A couple of updates on Portuguese photographer Edgar Martins:

• In our recent review of his book, Topologies (review here), we suggested that his series of images of airport runways would make a fine book on its own. Well, according to the folks at the Moth House in the UK (here), this is actually happening. The book will supposedly be entitled When Light Casts No Shadow and will be published in September by Dewi Lewis. Exhibitions to follow.
• In this past weekend’s NY Times Magazine, Martins was commissioned to take images of the real estate collapse in the US. A slide show/photo essay of the work he produced can be seen here. I particularly like the one of the unfinished brown and yellow house, with the overturned recliners and trash in front.

UPDATE: As is noted/linked by an anonymous reader in the comments below, the Edgar Martins essay referenced above has been removed from the NY Times website due to questions about whether the images had been manipulated (follow the link above to the now empty placeholder). The article had gone out of its way to say that the images had not been Photoshopped, so if they were altered, it would indeed be an embarassing problem. While artistically we are all used to manipulated and staged images at this point, when they are called out as “documentary” and turn out to be edited, this is where the line gets crossed. We’ll add more to this story as the information gets clearer.

UPDATE: A Photo Editor gathers backup to the manipulation speculations (here). Look for the links to the before/after mirrored images.

UPDATE: Whistleblower from Minnesota describes the process of figuring out if the images were manipulated (here).

UPDATE: Yesterday, I received an announcement for the opening on July 18th of Martins’ upcoming exhibition at the Kopeikin Gallery (here) in West Hollywood, CA. Works from The Accidental Theorist (the night beach scenes) will be on view. The blurb goes out of its way to remind us that there has been no manipulation of the images.