues.” Johnson soon fell under the spell of Dockery resident Charley Patton and local guitarists Dick Bankston and Willie Brown. He lived there for a year, learning the nuances of the Delta style before moving on to hobo around Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Johnson, now an alcoholic and womanizer, moved back to Crystal Springs in 1920, resuming his musical partnership with Mager and LeDell. He also returned to life as a sharecropper, playing at parties on the weekends or on the streets of Jackson and nearby towns for tips. During the fall cotton harvest season, Johnson traveled back to the Delta, playing for sharecroppers who had just been paid. During the early 1920s he gigged with Charley Patton in Greenwood and nearby Moorehead. The latter is famous for its railroad crossing Where the Southern Crosses the Dog, heralded in W.C. Handy’s “Yellow Dog Blues.”

Johnson cut his first records with guitarist Charlie McCoy in February 1928 at the Memphis Auditorium for the Victor label. These sides sold well enough to prompt a follow-up session in August of that year. That session yielded the notorious “Canned Heat Blues,” in which he admitted to drinking Sterno to satisfy his alcohol cravings. The theme of alcoholism would be touched upon again in “Alcohol and Jake Blues,” waxed during his final recording session for the Paramount label in December 1929. Johnson traveled to Paramount’s studio in Grafton, Wisconsin, where Delta luminaries Son House, Skip James, and Charley Patton had also recorded. After the onset of the Great Depression, the enthusiasm of the record-buying public lessened and Johnson was not invited to record further.

“Johnson’s recordings showcased an eerie falsetto and masterfully manipulated vocal dynamics that established him as the premier Delta blues vocalist o fhis day…. Johnson was remebered for playing the guitar between his legs like he was riding a mule, playing it behind his head, tossing the guitar up in the air, and other acrobatic antics.”
- from Trail of the Hellhound, presented by The National Park Service

“He’d kick the guitar, flip it, turn it back of his head and be playin’ it. Then he’d get straddled over it like he was ridin’ a mule – pick it that way.”
- Houston Stackhouse, Delta Blues artist.

Allmusic references all of Tommy Johnson’s output:

Review

by Jeff Schwachter

An essential Tommy Johnson collection, Document’s Complete Recorded Works (1928-1929) features 17 songs from the Delta blues pioneer, including two alternative takes and a pair of previously unissued songs known respectively as “Morning Prayer Blues” and “Boogaloosa Blues.” Culled from the great Delta musician’s recording sessions in Memphis and Grafton, WI, from February 1928 to December 1929, this collection shines a light on all of Johnson’s known output during his most active recording years. As with most music taken straight from original 78s, the sound quality varies between tracks; all in all, the pops and static aren’t too distracting here. The music is well-worth seeking out as the writing, guitar playing, and singing are all exceptional. Johnson’s voice, one of the distinctive early Delta blues voices along with Son House and Charley Patton, changes from a deep rumble to a woeful falsetto while his guitar playing is characteristic of the early Delta style. With the exception of a few of the tracks from an August 1928 session, other players accompany Johnson on the tracks. Highlights include the well-known material such as “Cool Drink of Water Blues” and “Canned Heat Blues,” as well as scratchy lesser-known gems from his later sessions. The tracks “Ridin’ Horse” and “Alcohol and Jake Blues” were taken from what is believed to be the only remaining copy of the 78 they were originally released on. These two songs had not been released on CD prior to this collection. On the two versions of “Black Mare Blues” included, Johnson is joined by the New Orleans Nehi Boys, featuring Kid Ernest Marshall on clarinet and Charley Taylor on piano. The CD includes informative notes by Paul Oliver, personnel lineups for each session, along with issue numbers for the original releases. This is highly recommended for those who have never heard Johnson’s music and equally recommended for those who have.

