9.26.2017

WORKSHOP: Preparing For Portfolio Reviews

Photographer Latoya Ruby Frazier exhibiting her photographs
at Review Santa Fe Photowalk, 2009 © Elizabeth Avedon

Preparing for Portfolio Reviews is a 2-day Workshop with Elizabeth Avedon dedicated to helping photographers refine and perfect their portfolios to maximize their time in reviews and other professional meetings. http://visitcenter.org/preparing-for-reviews/

The Workshop will explore the nuances in presenting multiple projects to different reviewers, customizing your professional presentations, and the most effective methods for highlighting your strengths as an image-maker. With a comprehensive view of the industry, the instructor will focus on honing and amplifying your visual voice, and will discuss editing and sequencing your work for different clients. This workshop also includes a one-on-one portfolio editing and sequencing session with Elizabeth Avedon.

October 25 -26, 2017, 10am-5pm
CENTER
Drury Plaza Hotel
828 Paseo de Peralta
Santa Fe, NM
 
CENTER, founded in 1994, honors, supports, and provides opportunities to gifted and committed photographers.

9.23.2017

LIZZIE SADIN: The Carmignac Foundation 8th Edition of the Photojournalism Award

Photograph by Lizzie Sadin

is devoted to Modern Day Slavery and its Incidence Among Women

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As part of the 2017 Visa pour l’Image Festival in Perpignan, the Fondation Carmignac announced the Laureate of the 8th Carmignac Photojournalism Award to France’s Lizzie Sadin, for her project on the enslavement of women and girls in Nepal.

Following a July 2016 call for applications, the jury (listed below), presided by Monique Villa,  chose to give a voice to Nepalese women by selecting Lizzie Sadin’s project. After four months of reporting in the field between February and May 2017, the photojournalist has brought back a deeply moving testimony on gender-based human trafficking and how rooted it is in Nepalese society.

After a devastating earthquake that killed 9,000 people and displaced 650,000 others in 2015, the daily life of many Nepalese was shattered. Unemployment and the extremely precarious living conditions have given rise to more and more traffickers every day.

To Lizzie Sadin, this trafficking, based on the sale and forced prostitution of women and girls by “friends” or even family members, is carried out not just for economic reasons, but also for cultural reasons. It affects a woman’s fundamental rights: the right to get a proper education, the right to control her own destiny, the right to live without fear of acts of physical or psychological violence inflicted by her own husband, the right not to be sold …An entire belief system that needs reversing: one that, in Nepal, defines women as being inferior to men.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that there are more than 2.5 million victims of modern day slavery, and women make up the majority of this number. According to Amnesty International, women represent 80% of the victims of human trafficking, of whom nearly 50% are minors. The types of exploitation are numerous: sexual, forced labour, domestic slavery…

Women are all the more vulnerable in situations where they have little protection. The countries of South and South-East Asia as well as those of Central Europe and the ex-USSR are the principal purveyors of these modernday slaves. Although abduction is the most common route into slavery, women are also sold by their own families or entrapped into joining the networks of traffickers.

Armed conflicts exacerbate discriminatory and violent behaviour towards women. In Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, numerous camps of Syrian refugees have emerged. These refugees provide easy prey for networks on the lookout for ‘merchandise’. In Nigeria, in the Darfur region of western Sudan and in the Democratic Republic of Congo,  women and girls are subject to abductions carried out to provide their kidnappers with sexual or domestic slaves.

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Chaired by Monique Villa, CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation and Founder of Trust Women, the 8th edition of the Carmignac photojournalism Award aims to make visible these forms of modern day slavery, by supporting a project with the potential to become a tool for reflection and concrete change in the fight against the trafficking of women.

The panel comprised • Elizabeth Avedon, independent curator specialized in photography • Francesca Fabiani, Photography Special Projects, Department for Contemporary Art and Architecture, Ministry of Culture, Italy • Thierry Grillet, Chief Curator of Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF) • Olivier Laurent, Editor-in-chief of Time Lightbox • Élisabeth Quin, journalist, writer and Arte TV Presenter (28 Minutes) • Narciso Contreras, laureate of the 7th edition of the Carmignac Award
Laureate of the 8th Carmignac Photojournalism Award
Opens October 20, 2017 
Hôtel de l’Industrie, Paris
with an accompanying Monograph

more details to follow....


