“Gotthard #2754,” 2010. © Jörn Vanhöfen, courtesy of Robert Mann Gallery

In his latest exhibit “Aftermath,” German fine-art photographer Jörn Vanhöfen explores the physical, cultural and social forces at work around the world, and how they often collide with the natural world. The large-format color photos, now on display at the Robert Mann Gallery in New York City through May 5, are stunning in scale and detail. But they also evoke beauty, wit, drama and outrage in equal parts.

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© Ernesto Bazan. Above: Little girl sitting on a rocking chair, Bautista, Cuba, 2002.

“While living in Cuba for over 10 years, I finally realized that throughout my professional career I had been unconsciously searching for my happy Sicilian childhood. Discovering the Cuban countryside was an unexpected return to those unforgettable years. The Cuban farmland opened new windows of opportunity for me. I made new friends while wandering these intimate landscapes. I regularly returned to visit Fidel, Miguel, Jose, Inesita and their families. I shared intimate rituals with them: eating meals together, smoking sugar-tasting cigars, sipping sweet rum as we conversed about our lives. My way of shooting changed. Taking pictures became part of our ritual together, it was no longer my main priority.

My photographs are about this very hard, simple, and yet beautiful traditional way of life. Sowing the land, harvesting crops, raising families, raising animals, killing and eating them for survival. These images give voice to a people never heard before, people that will never make the news. They convey the poetry of small things and the simplicity of farmers still living a traditional life-style.” – Ernesto Bazan

Al Campo has been graciously self-published thanks to the invaluable help and support of so many of Bazan’s students.

Herb Ritts, Richard Gere – Poolside, 1982, C-type print, Courtesy of the Herb Ritts Foundation, Los Angeles © Herb Ritts Foundation

Southern California’s swimming pool culture is the subject of a new photography book, Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in Southern California, 1945–1982 (DelMonico Books, $60), which features work by photographers and artists like Bill Anderson, John Baldessari, Ruth Bernhard, David Hockney, Ed Ruscha, Julius Schulman and Larry Sultan. The book serves as a catalogue for an exhibition of the same name that is currently showing through May 27 at the Palm Springs Art Museum in California. The book and exhibition document the private swimming pool’s rise in popularity as suburban communities grew following World War II, and also consider the pool as an icon of Hollywood and celebrity culture; as an architectural element; and as a symbol of wealth and status. (more…)

All photos © Martin Roemers

There are now 7 billion people on earth, and according the United Nations Population Fund, one half of us live in cities. Martin Roemers has been photographing the world’s megacities, sprawling urban areas inhabited by millions, capturing their chaos, humanity and dynamism. “Metropolis,” Roemers’ first North American exhibition, opens February 29 at Anastasia Photo, a New York City gallery specializing in documentary photography and photojournalism. The show runs through April 1.

Above: Calcutta.

Cairo Traffic Square.

Mumbai Train Station.

Manila.

Jakarta.

"Luxembourg," 1923-1925. Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Abbott-Levy Collection. Partial gift of Shirley C. Burden.

The Museum of Modern Art’s exhibit on Eugène Atget is named after the sign that hung outside of the photographer’s studio door, which simply said “Documents pour artistes” (Documents for Artists). Atget photographed Paris over the course of his 30-year career with the artist in mind, often capturing detail-rich scenes like an abandoned park or rural courtyard that could serve as source material for painters and others. Taking care to avoid cliché sites such as the Eiffel Tower, Atget instead “focused on the fabric of the city,” including parks, street scenes, store displays and building facades. The rare times Atget did photograph his fellow Parisians, he focused his camera on those living on the fringes of society: street merchants, Gypsies and prostitutes.

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