In the 2000 movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? there is a character named Tommy Johnson (played by Chris Thomas King) who sold his soul to the devil to play guitar. He plays accompaniment for the Soggy Bottom Boys (a band consisting of the film’s three main protagonists plus Johnson) on “Man of Constant Sorrow”. The character of Tommy Johnson in O Brother, Where Art Thou? is reminiscent of the real Tommy Johnson, who used to talk about how “he sold his soul to the devil” at a crossroads in return for making up songs and playing the guitar. The character plays a number of songs by blues musician Skip James. The character was not based on the better-known bluesman Robert Johnson, as some have speculated

Robert Johnson

Robert Johnson

Robert Johnson, “King of the Delta Blues Singers”, was born in Hazlehurst, MS in Copiah County, on May 8, 1911. Crystal Springs, MS . Robert and his mother did not stay long in Hazlehurst. After working as migrant labor, his mother moved the family to Memphis where he lived for several years.

 

Early in life Robert developed an interest in music. He played Jews Harp and harmonica for the next few years until he became interested in guitar in the 1920’s. Robert was a good looking boy and he became very popular with the girls. Eventually he became serious and married a young Virginia Travis in 1929. She and Robert’s first child died during childbirth in 1930.After this early tragic experience, Robert became absorbed in his music.

While living in Robinsonville, Robert met other blues singers who influenced his early style. Among those were  Son House and Willie Brown. Bluesman and preacher Son House particularly influenced Robert with his ‘raw and intensely pure emotional music. ‘Robert went back to his birthplace Hazlehurst searching for his real father, and became more serious about his music.

Robert’s understanding of women deepened and he began to understand that they could provide everything he needed. He met a kind and loving woman more than 10 years his senior with three small children. Robert and Calletta Craft were married her in 1931. She totally loved and took care of Robert. Robert wasn’t particularly respected at the time because he was not a hard labourer like many people at the time, his work seemed too easy to many people.  No one knew he was married, and thought he was being kept by an older woman.

The trip to Mississippi in the 30’s was really important to Robert. During his stay, Johnson’s personality developed into the man he would be. Also of great importance was the musical talent and ability that blossomed while he was in Hazlehurst. He would spend time alone practicing songs until they were just as he liked them. When he felt ready for more learning, he packed up his family and moved to the Delta.

When Robert returned to Robinsonville, he had surpassed his friends Son House and Willie Brown. He played in bars and on street corners for a new months and then would move on. Robert began to spend time on the Arkansas side of the river, across the river from Memphis in a town called Helena. All the great musicians of that time passed through Helena and west Helena, and many were influenced by Robert.

There was a special young man to whom Robert took a liking named Robert Lockwood, Jr. Robert Johnson lived with young Robert’s mother, Estella Coleman. Robert J. tutored the young man who had an admirable musical talent. He shared much of what he knew with Robert Jr over the next four or five years. His style took on many of the characteristics of Robert Johnson’s. Estella was good to Robert, she took good care of him. Robert stayed in Helena with Estella and Robert Jr, and from this base travelled to play all over Mississippi and the Arkansas Delta. Robert had the opportunity to meet and play with all the great blues contemporaries.

Robert guarded his musical style well. If he felt someone wanted to be like him, play like him, he would leave in the middle of a performance. He loved traveling and seemed always on the move.  Robert could play most anything requested of him. He had an ability to learn music and lyrics quickly, after only hearing a song once, he could play and sing it, not only the blues, but pop, ballads, and other styles as well.

By the mid-thirties, Johnson was well known through the Delta, Mississippi, and Tennessee,and began to think about recording his music. He contacted H. C. Spier in Jackson, MS, who connected him with someone who could help him. In 1936 he began to record his songs, among them his most popular Terraplane Blues. He made eleven records which increased his fame.

Johnson is one of the most admired and influential Delta blues artists despite his short life and the small number of recordings that he left. His songs, such as “Sweet Home Chicago”, “Come on in My Kitchen”, and “Crossroad Blues”, are blues classics — played by thousands of blues artists and adapted by rock ‘n’ roll artists such as the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton. His life and work would later influence the growth and talent of such famous musicians as Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, Bonnie Raitt, the Rolling Stones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and yes, Elvis.

