9.23.2013

INDIE PHOTOBOOK LIBRARY EXHIBITION: Traveled to Photoville

 Indie Photobook Library’s Founder, Larissa Leclair
iPhone Photo by Emily Mason

“A Survey of Documentary Styles in Early 21st Century Photobooks”
 Exhibition curated by Larissa Leclair and Darius Himes
iPhone Photo by Emily Mason 


The Indie Photobook Library’s seminal traveling exhibition, curated by Larissa Leclair and Darius Himes, opened at Brooklyn's Photoville, after stops in San Francisco and DC. “A Survey of Documentary Styles in early 21st century Photobooks” draws from the iPL collection and features 70 photobooks, along with a selection of photographs from the books. The exhibition looks at the “documentary tradition” through the lens of a 21st century, global photographic community in which the lines between journalism, art and the long-term documentary project have blurred, morphed and continue to feed off of each other.

The books selected for this exhibition present a range of subject matter, each coupled with a particular visual language drawn from a pool of diversity. There are books that speak a more traditional documentary language, while there are those that explicitly critique that very same tradition; there are diaristic books and titles that overlay a typological structure; other books rely primarily on found and vernacular imagery; and there are many books that borrow heavily from an art-photography storehouse. The goal of this exhibition is to survey the field before us and to foreground questions of authorship, voice, style and content.

9.21.2013

NY ART BOOK FAIR PS1 MoMA: Self Publish!

 Q13 "Self Publish, Be Happy" Publisher Bruno Ceschel
 http://www.selfpublishbehappy.com

List of Book Publishers showing at the 2013 NY Book Fair


Top; Q13 "Self Publish, Be Happy" Publisher Bruno Ceschel talks Self-Publishing to my SVA students outside; Ceschel with Harry Gould Harvey IV, author of "Canadian Fruit". Center; B13 Pau Wau Publication Founders Andreas Laszlo Konrath and Brian Paul Lamotte. R01 Little Brown Mushroom Books, Alec Soth Publisher.

September 19 – 22,  2013
MoMA PS1

9.17.2013

PHOTOVILLE: The Indie PhotoBook Library Exhibition by Larissa Leclair and Darius Himes

offSET, Lacey Terrell

East Greenland
Qaammaqqivaar, Verena Bruening

Qaammaqqivaar, Verena Bruening

 Ohio, Alec Soth and Brad Zellar

My Brother’s War, Jessica Hines


“A Survey of Documentary Styles in Early 21st Century Photobooks”
 Curated by Larissa Leclair and Darius Himes

The Indie Photobook Library’s seminal traveling exhibition, curated by Larissa Leclair and Darius Himes, arrives in New York, after stops in San Francisco and DC. “A Survey of Documentary Styles in early 21st century Photobooks” draws from the iPL collection and features 70 photobooks, along with a selection of photographs from the books. The exhibition looks at the “documentary tradition” through the lens of a 21st century, global photographic community in which the lines between journalism, art and the long-term documentary project have blurred, morphed and continue to feed off of each other.

The books selected for this exhibition present a range of subject matter, each coupled with a particular visual language drawn from a pool of diversity. There are books that speak a more traditional documentary language, while there are those that explicitly critique that very same tradition; there are diaristic books and titles that overlay a typological structure; other books rely primarily on found and vernacular imagery; and there are many books that borrow heavily from an art-photography storehouse. The goal of this exhibition is to survey the field before us and to foreground questions of authorship, voice, style and content.

September 19-29, 2013
The Indie Photobook Library @ PHOTOVILLE
Brooklyn Bridge Park, The Uplands of Pier 5, New York
Look for the IPL exhibition in one of the 'Containers'

Larissa Leclair will be there Saturday, September 21 from 2-5PM

Come by and say hi....

9.16.2013

PHOTOVILLE: Pete Brook's Depository of Unwanted Photographs (TDOUP)

Conceived by Pete Brook | Produced by United Photo Industries

The question “What is your best photo?” is not an unusual one. When asked to pick out a single image they absolutely treasure, people generally don’t hesitate. A snap of their children, a Polaroid of their parents, a formal pose from precious life event, or perhaps even a photograph with the prescribed artistic balance of composition, contrast and exposure; or dictated by emotional memory or technical concerns.

But what about the question, “What is your worst photo?” To put it another way, what photograph of yours is obsolete, worthless, old news or just plain bad? Which single photograph of yours would you like to officially state on the record as unwanted?

Photoville invites you to submit one of your photos to The Depository of Unwanted Photographs, a crowdsourced archive of images and stories. During Photoville, we will welcome walk-in submissions at The Depository Of Unwanted Photographs container which will be equipped with a scanner and computer to download, copy and catalogue your printed photographs and digital files. During Photoville, submissions will be rotated in and out of display for public viewing. When the festival ends, the Photoville team will compile the images and create a reference book of “Unwanted Photographs”.

