MONA KUHN: Bushes and Succulents

 Bushes and Succulents © Mona Kuhn

 Bushes and Succulents © Mona Kuhn

Bushes and Succulents © Mona Kuhn

Bushes and Succulents © Mona Kuhn

MONA KUHN: Bushes and Succulents

"Bushes and Succulents” is my artistic response to the ongoing currents in contemporary feminism…. Reminiscent of Georgia O’Keefe’s floral paintings, your eyes wander around the graceful lines, not knowing exactly what you are looking at. When I look at the large print, I no longer know if I am floating underwater looking at corals or female parts. You enter a realm of visual pleasure and wonder…. The images titled “Bushes” are a celebration of the female essence, the au-naturel crown, confident, raw, elegant yet confrontational and unapologetic.  A celebration of the female body and its essence….The solarization process reveals human imperfections, not only in the metallic brilliance of the skin, but also brings to the surface our struggles, our strengths, our power….These plants seemed to be able to endure so much. They had a power of endurance through good and bad times. That echoed, I thought, the way women have survived through the ages. And, I couldn’t help but think to myself – the “Succulents" look like vulvas....I’m playing with the viewer because, in reality, I’m not exposing anything – Mona Kuhn

Bushes and Succulents: Mona Kuhn

The Ravestijn Gallery / Haute Photographie

Art Rotterdam 2018, The Netherlands

The Ravestijn Gallery at PHOTOFAIRS

San Francisco February 23 – 25, 2018

MONA KUHN: Stops Los Angeles Traffic With Art! Q+A With Mona Kuhn on Curating Billboards

Carolyn Doucette, Great North American Landscapes Vol.1 #3 (2014). Location: Hollywood West of Bronson, South Side, Facing West

Edward Ruscha's "Baby Jet" at Melrose by Paramount Pictures

Mona Kuhn, AD 6046 (2014)

at Highland North of Melrose, East Side, Facing North

Nathan Bell, Make It Rain (2015)
Highland South of Willoughby, East Side, Facing North

Geir Moseid, Untitled (2012)
Sunset S/L 240 E. Vine, Facing East

LETS STOP TRAFFIC WITH ART!!!! 

–Curator Mona Kuhn

The Billboard Creative (TBC) launched its second Billboard Creative Q4 Show, curated by photographer Mona Kuhn, this December on 33 billboards throughout the streets of Los Angeles. The billboards feature an outstanding number of emerging and established artists, from work submitted by the public over the last few months. Artist’s chosen include Jack Pierson, Andrew Bush, Shane Guffogg, Kim McCarty, Panos Tsagaris, among others, and double the size of its inaugural outing. I spoke with Mona about the process of choosing the final billboards.

Elizabeth Avedon: How was this project proposed to you?

Mona Kuhn: When Adam Santelli from TBC invited me to curate the 2nd Billboard Creative exhibition to be displayed all over intersections in LA proper, their main interest was to have an artist curate other artist’s works. FROM artist TO artist and FOR artist’s type of thinking!

EA: How many images did you receive or  were submitted?

MK: We received twice the expected amount of submissions compared to last year. It was a great surprise to see the artist community awareness for the Billboard exhibition growing. I am excited to be involved as a curator and artist, because I believe it is a great deal for the artists. It is exciting to see your artwork reproduced large on a billboard, in a proper area of Los Angeles, where 100,000 to 200,000 pass by every day.

EA: What was the criteria you used for your edit?

MK: A billboard exhibition can be a challenging proposition, because we are competing for attention within a busy urban setting with an audience that is mostly driving by.  My first step was to observed traffic in one of the main intersections and study the audience behavior while driving. There were two distinct moments observed: the audience would be either driving by or stuck on a traffic jam. In the first scenario my intention is to grab their attention by surprise with graphically strong artworks, pieces that are easy to read and understand in a relatively very short amount of time.  That was the case with artworks from Panos Tsagaris, Jack Pearson, Andrew Bush, Ed Ruscha, Carolyn Douchette, among others. But I also saw a need to reach out to an audience who might be stuck on a traffic jam. I thought about what works of art would transport me momentarily away from that jam, what would inspire me to mentally escape the traffic.  Some of the works selected were the delicate watercolors from Kim McCarty, the handmade knitted sculptures of Thomas Chung, and the emotional colors in Robert Zuchowski paintings. All works had a touch of sublime to me.

EA: How difficult was it to narrow down your choices?

MK: I had no idea we would receive a substantial amount of great artworks.   It was also a very interesting process for me from the artist point of view. The artworks selected were based on the criteria mentioned to you earlier, but we still had at least 100 great works that needed to be narrowed down to 33 billboard placements. The final selection was the hardest, as all works were equally strong to me. It was all based on the artwork standing on its own. I did not have the name of the artists together with the works. The final selection was then based on bringing a balance to the final 33 group of artworks selected. It was not an easy task, but I would do it all over again.

EA: In the end how many choices did you make?

