Sunday, November 30, 2008

Lauren Greenfield's Kids & Money

Horses Think led me to photographer Lauren Greenfield's site and the trailer for her new documentary "Kids & Money", which premiered Friday on HBO. The movie will be shown all through December, check HBO's schedule for showtimes.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

The New Yorker on Zoe Strauss

Read Eliza Honey's review of Zoe Strauss' work for The New Yorker, here.
And if you are in New York don't forget to see Zoe Strauss' show at Bruce Silverstein Gallery - through January 10, 2009.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Niche Photo Sites

Art Carrer's Jessica Merritt recently posted a list of 100 interesting photo sites. You can find the list here.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

A Conversation with Ariana Page Russell

Ariana Page Russell
Dressing

Gallery 4Culture, Seattle, WA
November 6 - November 28


Heat Wave, 2008, © Ariana Page Russell

Standing in front of Ariana Page Russell’s prints at Gallery 4Culture, my mind can’t help but jump to the old cliché “Beauty is only skin deep.” Beauty is surface. But here traditional blonde beauty becomes the backdrop on which Russell intervenes, bringing her skin to the surface. She photographs her skin, transforms it into temporary tattoos, reapplies the skin tattoos to her body, and photographs the result.

The Greek thinker Epicurious described images as incredibly thin films, eidola, which are constantly, rapidly shed from objects. When these thin films land in our eyes, we perceive the object from which they came. I imagine Russell frantically applying her skin tattoos, layering skin on skin so as not to be left bare when the eidola of her own surface is cast off. Is that what the camera captures when it takes a person’s picture?

I come back to Beauty. It’s a battle-worn question, but unavoidable when an artist trains her camera, lights, and makeup on a nude female body, even if that body is her own. I’m drawn to the photographs where Russell’s intervention wobbles the beauty ideal on which it rests. For example, Heat Wave reminds me of Man Ray’s Glass Tears, but the fleshy mouth hints at more than just artistic cannibalism. In Belle Etoile Russell grafts custom wallpaper of her skin onto one of the gallery walls. If the camera captured a likeness, now the print releases it again, shedding thin flakes of skin imagery into the world.


Belle Etoile, 2008, © Ariana Page Russell

Nymphoto: Tell us a little about yourself

Ariana Page Russell: Art and education are very important to me, as is integrating these things into daily life. I love communication and bodies--things that make us human. And I like to have fun.

NP: How did you discover Photography?

APR: In 1996 I took a photography class at Truckee Meadows Community College because my mom gave me her old Minolta X700 camera. I fell in love with the process and continued taking classes when I transferred to the University of Nevada, Reno a few years later. I became interested in the conceptual nature of photography and with the support of some amazing professors, switched my major from psychology to photography, getting my BFA in 2003.


Blanch, 2008, © Ariana Page Russell

NP: Where do you find inspiration?

APR: My skin and the unexpected responses it has inspire me to be spontaneous, vulnerable, and accepting. I used to get really frustrated at my easily blushing skin but now love its transparency. I hope to inspire others to embrace the flaws and beauty of their bodies.

NP: How did this project come about?

APR: Dressing came about as I refine my ideas of how to capture a blush. Externalized emotions become their own sort of fashion, a fashion of skin, so I created 'clothing' with temporary tattoos made from collages of photographs of skin. I print the images of skin as c-prints, cut those into various shapes, then mount the shapes to panel in varying patterns. Then I scan the panels and turn them into temporary tattoos, putting my skin back on my body.


Corsage, 2008, © Ariana Page Russell

NP: What's next?

APR: I'm very interested in pursuing the performative aspects of my work. It's been scary for me to show my face in these new images but now that I've conquered that fear I'd like to try being present in the space of my work in a new way via performance. This is still developing...

In early 2009 I'm moving to New York City so I imagine a new environment will impact my work as well.

NP: Thank you Ariana, and good luck with your move!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Amanda Marsalis

Amanda Marsalis, who participated in the second Nymphoto exhibit, has a fantastic eye. Her grasp of light and colors is superb and her images make you want to travel the world.

Watch Amanda talk about her photography here:




courtesy www.brightcove.tv

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Domesticated:The Book!


© Amy Stein

You can now pre-order -signed if you so desire- a copy of Amy Stein's Domesticated via Photo Eye. Hurry up if you yearn for a copy, because they only printed 600 copies!

Monday, November 24, 2008

On Photography Collectives & Thank you

Joerg Colberg blogged about Photography Collectives today. It is an interesting post and made me think about Nymphoto's efforts and history.

