Carrie Mae Weems at Brooklyn Museum

One of my favorite museums in the city is the Brooklyn Museum. Recently I discovered the museum started posting their lectures and artist talks online. It's a great resource and I was so happy to see Carrie Mae Weems' artist talk. I've heard Weems speak before in Syracuse and her wisdom, honesty, and eloquent language is always eye opening.



Carrie Mae Weems is in an exhibition in the Brooklyn Museum through April 5, 2009.

Burning Down the House: Building a Feminist Art Collection
October 31, 2008–April 5, 2009
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, 4th Floor
Brooklyn Museum

A Conversation with Kanako Sasaki

Backyard and Morning, from Wanderlust, © Kanako Sasaki

My work explore my own imaginative world that is influenced from various connections such as traditional Japanese novels and Ukiyo-e paintings or my childhood memories, which inspire me to composite my own Ukiyo—the floating world. -Kanako Sasaki, from Wanderlust.

Kanako Sasaki was an artist in residence at Light Work during my sophomore year at Syracuse. The child-like dreamy quality of her images immediately drawn me to her photography. Also, the combination of childlike nostalgia with her intense interest in cultural history create surreal photographs. I'm so happy Kanako agreed to participate in this conversation.

Nymphoto: Tell us a little about yourself.

Kanako Sasaki: I grew up in Northern Japan. I decided to study journalism in the US, when I was 17. So, I went to undergraduate in US, upstate NY and received BA in Journalism.
I didn't start photography until the year 2000 or so. I realized that the real way to communicate would be in a free form, not through the mass media.
This is why I started to make images.
I have been lucky enough that I managed to visit different cities to do my project such as Bolivia, Eastern Europe, and so on. I like people and want to understand how people are in any condition of their living. This is why I started to do photography, not to forget how I felt and what I saw.



Uniform and Outcast, from Wanderlust, © Kanako Sasaki

NP: How did you discover photography?

KS: I took my first photo class by curiosity. My teacher showed us some slides including Cindy Sherman. I think her work gave me inspiration and opened up my world to photo.


Yellow Leotard, from Wanderlust, © Kanako Sasaki

As a contemporary Japanese, we hardly talk about the past, because of the generation changes and the swell of the consumerism, which have been fulfilled their desires and having the comfortable lives. I feel urgent to access our own true past so that we can prepare for the future. -Kanako Sasaki, from Walking in the Jungle

NP: Where do you find inspiration?

KS: My memories and imagination are influenced from nature, places, and novels that I've read in the past. One of my favorite authors is Soseki Natsume's novels.

Formally, I look a lot of paintings. I do care to see more than just photography.

I love film and many have inspired me. French, Hong Kong, and Japanese films have taught me the importance of small details, story telling, and how to narrate. Some examples are Jean Luc Godard's "Picnic," Wong Kar Wai's "Chungking Express," and films by Kurosawa Akira.

The act of play and humor is very important in order to reach my audience. I guess this is how I see and how I survive. At the same time, I don't want to forget my memories and sensitivities from my childhood in Japan. After traveling around, this is my defense mechanism in a way... perhaps and the way of communicating people.
I believe we are not so different from each other despite our cultures or any beliefs.



Bathing and Swing Club, from Wanderlust, © Kanako Sasaki

NP: How did your project "Wanderlust" come about?

KS: During "Wanderlust", I was seeking for my origin and also facing the question of "what is reality." Reality became imagination and the two merged. Inspired mainly from traditional Japanese novels and love stories, Ukiyo-e paintings, and my own childhood memories. Also, in order to communicate via images, I want to focus on some universal feelings, such as naiveness and innocence.

I have more been interested in creating a surreal and eccentric mood to express a dream like world than showing the womanhoods. Furthermore, I am interested in the idea of bipolar, such as innocence and aggression, loneliness and playfulness to express the extreme stage of emotion that are on the verge of formation or even explosion. Therefore, there are multiple personalities underneath in girls, which push “self” into the images. It is almost not about the issue of being a girl or living in the different culture, but just as human beings to survive in the reality, which contemplate with the idea such as loss, escape, isolation, and self-distraction in the modern life. -Kanako Sasaki, from Wanderlust

Anne Frank's Signal, Departure, and Site of Russian Army's Departure to Attack Japan 103 Years Ago, from Walking in the Jungle, © Kanako Sasaki

NP: What were some of the ideas in "Walking in the Jungle"?

