4.18.2020

SOCIALLY DISTANT PORTRAIT SERIES: #24 Matthew Avedon by Milton Arellano

 Musician Matthew Avedon in his Brooklyn Quarantine
Photograph © Milton Arellano

Matthew Avedon and Charlie, Brooklyn Quarantine
Photograph © Milton Arellano

 Matthew Avedon and Charlie, Brooklyn Quarantine 
 Photograph © Milton Arellano

Matthew Avedon, Brooklyn Quarantine 
 Photograph © Milton Arellano

“Socially Distant Portraits” #24
Q + A With Matthew Avedon, Brooklyn

Photographer Milton Arellano is documenting fellow creatives and artists of NYC during these unfortunate days of the Covid-19 quarantine. #24 in this series is gypsy jazz guitarist and Ford model, Matthew Avedon.

"In the glory days, we'd sometimes go ride skateboards with friends. I heard that Matthew might have modeled a couple of times, but the true passion for @matthewavedon is his technically beautiful guitar playing and composition. Oh, and he loves to karate chop people or do something called Brazilian Jiu Jitsu while wearing a purple belt.  I'm hoping our Q + A brings some connection to us all! Thanks Matt!!" Check out all of Milton Arellano's Socially Distant Artist series on Instagram @miltonarellanophoto. 

Matthew Avedon, Brooklyn Quarantine 
 Photograph © Milton Arellano

Milton Arellano: What have you been working on? 

Matthew Avedon:
I've just been working on my music like always. Practice, practice, practice and more practice. Trying to keep learning, writing etc. I've been freelance my entire adult life so I'm actually very used to setting my own schedule and remaining productive without a set structure. Setting daily small but achievable goals has been the way for me to keep focused and not get overwhelmed. 

Arellano: What (or who) are you finding comfort in? 

Avedon: I've been finding comfort in eating. A lot. I've gotten no comfort from my dog Charlie. He's a grouchy ass old man and is not pleased that I'm home so much in his space. We argue a lot.
Arellano: Describe your hopes for the coming months? 

Avedon: Besides the obvious health stuff, I'm really hoping that New York and the world bounces back from this much quicker and stronger than is being predicted. I want to get back to work and I want all my friends to get back to work, and I'm really hoping that the service industry (which I consider musician's to be part of) is able to get up and running again quickly. Not just for the work but for the personality and spirit of the city. 

Arellano: Your worries or fears? 

Avedon: I'm really worried that won't happen. I'm worried this will drag on through the summer and I'm worried that the country isn't going to find a smarter way to manage this than simply shutting everything down. I'm worried that we may in fact be living in a simulation with a major glitch and that our Galactic Lizard Overlords will shut us down and reboot the entire system rendering all my practicing obsolete. 

Arellano: Any thoughts, advice or intentions for others? 

Avedon: I remain optimistic that Klaatu will see fit to find mercy on our undeserving species and that Space Keanu will give us another chance.


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Milton Arellano is a Brooklyn based photographer, working in the fashion industry for over 15 years, starting out as an assistant to many top fashion photographers in NYC, such as Pamela Hanson, Yelena Yemchuk, Carter Smith, Arthur Elgort, Alexi Lubomirski, and more.

The son of Bolivian immigrants, he’s spent years traveling to his motherland, shooting commercial and personal work, along with pursuing social development projects through skateboarding, which culminated in a huge skatepark build, sponsored by Levi’s and international NGOs.

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Matthew Avedon is a musician who devotes his life to his work. Until the recent quarantine you would find Matt playing his regular Saturday residency at the Club Room at the Soho Grand Hotel, Friday nights at St. Mazie Bar + Supper Club in Williamsburg, an impromptu solo guitar set in his regular Tuesday night Bar Velo gig, Jazz brunch at the Roxy Hotel on Sunday's and somewhere in NYC every other hour.  

Matthew recently teamed up with Ford Models Men's division. Born in the Year of the Dog, never let it be said said Matthew passed up even one can dog on the street without petting it.

4.08.2020

PORTRAITS: A. Smith Gallery Exhibition

 Photograph © Ryotaro Horiuchi
Descendant of Samurai #10
Juror's Award

 Photograph © Sandra Chen Weinstein
Rajot 
Juror's Honorable Mention

 Photograph © Paul Kessel
Untitled 8
Juror's Honorable Mention

 Photograph © Cyndy B Waters
Little Shepherd With New Born Lamb
Juror's Honorable Mention

 Photograph © Ron Cooper
Graywolf Diptych

Photograph © Juno Gemes 
James Baldwin, Athenaeum Hotel, London 1975 
 
Photograph © Michael Johnson
Hector

 Photograph © Susan Bryant
Plait

A. Smith Gallery. Juror | Elizabeth Avedon. My task: Select 55 images from over 964+ from 154 photographers. From those, select a "juror's award" and 3 "honorable mentions”. Supremely difficult.

The Portraits exhibition at A Smith Gallery in Johnson City, TX will be online due to the current Coronavirus situation. Please take a look at the exhibition. And thank you to everyone who entered. 


