ALINE SMITHSON: Monograph | Self + Others: Portrait As Autobiography

Self + Others: Portrait As Autobiography

Photographs by Aline Smithson

Published by the Magenta Foundation

 Available for pre-purchase here

 Fur from Daughter

Photograph © Aline Smithson

Special Edition soft-cover in a fabulous Drawer Box!

Mr. Malin from Hollywood at Home

Aline Smithson is known as a superstar among her peers. She is beloved in the photo community she so generously promotes and supports daily in her award winning journal, LENSCRATCH, she teaches workshops at the Los Angeles Center of Photography, jury's exhibitions and reviews at portfolio reviews all around the country – while working full-time on her own photography career.

Now, the Magenta Foundation is publishing Aline Smithson's first monograph, Self + Others: Portrait As Autobiography, portrait photographs spanning over twenty years. A gorgeous must-have photography book, with a foreword by Paula Tognarelli, Executive Director and Curator at the Griffin Museum of Photography; an introduction by Karen Sinsheimer, Curator of Photography at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art; and some very interesting, revealing text from the photographer about her photographic series, opens each chapter.

Self + Others: Portrait As Autobiography

Photographs by Aline Smithson

Published by the Magenta Foundation

Available for pre-purchase here

I have always been partial to Aline Smithson's black and white photographs of her family with her children at various ages and stages. I was interested to learn she was inspired by some of my favorite photographers. She writes "...I was drawn to the humanity of the early portraits of Keith Carter, captured near his home in Beaumont, Texas; I was fascinated with the intimacy Diane Arbus was able to create with strangers; and I was affected by Matt Mahurin’s moody and gestural images, which inspired me to print darker and take risks in the darkroom."

Night Light from Daughter

Photograph © Aline Smithson

Brothers

Photograph © Aline Smithson

Venus Rising from Inside Out

Photograph © Aline Smithson

Hardcover
11" × 12"
216 pages with foldout section
55 B&W photographs and 75 colour photographs
Full colour throughout and gilded edges
ISBN 978-1-926856-06-3
—
Special Edition soft-touch cover book,
inside of a high-gloss, foil stamped
drawer box with a pull-tab
—
$60 (book)
$150 (special edition book in box)
$300 (special edition book in box, with print)

Self + Others: Portrait As Autobiography

Photographs by Aline Smithson

Available for pre-purchase here

—

"Aline Smithson Talks To Elizabeth Avedon" 

L'Oeil de la Photography Interview here 

SEAN PERRY: Notes from The Picture Review

 Curator and Collector, Wm. Hunt, 2011  
"Go forth and build, speak to the wonder and joy 
that is so vacant in your adversaries"
Photograph © Elizabeth Paul Avedon

  

SEAN PERRY: Part I

I am restless – intrinsically. Annoying as of late more so, and in part by petty nemeses soon vanquished. It is in these times I refer to one of Mr. Hunt's sublime life lessons (adapted) – go forth and build, speak to the wonder and joy that is so vacant in your adversaries.

If we have shared time in a class together you may know I have a proclivity for books. I enjoy all lovely printed things, particularly photography, design and architecture books. I often partake in obscene amounts of caffeine and wander the aisles of book and thrift stores, seeking respite and delight in something beautiful discovered.

Another curricula of The Picture Review is the study and research of good photography through the culture of books. So many important considerations are at play – the languages of printing, design, typography, sequencing and more. Do you know the stereotype of trusting a corpulent chef? I believe we must eat well if meaningful art is to be had, whether consumed, created or espoused.

ThePictureReview.com

(Photograph: Sarah Wilson)

I recently had a conversation with Ms. (name redacted) at Half Price Books and have very exciting news to relay. While I work through this temporary over-restlessness, I shall occasionally select an exceptional book to share. HPB has generously agreed to offer this selection to you, with compliments of a discount in honor of The Picture Review initiative. I will feature the book in a post here and place it on hold under a nome de plume. Expiring that Sunday at close, (9pm) the first one to request the title from the counter using said alias has it.

Now let us begin this hedonism with proper grandeur. I have perused the current offerings at many locations there is much to devour. There are titles from Twin Palms, Steidl, University of Texas Press and Monacelli Press to name a brief few.

It is my joyful privilege to introduce The Picture Review Sunday Find. May a season of bounty and voracity be upon us.

The Life of a Photograph

SEAN PERRY: Part II

Filled with the sweet nectar of deep discounts and haptic pleasure, did you empty your chalice? I most certainly did, trekking to all Half Price Books locations both far and wide. I imagine only eclipsed by the diligent Mr. Drew Lee, who valiantly sailed towards the dark secrets of San Antonio aboard a modern day Pequod. Fortuity favors the adventurous and prepared, he returned with a most stellar trove of fortunes.

