12.19.2023

DESIGN YOUR OWN PHOTO-BOOK Workshop with ELIZABETH AVEDON begins Feb 2024

“Circle: Self-Portraits, 1998 - 2001” © JUNG S KIM

Circle II #17 © Jung S Kim
A girl who was murdered by her stepmother, 2011

Jung S Kim (b.1969 South Korea) is best known for her self-portrait series ‘Circle’, comprising five sub-series: Circle Untitled, Circle 1998, Circle I, Circle II, Circle III. Kim began photographing herself during her undergraduate years at Chung-Ang University, Korea, Korea while studying under renowned photographers and educators Jung Sik Han and Bohnchang Koo. I've been a big fan of Kim’s work over the year’s and thrilled when she took my NORD Photography Book Design Workshop in 2022.
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My in-depth workshop spans over 9 months and is divided into 3 separate levels. "Designing a great photo-book takes time, and this class is structured to give you the time to develop your taste, skill-set, and design choices, so the end result is a thoroughly crafted book that highlights your work in the best way possible.” My next online NORD Photography 'Photo-Book’ Design Workshop begins Feb 21, 2024.  
 
 
Testimonials

"This workshop is so great. I can’t recommend it highly enough. I am so amazed by what I accomplished with Elizabeth (Avedon) and Elisabeth’s (Nordeng Aanes) feedback. Elizabeth Avedon is absolutely the best at book design and she imparts so much information. I also forged some great friendships with students in the group. It’s the best course I’ve taken on creating photo books...Even if you decide to go with a publisher, as I ended up doing for the distribution, you will have so much more control and input since the PDF you create in her class will be a fantastic start with so many of your own ideas. Though the art director and I at Daylight changed a few things, much of what I had submitted remained. I really felt like a true co-collaborator and am thrilled with the final PDF, which we just finished. Sign up! You won’t be disappointed.” – Lynne Buchanan

"I’m so grateful to Elizabeth Avedon for her expert guidance with the editing and sequencing of my book, BOSQUE. The workshop not only helped me to learn and appreciate the art of sequencing images, but also helped me understand all of the fine details specific to book design. I highly recommend this class and continue to meet with and deepen friendships with fellow students. In other words, it opened my eyes and deepened my path as an artist-something I will always be so thankful for." – Susan J. Preston

For anyone who has felt daunted by the myriad of necessary decisions in order to publish a book of photography, this class will help you immensely, and will set you well on your way to emerging with a professional piece that could be on par by any fine art book - Michael Schenker, Off The Beaten Path

My next online NORD Photography 'Photo-Book’ Design Workshop begins Feb 21, 2024. Registration: nordphotography.com/photobookavedon2024

11.10.2023

DEAR DAVE, MAGAZINE 2023 FELLOWSHIP AWARDS

© Mackenzie Calle
 
© Mackenzie Calle
 
© Mackenzie Calle
 
© Mackenzie Calle
 
© Harlan Bozeman
 
© Harlan Bozeman

© Giulia Parlato
 
© Giulia Parlato
 
MACKENZIE CALLE (New York) is the recipient of Dear Dave, magazine's first annual Fellowship award of $1000 and a portfolio of the work to be published in the magazine. Her project “The Gay Space Agency” confronts “the American space program’s historical exclusion of openly LGBTQ+ astronauts to work towards a more inclusive future. The series celebrates queerness and highlights the history that has prevented astronauts from being ‘out’ in space.” The body of work includes original photography and manipulated NASA archival imagery, weaving a vivid narrative of inclusion. 

Two other finalists were selected (from 700 portfolios submitted) by the jury to have a portfolio published in Dear Dave, HARLAN BOZEMAN (Arkansas), in his project ‘Out the E’ documents the complex social fabric in small town Elaine, Arkansas and its legacy of a racist and violent past. GIULIA PARLATO (UK) was recognized for “Diachronicles” which explores the fictions of museum and archeological practice and their play in our cultural myth. 

The jurists of the Dear Dave, magazine Fellowship represented leading figures in various aspects of photographic culture, and included Andrew Sanigar (Thames and Hudson) David Campany (International Center for Photography) Azu Nwagbogu (Lagos Photo Festival) Alessia Glaviano (Head of Global PhotoVogue) Shana Lopes (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art)  Nick Vogelson (Document Journal) Chantal Webber (Webber Represents) and Stephen Frailey (Dear Dave, magazine).

About the newly created fellowship, Dear Dave, editor Stephen Frailey states “The Fellowship is an extension of our interest with the magazine—to provide a platform for the most original and challenging new photographic work and to commission compelling writing about it—and in this case share the work with an influential and visionary jury.”
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Dear Dave, magazine was founded in 2007 by Editor Stephen Frailey, and is published three times annually.  It was named the best photography magazine of 2018 by the Lucie Foundation, and is available by subscription.  For more information about Dear Dave, magazine, please visit deardavemagazine.com.

