KEITH CARTER: Fireflies

Fireflies
Photograph (c) Keith Carter /All Rights Reserved

Sunglasses
Photograph (c) Keith Carter /All Rights Reserved

White Owl
Photograph (c) Keith Carter /All Rights Reserved

Pram
Photograph (c) Keith Carter /All Rights Reserved

...in 1992, Keith made “Fireflies,” in my view his first truly great, truly transcendent image. It is a photograph of two young boys in a creek bottom. They are leaning over a jar held between them. Light glows from inside the jar – the magic light of the fireflies the boys had captured at dusk on that warm summer evening. It is a picture of your brother and you. It is a picture of all of us when were still new in the world, still able to be mesmerized by the most ordinary and daily of things. It is a picture to conjure memories that in most of us have lain dormant for an eternity – remembrances of having once been at one with the natural world. Only a glance at “Fireflies” and we’re back there again, our eyes full of wonder, walking barefoot through that continuous miracle that is life, and we are exalted by the experience. That is what art at its most sublime can do –from an Essay by Bill Wittliff

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KEITH CARTER was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1948. He holds the endowed Walles Chair of Visual and Performing Arts at Lamar University Beaumont, Texas, and is the recipient of a 2009 Texas Metal of Arts Award and the Lange-Taylor Prize from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. In 1997 Keith Carter was the subject of an arts profile on the national network television show, CBS Sunday Morning. In 1998, he received Lamar University's highest teaching honor, the University Professor Award, and he was named the Lamar University Distinguished Lecturer.

Carter has been called "a poet of the ordinary" by the Los Angeles Times. His haunting, enigmatic photographs are included in numerous permanent collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the J. Paul Getty Museum; the George Eastman House; the Museum of Fine Arts of Houston; and the Wittliff Collection of Southwestern and Mexican Photography Collection. He is author of From Uncertain To Blue, 1988; The Blue Man, 1990; Mojo, 1992; Heaven of Animals, 1995; and Bones, 1996. A mid-career survey, Keith Carter Photographs - Twenty Five Years was published in 1997; Holding Venus, Natural Histories and Ezekiel's Horse, 2000; A Certain Alchemy, 2008; and the recent monograph Fireflies, 2009.

FIREFLIES: Photographs of Children: "In Fireflies, Keith Carter presents a magical gallery of photographs of children and the world they inhabit. The collection includes both new work and iconic images such as "Fireflies," "The Waltz," "Chicken Feathers," "Megan's New Shoes," and "Angel" selected from all of Carter's rare and out-of-print books. When making these images, Carter often asked the children, "do you have something you would like to be photographed with?" This creative collaboration between photographer and subject has produced images that conjure up stories, dreams, and imaginary worlds. Complementing the photographs is an essay in which Carter poetically traces the wellsprings of his interest in photographing children to his own childhood experiences in Beaumont, Texas. As he recalls days spent exploring in the woods and creeks, it becomes clear that his art flows from a deep reservoir of sights and sounds imprinted in early childhood. –from the University of Texas Press

KEITH CARTER WEBSITE
FIREFLIES

ERIC MILES: Photography Book Collecting

Cindy Sherman, 1987 Whitney Museum catalogue

Robert Frank: The Americans (1st American edition)

ERIC MILES is Director of photo-eye Auctions. He is a specialist in rare photo books and contemporary photography and a contributor to Foam magazine, American Photo, and photo-eye Booklist. He holds a Master's in art history from Hunter College and completed additional graduate work at City University of New York Graduate Center. In 1990-1991, he was a participant in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. He has taught art history and criticism at Hunter College, Fashion Institute of Technology, and Pratt Institute as well as been a reviewer and presenter at the Santa Fe Workshops, Review Santa Fe and PhotoLA.

I recently asked Eric Miles a few questions about the art of rare photography book collecting:

Can you give a brief history of your work with photo-eye Auctions, beginning in Santa Fe and expanding to NYC?

EM: I started working with photo-eye in January of 2004, just a few months after the auctions launched. Initially, I was hired to do cataloging. As with many positions at photo-eye, job descriptions have a way of rapidly expanding to include many other tasks. Thankfully, in my case, most of these had to do with administering the auctions: cataloging, scanning, and working with consignors. Within about six months, they had become more or less my exclusive domain. For this reason, the move to NY in the fall of 2007 was pretty much seamless. Being in NY, I obviously get out more and am able to secure more and better consignments.

