- Graphic Intersections V. 02 Open Call
A while back I submitted to The Exposure Project’s open call for Graphic Intersections. The idea was that a photographer would start out with a photo and the next photographer would respond to it, eventually building up a body of response images. It was interesting to see the development and those results can be seen here.
As the first project is finished and awaiting exhibition, the second chapter has been announced as an open call and is now accepting submissions. More details below:
Submission Procedure
- Interested photographers should visit the “Submissions” page on the website to pay the $10 submission fee.
- You may then submit up to 10 images
- Images should be at least 1000 pixels on the longest side
- Formatted as RGB JPG’s @ 72 dpi
- All files should be labeled with the artist’s last name and corresponding # (example: smith_1.jpg)
- E-mail submitted images to: ben@theexposureproject.comPlease note that submitted images will not be included in Graphic Intersections. They are simply used as reference points in the curatorial process. Additionally, all photographers will receive a confirmation e-mail within 24 hours of their submission.
Submission Deadline
January 5th, 2010 @ 11:59pm
For more information please visit The Exposure Project.
- ICP Lecture Series Online
When I’m not out shooting I’m often stuck in my studio making work. Mostly I watch movies while laboring over prints, dust spotting, arranging new collages, etc. However, every now and then I sometimes love to throw on an artist talk or panel discussion – which are usually hard to find, or very poor quality.
Yesterday I stumbled across ICP’s Lecture Series where a large selection of past artist talks are archived chronologically in both audio and video format. The video archive has some great talks (with crystal clear slide presentations mixed in) but I’m really impressed with the audio section dating back to the mid-seventies. A great start is the Winogrand talk - but at any rate here are some selections:
Larry Sultan
If this wasn’t amazing enough, each featured talk has the original “intro handout” or an accompanied essay downloadable as a pdf.
Note: Many of the video selections have yet to added but there are enough online to keep you busy.
- Review: Sensation by Noriko Takazawa
It’s often the case that as an independent publisher grows so does the quality of their product. They work with more established artists, print on better paper, use expensive processes, and increase edition sizes. While all of these factors usually add up to a better book, I can’t help but wonder – where has the creativity gone? Sensation by Noriko Takazawa, Farewell’s latest book in a growing line of elegant publications, offers up a challenge on how to make ‘it’ work.
At a small size of only 24 pages Sensation is very much a ‘zine’ styled book. In fact, being that this is the first saddle stitched effort from Farewell (all previous releases have been perfect bound), one might assume that this could be the start of a new direction in side projects. Another book, Even Your Ears by Kim Hyunjin, was released with Sensation at the same time and both share an affordable price tag. Whatever the reason may be, Takazawa’s cryptic black and white photographs fit very comfortably into this tiny package, and for good reason.
Designed in a somewhat cyclical format, Sensation is not so much a narrative but more of a collection of fleeting observations – as the title suggests. It is formatted to be read either left-to-right, or, as is common for photo books from Japan, right-to-left (titles and credits have been doubled in English and Japanese for their respective sides). Both views offer a different experience, yet, what is important to note here is that this design choice servers as an apt introduction for encounters with both a Western and Japanese experience. Even the mid-point of Sensation is considered; where we are presented with a street scene in which the photographer has been tripled in a window reflection. This page, which is always bowed by the staples, acts as a transition point between two different destinations asking, why should visual-based books be read one way?
It seems fitting to consider that although Farewell is still very young, and, like most independent publishers, are on a limited budget, Sensation is a book crafted within its context, without much compromise to the photographer. Where so many other small print houses appear to have lost what makes a photo book so great, Farewell serves as a good example of how the format can always be inherently special.
- Lay Flat needs your donations
I’m happy to announce that a few of my photographs will be in the next issue of Lay Flat. The first edition (now sold out) was great and featured such photographers as Whitney Hubbs, Nicola Kast, Shawn Records, and many, many more.
Lay Flat: Meta focuses on “works of contemporary photographers whose images are conceptually engaged with the history, process and conventions of the medium itself.” This edition includes some of my favourite photographers and writers and I’m very honoured to take part:
Photographs by Claudia Angelmaier, Semâ Bekirovic, Charles Benton, Lucas Blalock, Talia Chetrit, Anne Collier, Natalie Czech, Jessica Eaton, Roe Ethridge, Stephen Gill, Daniel Gordon, David Haxton, Matt Keegan, Elad Lassry, Katja Mater, Laurel Nakadate, Lisa Oppenheim, Torbjørn Rødland, Noel Rodo-Vankeulen, Joachim Schmid, Penelope Umbrico, Useful Photography, Charlie White, Ann Woo and Mark Wyse are accompanied by the textual contributions of Lesley A. Martin (Publisher/Editor, Aperture Foundation), Adam Bell (Co-editor, The Education of a Photographer) and artist Arthur Ou.