Nymphoto was conceived because we saw a need to help promote women artists but also because we all yearned for community and support (particularly after the loss of structure that comes with finishing one's studies and leaving the academic environment).
Running a collective is not easy. Especially in New York. New York, where everything is expensive, where no one has enough time, where there are a multitude of legal obstacles, where everyone has an opinion and where everyone is happy to criticize and where sometimes people even are happy to belittle or undermine one's efforts. But New York is still a great center for creativity and culture and so New York based Nymphoto soldiers on.
Cara Phillips wrote about her experience of creating & running Women In Photography (also New York based) in her blog post titled "Risk & Reward" (June 6, 2008) and in it she explains how much effort goes into something that might look effortless to others.
Nymphoto continuous to grow. And 2008 promises to be a great year for Nymphoto. And in the spirit of this holiday week, I just wanted to thank my cohorts at Nymphoto and applaud all others out there supporting us and one another: THANK YOU!

Emily Shur @ Feature Shoot


© Emily Shur

Head over to Feature Shoot to read Alison Zavos' interview with Emily Shur. And why not revisit our interview with Emily from earlier this year? You can find it here.
Emily besides being an outstanding photographer and is also an avid blogger, see her blog, titled My Four Eyed Fantasy, at: www.emilyshur.blogspot.com

Positivity

Head over to my love for you is a stampede of horses for some positive thinking.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Photographer Bette S.Garber Dies at 65

Read Margalit Fox's New York Times article that remembers Bette S. Garber, here.

Mickey Smith solo show

MICKEY SMITH | YOU PEOPLE
Through December 21, 2008
Invisible-Exports
14A Orchard Street
Wednesday through Sunday, 11-6:30pm

Friday, November 21, 2008

Karla Turcios at FotoWeek DC



Tomorrow is the last day of FotoWeek DC. Check out the work of Karla Turcios at the FotoWeek Central location, 3333 M Street, NW in Georgetown.

AMERICA: We Love Having You Here

Opening tomorrow:

Zoe Strauss: AMERICA: We Love Having You Here
November 22, 2008 – January 10, 2009
Opening: November 22nd, 6 - 8pm

Silverstein Photography
535 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
P: 212-627-3930

(from the Silverstein Gallery press release):

Silverstein Photography is pleased to announce Zoe Strauss: AMERICA: We Love Having You Here, an exhibition featuring works from Strauss’ last eight years of photographing throughout the United States including her most recent excursions. Many of the images in the show are also featured in her forthcoming book of the same title.


No image more popularly depicts the artist’s creative process than the famed Hans Namuth portrait of Jackson Pollock at work on his signature drip paintings. The image showing Pollock lunging aggressively toward his canvas with paintbrush in hand revealed to the public for the first time that most private and mysterious of practices: the artist at work. In the years since this image was made, incalculable others of the same subject have appeared, but beside Namuth’s portrait of Pollock, none have more definitively represented the artist amidst their creative process. Despite Namuth’s revelatory portrait, artists’ working practices and the public’s perception thereof have remained clandestine, leaving only their end result in the public’s view and keeping hidden the progression of events out of which the art was created. By maintaining total transparency in her process, her work, and even the production of her exhibitions, Zoe Strauss not only reveals her every musing and tendency, she offers the viewer a deeply personal understanding of her process as an artist - integral to the comprehension of her work.

Strauss’ transparency has been an indispensable element in her method since her first installations built inside her home were opened to the public for viewing in 1997. Shortly thereafter, Strauss began what would become a ten-year project of displaying her works in the area below the I-95 highway in Philadelphia. Like all of her exhibitions, the ‘I-95’ project continues to involve extensive awareness of and communication with her audience. While in production for I-95 and all other projects, Strauss actively maintains a blog which among other things discloses the minutiae of her art-making practices, her choices in subject matter, her editing and printing processes, and most recently, the publishing of her first book, AMERICA (AMMO Books, 2008). By making public the details of an otherwise private practice of producing art and its related projects and events, Strauss asserts her working method as a part of the art being considered, allowing the audience to see the way the work is made as a fundamental component to its understanding.

Strauss’ choice in subject matter reveals much about her life and work as an artist as well. Having gotten her start photographing the same neighborhood in which she lives, Strauss has consistently “shot what she knows” and has maintained an extremely personable approach to her subjects. This steadfast openness has become a defining characteristic of Strauss’ work and has made her a natural candidate for the subject matter on which she continues to focus. From her earliest works on, Strauss has concentrated on the overlooked in America. Whether its overlooked citizens, environments, or the objects therein, Strauss has aimed her lens at those things we cannot or choose not to see. In her latest project, Strauss has taken her camera on the road in an attempt to create an apt portrait of the United States. Driving between various locations throughout the U.S., Strauss has photographed those neglected people and places among us, creating a likeness of this country largely dissimilar to what we think we already know.

