Robert Frank. Ben James, Welsh Miner. 1951

Christoph Niemann | Steidl

Damien Hirst completed a decade long project to photograph every pharmacy in the Greater London area, both exterior facade and the chemist/pharmacist behind counter (1,856 chemists). The resulting book project, published by Steidl, is multi-volume (10), limited edition (750) and expensive (the catalog announced it at 2,500 euros, but the price increased, you can pre-order from Barnes and Noble for 4,400 USD). This is a photography blog, but I’m told Hirst has related art projects on the subject of pharmacies and pharmaceuticals.

Other worldly color by the Master and his printer. My jaw is still on the floor.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s Joachim Brohm explored the edges of the Ruhr area where landscape and man-made structures meet and oftentimes people spend their leisure time. From an elevated standpoint Brohm documented landscapes and how people used it and moved in it. Taking up the approach of the New Topographics Brohm captured what Heinz Liesbrock calls the „Topographies of Anonymity“, moments suspended in time showing people and objects in seemingly everyday situations. But what he puts on film is far from accidental: his well-composed landscape views in their restrained coloring document the parallel of man and nature in a landscape that is neither urban nor entirely rural. With it comes a nobility of the ordinary that even today, some 40 years after these photographs were shot, is fascinating and wonderfully compiled in the present volume: “Joachim Brohm - Ruhr”, published by Steidl Verlag in 2007. It reproduces about fifty of Brohm’s photographs from all over the Ruhr area ranging from wintery skating scenes reminiscent of Pieter Brueghel paintings to rowers at Lake Baldeney in Essen. The series is preceded by a very informative introduction by Heinz Liesbrock who breaks down the many influences and references present in Brohm’s work but also underscores the photographer’s audacity to use color film in times when black and white was still the standard. A great read and one of my all-time favorite photographic works.

David Lynch por Nadav Kander

-- Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern