Akira Kanayama; Eadweard Muybridge, Leland Stanford, Jr. on his pony “Gypsy”—Phases of a Stride by a Pony While Cantering, 1879; collodion positive on glass; Wilson Centre for Photography; Lucinda Bunnen, Hatcher's Pond #5, 2010.
Dear Readers,
Michel Batlle has started my day off very well with an article on Zen, originally written in 1994 but published only in his original French--we have published this work in English and French, with many thanks to Chantal Duggan who translated the essay for TAS. As always, I enjoy Michel’s perspective and am happy to know more about the Gutai group.
We have essays on artists in photography, beginning with Eadweard Muybridge whose work is being scrutinized in Washington, DC, London, and San Francisco. The exhibition, which was organized by the Corcoran Gallery of Art and completed a run recently at Tate Britain, will open soon at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where the work may have even more meaning as that is where Muybridge built his reputation photographing the Western landscape. But his works on movement, which were created to settle an argument about horses hooves at a gallop, gave others an idea of how film might be made.
In addition to London, Muybridge was celebrated with additional exhibitions in his hometown of Kingston on Thames. Our hometown girl, Lucinda Bunnen, has worked as a photographer for the last 41 years. In addition to an excerpt from an oral history of Lucinda Bunnen by videographer Danielle Roney, we present a sample from her series on Hatcher’s Pond, which strikes an interesting balance between photographic ideals and painterly ones. This balance returns us to Michel Batlle, for Lucinda Bunnen’s act of photographing the same pond over and over again can be construed as a Zen-like activity. It is delightful to come full circle.
Thank you artists, writers, videographers, and translators.
Deanna
Deanna Sirlin is an artist and writer based in Atlanta, GA. She is Editor-in-Chief of TAS.