KS: In 2006 I did a residency in Vienna, Austria. That was my first time living in Europe and was my first time facing so much history in the country. When I was living in London last year, I worked on "Walking in the Jungle." It was my reaction to the history in Europe, especially the history shared with Japan in the Japanese-Russian War in 1904.
I tried to understand the history, especially since my generation can't experience living in the past, and is away from the history. I thought it is very important to understand and remember the history.
In Europe, history surrounds people's lives, especially from buildings. Last year, I was mainly interested in war in history. I thought about the people who had to go through it, for example, Anne Frank.
The project was about my naive interpretation and my link of history so that I don't forget.



Termination and Time Escape, from Walking in the Jungle, © Kanako Sasaki

NP: What's next?

KS: I am working on two different projects, "Bolivia/Okinawa" a project about the immigration of Japanese people to Bolivia after World War II.

I have started the project in Okinawa village (Colonial Okinawa) in Bolivia since last year, connecting the link and gap between the people in Okinawa (Japanese Okinawans) and the people who immigrated to Bolivia after the WWII. I use visual pieces such as video, film and photographs to express their stories.

I'm also working on another project about Iceland, titled "Drifted". In both projects, I began utilizing video and photography. I think it's a good beginning.

NP: Thank you very much!


The Depth, from Walking in the Jungle, © Kanako Sasaki

I struggle, struggle not to forget, what I have felt or saw, etc. In order to do so, I make my own work and create fantastic images or space to remind the viewers to evoke the forgotten emotions and memories. -Kanako Sasaki, from Walking in the Jungle

Currently, Kanako is participating in two solo shows in Japan, both featuring brand new work from her current projects.

Shiseido Gallery
"Okinawan Ark"
Now through March 1, 2009
Ginza Shiseido Building, basement floor
Ginza 8-8-3, Chou-ku, Tokyo

MA2 Gallery
"Drifted"
Now through March 14, 2009
3-3-8 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Also to see more of her work, head to www.kanakosasaki.com.

Night Moves @ Safe-T-Gallery & Farmani Gallery

The photographic works of thirteen artists who toil under the cloak of darkness will be featured in two simultaneous exhibitions at two neighboring Dumbo galleries starting this March 5th. “Night Moves - Exploring the Horizon” will be at Safe-T-Gallery and “Night Moves - Angles of View” at Farmani Gallery. The shows, co-curated by Jill Waterman and Daryl-Ann Saunders, feature the work of photographers who understand how long exposures, unusual and distinctive light sources and the deep contrasts and colors seen only at night, bring clarity and insight to both the natural and the man-made landscape.

Night Moves - Exploring the Horizon, features works by Nymphoto's Maria Passarotti.


OPENING RECEPTION
Thursday, March 5, 2009, 6-8 PM

EXHIBITION DATES
March 5, 2009 - April 11, 2009.
Wednesday - Saturday 12-6 PM

LOCATIONS
Safe-T-Gallery, Suite 214
Farmani Gallery, Suite 212
111 Front Street
DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY

Christina Kruse @ Steven Kasher Gallery

from Reisebuch1-5 © Christina Kruse

Christina Kruse
Steven Kasher Gallery
5211 West 23rd Street
2nd Floor
New York, NY
Exhibition: February 26-March 28, 2009
Opening Reception: March 5, 2009 - 6-8pm

Last chance for Helen Sear @ KLOMPCHING

Last chance to catch Helen Sear's beautiful montages of portraits and landscapes at KLOMPCHING GALLERY in DUMBO. The artist combines photography, drawing and digital techniques to create delicately layered images that provoke the viewer to question traditional modes of viewing photographic imagery.

INSIDE THE VIEW — HELEN SEAR
January 8 — February 27
KLOMPCHING GALLERY

111 Front Street, Suite 206

Brooklyn, NY11201

Gallery Hours: Wed — Sat, 11am — 6pm

Today: Judith Roy Ross Lecture @ Mass Art

Judith Joy Ross
Monday, February 23rd @ 2pm
Kennedy Building, Room 406
621 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA

Support The Exposure Project: Donate

Ben Alper from The Exposure Project needs your help. We received an email from the project asking for any financial assistance to fund the next publication. Our own, Rona Chang, was selected among the large number of entries to be one of their participants!

