Friday: Transplants - Emily Shur, Liz Kuball & Others

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Transplants. A photography show in conjunction with MOPLA.

4.30.10 – 5.14.10.

Opening night – 4.30.10 7-10PM.
This 3rd show is co-presented with the good people from MOPLA (Month of Photography Los Angeles). 10 renowned and award winning photographers, living and working in Los Angeles but born and raised elsewhere.. in other words 10 Transplants:

Adam Amengual.

Aaron Farley.

Amanda Friedman.

Sian Kennedy.

Liz Kuball.

Chris McPherson.

Scott Pommier.

Ryan Schude.

Emily Shur.

Claire Weiss

Jeremy Weiss

Picture(s) of the Week: Liz Kuball

Sounding off 2009 with an extended edition of Picture of the Week© Liz Kuball

The end of year and Winter has arrived in New York, and it makes us dream of California.
Liz Kuball's excellent series California Vernacular is just what we needed: beautiful light, sun-bleached landscapes, exuberant greens and succulents! We can practically smell the mild air while looking at Liz' vignettes of Southern California life.

You can see the whole series at www.lizkuball.com. To re-visit our conversation with Liz, please click here.
If you want to bring a piece of California home you can buy prints from California Vernacular at 20x200.

Humble Arts Rocks Indeed

Head over to Liz Kuball's blog to find out why.
And/or re-visit our conversation with Liz, by clicking here.

Wall Space Gallery

Venus © Lane Collins

Head over to www.wallspaceseattle.com to see work (and purchase affordable prints!) by Liz Kuball, Lane Collins, Emily Shur, Karen Florek, Beatrix Reinhardt, Lydia Panas, Sarah Malakoff, Catharine Stebbins & Priya Kambli.

You can re-visit our conversations with Liz Kuball, Emily Shur, Lane Collins and Beatrix Rheinhardt by clicking on their respective names or by visiting the Nymphoto Conversations Archive - to be found on the right sidebar of this blog.

A Conversation with Liz Kuball

The first time I heard of Liz Kuball was around the time the notorious "gallerina article" published and caused a small ruckus among the online photo community.
Liz was one of the first to respond to the article on her blog and to take action by coming up with the "Ask Me I've Got Answers badge".
Liz Kuball always wears her heart on her sleeve and her blog is an intimate diary of her journey and growth as a photographer.
In this conversation Liz speaks about her love for photography and California --two things which have led to her most recent and perhaps most compelling series --the aptly titled California Vernacular.




© Liz Kuball

NP: Tell us a little about yourself.

LK: I was born in Washington, D.C., in 1973, but when I was a few months old, my parents moved back to the small town in Michigan where they had grown up, and that’s where I grew up as well. I went to college in Indiana, lived in a converted horse barn in the woods for a couple years while I was in grad school, and then moved to Indianapolis to work as a book editor for a publishing house. I went freelance in 1999 and, a couple years later, realized I could live anywhere I wanted, so in 2001 I moved out to Los Angeles, knowing no one. Most people I knew in the Midwest told me I was making a mistake, that I wasn’t “the L.A. type.” But I fell in love with the place—every little bit of it—and my mom has finally stopped asking when I’m moving back. I live with my 2-year-old Australian Cattle Dog, Boo Radley, who likes to bite my ankles when I’m doing push-ups. I have the refined palate of the average kindergartener. And I can knit a mean sweater.




© Liz Kuball


NP: How did you discover photography?

LK: My formal education is nearly entirely in literature and writing—I have a master’s degree in each. But when I was in grad school for writing, I realized that writing wasn’t where my heart was. Midway through the program, I enrolled in an independent study course, and before the semester started, the professor asked what I was interested in. I said, “I’ve always liked photography,” and I feel like that sentence changed my life. He came up with a list of books for me to read—collections of essays on photography—and by the time I graduated from that writing program, at the age of 31, with $40,000 in student loans, I knew that I wanted to be a photographer.


NP: Where do you find inspiration?

LK: Sometimes it’s other people’s work—I’m a big fan of Stephen Shore’s American Surfaces and William Eggleston’s just about anything. Sometimes it’s my own work, strange as that sounds—I try to keep my favorite photos around me so that, if I’m ever stalled or stuck, I remember that I’ve made at least a few images I’m proud of. Many times it’s movies— No Country for Old Men, Revolutionary Road. . . .I just love seeing, and showing people what I see.

© Liz Kuball


NP: How do your projects come about?


LK: I don’t really know, actually. I feel like I’m still so early on this journey—I’m basically still pulling out of the driveway. I can tell you that my first real project, In Store, came about for all the wrong reasons: I was looking around and noticing that everybody I admired was working on a project and that I’d better get one myself, and it occurred to me that storage facilities would make a good series. But I wasn’t passionate about the subject and didn’t feel any real connection to it.