The exhibition includes photographers: Geoffrey Agrons, Kelley Ahr, Carlos Alejandro, Vicky Azcoitia, Craig Becker, Ken Beckels, Felice Boucher, Susan Bryant,, Warren Capps, Susan Kaufer Carey,, William Chambers, Cheryl Clegg, Ron Cooper, Francis Crisafio, Karen Crouse, Linsey Davis, Andy Dennis, Felice Douglas, Nicholas Fedak, Juno Gemes, Nadide Goksun, David Hawkins, Elizabeth Herman, Bootsy Holler, Leslie Jean-Bart, Michael Johnson, Susan Rosenberg Jones, Ladka Kurzrock, J K Lavin, Melissa Lynn, Yanninia Marie, Greg Markstrom, Jim McKinniss, Peter Miller, Kate Miller-Wilson, Janet Millstein, Michael Mudd, Dale Niles, Karen Osdieck, Louise Pedno, Arti Pike, Michael Potts, Marcie Rich, Pat Rose, Karin Rosenthal, Nancy Scherl, Elizabeth Siegfried, Yon Sim, Cathy Spence, DorRae Stevens, Karey Walter, Cyndy B. Waters
 

ALL ABOUT PHOTO AWARD WINNERS 2020: The Mind's Eye

1st Place Winner Photographer of the Year 2020
Photograph © Monica Denevan

2nd Place Winner 2020
Photograph © Gabriele Galimberti

3rd Place Winner 2020
Photograph © Rebecca Moseman

4th Place Winner 2020
Photograph © Nadia De Lange

5th Place Winner 2020
Photograph © Nicole Cambre



The 5th annual competition attracted an extremely high caliber of photographs from around the world.  A panel of 7 expert jurors including Elizabeth Avedon (Photography book and exhibition designer, independent curator), Laurent Baheux (Photographer, UN Ambassador for the environment and active protector of wildlife), Alex Cammarano (Founder and CEO of Daylighted), Julia Dean (Photographer, Educator, Writer, and Executive Director/ Founder of the Los Angeles Center of Photography LACP), Sandrine Hermand-Grisel (Photographer, Founder & Editor of All About Photo), Ann Jastrab (Executive Director, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA), and Juli Lowe (Director, Catherine Edelman Gallery) selected the 40 winning photographs. 

The majority of this year’s submissions were color photographs and yet 4 of the 5 first place images are B&W. Unlike previous years, it also seems that the jurors were more attracted to beautiful and soothing images rather than violent and unsettling ones. Perhaps a subconscious need has arisen in each one of us to escape the terrible events that are happening in the world right now. It is also worth noting that photography is often perceived as an art form still dominated by men, but this edition proves the contrary! Four out of the top five prizes have been won by women photographers!


The Winner and Photographer of the Year 2020 is Monica Denevan (USA) with her image “Across the River, Burma” from the series “Songs of the River: Portraits from Burma.” 

The second-place winner is Gabriele Galimberti (Italy), the third-place winner is Rebecca Moseman (USA), the fourth-place winner Nadia De Lange (Switzerland) and the fifth-place winner is Nicole Cambre (Belgium).

The top 5 winners will be awarded $10,000. All winners will have their work published/showcased on the websites Lenscratch, Daylighted’s digital traveling exhibition worldwide, All About Photo Winners Gallery, and featured in the printed issue of AAP Magazine “Special Edition All About Photo Awards 2020”. In addition, a selection of entrants of particular merit will be invited to display their portfolio on All About Photo.  
 
All About Photo Award Partners: Los Angeles Center of Photography, Photo L.A, Center for Photographic Art, Lenscratch, Catherine Edelman Gallery, and Daylighted


Beverly Conley (USA), Anne Berry (USA), Lori Hawkins (USA), Deb Young (USA), Lynzy Billing Philippines), Margaret McCarthy (USA), Jo Ann Chaus (USA), Brooke Shaden (USA), Jennifer Garza-Cuen (USA), Hardijanto Budiman (Indonesia)and Elena Paraskeva (Cyprus) are also amongst the winners.

And incredible work by: Marcel van Balken (Netherlands), Alain Schroeder (Belgium), Rory Doyle (USA), Azim Khan Ronnie (Bangladesh), Tomas Neuwirth (Czech Republic), Trung Pham Huy (Vietnam), Tony Law (Australia), Matthew Portch (Australia), Amos Chapple (New Zealand), Mustafa AbdulHadi (Bahrain), Francisco Diaz (USA),Kosuke Kitajima (Japan), Xiangli Zhang (China), Chin Leong Teo (Japan), Donell Gumiran (United Arab Emirates), Andre Fonseca (USA), Francesco Pace Rizzi (Italy), Peyman Naderi (Iran), Yoni Blau (Israel), Zay Yar Lin (Myanmar), Anuar Patjane (Mexico), Svetlin Yosifov (Bulgaria), Dotan Saguy (USA), Kohei Ueno (Japan) and Go Nakamura (USA).