© Joshua Wildman

I first got turned on to Joshua Wildman’s photos a few years ago via The FADER. This photo is from a recent post on his blog JOSHUAWILDMANGOODTIMES and is accompanied by the following caption:

i don’t know who made this poster, but i look at it everyday in my living room and it makes me feel good

Indeed.

I go back and forth about posting work by other photographers on this blog. The primary reason I do it is to show work that influences me and pushes my own work forward. (See here and here.)

I always come back to an old Cuban saying my Mom and my grandmother Mimi use to tell me all the time — in Spanish, of course — while I was growing up:

Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres.

This is literally translated as “Tell me with whom you walk and I will tell you who you are” and loosely translated as “A man is known by the company he keeps”.

I’ve always been a little suspect of the phrase. Just because I keep the company of a certain person doesn’t mean that I am like that person or that their ways are mine. However, that may still be the rebellious kid in me bucking the parental wisdom.

The funny thing is that I keep coming back to that proverb every time I consider posting the work of influential photographers and artists on this blog. It’s as if a part of me truly believes the proverb to hold some truth.

I’m thrilled that I can find and wax rhapsodical about connections between people that inspire me and my own creative process. Making and finding meaning in those connections pushes me to be more passionate about my work and my life.

So yeah, I will likely continue to post influential work alongside my own work around here. My influences and inspirations are the company I keep. I couldn’t be more proud to walk with them.

I first discovered Joao Canziani’s work a few years ago while browsing through Travel + Leisure magazine. I was instantly taken by his natural, unconventional, and ethereal portrait work.

© Joao Canziani

© Joao Canziani

I came across Canziani again when he was chosen as one of PDN’s 30 in 2005 (deservedly so). This shot was in the PDN feature and it’s been one of my favorites of his ever since. Blurry subject, bunched together heads, tight crop — I love it.

© Joao Canziani

Canziani’s work feels and looks natural in its composition and texture. It’s commercial work with a fine art approach. I love most everything about his photographs and consider his style a big influence on my own work.

© Joao Canziani

View more of Joao Canziani’s amazing work on his website.

Todd Hido is one of my favorite photographers and a constant inspirational spark.

© Todd Hido

© Todd Hido

© Todd Hido

Todd was recently interviewed by American Photo and had this to say about his work:

To me it is no mystery that we can only photograph effectively what we are truly interested in or — maybe more importantly — are grappling with. This is often an unconscious process. Otherwise the photographs are merely about an idea or a concept; that stuff eventually falls flat for me. There must be something more, some emotional hook for it to really work for me.

This speaks volumes to me. I can dedicate a whole separate post to this quote (and likely will soon).

© Todd Hido

© Todd Hido

Visit Todd’s website for more of his amazing photographs. Also, KQED has a great video of Todd in action on their website. It’s a great bit of insight into how he works.

Update: Shane Lavalette points us to an interview on NPR’s All Things Considered from 2002. Good stuff.

Around Here, 2002 © Kelli Connell

These photographs are just a small selection of images from Double Life, a beautiful and contemplative series by Kelli Connell.

From Connell’s website:

These photographs reconstruct the private relationships that I have experienced personally, witnessed in public, or watched on television. The events portrayed in these photographs look believable, yet have never occurred.

Getting Up, 2002 © Kelli Connell

These images were created from scanning and manipulating two or more negatives in Adobe Photoshop. By digitally creating a photograph that is a composite of multiple negatives of the same model in one setting, the self is exposed as not a solidified being in reality, but as a representation of social and interior investigations that happen within the mind.

Carnival, 2002 © Kelli Connell

What strikes me about these images is the attention Connell gives to each photo and, subsequently, to the whole body of work itself. The construction of each image is flawlessly executed. And it’s a perfect example of analog and digital coming together to create beautiful, moving work.

The situation in each image gives enough information to provide context, yet is left open enough to provoke and encourage our own opinions and beliefs to interpret the scene. Which is exactly what Connell hopes to do:

I am interested in not only what the subject matter says about myself, but also what the viewers response to these images says about their own identities and social constructs.

View the whole series at Kelli Connell’s website.

© Gail Albert Halaban

I first came across Gail Albert Halaban’s photographs in issue 185 of Aperture magazine at the end of last year. The series of photos surrounding women, their independence, their careers, and motherhood are beautifully composed, informally executed, and insightful no matter what your opinions of these women may be.

© Gail Albert Halaban

A statement from the recent exhibition This Stage of Motherhood at Robert Mann Gallery:

Like an anthropologist, [Gail Albert Halaban] portrays the private lives of these women as they journey from single life through motherhood. At first glance, they seem to have everything - education, elegance, wealth, and family. Yet for these women, such advantages are not without conflict. They must weigh having children with the desire to maintain an identity as it was prior to entering this stage of motherhood. Gail Albert Halaban’s satiric yet compassionate images illuminate their struggle to balance their children’s need for an emotionally available mother with their own inclination to hold onto the independence of youth.

© Gail Albert Halaban

I see moms like this all the time during daytime excursions with my kids. I try not to make any assumptions about them, but I often wonder about these women and the choices they made in becoming mothers, many times at the expense of their own careers and lifestyles.

© Matthew Jordan

I first heard about Matthew Jordan’s Half Empty series via Amy Stein’s blog. Jordan and Stein are part of the 3 x 5 exhibition at The Paul Kopeikin Gallery in Los Angeles through February 3, 2007.

It took me a few minutes to realize that I was looking into mirrors and other reflective surfaces. Then came the next question: if this is a mirror, where’s the photographer? I quickly clicked over to read Jordan’s statement about the project:

For these images, I photographed myself in reflective surfaces: in my apartment, outside of a glass building, in the window of my therapist’s waiting room. Always shooting at eye-level, I intentionally included sufficient context for viewers to immediately recognize that they are looking into a reflective surface. I then removed my image and the camera using digital means.

© Matthew Jordan

Jordan goes on to explain how we, as onlookers, immerse ourselves in his work:

The prints are face mounted to the most highly reflective Plexiglas. On the surface, onlookers are confronted with a ghosted reflection of themselves. Through this singular reflection the photograph becomes personalized for whomever is looking at it. Taking on the properties of a mirror allows the work to function as both photographic image and reflective object. The viewer simultaneously sees the image and his reflection; this literally embodies the belief that all viewers bring a part of themselves to their experience and estimation of an artwork.

What a great concept. I’d love to be able to see these awesome works in person to get the full effect.