Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Chino Ohtsuka isn’t just a photographer. She’s a master of insertion. No! Not that kind, she puts current herself back to the past in her old childhood photos. It’s like Back to the Future but no need for a Flux Capacitor. What makes her better than anyone else I’ve ever seen do this? Her skills of putting herself into the photos are quite great. I’d like to see the photos huge to really judge, but so far, they look like they’re aged well, toned right, and sized perfectly. Imagine yourself in your old childhood photos. Someone cash in on the app, quick. You heard it here. (Bored Panda – Chino Ohtsuka) At the moment her site’s bandwidth is exceeded. (Chino Ohtsuka site)
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Chino Ohtsuka isn’t just a photographer. She’s a master of insertion. No! Not that kind, she puts current herself back to the past in her old childhood photos. It’s like Back to the Future but no need for a Flux Capacitor. What makes her better than anyone else I’ve ever seen do this? Her skills of putting herself into the photos are quite great. I’d like to see the photos huge to really judge, but so far, they look like they’re aged well, toned right, and sized perfectly. Imagine yourself in your old childhood photos. Someone cash in on the app, quick. You heard it here. (Bored Panda – Chino Ohtsuka) At the moment her site’s bandwidth is exceeded. (Chino Ohtsuka site)
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Andy Frazer is normally an unassuming software professional down in California’s Silicon Valley. But due to a passion for photography and a series of interconnected events, he has taken up a very special cause and turned it into a project centering on Japanese-American World War II internees. Frazer, a Caucasian man, became interested in internees in 2006 after photographing San Jose’s annual Day of Remembrance event, which commemorates Roosevelt’s 1942 executive internment Order 9066. After meeting numerous internees at the Day of Remembrance, Frazer began to learn more about the wartime internment, and developed a strong interest in internees’ lives and stories both during and after the war. The result is his web-based story archive and image gallery called Kioku: Portraits of Japanese-American Internment. Employing visual style similar to that of Richard Avedon’s “In the American West”, Frazer has compiled a striking set of portraits of Japanese-American internees as they are today. But some of their faces seem to reflect how they felt as younger men and women unjustly imprisoned by their own government. At the link, you’ll be able to learn more about the project, and read in interview with Frazer. (Nichi Bei Weekly – Wartime Internee Portrait Project) And the pictures and stories in Kioku: Portraits of Japanese-American Internment can be seen and read here.
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Chicago has a lot of great things happening lately. Alinea for high end gastronomy. Pitchfork for your summer time music fest cravings. Half Acre Brewery for well…duh, beer and Hot Doug’s for basically any type of encased meat you probably never even thought of. Lucky for us, we also have Debbie Carlos calling Chicago home. Her modern photography is some of the quietest and simplest (simple in a good way) photography I have seen and I have been obsessed with her photos since 2005. Her photos are actually the only pieces of art up in my apartment other than a few Jay Ryan prints and her Antlers photo has been blogged and re-blogged and blogged again throughout the interwebs. I was lucky enough to sit with Debbie over some pho where we talked about her work and the following questions came from that discussion, our general friendship, and heavy duty emailing back and forth. Photo of Debbie by Devin Higgins other photos by Debbie Carlos SIX QUESTIONS WITH Debbie Carlos GR: 1. You were born in Manila, grew up in LA, lived on the East Coast and have also spent a lot of time in Tapei. How did you make your way to Chicago and what do you dig about this city? DC: I moved to Chicago from Massachusetts in the spring of ‘04 to study photo at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Of the cities I’ve lived in, I think Chicago was the first one I felt a real connection with. There is such a great sense of history, that you can feel everywhere. You get a lot of culture, and the hustle and bustle of a large city, but there is also a really nice Midwestern relaxed attitude. There is also a diverse set of neighborhoods surrounding downtown, and I think it’s these communities that make the city really interesting. Also, the eating is pretty excellent. GR: 2. You got a bachelor’s in psychology and then made the bold decision to attend School of the Art Institute for a second degree in photography. How did you make that leap and how did your family react? Was your mom a “tiger mom”? DC: Even from the moment I finished my first degree, I really wanted to pursue photography, but was held back because I thought I needed a ‘real job.’ And I thought that was what my family wanted for me. When I got laid off from my office job, though, my hope to study art kind of slipped out over the phone to my mom. She told me to go for it. I think I have the advantage of having a mom that studied piano and fashion design during her years in college, so I think she is actually really open to me having a non-conventional job. My dad is supportive, too, but I think he leans more to the side of wanting me to have a real and steady job. They both wish that I lived closer...
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