Over the last few weeks, we at The Exposure Project have started the involved process of organizing our next publication. We received an inspiring amount of exceptional work during our latest call for entries period and couldn't be happier with the selected photographers. It has always been our goal to continually expand the breadth of this project and unite a diversity of vision, process and philosophy within contemporary photography. Issue 4 marks our largest and most ambitious collaboration to date. But we need your help!

As it stands right now, we are lacking the necessary funds for the production of issue 4. In light of that, we are asking you to take a moment to consider donating to The Exposure Project. There is no minimum donation and all the proceeds will benefit the publication and distribution of issue 4. I am fully aware that economic times are hard right now, however, any contribution, no matter how small, would greatly benefit this project. Your generous contributions will be noted and printed in the back of the publication.

In addition, anyone who donates $50 + will receive an editioned, 8.5 x 11 print of their choice. You can view the available editions here. So, if you're interested in offering your support, visit our Donations page!

If you are unable to donate, we would greatly appreciate your help in spreading word in any way you can. We sincerely appreciate all of the support and enthusiasm we have received over the years and couldn't have done it without all of you!

Best,
Ben Alper
The Exposure Project

Jennette Williams

The Center for Documentrary Studies at Duke awarded Jennette Williams the CDS/Honickman First Book Prize. Icon Mary Ellen Mark judged the competition.
Find out more at: www.cds.aas.duke.edu and www.pdnonline.com.
And make sure to check out Jennette Williams' photographs from "The Bathers", by clicking here.

Jennifer Williams: New York, Seattle

Jennifer Williams is part of a group show at Platform Gallery in Seattle that runs through March 28, 2009. The show is titled "Cut - Contemporary Collage" and picks up on the renewed interest in collage. If you you are in Seattle this is a great show to check out.

Platform Gallery
114 Third Avenue South,
Seattle, Washington
February 19-March 28, 2009

But you can also see the work of Jennifer Williams in New York, starting next week:

"Quality Service"
Feb. 24-28th (opening feb. 24th 6-8)
The Cooper Union
6th and 7th floors
7 East 7th Street
New York, NY 10003


glob
2008
25" x 44"
handcut digital prints collaged on watercolor paper
©Jennifer Williams

And you can revisit our conversation with Jen, by clicking here.

Karla Turcios: The Open City

Karla Turcios
The Open City Series
Wynwood Project Space
2200 NW 2nd Avenue
Miami, FL
On view now through March 7, 2009

From the press release:
Honduran born visual artist Karla Turcios unveils her latest series at the Wynwood Project Space from now through March 7. The Open City presents Turcios' exploration into the global phenomena of rapid urbanization. Through the use of intricate multi-layered images and themes, the exhibition showcases the vanishing ethnic cultural expressions of neighborhoods in transition.

A Conversation with Tiana Markova-Gold

The first image by Tiana Markova-Gold I ever saw was from her Haiti series. And I was mesmerized. Without the caption I knew this was Haiti and I was captivated by this depiction of a country much overlooked & the poetic style of photography that brought paintings of Gauguin to mind.
Like in the work of Juliana Beasely, one can feel the empathy and respect Tiana has for her subjects.




© Tiana Markova-Gold


Nymphoto: Tell us a little about yourself.

Tiana Markova-Gold: I live in Brooklyn with my boyfriend, in a neighbourhood that I really love, but that’s changing a lot as it gets more and more gentrified. I’ve lived there longer than anywhere else in my life, but I’ve also lived in Vermont, in San Francisco and Oakland and briefly in the Caribbean. I’ve traveled a lot….I’ve spent time in Central America, South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe… My life has been full of many adventures, a lot of struggle and a lot of incredible experiences.




© Tiana Markova-Gold


NP: How did you discover photography?

TMG: I was always interested in photography, as far back as I can remember…my mother was always taking photographs and when I was a small child she made super 8 films. I took some photography classes when I was a teenager, but I was a dancer so I didn’t really think about pursuing photography in a serious way…it wasn’t until a few years after I stopped dancing that I started to focus on photography. I was traveling a lot and taking photographs, just snapshots for myself….a woman I knew was an editorial intern at a magazine and when she saw some pictures I had taken on one of my recent trips she asked if she could bring them in to show the picture editors at the magazine. It was the first time I had considered that photography might be something I could do professionally.




© Tiana Markova-Gold


NP: Where do you find inspiration?

