BLOG

”Zurumbático is an endless journey to the place where One hundred years of solitude, the literary work of the writer Gabriel García Márquez was born. A story full of extraordinary essence, contained in thousands of Latin American villages, roots of a gigantic empirical hemisphere, passionate, forgotten, fickle, violent, improvised and above all, happy”. Excerpts from Zurumbatico’s statement.

Luis Cobelo: “Latin America is quite ‘zurumbatica’ and we will keep on being ‘zurumbaticos’”

Zurumbatico, the photographic exhibition inspired by 100 años de soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude), arrives to the Miami Institute of Photography, after having been in Italy and Mexico. At this stop, its creator, Venezuelan photographer Luis Cobelo, promises a frenzy format that will include surprise performances, a ‘zurumbatico’ dress-code, […]

19th Century Photography Techniques are Back

A group of contemporary creators has decided to go back to the origins of photography, and continue to work with techniques that are nearly 200 years old. Looking at the romantic styles of their predecessors, the Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic has revived in contemporary image-making. This has been the case of the […]

Photography and art events around the globe

Photography and art events around the globe

Fotofest 2018 Biennial: India March 10th-April 22nd Houston In 2018 the FotoFest Biennial is hosting INDIA. Contemporary Photographic and New Media Art. It is the first time that FotoFest focuses directly on South Asian photography. Exhibitions across the city will showcase the works of 47 photographers and artists from India and the indian diaspora who address issues ranging […]

An open invitation to travel through the history of photography Artist, teacher, researcher and consultant, José Ramírez has been sharing his knowledge of the history of photography for 10 years; this experience authorizes him to expand on many issues related to the transformation of the medium through the years and the impact it has had on the ways of seeing. His workshop on history, offered at MIP, is basically about how photography impacts our lives and how it has impacted the lives of others through time. It is an invitation to tour through the images that have shaped the medium and the arts, an invitation to deepen ourselves into the images displayed in museums, galleries and books, an invitation to be aware of the ideas that triggered those images. Ramirez’s experience includes teaching at the Center for Research and Photo Studies CiEF (www.ciefve.com), where he is director, as well as at the School of Design Altos de Chavón, where he carried out an artistic residence. Ramirez is currently based in Caracas-Venezuela, Dominican Republic and South Florida. -Why is it important to learn the history of photography? Anyone who aspires to embrace photography seriously, either as a profession or as a hobby, must understand the development of the discipline, from the technical point of view and, more importantly, from the aesthetical, social and cultural point of view. Photography has become the most common means of expression; it is a form of knowledge, it has defined our ways of understanding the world since the end of the 19th century; we need to understand this journey, to identify how the works done by main photographers are connected among them, how they have become genres. This is fundamental, not only as general knowledge, but as nourishment for our own personal language. -Within the program of the history of photography, can you mention major events that have been crucial for the development of photographic techniques and images? We started the workshop with the pioneers in America and in Europe, at the end of the 19th Century. At the time, there was a great difference between the two continents and the individual motivations were therefore very different. In Europe, the artistic avant-garde was in full fury, Impressionism, Expressionism, Abstractionism and Surrealism changed the way we relate to the world and conceive art. In Europe, photography emerged as a discipline at the time; its leading figures and propellers were avant-garde artists, who consolidated photography as an art medium. In the United States the situation was different; the country was being built at high speed with Industrialism and Modernity, defining the initial interest of photographers for the documentation of these processes of social change. -Can you talk about the structure of the class? After studying the beginnings of photography as a discipline, we will tour through important moments, following a socio-cultural approach, accompanied by the works of the main photographers in each edition. There, we will see how wars, civil strives, scientific achievements, ventures and conquests define our visual needs, which are then resolved by photography. In the workshop, we will simultaneously study the timeline of the main events of the world, the photographic milestones and, very importantly, the evolution of photography as an art medium. Memorization of dates is not important here, it is not history in a heavy boring sense; we will concentrate on making connections and analogies, which is fun and amazing. For instance, we will see how Avedon’s portrait tradition consolidated in the United States and its connection with the New Objectivity of August Sander, in Germany, and with the study work of Nadar, in Paris. Tradition does not refer to “the old