Robert Johnson was a gifted singer, guitarist and songwriter whose life story is wrapped in mystery and legend. Only two photographs are known to exist of him and he recorded only 29 songs before his death in 1938 at the age of 27. Many of his contemporaries believed that he met the Devil at a lonely crossroads at midnight and made a deal to sell his soul in return for becoming the greatest blues musician of all time. More likely, he was blessed with enormous talent and spent a lot of time learning from other blues masters and honing his skills. He achieved some success and fame from recordings and performances during his life and was scheduled to perform at the first “Spirituals to Swing” concert at Carnegie Hall when he died.

Although his burial place remains uncertain, it is generally accepted that his death was not accidental. On Saturday night, August 13, 1938 at a jook joint named Three Forks, Johnson played his last gig. Of the many rumors concerning Johnson’s death in 1938 (stabbing, poison, the devil catching up with him), poisoning is the most prevalent and most substantiated.

The link with the ” devil” is not surprising because in his early years Robert Johnson did not impress, as this quote from the Robert Johnson notebooks illustrates:

But Johnson did not appear to be gifted with a musician’s talent for guitar, as Son House asserts, ” Such another racket you never heard! It’d make people mad, you know. They’d come out and say, “Why don’t y’all go in there and get that guitar from that boy!” (Cobb 289).

However a little later, when he returned to Robinsonville, Son House and Willie Brown were astounded by his artistic development (Lavere 13). Rumors began about Johnson trading his soul to the devil in exchange for his guitar expertise.

Robert Johnson  died on August 16, 1938. He defined the 30s blues era, but died in 1938 at the young age of 27. Though he only wrote 29 songs, his impact on the world of music has been significant.

Cross Road Blues

©(1978) 1990, 1991 Lehsem II, LLC/Claud L. Johnson
Administered by Music & Media International, Inc.
I went down to the crossroad
fell down on my knees
I went down to the crossroad
fell down on my knees
Asked the lord above “Have mercy now
save poor Bob if you please”
Yeeooo, standin at the crossroad
tried to flag a ride
ooo ooo eee
I tried to flag a ride
Didn’t nobody seem to know me babe
everybody pass me by
Standing at the crossroad babe
rising sun goin down
Standin at the crossroad babe
eee eee eee, risin sun goin down
I believe to my soul now,
Poor Bob is sinkin down
You can run, you can run
tell my friend Willie Brown
You can run, you can run
tell my friend Willie Brown
(th)’at I got the croosroad blues this mornin Lord
babe, I’m sinkin down
And I went to the crossroad momma
I looked east and west
I went to the crossroad baby
I looked east and west
Lord, I didn’t have no sweet woman
ooh-well babe, in my distress

There are only two photos of Robert Johnson that have been revealed to the public…one taken by the Hooks Bros. photography studio in Memphis and used on the cover of Johnson’s The Complete Recordings collection, and a so-called “photo booth” self-portrait of Johnson. Recently, however, vintage guitar expert Steven “Zeke” Schein discovered – on eBay of all places – what he believes to be a third photo of Robert Johnson, showing the mysterious bluesman standing alongside his protégé and traveling partner, Johnny Shines.

Robert Johnson and Johnny Shines??

There has been a lot of discussion about whether the photo is really Robert Johnson,(see Vanity Fair) – and  if you want to look at some ‘forensic’ evidence and discussion by some sceptical Johnson fans take a look here.

The photo was first advertised as an early picture of BB King, but it seems that  the long fingers could only belong to Robert Johnson. (note: Has any one asked BB?).

The Prix Pictet 2009, Earth – photography in Paris again!

Christopher Anderson

The Prix Pictet 2009, Earth

The Prix Pictet is an annual search for photographs that communicate powerful messages of global environmental significance under a broad theme. This year that theme is „earth‟. Nadav Kander was nominated for his series of photos, Yangtze, The Long River Series, 2006-07, documenting the rapidly changing landscape and communities of China‟s Yangtze River, from its mouth to source.

Nadav Kander

The photographers were selected from a shorlist of twelve of the world‟s leading photographers: Darren Almond, Christopher Anderson, Sammy Baloji, Edward Burtynsky, Andreas Gursky, Naoya Hatakeyama, Nadav Kander, Ed Kashi, Abbas Kowsari, Yao Lu, Edgar Martins and Chris Steele-Perkins.