What is the criteria for the books that make it into your Auction? Are they all 1st editions and must be signed by the author (photographer)?

EM: I try to be fairly selective about what makes it into the auctions. I am always looking for fresh material. Books do not have to be signed, but for the most part, they do need to be out of print; otherwise, I am competing with booksellers offering new books, which is not what the auctions are set up to do. Occasionally I will take books that are still in print IF they are signed. The main criteria are rarity and condition. The two are related in that some books are really pretty common in just o.k. condition, but in perfect condition they are very rare. The older the book, the greater the extent to which this holds true. Likewise with signatures: some artists just don't sign very many books–Cindy Sherman is a good example; many Europeans and Japanese who don't make it to the States that often as well. Finally, I am always looking for material that just isn't easily found on the used book sites. Also, books with interesting inscriptions that tell some sort of story; for instance, I have a copy of a wonderful book by Hiroshi Hamaya called Ura Nihon (Japans Back Coast) that is inscribed by him to "Mama San Capa". Hamaya was the first Asian member of Magnum; this inscription to Robert & Cornell Capa's mother is a wonderful memorial to Capa and a fascinating bit of history documenting a relationship between the two photographers. Also, supplemental material can also be of interest to collectors. For example, I have a copy of Diane Arbus' first monograph, which contains the image 'Two Girls in Identical Raincoats.' Along with the book, I have the card that Aperture sent out to its subscribers offering the book for sale.

Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph
Rare 1st Edition with 'Two Girls In Identical Raincoats'

Josef Sudek: Fotografie (Signed in 1959)

Scarce Hiroshi Hamaya Monograph

Are Vintage photography books more collectible than Contemporary photography books?

EM: Sometimes. Again, much has to do with condition and completeness; for example, some books from the period between the two world wars are quite common. However, dust jackets from the period are often missing. With the incredibly high volume of new titles published each year, buying new books for their collectibility can be a crap shoot. That said, if a) the book is by an artist with a well-established reputation, and, b) the edition is small (500-1000 or less), it is pretty hard to go wrong. J.H. Engstrom's books are a good example.

Are there any rare copies you regret having to sell?

EM: This one: Milano by Giulia Pirelli and Carlo Orsi. It comes up so rarely for sale.

What has been the finest rare book collection you've ever seen?

EM: Without a doubt the collection belonging to Manfred Heiting. He was a marketing executive and designer for Polaroid in the 60s and 70s. He sold off a collection of prints about 7-8 years ago in order to focus on books. He is a fanatical completist–he must have every dust jacket, every belly band, every publisher's insert, etc....He is building a database that includes all such information, much of which got lost back in the day when libraries would simply discard dust jackets and anything else they thought would deteriorate or just get in the way.

Most interesting book in the past that you've sold?

EM: Again, there are so many: Moriyama: Bye Bye Photography; a first edition of Willy Ronis: Belleville Ménilmontan with a rare variant cover; a couple of Mao propaganda books that rarely show up in the west; a rare Japanese quarterly called Ken that was put out by Shomei Tomatsu; finally, an incredibly haunting Czech book called Toto mesto je vespolecne peci obyvatel. (This Town is Under the Control of its Citizens) with surreal photographs by Miroslav Peterka that look something like an Atget on bad acid!

Would you reveal the most expensive book PEA has sold in the past (and why)?

EM: We've sold many, many books in the $1000-2000 range. We've also sold many in the $3000-4000 range. As for most expensive, a Willy Ronis portfolio of collotypes (not a book, strictly speaking) sold for over $6000 back in '07; a limited edition of Sonia Bulaty's Josef Sudek bio for over $5000; a suite of Sally Mann nudes (prints, though, not a book) for over $9000; a reasonably nice copy of Robert Frank's The Americans in it's first American edition for $4500. It being an auction situation, sometimes enthusiastic bidding can push the price of a lot up way above its market value. Anytime one bids in an auction, due diligence is the name of the game!

What are a few of the finest rare books you were not able to acquire?

EM: Again, too many to mention: the three issues of Provoke magazine come to mind. They were a short-lived but very influential Japanese collective of whichDaido Moriyama was the best known member. Another would be the first edition of Moi Ver's Paris

Are you personally a fine art book collector?

EM: Yes, I have a small collection, but I've got some pretty severe space restrictions!

