Tonight: Hellen Van Meene @SVA & Yancey Richardson

Untitled #331, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2008, Chromogenic print
© Hellen van Meene (courtesy SVA)

Hellen van Meene in Conversation with Jörg Colberg
Monday, September 14, 7pm
SVA Theatre, 333 West 23 Street
Presented by the BFA Photography Department and Dear Dave, magazine
Free and open to the public
Information at 212.592.2010 or www.sva.edu/events

Hellen van Meene's work will also be on view starting September 17, 2009 at Yancey Richardson Gallery.

Congratulations to Erika Larsen, Women in Photography Grant Winner

Sunna and Laila from the project Sami, The People © Erika Larsen

A big congratulations to Erika Larsen, the winner of Women in Photography-Lightside Grant! Another congratulations to Erica Allen, the runner-up of the grant!

Women in Photography celebrated their one year anniversary last Wednesday at the National Arts Club in New York City. Along with that came the announcement for their grant winner and runner up, sponsored by Lightside Photographic Services. It was certainly a packed gallery as the viewers kept wondering who the winner of the grant was.

Amy Elkins and Cara Phillips talked about how they came into existence, basically from one email forwarded by Joerg Colberg (Conscientious) about a NY Times article on the topic of "gallerinas." Cara forwarded the article to a number of female artists, photographers, and bloggers and quickly developed a plan with Amy (who conveniently lived 10 blocks away from Cara) to find a way to display work by women photographers. There was fast following and many supported the idea, such as the Humble Arts Foundation, who help host the website. It's amazing how fast Women in Photography gained momentum. 

Erika Larsen will focus on a new series of work entitled, "Sami, The People." The project will focused on the indigenous natives living in the Arctic Circle region of northern Scandinavia. Head over to the website to see a selection of images from the beginning of this project.

Friday: Blogging and the Photo Community

From NYPH09:

Panel discussion with Cara Philips, Laurel Ptak, Andrew Hetherington, Joerg Colberg, and Brian Ulrich.
May 15, 11 am -12 pm.

This panel promises an open-ended discussion on the current state of the blogging and the photography community, or what I lamely call the “photosphere”. If you think that you have any clue as to what is actually going on in photography today, then you will be hogging a seat from the early morn.
Audience participation is expected, so bring your brain.

Panel participants are:
Jorg Colberg - http://www.jmcolberg.com/weblog/
Cara Philips - http://caraphillips.wordpress.com/
Laurel Ptak - http://www.iheartphotograph.blogspot.com/
Andrew Hetherington - http://www.whatsthejackanory.com/
Brian Ulrich - http://www.notifbutwhen.com/NIBW/

Reviewers' Takes on Portfolio Reviews

Joerg did us all a favor and rounded up some more takes on portfolio reviews from the other side of the table on Conscientious.

Upcoming: Bare

Greta © Jennifer Loeber

Bare
Michael Mazzeo Gallery
526 West 26th Street
Suite 209
New York, NY
December 11, 2008- January 24, 2009
Opening Reception December 11, 2008

"Bare" is curated by Joerg Colberg and features work by Rachael Dunville, Amy Elkins, Ethan Aaro Jones, Richard Learoyd, Jennifer Loeber, Hellen van Meene, Josh Quigley, Richard Renaldi, Jessica Roberts, Alec Soth, Shen Wei and Carmen Winant.

Self-Publishing

Emily Shur wrote a while back about her experience with Blurb, and yesterday Joerg Colberg of Conscientious wrote an excellent account of his endeavor into self-publishing. This is a helpful post and hopefully it will broaden the discussion & encourage information exchange about this relevant topic.


Blurb Book 2.0 © Emily Shur

Selling Your Work, Funding Your Projects

The other day Liz Kuball decided on having a print sale a la Tiny Showcase and 20x200.
The sale provoked an animated discussion on Liz' blog about her decision to sell her work this way (I chimed in too - twice). It's an interesting thread.
You can read the entire discussion here: www.lizkuball.com/blog/2008/08/print-sale-caras-bed-guilford.html

Also worth reading is a post by gallerist Ed Winkelman titled Selling Solo vs. Working with a Gallery that I came across via Conscientious.
I also recommend reading Cara Phillips blog entries How Much Can I Make if You Click Here? and Your Help Needed!- which relate to this topic too.

I Can See for Miles & More

I Can See For Miles © Emily Shur

The response to Blurb's Photo Book Contest has been oberwhelming and we will leave the sorting through all the entires to others, like Andrew Hetherington. However we wanted to highlight Emily Shur's (who we recently spoke to for Nymphoto Conversations) book:I Can See For Miles.
Joerg Colberg pointed out that it would be nice if Blurb would offer a discount on the sales price of the books entered for competition (thus encouraging people to buy the books) -- good idea. Even just a temporary sale would be great.