TMG: I think a lot of my work is, at least on some level, inspired by a need to understand or make sense of things I struggle with in my own life. It’s like I’m making a map to help me find my way through the world, through the web of experiences and relationships that is my life, and in doing that, maybe help illuminate the way for somebody else.

I am also deeply inspired by the innate beauty in the human spirit. I want to recognize and acknowledge that spirit, especially in situations where it is not always so obvious…as Karim Ainous said (when speaking about a film he co-wrote), “It is about a faith in the human being, no matter what. When he is an outlaw, when he is stealing, when he is making love.”

Sometimes I am inspired by my anger or frustration with things I see happening…I take photographs to try to make people look at what is going on; to expose things people are not aware of or not paying attention to.

I’m also just very curious about the world and the people living in it….




© Tiana Markova-Gold


NP: How do your projects come about?

TMG: I began the sex workers project while I was in the full-time photojournalism program at ICP. I had to do a lot of footwork before I was able to actually begin taking pictures. I did a lot of research and contacted many people and organizations providing services to sex workers in New York City. I also spent a lot of time in neighbourhoods that were known for street prostitution. The first woman I photographed in Hunts Point was someone I just walked up to on the street one evening and started talking to.



© Tiana Markova-Gold


NP: What's next?

TMG: In January I’ll be in Asia for three weeks on a photography fellowship from the Johnson & Johnson Foundation.

I’ve just begun working on a new project about women and violence….Initially I’m focusing on women fighters…I don’t want to say much more because it’s just beginning and I’m not sure yet exactly where it will go.

NP: Thank you so much!

Please visit www.tianamarkova.com to see more of Tiana's work.

Lecture Tonight: Lisa Kereszi

From Places of Escape, ©Lisa Kereszi

Advertising Photographers of America is presenting the next installment of Apple Image Maker Lecture series with the talented, Lisa Kereszi.

APA|NY and Apple Image Maker lecture with Lisa Kereszi
Wednesday February 18th, 2009 - 6:30 to 8:00 PM
SoHo Apple Theater - 103 Prince St @ Mercer, NYC
Free to attend, seating is limited

Help!

We are having a bit of trouble getting "Nymphoto Op-Ed" off the ground. However we are not ready to give up, because we think it is important to add another angle to Nymphoto and more importantly we would like to keep the discussion going.
The discussion about the female artistic experience. We want to hear your rants, your praises, your suggestions. Emily Shur wrote about what it is like to be a professional photographer today. Candace Gottschalk spoke about combining art & motherhood, Jane Tam followed suit and spoke about family, priorities and finding your way after college.
Ellen Rennard addressed the continuing gender gap in the art world.
Write to us at contact(at)nymphoto.com; tell us how you navigate the art world, how you survive as as a professional photographer, how you find assignments. Speak up about what you think needs to change, what you think is changing, about what you think all of us can do to contribute.
Or simply write a review of a show that you recently saw.
We are looking forward to hearing from you - and so will the blog's readers.

Monday Round Up

In case you missed it:

To read Liz Kuball's piece on Tierney Gearon for Ahorn, click here.

To find Ellen Rennard speaking about the persistence of sexism in the photography world, visit her blog: www.ellenrennard.blogspot.com.

To see work by & read about Talia Chetrit, visit www.1000wordsphotographymagazine.blogspot.com.

And LAY FLAT 01: REMAIN IN LIGHT is now available for sale, here.

Catherine Leutenegger on WIPNYC

Studio Thierry Froidevaux, Lausanne, 2005 ©Catherine Leutenegger

Catherine Leutenegger is currently the artist featured on Women in Photography.

Young Women: Submit!

Professional Women Photographers is pleased to announce their 5th Annual Student Awards Program for young women enrolled in a New York City High School with an enthusiasm for photography. Submissions are accepted in two categories: 9th and 10th grades or 11th and 12th grades. The theme for this years awards if "Feminine". The following prizes will be awarded in each category: $500 first prize, $250 second prize, $125 third prize, and an honorable mention. Students who are awarded will have a weeklong exhibition at the HP Gallery at Calumet Photo. For submission details, please visit: http://www.pwponline.org/outreach/awards.php. (tx, Dina!)

Nina Berman's Homeland in Chicago

from Homeland ©Nina Berman

Nina Berman's "Homeland" exhibit is now on view at Gage Gallery at Roosevelt University in Chicago - through May 22, 2009.
You can revisit our conversation with Nina, by clicking here.