PHOTO-EYE AUCTIONS

Rare and Collectible Photography Books

CHRIS VERENE: Family / Twin Palms Publishers

The Same Day They Signed The Divorce Papers, A Tornado Hit The House

Twin Palms Publishers

My Twin Cousin's Husband's Brother's Cousin's Cousins
Photograph (c) Chris Verene /All Rights Reserved

The Pregnancy Test
Photograph (c) Chris Verene /All Rights Reserved

CHRIS VERENE follows the lives of his family and friends in his new monograph FAMILY, published by Twin Palms. “Verene walks right into the lives of his folks, showing you how they are, without any embarrassment on either side. Their togetherness is taken for granted so openly that the viewer feels at each moment like one of them, a member of the clan. Verene’s color [is] tender, warm and sensual, though stops well short of being glamorous . . . flooding them all with a strange, sweet romance. These pictures convey his bittersweet fondness for a smaller world in which he grew up but no longer shares, but which has lessons to teach him about the inroads of aging, disability and other difficulties. People do what they can to help each other and themselves, all from ‘leaking boats.’ Meanwhile, the dark room and the night bring tidings of their isolation. Many viewers are familiar with visits back home in this mood, which Verene renders luminous and fatal.”–Max Kozloff, The Theater of the Face: Portrait Photography Since 1900

Verene first received recognition in 2000 appearing in The Whitney Biennial and the publication of CHRIS VERENE by Twin Palms Publications with concurrent exhibits at The Pat Hearn Gallery, Colin DeLand American Fine Arts Co., and The Paul Morris Gallery. Verene’s work is in the collection of The Whitney Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Jewish Museum,, The Walker Art Center, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, among others. In 2001, Verene was the recipient of the first Pollock/Krasner award given for photography. His work has been featured in ARTFORUM, Art In America, ArtNews, The New York Times, The Village Voice, Vanity Fair, Harper’s, Vogue, and The New Yorker, among others.

FAMILY Twin Palms Publishers

EYTHOR ARNASON: Water Babies

Baby Swim Series
Photograph © Eyþór Árnason

EYTHOR ARNASON is a 28 year old professional photographer in Reykjavik, Iceland. Arnason studied photography in both Iceland and Denmark. Eythor's work includes landscape, portraiture, fashion, and magazine editorial and advertising. Starting with his newborn son in swim classes, Eythor has been working on his Baby Swim series for just under a year.

More On FLICKR
EYTHOR ARNASON WEBSITE

THOMAS BROENING: Closer To Where We Want To Be

Photograph (c) Thomas Broening /All Rights Reserved

THOMAS BROENING WEBSITE

MARK JENKINSON: On Death Row

Lethal Injection Chamber, (Executioner's view), Huntsville, TX
Photograph (c) Mark Jenkinson /All Rights Reserved

Colonel Donald Hocutt, (ret.) Executioner, Parchman State Penitentiary, Mississippi Photograph (c) Mark Jenkinson /All Rights Reserved

Gas Chamber, Carson City, NV
Photograph (c) Mark Jenkinson /All Rights Reserved

Lethal Injection Chamber, Angola, LA
Photograph (c) Mark Jenkinson /All Rights Reserved

Shareef Cousin, on his first day on Death Row, Angola, LA
Photograph (c) Mark Jenkinson /All Rights Reserved

I photographed Shareef on his first day on Death Row. He was seventeen years old. It later came to light that witnesses who were able to exonerate Shareef were not allowed to testify at his first trial. Eventually he was granted a new trial and the D. A. declined to retry him. After three years on Death Row, the murder charges against Shareef were dismissed.

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Mark Jenkinson's editorial, corporate and advertising photography, an estimated 30,000 plus photographs, have been published in virtually every major magazine in the world. He's won numerous awards including the Meade, AR 100, and Society of Publication Design awards. His photographs have been exhibited at the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, San Francisco Art Institute, Light Gallery, Daniel Wolf Gallery, O.K. Harris Gallery, Parsons School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, Cooper Union and others. He teaches in the Photography and Imaging Department at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

Jenkinson spent over ten years photographing on America's Death Row. "This project began as an outgrowth of my "Hidden Interiors" project, starting with photographs of execution sites. Eventually I became consumed with the subject of capital punishment and began a long term personal project photographing convicted murders, families of victims, executioners, and prosecutors. Most of this project has been financed by my commercial work, but a few magazines (Esquire, German Playboy, Newsweek and Time) have commissioned major features of the subject. I started the project as a death penalty abolitionist, but have come to understand that the issues are not the abstract arguments I started with. The issues became far more complex and personal once you spend time with a parent whose child had been brutally murdered, an inmate who's facing a fast approaching date with death, or a Warden who has been charged with executing a man he believes to be innocent. Nothing is so simple except that is final."

