- Wassenaar and Beyond!
Dear Readers, Artists, and Art Lovers,
I’ve reviewed every single one of the submissions received from my open call for work and I’m going to send out my final notifications tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday. However, there won’t be a final list of selected photographers as I want to keep both the magazine and gallery’s content a relative secret.
Now, that being said, I want to let those of you know that if you were not chosen for Wassenaar Magazine or the We Can’t Paint Gallery, it doesn’t mean that your work was bad or not worthy of some ‘artsy’ ideal. In fact, I had to leave out a large amount of really strong work for the simple fact that it didn’t fit within the issue or the show itself. This is of course the problem with all curating both in publishing and beyond. In an ideal world I would be able to feature all the great work but; A) I don’t have the time and resources to do so, and; B) I wouldn’t have any content for the next issue and exhibition!
I think most of you will be surprised at the variety of work, working styles and concepts, featured in both the gallery and magazine. I’ve looked for innovation, quality, strength of concept, and intention. Overall, good photography is good photography any way you swing it.
So for now I’m going to be putting the blog on hold and focus on the tasks at hand. I’ll possibly post something from time to time but don’t count on it. The We Can’t Paint Blog will officially be back in full swing at the beginning of September.
I want to thank all of you for submitting, it has been quite an honor to receive your ideas and work. Have a safe and wonderful summer!!
Kind Regards,
-Noel
PS: Another thank you goes out to those of you who have emailed me about my “Nocturne”
series. I will have a statement for the project on my site in the next couple of days.
- Canada “Lite”
The latest issue of The Beaver (yes, it sounds like a porno magazine), a publication by Canada’s History Society, features an article titled “10 Photos That Changed Canada”. While I normally wouldn’t post about such topics here on We Can’t Paint as they are usually nothing but magazine “filler”, I was actually shocked when I noticed an important photo missing from the ten selected.
Let me start out here by saying that most of the images that were chosen by the “judges” actually do represent Canada very well. We can see the iconic silhouette of Terry Fox in the midst of his Marathon of Hope, a cross Canada run to raise money for cancer (Terry did this with only one leg and the aid of a prostheses); or even the shot of Paul Henderson’s winning goal from the famed match against the USSR.
However, for all of the “balanced” opinion that these jurors had in the selection of their final top ten (the inclusion of “Standoff at Oka” comes to mind here), the list is wholly incomplete without the inclusion of photographs from what is now commonly referred to as, “The Somalia Affair”. In the mid-nineties a set of photographs were leaked to the press showing a Canadian Airborne soldier proudly posing with a severely beaten Somalian teen. (Note: sadly it’s hard to find a quality version of theses images online).
These gruesome documents sent shockwaves throughout Canada and the international community, calling into question our long-standing declaration of being a nation dedicated to peace keeping. The fallout from “The Somalia Affair” not only eventually led to the Canadian Forces Airborne Regiments being disbanded, but it imbued a new found sense of distrust, both within our own citizens and abroad, for a military that was once so highly regarded. It is with these thoughts that I wonder why such a telling photograph was overlooked when creating a top ten list of “photos that changed Canada”? What do you think?
- Some Magazines
The summer issues of both Daylight Magazine and See Saw are now online. If you haven’t checked them out head over and give yourself a break from ‘the blogs’. Also, if you are unaware of 1000 Words Photography Magazine, it has been out for a while and is definitely worth a look. Wassenaar is going to have some strong company…
- Young Curators, New Ideas
Since today (Monday) is a holiday here in Canada, I’m going to take the day off and leave you with a shameless exhibition plug. I’ve got four photos in the show (at very reasonable prices I might add) from my Nocturne series plus a handful of GIFs commissioned by the lovely Laurel Ptak of I Heart Photograph. Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it out to the show due to my recovery from surgery. But look at that lineup; this show is going to be epic! Details are as follows:
Young Curators, New Ideas
BOND STREET GALLERY is pleased to announce Young Curators, New Ideas, a group exhibition organized by amani olu and curated by Alana Celii & Grant Willing (Fjord Photo), Michael Bühler-Rose, Jon Feinstein (Humble Arts Foundation), Laurel Ptak (I Heart Photograph), Amy Stein (amysteinphoto.blogspot.com), and Lumi Tan (Why + Wherefore).
The exhibition examines different trends and perspectives in contemporary art photography through the bias of six new and seasoned curators. Each curator (or curatorial group), using roughly ten feet of space, aims to engage viewers in a discussion on where he or she believes art photography is today.
Völuspá
Völuspá, curated by Grant Willing and Alana Celii, focuses on the themes of magic, otherworldliness, secrets and nostalgia. The exhibiting photographers were curated from the Fjord collective, and include Mikaylah Bowman, Gerald Edwards III, Bryan Lear, Miranda Lehman, Seth Lower, Mark McKnight, Erin Jane Nelson, and Jesper Ulvelius. The images from these eight artists represent the ideas of a multi-verse, which is a self-contained, separate reality. All of the photographs point to a place or moment that feels familiar, but objectively is known to rarely exist. These spurious emotions allow the viewers to address a personal memory or follow one’s spiritual quest; yet when presented with the facts that directly make up the photographs, they feel like something that cannot be experienced.
Opposing Photographers
Artist Michael Bühler-Rose presents Opposing Photographers by Charles Benton. Benton’s work examines the nature of portraiture by returning fine art photography to its roots in conceptual art practice. Benton enables the viewer to be placed within the middle of a photographic “volley” to experience not just the gaze of the photographer towards his or her subject, but also to reflect that gaze back and enable the viewer to experience both subject and object simultaneously. Through this lo-tech presentation Benton reassess the slide presentation/photographic document’s traditional function of “pointing to…” and enables the viewer to experience being pointed at.