I am joyous our chambers here echo greatly of treasures won – Keith Carter, Kate Breakey, Lee Frielander, Sébastien Meunier, Irving Penn, and Sam Abell among other giants. It is indeed a time of bounty and celebration, well done!

Many of us gorged on Mr. Abell's title, The Life of a Photograph. What an exceptional book and man. Picture Review Alumni will recognize the language, the title is an eloquent and well stated theorem of his work. Sam Abell is a esteemed mid-western born photographer known for his poetic amalgamation of subjects and styles, traversing photo-journalism to fine-art. He first worked for the National Geographic Society in 1970 at the age of 25, and went on to photograph over 20 features. He has published at least 9 titles I am aware of, likely more. Study the life he has woven around photography – as a photographer, author, teacher…. you will find no truer a storyteller and artist. His own words are best, and I implore you to read the interview with Mr. Blaustein below.

http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2013/09/04/sam-abell-interview/

I find his photographs so well seen and thoughtfully made. I am particularly thankful for a lesson he learned from his father, "compose and wait." It left a lasting impression upon me and is but one of a long list of gifts garnered from his generous teachings. Last year I made an image in Kyoto that I am deeply grateful for. Mr. Abell metaphorically by my side, I composed the frame as I was crossing the Kamogawa – then waited, for the unexpected gesture I needed to complete the image.

Three Crows, Kyoto Japan

Photograph © Sean Perry

The video below is not your typical Facebook distraction. No sir, it is rich with sustenance – 43 minutes of pure insight and excellence. The book can be had for a mere pittance on Amazon, and perhaps you may still find a copy or two here. Tarry not, it will be a loyal companion for you – for that I am sure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceJ0S5P-Ybc

STEPHEN L. CLARK GALLERY, AUSTIN TEXAS: 20th Anniversary Exhibition

 

 Gus on the Porch

Photograph by Bill Wittliff

 Tufted Titmouse 

Photograph by Kate Breakey

Birthright Photograph by Keith Carter

Stephen L. Clark Gallery, AIPAD Booth 314, 2010

"Revelation 2004" by Sean Perry (left), Kate Breakey wall (right)

Revelation 2004

Photograph by Sean Perry

This weekend, the Stephen L. Clark Gallery in Austin, Texas marks 20 years with an extraordinary exhibition that includes Bill Wittliff, Kate Breakey, Keith Carter, and Sean Perry, respectively – "because they are all part of the history of this gallery, deeply threaded into its development, evolution, and success." – The Austin Chronicle, read more here

Stephen L. Clark Gallery

20th Anniversary Show / Oct. 19-Dec. 7
1101 W. Sixth, Austin, Texas

KEITH CARTER + DORNITH DOHERTY: Houston's McMurtrey Gallery

Gaillardia, 2011
Photograph © Dornith Doherty

Red Yucca, 2011
Photograph © Dornith Doherty

Habitat, 2011
Photograph © Keith Carter

Cruise Ship, 2011
Photograph © Keith Carter

Poppy, 2010
Photograph © Dornith Doherty

Cache: "In this new body of work, Dornith Doherty explores the role of seed banks and their preservation efforts in the face of climate change, the extinction of natural species and decreased agricultural diversity. Traveling from the Arctic tundra of the Svalbard Archipelago to the Sonoran desert in Arizona since 2010, this new exhibition includes large format photographs of key global seed banks as well as archival pigment prints and digital chromogenic lenticular prints of x-ray collages of seeds and plants."

Read my 2011 Interview with Doherty after her travels close to the North Pole to photograph the Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Imagining Paradise: "Imagining Paradise reflects a new world in Keith Carter's visionary universe. With decreased eyesight following a medical condition Mr. Carter explains: "...my current visual world is now flat and two dimensional, similar to looking at a medieval painting, and scattered with black holes, mottled shapes, sparkles, and occasional light shows..." Keith Carter's new photographs of paradise are inspired by a deterioration of the real that Keith has turned into an ideal: "Using traditional silver-rich film and photographic papers, along with arcane chemistry and non-traditional technique, I am paying homage to the mystery of binocular vision and the history of the medium itself.""

McMurtrey Gallery, Houston

March 24 - April 21, 2012

Look for the upcoming April 2012 issue of
SPOT MAGAZINE | Houston Center for Photography
"An Interview: Dornith Doherty with Elizabeth Avedon"