Diana Kingsley

Siberia, ©Diana Kingsley

Diana Kingsley is in a solo exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City through February 28, 2009.

From the press release:

Leo Castelli Gallery is pleased to present In Pari Delicto, an exhibition of new photographs by Diana Kingsley, her third solo show at the gallery. Kingsley, continuing to mine the terrain of the slight incident and the small indignity, has ratcheted up a sense of the absurd while maintaining the cool formalism and deadpan humor of her previous work.

The exhibitions title, In Pari Delicto, a somewhat archaic legal term meaning “in equal fault,” connotes an elegance and charged sensuality belying the prosaic resignation of the phrase’s meaning. Dress gloves, cigarettes, sterling silver sets, and thoroughbreds anachronistically symbolize sophistication, while barely disguising a standoff between ordinary, commensurable forces: incumbent and invading, animated and inert, covetous and restrained. In the slow unfolding of non–events each side acts in a balletic concert; no side is privileged.

Diana Kingsley: In Pari Delicto
January 9 – February 28, 2009
Leo Castelli Gallery
18 East 77th Street
New York, NY

PhotoNOLA Showcase Winners Annouced

Fastfood © Susana Raab

Susana Raab and Sarah Wilson are the two award winners from the PhotoNOLA reviews in December 2008!

NYMPHOTO is proud to say that Sarah participated in Nymphoto's "Filtered" exhibit and that we have had the pleasure of featuring Susana Raab in Nymphoto Conversations last year, you can re-visit that interview by clicking here.

If you head over to photo-eye you can see showcases featuring Sarah and Susana's work, as well as purchase prints.

Congrats Susana & Sarah!

A Conversation with Garie Waltzer

Shanghai, Overpass #1 and Paris, Eiffel Tower ©Garie Waltzer

Rona and I had the pleasure of seeing Garie Waltzer's photographic prints in person and were instantly drawn to the entire series of wonderfully crafted urban landscapes. Garie has traveled extensively throughout the world, exploring the the dense histories with modern complexities. We're honored to present a conversation with Garie, a photographer who is recipient of many artist grants including the National Endowment of the Arts and from the Ohio Arts Council.

Nymphoto: Tell us a little about yourself.

Garie Waltzer: I grew up in New York- first the Bronx, then Long Island. My father had a music store (Banner Music) on Broadway between 48th and 49th street, where he sold and repaired instruments, gave lessons and did a lot of schmoozing. My uncles were all musicians - a few who played Broadway musicals, so backstage passes were dreamy highlights of my childhood.

I don’t remember ever not thinking of myself as an artist – I was always drawing or painting. I had a painter friend when I was 15 who thought of the German Expressionists as his soul mates, and we’d take the LIRR into the city, go to the museums, hang out in the Village, and talk about art. I still have a great painting of his from that time, which I’ve carted around with me everywhere I’ve ever lived! A close friend when I was 10, was Arthur Leipzig’s daughter. I had no idea at the time that he was a magazine photographer, with work in The Family of Man. I remember going to her house and looking at his b+w photographs hanging in their living room, one in particular of my friend. I knew these photos were special, and mused, “I wish my father took pictures of me that looked like that”! Years later, I went to a retrospective of Leipzig’s work at the Howard Greenberg Gallery, and hanging in the entranc eway to the show was the small photo of my friend as a child – the same image that had hung in their living room long ago.



Istanbul, Street and New York, Coney Island ©Garie Waltzer

NP: How did you discover photography?

GW: When you look back, the path is pretty clear. I can see myself with my new Brownie camera at age 10, a Sinclair dinosaur sticker on the back. I still have my very first photos taken on a 5th grade field trip of the tugboats around the Statue of Liberty. I remember sitting for hours, nerdy as hell, with a huge National Geographic book my family had of American landscapes. After high school, my plan was to study painting, but I was repeatedly drawn to the power and immediacy of photography during the volatile years of the late 60’s when I was a student at SUNY Buffalo, a large state campus that came to national attention in ’68/‘69 during the anti-war demonstrations that surrounded the trial of the Buffalo Nine. I would have long conversations with fellow students about what it meant to be an artist during these times as I struggled to find a way to make work that was connected to what was happening in the world. It was at that time that I saw an exhibit of photographs by Milton Rogovin, made in the Lower West Side neighborhood of Buffalo, and was blown away by their tangible power. I also saw a wonderfully idiosyncratic exhibit of collaborative images by the painter Charles Gill and the photographer Donald Blumberg, both faculty at Buffalo. They were very huge photographs on canvas that had been painted into. I knew this was the arena for me. During my last year at Buffalo, I took a photography class with Donald, and when I finished school, the first thing I did was buy darkroom equipment and move back to the city.


