CRUEL AND UNUSUAL: Prison Photography Exhibition Part I

Photograph © Deborah Luster
Series: 'One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana.' Year: 1999 - 2003
Title: Cowboy, Louisiana State Penitentiary. Year: 1999.
Courtesy Jack Shainman Gallery
read more

Photograph © Jane Lindsay
Series: Gems. Year: 2011 - ongoing
Tintypes, cast resin, bottlecaps
read more

Photograph © Steve Davis
Series: Captured Youth. Year: 2000-2005.
Title: 10, 11, 12, 13 & 14, Green Hill. Year: 2000
read more

Photograph © Nathalie Mohadjer

Series: The Dungeon. Year: 2009. The prisoners receive no food by the government in these detention cells. Some prisoners have no food for weeks and they beg the others to get the left over’s. Cibitoke, Burundi. read more

Photograph © Jon Lowenstein

Series: Tent City. Josue Enrique Vargas, Michoacan, Mexico worked as a home painter in the United States. He had been in the United States for five years when he was picked up for a DUI (drunk driving) arrest. read more

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Cruel and Unusual is a curatorial collaboration between guest curators Pete Brook and Hester Keijser. The exhibition showcases the work of Araminta de Clermont, Amy Elkins, Alyse Emdur, Christiane Feser, Jane Lindsay, Deborah Luster, Nathalie Mohadjer, Yana Payusova, Lizzie Sadin, Lori Waselchuk, and others.

"Cruel and Unusual looks at how prison systems are depicted and what those depictions tell us. As taxpayers and empathetic humans, how well informed are we of the lives and experiences within penal institutions? How are images of locked facilities manufactured, distributed and consumed? United by what might be considered a limiting subject matter, the exhibited photographers employ a wide range of approaches, materials and techniques, depending on the amount of access granted, and varying from vernacular photography, alternative processes, texts, painted photos, digital manipulations to straight black and white documentary."

"In the U.S. the expense and failure of prisons has come under increasing scrutiny since the global economic recession. Over a period of just 40 years, failed 'tough on crime' policies, sensationalist TV media, prison privatization, and a misinformed public contributed a near 500% increase of the U.S. prison population. Recent arms trade figures show heavy investments in military crowd control systems across Africa, the wider Middle East and beyond. Incarceration is one of the many instruments put into place by states fearing popular revolts and riots threatening their internal stability."

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"Cruel and Unusual refers to a long-established legal term that first appeared in the 1689 English Bill of Rights. Adopted in the late 18th century as part of the U.S. Constitution, the 8th Amendment declares: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” In 1958, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that understanding of "cruel and unusual punishments" should change over time, being those punishments which offend society's "evolving sense of decency."

Newspaper Catalog Available Here

Cruel and Unusual
18 February - 1 April, 2012
Noorderlicht Gallery
9711 JB Groningen, Netherlands

Prison Photography's Pete Brook
Talks Blogs, Prisons, Road Trips and Photography
February 18th 4:00 - 6:00 pm

CRUEL AND UNUSUAL: Prison Photography Part II

Text courtesy of the curators and the Noorderlicht Gallery

ENTER THE DRAGON: Happy Chinese New Year!

FAIRGROUNDS | by Sean Perry

The Chinese Year of the Dragon has the potential to be mythical.
Gong xi fa ca! Have a Prosperous and Good Year!

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FAIRGROUNDS is Sean Perry’s love letter to the dreamscape of temporary environments. His hand-sewn, limited edition catalog, designed by Jace Graf and published by Cloverleaf Press, include 20 images gorgeously printed in tri-tone with a foreword by curator Clint Willour who writes “... the images linger in the mind; remain in the memory. There is haunting magic here.” Photograph above (c) Sean Perry.

GAY BLOCK: Artist Talk + Book Signing

Summer Portraits 1981 | Photograph © Gay Block

New Mexico Museum of Art
January 22, 2012

Photographer Gay Block began taking portraits in 1973 of her own affluent Jewish community in Houston, later expanding this to include South Miami Beach and girls at summer camp. In 2006, Block re-photographed the women who were girls in her 1981 series from Camp Pinecliffe, twenty-five years before. Block's photographs are included in museums and private collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, San Francisco MoMA and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

January 22, Block will present an overview of her career, talk about how her work as a portrait photographer has given her insight into life and love, and sign copies of her recently released Radius book, About Love. Photographs and Films 1973-2011 at the New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe.