Pete Brook is a freelance writer and curator, lead-blogger for Wired Magazines Raw File, and author/editor of his own Prison Photography journal.

Officially TDOUP / I Broke Pete's Rule "No Dogs"

Having recently purged my iPhoto Library to gain GB's (except for a few "choice" published images) I didn't have much to submit to Pete's brilliant project except one of way too many photos of my dogs - officially declared TDOUP for breaking Pete's rule "No dog photographs".

9.15.2013

JOSEPH MAIDA: New Natives at Daniel Cooney

Aikue #2 (Hawaiian, Chinese, Irish, Portuguese), 2011
Photograph © 2013 Joseph Maida

 Pu’u O Mahuka (Hill of Escape), 2013
 Photograph © 2013 Joseph Maida

Xayasana (Thai, Laotian), 2010
Photograph © 2013 Joseph Maida

New Natives at Daniel Cooney Fine Art

The series New Natives, Joseph Maida's first solo exhibition at Daniel Cooney Fine Art, was originally inspired by Barack Obama, the first non-white, non-mainland elected President of the United States - significant not only for our country, but across the world.

"New Natives are a group of portraits of aspiring male models of mixed ethnicity and race from Hawaii. These subjects are scouted through social media and photographed in their local terrain around the metropolis of Honolulu. Drawing from Hawaii’s royal history as well as its Eastern and Western influences, this series introduces visions of masculinity, identity, and sexuality, which upend conventional hegemony."–New Native Exhibition Catalog

+  +  +

Aikue (Hawaiian, Chinese, Irish, Portuguese) is portrayed at the Kukaniloko Birthing Stones, one of Oahu’s two ancient birth spots, dating back to the 12th century.  He chose this place to honor his Hawaiian ancestry and displayed a great sense of trust by selecting somewhere sacred that would directly connect me with his culture. This is not something that I take lightly, since the openness of the Hawaiian people has been exploited repeatedly.  Depicting men, like Aikue, who want to be models but are not familiar, corn-fed Americans, confronts a complicated history of Othering in the United States while celebrating unconventional visions of masculinity and sexuality. 

+  +  +

Pu’u O Mahuka (Hill of Escape) is the site of a sacred heiau (religious temple) constructed in the 1600’s. This location was Oahu’s other ancient birth spot for the wives of the ruling chiefs and was also the place of human sacrifices through the late 18th century. Following the abolition of traditional religion in 1819, the grounds of Pu’u O Mahuka were used for agriculture including pineapple farming, which brought laborers to Hawaii from around the globe.  In 1962, the site was declared a National Historic Landmark and became a state park.  Today, this land remains one of the islands’ most sacred spots but is also a tourist destination and a hideout for people who want to drink, get high, and have sex.  Hill of Escape -- both in name and history -- engenders multiple possibilities, which mirror the diverse group of models depicted in the larger series.

 September 12 – November 2, 2013
 Artist’s Talk: Saturday, October 5th, 3:00 PM

Daniel Cooney Fine Art
508 - 526 West 26th Street, 9C
New York, NY 10001

9.14.2013

MANJARI SHARMA: ClampArt Gallery


“‘Darshan is a fine art series that aims to photographically recreate nine classical images of Gods and Goddesses pivotal to mythological stories in Hinduism. My vision for this work is to have the reproductions that measure six feet tall. The final presentation of this work would resultantly be a massive print installation in a museum that closely mimics the experience of a Hindu temple, complete with incense, lamps, and invocations, accompanied by detailed texts about the mythological significance of that deity.” Manjari Sharma
ClampArt Gallery 
through October 12
521 West 25th Street, NY

9.11.2013

GORDON PARKS: The Making of an Argument New Orleans Museum of Art

Gordon Parks, Untitled, Harlem, New York, 1948
Courtesy of The Gordon Parks Foundation


An exhibition that explores Parks' first photographic essay, "Harlem Gang Leader," for Life Magazine in 1948

In 1948, Gordon Parks began a professional relationship with Life magazine that would last twenty-two years. For his first project, he proposed a series of pictures about the gang wars that were then plaguing Harlem, believing that if he could draw attention to the problem then perhaps it would be addressed through social programs or government intervention. As a result of his efforts, Parks gained the trust of one particular group of gang members and their leader, Leonard "Red" Jackson, and produced a series of pictures of them that are artful, emotive, poignant, touching, and sometimes shocking. From this larger body of work, twenty-one pictures were selected for reproduction in a graphic and adventurous layout in Life magazine.

At each step of the selection process – as Parks chose each shot, or as the picture editors at Life re-selected from his selection-any intended narrative was complicated by another curatorial voice.

