DILIP MEHTA: Forgotten Woman Documentary

Watch The Forgotten Woman Trailer

Every widow whom I filmed and who agreed to speak on camera was forthright. There was invariably an outpouring of their souls of emotions that were scarred, of feelings that were suppressed, of hopes and dreams that remained unfulfilled.

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DILIP MEHTA was born in 1952 in New Delhi, India. He's been a Founding Member of Contact Press Images since 1977. Early in his career, he won international acclaim for his coverage of the Gandhi family and his five-year reportage on the 1984 Bhopal tragedy, the worst chemical disaster in history. He has since produced extensive work from the US, the former USSR, China, South Asia and, in particular, from his native India where he is a veteran of the political scene. A regular contributor to the National Geographic, GEO in Germany and France, and Fortune magazine in the USA, in recent years he has documented the effects of widespread modernization on Asian society, especially in his own country.

I was first aware of Dilip's work years ago when his photographs accompanied "Tibet In Exile: Looking Homeward", a Geo Magazine photo essay (May 1981, pp 84-110). The article included, rarely seen at that time, photographs of His Holiness The Dalai Lama in his home in Dharamsala, India. Dilip told me recently his fondest memory "was of His Holiness repairing 2 camera bodies that had inexplicably stopped working while I was photographing him at 4:00 am in his bedroom for Geo."

In his award winning documentary, Forgotten Woman, Mehta offers a view of the life of some women forced to live in poverty in rural India once their husbands have died. The documentary follows Dilip's sister, Deepa Mehta's, Oscar nominated film Water. "Deepa's guiding hand has been present for my entire life. 'Water' certainly galvanized me to make this feature length documentary. The inspiration came entirely from the widows themselves," said Dilip, whose documentaries international screenings include the Dubai International Film Festival and the 2009 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.

The film opened in New York with 4 stars–“Mr. Mehta puts an unforgettable face on a problem of unimaginable scope.” Nathan Lee- The New York Times.

THE FORGOTTEN WOMAN

Directed and filmed by Dilip Mehta, and written by Deepa Mehta

MELANIE McWHORTER: Nuclear Family Reaction

fuzzy jacket, 2007
Photograph (c) Melanie McWhorter /All Rights Reserved

stressful morning, 2007
Photograph (c) Melanie McWhorter /All Rights Reserved

new nails
Photograph (c) Melanie McWhorter /All Rights Reserved

ty, 2008
Photograph (c) Melanie McWhorter /All Rights Reserved

MELANIE McWHORTER was "born and raised in a small mill town in upstate South Carolina. She received her BA in History from Lander University, a modest liberal arts collage in Greenwood, SC. After graduation, she found a job as a school photographer and later a brief stint as a dude ranch photographer in Jackson, WY. She is a regular contributor to the online magazines Fraction and photo-eye and maintains her own photo-related blog. She manages photo-eye’s Book Division, curates exhibitions of local photographers in photo-eye Bookstore and organizes the monthly First Wednesday Salon." Her photography was recently exhibited in Through the Lens: Creating Santa Fe. Melanie is co-founder of Flash Flood, a new media collective that investigates and promotes the intersection of photography and culture in the state of New Mexico. I love Melanie's series "Nuclear Family Reaction" and spoke with her about this work recently:

You know I'm a big fan of your Nuclear Family Reaction work. Can you tell me about these images?

MM: Most of the photos that I include in the portfolio are of my children, although I have a few of my husband Tom and some self-portraits. This project stemmed from an earlier project with my daughter in 35 mm and in black and white. These were more closely cropped and more of body studies than environmental portraiture. I started shooting color and medium format at some point and decided this was the way to go. It was an evolution in my aesthetic and my relationship with my family and internal struggles. It, like many of my projects, was a catharsis for me--a selfish projection of an internal struggle that I force others to absorb. It was also convenient. Like someone once told me, photograph what you know (or what is around you).

Who has been an influence on your work or you consider a mentor?

MM: My first photography book was of Imogen Cunningham’s work with Unmade Bed on the cover. I had the Masters of Photography calendar on the wall while shooting dude ranch photography in Jackson, WY. When I moved to Santa Fe, I was hired by Rixon Reed at photo-eye. This was both awe-inspiring and depressing at the same time. I thought, “if there are so many good photographers (and bad ones) out there producing work and photography books, how do I have a chance?” I got over that and I now think that there is room for almost all of us.

That said, I really love Dutch and Swedish photography. There is some great work coming out of these regions, especially in books. I really like Erik van der Weijde, Lars Tunbjork, Anna Clarén, Gerry Johansson, and many more and books from publishers like GUN Gallery, Journal and Episode. My portfolio Dealing with 35 is really influenced by Swedish portraiture. I would say that Stephen Gill is always stuck in my head when shooting projects like Highway 14 or the Railyard. I love to capture upturned ground and the transformation of the land. My husband can tell you how much I love to shoot mounds of dirt.

