Giancarlo Mori | Blog

Iannis Xenakis - The Mathematics of Beauty

Does beauty respond to mathematical rules? Is there an mathematical pattern to what we find esthetically pleasing? I think so. My interest in abstract forms is purely visual (my current photographic project centers on the abstract visual qualities of natural forms; more on this soon...) but I have been interested in artists and thinkers who have attempted to quantify that regularity in mathematical terms for a long time.

Iannis Xenakis was one such thinker and artist. As an engineer, a musician, an architect, and a mathematician, he explored the underlying patterns of beauty and worked with giants like Le Corbusier and Messianen. Now an exhibition of over 60 works on paper by Xenakis including sketches, architectural drawings, and mathematical notations is open at the Drawing Center in SoHo with the title: Iannis Xenakis: Composer, Architect, Visionary from Jan 15 till Apr 8.

Art in America has an interesting piece on it: The Mathematical Mind of Iannis Xenakis by Brienne Walsh. Synthetic and mainly historical in its approach, but worth reading.

   

 
   Iannis Xenakis in Paris, around 1970.

      A sketch by Xenakis from The Drawings Center's show.

WestPrize 2010

The WestPrize 2010 winners were announced last week. Very eclectic and original choices... none I truly feel drawn to.

Congratulations to the winners: David Almeida, Miyo Yoshida, Ryan McLennan, Revital Falke, Nathalie Alony, Leah Bailis, Sarah Kabot, Kevin Cyr, Julie Weitz, Sharon Levy. See their work Prize's website at:

http://www.westcollection.org/West_Collection/Home.html

Note that while I was an entrant of the 2010 Prize, I like to think that the result are not affecting my views.

Photo LA

Last week, from Jan 14th to the 17th, the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, downtown Santa Monica, hosted the XIX Annual Photo LA. You can peruse the official site here. 

Others have written about all of the surrounding events, from seminars on collecting to lectures with star photographers, and portfolio reviews (a few links at the bottom of this post.) As a photographer, I was interested in spotting trends in the market, and and these are my quick impressions from that angle...

Right from the start the event felt smaller. The venue is cozy, lacking the sprawling feel of previous editions... the sense of an industry in crisis was tangible from the beginning. The general sense - and others have picked up the same scent - was one of a more introspective Photo LA: B&W was prevalent, both in contemporary works as well as in classic/vernacular ones, and missing where the walls after walls of the very large color photographs that we have seen in the past as the staple of the event. There were a few exceptions, interestingly many of them from abroad, but most boots were showing smaller prints, classically in feel, classically framed, some of them impersonally classically composed and inspired too.

I for one, was happy to see such a reversal of trend. The end of the ubiquitous monumental color print's age is not one I will decry.

A few other Photo LA 2010 reports and commentaries (more coming soon...)

@ LensScratch

@ The Onine Photographer

 
 

"America Swings"

Naomi Harris' "America Swings" has come to Los Angeles, at the M + B gallery in Beverly Hills. The exhibit displays the work of the young New York based photographer, who has spent five years traveling across America documenting the sexual habits of over three million Americans active in the swinging lifestyle. Taschen has recently published the project in book form, and you can see some of its pictures at Naomi's website.

This is a very interesting exhibit for clear social and documentary reasons... knowledge engenders tolerance, does it not?... although it is very likely to also beget controversy and strong adverse reactions. At first glance, and for a purely personal taste and artistic viewpoint, Harris' style is not, to my eyes, particularly exciting, but I will visit the exhibit and write more detailed thoughts of this show very soon. 

The show will remain open from Oct 25 till Dec 6th. The M + B gallery is at 612 North Almont Drive, Los Angeles, http://www.mbfala.com/.

Book cover (© 2008 Taschen and Naomi Harris)

Some of the pictures from the exhibit (all © 2008 Naomi Harris)

Massimo Vitali Show in LA

The exhibitions of Italian photographers here in Souther California continue strongly (see previous post on Patrizia Della Porta here) with this month's opening of a show on Massimo Vitali's work at the M+B Gallery in LA.