MK: Last year, TBC placed 15 contemporary artist’s works on billboards across Los Angeles. This year we were able to guarantee placement for 33 artworks.  We have been talking about bringing this to a sister city in the U.S. or possibly Cuba!  It has been an exciting project, great for artist’s exposure, and I am hoping we can expand it further.

EA: What are the locations?MK: The billboard exhibition is concentrated in intersections around West Hollywood and Hollywood. I thought it was important to provide a mobile map of the show.  ArtMoi is an app anyone can download that shows the locations of the billboards and offer further info on the artists and their works.  Similar to a museum audio guide, but outside of the conventional walls of an institution! The locations and intersections are pretty great: I asked them to concentrate most locations by the gallery/museum areas.  It was not easy to guarantee space, as you can imagine, but it all worked out. Included are Santa Monica and Highland (by Regen Projects); Beverly and La Brea; Sunset and Western; Fairfax in front of LACMA; Melrose by the gates of Paramount Studio’s. You can see the list online  

TBC is a non-profit organization.  No one was paid for their efforts, it was literally a labor of love. In exchange for my time and advice (partnering with cultural institutions, expanding to new cities or possibly Cuba art scene, concentration of billboards by main LA areas, mobile application, etc.) they offered to place one of my artworks on a billboard. So I have a piece in this as well.

EA: The location of Mona Kuhn’s Billboard is at Highland South of Waring, East Side, facing North – Los Angeles, CA

EXHIBITION
The Billboard Creative QA 2015 Show
Curated by Mona Kuhn
From November 30th to December 27, 2015
750 Highland Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90038, USA
United States
 
ArtMoi Public App:
https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id890538245?mt=8

LINKS:
http://www.thebillboardcreative.com
http://www.monakuhn.com 

Q+A with Mona Kuhn
As Seen In L'Oeil de la Photographie
12.14.2015

BEST PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS OF 2018 : ROUND-UP PART I

SALLY MANN  A Thousand Crossings

Photograph © Sally Mann

SALLY MANN  A Thousand Crossings
Photographs by Sally Mann
Text by Sarah Greenough and Sarah Kennel
Contributions by Drew Gilpin Faust, Hilton Als and Malcolm Daniel
Produced by the National Gallery of Art and the Peabody Essex Museum (Abrams, New York)

For more than 40 years, Sally Mann (b. 1951) has made experimental, elegiac, and hauntingly beautiful photographs that explore the overarching themes of existence: memory, desire, death, the bonds of family, and nature’s magisterial indifference to human endeavor. Organized into five sections—Family, The Land, Last Measure, Abide with Me, and What Remains—and including many works not previously exhibited or published, A Thousand Crossings is a sweeping overview of Mann’s artistic achievements.

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MONA KUHN  Bushes + Succulents

 Photograph © Mona Kuhn

As a photographer, my female gaze highlights an unfiltered admiration for the female form and the works of other women such as Lee Miller and Georgia O’Keeffe. – Mona Kuhn

 

MONA KUHN  Bushes + Succulents
Photographs by Mona Kuhn. Poetry by Gwendolyn Brooks
(Stanley/Barker, London)

Bushes + Succulents is Mona Kuhn’s artistic response to the ongoing currents in contemporary feminism. "Reminiscent of Georgia O’Keefe’s floral paintings, your eyes wander around the graceful lines, not knowing exactly what you are looking at. The images are a celebration of the female essence — confident, raw and elegant, yet confrontational and unapologetic. The solarization process reveals human imperfections. 60 silver and color illustrations."

I'm always impressed by Mona Kuhn's methodology when embarking on a new series.  I spoke with her about her inspiration with these alluring botanicals. Read our Interview here

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 TOD PAPAGEORGE  

Dr. Blankman's New York

 Photograph © Tod Papageorge

I’d like to think that, in Dr. Blankman´s New York, you’ll find a persuasive account of what it meant for me to be free with a Leica in the streets of my newly adopted home of Manhattan, a record drawn with Kodachrome film and its rich, saturated colors." —Tod Papageorge

Photograph © Tod Papageorge

TOD PAPAGEORGE Dr. Blankman's New York
Photographs by Tod Papageorge. Text by David Campany
(Steidl/Pace/MacGill Gallery) 


Tod Papageorge: Dr. Blankman´s New York "documents a brief but critical moment in the photographer's early career, the two years Papageorge shot in color in New York in the late 1960s. Black-and-white  photography was still the "serious" medium, and color reserved for commercial applications; Papageorge--25 years old and newly arrived in New York City--was encouraged by his fellow photographers to seek paying magazine work by developing a body of work in color..." continue reading here

Listening to my photography professor, Tod Papageorge, late '60's

Photo: Alan Kleinberg

Tod Papageorge (born 1940) picked up photography for the first time as a student at the University of New Hampshire. He is the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships and two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. From 1979 to 2013 Papageorge served as Yale University’s Walker Evans Professor of Photography and Director of Graduate Study in Photography.