10.12.2023

JOEL-PETER WITKIN DAY: Heaven or Hell

Joel-Peter Witkin and Son, Albuquerque 1988
Photograph © Herb Ritts Foundation


La Lettre de la Photographie Editor-in-Chief Jean-Jacques Naudet wrote, "Today is dedicated to Joel-Peter Witkin. To the amazing exhibition opening at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the two books of his work published for the exhibition and to the recent works on display at the Gallery Baudoin Lebon. Four articles were written by Bernard Perrine, and with these a fantastic Interview of Joel by Elizabeth Avedon."

"A flamboyant creator, incredible story-teller and irresistible liar (his awakening to photography during a car accident that decapitated a little girl whose head fell into his arms probably didn't exist, but never mind)' a hallucinating culture, Joel, who lives in an Albuquerque ghetto (on a farm no less) has for 30 years been exploring the relationship between sacred and profane."

Naudet refers to the story Witkin wrote in his monograph, The Bone House (Twin Palms Publishers), “It begins with my first conscious recollection, I was six years old. It happened on a Sunday, my mother was escorting my brother and myself down the stairs of the tenement where we lived. We were going to church. Walking through the hallway to the entrance of the building, we heard an incredible crash mixed with screams and cries for help. The accident involved three cars, all with families in them. Somehow in the confusion, I was no longer holding my mother’s hand. I could see something rolling from one of the over-turned cars. It stopped at the curb where I stood. It was the head of a little girl. I reached down to touch the face, to ask it, but before I did, someone carried me away. It could have defeated me, and I would have become insensible. Instead I chose to accept the injury and go on; because my will is stronger than death, stronger than the lostness of these times. This, my first conscious visual experience, left it’s mark.”


“Witkin is a photographer who has been mistaken for a grave robber, whose works were described by Marina Isola as “Part Hieronymus Bosch, part ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre.’" – Cindra Wilson, Salon.com

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JPW: “I’m a really happy person, but I think most people think I’m some sort of a monster. I’m intensely poetic, intensely sincere. I want to make a contribution to life and the quality of life, because I want to diminish evil and raise the possibility of goodness. I think that’s what every artist wants to do whether they’re totally conscious of that or not.”


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JPW: I make ‘History Photographs’ much like the 18th and 19th century painters would make ‘History Paintings’ (Wiki: a genre in painting defined by subject matter rather than an artistic style, depicting a moment in a narrative story, rather than a static subject such as a portrait), but in my case I just did one photograph in Bogotá that’s about the history of the cross as a tri-pod and a history of photography all in one. I like that kind of stretch. It’s called Poet and Muse. The Muse, I found identical twins, women in their forties, who are just spitting images of each other. In Albuquerque, before I left for Bogotá, I drew this bridge that connects them at the hip, so they are Siamese identical twins in the drawing and in the photograph. They are talking to the Poet, who turns out to be a man who is the Laurence Olivier of Bogotánian actors. The guy is terrific. He looks like an ancient Christ figure. He has arthritis. He was perfect, perfect. I put a wreath on his head that was a kind of Christmas wreath I got in Albuquerque at a flea market where I shop all the time; and I made this kind of prosthesis for his arm in Bogotá."
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JPW: This was my fourth trip to Bogotá...I’ve gone there three times to photograph, but it’s gotten more and more dangerous, so that last time I was there I was robbed. I went out in the morning to buy underwear for a subject of my work of Jesus.

EA: You were robbed on the way to buying underwear for Jesus?

JPW: Yes! (great laughter) I was very despondent...I travel a great deal, so this doesn’t represent an event that occurs often; luckily I’ve never been harmed. But this time I’m in a nice area, but a block away is “fermenting and evil,” let’s say.
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JPW: I saw Mr. Steichen come in. He took the slides. I saw him shuffling around looking at them on the light box and then he came out and he said, “Whose work is this?” I said, “It’s mine.” He said, “I thought you are a messenger.” I said, “Well maybe I am a kind of messenger, but it’s my work.” He chose an image that was an abstraction I shot in Boston. He said, “I’m having a show and it’s called Masterpieces of Photography from the Museum Collection. He always had these grandiose names. He then had my photograph printed. I went with my brother to the opening. It was a terrific event.

EA: And you were still just 16 years old? JPW: Yes. I was sixteen and a half.


