Minna Pyyhkala

work by Minna Pyyhkala. see more from Hi Die here.

(top) Roosa Parha and Leevi Jokela, age 9, students, Finland (2004)

DO YOU FEAR DEATH? Mine no, but if for example my mother dies, I would feel sad. DO YOU BELIEVE IN LIFE AFTER DEATH? No. Is there such thing? You can't even stay in heaven, you'll drop down! WHAT SCARES YOU MOST ABOUT DEATH? To get inside the dirt, the coffin must be hard to lie in. DO YOU THINK ABOUT DEATH? No, I don't think about it, I usually do things, not think about the future. IF YOU WERE TO DIE TOMORROW, WHAT DO YOU REGRET NOT DOING? I would regret having not finished my school, and not having a cross-motorbike. I already have a moped. (Leevie Jokela)

(bottom) Sheridan Whitney, age 36, psychic, USA (2005)

DO YOU FEAR DEATH? No I am not afraid of dying. I am afraid of the people I love dying and what life would be without them in it. DO YOU BELIEVE IN LIFE AFTER DEATH? Yes, I absolutely believe in life after death because I believe in the soul which never dies and is a part of God and divinity. WHAT SCARES YOU MOST ABOUT DEATH? What scares me the most about death is dying painfully. I use to be haunted by Edgar Allen Poe's poem about being buried alive, which is why I want to be cremated. Then there is no room for mistakes! DO YOU THINK ABOUT DEATH? I do think about death because it has been such a part of life. So many people I have known have died and their loss stays in my heart. But I know that death is a part of the cycle of life so I accept it, but it doesn't make it any easier when you are affected by it. IF YOU WERE TO DIE TOMORROW, WHAT DO YOU REGRET NOT DOING? I would regret not having lived my life with more courage to choose things for myself that I believe in. I have spent so much of it trying to fit in and please other people. Which in the end never pleases anyone.

Matthew Monteith

'I found photographs' – Matthew Monteith. See more here


Matthew Monteith was born in Howell, Michigan in 1974. He studied at the International Center of Photography before earning an MFA from the Yale School of Art. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Prague and was awarded a residency at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation in New York City. His work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions in Paris, Arles, Cherbourg, and Kyoto as well as group exhibitions in New York City, Miami, and Rennes.
Monteith lives in New York City and currently a teaches at the Yale University.



Dear Jiajia,

Jirka tells me that you are curating found images together with Ann Woo for I Heart Photograph. I have so many but only these scanned from the Czech Republic. Found photographs from the time between and before the wars in the Czech Republic were a big influence on the structure of my work that became "Czech Eden" Aperture 2007. Here are a few that closely relate that I have scanned. If you are familiar with the book
I am sure you can see the connections.

Best,
Matthew


I went to Matthew's 'how to work efficiently in the color darkroom and why' class at ICP in 2008 and was hooked with the medium since then.
I remembered his first comment for me was, 'Ann...what are you doing???'

To this day, I still didn't get to thank him properly...

Matthew, thank you very much, your color printing tips were brilliant!
Do you have any more of those??

Jiri Makovec

' I found photographs ' by Jiri Makovec. See more of his work here.

What do you do?

I am a photographer

http://jirimakovec.com/

Where did you find these pictures and why do you keep them?

I found the skater-pictures at my friend Kuba's house. He took them with his camera when we were both 14, 1991 in czechoslovakia. I keep them because they remind me of a certain state of mind I was in at that time. The country was just going through some major changes and so was I. After the velvet revolution things from the west became accessible. That's when I changed from rollerskating to skateboarding. Also, I bought the shirt with the slogan: life's a beach.

petra pětiletá

petra pětiletá's 'peep show' project made in collaboration with pavla gajdosikova. "in front of the gallery entrance was a dark curtain with a little hole like in peep-show. through the hole viewers could see themselves on the tv (in real time) as they were watching inside peephole. the camera was hidden in the plant in front the entrance." see more here.

[all petra pětiletá. peep show. 2007.]

kateřina držková

work by kateřina držková. "for some time i have been systematically collecting pairs of the same picture-postcards from the 1960s to the 1980s. these postcards are never identical..." see more here.

[all kateřina držková. postcard project. 2007.]

ivars gravlejs

ivars gravlejs's 'my newspaper' project. "realized during one year while i was working as a photo reporter in one of the main daily czech newspapers, 'deník'. everyday from photo editors and journalists i got several assignments to photograph events around prague. before sending photographs to the newspaper's photobank i quickly manipulated them in photoshop. originally idea was to change some little, unimportant details where the manipulation wouldn't change much the content of the photograph..." see more here.

[all ivars gravlejs. from the series my newspaper. 2009.]

jiří kovanda

work by jiří kovanda. see more here.

[all jiří kovanda. top to bottom: action photograph. i divide them 3/77. 1977. xxx november 18, 1976 waiting for someone to call me... 1976.]

pash*

work by pash*. see more here.

[all pash*. from the series nothing important will come.]

ivars gravlejs

latvian artist ivars gravlejs's project 'excuse me, could you please take a picture of me?' as he explains: for several months while i was waiting for the tram in prague, i have been asking people to take a picture of me. at the same time when they were photographing me i would film them with the secret camera." eventually he mounted a photo exhibition of the pictures at the tram stop and made a video of the work. take a peek at more here.

[all ivars gravlejs. excuse me, could you please take a picture of me? 2005. top: video stills. bottom: exhibition documentation.]

michaela thelenová

'landscapes' by czech artist michaela thelenová. take a peek at more here.

[all michaela thelenová. landscapes. 2005.]

kateřina držková

interesting work by czech artist kateřina držková. take a peek at more here.

[all kateřina držková. from the series viewpoints.]

minna pyyhkala

these photographs by finish artist minna pyyhkala are a bit haunting. see more stuff by minna right here.

[both minna pyyhkala. top: stillborn. from the series hi die. 2005. bottom: gangplank. from the series balance sheet. 2004.]