Vitali has been working since the mid 60's and his work has been shown across Europe and North America. In 1995 he started working on his "Beaches" series which is, ostensibly, his best know photographic work to date.

The M+B show starts on Sat, Mar 15th and runs until Apr 15th. More information on the artist's work can be found at his website here.

Riccione (©Massimo Vitali, 1998)

This Week's Image

The new image this week is from the photo LA 2008 show held in Santa Monica last January...

Photo LA 08 (Jan 2008)

Photo Events...

Back from some holidays and personal engagements with two photography events sponsored by the Italian Institute of Culture in Los Angeles.

Patrizia della Porta's photographs are being shown form Jan 16 till Feb 15 at the Institute's gallery. Patrizia della Porta is an award winning photographer who divides her time between Italy and the US. She focuses mostly on contemporary architecture and has worked across Europe, North America, and Asia. Her B&W photographs are poignant and expose the artistic and dramatic side of modern architecture with an impassible eye. You can read more about her and the exhibit here and you will find more about her work here.

Mario Giacomelli's travelling exhibit sponsored by the Institute has now reached New York after starting in Los Angeles last summer. Giacomelli's poignant B&W never ceases to provoke and move, and many of the images that are part of this touring exhibition are shown in the States for the first time. More on Giacomelli's show here...

Giacomelli's personal site is here, managed by the maestro's own son, the gentlemanly Simone Giacomelli. More on Giacomelli's work soon...

Saul Leiter in LA

Saul Leiter's Early Color exhibit is in Los Angeles from Oct 27 to Dec 8 at the M+B Gallery (www.mbfala.com).

Leiter is one of my favorite photographers. His painterly images, lyrical and haunting, full of mood and atmosphere, are capable of evoking the extraordinary from the very ordinary. Unfortunately -- despite his great talent -- he still is not well known. His work is finally getting the recognition it deserves though, and M+B is exhibiting several of his color images from 1948 to 1960 in their luminous space in Almont Dr.

Well worth the drive if you're in town!

Through Boards, 1957 (© Saul Leiter)

VII Fall Seminar - Pasadena

Pasadena, CA - Nov 3 & 4.

The VII Photo Agency held a seminar this weekend in Pasadena, hosted by the Art Center College of Design with presentations by Christopher Morris, Joachim Ladefoged, Lauren Greenfield, Gary Knight, Antonin Kratochvil, Ron Haviv, Eugene Richards, and others, including Stanley Green, of the newly formed Noor Images agency.

I had the opportunity to attend and will be posting my impressions (very favorable, if you're wondering) of the experience.

Tous Photographes!

Earlier this year (Feb 8 - May 20) at the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, was held the 2007 conference on "the rapid mutation of digital photography in the digital age." Their website has several very interesting entries and links, including a pointer to their blog, with its ongoing discussion of the phenomenon of popular digital photography. Here you will find the Conference main site, and here the link to their blog.

I found particularly interesting an interview with Martin Parr (Magnum) on Vernacular photography and propaganda, how Flickr is impacting Getty Images and Corbis, and some pointed comments on how dreadful a lot of amateur photography really is. You will find Martin Parr's audio interview here.

I also enjoyed a discussion with MaryAnne Golon, director of photography for Time Magazine, on topics from Time’s “you” person of the year, to amateur photography websites, James Nachtwey in Iraq and how Time Magazine is planning to deal with crowdsourcing. You can find the full discussion here.

With several million users on Flickr alone, million of cell phones in the streets, megapixels going steadily up and $/megapixels trending down in striking resemblance to Moore's law, this is a phenomenon that is here to stay. More on this subject in the very near future...

The following photos of the conference are courtesy of André Gunthert, Professor of Visual Studies at the EHESS, Paris. Many thanks to him!