Zoe Strauss’ work was included in the 2006 Whitney Biennial and has been exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Institute of Contemporary Art, the Centraal-Museum of Utrecht, and the Richard E. Peeler Art Center at DePauw University among others. In 2007, Strauss was named a USA Gund Fellow, Visual Arts.

For more information on the exhibition, please contact Elizabeth Shank at elizabeth@brucesilverstein.com.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

A Conversation with Toni Pepe


© Toni Pepe

“It’s my dream. A world where all would be silent and each thing in its last place, under the last dust.” -Samuel Beckett, Endgame”

I met Toni Pepe in between portfolio reviews at last year’s SPE Mid-Atlantic Northeast Conference in Woodstock. We became fast friends and kept winning awards together at SPE Conferences. (Always a plus!)

Her series, “Angle of Repose” has a cinematic and dramatic quality that emphasizes on questions rather than answers. Toni has exhibited widely in the US and currently has a solo exhibition at The Center for Photography at Woodstock through January 11, 2009.

© Toni Pepe

Absence and presence is a recurring theme within this series, implying that each image works to reference something beyond the frame. Photography best portrays this thematic approach since by nature; photographs possess a fundamental quality of absence. All of the elements within the frame—the props, costumes and gestures prompt the notion and tangibility of loss and memory. If we had never met could I still have a memory of you? Can we make present something that is absent?

NP: Tell us a little about yourself.

TP: I grew up in the Boston area and recently moved back after being away for about 7 years. I studied English and Visual Art at Michigan State University during my undergraduate career. In April of 2008 I received an MFA in Imaging Arts from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Graduate school really gave me the time and space to figure out where I fit in within the medium of photography; it allowed me to recognize that I could combine my passion for literature and writing with visual art.

© Toni Pepe
A variety of performative devices from theater, cinema, and literature reconstruct visions and moments experienced within the walls of the character’s mind. References to memory are embedded in her gestures and body language. Though the poses are appropriated from family photographs, at the same time they evoke the classical and art historical. Recurring motifs such as dust suggest the past, calling to mind the idea of remains and decay.

NP: How did you discover photography?

TP: I took my first photography course (Photojournalism I) during my sophomore year at MSU. I had always wanted to take a photo class, but put it off because I was more involved with writing and literature. It may sound cliché, but I absolutely fell in love with photo after that first day of class. I knew that it was something I wanted to pursue, so I started interning at a local newspaper and spent the majority of my time shooting or in the dark room. I went on to take a photo course every semester before I graduated. Even though, I enjoyed photo class, I didn’t really connect with my job at the newspaper – in fact, I grew to really dislike going on assignments and felt that there had to be more to this medium. I don’t think I figured out what that was until I was out of school and started to experiment on my own – away from all the categories photo seems to be put into (photojournalism, fine art photo, nature photography, commercial, etc.).


© Toni Pepe

NP: Where do you discover photography?

TP: Each project I start is never a complete departure from my earlier work. I tend to draw a lot from the personal – the family album, old clothing, the mannerisms of friends and family, identity as it relates to the narratives of my relatives. I also pull from broader, more universal material like advertising, literature, television/movies. I think the foundation of all of my work, however, is a need for tangibility – I surround myself with objects from the past – objects with a sense of history, it’s comforting in a way.


© Toni Pepe

NP: How do your projects come about?

TP: I tend to work with a certain core of ideas and I don’t think I’ve ever really considered a series done. When I stop shooting one particular series and move onto something else – I move on, but I never really leave anything behind. Similar ideas and aesthetics may be carried to a new series, but I always try to push myself beyond what I did prior. Usually, I’ll sketch out an idea (typically a drawing so poorly rendered only I really know what it is) and once I start shooting the elements will either fall into place or not – that will usually lead me to something new or keep me on the track I started on in the first place.


© Toni Pepe

NP: What’s next?

TP: Right now, I am working on a series that explores familial history – identity as it relates to one’s nationality/heritage and one’s name. I am drawing from the aesthetic of the miniature and illuminated manuscripts –which give a concentrated amount of information/narrative in a typically tiny amount of space. I like the idea of the compact – fitting identity into a name or a symbol – squeezing it into a frame of a photograph, etc.