Chris Steele-Perkins

Making the formal presentation at an awards dinner at the Passage de Retz in Paris, Kofi Annan, honorary president of the Prix Pictet said that the photographs were a compelling call for action to tackle climate change, the most serious humanitarian and environmental challenge facing the world today:
“Only weeks separate us from the decisive negotiations on climate change in Copenhagen. We are confronted with the vital need to prepare the political momentum necessary for a fair and effective post-Kyoto agreement. The images in front of us remind us of the fragility of our planet and the damage we have already done. When we see these photographs we cannot close our eyes and remain indifferent. Through our actions and voices, we must keep building the pressure to secure urgent action at Copenhagen and beyond.”

Naoya Hatakeyama

The exhibition of the Prix Pictet 2009 Shortlist will be at the Passage de Retz, Paris, 23 October – 23 November 2009.

Darren Almond

Earth Book

 

Abbas

The Prix Pictet 2009 publication, Earth, was launched at the opening of the Prix Pictet 2009 Preview exhibition at Purdy Hicks Gallery, on 6 October 2009. Writing in the foreword to the book Kofi Annan says ‘This book contains a collection of stunning images from some of the world’s best and most original photographers. Together, these photographs highlight the beauty of the earth we share.But they also expose the damage, deliberately or carelessly, we are inflicting on our own environment.’

Islands from Space -good photos-good science -Wired

Betty Mason editor at WIRED has produced some good blog posts which invite us into NASA photography as well as NASA/HUBBLE pics -here are some samples:

Some islands first (see the site for detailed captions):

Onekotan Island, Russia

An island within an island was created after a big eruption around 9,000 years ago caused the peak of Onekotan’s volcano to collapse, forming a caldera that subsequently filled with water.

Bahamas

A Selkirk Islands

Indonesian islands

Alaskan volcanic island

Now from this moderate scale we swoop to the furthest galaxy and colliding black holes:

Colliding black holes HUBBLE?NASA

 The new camera on the  Hubble telescope is really making inroads on our understanding of space (difficult to comprehend for most of us earthlings) at whatever level the photos are beautiful pieces of art. Remember that this year is the International Year of Astronomy .

JKCSO41 galaxy cluster NASA

Captured by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and combined with data from infrared and optical telescopes, this image shows the farthest galaxy cluster ever detected. Designated JKCS041, the cluster is located 10.2 billion light-years from Earth, beating the previous distance record by a billion light-years.

And to another scale -photomiscroscopy:

Male sex organ

These two photomicrographs are from Nikon’s small world competition (the male sex organ is from a plant of course!)

protein

Wired science is worth a look for its ’science in a hurry’ outlook and great photographs.

Online self publishing – democratising publishing? Ref: Mic Warmington

Many people are frustrated writers, wanting to write ‘that novel’. Others see beautifully published ‘coffee table’ photography books and wish they had the money to produce such a thing.  You may have even started to think that  ‘publishing is dead”.

Well it seems that publishing has now become more democratic and allowed many others into the fold by using online and digital technology.Print on demand (POD) publishing has become popular because of changes in technology and of course the use of digital cameras and new home based software. It also makes use of reduced warehousing costs and unnecessary large print runs.

Take Mic, he has written a novel (still unpublished) has been working hard on his photography for some time, filling many hard back photographic albums at home and even venturing into a web site ( mic warmington pbase) but just last week he sends all his friends an email ‘I ‘m published’ .

Mic Warmington has been able to publish a wonderful testament to his colourful abstract images and without leaving him thousands in debt.

out of the corner of my eye. Mic W.

sea or sky? mic w.

and one of my favourites:

Mic says about his work:

I have often thought of my photographic work as “Sketching with a camera”, often highlighting and abstracting unnoticed details in the environment.

 

Mic Warmington black gash

 

He has published “out of the corner of my eye” using Blurb.

Is it difficult? It demands some thought and some creativity but the process is relatively painless.

Download software from Blurb (with In-design templates) or upload your files as pdf using your own design/publishing software(e.g. InDesign, PageMaker , Quark).