9.17.2023

B&H BILD Expo 2023 : Marvin Joseph Portraits

George Clooney © Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post
 
George Clooney © Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post 

Ava Duvernay © Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post 

Meryl Streep © Marvin Joseph / The Washington Post

Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova © Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post

Taylor Korzeniewski © Marvin Joseph
 
Taylor Korzeniewski © Marvin Joseph
 
"Taylor Korzeniewski is a videographer who loves being photographed and many times I experiment with lighting techniques on him and many other friends of mine, that way, by the time I have celebrity photo shoots, I’ll be comfortable with what the lighting outcome and concept will be.” – Marvin Joseph


 
Marvin Joseph, Me, and
Taylor Korzeniewski
B&H BILD Expo 2023
B&H Photo Video Pro Audio celebrated their 50 year anniversary with BILD EXPO 2023 at the Javit’s Center, NYC. There was an incredible line-up of Industry Professionals, 4 stages with over 60 speakers, film workshops, a Camera Museum and Free Portfolio Reviews - all due to the extraordinary David Brommer, Director Large Scale Events, and the brilliant B&H Team for making all of this come together.
I was fortunate to share my Table with fellow Reviewer, the accomplished Washington Post Photographer Marvin Joseph @king_marvino, and his close friend Videographer, Taylor Korzeniewski @thewnk. Both talented, charming and very fun, they talked me into my first selfie!

9.15.2023

BILD Expo 2023: Brian Branch-Price

 
KORTNEE'S RACE, 2019 © Brian Branch-Price
 
EZEKIAL MITCH, 2023 © Brian Branch-Price


COWBOY UP, 2023 © Brian Branch-Price


SHADOW ROPING, 2023 © Brian Branch-Price


BUCKSKIN TUCK, 2023 © Brian Branch-Price
 
Crested Butte. CO. Tuck, born in Plainfield, NJ and moved to Colorado in the early 70's. Tuck lead trail rides across mountain passes from Crested Butte to Aspen which is a 4 day trip of out backing on horseback. Tuck's favorite past-time is trapping, hunting and making gardens from his adventures. "hunting elk is the best." Tuck participates in a yearly rendezvous that features dress from the 1820-1850 period which was the height of beaver trapping. 
 
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B&H Photo Video Pro Audio celebrated their 50 year anniversary with BILD EXPO 2023 at the Javit’s Center, NYC. There was an incredible line-up of Industry Professionals, 4 stages with over 60 Speakers, 100 exhibitors,  film workshops, Camera Museum and Free Portfolio Reviews! Imagine receiving a review from photographer Dan Winters in person! It happened and all due to the extraordinary work of David Brommer, Director of Large Scale Events, and his Team - making all of this come together into a huge success.

I was fortunate to meet photographer Brian Branch-Price while reviewing at Bild. These are a few of his terrific images from his series America's Black Cowboys which was shown at Photoville June 2023. View all of his work here: brianbranchprice.com/black-cowboys/

9.06.2023

NICK BRANDT : SINK / RISE

Paul
Photograph © Nick Brandt
All Rights Reserved
 
Akessa in Chair
Photograph © Nick Brandt
All Rights Reserved

Joel and Petero on Seesaw
Photograph © Nick Brandt
All Rights Reserved

Onnie by Cliff
Photograph © Nick Brandt
All Rights Reserved

Akessa and Maria
Photograph © Nick Brandt
All Rights Reserved

 Mika
Photograph © Nick Brandt
All Rights Reserved

Petero by Cliff
Photograph © Nick Brandt
All Rights Reserved

SINK/RISE is the third chapter of 'The Day May Break', photographer Nick Brandt's ongoing global series portraying people and animals that have been impacted by environmental degradation and destruction. This third chapter focuses on South Pacific Islanders impacted by rising oceans from climate change. The people in these photos, photographed underwater in the ocean off the coast of the Fijian islands, are representatives of the many people whose homes, land and livelihoods will be lost in the coming decades as the water rises.
 
Everything is shot in-camera underwater in Fiji. 
Photographs © Nick Brandt. All Rights Reserved. 
Cinematography : Davis Huber 
Music: Fijian Police Corrections Choir 
Music: "Hymn to the Dawn": Scott Buckley
www.nickbrandt @nickbrandtphotography
 
A selection of prints is premiering with Atlas Gallery at Photofairs New York, September 7-10, 2023 at the Javits Center, NY.  
 
All photographs can be viewed at nickbrandt.com.
 
Behind The Scenes : Petero at Cliff

Behind The Scenes : Paul on Chair

Behind The Scenes : Serafina at Table
 
The Day May Break…
And The Earth May Shatter…
Or The Day May Break…
And The Dawn Still Come.
Humanity’s Choice.
Our Choice.

Watch: SINK / RISE, 2023 Vimeo by Nick Brandt. 4:10 mins

Everything is shot in-camera underwater in Fiji. 
Photographs by © Nick Brandt. All Rights Reserved. 
Cinematography : Davis Huber 
Music: Fijian Police Corrections Choir 
Music: "Hymn to the Dawn" : Scott Buckley