NP: Thank you very much, Toni!

To see more of Toni's work, check her website at www.tonipepe.com. She is also a contributor to an art critique blog, Art is Hard.

She currently is in a solo exhibition at The Center for Photography at Woodstock through January 11, 2009. She is also the Northeast Exposure Online's Artist of the month at the Photographic Resource Center.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

I Miss You Already

I Miss You Already is the title of the photo that Tracey Baran made in 2004 where she is on the inside of a house, with her eyes closed, her lips and fingertips pressed into the glass. Tracey made beautiful images that were personal and affecting. I met Tracey years ago as a fellow Print Spacer and would see her around quite often. I was sad to hear about her passing. There will be a memorial service for her in Brooklyn this Saturday. More info here.

We miss you too Tracey.

Opening Tonight: Nikki S. Lee

Opening tonight at Sikkema Jenkins is new work by Nikki S. Lee, titled Layers.

Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
530 W. 22nd St. NYC
November 19, 2008 - January 10, 2009
Opening Reception:
Wednesday, November 19, 6-8PM

Opening Reception Tonight: Brea Souders


© Brea Souders

See Brea Souders work in
Meet Waradise – Fjord Exhibition, NYC
17 Orchard Street
Reception: November 19th, 6 - 9 P.M

Susan Meiselas @ Aperture

And icon Susan Meiselas:

Free Videos by Ustream.TV/courtesy Aperture

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Dina Kantor @ WIPNYC


Avi © Dina Kantor

Dina Kantor is the featured artist right now on Women In Photography.

For more on Dina Kantor, check out the Conversation she had with us in June.

Annie Leibovitz Wanting to Play Tennis

On my way to work this morning I heard Renee Montagne's interview with Annie Leibovitz on WNYC's morning edition. She discusses some images and the stories behind the the photos from her book, Annie Leibovitz at Work. My favorite story is how she brought a tennis racket along with her when she went on tour with The Rolling Stones in 1975. She thought she would have time to get some tennis instruction in at the hotels. Instead she would spend her nights up working with the band. It's a short piece and worth hearing the personal stories, so have a listen right here.

Women in Photography @ Aperture

And in case you missed this panel discussion:

Live video chat by Ustream/courtesy Aperture

Monday, November 17, 2008

Deborah Willis in Conversation with Hank Willis Thomas at Aperture

In case you missed Deborah Willis & Hank Willis Thomas' lecture at Aperture, you can catch it here:

courtesy Aperture, Free Live Streaming Ustream

Lola Alvarez Bravo

(via exposures -an aperture blog)

Lola Alvarez Bravo
Saturday, November 1, 2008 –Sunday, January 4, 2009

Naples Museum of Art
5833 Pelican Bay Blvd
Naples, FL

Lola Alvarez Bravo (1907–1993) was Mexico’s first woman photographer. Her work is exceptional for both its compelling quality and its startling diversity. She began making photographs in 1926 under the tutelage of her husband, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, and continued photographing for the next sixty years. Some of her earliest photographs reflect her husband’s influence—they shared the same simple Kodak camera, and often the same role of film. But Lola achieved her own aesthetic during the 1940s and ’50s, concentrating on two particularly vivid bodies of work: portraiture and street photography. This Aperture traveling exhibition includes vintage photographs encompassing the full range of her extraordinary work. See the accompanying book here.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Emerging Artist Auction

Head over to igavel.com to bid on some fantastic work by the wonderful Brea Souders, Samantha Contis, Cara Phillips and many more -- curated by Daniel Cooney.

Helen Levitt @ FOAM

Helen Levitt's In the Street is showing at Foam Fotografie Museum until Jan. 18, 2009. I really really wish I could go to Amsterdam and see this show. Helen Levitt's work has always held me captive and how nice would it be to be surrounded by an exhibit full of her work?

But since I can't be there, I found some other ways to get a healthy dose of her work. Her most recent book, Helen Levitt by Helen Levitt is available for browsing. Here's a chat Helen Levitt did with Sybil Miller from Photo Eye. And you can also listen to Melissa Block's interview with her on NPR.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Zoe Strauss Interviews

Via Liz Kuball's blog I came across this video interview with Zoe Strauss from the Philadelphia Weekly:



And Will Steacy spent election day photographing and talking with Zoe Strauss, and you can find his outstanding interview on Photoeye.

