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Foam Plus Magazine 1

2 Foam Plus Magazine



LICHTHOF

FOAM


A v i s u a l t o u r

o f t h e P h o t o g r a -p h y

M u s e u m A m s t e r d a m


Foam enables people all over the world to experience and enjoy photography, whether it’s at our museum in Amsterdam, on the website, via our internationally distributed magazine or in our Editions department.

Foam is for photographers, picture editors, designers and all those who have a passion for photography. We focus especially on exhibi-tions, publications, discussions and specific projects relevant to contemporary themes in this field. Of course, well known photog-raphers and historical work has an important place on our agenda. But special attention in our exhibition programme and elsewhere is also given to nurturing upcoming artists.


The heart of the Foam organisation is in Amsterdam. From here we develop and produce our exhibitions programme. We manage print publications like Foam Magazine as well as all online content. Foam Editions also has its home here, offering a wide range of work for collectors. Essential to Foam is our extensive internation-al network of photography professionals and partners. They help to plan and develop new projects, ensuring that the largest audience possible can experience the power of photography.

Foam CaféFoam is equipped with an atmospheric café, including reading table, where you can not only relax with a cup of quality coffee but also try our freshly prepared tart, chocolate cake, sandwiches and soup. Foam Café regularly facilitates book presentations (photographic and otherwise), dinner events, tours and launches, and supports events and receptions with made to order snacks and drinks, lunches and dinners. Guests also have free access to the museum’s Wi-Fi Internet.

LibraryFoam has a growing collection of photography books on the third floor of the museum. It now contains between 2000 and 3000 copies, mainly publications related to exhibitions that have taken place in Foam. However, books that are important in the history and development of the medium are also added to the library. In addition, Foam aims to follow previously exhibited photographers by acquiring their publications. Donations made by the Fotobond, Bert Hartkamp and Manfred Heiting have formed the basis of the current collection

BookshopThe Foam Bookshop offers a variety of books, maga-zines, posters and postcards. The collection focuses not just on current exhibitions but also reflects Foam’s desire to be a platform for all kinds of photography: contempo-rary, historical and documentary, along with a focus on young talent. The bookstore is found in the museum’s entrance hall so is accessible to both casual visitors and to those visiting the exhibitions.

TuinzalenThe tuinzaal galleries are located at street level to the rear of the museum. Three large, bright rooms span the width of the building and overlook Foam’s beautiful garden courtyard. A raised walkway here also serves as a space for smaller work or other exhibition material.

FodorzalenThree large, windowless spaces make up the Fodorzalen on the first floor of the museum and are used for our headline shows. Two smaller rooms are also attached, providing an intimate way of showing projections or small pieces. There is lift access to this level for disabled visitors.

VoorzalenLocated on the first floor of the museum, the Voorzalen overlook the Keizersgracht at the front of the museum. Set away from the other spaces, the three rooms have a more contemplative feel. Some of the original features of the building remain, such as the marble fireplaces and ceiling decoration.

LichthofThis atrium space sits alongside the Foam cafe. Its high glass ceiling gives it an airy and bright feel. It is often used as a reading room or multimedia space during exhibitions as well as a bar area for special events.

“ FOAM ENABLES PEOPLE

ALL OVER THE WORLD TO

EXPERIENCE AND ENJOY

PHOTOGRAPHY”


LIBRARY

FODORZALEN



History lessonBorn in New York in 1923, Richard Avedon dropped out of high school and joined the Merchant Marine’s photographic section. Upon his return in 1944, he found a job as a photographer in a department store. Within two years he had been “found” by an art di-rector at Harper’s Bazaar and was producing work for them as well as Vogue, Look, and a number of other magazines. During the early years, Avedon made his living primarily through work in advertising. His real pas-sion, however, was the portrait and its ability to express the essence of its subject. As Ave-don’s notoriety grew, so did the opportunities to meet and photograph celebrities from a broad range of disciplines. Avedon’s ability to present personal views of public figures, who were otherwise distant and inaccessible, was immediately recognized by the public and the celebrities themselves. Many sought out Avedon for their most public images. His artistic style brought a sense of

sophistication and authority to the portraits. More than anything, it is Avedon’s ability to set his subjects at ease that helps him create true, intimate, and lasting photographs.

