THEO CAROL : The Interview

Photograph © Theo Carol

Photograph © Theo Carol

Photograph © Theo Carol

Photograph © Theo Carol

David J. Carol © Theo Carol

Although photographer Theo Carol is only a Junior at Syosset High School in New York, he is already burning up the Gallery scene with his images. He may have been slightly influenced early on by his father, well-known photographer David J. Carol, but his work has taken off on it's own. I spoke with Theo about his photography and two upcoming shows:

EA: You’ve just come off of several group shows; one at the prestigious Los Angeles Center of Photography; another at The PhotoPlace Gallery in Middlebury, Vermont; a third at The Stitches and Pics Gallery in Sackets Harbor, New York; a fourth, Shades of Black and White, juried by Susan Burnstein at The SE Center for Photography; and finally The Tree Talk Exhibition online at The Griffin Museum through May 5, 2018.

What’s next for you?

TC: Well my work is up right now at Drexel University's High School Exhibition 2017. I also have two photos in an exhibition at Southeast Center for Photography which is running until February 24th. 

It sounds crazy, but I also have two other shows coming up in the next month or so. The ONE 2017 exhibition at the Jadite Gallery, NYC, April 3-14 2018, juried by Lenscratch Publisher Aline Smithson; and the Lens 2018 show at the Perspective Gallery in Evanston, Illinois, March 1- April 1, 2018, juried by Paula Tognarelli, Executive Director and Curator of the Griffin Museum of Photography.

EA: What was your experience like on seeing your work hanging in the galleries for the first time?

TC: All the shows have been pretty far from home. The only one Ive seen in person was at Drexel University. It was interesting to see my work on a wall in a group show as opposed to on my computer screen at home. Seeing my photograph in public was odd but also exciting.

EA: When did you develop an interest in Photography?

TC: I first began taking pictures at The Usdan Center for Visual and Performing Arts when was I was 9 years old. I did this for few summers until I started playing trumpet. I continued at Usdan but stopped taking pictures and focused solely on my music.

EA: What was your first camera?

TC: My Dad gave me a used Canon 30D when I was 9 years old.

EA: What camera are you currently using?

TC: I got a Fuji X100T for my 16th birthday last April. I started taking pictures again last summer for the first time in quite a few years. My father had an exhibition at the Leica Gallery in Soho, New York, where I got to meet the people from Leica Akademie. I told them about my interest in photography and sent them a link to an article written about me and my photographs in PDN EDU.  To my great surprise towards the end of 2017 they offered to lend me a Leica Q!! Very exciting. Its obviously a great camera. It has made it easier for me to shoot at night because of the amazing quality at higher ISOs. I also think the 28mm lens works better for me than the 35 lens on the Fuji X100T.

EA: How is that working for you compared to your earlier camera/s?

TC: The Leica's auto focus is faster. I like the feel of it, very solid. Everything on the camera seems to be in the right place. It also seems to work better at night. I like to shoot in low light and the results with the Leica Q are better than the other cameras Ive tried.

EA: What are you looking for when you photograph?

TC: I'm looking for unique people and peculiar subjects in general. I like to shoot through openings, windows, doorways, etc.  I love to include reflections and interesting light. I want to show things that people wouldn't see if I didn't take a picture.

Instagram @TheoCarolPhotography

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 

DENNIS DeHART: Spot Photography Gallery

Tampere Seating

Photograph © Dennis Dehart

Structure Voipaala

Photograph © Dennis Dehart

Triangulating

Photograph © Dennis Dehart

SPOT PHOTO WORKS, "THE" new Contemporary Photography Gallery in Los Angeles, opens with an exhibition of photographs by artist Dennis DeHart. "Compelled by the connections and conflicts of the natural and cultural worlds, Dennis DeHart's images weave together a mix of landscape, portraiture and still life into pristine color photographs. During a recent artist residency in Finland, DeHart traversed the countryside extensively. The resulting photographs are heavily influenced by Scandinavian aesthetics of light, design, craftsmanship and simplicity."

Dennis DeHart Photographs

SPOT PHOTO WORKS

6679 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles

Artist Reception: August 2, 6-9pm – September 16, 2014 

SPOT Photo Works is a partnership between Kathleen Clark and Russell Adams. SPOT’s Director Kathleen Clark, has mounted exhibitions at a variety of locations including Clark|Oshin Gallery, Leica Gallery Los Angeles and Month of Photography LA. She was the longtime Photo Director at Los Angeles Magazine and LA Weekly. Read SPOT Director Kathleen Clarks Lenscratch Mixtape here.  

Russell Adams has owned and operated Schulman Photo Lab (located next door to SPOT) since 1991.  The boutique analog darkroom and digital lab specializes in fine art exhibition printing as well as printing for photographic book projects.  

Spot Photo Works is located at Crossroads of the World one of Los Angeles and Hollywood’s architectural gems. Designed by architect Robert V. Derrah and built in 1936, Crossroads of the World was initially opened as America’s first outdoor shopping mall. Derrah’s unusual design features a central streamline moderne building resembling a cruise ship at dock between buildings reflecting an array of international village themes: Spanish, Moroccan, English Cottage. 