MARK JENKINSON WEBSITE
Mark Jenkinson's Blog Photography Essentials

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

JO WHALEY: Theater of Insects

Papilio Ulysses
Photograph (c) Jo Whaley /All Rights Reserved

Orthoptera: Acrididae

Photograph (c) Jo Whaley /All Rights Reserved

Coleoptera
Photograph (c) Jo Whaley /All Rights Reserved

Tropea Luna
Photograph (c) Jo Whaley /All Rights Reserved

Insects continue to evolve despite the fumbling of man.
Although they appear so small and fragile, their species will most likely exist after we cease to.

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JO WHALEY studied Painting and Art History at UC Berkeley. She was a Scenic Artist painting theater sets and backdrops for the San Francisco Opera and Ballet companies. In 1989 she received the first of five Poloroid Grants.

"Insects depicted larger than life, approach a human scale. One can confront them face to face and wonder at their structure and designs. In these images, the insects inhabit peculiar dioramas of an altered environment, which is vaguely familiar to the human mind, but at odds with the natural world. These creatures have seemingly adapted, as they blend amongst the glass, metal and concrete. Atmospheric skies are questionable in their chemical composition. Nature has in turn, deteriorated the man-made, through rust, cracks and decay; indicating that man, too, is as fragile and minuscule as a moth. These images are metaphors of an environmental disquietude. However there is a parallel in reality. Some insects are adopting protective coloring to camouflage with our industrialized environment. The classic example is the white birch moth of Manchester, England; which quite suddenly changed to black, in order to blend with the soot laden trees. Biologists have given this phenomenon the name "Industrial Melanism". Insects continue to evolve despite the fumbling of man." Read Whaley's entire essay Theater of Insects here

The Theater of Insects Monograph
JO WHALEY PHOTO-EYE GALLERY

EMILY SHUR: Flak Photo Today

EMILY SHUR, one of my favorite contemporary photographers, returned from Japan a couple of weeks ago with a new group of photographs. And Andy Adams, one of my favorite photography colleagues, posted an early view of this work on his site Flak Photo. You can view rough scans of Emily's recent trip on her BLOG here and here, view Emily's Website and sign up for your Daily Flak Photo here

MARY VIRGINIA SWANSON: Fine Art Photography Guru

Mary Virginia Swanson, Marketing Consultant,
MV Swanson and Associates Photograph (c) ACP

Photographer Debbie Fleming Caffery with MVS at Review Santa Fe's

Center For Contemporary Arts Public Portfolio Viewing

MARY VIRGINIA SWANSON is committed to helping photographers advance their careers by providing insights into the most effective ways to introduce their work to gallery and museum professionals.

After receiving an MFA in Photography from Arizona State University (ASU) in 1979, she served as workshop coordinator for The Friends of Photography, an organization founded by Ansel Adams, Beaumont Newhall and other key figures. Swanson headed the expansion and management of its educational programming, including the famed Ansel Adams Workshops, bringing hundreds of eminent photographers to teach in the programs at FOP.

In 1984, Swanson relocated to New York City to direct Special Projects for Magnum Photos, the landmark photojournalism Cooperative founded by Henri-Cartier Bresson, Robert Capa, David “Chim” Seymour and George Rodger at the end of World War II. It was during her tenure at Magnum that Swanson became aware of the increasing market for image licensing rights and reproduction. In 1991, Swanson launched SWANSTOCK, a landmark alternative agency, managing licensing rights for fine art photographers. Well, you need to read her impressive bio for all the rest!

Swanson currently works with photographers as a marketing consultant and is a sought-after portfolio reviewer at events such as Review Santa Fe, Fotofest and PhotoLucida. Her workshops and lectures on the subject of marketing opportunities and awareness have aided photographers in moving their careers to the next level. Swanson maintains a popular blog, Marketing Photos, and is the author of a self-published book, The Business of Photography: Principles and Practices.

If you are in NYC Monday November 16th, do not miss MVS's lecture hosted by the American Society of Media Photographers, info below. And check her website for upcoming lectures in a city near you.