Zoe Strauss' first book, titled America, is available now. Zoe also has a show opening November 22, 2008 at Silverstein Gallery in New York.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Cindy Sherman at Metro Pictures

Check out Cindy Sherman's most recent thought provoking images:

MetroPictures
519 West 24th Street
NYC
(Between 10th and 11th avenue)
On view November 15 - December 23, 2008

Slide Fest- Places

From ICP:

The use of photography as a means to document the connections between an individual and a place is a guiding principal for five Russian-born photographers-Sasha Bezzubov, Stanislav Ginzburg, Yola Monakhov, Masha Sha, and Yyuliya Lanina- who now work in New York. Russians have always been noted for their strong and complex ties to the land of their birth. These artists address that legacy as well as their feelings for the new land they call home. In the pieces to be shown, artists will be seen working to find their place in a new world. Each artist's search inspires a new look that opens the viewer's horizon, whether within the specifics of geography or the relationship between the photographer and the subject. MODERATOR: Yulia Tikhonova, curator and writer

Slide Fest- Places
November 14 | Friday | 7:00–9:00 pm
School at ICP, 1114 Avenue of the Americas

Thursday, November 13, 2008

A Conversation with Sonja Thomsen



© Sonja Thomsen

I'm not sure how I came across the work of Sonja Thomsen. The credit most likely goes to some brilliant blogger. Every time we get a 'yes' on an interview request, all of us at Nymphoto are psyched. We think of it like a gift from the artist and each time, without fail, we discover another outstanding person & artist. And this week is no different.


Sonja Thomsen has a passion for teaching and comes from an socially engaged & culturally aware family. Like many artist she cares about nature and people. Theology and biology interest her both. Her interest & curiosity manifests in her imagery. Sonja Thomsen's work is beautiful, complex and straightforward -- simultaneously, just like life.


© Sonja Thomsen



Nymphoto: Tell us about yourself:


Sonja Thomsen:About me -- Just turned 30 and I am currently living and teaching in Milwaukee Wisconsin my hometown. I was born in Chicago IL, grew up in Milwaukee WI. I studied at Kenyon College in small Gambier OH and received a BA in Biology and Studio Art. After about six months working post undergrad it was clear to me that I wanted to further my art education and I was applying to grad school. I spent three years at

the San Francisco Art Institute, completing a post baccalaureate certificate and my MFA. In grad school I began to pay more attention to water - at the oceans edge, in the dense San Francisco fog and in the small waters in the east bay - developing a fixation with it. Today, working with elements such as water and oil I am further exploring my fascination with natural phenomena. Convergence at the surface – my work is interested in the subtlety of perception. My new video and installation work explores the imperceptible/sacred in the commonplace.

I am an adjunct faculty at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design teaching photography to undergraduate students and in adult education, www.miad.edu. I am passionate about teaching, feeling fortunate to have the opportunity to talk about art making everyday.

The community that I was a part of in San Francisco and the conversation about art making were challenging things to leave. Upon returning to Milwaukee, in order to try and promote a sense of community and dialogue in my midwestern town I was pleased to help found the Coalition of Photographic Arts with a group of local photographers. I was the president of the new found organization for three years, in that time we were able to; bring artists, Alec Soth, David Goldes, Sally Gall, Brian Ulrich and Jen Davis to Milwaukee for lectures; create 5 regional photography exhibitions; develop programming for member education and networking. In those three years the organization grew from 45 founding members to the 180+ members, making an impact in the conversation about contemporary photography throughout the greater Milwaukee

region.


© Sonja Thomsen



NP: What inspires you?


ST:Inspiration --My family – my grandmother would take me to the museum as often as possible, my aunt was the one who introduced me to photography in middle school, my parents who are unfailingly supportive, my grandfather the theologian, my husband who is passionate about justice and is an incredible humanitarian and the artists in my family.


My peers, I have had the opportunity of working with some very talented artists Lex Thompson, Daniel Cox, Cristina Sitja Rubio, Justine Reyes, Eirik Johnson, Heather

Hambrecht, Jason Nanna, Kristina Wong, and Jason Yi.


Reading: Ernesto Cardenal, Rebecca Solnit, Eckhart Tolle.


Listening to: Art Farmer, Cat Powers, Bon Iver, Angelique Kidjo, Bright Eyes, Sigor Ros.


Looking at: Roni Horn, Harry Callahan, Felix Gonzalez Torres, Masao Yamamoto, James Turrell and Jason Fulford.


Thinking about: World Religions and Biological Science, Charles and Ray Eames’ Power of Ten.


© Sonja Thomsen



NP: How did you find Photography?


