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A
Short Overview of
Dennison Bertram, Photographer
Born 1981 in USA, is based now in
Milan, Italy and Prague, Czech Republic. His website is
www.dennisonbertram.com
My father is a painter and when I first got into fashion
photography it was through the work of
Edward Steichen
on whom my father keep several books.
His mother is Peggy Brooks-Bertram, poet, playwright,
dramatist, educator and co-editor of
Go, Tell Michelle: African American Women Write to the New
First Lady,
winner of 2009 Best Black Book Award.
Developing as a
photographer I was influenced by a great deal of
artists; from Hemingway for a love of Europe and the
beauty of women, to
Helmut Newton for the bizarre, the
directness, and strength of an image. These days with
digital I’m really attracted to the work of
Mert &
Marcus [Mert
Alas and Marcus Piggott] and
Camilla Akrans for their talent with color
and of course
Steven Meisel – (for all the obvious
reasons).
Three people you would love to
work with: Mert & Marcus (does that count as two?),
Karl Lagerfeld, Natasha Poly
Who do you think is one to
watch?: I’m going to go with Atsuko Kudo for his
work with Latex. Fashion is always recycling, but latex
as a mainstream material is still quite daring. While
most fashion these days can only be a rehash of what has
been done, the hidden, perhaps darker and erotic side of
fashion has a lot of room for exploration.
Source:
The Ones 2watch
posted 14 June 2010
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Dennis Bertram Website /
Dennis Bertram Blog
I realize that maybe I have a responsibility to
shoot more non-white models. One could argue it's an
artists duty to show society a face of itself it might
rather not see. How will society start to learn that all
shades of skin color are beautiful if no one on the
inside shows them first?—Dennison
Bertram (17 April 2012)
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Video Polaroid
Project, Part 1
“The idea behind the
project was to create a new dimension to the
idea of the ‘polaroid’. Of course, many of
the agencies don’t actually use polaroids
anymore and somehow the digital ’snaps’
don’t really quite capture the personality
of the models in the same way. The models
are filmed just being natural, how they are.
There is minimal styling, normally just a
body suit, leggings or whatever the model is
wearing if they have something cool. There
is almost never any makeup or other styling,
so it’s all really true to the model
themselves – their personality. It’s not a
regular ‘model video’ where the girls walk
around, say their name, talk about their
agency. It’s really like a short film just
about them.—Dennison Bertram
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Edward Steichen: In High Fashion: The Cond
Nast Years 1923-1937
By
William A. Ewing
Edward
Steichen was chief photographer for "Vogue
and Vanity Fair" from 1923 to 1937. During
that time, he produced work of unequalled
brilliance, putting his exceptional talents
to work dramatizing and glamorizing
contemporary culture and its achievers in
politics, literature, journalism, dance,
theatre, opera and, above all, the world of
high fashion. This beautifully produced book
reproduces the best of Steichens images, all
drawn from Conde Nasts archive of more than
2,000 original vintage prints. Until now, no
more than a handful of these prints has been
exhibited or published. The 1920s and 1930s
represent the high point in Steichens
photographic career, and the work he did for
Conde Nasts influential magazines will stand
forever among the most striking creations of
20th-century photography. |
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Edward Steichen: Lives in Photography
By
Todd Brandow and William A. Ewing
With
his prodigious range, versatility and
output, Edward Steichen casts a long shadow
in 20th-century photography, and this lushly
produced book assesses his legacy. Wending
through Steichen's 70-year career, the book
presents his early, impressionistic
black-and-white nudes and portraits of
luminaries such as Rodin as well as
atmospheric still lives and editorial
fashion shots for Vogue and Vanity Fair.
Steichen experimented and excelled in every
genre of photography and even his most
commercial work shows more aesthetic
consideration than product placement. The
images are accompanied by insightful essays
from a number of expert critics and
curators, all of whom place Steichen in his
proper context as one of the most
influential and controversial artists of his
time, alternately reviled as a parvenu and
lauded as the Leonardo of photography. This
book nimbly navigates divergent critical
responses and brilliantly encapsulates the
innovations and transformations of this
pioneer of modern photography.—Publishers
Weekly |
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Helmut Newton: Sumo
By June
Newton
Now, 10
years after the original publication,
Sumo is back in a more
economical edition, but one with the same
DNA as its unique progenitor.