9.21.2017

BEUFORD SMITH: FlashPoint Boston Festival

© Beuford Smith 
"Acting Together: Photographing Black Lives” 

BEUFORD SMITH
October 20 / 7:00 PM
Marran Theatre @ Lesley University, Boston

Part of FlashPoint Boston Festival and recipient the 2017 “Culture of Legacy” Focus Award at the Griffin Museum of Photography, Beuford Smith will speak about his photographic work and his role as a key figure in promoting the work of Black photographers through his role as founder of Cesaire Photo Agency and a founder and chief photo editor of the Black Photographers Annual (1973-1981). Smith is one of the great social documentary photographers that emerged from the 1960s. Smith was a founding member, and later served as president, of the group Kamoinge. In explaining this unprecedented organization, Smith said, “Kamoinge exists, as a forum of African-American photographers, to view and critique each other’s work in an honest and understanding atmosphere, to nurture and challenge each other in order to attain the highest creative level. The name comes from the Kikuyu language of Kenya, and means a group of people acting together. Its aim is to seek out the truth inherent in our cultural roots, to create and communicate these truths with insight and integrity.”

Among Smith’s work is an emotional set of photographs exploring the Black community’s anguish the day after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Never shying away from deep shadows, Smith allows these figures especially to be enveloped by darkness. Another series conveys the energy of jazz musicians mid-performance, with the subjects often silhouetted and blurred by movement amidst dramatic lighting. The photographer often seems to be grappling with the ideas of patriotism and heritage as he features various flags in many of his street scenes.

FRIDAY:
BEUFORD SMITH
Speaking as part of the Focus Awards
October 20 / 7:00 PM
Marran Theatre @ Lesley University
$10 General Admission
Free for BU + Lesley Univ. Faculty + Students
34 Mellen St. at Wolfard Hall 
may be accessed via the Quad.
The theater is just past the 
Office of Public Safety Wolfard Hall
Tickets

SATURDAY:
FLASHPOINT BOSTON
Deadline to Enter: Oct 1
October 21, 2017
Boston University
Boston University at 808 Commonwealth Avenue.
Entrance on Essex St
Corner of Essex St. x Commonwealth Ave.
The reviews are on the 4th floor.
More Info

SUNDAY
FOCUS AWARDS 2017
October 22 / 11:00 AM–2:00 PM
Griffin Museum
67 Shore Road,
Winchester MA 01890
$85 (includes brunch)
http://griffinmuseum.org/event/focus-awards-2017/


9.19.2017

KACPER KOWALSKI : OVER

 Aerial Photograph © Kacper Kowalski

 Aerial Photograph © Kacper Kowalski

 Aerial Photograph © Kacper Kowalski

 Aerial Photograph © Kacper Kowalski

 Close-up (image above)

OVER 
Pumphuset Gallery, Landskrona, Sweden

Aerial photographer, Kacper Kowalski, photographed the earth just after snow had fallen and covered the landscape, turning it into a white canvas. With great attention to form, shape and pattern, Kowalski transformed the frozen landscape. Some images remind us of abstract paintings, where traces of animals or tractors looks like black brushstrokes. In others it feels like we are looking through a microscope or a telescope. The important thing is no longer to bring back proof of what the world looks like from above, neither is it important what image your eye registers mechanically.

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I was fortunate to meet Kacper Kowalski at the 2016 Landskrona Photo Festival Portfolio Review. His portfolio was nominated as the best of all the work viewed by the Reviewers, and he was chosen as the Winner of the Review. His work was exhibited during the 2017 Landskrona Photo Festival until October 21, 2017.

Aerial Photographer, Kacper Kowalski
Landskrona Portfolio Review Winner 2016  

 Kacper Kowalski
through October 21, 2017
Pumphuset Gallery 
Landskrona, Sweden 

November 16, 2017 – January 31, 2018
Anzenberger Gallery / Vienna
 link

Kacper Kowalski discovered flying 20 years ago. To him, it was like discovering an enchanted garden. He found himself paragliding with an engine strapped to his back and entered a space he didn’t have to share with anybody. He could taste and smell the wind. Flying became a drug, and photography became the justification for being up there alone amid the endlessness. There were no digital cameras or drones at that time, so the images he captured became trophies which he brought back to show those who had never seen the world from his vantage point.