ImperfectionThroughout his career Avedon has main-tained a unique style all his own. Famous for their minimalism, Avedon portraits are often well lit and in front of white backdrops. When printed, the images regularly contain the dark outline of the film in which the image was framed. Within the minimalism of his empty studio, Avedon’s subjects move freely, and it is this movement which brings a sense of spontaneity to the images. Often containing only a portion of the person be-ing photographed, the images seem intimate in their imperfection. While many photogra-phers are interested in either catching a mo-ment in time or preparing a formal image, Avedon has found a way to do both

Richard AvedonCountry: U.S.A1923 - 2004

On the webhttp://www.rich-ardavedon.com/

WHAT DO JEAN GENET, JIMMY DURANTE, BRIGITTE BAR-

DOT, GEORGIA O’KEEFFE, JACQUES COUSTEAU, ANDY

WARHOL, AND LENA HORNE HAVE IN COMMON? THEY

WERE A FEW OF THE MANY PERSONALITIES CAUGHT ON

FILM BY PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD AVEDON. FOR MORE

THAN FIFTY YEARS, RICHARD AVEDON’S PORTRAITS HAVE

FILLED THE PAGES OF THE COUNTRY’S FINEST MAGA-

ZINES. HIS STARK IMAGERY AND BRILLIANT INSIGHT INTO

HIS SUBJECTS’ CHARACTERS HAS MADE HIM ONE OF THE

PREMIER AMERICAN PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHERS.


PortraitsBeyond his work in the magazine industry, Avedon has collaborated on a number of books of portraits. In 1959 he worked with Truman Capote on a book that documented some of the most famous and important people of the century. Observations included images of Buster Keaton, Gloria Vanderbilt, Pablo Picasso, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mae West. Around this same time he began a series of images of

patients in mental hospitals. Replacing the controlled environment of the studio with that of the hospital he was able to recreate the genius of his other portraits with non-celebrities. The brutal reality of the lives of the insane was a bold contrast to his other work. Years later he would again drift from

his celebrity portraits with a series of studio images of drifters, carnival workers, and working class Americans.

IntimateThroughout the 1960s Avedon continued to work for Harper’s Bazaar and in 1974 he collaborated with James Baldwin on the book Nothing Personal. Having met in New York in 1943, Baldwin and Avedon were friends and collaborators for more than thirty years. For all of the 1970s and 1980s Avedon continued working for Vogue magazine, where he would take some of the most famous portraits of the decades. In 1992 he became the first staff photographer for The New Yorker, and two years later the Whitney Museum brought together fifty years of his work in the retrospective, “Richard Avedon: Evidence”. He was voted one of the ten greatest photographers in the world by Popular Photography magazine, and in 1989 received an honorary doctorate from the Royal College of Art in London. Today, his pictures continue to bring us a closer, more intimate view of the great and the famous.

Avedon died on October 1st, 2004.

Richard Avedon’s famous photo-graph of Marilyn Monroe. Lost in thought, instead of focussing on the camera.

“ THE BRUTAL REALITY

OF THE LIVES OF THE

INSANE WAS A BOLD

CONTRAST TO HIS

OTHER WORK.”

THE BRUTALREALITY


THE BRUTALREALITY


PROS•��Refocuses�im-

ages after the fact

•��Stellar�build� quality.

•��Simple�but� intuitive UI

CONS•�Low�resolution�

(~1MP) captures•��Poor�screen�Iffy�

low-light performance

•�No�Windows-compatible�software yet

BOTTOMLINELytro's�debut�camera only shines when taking well-lit pictures with mul-tiple focus layers, but�the�technol-ogy is promising, and we suspect it's only a matter of�time�before�all�cameras work this way.