Because the publication is independently produced Lay Flat is looking for donations. Any amount would be wonderful and donors who give $50 or more before November 22nd will be personally thanked within the publication and receive a special gift - a Lay Flat tote bag (featuring a screenprinted logo on natural canvas).
To make a donation please CLICK HERE.
Thanks!
- Still Life: A short interview with curator Jon Feinstein
Left: Stephen Sitting, June 2009 © Lyndsy Welgos Right: Anita, circa late 1940‘s © Louis S. Davidson
Last week I received note about an interesting show opening at The Camera Club of New York titled “Still Life”. The exhibition, which includes work by Erica Allen, Michael Bühler-Rose, Robyn Cumming, Louis S. Davidson, John Hutchins, Lyndsy Welgos, and Ann Woo, looks at what curator Jon Feinstein calls “a tendency in contemporary portraiture to remove the subjectivity of the person(s) photographed, literally transforming them into objects.” Being an accomplished photographer himself, particularly with his own elegant portraiture, I was interested in Jon’s thoughts on conceiving such an exhibition as well as his inclusion of vintage portrait work from the club’s archives.
Noel Rodo-Vankeulen: How did the current state of photography influence your ideas for the show?
Jon Feinstein: My idea for the show came about after looking through CCNY’s archives dating back to the late 1800’s. Almost all of the work in the archives was from Camera club members, generally hobbyists removed from the pretensions of the art world. Much of the work was semi-typical landscape, glass plate, still life, portrait work, but I became enamored with a series of studio portraits of women made by John Hutchins and Louis S. Davidson in the 1940’s. These were straightforward, glamorized bust shots of woman, very “male-gazey”/ “women as muse” etc… kind of portraits, but what grabbed my attention was an apparent “contemporary”-ness of them. There was such striking resemblance to the work of young portrait photographers I’d been looking at over the past few years, so I was interested in organizing a show that spoke to that dialogue.
© Ann Woo
Both Images © John Hutchins
NRV: Do you feel as if we are at a shifting point in the medium where photographers are beginning to see the notions of ‘the genre’ collapsing? It’s almost as if traditional critical ideas and the complications of being a viewer have become intertwined.
JF: I don’t necessarily think that we’re at a point in which the idea of the “genre” is necessarily collapsing, but instead is shifting and morphing more rapidly than it has before. Many of the photographers in the show come from various practices that allow their work to fit into, or borrow from multiple genres at once. Ann Woo, for example, has a background as a fashion and advertising photographer, which in many ways can be seen in how she makes her personal work. While her non-commercial portraits are not necessarily “product shots”, they are often void of emotional exploration, and generally have the same aesthetic quality as her images of sunsets, and still lifes. Similarly, Lyndsy Welgos’ semi nude, often androgynous portraits borrow from fashion/lifestyle and conceptual practices.
© Erica Allen
NRV: You make an important point here. Over the last ten or so years photographers have taken on more dynamic roles both in their own practice and within the ‘art world’. It’s almost common for many artists to collectively engage in, say, the blogosphere, or as curators, commercial photographers, writers, etc. I suppose what I’m getting at more specifically is if you think these inverted conventions of portraiture could become problematic in their ‘cool’ navigation of the subject? There has always been is a certain sanctity surrounding photographic portraiture as a mediation between the viewer and subject. Are these new investigations different in relation to the negative aspects of Hutchins and Davidson’s work - or does it matter?
JF: I think there have historically been different camps of opinions regarding portraiture, ranging from the social documentary work of August Sander to the emotive, humanistic or meditative approaches of artists like Rineke Dijkstra, Amy Elkins, and Shen Wei, to the Ruff camp (a large anchor for this show) who critique and reject notions of truth in portraiture, as well as the idea of any kind of sanctity between subject and viewer.
I don’t necessarily think that the photographers inverting the conventions of portraiture are “problematic”, nor do I think that they are necessarily doing something that has not been done before. The kind of inversion that you speak about already occurred decades ago, with artists like Sherrie Levine, and Cindy Sherman and many of the other appropriation based artists included in “The Pictures Generation” show that was recently up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
I think we’re at a point where we need to do more than simply cry “problematic” when looking at the work of photographers like Hutchins and Davidson, and instead look to their/ their peer’s work and its criticism, as a means of understanding contemporary work.
One of the ideas behind this show was to look at the idea of objectification from a purely literal perspective. Instead of simply saying “this work is problematic” it attempts to literally investigate the idea of intentionally making pictures of people without any intention of exploring an inner dialogue. Both these new photographers, and Hutchinson/Davidson dealing with similar ideas, but these new photographers are privileged with over 60 years of theory and academic discourse.