Hilla Becher: "Klar waren wir Freaks"

The work of Bernd & Hilla Becher is currently on view at MOMA - through August 25, 2008.
Joerg Colberg just posted touching experts from an interview with Ms. Becher on his blog Conscientious. Since the original interview(by Tobias Haberl and Dominik Wichman) was published in German for the Suedeutsche Zeitung Magazin, Joerg took the time to translate parts of this interview. See his transcript here.

A Conversation with Dina Kantor

Heli & Andre © Dina Kantor

Dina Kantor was first introduced to us via Joerg Colberg's Conscientious blog. Joerg highlighted Dina's recent project "Finnish & Jewish" - which explores & documents a very small community in Scandinavia.




Avi & Keren © Dina Kantor

Dina kindly agreed to answer a few questions (see below) and to share her artist statement, in which she explained her project and her connection to the community that she has been photographing. Dina sees an intrinsic ability in the photographic medium to record details which is underlined by her stylistic choice of clear lines and her use of a sober palette. Dina has an interest in exploring the role of photography in the construction of identity & community building. An important issue that she collaboratively explores with her subjects in "Finnish & Jewish": Dina through the act of picture taking - thus becoming an active participant in the process of identity construction -- and her subjects by sitting for the project.


NP: Tell us a little about yourself.

DK: I grew up in Minneapolis, MN, and am now based in Brooklyn. I studied Journalism at Studio Arts at the U of MN. After college, I lived in London for a while before moving to New York. When I got here in worked in advertising for a few years. The only thing that really kept me sane at the time was photography, so I decided to go to graduate school. I received an MFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts in 2007.

My photographs have been featured in various publications, including Photo District News. I was named to Heeb Magazine's Heeb 100 list in 2007 and have received grants from both the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Finlandia Foundation National. My photographs have been exhibited nationwide.


NP: How did you discover photography and what inspires you?

DK: The first time I took a photography class was in the 4th grade.
Unfortunately, I was trying to use old cameras that belonged to my grandfather, and none of them really worked. I didn't really get back into photography until I was in college.

I'm always inspired when I meet new people. I love seeing the way people dress, how they choose to present themselves, and what sort of things they choose to surround themselves with. It's no surprise, I guess, because my father was a sociologist. He used to drive me and my siblings through Uptown in Mpls in the 80s and we'd go "people watching." It's still one of my favorite pastimes.

NP: How did this project (Finnish & Jewish) come about?

DK: My mother was born in Finland and emigrated to America as a child in 1947.
Almost thirty years later, when she married my father, she converted to Judaism. I began photographing in Finland as a way to explore my own heritage, but as the project continues, it has come to embody a larger exploration.

Finland has a population of 5.3 million people, with only an estimated 1,500 Jews (and just two synagogues). I am interested in how such a small community maintains its cultural identity.

With these pictures, I am investigating the ways in which photography contributes to the construction of identity and community. Today’s society is increasingly complex and multi-cultural. As our heritages blend, our identities are no longer definable by a generic social stereotype of community, but by our unique experiences and backgrounds. Photography has an intrinsic ability to record details. I am employing it to record cultural signifiers and traditions as they blend, as well as to depict physical characteristics of a hybridized community.

NP: Do you think people were open to being photographed for this project because they want to preserve and project/share their identity & heritage?

DK:I'm sure each of my subjects had slightly different reasons for wanting to be photographed. But I'm guessing that the opportunity to help preserve their community's identity played into it for some of them.

I also think that, in a religious community, there are no real physical boundaries or exact definitions of who belongs or why. I chose to photograph anyone living in Finland who self-identified as being Jewish, not only the official members. Somehow the photograph helps establish these boundaries, both for the community itself and for the viewers. I think choosing to participate in my project may, in some way, have confirmed their sense of belonging to this specific community, whether that was conscious or not.

NP: Thank you so much! We are looking forward to seeing more of your work.

Take a look at more of Dina's photography via her website: www.dinakantor.com

Danielle Van Ark: What's the Big Deal Anyway?

Conscientious highlighted the work of Danielle van Ark today, specifically two bodies of work: "For Art's Sake" and "What's the Big Deal Anyway?" - particularly latter made me reflect again on the recent Gallerina 'controversy'.

On a roll

Joerg Colberg updated his blogroll on his popular photo blog Conscientious. It now includes Nymphoto's Nina Buesing's blog where she muses about photography, art, travel, and life in NY. He also included Hee Jin Kang's new photoblog where she has already made some interesting posts.

Colberg Interviews Van Meene

Check out this excellent conversation between Joerg Colberg and Hellen Van Meene (and some of her new work).