MARY VIRGINIA SWANSON WEBSITE

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MVS Talk 11.16.2009
PRESENTING YOUR WORK TO THE FINE ART COMMUNITY
Studio 385 • 385 Broadway (White x Walker) • NYC ($20. / Students $5.) Register HERE

During this presentation, Mary Virginia Swanson will provide insights into the most efficient and effective avenues for introducing your work to industry professionals towards presenting your work in the collectible fine art market. She will discuss the strategies surrounding submitting work to national and international juried exhibitions and portfolio review events such as FotoFest, Photolucida and European festivals. Art fairs such as AIPAD and Photo LA will be discussed from the standpoint of assessing market trends and helping artists determine which dealers will be most appropriate for their work. Swanson will also cover the professional practices necessary to effectively present your photographs in the market, as well as sharing examples of effective self-promotion materials in print and on-line formats. Handouts with related information will be shared with participants.

OLAF OTTO BECKER: Above Zero

ILULISSAT ICEFJORD 5, 07/2003
Photograph (c) Olaf Otto Becker /All Rights Reserved

RIVER 1, POSITION 13, 07/2007
Photograph (c) Olaf Otto Becker /All Rights Reserved

INLANDEIS 5, 08/2008
Photograph (c) Olaf Otto Becker /All Rights Reserved

OLAF OTTO BECKER
ABOVE ZERO • NOV 10- JAN 9
AMADOR GALLERY
41 E 57 St, NYC

A Conversation With Olaf Otto Becker

ALEXANDER VREELAND: Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation Uganda Visit

Families affected by HIV and AIDS at Kawolo Hospital, Uganda

Photograph (c) Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation

Families affected by HIV and AIDS share stories, Kawolo Hospital, Uganda

Photograph (c) Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation

Families share stories at EGPAF get-together, Kawolo Hospital, Uganda
Photograph (c) Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation

Alexander Vreeland and Foundation President / CEO Pamela Barnes
plant a tree at Kawolo Hospital. Photograph (c) EGPAF

In 1993, ALEXANDER VREELAND founded Kids for Kids, an annual fund-raiser for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation, which over the years has raised over twenty-two million dollars for HIV treatment and research. He first served on the Foundation's Advisory Board, and then joined the Board of Directors for over five years. This October, Vreeland traveled to Uganda with board member and television correspondent Willow Bay and Foundation President and CEO Pamela Barnes. Vreeland wrote about his personal experience speaking with the families of HIV and AIDS patients at Uganda's Kawolo Hospital:

"At Kawolo Hospital, in a suburb outside the capital of Uganda, I looked around a group of doctors, nurses, mothers and children and I found myself surrounded by people who understood my story.

Shortly after the birth of my daughter Victoria, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. The second time that she got severely sick, Sandra and I immediately took her to the emergency room at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City. After a preliminary examination the intern on duty told us that it looked like PCP, the AIDS pneumonia. He was right. Over the next days we discovered that Sandra, Victoria, and our older son Reed had HIV. My life changed dramatically on that fall day in 1988.

In Mukono Health Clinic #4, we sat in a cleared out maternity ward. The walls of the ward were pealing and the small windows were cracked. I shared my story with the small group that had assembled, and numerous people in the room offered us a window into their lives as well. They stood up, one after another, and in soft, broken English talked about their lives. I could relate to their stories: a tall, elegant woman in a green, tribal pattern outfit spoke about her fear of revealing her HIV status to her own family; a seventeen-year-old girl in a white and navy blue school uniform talked poignantly about choosing to change schools to avoid the social pressure and stigma that she was faced with once her classmates discovered her diagnosis; an inhibited, college-age man wearing glasses shared that he had been near death several times and that he struggled to be consistent taking his medication; a social worker talked to the group about trying to find the words to help a teenager discuss his HIV status with his girlfriend.

At the clinic I also heard the stories of those who were not able to readily express them: I saw a stunned mother, standing over her day-old twin daughters--they had just been told that they had HIV; I heard the story of a child who was caring for his mother as she was suffering from repeated cases of PCP and numerous opportunistic infections. They stood up one at a time. Most were able to speak in English, while others needed to be translated from their native tongue. Even though they were likely invited by the clinic's organizers to share with the group, I could tell from their expressions that they did not expect to be speaking to people who had actually lived very similar stories.