It was in high school that I caught the photography bug. I fell in love with the film, the chemistry, the darkness and my 35mm Konica. Richard Zutz was the photography teacher, demanding, supportive and pushed you further. I spent as much

time as I could in the darkroom senior year.

At Kenyon, I studied with Greg Spaid and worked as his TA. Hours spent organizing his slide library began my love affair with images and the desire to learn more about the image-makers.

My time in San Francisco was incredible, I was immersed in the graduate experience as well as discovering a place that will always be a part of me. I realize that sounds

ridiculous but the landscape, the politics, the spiritual consciousness of that city

had an incredible impact on me. I was fortunate to study with incredible faculty such as Linda Connor, Jack Fulton, Henry Wessel, Regan Louie, J. John Priola, Ann Chamberlain and Lonnie Graham. Attending lectures at least once a week hearing from artists such as Emmit Gowin, Adam Fuss, Adrian Piper, and Rebecca Solnit.


© Sonja Thomsen


NP: How do projects come about?


ST: They start from somewhere personal – a recent incident, a loss, a fear, a curiosity – and that inevitably leads me to the land. Looking at elements like water and oil, natural substances that are elusive and whose form is ephemeral, to

reference the transitory, the unknown, and the personal is political.

The piece entitled surface began at the end of graduate school. I had just finished a piece inspired by recent research at the Monterey Aquarium resulting in the statement “a milliliter of water is more complex (genetically) than the human genome. The density of microorganisms living in a milliliter of water was mind blowing; the micro/macro relationship made me reconsidering the “Power of ten” and Zen Buddhist philosophy of nothingness. When creating the photographs I was interested in seeing

flatness and suggesting depth. I was interested in the metaphor of what lies beneath the surface. Shooting down at the water was an interesting way for me to obscure scale in my images so that the photographs themselves push the macro/micro. I have since continued to look at water and more recently oil. In the past two and half years I have been exploring oil through a variety of works: crude, petroleum, hole, and oil self-portrait. These pieces examine the oil most immediate in daily life,

used motor oil.

The current piece entitled lacuna is an installation of images I have collected over the past four year. Images of family and curious landscapes create an emotive

sequence. The word lacuna can refer to a gap in literature as well as a small cavity in bone. I was fascinated in the words reference to what is missing/empty in knowledge and the physical body. The groupings of photographs in lacuna reference physical gaps in the landscape as well as reference gaps in the personal narrative.


© Sonja Thomsen


NP: What is next?


ST:I am currently preparing for an exhibition at the Haggerty Museum of Art in Milwaukee in March. I will be showing oil works, the lacuna installation and a new video piece. The video piece is in four sections; pulse, oil, breath, water. The show, Current Tendencies; Ten Artists from Wisconsin will run March 12 – June 14, 2009.

I head back to Florida in December for another two weeks of my six-week residency at the Hermitage Artist Retreat in Englewood FL. The opportunity to live and work on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico has been fruitful for my process. Reading a lot and shooting along the ocean – I couldn't ask for more right now!

My lacuna work is featured in the multimedia project Pause to Begin, www.pausetobegin.com. The exhibition of the 15 participating photographers will travel in 2009 starting with the exhibition in Rochester NY.


NP: Thank you so much!


To see more of Sonja's work please head to www.sonjathomsen.com.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Margot Quan Knight


© Margot Quan Knight

Head over to www.margotknight.com to see Nymphoto's Margot Quan Knight's new website.

You can also catch Margot in person November 13, 2008 at Prichard Art Gallery in Moscow, Idaho. That day Margot will be giving an artist talk.
Margot's show opens at Prichard Art Gallery the following night, and the opening reception will be held from 5-8 p.m.

In Portland, Margot's short film Portrait of a Woman 1947-2007 is participating in the Northwest Film & Video Festival. It is part of a group of short films (look for "Shorts II") screening on Sat Nov 15 at 6pm. Tickets are at: http://www.nwfilm.org/archives/NWf&V/35nwfest/schedule.php#97

And please do revisit our July conversation with Margot, you can find it in the featured artist section of the Nymphoto website: www.nymphoto.com

Jeannette Montgomery Barron on WIPNYC

Head over to Women in Photography for the latest featured artist, Jeanette Montgomery Barron. I love how her statement is more a story, a recalling of old friendships.

En Foco Blog

En Foco now also has a blog, check it out at: www.blog.enfoco.org

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Be Alert: Serial Rapist Targeting Women in the Union Square Area


(via The New York Post):

By MURRAY WEISS, CHUCK BENNETT


Last updated: 10:23 am
November 11, 2008
Posted: 3:34 am
November 11, 2008

Police are hunting for a serial rapist who prowls Manhattan's Union Square subway station for young Asian women to follow home and brutally attack.

