Photographs ©Matilde Soligno
MATILDE SOLIGNO was born in 1980 in Bologna, Italy. She studied Communication Sciences at the University of Bologna, and she attained a MFA in Stage Photography at the European Institute of Design, Milan.
Maybe it’s this grey Brooklyn morning, but these quiet, moody portraits resonated with me.
Everybody
by Marie Sheppard Williams
I stood at a bus corner
one afternoon, waiting
for the #2. An old
guy stood waiting too.
I stared at him. He
caught my stare, grinned,
gap-toothed. Will you
sign my coat? he said.
Held out a pen. He wore
a dirty canvas coat that
had signatures all over
it, hundreds, maybe
thousands.
I’m trying
to get everybody, he
said.
I signed. On a
little space on a pocket.
Sometimes I remember:
I am one of everybody.
Edited by Greg Flanders
Contributors: Erik Borst, Erik Neufurth, Ramanan Sivaranjan, pinkyhonor, Regina van der Kloet, Mark King, Christian Fossati, Steven Beckly, Robert Tepiak, Adam Chidell, Nastya Tailakova, Alessandro Marchi, Giovanni Cassanese, Francesca Nicolos
Edited by M. Charles Newton and Gareth Jelley of Mindfist
Contributors: Wonderland, Gling-Glo, Marcelo Montecino, Ellen Rogers, Pierre Wayser, Mariel Britez,Alessandro Marchi, Hannah Davis, Piero Marsili Libelli, Erica Joy, slutty_pimp, Francesca Nicolosi, neocema,Lukas Vasilikos, Laura Rodari, Filippo Bortolon
I mean I had a statement ( concealed somewhere ) when I was 18 ( like almost anybody ) then another at 25, and so on…
— “Dear, I have another statement on life and photography !”
— “Again !”
— “All we have is now !”
— “You said that yesterday, honey !”
I first came across Pierre’s work through Raoul Gatepin’s favorites on Flickr. He doesn’t add too many and for awhile they all seemed to be from Pierre which caught my attention. I was impressed with how he’s continued to make excellent photographs through the years. His work is eclectic, moving from documentary, to street, to the intimate and personal. Enjoy.
INFO
holott.org
flickr.com/p_wayser
In this post I will outline what type of formats and features you can expect as well as my reasoning for them. I believe in transparency and establishing a dialogue with those interested in what we’re doing. If something doesn’t work, I’d like to hear about it. I always enjoy hearing feedback and many of the insights people have offered in the past have led to changes in my approach, so if you have feedback, criticism or observations, please feel free to leave a comment of shoot me an email.
In the previous post I stated that I thought the objective of a blog should transcend merely “exposing and promoting” photography that appeals to an editors or curators taste. So, on that note I will attempt to sketch out a clearer editorial objective for la pura vida.
The mission of la pura vida is as follows:
I’m certain other types of formats and features will develop over time as well. The internet moves quickly, with new ideas and trends emerging sometimes within a day. So, it’s always a good idea to remain fluid, but I think these objectives will form the cornerstone of what we’re trying to achieve. I’d like to add some thoughts on a few of these objectives as well.
When we started LPV in September of 2007, our objective was to take some of the good work we were finding on Flickr and present it in a more meaningful way than the group pools. What evolved were the monthly shows that were inspired by quotes, phrases, ideas, etc. We were never really interested in doing the literal type of themes that are all too common. I understand why people go this route. The concepts are typically easy to grasp, and easy for an audience to quickly connect with. But we wanted to go another route. Perhaps it’s not entirely unique, but I do think our themes tend to be more lyrical and ambiguous. One of the unique elements of LPV is that our submission process for the most part is completely transparent. Our contributors can literally watch the edit evolve before their eyes in the LPV pool. This gives them an idea about what the editor is looking for, and often times a visual dialogue will develop between the editor and the contributors. I know for some, this probably isn’t appealing, but having watched it first hand it feels like a unique form of collaboration. The monthly shows are conceived with an idea or phrase, and then grow and evolve from there through the collaboration between the editor and contributors, before finally maturing on the day of publication. I believe these monthly shows offer something unique and interesting to our audience.
I’ve been impressed with what Burn Magazine and a few other website have done with featured photoessays. I’ve always been interested in working with photographers, and interpreting their work. I’ve grown a bit fatigued with the standard format of selecting 5-7 photographs from a photographers portfolio, putting their name in the subject line and then calling that a feature. I enjoy these type of posts to some degree, but creatively I want to move in a new direction. So I’ve been working with a handful of photographers to develop unique photoessays and features for LPV. As with all creative collaborations, it can be tricky, but ultimately I think these longer essays are more rewarding to consume. Some of the features will be almost entirely edited by myself, others will be more collaborative. My goal here is to give photographers a platform to present their work in new ways. This might mean presenting photographs from a new project, creating an essay from an existing body of work, or experimenting with an idea for something completely new. I want to give photographers a platform to test ideas, show new work and test new interpretations. For me, even if these fail, it will be much more rewarding than presenting a handful of greatest hits from their portfolio.
In the near future, we’ll be launching The LPV Collection, Volume 1 with prints from five regular LPV contributors. Volume 1 will contain 20 photographs and will be rolled out at regular intervals. There will be more details to come in the upcoming weeks. There are a number of great websites offering prints right now, and doing a good job experimenting with new ways to finance photography. With The LPV Collection, I think we can offer something unique to the LPV community.
Moving forward, the editorial objective of LPV will be to produce features in collaboration with photographers and contributors. Creative collaborations are exciting, frustrating, difficult, enlightening, and when well executed, inspiring. There are many exciting, and interesting blogs and online magazines out there right now. It’s a crowded space where your attention is pulled in multiple directions on a daily basis. My goal is that when people come to LPV they know it’ll be worth the visit because they’ll be viewing unique content that’s thoughtfully presented and created through the collaboration between editor and photographer.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for supporting LPV.