ALINE SMITHSON: The Interview

Arrangement in Green and Black #2

Portrait of the Photographer’s Mother © Aline Smithson 

Arrangement in Green and Black #17

Portrait of the Photographer’s Mother  © Aline Smithson  

Arrangement in Green and Black #1

Portrait of the Photographer’s Mother © Aline Smithson  

Elizabeth Avedon: What sparked the idea for your series, Arrangement in Green and Black?

Aline Smithson: The idea was sparked when I came across a small print of Arrangement in Gray and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother by James McNeil Whistler at a garage sale.  Whistler has always been one of my favorite painters. Revisiting the composition again made me ponder the possibilities of using it in a photographic series. Within an hour, at two other garage sales, I happened upon a leopard coat and hat,a leopard fabric, a cat painting and a chair that was similar to the one in the painting...and I knew it was a sign to proceed.

My patient 85 year-old mother posed in over 20 ensembles, but unfortunately passed away before seeing the finished series. I am grateful for her sense of humor and the time this series allowed us to be together. 

 EA: Which of the 21 was the first?

AS: The first was the leopard coat and hat and the cat painting. I immediately loved the result and it set my imagination on fire.  I would lie awake at night thinking of combinations and scenarios. I was also working on a couple of other series at the same time. It was a period of immense creativity. 
 

Read more L'Oeil de la Photographie here
 

Fur © Aline Smithson  

Lucy with Mountains from Revisiting Beauty © Aline Smithson

As seen in the 2014 PDN Photo Annual 

I first met ALINE SMITHSON several years ago while I was a reviewer for CENTER's annual Review Santa Fe. I was impressed with all of her work using various subjects and styles. I fell in love with her mysterious black and white series, Inside/Out, and Daughter, a photographic journey from childhood to adolescent to adulthood of her daughter Charlotte; and many of her photographs incorporating her family on their yearly vacations on a lake. 

After a career as a New York Fashion Editor, working along side the greats of fashion photography, including Horst, Mario Testino, Patrick Demarchelier, Arthur Elgort, and Bert Stern, ALINE SMITHSON discovered the family Rolleiflex and never looked back. She has exhibited widely including solo shows at the Griffin Museum of Photography, the Center of Fine Art Photography, the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, the Lishui Festival in China, the Tagomago Gallery in Barcelona and Paris, and the Wallspace Gallery in Seattle and Santa Barbara. And her latest exhibition, Arrangement in Gray and Black: Portrait of the Photographer's Mother, opened at the Davis Orton Gallery in Hudson New York last week.

Aline radiates her own personal power - she is known as a superstar among her peers. While working full-time on her own photography career, she generously promotes and supports the work of mid-career and emerging photographers daily on her award winning journal, LENSCRATCH; as well as giving workshops at the Los Angeles Center of Photography (LACP) and jurying exhibitions and portfolio reviews around the country. 

I spoke with Aline recently about her ongoing work projects, her upcoming exhibition and her collaboration with her mother. Read our full Interview on L'Oeil de la Photography here.

EXHIBITION
Photographs by Aline Smithson
Arrangement in Gray and Black: Portrait of the Photographer's Mother
May 16 - June 22, 2014
Davis Orton Gallery
114 Warren Street Hudson, NY 12534 USA
 

Also showing:
Photographs by Meg Birnbaum, Sisters of the Commonwealth
 

LENSCRATCH: Mixtape by Aline Smithson

Photograph © Jerry Atnip

I've been L E N S C R A T C H E D  by the remarkable ALINE SMITHSON. L E N S C R A T C H is considered one of the 10 Photography-related blogs you should be reading by Source Review, Wired.com, Rangefinder and InStyle Magazine. I'm honored to be included in Smithson's Mixtapes, profiling many distinguished professionals in the fine art photography world.

Aline writes: "Constructing today’s MIXTAPE was incredibly exciting–I learned in-depth about a friend and design icon who has traversed a remarkable photographic terrain, creating a legacy for excellence and creativity. Elizabeth Avedon's blog  is a go-to destination for photographers, bringing her unique perspective to her observations and posts.  I first met Elizabeth Avedon when she reviewed my work at Review Santa Fe. I had no idea what to expect, but it turned out that our twenty minutes was my favorite of the event. She was warm, funny, engaging, and encouraging.  We kept in touch and several years later, when I was exhibiting in New York, she attended my opening. It was a reflection of the kind of person she is, someone who makes the extra effort to support, encourage, and educate. It was great to reunite with her in Chicago at the Filter Photo Festival this past fall."

"Elizabeth carries a lifetime of creative seeing, that combined with her exposure to the the greats of design and photography, add up to a remarkable ability to make her mark on all aspects of design that surround the photograph. Her down-to-earth generosity and unflagging enthusiasm for all things photographic make her a very special member of our community." 

Read It Here

THE ELIZABETH AVEDON MIXTAPE

L E N S C R A T C H