A Few Sources for Contemporary Photography
Midwest Photographers Project http://www.mocp.org/collection/mpp/
Lens Culture https://www.lensculture.com/editors_pick
Fraction Magazine http://www.fractionmagazine.com/
Feature Shoot http://www.featureshoot.com/
For more, lots more, connections to contemporary work: click on the “Photographers, sites, blogs” menu located near the top of this window.
Art Photo Index is a really interesting website where you can search directly for a photographer or photograph, but you can also search keywords looking for different types of work. I’ve found it to be really helpful when looking for new photographers who might relate to your own work.
Jana Romanova’s series “Waiting” vaguely reminded me of Francis’ concept for her project. The series is a very intimate telling of 40 different soon-to-be mothers/fathers as they lay together asleep in bed. Although this work and Francis’ work are fundamentally addressing different things, the intimacy and “everyday-ness” of Jana’s series reminded me of what Francis is doing with the portraits of her girlfriend. I thought she might be able to glean some kernel of inspiration from Jana’s work.
About 2 years ago, I spent some time traveling through Eastern Europe. In Bosnia, I went to a phenomenal photography exhibition that highlighted the gruesome, depressing, gritty, and emotional realities that came about as a result of conflict in Syria. In my opinion, a lot of the images exemplify the act of bearing witness. 
Although I don’t believe I’ve seen any examples of SolAh’s work for the final project yet, I found this article online and was reminded of her idea to construct and photograph her own whimsical landscapes. Carl Warner makes similarly whimsical scenes out of food (some of which almost look real at first glance) and then photographs them. He uses very little Photoshop manipulation to achieve these images – it’s all about constructing these landscapes with his own hands and imagination.
http://www.brainpickings.org/2011/11/09/carl-warner-food-landscapes/
Looking at Emma’s photographs reminded me strongly of early to mid 20th century photojournalists and street photographers. One of the ones that I found close to her work is Berenice Abbot’s series of New York.
The New York Public Library has an extensive collection of her work as a place to start:
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/dgexplore.cfm?col_id=160
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?parent_id=100160
“Ernest Sébastien, 32, photographed the formerly opulent places, which have been left abandoned for decades, having succumbed to the ravages of time. He has spent the past two years visiting more than 300 buildings across Europe, sneaking in to snap pictures of the crumbling ruins before they are reclaimed by nature or vandalised beyond recognition.”
I thought this might be interesting for those of you photographing abandoned buildings. All of these places are much larger than what might be found in Milwaukee, however the approach, angles, and perspectives are really cool to observe and think about.