Tokyo, Hanayashiki Amusement Park ©Garie Waltzer

NP: Where do you find inspiration?

GW: There is nothing I like better than exploring a new city. Wandering its streets, looking for keys to understanding the place- studying its energy, synergy, physical peculiarities, the magic of its people walking their daily paths. I am often inspired by books- by other artists’ work- and by good conversation over a glass of wine - but the thing that really gets me going is a crazy busy chaotic place to photograph.


Tokyo, International Forum ©Garie Waltzer

NP: How has teaching influenced your work?

GW: I taught for about 30 years at a large county community college in Cleveland. I loved the students, and loved getting to know them through their pictures. The richness and breadth of human narrative oozing out of a really diverse classroom of students was almost operatic; turning students on to thinking critically about their images and their power was endlessly compelling. I learned a lot over the years about balancing something you value (teaching students) with the necessities of survival in an increasingly bureaucratic educational system. A lot of change happened in those 30 years: the role of photography in our culture, its position in the art + communications worlds, its technological morphing, not to mention the ways we teach photography- the pace of change only increasing, and the traditional boundaries between media shifting and blurring. Being in the midst of all that change was gratifying when it wasn’t making me nuts. Teaching takes you out of yourself, it’s endlessly collaborative, and that’s what I loved the most and miss the most about it.


Odessa, Gazebo ©Garie Waltzer

NP: How did this project come about?

GW: I had been working in a radically different way before I left teaching: using a color electrostatic printer as a camera and making large allegorical images that were cut and collaged and painted into- very physical, and evocative. And then there had been a period of about ten years in which I was consumed with running the photo department, building new facilities and dealing with technological change, during which I had not made much new work. In returning to my studio, I revisited old impulses to make work that was more concretely connected to the world I saw, more observational and outward looking. I had never thought of myself as a landscape photographer, but in fact, that’s where the work took me. I had amassed a large inventory of images made over that decade, primarily of the made landscape, it’s structure and spirit. Determined to “catch up” on my printing, I went back to these images and picked up new threads in the visual narrative. This was the jumping off point for a continuing body of work that is about the inhabited landscape.

I am photographing civic spaces - parks, plazas, pools and busy intersections - recording the confluence of time, place and populace. The images explore place as an intricately detailed organism with structure, flow, synchronicity, and collective narrative. They often use elevated vantage points and deep vistas, creating bird’s eye views that hover above the fray. I am interested in capturing the gestalt of a place simultaneously with the specificity of detail that is abundant, embedded and particular to the ways we inhabit a place.



Kunming, Street and Shanghai, Overpass #3 ©Garie Waltzer

NP: What's next?

GW: I have a show of this work coming up in Miami, Florida at Chelsea Galleria, 2441 NW 2nd Avenue, Miami (opening Feb. 14 - March 10) and another at Akron University Galleries, Akron, Ohio (opening March 2 - April 17). Akron’s "Seen in China" will include work made in China by five photographers, including Daniel Traub, Linda Butler, Peikwen Cheng, and Joe Vitone. I’m also working on a project with Leslie Rose Close, a landscape historian, photographing cultural landscapes in New York. She just wrote a wonderful essay to accompany my work in Light Work’s Contact Sheet 2008 Annual, due out soon. Inspired by Philip Lopate’s Waterfront : A Walk Around Manhattan , I recently photographed the Hudson River landscape near the Statue of Liberty, homage to my first tugboat pictures.

Last year I worked on a great project to photograph the University Circle neighborhood of Cleveland for the George Gund Foundation’s annual report. Photographing in my own town, something I haven’t been doing for a while, was inspiring, so when I was recently asked to participate in a project called Lake Effect, to photograph Lake Erie, I gladly agreed. The light is wonderful today, two feet of snow covers the ground, and it’s 5 degrees below zero- the crusty post-industrial landscape of Cleveland is so beautiful it could break your heart.

NP: Thank you very much, Garie!