My current project, California Vernacular, is exactly the opposite. I was taking pictures, trying to figure out what I was interested in, posting them to my blog, and toward the end of 2008, Lisa Hunter e-mailed me and said that she thought I was capturing a California vernacular of sorts, that my photos reminded her of a Joan Didion essay, “Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream.” I love Didion, so when she said that, everything clicked for me. I knew right then what I was doing, what I was working on, and what I was trying to say. But my actual process in terms of working on this project isn’t as direct as it was with In Store, and that suits me. I just take pictures, as often as I can, and if I see ones that fit with the project, I include them there. In other words, I don’t go out looking for images for this project—I just go out looking for photographs, and I let where they fall happen later.

© Liz Kuball


NP: What’s next?

LK: I’m working right now with www.20x200.com on the editioning of one or two of my photographs and looking forward to seeing that go live. I’m continuing to work on California Vernacular. And I’m playing around with ideas for new projects as well. I’d really like to move in a documentary direction with my work, and I have a couple ideas that I want to research and possibly pursue.


NP: Thank you so much!

To see more of Liz Kuball's work please visit www.lizkuball.com and don't miss out on her blog: www.lizkuball.com/blog!

Friday Wrap Up

Beth outside Tallahassee, Florida ©Amy Stein

Amy Stein has posted new images to her website: www.amysteinphoto.com. And you can purchase a print of Amy's a great price via the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

Joanne Ratajczak was highlighted on www.featureshoot.com.

Emily Shur and Liz Kuball had lunch in L.A this week. AndEmily Shur also blogged about the importance of keeping at it and how Stephen Shore continues to inspire her.

Have a great weekend everyone! And see you next week when we hope to announce the line-up for the Nymphoto Presents @ Sasha Wolf show!

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.

Liz Kuball's Postcards

Head over to Liz Kuball's blog to check out the 'postcards' she has been posting. Lovely collages of bits of life.

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.

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

Lane Collins

We are happy to have been added to the blog roll (also know as “Blogrolliciouscrumpdiddlyumptiousness”) of Lane Collins. Like Liz Kuball, Lane offers a frank discussion of her process/ journey & the struggle artists so often face.
More about Lane Collins coming soon. Stay tuned.


? © Lane Collins

tinytinygroupshow: simoultaneous 08.26.2008

See work by Hee Jin Kang, Allison V. Smith, Liz Kuball, Kelly Shimoda, Sonja Thomsen, Amy Stein & others at: kevinmiyazaki.blogspot.com in tinytinygroupshow #6.

Women in the Arts

We are grateful to Tema Stauffer for posting about her history with Nymphoto today and to provide for newcomers to the collective some insight as to the history of the collective.
It is really exciting to see such an emergence in women artists, entrepreneurs, gallerists & curators.
20 years ago there were pioneers like Julie Saul, Mary Ellen Mark & Nan Goldin. But it seems often they had to operate in a vacuum. Times have changed and the Internet had no small part in it. Whether it is talented women photographers like Tema , the innovative 20x200 or sites like Women in Photography, blogs such as I heart photograph, the Ask Me I've Got Answers campaign or the outstanding Sasha Wolf Gallery (all run by women!) --the Internet has allowed for quicker and stronger community building worldwide (The Nymphoto blog has readers in about 50 countries!).
And thank you also to all of you readers & supporters.

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.

Community Building!

The NP version and the true & tried original

The now infamous New York Times Gallerina article triggered all kinds of reactions. The formidable Liz Kuball (with some input from Amy Elkins and Cara Phillips) came up with a badge that women photographers could add to their sites and thus signal that they were part of a 'sisterhood'. We thought that was a great idea and put up a widget. Somehow it disappeared from the blog. We don't know why or how. But of course we wanted to bring it back. Since Liz encouraged people to make their own designs, we came up with the one you see above on the left. The one on the right is the original. And we highly recommend adding one to your site!
It is been great seeing everyone's badges on the blogosphere and web. And to see more and more women artist out there and speaking up. Women in Photography is another great example of the community building that is going on.
Kudos Liz Kuball!

The Angst of The Artist

Liz Kuball blogs about the struggles artist experience, while developing their voice or exploring new directions, in her post "My Angst and Me".

Susana Raab Zine/Book

(via Liz Kuball's blog) Susana Raab’s recently published Rank Strangers and you can get yourself a copy here.

Liz Kuball Print Sale

Find the print here: www.lizkuball.com

Liz Kuball Interviews Susana Raab

Avid blogger & photographer Liz Kuball interviews fellow avid blogger & photographer Susana Raab. Read the interview on Liz Kuball's blog: http://www.lizkuball.com/blog/2008/04/interview-susana-raab.html