The fiend viciously raped two of the women in their building vestibules, and has attempted to assault two others since Oct. 1, police sources said. There may be more victims who have yet to come forward.

The suspect waits until a woman unlocks the door to her apartment building and then pounces from behind - choking his victims unconscious before raping them.

The perp is described as 6 feet tall and 170 pounds, and is in his late 20s. He wears a dark, hooded sweatshirt.

The three most recent attacks occurred on Oct. 20.

Anyone with information should contact the Crime Stoppers hot line at (800) 577-TIPS, or text CRIMES and then enter TIP577

Miyako Ishiuchi at FOAM

If you happen to be in Amsterdam you have until Sunday (Nov. 16th) to catch Miyako Ishiuchi's show at Foam Fotografie Museum.

Cara Phillips PDN Interview

Head over to PDNPulse to see Darren Ching's interview with Cara Phillips.
In it she talks about her Art in Odd Places UV Portrait experience.
I chuckled when Cara recounted that many male photographers questioned her technique :)

Hank Willis Thomas and Deborah Willis Conversation Tonight

(via www.aperture.org)

Hank Willis Thomas and Deborah Willis
Conversation

Tuesday, November 11, 2008
6:30 p.m.

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th floor
New York, New York
(212) 505-5555

Join us for an intimate conversation between mother and son about their work, influences, and collaborations. Hank Willis Thomas is one of today's most compelling emerging artists. His first monograph, Pitch Blackness (Aperture), raises complex questions about identity, race, violence, and commodification in contemporary life. Deborah Willis is a photographer, educator, author, and curator. She is currently chair and professor of photography and imaging at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.

Fraction Magazine- Issue # 4


Evolution © Suzanne Revy

Issue #4 of online magazine, Fraction, includes solo shows by Richard Renaldi, Adrienne Salinger, David Eisenlord, Norman Mauskopf, and Suzanne Revy. The Group show, Typologies, includes work by Liz Kuball, Amy Evenson, Rachel Barrett, Rona Chang, and Laura Noel.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Fraction Magazine- Typologies


Hot Spring Pipes, Hakone, Japan, 2003 © Rona Chang

I'm excited to share the news that some of my work from The Retainers, which are part of a larger body of work about water management called The Hold is in the Typologies Group show in the fourth issue of the online magazine, Fraction, out now.

WAASENAAR no.1

The first issue of WAASENAAR brought to us by Noel Rodo-Vankeulen of We Can't Paint is out now. It's packed with talent.

Solo Shows:

Julia Baum, Alexander Binder, Gustav Gustafsson, Michael Bühler-Rose, Misha de Ridder, and Andrés Marroquín Winkelmann

and Domesticity Redux, a group show with photographs by:

Ben Alper, Matthew Crowther, Stefanie Fiore, Elizabeth Fleming, Lee Gainer, Erin Nelson, Donald Rasmussen, Justin James Reed, Sean Stewart, Helen Stuhr-Rommereim, Tribble & Mancenido, and Paris Visone.

Additionally, there is an interview with Lina Scheynius by Johanna Reed.

Skin Trade @ Chashma ABC


Deer © Amy Stein

Skin Trade -featuring work by Amy Stein, Elaine Bardford, Simen Johan, Eric Lendl, Christian Siekmeier & Kimberly Whitman.
Chashama ABC
169 Avenue C (bet. 10th and 11th Streets)
New York, NY
through November 22

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Big Barack


Big Barack © Garie Waltzer

One of the reasons the election went smoothly is that many people voted early. Photographer Garie Waltzer sent me these two photos of the Big Barack puppet that her friend Robin Van Lear of the Cleveland Museum of Art made. They took him out on the streets of Cleveland to pass out leaflets to promote early voting.


Big Barack © Garie Waltzer

Everyone can make a difference.

Tomorrow: Camera Club of New York Benefit Auction

The Camera Club of New York is having a silent benefit auction tomorrow night that features amazing artists.

(from The Camera Club of New York)

Calumet Photographic
22 W. 22nd St. (bewteen Fifth and Sixth Ave.)
New York
6:30-8:30pm
$10 admission. All proceeds go to The Camera Club of New York.
CCNY is a non-profit 501(c)3 arts organization that has been nurturing talented photographers since 1884.