PROS

CONS

BOT-TOM-LINE

REVIEW: LYTRO CAMERA


Don’t let that cute design fool you. Lytro, the world’s first commercial light field camera, is the culmination of nearly twenty years of research -- a project that once occupied an entire wall facade, and has since been miniaturized into something that fits in the palm of your hand. An impressive feat, sure, but not as arresting as the end result: the ability to refocus pictures, even after you’ve taken them.

To achieve such magical endeavors the Lytro camera uses heaps of custom software (armed with a custom .lfp file format) coupled with some serious silicon to measure not just color or the intensity of light, but its direction, too. The latter is achieved with an eleven “megaray” sensor, which is bolted to an f/2.0 8x optical zoom lens, all encased within that sleek body. Seeking to save us from unfo-cused mishaps, the technological tour de force also unlocks some considerable creative potential.

So right - yet so wrongWhile there’s so much right with Lytro’s debut shooter, it will, even at its best, be no more than another accessory living in your camera bag. Although we’re smitten by its delectably simple UI and gorgeous hardware (its washed-out screen not withstanding), its inability to shine in limited shooting condi-tions means you’ll never be able to just make the Lytro your sole photographic companion.

Sad but trueThat’s saddening -- it’s obvious Lytro’s onto something huge, and we’re impatiently awaiting the day when cameras of all sizes make use of the technology on display here. Whether the company will realize our dream by building out a full line of Lightray-

equipped cameras remains to be seen, but with a such a solid technical and ground-breaking foundation there really is only one way but up.

ConclusionThe end game is long and these are the earli-est of days. For the photography aficionados in the audience, $399 is chump change compared to the kinds of glass in your collec-tion, making Lytro a no-brainer and worthy companion of space in your camera bag. For the rest of us, though, patience is a virtue.

“ THE LYTRO GIVES

THE ABILITY TO RE-

FOCUS PICTURES,

EVEN AFTER YOU’VE

TAKEN THEM.”

The�beautiful�design aside, this could�have�been�so much more. A missed oppertu-nity.

Lytro CameraLightfield camera-Storage:�8/16gb-Price: $399, $499(16gb�model)

On the webwww.lytro.com

REVIEW: LYTRO CAMERA


NEW EXHIBITIONS AND GALLERIES

The heart of Foam is located in the centre of Amsterdam, in the museum on the Keizersgracht. Here we schedule a varied programme of exhibitions including world-famous photographers as well as young or undiscovered talent. Large-scale exhibitions alternate with small, quickly chang-ing shows. We also organise a dynamic programme of lectures, discus-sions, guided tours, photography workshops and special events.


The New York Times Magazine PhotographsCo-curated by Kathy Ryan and Lesley A. Martin23�Oktober�-�30�November�2012

For over thirty years, the New York Times Magazine has presented the myriad possibilities and applications of photography. The New York Times Magazine Photographs is an exhibition that reflects upon and interrogates the very nature of both photography and print magazines at this pivotal moment in their history and evolution.

UniqueThe exhibition is cocurated by Kathy Ryan, longtime Pho-to Editor of the Magazine, and Lesley A. Martin, Publisher of Aperture Books. The Aperture-produced exhibition is comprised of eleven individual modules, each of which focuses on a notable project or series of projects that have been presented in the pages of the Magazine. The featured projects mirror the Magazine's eclecticism, presenting seminal examples of reportage, portraiture, as well as fine art photography. Using visual materials drawn from dif-ferent stages of the commissioning process-shot lists, work prints and contact sheets, videos, tear sheets, and framed prints-the Magazine's collaborative methodology is re-vealed from initial idea to the published page, and, in some cases, continues beyond magazine publication, when an exploration that began as an assignment has become a part of a photographer's ongoing work. In sum, these layers reveal the Magazine's unique position as a venue for visual storytelling and a unique forum for the cross-pollination of photographic genres.

Bertien van Manen - Let’s Sit Down Before We Go19 March - 24 June 2012

Before leaving for a long journey, Russian people sit down for a moment and think about where they will be going and why. The atmosphere in the pictures of Bertien van Manen is like this. Together with photographer Stephen Gill she made a selection of pictures she took in Russia between 1991-2009 and which have never been on show before.

NEW EXHIBITIONS AND GALLERIES





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