CENTER: 2012 International Awards, Project Competitions + Review Santa Fe

Photograph © Amy Stein
Stranded | Car on Fire, Route 17, New York
2011 Santa Fe Prize Nominee + 2006 Review Santa Fe Participant

Photograph © Emily Shur
Untitled Japan | The Swimming Pool by Leandro Erlich, Kanazawa
2011 Santa Fe Prize Nominee + 2009 Review Santa Fe Participant

CENTER AWARDS | Deadline January 30

MIRIAM ROMAIS: Mission Murals

Hay Perro, 2011
Photograph © Miriam Romais

Hand, 2011
Photograph © Miriam Romais

Moon, 2011
Photograph © Miriam Romais

Photographs of Mission Murals by Miriam Romais

"The Muralist Movement in this predominantly Latino neighborhood in San Francisco (the Mission District) involves an act of acceptance, sharing, validation and celebration –– an art form that can be easily traced back to Mayan and Aztec scenes painted on temple walls, or the caves of Lascaux. Many are highly politicized statements, whether celebrating indigenous cultures, protesting the wars in Central America, or honoring the fight for freedom in Nepal. Life and art are intertwined here, each mural with its own message inspired by the works of Mexican Muralists and motivated by the Civil Rights movement." "My fascination with the meaning and temporality of these murals, inspires me to help preserve what can easily disappear or become vandalized, while helping the muralist further disseminate their little-known histories to new and broader geographic audiences. Many of these murals are kept as safe as possible thanks to PrecitaEyes.org* in San Francisco, which is why a percentage of print sales are being donated to this organization that has been so instrumental in their creation and preservation."–Miriam Romais

PAINTED VOICES: Photographs by Miriam Romais
January 16 - March 7
Grady Alexis Gallery / El Taller Latino Americano
2710 Broadway @ 104th St NYC

Miriam Romais is a NY based photographer, curator and also the Executive Director & Editor of En Foco & Nueva Luz Photographic Journal...read more

MICHAEL CROUSER: Mid-Career Retrospective

Los Toros (Twin Palms)

Photograph © Michael Crouser

Dog Run (Viking Studio)
Photograph © Michael Crouser

Valladolid, Spain, 1996
Photograph © Michael Crouser

Mountain Ranch
Photograph © Michael Crouser

Michael Crouser: A Mid-Career Retrospective
January 13 - February 25

Leica Gallery 670 Broadway NYC

Michael Crouser's retrospective exhibition at New York's Leica Gallery includes work from four distinct series covering 25 years, Los Toros, Dog Run, Mountain Ranch and Sin Tiempo. Los Toros was a fifteen-year exploration of bullfighting in Spain, Mexico, South America and France. The collection was published as a monograph by Twin Palms, and won first place in the 2008 International Photography Awards, Fine Art Book category. Mountain Ranch was an exploration of the disappearing world of cattle ranching in the mountains of Colorado. This project was made possible through the generous support of Kodak. Dog Run was an experiment in seeing dogs in a new way...in the midst of their intense play in urban dog parks. Shot in Minneapolis and New York, Dog Run was published by Viking Studio, and was supported by Kodak. His series, Sin Tiempo, "without time" in Spanish, are fascinating "momentary vignettes giving no evidence of the photographs time or place." All the photographs in the exhibition were shot on Tri-X film and printed in a traditional darkroom.

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New York City's Leica Gallery has been run in partnership with Leica Camera since 1994 and is closely linked to the company. The gallery has become a leading location for both traditional and modern photojournalism in the New York gallery scene; located in an historic building in Greenwich Village that is listed in the records of the American Institute of Architects.The gallery has housed more than 115 exhibitions, including renowned photographers such as Alfred Eisenstaedt, Inge Morath, Leonard Freed, Alex Webb, Erich Hartmann, and Karl Lagerfeld.

LANOLA KATHLEEN STONE: Memories

Memories Abandoned: Computer Room, 2009
Photograph © Lanola Kathleen Stone

Memories Abandoned, 2009

Photograph © Lanola Kathleen Stone

LANOLA KATHLEEN STONE is a New York City-based professional photographer, artist, author, and educator. Her commercial clients seek her out to photograph interiors, portraits, and lifestyle, although she is mostly known for her aptitude with children and childhood imagery.

"Memories Abandoned is a series of images of my now abandoned childhood home in Utah - portraits of my childhood experiences in the self same location with genuine artifacts of the experiences portrayed. Themes explored are the impermanence of time, the deterioration of memory and space, inevitability of change and through it all, resilience and the ability to move and exist beyond our surroundings. The project was partially funded by a cash award from the School of Visual Arts Office of Alumni Affairs, exhibited at Aqua Art/Art Basel Miami and featured in CMYK Magazine's 2010 Top 100 New Creatives Award, Issue 46."

Photographing Childhood: The Image and the Memory
By Lanola Kathleen Stone, Focal Press, 2011

KATRIN EISMANN chose Stone's new book as one of 2011's Best Photography Books: "Photographing Childhood: The Image and the Memory (Focal Press, 2011) by LaNola Kathleen Stone is thoughtful, inspiring, and unexpected. The book features an historical homage; an insightful timeline of childhood; useful information on lighting and image management; and most importantly highlights a wide variety of contemporary photographers and photographic approaches to frame and focus on the fleeting moments of childhood. Smart, beautiful and poignant!"

