(cover image)
Gerhard Richter: Atlas (Hardcover)
by Helmut Friedel (Editor), Gerhard Richter (Author)

Browsed through a copy today over at Powell’s – Looking forward to receiving my copy and giving it a more than leisurely browse. Richter’s Atlas is a glimpse into his process of collection, selection and cataloguing of images (The atlas is a lot of found amateur and personal photography, news clipping images, musings…) that may or maynot be transformed, incorporated and/or appropriated (ultimately) into Richter’s painting or printing process. I’m interested to see the photographs that are put into the service of painting – his way of looking.

Diana1967
200 cm X 190 cm
Oil on canvas
Catalogue Raisonné: 155

It’s got me thinking about when a photograph becomes a “sketch tool” recording a thought – providing a distance – a chance to evaluate light / composition. Rather than when it might become an independent art piece – an end in itself…

Pamela Anderson: Hollywood Nights
Image: David LaChapelle – from Artists and Prostitutes

And available by way of Powells …to get on with the cycle of images …your copy of David LaChapelle: Artists and Prostitutes, awaits…. a recent interesting post on Alec Soth’s blog…. it must be springtime… It does feel rather carnal – and that’s something anyone can relate too after a long cold winter. I am rather put off by the cartoons of photographs – I guess I don’t so much the in your face work of LaChapelle, in so far as it is eye candy… and tastes good only briefly. I wonder what the shelf life will be? Time will tell I speculate.