Two women that I would like to note who have inspired me are Debbie Fleming Caffery and Mary Virginia Swanson. Debbie’s images, I think, influenced some of the earlier black and whites from Nuclear Family Reaction. Both of these women are strong, full of personality and seem to give of themselves beyond what is required or necessary.

Would you tell me about FLASH FLOOD and how it originated? How long has it been in the works?

MM: I had an idea. I am an idea person, it is the actualization that is usually difficult for me. This idea was to start a cooperative that promoted the intersection of photography and New Mexico. I mentioned this idea to Jonathan Blaustein. Elizabeth, as you know about Jonathan, he gets excited easily and can be a real motivator. He followed up on this idea and it was born. Originally we had conceived of 7 members, but we invited David Ondrik, Jennifer Schlesinger, and Jesse Chehak on board and it just felt right. New Mexico is important photographically, both historically and contemporarily. We want to embrace both while incorporating other fields, like anthropology, history, economics and culture. I think it will be important to all in New Mexico as well as internationally.

We welcome submissions for Flash Flood from individuals who live in the state and those who do not, but who have photographed here. It is so exciting and we have some fantastic stories and features scheduled for the upcoming monthly issues and aspire to have a printed version in the next year. Anyone can email us at contact@flash-flood.org to join our email list or to submit work or find us on Facebook or Twitter, like everyone else.

You were a Reviewer at the recent Photolucida CRITICAL MASS Top 50 photography review. What was the overall tone of the work you reviewed?

MM: There are a lot of very good photographers out there working, but it is so difficult to be outstanding. The work that I found to be the most original or inspiring for me was Erica Allen, Tony Chirinos, Susan Worsham, Jenn Ackerman, Simone Lueck, Phillip Toledano, and Alejandro Cartagena.

Was there any work you were already familiar with through your reviews for the Photographers Showcase?

MM: I do not have a list, but I would guess about one-third of the work I had seen at some point whether it was photo-eye or other sources. Many of these photographers run the circuit of reviews. They are willing to invest the time and money in their work. Like Sally Mann and Charlie Rose agreed on his show, it is tenacity and not talent that make you successful.

You were also a Reviewer in Italy's Fotofestival di Roma. What did you do there?

MM: I was officially the lead juror for the photography book competition and I delivered a lecture on Photo Book publishing. I also got to see Nan Goldin, Rinko Kawauchi and Juliana Beasley speak while there.

What are you working on now?

MM: My most recent project is Dealing with 35, mind you, I am now almost 37 so it has been a while. It is simply another project trying to work out some changes in my life. Coming to middle age and how wonderful and scary that is.

My photographs from Nuclear Family Reaction will be in a group exhibition with Kay Denton, Juanita Hong, Debbie Miracolo, and Andrea Land titled The Sweet Escape Jan 15 – Mar 13, 2010 at the Morean Arts Center, St. Petersburg, FL.

Melanie McWhorter WEBSITE

Melanie Photo BLOG

RICHARD BARNES: Artifactual

 from Animal Logic
Photograph (c) Richard Barnes /All Rights Reserved

 from Animal Logic
Photograph (c) Richard Barnes /All Rights Reserved

from Animal Logic
Photograph (c) Richard Barnes /All Rights Reserved

National Geographic Gallery: Photograph by Richard Barnes: A queen's pet gazelle was readied for eternity with the same lavish care as a member of the royal family. In fine, blue-trimmed bandages and a custom-made wooden coffin, it accompanied its owner to the grave in about 945 B.C. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG29835

National Geographic Gallery: Photograph by Richard Barnes: The embalming house for the Apis bulls, sacred animals in the great city of Memphis, survives in ruins near the village of Mit Rahina. For 40 days the body of each bull lay in natron on a massive stone bed in a courtyard where the sun could help desiccate and disinfect it.

"Photographer Richard Barnes spent more than ten years documenting the way we assemble, contain, and catalog the natural world. Barnes's behind-the-scenes photographs are haunting reminders that there is nothing natural about a natural history museum."

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RICHARD BARNES monograph ANIMAL LOGIC collects four related species of his photographic work that touch on themes relevant to science, history, archaeology, and architecture. Through his lens, sights and objects normally hidden from public view—half-installed dioramas, partially wrapped specimens, anatomical models, exploded skulls, and taxidermied animals in shipping crates—take on a strange beauty. Barnes peels back layers of artifice to reveal the tangle of artistry, craftsmanship, and curatorial decisions inside every lifelike diorama and meticulously arranged glass case. Animal Logic investigates both the human desire to construct artificial worlds for 'the wild' and the haunting and poignant worlds the real wild constructs. Barnes's camera freezes migrating starlings to reveal the visual poetry hidden inside their dense formations. His extraordinary photographs of birds' nests constructed from detritus—string, plastic, milkweed, tinsel, hair, dental floss, pine needles—sculpturally embody our often complicated relationship with nature. Animal Logic presents more than 120 of Barnes's photographs and includes essays by Jonathan Rosen of the New York Times and curator Susan Yelavich, which explore the themes that emerge from Barnes's unique body of work.