However, after two decades of flying, and taken into account all the risks that he exposed himself to, he lost faith in what he was doing. How did he justify taking such risk? Did it still make sense what he was doing? Drones crowded the sky and his enchanted garden had become full of intruders.

Then came the snow and covered the landscape, turning it into a white canvas. Kowalski found another purpose. A new point of view, which was much more personal and filled with emotion. In his new series ‘Over’, Kowalski photographed the earth with great attention to form, shape and pattern, Kowalski transformed the frozen landscape. Some images remind us of abstract painting, where traces of animals or tractors look like black brushstrokes. In others it feels like we are looking through a microscope or a telescope. The important thing is no longer to bring back proof of what the world looks like from above, neither is it important what image your eye registers mechanically. For Kowalski, it is vital what your consciousness perceives. – Anzenberger Gallery

9.18.2017

FLASHPOINT BOSTON + GRIFFIN MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Portfolio Review Oct 21, 2017


I'm thrilled to be part of the upcoming Portfolio Reviews that take place in Boston, Oct. 21st. Your work will be reviewed by a team of 3 reviewers working together to give you varied perspectives. The due date to submit is has been extended to October 1st. Reviewers participating include the extraordinary Paula Tognarelli, Beuford Smith, Sean Perry, David Carol, Bill Gaskins, Mary Engel, Jessica Roscio, Tone Pepe, Jim Fitts, Brian Wilson, Karen Haas, Edie Bresler, Elin Spring, Sybylla Smith, Erin Becker, Christine Collins, Glen Scheffer, Joshua Farr, Suzanne Revy, the extra special Meg Birnbaum, Erin Carey, Yorgos Efthymiadis, Rania Matar, Emily Belz, Steven Duede, Neal Rantoul, Bill Gaskins, Frances Jakubek, Kat Kiernan, Susan Nalband, Barbara Hitchcock and Lou Jones.

Sign-up now! October 21, 2017 $25 - $200
Paula Tognarelli, Executive Director of the Griffin Museum of Photography, writes:

"I thought I would take some time to explain the reviews coming up on October 21st at Boston University. It seems people are confused. Although we did the reviews last year in the manner we are going to do again this year, it is not the typical way to do reviews. And this year we put another added layer on them by making them juried."

"Why did we do that? We wanted to make reviews as best as they can be for reviewees and reviewers. We wanted the best experience for you. And the reviewers. I do reviews all over the country and I think the model has to change. So we came up with a new model that we felt worked. The photographers that participated agreed and the reviewers agreed with them.

We also wanted to up your game. We wanted to have you take the time to put your best foot forward. Organize your photographs, sequence them in a way that is polished and thought out and finesse your statement in advance through a jury process. It is not a gimmick to get more money from you as your 25 dollar entry fee pays for a seat at the portfolio walk no matter what.

How the reviews work is that in every review you do you will share your work with 3 reviewers at the same time. Scary? Maybe, but don't you want to move out of your comfort zone?

A typical review team would have a gallerist, a photographer and a photo educator on it. For example, last year I was on a team with Edie Bresler and Steven J. Duede. We each saw your work from different perspectives. The photographer in review got more from this team than I could have given in a half hour's time alone. The panel taught me somethings I had not thought about as well.

After the reviews Elin Spring, Julie Williams-Krishnan and myself chose one image from each reviewee and put an exhibit together that was up for a month and a half in one of the Griffin Galleries and we had a reception for it as well.

So in order to jury this portfolio review we need people to submit a body of work to the submission portal in advance of the reviews. The due date has been extended to October 1st so that gives you time to get ready. By Oct 7th we will let everyone know the results. This is asking the jury a lot but I want you all feeling good about the reviews this year. I will be on the jury to make sure that the results are not driven by aesthetic preferences alone.

This week I will describe the reviewers for you on the website. There are reviewers participating that you may not have access to again like Elizabeth Avedon, Sean Perry, David Carol, Beuford Smith, Bill Gaskins, and Mary Engel.

And we need your help spreading the word about the Reviews and the Festival in general that runs through October starting Oct 6th with First Friday in SoWa Boston. The reviews are at BU to give more room for everyone and central to the T. Thank you for your time reading this. The Griffin Museum's intent is always to bring photography opportunities that enrich and at the same time build community."

