All photos © Nadia Sablin

Photographer’s statement: “Photographing in the former Soviet Union is a mystical experience. It feels like I am returning to the place of childhood dreams and fairy tales. This time, I’m the one recording the stories. The disappearing world of the 20th century is still intact in much of the former Soviet bloc and my journeys often feel like travel in time to a seemingly simpler world. Most of my travels have been through Ukraine. The people of this peaceful sprawling country are collectively holding their breath, waiting to join the EU or be overshadowed once more by Russia. There is a certain dark magic that rises from the very soil of this land. It is this magic that I hunt with my camera, in the huts of the gypsies and the shepherds’ lean-tos and in the gestures of people in the streets.”

From the Mountains and to the Sea

Our final selection of the week is ‘A Celebration of Kodachrome’ an exhibition at the AOP Gallery in London. We feature 3 photos from the show.

© Ian Dawson

© Derek Richards

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© Lucy Phillips

Exhibition Details:

AOP Gallery, 81 Leonard Street, EC2
Tube: Old Street (Exit 4)
Monday-Friday 10am to 6pm

Until 10th February 2011.

Yesterday we took some time to visit the London Art Fair, where quite a bit of photography was represented.

One of the photographic highlights was a print by Bart Michiels from his ‘Course of History’ project shown by the Foley gallery.

Verdun 1916, Le Mort Homme, 2001

Monte Cassino 1944, Garigliano II, 2006

Passschendaele 1917, Ravebeek, 2005

The Course of History

Today we feature ‘Isolated Building Studies’ from Nova Photograper David Schalliol.

From the artist: “The Isolated Building Studies are the visual confluence of my interests in urban dynamism, socioeconomic inequality and photography. By using uniform composition in photographs of buildings with no neighboring structures, I hope to draw attention to new ways of seeing the common impact of divergent investment processes on urban communities.”

More here.

David’s print, ‘Christmas Tree, Alley’ is available from the gallery.

All photos © Michael David Murphy

The background to ‘No Flash Corner’ can be found on Michael’s blog. More info here. And there’s also a Flickr group.

More ‘No Flash Corner’.

All photos © Keith Davis Young

Artist’s statement: “X Marks the Spot is a collection of photos defined by their environment. In this case, the environment is TX. I have lived in this state my entire life and can still appreciate its honest, underlying tone of oddity, as well as the character it has.”

Keith Davis Young

Oslo, Norway 2009

Chiba, Japan 2009

Bayonne, NJ 2008

All photos © Jason Koxvold

More ‘Matter’.

All photos © Michael Wolf

Our first pick this week is  Tokyo Compression, a project from Michael Wolf. The project features photos taken on the Tokyo metro during rush hour, documenting how individuals deal with the intensity of the experience. It’s fascinating how many seem to retreat inwards, escaping mentally whilst physically trapped. A compelling project.

All photos © Jonas Eriksson

It has been a while since we featured a photoblog, and photoblogs are somewhat less fashionable these days, but minimodi from Jonas Eriksson is well worth a browse.

Today’s pick is 100 Portraits - a special selection of 100 portrait photos from the FlakPhoto.com archive.

Andy Adams has been publishing FlakPhoto for four years and this selection was produced, in partnership with Larissa Leclair, for a photo projection for FotoWeek DC, which showed at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, November 6-13, 2010.

The result is a fantastically strong selection of portraits from some of the best up-and-coming names in contemporary photography.