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Katrin Eismann is Co-Founder and Chair of the Masters of Professional Studies in Digital Photography at The School of Visual Arts; and author of Photoshop Restoration & Retouching and Photoshop Masking & Compositing, and co-author of The Creative Digital Darkroom and Real World Digital Photography. Visit her website PhotoShopDiva.com

Least Likely to be Adopted

Photograph © Lanola Kathleen Stone

Least Likely to be Adopted
Photograph © Lanola Kathleen Stone

I shot these images at the dog pound. They were, without exception, scared and cowering when they came on the set, but every so often they'd show their courage and care - who they truly were and could be with a little love –Lanola Kathleen Stone

"The concept was to make “fashionesque images” of the oldest in residence at the Dog Pound near my home (East 110th Street Animal Shelter, NYC). I asked for the dogs that were the “least likely to be adopted” and took their portraits to represent them with personality, youth and “edge” in order to aid their adoption. They were featured in PDNedu's Photo Annual & CMYK Aspiring Creatives Issue. 12 out of the 13 dogs I photographed were adopted."

www.LANOLA.com

RICHARD BARNES: FlakPhoto Feature

Richard Barnes' Animal Logic
A Conversation with Elizabeth Avedon

A curator, writing about my work, described the archaeological process as akin to the autopsy, in that it is simultaneously revealing and destructive of its object of study. I like the idea in my work of coming from a place that is both ambiguous and contradictory at the same time. – Richard Barnes

Read my Interview on FlakPhoto

Richard Barnes

GREGORY HALPERN: At ClampArt

Untitled, 2010 © Gregory Halpern

Gregory Halpern at ClampArt
January 5 - February 11

JESSICA INGRAM: CENTER 2011 Santa Fe Prize

Koinonia

Photograph © Jessica Ingram

Koinonia Farms was founded by Clarence Jordan in 1942 in Americus, Georgia as an interracial community where people could live and work. During the Civil Rights Movement, both black and white children from Koinonia were not allowed to attend segregated schools. Koinonia withstood firebombing, night riding, Klan intimidation, and economic boycotts. Koinonia still exists today as an interracial community, dedicated to affordable housing for all. Habitat for Humanity was founded at Koinonia in the 1960s as a response to poverty in the rural American South.

Bank of the Sunflower River
Photograph © Jessica Ingram

In 1970, Rainey Poole, 54, a one-armed sharecropper from Midnight, Mississippi, was beaten by a group of white men and dumped in the Sunflower River. Five men were arrested and charged with assault and murder. The charges were dropped. In 1999, the five were re-tried. Three were convicted of manslaughter, one pleaded guilty to manslaughter, and the other was acquitted.

Armstrong Rubber Company, Natchez, Mississippi
Photograph © Jessica Ingram

On February 27, 1967, Wharlest Jackson, the treasurer of the local NAACP chapter, was killed by a car bomb left by Klansmen, shortly after he received a promotion to a position formerly reserved for whites. His son, Wharlest Jackson, Jr., heard the blast from his home nearby, and rushed to the scene to find his father dead in the road. No one has been convicted for this crime.

Court Square Slave Market, Montgomery, Alabama
Photograph © Jessica Ingram

JESSICA INGRAM // 2011 Santa Fe Prize Winner

A Civil Rights Memorial

"Five years ago, I wandered downtown Montgomery in the sweltering heat, picked up a walking tour trail, and found myself facing a large, ornate fountain, situated on a brick pavilion. A Historical Marker said that I was standing on the former Court Square Slave Market, where slave traders sold men, women, and children to the highest bidder. It presented cold facts, detailing dollar values for slaves at the time and how none were given last names.

I was speechless. The fountain was erected at a time when this site was not considered for its history, the sign placed in a gesture of reconsideration. Moreover, the language printed on the sign was so void of sentiment – in no way testifying to the experience and meaning. I am from the American South, aware of the devastating history of slavery, but this site moved something in me that caught fire. I watched people pass by and wondered if they knew or thought of the history beneath their feet. Curious about other histories and sites (marked and unmarked) I may be passing by in the American South, I began to research." – Jessica Ingram read more

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"Each submission is deserving of recognition. I urge you to look at the list of nominees; visit their websites or seek out their work; you will be affected." –Juror Maggie Blanchard, Director, Twin Palms Publishers

SANTA FE PRIZE

The biennial Santa Fe Prize recognizes a meaningful photographic project. Nominations are received by today's leading art and photographic professionals from around the world. It is an honor to be nominated for this $10,000 cash award and we are pleased to acknowledge and support all of the 2011 nominees.

FIRST PLACE
Jessica Ingram, A Civil Rights Memorial

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Christopher Capozziello, The Distance Between Us
Dona Schwartz, On The Nest
Manjari Sharma, Darshan
Emily Shur, Shizenkan
Will Steacy, Deadline
Amy Stein, Stranded
Pinar Yolacan, Untitled

SOUTHLIGHT SALON: Southern Light Photography Festival and Exhibition

Jan 7 Southern Light Exhibition. Meet the eight photographers

SouthLight Salon’s Southern Light Photography Exhibit and Festival is a Nashville first! Special Photography Events include a juried Portfolio Review, expert panel discussions including The Art of Collecting Photography, and more...a full schedule of events here

Jan 14th: Living Legend of Photography: Sylvia Plachy will present her work and offer insights into her creative process.

SOUTH LIGHT

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012!

2012 LUCKY CAT!

Sheri Lynn Behr's
Lucky Cats Book

Photographs © Sheri Lynn Behr