An open invitation to travel through the history of photography

Artist, teacher, researcher and consultant, José Ramírez has been sharing his knowledge of the history of photography for 10 years; this experience authorizes him to expand on many issues related to the transformation of the medium through the years and the impact it has had on the ways of seeing. […]

Carolina_Munoz

Photography and the power to connect us to ourselves: A conversation with Carolina Muñoz

Enthusiasm and curiosity are key for starting up with photography, and that entails keeping our senses open to styles, visions, and ways of processing images. All along the way, guidance is fundamental for developing our own visual style and language. To facilitate the creation of images, a team of professionals […]

Photobooks: from the idea to its final shape; an interview with Ricardo Baez

Regarding the recent prize given to the photobook Monsanto®: A Photographic Investigation, by Mathieu Asselin, granted in the category ‘First Photobook’ at the Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation Photobook Awards 2017, the MIP team spoke with its designer, Ricardo Báez. The participation of Báez in this photographic event also included the […]

EL MAL, A PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY ON SAN VITUS DANCE

El Mal, a photographic essay on Saint Vitus Dance

In 2010, the English journalist Charlotte Raven, learned that she was suffering from a neurodegenerative disease known as Hungtington’s Disease. She had it in her body but the symptoms hadn’t yet appeared. She then decided to face her imminent future by researching on the subject, focusing on Venezuela, the country […]

Photography and art events worth checking out

Photo and art events worth checking out

Paris Photo November 9-12 In 1997 the city of Paris offered a unique event dedicated to photography. From then on, Paris Photo has been considered the world’s largest international art fair dedicated to the photographic medium. On November 9-12, 2017, people interested can attend the historic Grand Palais to enjoy […]

Robert Delpire and Josef Koudelka. Prague. 1978.

Robert Delpire: A Life Devoted to Publishing Photography

His name may not sound familiar to the younger generation of photographers, but Robert Delpire was responsible for publishing some of the most influential photobooks of the 20th century. Born in Paris, in 1926, Delpire passed away on September 26, 2017 at the age of 91, after having dedicated 69 […]

Image shot in Libya by ©Benjamin Lowy. Reportage by Getty Images

The reinvention of photography after iPhone

On 2017 iPhone is celebrating its 10th anniversary, time in which Apple Inc. has created 18 mobile phones, including the new ones on the list: iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. 10 years have passed since Steve Jobs gave a remarkable speech to launch the first iPhone.“Today Apple […]

Waiting for the Bus, Byron, 1942

Impounded and suppressed: Dorothea Lange’s record of Japanese concentration camps in the US

On December 7th 2016 Tim Chambers, a Californian photographer and graphic designer, posted on his blog an article on about Dorothea Lange’s work on the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans in 1942, a historical event that derived from president Roosevelt’s executive order 9066 after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Already […]

What is Pinhole Photography, according to Daniel Kazimierski.

In his book Problems, Aristotle asked himself: “Why is it that when the sun passes through quadrilaterals, as for instance in wickerwork, it doesn’t produce a rectangular figure but a circle one instead?”. After him, scientists, philosophers and artists, among many others, continued disserting ver the nature of the […]

The magic of instant photography is here to stay

Almost 75 years have passed since Edwin Land invented instant photography, thanks to the curiosity of his 3 year old daughter who asked him why she couldn’t see the picture he had just taken right away. The question launched a research that became reality 5 years later, in a […]

Chema Madoz: artist of the minimum

Chema Madoz’s (Madrid, 1958) work has been based on the creation of discourses and narratives through the arrangement and exhibition of objects. This particular way of expressing himself and his poetic vision have been his trademark during all his career, turning him into one of the most interesting Spanish creators […]

Clap! – A book that offers a road-map of Latin American image-makers and creators.

Clap!: a book that offers a road-map of Latin American image-makers and creators Is it possible to talk about trends when speaking about photography made in Latin America? What are the similarities and differences between the work done by photobook makers from Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Mexico or Venezuela? […]