State of the art

Haltadefinizione or HAL9000 (Open the bay doors HAL), is an Italian project that undertakes the process of photographing extremely high-definition images of famous paintings and putting them online for everyone to see.

Walker Evans’ images of Great Depression-era American families are up there as some of the most captivating and telling photographs of our nation’s history (they are certainly some of my favorite images ever taken). But one criticism that could be made of Mr. Evans’ photography is that his use of black and white film makes the already “depressing” era, even more dismal. Now I know most people at this point would say, “Well that is because color film hadn’t been invented in the late 1930’s when Walker was shooting,” but that assumption is incorrect.

Robert Johnson, the early-twentieth-century blues singer who, as the legend goes, made a deal with the Devil in exchange for his musical talent, is best known for two things: The first being his incredible talent as a blues musician, influencing the likes of Eric Clapton and many others, and the second being the fact that only two verified images of the singer exist anywhere—until now.

FROM OUR EDITORS AT PHOTOKINA: Leaf announced two new medium format backs, the Leaf Aptus-II 12 and the Aptus-II12R (with internal rotating sensor)—at 80MP they are the world’s highest resolution digital camera backs.