4.24.2017

OFF THE CLOCK: APA Los Angeles

 Untitled
Photograph © Simon Johansson

 Curious Cooper
Photograph © Jamie Pflughoeft (Jamie Piper)

 I Can't Breathe
Photograph © Amy Gaskin

 A Day in The Life
Photograph © Frank Hom

 Havana Taxi Co.1
Photograph © Markku Lahdesmaki

Geisha 
Photograph © Sandra Chen Weinstein

Music + Dance = Love I
Photograph © Cassandra Plavoukos


"Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution." - Ansel Adams  

I was honored to be invited to curate APA-LA’s sixth annual 2017 OFF THE CLOCK photography exhibition. This was an exciting opportunity for me to view the original, creative and truly inspired personal photography of respected professional photographers.

The task of jurying work is never easy. I was to select 100 images through a blind jury process from almost 1000 entries – a daunting task. I spent hours each day over several weeks getting familiar with all the entries before making final selections. There were a wide range of genre’s, including classical fine art, fictional narratives, documentary, travel, satire, still life, and nudes; all in black and white, duotone, color, wet-plate collodion and other photographic processes.

So much care obviously went into creating each image entered, I decided this was not going to be an exhibition focused around one general theme. Instead, I chose to go for an eclectic range - individual images that captured my attention over and over each time I went through the collection. Outdoors, indoors, studio shots, professional models, demonstrators, whatever caught my eye each time I witnessed it. In the end, I feel there is a diverse movement running through the exhibit, beginning quietly and then shifting into drama, a little humor, some very fine portraiture, dizzying landscapes, and finally driving us into the face of current real-life protests.

Above are just a few of the 100 images in the exhibition that will rotate through some of the most creative advertising agencies in Los Angeles, including Saatchi + Saatchi Los Angeles and Ignited. I thank everyone who entered!

Gala + Exhibition 
Curated by Elizabeth Avedon
April 29, 7-10pm
Santa Monica Art Studios
Free and Open to the public

2 comments:

Raphael Shammaa said...

Great work. It's very satisfying to see images selected for their own sake in terms of their value as stand-alone images. There's something powerful and defiant about that. The power coming from the image itself, and the defiance from the curator who decides to leave the time honored theme based practice behind, at least for once. I love it.

Meera Rao said...

Wonderful!