Showing posts with label FotoFest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FotoFest. Show all posts

5.04.2015

JOANNA BLACK: Uncle Billy on LensCulture

Pieta   
Photograph (c) Joanna Black

 Pieta, Jubilee Photographic Mirror Sculpture
Galerie Lichtblick, Cologne, Germany Exhibition during Photokina 2014.  Curated by Tina Schelhorn, photograph courtesy of Tina Schelhorn. Mirror Sculpture (c) Joanna Black

I've followed self taught fine art photographer Joanna Black before her work first came "out" at Review Santa Fe in 2011. She is a true artist with a unique vision and so much Heart.  Her early photographs, taken in Bangour Hospital where her brother was a resident, were the first images that caught my eye. 

Based in Edinburgh, Black has managed to spread her creative eye across international borders. Just check out her bio. While leisurely flipping through images of participating photographers in LensCulture's FotoFest Paris 2013 (here) I recently came across Black's photograph of her Uncle Billy with Carly Simon, her family dog, which is titled Pieta (above) and just had to re-post it.

 I Want To Play Too
Bangour Hospital, Scotland  Photograph (c) Joanna Black

 Mummy There's a Man on The Moon
Bangour Hospital, Scotland  Photograph (c) Joanna Black

Henry was my brother, I never really knew him. He was 12 years older than me but in his mind never grew past the age of 2. My father came from a patrician Polish background and being unable to bear the low esteem he was held in by post war Scots, crossed the then impermeable iron curtain never to return. This left my mother with no option but to take a job as a bus conductress and to place Henry in the care of the state at Bangour Hospital, built by the Victorians to care for people who were "insane and infirm". This was especially painful to my mother as she had lost her entire family in the war (Hitler took some and Stalin the rest). That being said Henry was well cared for and was always happy, the only words he ever spoke were "Mummy" and "man in the moon". His chocolate brown eyes sparkled with happiness and he would make a noise which to my childish ears was exactly the same noise my guinea pig made when you stroked him. He lived a life of smiles until he was 33 at which point his body eventually gave up. – Joanna Black
 
Joanna Black is based in Edinburgh, Scotland
Photograph (c) Joanna Black



4.12.2012

DORNITH DOHERTY: Awarded John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship

Dornith Doherty and her View Camera, Svalbard
In 2010, Doherty traveled to the North Pole to photograph the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, also known as the Doomsday Vault

Pea
Photograph © Dornith Doherty/ All rights reserved


Houston Center of Photography
SPOT MAGAZINE, Spring 2012
Tim Hetherington Cover Photo

Read: An Interview with Dornith Doherty by Elizabeth Avedon

The importance of Doherty’s work is both timely and spiritual. In case of world disaster, seed conservation is of global importance to everyonefrom An Interview with Dornith Doherty, Spot Magazine

Houston Center of Photography | SPOT MAGAZINE, Spring 2012

Dornith Doherty has been awarded a 2012 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship. The Foundation has awarded Fellowships to a diverse group of scholars, artists, and scientists in its eighty-eighth annual competition for the United States and Canada. Appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise, the successful candidates were chosen from a group of almost 3,000 applicants...read more about the Guggenheim Award here

4.03.2012

SUZANNE PAUL: A Moment in Houston

Dick Wray Abstract Expressionist Artist
Photograph © Estate of Suzanne Paul

Edward Albee, 1999 Playwright
Photograph © Estate of Suzanne Paul

Angelbert Metoyer Contemporary Artist
Photograph © Estate of Suzanne Paul

A Moment in Houston / Photographs by Suzanne Paul
Installation photograph by Theresa Escobedo, Deborah Colton Gallery

Walter Hopps Director, Menil Collection
Photograph © Estate of Suzanne Paul

The late Walter Hopps [legendary Founding Director of the Menil Collection, Houston, Texas] stated, "Suzanne Paul should be recognized as one of the finest photographers to come out of Houston. Her essential medium is black and white photography, and her most important subject matter is portraiture. Not all photographers are skilled printers of their work. Paul is a superb printer achieving areas of deep black in line with her instinct for the chiaroscuro lighting of the subject. Having been the subject of one of Paul's portraits, I have experienced the directness and honesty of her work. She has caught an unidealized view of who I am."


There is a belief in many cultures that the camera is capable of stealing the human soul or spirit. Suzanne Paul's camera may not steal the soul, but it certainly captures it and the spirit within.Clint Willour, Collector and Director of the Galveston Arts Center

The late Suzanne deYoung Paul (b. 1945 - d. 2005), a pioneer female photographer in Houston, was best known for her intuitive portraits of the art world. Being the first female photographer to have a solo exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and many other prestigious exhibitions including The Fort Worth Art Museum, Galveston Arts Center, private galleries and museums, Paul became known for her portraits of such well known artists as Julian Schnabel, Mel Chin, Andy Warhol and playwright Edward Albee. In addition she photographed Houston curators and patrons such as Walter Hopps, Anne Wilkes Tucker, Jim Harithas, Alison De Lima Greene, Alfred Glassell and Edward Mayo. Several of her photographs are in the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

FotoFest and the Deborah Colton Gallery present an exhibition of portraits by Suzanne Paul “A Moment in Houston” that include twelve gelatin silver prints. "Suzanne Paul left us with a compelling visual documentation of our City’s art history and in doing so, of humanity itself."– Deborah Colton

FotoFest 2012 Exhibitions
Deborah Colton Gallery, Houston


Suzanne Paul: A Moment in Houston
Focus on Russia I, Olga Tobreluts; Focus on Russia II, Oleg Dou
Jonas Mekas, Contemporary Photographers from China
and Jay Rusovich to April 28, 2012


Special thanks to