“Still Life” runs until December 19th at The Camera Club of New York. For more info please visit the CCNY’s website. Read more…
- Two Interviews of Note
Around the same time last year you could have visited almost any photo blog and found the same format - links to artist’s web pages, exhibition announcements, and the occasional opinion piece. While this is a good indication of what the WCP blog has fallen into (I’m planning on authoring more original content), most blogs have become dynamic. They now feature regular reviews, expanded multi-part editorials, and now, some really terrific interviews; many of which were only available in print.
Shane Lavalette has responded to this by re-publishing his interview entitled, “A Telephone Conversation with Mike Mandel,” initially only readable if you had the now sold out first issue of Lay Flat.
Another great development is Jörg Colberg’s translation of previously published interviews from the German journal Photography Now. Of course, being amazing as this is, the first translated interview on Conscientious is with who else but Gerhard Steidl. Check it out here.
- Night Vision
Images by © Jennilee MarigomenNIGHT VISION is a renegade outdoor photograph projection show in Vancouver, Canada. The premise of NIGHT VISION is to bring focus to contemporary photographers from around the world in a community based setting
The second installment of NIGHT VISION takes place on September 26, 2009 at dusk. Please bring something to sit on. Location will be disclosed the day before the event at http://www.nightvisionexhibition.tumblr.com
Works by:
Alana Celii | Brooklyn, NY
Alexander Martinez | San Francisco, CA
Ali Bosworth | Victoria, Canada
Andrew Laumann | Baltimore, MA
Bob Myaing | Philadelphia, PA
Chris Taylor | Victoria, Canada
Dan Siney | Vancouver, Canada
Daniel Augschöll | Venice, Italy
David Horvitz | Brooklyn, NY
Deanna Templeton | Huntington Beach, CA
Dylan Davies | Vancouver, Canada
Frederik Heyman | Berlin, Germany
Garry Shandling | Vancouver, Canada
Grant Willing | Brooklyn, NY
Gustav Gustafsson | Oskarshamn, Sweden
Hana Pesut | Vancouver, Canada
Hanna Terese Nilsson | Göteborg, Sweden
Hasisi Park | Seoul, South Korea
Jackson Eaton | Perth, Australia
Jeff Otto O’Brien | Vancouver, Canada
Jennilee Marigomen | Vancouver, Canada
Jessica Eaton | Montreal, Quebec
KK+TF | Stockholm, Sweden
Klara Kallstrom | Stockholm, Sweden
Kyle Scully | Vancouver, Canada
Lincoln Clarkes | Vancouver, Canada
Madi Ju | Beijing, China
Marcelo Gomes | New York
Mark Borthwick | Brooklyn, NY
Marco Velardi | Milan, Italy
Maximilian Haidacher | Linz, Austria
Mikhail Wassmer | Berlin, Germany
Misha De Ridder | Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Natasha Lands | Vancouver, Canada
Nicholas Gottlund | Philadelphia, PA
Nicholas Hance Mc Elroy | Sante Fe, NM
Oscar Mendoza | San Francisco, CA
Paul Herbst | London, UK
Patrick Campbell | Vancouver, Canada
Peter Miles | Vancouver, Canada
Peter Sutherland | Brooklyn, NY
Raif Adelberg | Vancouver, Canada
Ray Potes | San Francisco, CA
Sam Falls | Brooklyn, NY
Sean Michael Beolchini | Milan, Italy
Sylvain-Emmanuel Prieur | Paris, France
Thobias Fäldt | Gothenburg, Sweden
Thomas Prior | Brooklyn, NY
Tim Steer | London
Tim Barber | Brooklyn, NY
Tod Seelie | Brooklyn, NY
Will Govus| Atlanta, Georgia
Ye Rin Mok | Los Angeles, CA
Young Kyu Yoo | Brooklyn, NY
Yvonne Hachkowski | Vancouver, Canada
Zhengdong Xu | Vancouver, Canada
Be sure to check out our contributing artists at http://www.nightvisionexhibition.tumblr.comNIGHT VISION is an ongoing project by Natasha Lands and Jennilee Marigomen. Music by Take 5.
Special thanks to 01 Magazine, RVCA, Marek Bula, Redia Sotis, Adam Flynn, Caine Heintzman, Elliot Heintzman, and Dan Fong.
- Tim Barber
from “Mystic Heather & Virgin Snow” © Tim Barber
Tim Barber, the photographer/curator behind the online gallery/blog Tiny Vices and publishing house TV Books, has launched his own website. Along with his great fashion work, Tim has a large amount of interesting personal series, which of note, is my favourite, “Mystic Heather & Virgin Snow”. You can also purchase the book here.