The original
Sumo, edited by June
Newton, featured over 350 pictures, most
published for the first time, covering every
aspect of Newton's outstanding career: from
the stunning fashion images that influenced
generations of younger photographers, to his
powerful, erotic nudes and celebrity
portraits. Also included is a booklet with a
'making of' section, detailing the
meticulous selection process, and the trial
and error, experiment and innovation that
went into creating the original
Sumo, the book that
redefined the photographic monograph.
However, proud owners of the new edition
won't wrestle with their copy of
Sumo. It comes with a
unique stand for displaying the book at home |
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Helmut Newton (1920-2004) was one of the most
influential fashion photographers of all time. Born in
Berlin, he arrived in Australia in 1940 and married June
Brunell (a.k.a. Alice Springs) eight years later. He
first achieved international fame in the 1970's while
working principally for French Vogue, and his celebrity
and influence grew over the decades. Newton preferred to
shoot in streets or interiors, rather than studios.
Controversial scenarios, bold lighting, and striking
compositions came to form his signature look. In 1990 he
was awarded the Grand Prix National for photography; in
1992 the German government awarded him Das Grosse
Verdienstkreuz for services to
German culture, and he was appointed Officer des Arts,
Lettres et Sciences by S.A.S. Princess Caroline of
Monaco. In 1996, he was appointed Commandeur de l'Ordre
des Arts et des Lettres by Philippe Douste-Blazy, the
French Minister of Culture. Working and living in close
companionship with his wife until his death at 83, his
images remain as distinctive, seductive and original as
ever.
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The Shoot—How Mert and Marcus make everyone
look magnificent—Mert and Marcus
have been luring a lot of people to Ibiza
recently. Success has elevated them into the
ranks of those to whom the world must
come—the world, in this case, being
hairdressers, stylists, models, makeup
artists, and manicurists. Katie Grand, the
editor of Pop and Mert and Marcus’s longtime
friend and collaborator, told me, “Their
finances have changed and their power has
changed, which is why we’re here and not in
a studio in King’s Cross.”
Throughout the spring and summer, the pair
had a new shoot nearly every week. They
photographed fall advertising campaigns for
Louis Vuitton, Roberto Cavalli, Missoni,
Giorgio Armani, Hugo Boss, Bulgari, and
Gucci perfume, as well as editorial spreads
for Vogue, W, and Pop. Suddenly, their
pictures are everywhere—or, at least, that
is what is said of them. It is fair to say,
anyway, that Mert and Marcus have been
turning up increasingly often. The other
thing that is said of them is that they came
out of nowhere. |
“They seem to have
just appeared,” Grace Coddington, the creative director
of Vogue, said. Or, as Ivan Bart, the director of IMG
Models, told the Times not long ago, “They are the new
fabulous.”
Mert, 33, is
Turkish; Marcus, 34, is Welsh. Mert is short and chubby;
Marcus is tall and slim. Mert is jovial, with a husky
laugh; Marcus is measured, with a mischievous grin. When
they work, they take turns with the camera—sometimes
snatching it from each other—and although Mert’s taste
may incline a bit more toward campy glamour and Marcus’s
more toward ironic cool, the results rarely, if ever,
betray the dominance of one man’s aesthetic over the
other’s. “When you’re looking at the film, you can’t
tell which of them had the camera,” Grand said.—NewYorker
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Camilla Akrans is a fashion photographer from Sweden
currently killing it in New York. . . She gives a lesson
in color blocking for her most recent work in the
June-July issue of Harper’s Bazaar US. Aided by
fashion editor Brana Wolf, Akrans creates a colorful
story starring model
Jacquelyn Jablonski in luxe attire from the likes of
Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors and Yves Saint Laurent.—FashionGoneRogue
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[Steven] Meisel—as
one of the most powerful photographers in
the fashion industry—is
credited with "discovering" or promoting the
careers of many successful models, including
top models
Linda Evangelista,
Naomi Campbell,
Christy Turlington,
Kristen McMenamy,
Amber Valletta,
Sasha Pivovarova,
Irina Kulikova,
Iris Strubegger,
Lara Stone,
Coco Rocha,
Caroline Trentini,
Liya Kebede,
Karen Elson,
Kara Young and
Raquel Zimmerman, propelling them to
fame by regularly featuring them in Vogue
and various campaigns, notably
Prada, considered one of the most
desired campaigns in the business. Meisel's
influence and training seems to also extend
past models.