Curator Russell Lord notes, "By the time the reader opened the pages of Life magazine, the addition of text, and the reader's own biases further rendered the original argument into a fractured, multi-layered affair. The process leads to many questions: 'What was the intended argument?' and 'Whose argument was it?'." Gordon Parks: The Making of an Argument examines these questions through a close study of how Parks' first Life picture essay was conceived, constructed and received.

The exhibition includes vintage photographs, original issues of Life magazine, contact sheets and proof prints all made available by The Gordon Parks Foundation. Additionally, the exhibition is accompanied by a catalog also entitled Gordon Parks: The Making of an Argument by Russell Lord, Freeman Family Curator of Photographs at NOMA, a foreword by Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr., Executive Director of The Gordon Parks Foundation and an afterword by Irvin Mayfield, Artistic Director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. (text courtesy of NOMA)

 September 12, 2013 – January 19, 2014

9.07.2013

INEZ AND VINOODH: Pretty Much Everything! Book + Fragrance + Jewelry

Photographers Inez van Lamsweerde + Vinoodh Matadin
launch Pretty Much Everything at Barneys, NY

Pretty Much Everything
Published by TASCHEN BOOKS 
Art Directed by M/M PARIS

1996
Their Fragrance Collaboration with BYRED

 INEZ AND VINOODH 
Jewelry Collection with Ten Thousand Things
 
Inez and Vinoodh Jewelry Collection box
Logo Design by Me!

Inez van Lamsweerde + Vinoodh Matadin
launch Pretty Much Everything at Barneys NY

"We have been working together, living together and loving each other 24/7 since 1991"

Having just returned from their successful exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery, L.A. (and earlier this year at Gagosian, Paris) Dutch photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin's 25 year partnership continues to blaze with creativity. Today they launched another version of their popular book, "Pretty Much Everything"published by TASCHEN Books, the most comprehensive record of their work to date; celebrated their new Jewelry Collection with Ten Thousand Things and new fragrance collaboration with BYREDO, 1996!

If you are somehow new to Inez and Vinoodh's Fashion and Fine Art Empire, check out their website + blog, Barney's NY Campaign with Jane Birkin's daughter, Lou Doillon....and Lady Gaga video, "Applause"!

9.01.2013

MANJARI SHARMA | DARSHAN @ClampArt

Lord Vishnu

Maa Laxmi

Lord Ganesha


ClampArt presents, “Darshan: Photographs by Manjari Sharma,” the artist’s first solo show in New York City.

“Darshan” is a Sanskrit word meaning “vision” or “view,” and is most commonly used in the context of Hindu worship. It can also be translated as an “apparition” or a “glimpse.” One may seek and receive the Darshan of a deity, and upon sight, that Darshan may invoke an immediate connection between that deity and the devotee. A Darshan can ultimately be described as an experience purposed on helping one focus and call out to his or her sense of spirituality.

“Darshan” is a series that aims to photographically recreate various classical images of Gods and Goddesses pivotal to mythological stories in Hinduism. Printed on a massive scale, these photographs are presented at ClampArt in an elaborate installation that closely mimics the experience of a Hindu temple, complete with incense, lamps, and invocations.

Historically, Hindu deities have been depicted endlessly through painting and sculpture. However, portraying these Gods and Goddesses photographically is what makes Sharma’s project so unique. To make imagery for the series, exhaustive research on each character leads to the assemblage of a team of approximately thirty-five Indian craftsmen who create props, sets, prosthetics, make-up, costumes, and jewelry to the artist’s exacting specifications. These shoots rival the production standards of a motion picture film in both complexity and budget. The final photographs are not the product of extensive digital manipulation through Photoshop, but rather are primarily straight images  planned in-camera made with extreme patience, perseverance, and an elaborate vision.

Manjari Sharma (b. 1979) is a photographer born and raised in Mumbai, India, now based in Brooklyn, New York. She has a BA in Visual Communication from S.N.D.T. University, Mumbai, and a BFA in Still Photography from Columbia College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio. Her images have appeared in such publications as “Forbes India Magazine,” “Vogue India,” and “Geo Magazine,” and online at NPR, “The New York Times,” The Huffington Post, “PDN,” and “Life Magazine.” Sharma received an honorable mention for the prestigious Santa Fe Prize in 2012, and she was invited as a “Shots and Works” artist for LOOK 3: Festival of the Photograph in 2013. (text courtesy of ClampArt)

This exhibition is generously supported by LTI/Lightside Photographic Services. More about The Darshan Project

September 12 – October 12, 2013
521-531 West 25th Street, NY

Artist’s Reception:
Thursday, September 12, 2013
6:00 to 8:00 p.m.