The stories and medical realities in these poor African Hospitals today are not so different from my first experiences in the Pediatric AIDS clinics at New York Hospital and Bellevue Hospital in the late '80s. At that time the only medicine available were capsules of AZT, and they were not yet available in children's dosages or in a child-friendly format. PCP was still a death warrant for most children. No one knew how long anyone with the virus was going to live, but we knew lists of people who were either about to pass away or had already left us.

My time in Uganda made me extremely proud of what the Foundation is doing. I can still remember attending a board meeting in the late '90s when it was announced that a research project, in part funded by the Foundation, had discovered that Nevirapine had been found to block the transmission of HIV from mother to child in about fifty percent of cases. The board embarked upon an entirely new facet of our mission. With funds from the Gates Foundation, we started to implement the treatment in the countries with the greatest need.

My concern at the time was that helping to block transmission during birth was only one small part of what we needed to do to combat the virus. It seemed inhuman to me to diagnose a mother's HIV status, help her have an HIV-free baby, and then walk away. She probably had a husband and other children who were living with HIV. They surely needed medicine, most probably counseling, and possibly even a little help to keep their kids in school.

Well today, the Foundation's program in Uganda is helping with all these issues and many more. They are confronting the complexities of this illness and bringing help to afflicted families, partly by giving families tools to help themselves." – Originally posted in The Huffington Post

Vreeland divides his time between Paris and New York with wife, Lisa, their seven-year-old daughter, Olivia, and his three grown children Reed, Victoria, and Diane.

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Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation
Poet Sandra Isham Vreeland

Kids for Kids brings together children, families, celebrities, and corporations to rally in support of the Foundation's lifesaving programs to eradicate pediatric HIV and AIDS. Attendees enjoy samplings from NY's greatest restaurants, mingle with world-class artists, photographers, and celebrities, and experience both old-fashioned and cutting-edge carnival activities.

WILLIAM R WILSON: Auto Immune Response

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE!

Auto Immune Response
Photograph (c) William R Wilson /All Rights Reserved

Auto Immune Response #2
Photograph (c) William R Wilson /All Rights Reserved

Auto Immune Response #4
Photograph (c) William R Wilson /All Rights Reserved

Auto Immune Response #5
Photograph (c) William R Wilson /All Rights Reserved

Auto Immune Response #6
Photograph (c) William R Wilson /All Rights Reserved

Auto Immune Response #10
Photograph (c) William R Wilson /All Rights Reserved

"Throughout my work I have focused on photographing Navajo People and our relationship to the land. While portraying this relationship I have always been aware of how our representation has never been without consequence."

The Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, N.M., announced William R Wilson (Navajo) has been selected to oversee the Vision Project, a Ford Foundation grant initiative. Wilson's first undertaking will be to oversee the history of the Contemporary Native American Art Movement in a book featuring Native artists from the U.S. 15 scholars will write up to four essays each on living artists who have made considerable contributions who vary in age and media.

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WILLIAM WILSON, Dine’ (Navajo), born in San Francisco, CA, moved permanently to the Navajo Reservation when he was 10. He earned a MFA in Photography, with a focus on the History of Photography, at the University of New Mexico and a BA in art history and studio art from Oberlin College, OH.

In Wilson's Auto-Immune Response Series (above), he set out to photograph the Navajo people in relationship to the land, including figures to represent his people and himself. In the photographs, a luminal figure or pair of figures wearing gas masks appear in different dramatic natural places; in the area of the Grand Canyon and in upstate New York near the Finger Lakes. This post-apocalyptic man survey’s what appears to be a pristine and expansive landscape and wonders what has gone wrong. For the Auto-Immune Response Series Wilson received the prestigious Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art. The Series was a solo exhibition at the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institute, New York, NY and the Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ. His work is in the Collections of the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C., the Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ, the University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM, the Juane Quick To See Smith Private Collection, Corrales, NM among others.

Wilson, an artist, photographer, and arts educator, has taught sculpture at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M., photography at Oberlin College and the University of Arizona and served two years as a photojournalist in Central America for the Associated Press. From 2000-2005, Wilson was the co-director of the Barrio Anita Community Mural Project, the largest public art commission in Tucson, Arizona's history. BAMP features a 12,000-square-foot mural alongside the Interstate 10 sound barrier wall. The project involved the creation of a multi-media Arts Center for the community. The Arts Center features digital photography, Venetian glass tile photo-mosaic, metal work and more.
View the BAMP Murals: North Contzen Street Mural and Ouray Park Mural
Will Wilson Creates Indianapolis Mural video

William R Wilson Website