To see more of Garie's work, go to : www.gariewaltzer.com

Also, opening on Saturday, the 14th:

Garie Waltzer: Walking on Air
Chelsea Galleria
February 14 through March 10
2441 NW 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL

Nadja Bournonville

Where everything starts, ©Nadja Bournonville

Nadja Bournonville, Part Two Amor Omnia Vincit

Pierogi 2000
177 North 9th Street, 718-599-2144
February 6 - March 8, 2009

From the press release:

"Part Two–Amor omnia vincit

"Love conquers all, as a working hypothesis, or the innermost core of pain."

—P.O Enquist, The book about Blanche and Marie

For Nadja Bournonville, the photographs of "Amor omnia vincit" have become a series of questions rather then answers, like stories left wide open. They question both the personal and universal experience of love—the distance between need and desire, the restless hunt for intimacy, and our hope to be truly known by the other; and, on the other hand, the vertigo—the fear of falling, being left and rejected.

After reading P.O. Enquist’s "The book about Blanche and Marie,” Bournonville decided to divide her project into three parts inspired by the question books written by the main character, Blanche. Each page of these books is said to start with a question and it is through her sometimes erratic answers that a story gradually unfolds. In Part One, "One for every wish," I was occupied with the question I applied as a child to every situation, why? The curiosity and playfulness of this question drove my search forward through continuous reading, questioning and image making. Part two has developed similarly, where the scenes built up within the images act as spaces for thoughts and ideas regarding the impossible possibility of love. (Bournonville, 2009)
This will be the first exhibition of Bournonville’s photographs in the United States.

Op-Ed Wanted!

Nymphoto is looking for additional contributors for its Op-Ed Series. Don't be shy, apply!

What is Nymphoto Op-Ed?

Nymphoto Op-Eds are written by artists, curators, bloggers, collectors, historians,critics and students; the Op-ed pieces share the reflections and opinions of its authors relating to & about photography. We are interested in a broad range of opinions & experiences and are encouraging everyone involved in the arts to submit.

If you you would like your op-ed published on the Nymphoto Blog please submit it via contact(at)nymphoto.com along with a CV and a link to your web-presence (if you have one).
Please note that we are primarily looking for op-eds written by women in photography or by men writing about subjects relevant to women artists.

You can find the Nymphoto Collective's Mission Statement at: www.nymphoto.com.

Upcoming: Tema Stauffer & Francesca Romeo @ Daniel Cooney

Jacob (Red Brick Alley) © Tema Stauffer

Francesca Romeo & Tema Stauffer
Daniel Cooney Fine Art Gallery

511 West 25th Street, Suite 506
New York, NY
Feb. 19-April 18, 2009
Opening Reception: Thursday, Feb. 19 6-8 p.m.

You can revisit our conversation with Tema, by clicking here.

(via Daniel Cooney Fine Art)

Daniel Cooney Fine Art is very proud to announce a two-person exhibition of photographic portraits by Francesca Romeo and Tema Stauffer.

Romeo knows her subjects intimately as they are fellow artists and patrons of the bar she owns on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Drawing upon the aesthetic of both film noir and classical painting, she is interested in documenting her circle of friends that are emblematic of the new bohemia. She seeks out subjects that are affected by gentrification and that exhibit characteristics contrary to the mainstream in order to elicit a sense of psychological malaise.

Stauffer is exhibiting selected images from a work-in-progress inspired by the song, “A Ballad of Sad Young Men.” All of the subjects are photographed on Main Street in Binghamton, a small industrial city located in central New York well past its heyday. The young men she photographs are high school students and transient early twenty-somethings. Her approach contrasts to Romeo’s because she finds her subjects on the street and introduces herself as a photographer. While lacking a familiarity, there is a sexual tension that surfaces in the exchange between the photographer and the subjects.

Francesca Romeo has exhibited her work at PS 122, Art in General, A.M. Richards Gallery, Brooklyn and the University of Southern Illinois. She received her MFA from Pratt in 2005.

Patricia Coffie @ Mary Boone

Head over to Mary Boone Gallery to see Patricia Coffie's Solo Debut Show. While acknowledging the work of Cindy Sherman, Seydou Keita & Kara Walker, Patricia Coffie also creates intensely personnel and vibrant works that stand out.


Head of State I & Daydreams © Patrica Coffie; courtesy Mary Boone Gallery, New York

Patricia Coffie
Mary Boone Gallery
745 Fifth Avenue
- through February 14, 2009


Where are all the Black Roses? © Patrica Coffie; courtesy Mary Boone Gallery, New York