FlashPoint Boston Portfolio Reviews and Portfolio Walk

October 21, 2017      /      $25 - $200


9.06.2017

GRIFFIN MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY FOCUS AWARDS 2017 + MIMOSA BRUNCH OCT 22


Brunch, October 22, 2017

The Focus Awards recognize individuals making critical contributions to the promotion, curation and presentation of photography. The awards this year celebrate three individuals and one organization instrumental in building greater awareness of the photographic arts in the general public. 

The Awards will take place on Sunday, October 22, 2017 as part of The FlashPoint Boston Festival. The awards’ Ceremony is at the Griffin Museum at 67 Shore Rd. in Winchester, MA 01890 at Noon. Prior to the awards ceremony a mimosa brunch will take place at 11:00 AM. A limited amount of tickets are available for $85. We are offering a limited amount (20) of free tickets to full-time students of our Academic Membership Institutions. These tickets are for the awards ceremony only and does not include brunch. Valid Student ID required.

On Saturday October 21, 2017 portfolio reviews and walk will take place at Boston University as part of the FlashPoint Boston Festival. Tickets are available. A few of the reviewers include David Carol, Elizabeth Avedon, and Sean Perry; more to be announced later.

On Friday, October 20, 2017 Beuford Smith will give a lecture at the Marran Theater at Lesley University as part of The FlashPoint Boston Festival. The Marran Theater is located at 34 Mellen St. at Wolfard Hall and may be accessed via the Quad. The theater is just past the Office of Public Safety in Wolfard Hall. Tickets are available. 

  

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ELIZABETH AVEDON

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

PRESENTED BY SEAN PERRY

Photograph © Jerry Atnip

Elizabeth Avedon is an independent curator and writer, photography book and exhibition designer. She is a sought after consultant for photographers; editing, sequencing, and advising towards their exhibition, book, and portfolio projects. She is the former Director of Photo-Eye Gallery, Santa Fe; Creative Director for The Gere Foundation; and received numerous awards and recognition for her exhibition design and publishing projects, including the fashion retrospective book and exhibition, “Avedon: 1949–1979” for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, among others; and “Richard Avedon: In the American West” for the Amon Carter Museum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art and The Art Institute of Chicago; and exhibition designs for the Estate of Diane Arbus, the Menil Collection,Texas and the Leica Gallery, New York. In conjunction with Random House, she co-published the series “Elizabeth Avedon Editions/Vintage Contemporary Artists”, working with distinguished art critics such as Donald Kuspit and Peter Schjeldahl, and contemporary artists Francesco Clemente, Louise Bourgeois, Robert Rauschenberg and others.  



 Sean Perry

Sean Perry is a fine-art photographer based in Austin, Texas and New York City. His photographs and books center on architecture, space and light – the ambiance felt within built and temporary environments. Perry currently serves as Associate Professor of Photography at Austin Community College where he founded a mentoring program and lecture series titled, The Picture Review. 


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BEUFORD SMITH

A CULTURE OF LEGACY AWARD

PRESENTED BY BILL GASKINS

Beuford Smith photo by Cydnii Jones / Cesaire Agency

Beuford Smith was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. A self-taught photographer, he began freelancing in the late 1970s. His clients include Black Star, AT&T, Emory University, Merrill Lynch, Avon, and GE. Smith is the founder of Cesaire Photo Agency and a founder and chief photo editor of the Black Photographers Annual (1973-1981). He has taught photography at Cooper Union, Hunter College, and the Brooklyn Museum. Smith served as staff photographer for EBC from 1995-2007. He also was a writer and volunteer for the James Van Der Zee Institute Newsletter. Smith is a former President (1997-2003) and member (1965-2005) and now president emeritus of Kamoinge, Inc. Smith spearheaded the group’s effort to achieve 501(c)3 status and facilitated collecting photos for Kamoinge’s book, The Sweet Breath of Life. Smith served on the curatorial committee for the Committed to the Image exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 2001. He is also a former Advisory Board member of En Foco, Inc. (2005-2012).