He used his influence among the
fashion elite to create an issue of Vogue
that would show only black models. The issue
was released in
July 2008 with the purpose of addressing
the racism seen lately in fashion magazines,
runways, and advertising campaigns. He also
launched the career of Ross Van Der Heide, a
young fashion designer, by showing Ross's
artwork to Anna Sui.
Wikipedia
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Photographers
Ernest Withers
/ Carrie Mae Weems /
Julian Dimock / Jerry
Taliaferro /
Spring Ulmer
J. Nash
Porter /
The Willie
Harris Collection / Eugene
Redmond
Other Visual Artists
Kimathi Donkor /
Chuck Siler /
Bev Jenai
/
John Scott
/ Bernard Hoyes
Claire Carew
/
Jane Musoke-Nteyafas
/ Robert
"Kaki" McQueen /
Romare Bearden
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Wake Up Everybody—Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes (1975)
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Blacks in Hispanic Literature: Critical Essays
Edited by
Miriam DeCosta-Willis
Blacks in Hispanic Literature is a
collection of fourteen essays by scholars and
creative writers from Africa and the Americas.
Called one of two significant critical works on
Afro-Hispanic literature to appear in the late
1970s, it includes the pioneering studies of
Carter G. Woodson and
Valaurez B. Spratlin, published in the 1930s, as
well as the essays of scholars whose interpretations
were shaped by the Black aesthetic. The early
essays, primarily of the Black-as-subject in Spanish
medieval and Golden Age literature, provide an
historical context for understanding 20th-century
creative works by African-descended, Hispanophone
writers, such as Cuban
Nicolás Guillén and Ecuadorean poet, novelist,
and scholar
Adalberto Ortiz, whose essay analyzes the
significance of Negritude in Latin America. This
collaborative text set the tone for later
conferences in which writers and scholars worked
together to promote, disseminate, and critique the
literature of Spanish-speaking people of African
descent. . . .
Cited by a
literary critic in 2004 as "the seminal study in the
field of Afro-Hispanic Literature . . . on which
most scholars in the field 'cut their teeth'."
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Age of Silver: Encounters with Great Photographers
By John Loengard
Age of Silver is iconic American photographer John Loengard’s ode to the art form to which he dedicated his life. Loengard, a longtime staff photographer and editor for LIFE magazine and other publications, spent years documenting modern life for the benefit of the American public. Over the years he trained his camera on dignitaries, artists, athletes, intellectuals, blue and whitecollar workers, urban and natural landscapes, manmade objects, and people of all types engaged in the act of living. In
Age of Silver, Loengard gathers his portraits of some of the most important photographers of the last half-century, including Annie Leibovitz, Ansel Adams, Man Ray, Richard Avedon, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and many, many others. Loengard caught them at home and in the studio; posed portraits and candid shots of the artists at work and at rest. Complimenting these revealing, expertly composed portraits are elegant photographs of the artists holding their favorite or most revered negatives. This extra dimension to the project offers an inside peek at the artistic process and is a stark reminder of the physicality of the photographic practice at a time before the current wave of digital dominance. There is no more honest or faithful reproduction of life existent in the world of image making than original, untouched silver negatives. Far from an attempt to put forth a singular definition of modern photographic practice, this beautifully printed, duotone monograph instead presents evidence of the unique vision and extremely personal style of every artist pictured. Annie Leibovitz is quoted in her caption as once saying, “I am always perplexed when people say that a photograph has captured someone. A photograph is just a piece of them in a moment. It seems presumptuous to think you can get more than that.” —PowerhouseBooks |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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____ 2005
Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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ChickenBones Store
(Books, DVDs, Music, and more)
update 17 April 2012
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