Preview works: www.cameraclubny.org/auction2008

Auction Artists:
Harry Amdur, Mariette Pathy Allen, Keliy Anderson-Staley, Bill Armstrong, Brett Bell, Susan Burstine, Anita Blank, Timothy Briner, Melitte Buchman, Christine Callahan, Sean Carroll, Lindsey Castillo, Jesse Chan, Polly Chandler, John Chervinsky, Jesse Cesario, Jen Davis, Pradeep Dalal, Niccolini Dianora, Emile H Dubuisson, Max Dworkin, David Elbetoft, Robert Edelman, Amy Elkins, Smith Elliot, Lisa Elmaleh, Hugo Fernandes, Larry Fink, Blake Fitch, Ryan Foerster, Lucas Foglia, Martine Fougeron, Allen Frame, Anthony Fuller, Anders Goldfarb, Lorraine Gracey, Cornelia Hediger, Thomas Holton, Henry Horenstein, Joelle Jensen, Charles Johnstone, Annika Jonsson, Loli Kantor, Peter B. Kaplan, Jessica M. Kaufman, Kelly Anderson, Travis Kent, Ghada Khunji, Saul Leiter, Sebastian Lemm, Nataly Levich, Wayne Liu, Colleen Longo, Joseph Maida, Jerome Mallmann, Kai McBride, Chris McCaw, John Meyers, Dana Miller, Azikiwe Mohammed, Carolyn Monastra, Alex Morel, Rachelle Mozman, Walter Naegle, Lori Nix, Leah Oates, Stuart O’Sullivan, Susan Paulsen, Carissa Pelleteri, Alexander Perrelli, Stephanie Prussin, Michael Rauner, Richard Renaldi, Mauro Restiffe, Saul Robbins, Francesca Romeo, Caren Rosenblatt, Jerry Sheik, Joni Sternbach, Arne Svenson, Lustica Tee, Sally Tosti, Jennifer Trausch, Maki Ueno, Eric Weeks, Emma Wilcox, Amy Williams, Bernard Yenelouis, Rona Yefman, and Shigeki Yoshida

For further inquiries: 212-260-9927
Email: info@cameraclubny.org

Uncritical Mass: Jane Tam & more

Photographer Liz Kuball curated an online show of artists whose work will not be reviewed this year during Photolucida's Critical Mass. It's a very nice idea (Liz is full of those!) and a beautiful online show, title "Uncritical Mass". Take some time to check it out, there is much talent included. Like our own rising star, the gifted Jane Tam.


Grandfather Helping Grandmother Up the Hill to Pick Gingo Nuts ©Jane Tam

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Mary Ellen Mark Lecture in Philadelphia

(via Marketing Photos with Mary Virginia Swanson)

Lecture by Mary Ellen Mark: "Seen Behind the Scenes"
November 10, 2009 @ 7:30 p.m.
Free Library of Philadelphia- Parkway Central Library
1901 Vine Street
Philadelphia, PA

my love for you is a stampede of horses

A big thank you to Meighan O'Toole for featuring my work on her outstanding blog: www.myloveforyou.typepad.com.


courtesy my love for you is a stampede of horses (blog screenshot); © Nina Buesing (photograph)

Friday, November 7, 2008

Snapshots from the Alternative Process Exhibit

There is a lot of nice work in this show, and it is great to see the different processes used: Ambrotypes, Cyano Types, Photo Etching and more.
The Alternative Process exhibit is on view at Soho Photo at 15 White Street in New York until November 29, 2008.
The Grand Prize Winner is Jennifer Williams, our most recent Nymphoto Conversation (conducted by Rona Chang).



all images protected by copyright

Opening Reception Tonight: New American Landscape


Weston, Fl © Rachel Barrett

via Broadway Gallery:

Working in the tradition of a long and rich photographic history, Rachel Barrett isolates odd, often dreamy moments, framing for the viewer a delicate choreography between people and the natural and constructed environment. Like the pictures of Barrett’s predecessors, from Atget to Winogrand to Shore, the familiar and the strange are often swapped or the boundaries nebulous.
The protagonists of Barrett’s world become characters in a drama only the artist understands; it is up to the viewer to insert themselves in their own way into these vignettes. Barrett’s figures are small in scale within the frame, and they are seemingly about to be swallowed by the earth and sky around them. The work is pensive, moody, a bit theatrical—the lost melodramas of everyday life frozen and presented for inspection.

Broadway Gallery
473 Broadway, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10013
The New American Landscape
Opening Nov. 7, 6-8pm
On view until Nov. 15th.