Add photos (300 dpi or more), artwork and text. Photos really should be of the best quality (viewed at  100%) as the page is less forgiving than the screen.

Order one book or many- (they start as low  3.95 pounds/5 dollars)

Choose between different cover types and  book sizes

Design for up to 440 pages using  standard paper, or up to 160 pages using Premium Paper , Promote and sell your work on Blurb.com and keep 100% of the markup.

Online publishing is not so new -many traditional publishers   can help you publish books and market them,like instantpublisher but often you still have to have a guaranteed production of say 25-100 copies. What is good about sites like blurb and lulu is that you can produce just one copy if you want.

There are even competitions for the best books of the month.

If you want to share that book with a few close friends they can go directly to the site and order just one more copy. People are now publishing their blogs as they have invested so much time in writing and publishing they want to produce a legacy in hard copy.And of course what a better present than to give a book of personalised text and images which will be quite unique (remember you can order just one copy or have a limited edition). What about a cookery book of your best recipes?And your dissertation? What about your own travel book?Wedding photographs?

lulu can also provide you with your own ISBN number and bar code. As an estimate Lulu could manufacture one copy of a 100 page hardcover book with full colour images for about 18 pounds (22 Euros,35 USD). You can decide the markup but lulu will take about 20% of the ‘profit’ after you have paid the manufacturing costs. Probably for a colour photobook I would choose Blurb, but if you are publishing a novel, with mainly black and white text then Lulu might be the better option.

Both lulu and blurb offer good tutorials to take you through the whole process and can also help with marketing if you want to go down that road (many just publish single copies for their own use rather than sell). Artists have produced books of their own work to show as their own portable gallery – good for getting exhibition space.

There are other providers like Appleiphoto books but lulu and blurb  seem the most user friendly and cost effective, at the moment.

I am sure this will be a fast growth area – so keep an eye on new providers.

Some other publishers for photobooks include snapfish and mypublisher(20 pages,colour photos-$34.75).

Shipping – be aware that the cost of shipping one copy to Europe may cost as much as $20 with a reduction for more copies. PhotoBooks are zero-rated for VAT in the U.K. Shipments to other European destinations may be subject to VAT and additional taxes, duties or other customs fees upon delivery.

Of course there is the GREEN option  – publishing e books only -

Yudu is the choice for green publishing. All publications are in e-format and the company is carbon neutral. Perhaps we need to encourage some of the self publishers to offer elephant dung recycled paper and bamboo fibre covers  ( I am serious! )

Paris Photo 2009 – Paris and Photography

Recently I posted an article about the Maison Européenne de la Photographie. I thought I would extend my coverage of photography and Paris to include the upcoming Paris Photo. If you can’t get to Paris in November, you should at least visit the website (in English) or the French version, if you prefer, to catch up on the photographic news around Paris (which will also help you if you are lucky enough to visit Paris).

First, some of the details of the event:

WHAT?

Paris Photo, the world’s leading event for photography, presents a panoramic overview of photographic expression spanning the 19th century to the present day.

-         89 galleries and 13 publishers from 23 countries
- 31 first-time exhibitors
- Seven new countries will be represented (Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, Portugal, Russia, Tunisia , UAE)
- 75% of the participants are non French
- 38,000 visitors expected
- 500 international photographers

WHEN?

Dates : Thursday 19th November – Sunday 22nd November, 2009
Opening: Wednesday 18th November 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm (by invitation only)
WHERE?
Venue: Carrousel du Louvre, 99 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, France
Métro : Palais Royal / Musée du Louvre Station (Lines 1 et 7)
Bus : Palais Royal Station (théâtre de la Comédie-Française n°21, 27,39, 81, 95)

Opening hours :
19th November from 11:30 am to 8:00 pm
20th November from 11:30 am to 10:00 pm
21st November from 11:30 am to 8:00 pm
22nd November from 11:30 am to 7:00 pm

General admission : 15 € / 7.50 € for students and groups, free for children under 10.