AN INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD BARNES

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTO GALLERY

RICHARD BARNES

ERIC FISCHL: An Interview

Fred, 1998. Oil On Linen. 72" x 68"
(Portrait of Fischl's friend novelist/art critic Frederick Tuten)
Painting (c) Eric Fischl /All Rights Reserved

Joan and John, 2002. Oil On Linen. 70" x 75"
(Portrait of writer's Joan Didion and the late John Dunne)
Painting (c) Eric Fischl /All Rights Reserved

Untitled (Brice In Pink Shirt), 2006. Oil On Linen. 50" x 60"
Painting (c) Eric Fischl /All Rights Reserved

ERIC FISCHL, born in New York City, grew up in the suburbs of Long Island and Phoenix, Arizona. He received a BFA from the California Institute for the Arts in 1972. His work has been the subject of numerous important exhibitions including: the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee; and the Museum of Contemparary Art, Chicago. Fischl lives and works in New York City and Sag Harbor with artist April Gornik. Read his full bio here

An Interview With Eric Fischl by Donald Kuspit

Front Cover right: Photograph by Richard Avedon. Back Cover left: Painting "Portrait of the Artist As An Old Man" by Eric Fischl

The following is an excert from An Interview With Eric Fischl by Donald Kuspit, Elizabeth Avedon Editions / Vintage Contemporary Artists / Random House (Buy a vintage copy here):

DK: I see you want to live dangerously: you've critically introduced your contemporaries. Let's pursue your gambit. Within the context of the understanding you've set up, who are the artists you find interesting? Why do they make a difference to us?

EF: In the mid-seventies, when sincerity and/or meaning became important again, after pop art and minimalism and conceptual art, some artists found it either in direct expression of meaningfulness, or they found meaningfulness in the direct expression of meaninglessness, and that's how the lines were drawn. When I came to New York in the late seventies, the greatest risk was sincerity. The German artists–Keifer, Baselitz, Polke, Lupertz, Immendorff, Penck–became noteworthy because they were working with a historical event that was guaranteed to be meaningful. It was the worst thing that had happened, they were the descendants of its perpetrators, and they were trying to figure out who they were in relation to it. The whole struggle for meaning since the 1970's has been a struggle for identity. It's pervasive, but most of us can't identify what happened except in personal terms. By what happened, I mean what went wrong, what gave us this sense of collapse or disappointment. The Germans were hurt not just personally but culturally as well. It's very hard for us in America to complain or to feel that our complaint is justified, because, after all, what are we complaining about? That objects we surround ourselves with are disappointing? I mean, it's a joke, we're more embarrassed about having believed in the superficial qualities of America, and it's hard to see yourself in that light. But because the Germans were so devastated culturally, you can identify with their struggle for renewal. Baselitz made a formal decision to turn his images upside down. Before that he had been making traditional realist pictures, often genre and figure scenes. So he decided to turn history upside down. He distanced himself from history, almost as a kind of penitence, a kind of self-ostracism.

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Fischl's latest paintings are of the Corrida Goyesca held each September in the Andalusian town of Ronda. The toreros, or bullfighters, dress in 18th century attire as in the era of the Spanish painter Goya, who designed their distinctive costume. The bull fight has captivated artists from Goya to Hemingway and Picasso.

Corrida in Ronda / ERIC FISCHL / EXHIBITION
Mary Boone Gallery • Oct 21-Dec 2009 • 541 West 24 Street, NYC

SUSAN BURNSTINE: Homemade Cameras

The Approach © Susan Burnstine/All rights reserved

On The Crest © Susan Burnstine/All rights reserved

I was playing with a friend’s son and his vintage science kit and I saw this really interesting plastic magnifying glass. I looked through it and thought wow this is interesting. I knew I could make a lens out of it, so I stole it.

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SUSAN BURNSTINE was nominated for the 2009 Santa Fe Prize for Photography and winner of B&W Magazine’s 2008 Portfolio Spotlight Award. The images in her current series On Waking Dreams and Instinct are shot on film with homemade medium format cameras and homemade lenses that have cost less than $40 in parts. These cameras are primarily made out of plastic, rubber, molded plastic, a few vintage camera parts and random household objects including string, photo tape, garbage bags, Velcro, parts of toys and children’s science kits along with various materials she happens upon in hobby shops and hardware stores. Susan was one of 100 photographers invited to participate in Review Santa Fe 2009. You can read more about Burnstines work in one of the many articles here. PDN Interview

Susan Burnstine website