Light and Color
In Jon Feinstein’s exhibition, Light and Color, he explores notions of science, mysticism, astronomy and the unreal using photographs from Hannah Whitaker, Talia Chetrit, Noel Rodo-Vankuelen, and Ann Woo. Much of the work utilizes stripped down elements such as prisms, rainbows, and seemingly banal sunsets to investigate common themes in art history and larger conceptual issues surrounding the process of image making.
Graphics Interchange Format
Laurel Ptak’s exhibition takes the show in a different direction by commissioning 26 photographers, designers, and new media artists to embrace the animated GIF. Appropriately titled Graphics Interchange Format, the show explores how a lo-fi digital image technology invented in 1987 fares in contemporary context. Ptak gave artists only 3 days to complete the commission and encouraged the use of photographic materials. A few of the artists had never made an animated GIF before, while others were notorious for it. “Some use the form epically,” says Ptak, “like a novelist or film director; others are self-reflective about the limits of technology and representation; many challenge photography’s usual atemporal disposition; and then some just make me giggle.” The results are 67 artist-made animated GIFs shown on 44-inch flat screen in an infinite loop. Each are sold in an unlimited edition for $20, accompanied by a personalized note from the artist.
Graphics Interchange Format features works by Victor Boullet, Tyler Coburn, Petra Cortright, C. Coy, Daniel Everett, Thobias Fäldt & Per Englund, Martin Fengel, Jason Fulford, Nicholas Grider, Pierre Hourquet, Konst & Teknik, Eke Kriek, Emily Larned, Matt MacFarland, Katja Mater, Kelci McIntosh, Ilia Ovechkin, Robert Overweg, M. River, Noel Rodo-Vankeulen, Asha Schechter, Trevor Shimizu, Jo-ey Tang, Anne De Vries, Karly Wildenhaus and Damon Zucconi.
Amy Stein Curated
In her exhibition, photographer and critic, Amy Stein, selects five photographers working in the tradition of Cindy Sherman, Ralph Eugene Meatyard and Gregory Crewdson. Featuring Alison Brady, Olga Cafiero, Alix Smith, Alex Prager, and Ofer Wolberger, these photographers employ directorial image making strategies to explore identity and representation of the self. Whether they are directing loved ones, friends or relative strangers, these five photographers bring us lush, evocative cinematic moments that transport the viewer into a space that is alternately unsettling yet strangely familiar.
Lumi Tan Curated
Writer and curator, Lumi Tan, presents three photographs from Brian Bress. In these photographs, Bress conflates the space around us, leaving the viewer disorientated and distracted by a certain distorted familiarity. His use of ordinary objects in seemingly chance combinations and chaotic arrangements are uncanny, asking to be decoded but simultaneously resisting interpretation. By engaging the viewer in absurd performative exploration, he points out how easily we are lost in our own cultural detritus.
For additional information or visuals, please contact Kate Greenberg at kate@bondstreetgallery.com
Details
OPENING RECEPTION: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 | RSVP REQUIRED: rsvp@bondstreetgallery.com
PRESS PREVIEW: 4 – 6 pm | PUBLIC RECEPTION: 6 – 9 pm
ON VIEW: Wednesday, August 13 – Saturday, September 6, 2008PRESS INQUIRIES: kate@bondstreetgallery.com
BOND STREET GALLERY
297 Bond Street | Brooklyn, NY 11231 (Carroll Gardens)
718.858.2297 | DIRECTIONS: F/G to Carroll St. or R to Union St.GALLERY HOURS: Tuesday – Saturday | 11 am – 6 pm
- Martin Parr: “Get Modern”
For me, commercial photography has always seemed like one of the most frustrating practices a photographer can undertake. How can someone totally devote their craft to a collaboration that, in the end, will be at least 50% controlled by a secondary (or even tertiary) party? At any rate, I came across these interesting comments by Martin Parr on the current state of photojournalism and its relation to magazines:
“You have to be more ingenious, you have to think carefully about the appeal that your subject will have and how it will fit into a modern magazine that’s going to shy away from a more traditional humanistic approach. How to make it look interesting, and entertaining, and at same time have a level of poignancy and zeitgeist: I can’t tell people how to do it, can I? In the end, it comes down to the personality and individuality of the photographer to express that. But when people say to me the magazine market is dead, I just don’t believe it.”
Read the rest of PDN’s terrific interview with Parr here.
- A Picture You Already Know
If you haven’t checked out Words Without Pictures yet, this is the best time to do so. Writer and photographer Sze Tsung Leong presents his essay on repetition in photography titled, “A Picture You Already Know.” More from WWP:This essay explores the knotty issue of recurring subjects, compositions, and styles in contemporary photography. The essay cites the visual conceits that have recurred within art photography over the past decade, calling the reader to consider even the most slight or elliptical subjects in photographs to be ones that form the iconography of the medium. This essay also considers the conscious and unconscious ways in which individual photographers deal with the repetition of the same visual forms in their own practice.
After you’re done going through the wonderfully intelligent, detailed, and interesting essay I encourage you to add your voice to the discussion forum. Joshua Chuang, Karen Hellman, John Lehr and myself are all kicking off the discussion with our own responses (you can read mine by clicking here). Please excuse my usual handful of grammatical mistakes!