If you go the press tab you can get an idea of the range of photographic genres, themes and more..

hasan sarbakhshian

Mohamed Bouroussa

Mark Cohen

Lalla Essaydi

Abbas

And on the website there are links to other galleries and exhibitions:

Jeu de Paume Federico Fellini, la grande parade

Federico Fellini

from 20 October 2009 until 17 January 2010

To attempt to put on a Fellini exhibition means to go back to the sources of Fellini’s art and studying and revealing its processes of transformation, alteration, borrowing and accumulation. The result is a set of strata combining filmic elements, photographic documents, magazine presentations of the event, TV images and works by artists.
This exhibition is resolutely multidisciplinary. It sets out to offer a new grid for reading Fellini’s films.

Dolce Vita

The event and the historical fact, History and anecdote, biography and fiction are the materials that, by means of confrontations, echoes and dialogues, Fellini used to built his distinctive narratives and original visual environments.

Showing the creative context of Fellini’s work in an exhibition means showing the nature of his creative mechanisms.

While many now legendary scenes have come to be seen as perfect incarnations of Fellini’s prolific imagination, it now looks as if a more thorough analysis of the context will offer a fresh point of view on his work. Such a hypothesis sits well with Fellini’s own inclinations. Trained as a caricature artist in his youth, for a while he earned a living by doing portraits of GIs on leave, and all through his life he would show the same visual acuity, the same ability to gather so much more than images in his freeze-frames of reality.

The exhibition at the Jeu de Paume affords a glimpse of Fellini’s creative mechanisms by showing his unique ability for absorbing the real.
It comprises mainly photographs and drawings by Fellini, original film posters, period magazines and excerpts from his film.

Exhibition curated by: Sam Stourdzé

WHERE?

Concorde

1, place de la Concorde
75008 Paris
métro Concorde
information: 01 47 03 12 50

Hours
Tuesday: 12:00 – 21:00
Wednesday – Friday: 12:00 – 19:00
Saturday and Sunday: 10:00 – 19:00
Closed Monday

“Click! 99+1 chefs-d’oeuvre de la photographie” opens on October 30th!

12/10/2009 – The Mairie of the 5th arrondissement, in collaboration with the Centro Italiano per le Arti e la Cultura, presents the photographic exhibition from the Giov-Anna Piras Foundation for contemporary art and photography “Click! 99+1 chefs-d’oeuvre de la photographie”, from October 30th to November 28th 2009.

The aim of the event, on the  occasion of Paris Photo, is to offer a chance to catch, in a single place, the 20th Century photographic masterpieces.

Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, August Sander: seeing, observing, thinking 07/10/2009 – The exhibition pays tribute to the August Sander’s approach by showing portraits and landscapes alongside botanical studies.

This selection of close to one hundred vintage prints of work by the German photographer (1876-1964) provides a spectacular typological and topographical overview of his era.

9 Sept – 20 Dec. 09 Tuesday to Sunday, 1 pm to 6.30 pm and Saturday from 11 am to 6.45 pm, late evening on Wednesday until 8.30 pm.
Centre Pompidou, The subversion of images. Surrealism, photography, film 01/10/2009 – The exhibition at Centre Pompidou presents a panorama of surrealist photography: an anthology of exquisite works by Man Ray, Bellmer, Cahun, Ubac, Boiffard and Tabard, as well as previously unseen images showing surrealist uses of photography (Artür Harfaux, Benjamin Fondane, Léo Malet, Victor Brauner…)

Man Ray

24 Sept. 2009 – 11 jan. 2010 – Wednesday to Monday, 11 am to 9 pm, late evening (exhibitions only) on Thursday to 11 pm

Musée du quai Branly, 165 years of Iranien Photography 28/09/2009 – As part of Photoquai, 2e biennal exhibtion of photographs from around the world, the Musée du Quai Branly is dedicating an exhibition to Iranian photography and shows works starting from the earliest days during the Qajar era, through to wartime photo reportage and images by decidedly contemporary visual artists.

22 Sept – 22 Nov. 09 – Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday from 11 am to 7 pm,
Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 11 am to 9 pm.

Apart from the photographic exhibition -this is a great museum to visit.

Even if you are not walking the streets of Paris – worth browsing the sites. Bon voyage,virtuelle!