In it’s
latest trend briefing, the Image Source blog, IMSO, delivers an analysis of popular stories covered during 2013 – from the Cult of Maersk on the rise of Industrial imagery to features on Richard Avedon’s work in Jeans Advertising – the research reveals five developing trends in photography: Mythography; Post-Cowboy Capitalism; Neo Geo Plus; Tonka Tech; and The Double Take.
The Mythography trend expresses “our current passion for photographic myth-making, for mythologizing the camera and even the act of taking a photograph”, celebrated in work as diverse as Kelly Angood’s flat pack camera to Phillip Lorca diCorcia’s East of Eden exhibition which explored the relationship between the visual and the mythic.
Neo Geo Plus tracked the ‘mapping’ trend in work such as Edward Burtynsky’s Water exhibition at the Flowers Gallery London and Justin Lewis’ 70 Degrees West project which documents the diversity of life on a single line of longitude, the images subtly recalibrating the relationship between people and the environment.
Neo Geo Plus, (New Geographies Plus) is a nod to the Art movement that emerged in the late 80s, but this new image trend is rooted in a desire to ground ourselves in a fast-changing world of information. Neo Geo Plus “expresses both a desire to locate ourselves and a desire to experiment, to make our own new maps of the future.” This trend is also reflected in the scale of the popularity on the blog of IMSO’s interview with designer Fernando Gutierrez on the wordless issue of Colors, an extraordinary visual journey from outer space to inner space.
The
IMSO Blog is aimed at users of commercial imagery and image-makers. It analyses popular and pioneering image-making in the worlds of Advertising, Exhibitions, Magazines and Film, interviewing Photographers, Designers, Art Directors, Creative Directors and Editors to get a sense of how images are capturing social, economic and technological change.
Ashley Jouhar, Image Source’s Creative Director says, “Our aim with the Blog is for it to be a key source of information and visual stimulus for anyone involved in contemporary photography – whether you be an image maker or an image buyer. We aim to celebrate photography but also to put it under a microscope and offer insights and analysis and a useful context showing how and why it is being produced – and very importantly, who it is aimed at in the marketplace.”