 Bill Gaskins

From a professional base in photography and arts writing, an academic foundation in fine art, the history of photography, American Studies and the perspective of a citizen of the United States, the work of Bill Gaskins explores questions about photography and the portrait in the 21st century. A critical entry point for the viewer is his fascination with the myths of photography and American culture and representations of African American people. His approach to photography as both producer and critical spectator has garnered attention through commissions, artist residencies, grants, public lectures, solo and group exhibitions, exhibition catalogs and books. As a professor of art, Bill Gaskins has taught at The Ohio State University, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Missouri, the College of Art, Media & Technology and the College of Art and Design Theory and History at Parsons School of Design, and the graduate program in Media Studies in The New School for Public Engagement. Presently he is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art with a faculty appointment in the American Studies Program at Cornell University.
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AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY ARCHIVES

ACCEPTED BY MARY ENGEL

THE SPOTLIGHT AWARD

PRESENTED BY JUDITH THOMPSON

 Mary Engel Photo © Andrew French

The American Photography Archives Group (APAG) is 501(c)(3) non-profit that is a resource organization for individuals who own or manage a privately held photography archive. Collectively, the group has dealt with everything from archival supplies and copyright infringement to working with photo dealers. Mary Engel will accept the award for APAG. APAG began when founder and president, Mary Engel, assumed responsibility for the archive of her mother, photographer and filmmaker Ruth Orkin. It was a difficult task, with much to learn about intellectual property rights, conservation and preservation, promotion, and the world of photography galleries and dealers. Mary has gained a wealth of knowledge and know-how, and when her father, photojournalist and filmmaker Morris Engel, passed away in 2005, she inherited his archive as well. Over the years, Mary reached out to others who were in a similar situation and became an informal consultant. As her network of fledgling archive managers grew, so did the demands on her time. She realized that everyone could benefit from each other’s experience, so she started organizing meetings. At first the group was small enough to meet over dinner in a restaurant. Soon, however, more people joined, and a larger, quieter meeting space was needed. Mary arranged for the group to meet at ICP, and the organization has became more structured, holding meetings three or four times a year. 

Judith Thompson

Judith Thompson is the Director of the Harold Feinstein Photography Trust. In that role she works to preserve and promote the legacy of her late husband, Harold Feinstein who was awarded the Living Legend Award by the Griffin Museum in 2011. Like others who have inherited the estate of a well known artist, she has been on a steep learning curve and credits APAG and Mary Engel for providing crucial support and guidance. For nearly three decades prior to her current responsibilities she worked in the field of reconciliation and social healing running organizations and speaking worldwide. She has a Ph.D. in peace studies and was a former Peace Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard.

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PAUL MESSIER

THE NEW ENGLAND BEACON

PRESENTED BY MELISSA BANTA
Photo by Jon Atherton, Yale

Paul Messier is a photograph conservator working at Yale and in private practice in Boston. He is the founder and Pritzker Director of the Lens Media Lab at Yale’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. Established in 2015, the focus of the LML is the creation, dissemination, and interpretation of large datasets derived from museum and reference collections of artist materials. Notable among these is the LML’s collection of historic photographic papers which is the largest of its kind in the world and was assembled by Paul over the course of decades. Paul’s Boston based private conservation practice was founded in 1994. The practice serves collectors, galleries, auctions houses as well as public institutions included leading museums, libraries, and archives worldwide. This practice has served as a training platform for numerous pre- and post-graduate interns all of whom have filled photograph conservation positions within prestigious cultural intuitions, including the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, and the National Archives. Paul has published widely, holds two patents covering innovative techniques for the characterization of cultural materials, served elected terms to the Board of Directors of the American Institute for Conservation, and recently completed a multiyear Mellon-funded initiative to establish a department of photograph conservation at the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.


Melissa Banta

Ms. Banta is an author and the projects curator at Harvard’s Weissman Preservation Center. In her role at Weissman Preservation Center, Melissa works to preserve, enhance access to, exhibit, and publish special collections throughout Harvard Library. She was formerly director of the photographic archives at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard. She also serves as an exhibit curator at Baker Library, Harvard Business School and as a consulting curator for Mount Auburn Cemetery.
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Many thanks to Paula Tognarelli, Executive Director of the Griffin Museum of Photography, for her tireless dedication to and love of Photography! xx

9.03.2017

DAN LOPEZ: Constellation Road at LACP

 Photograph © Dan Lopez

 Photograph © Dan Lopez

Photograph © Dan Lopez

DAN LOPEZ WEBSITE 



CONSTELLATION ROAD
Photographs by Dan Lopez
Published by Bywater Bros.


I met photographer Dan Lopez at the Los Angeles Center for Photography's Portfolio Reviews.  Check out all of LACP's programs: Los Angeles Center of Photography, 1515 Wilcox Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90028 Instagram: @la_centerofphoto