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EMILY SHUR  Super Extra Natural!

Imperial Palace Gardens with Wall, Tokyo
Photograph © Emily Shur

 Super Extra Natural!  Vimeo link

Emily's "Baroness" in their shipping department via Instagram

EMILY SHUR  Super Extra Natural!
Photographs and text by Emily Shur
(Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg)

I first met and fell in love with the work of American photographer Emily Shur at CENTERS 2009 Review Santa Fe! Her book Super Extra Natural! is a collection of images made in Japan between 2004 and 2016. "What began as a one-time getaway possessing no agenda beyond experiencing something new expanded into a long-term body of work that has resulted in over 15 trips to various parts of the country. Shur says, “Everything made sense. Lines, shapes, light, and color fit together like a math equation that added up to what still feels like a supernatural high.”

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TODD HIDO  Bright Black World

 #11389-3087 from the series Bright Black World

Copyright © Todd Hido

#11755-2192 from the series Bright Black World

Copyright © Todd Hido

TODD HIDO Bright Black World
Photographs by Todd Hido. Text by Alexander Nemerov
(Nazraeli Press, Paso Robles, CA).

"Exploring the dark terrain of the Northern European landscape and regions as far as the North Sea of Japan enchanted Hido, calling him back on several occasions. This newest publication highlights the artist’s first significant foray extensively photographing territory outside of the United States, chronicling a decidedly new psychological geography." read more here for Bright Black World

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 VIVIAN MAIER  The Color Work

   

Vivian Maier: The Color Work

VIVIAN MAIER  The Color Work
Photographs by Vivian Maier.
Text by Joel Meyerowitz and Colin Westerbeck
(Harper Design, New York)

"Photographer Vivian Maier’s allure endures even though many details of her life continue to remain a mystery. Her story—the secretive nanny-photographer who became a pioneer photographer—has only been pieced together from the thousands of images she made and the handful of facts that have surfaced about her life. Vivian Maier: The Color Work is the largest and most highly curated published collection of Maier’s full-color photographs to date."

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 YUKARI CHIKURA  Zaido

 Zaido (Steidl)

Photograph © Yukari Chikura

 Zaido (Steidl)

Photograph © Yukari Chikura

I first met Yukari Chikura at Houston's Fotofest Portfolio Review.

YUKARI CHIKURA Zaido
Photographs by Yukari Chikura.
(Soon to be published by Steidl, Germany)

This book is Yukari Chikura’s record of the 1,300-year-old Japanese ritual festivity known as Zaido. "Following a series of tragedies, including her father’s sudden death, her own critical accident and the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Chikura recalls how her father came to her in a dream with the words: “Go to the village hidden deep in the snow where I lived a long time ago.” With camera in hand she set off on a pilgrimage to northeast Japan. There, Chikura discovered Zaido, where inhabitants from different villages gather on the second day of each new year and conduct a ritual dance to induce good fortune. The performers dedicate their dance to the gods and undergo severe purifications." read more

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 TOM CHAMBERS  Hearts and Bones

The Trickster Photograph © Tom Chambers

 Vineyard Blush Photograph © Tom Chambers

TOM CHAMBERS  Hearts and Bones
A Retrospective of Tom Chambers' Photomontage Art
Photographs by Tom Chambers. Foreword by Elizabeth Avedon
(Unicorn Publishing Group, Chicago)
 

Hearts and Bones is the first comprehensive collection of Chambers' work. More than one hundred color photomontages are included in this volume, spanning his entire career. 

"Chambers uses photomontage to present unspoken stories that illustrate fleeting moments in time and are known for being extremely evocative, eliciting feelings ranging from tranquility to turbulence—and all the points in between. Through his intentional use of magical realism, Chambers' photomontages look believable, but improbable. Each, in fact, has been carefully constructed, using both planned images and ones that unexpectedly enhance the story he wishes to tell. Through such techniques Chambers moves beyond documentation of the present in order to fuse reality and fantasy into musings about the possibilities of the future"

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 The Best of LensCulture, Vol. 2

 Austin, Randy and Justin, Nevada © Robin de Puy  
Juror’s Pick, LensCulture Portrait Awards 2017

BEST OF LENSCULTURE, VOL 2 (Schilt Publishing)

  The Bass Family ©  Kremer/Johnson
1st Place, LensCulture Portrait Awards 2018
BEST OF LENSCULTURE, VOL 2 (Schilt Publishing)

  Lost Family Portraits © Dario Mitidieri
LensCulture Portrait Awards 2017, Finalist
BEST OF LENSCULTURE, VOL 2 (Schilt Publishing)

The Best of LensCulture, Vol. 2  
(Schilt Publishing, Amsterdam)

Here are 162 award-winning photographers you should know. These exciting contemporary photographers come from 38 countries on 5 continents, and they are making remarkable work right now in diverse cultures around the world. It’s fresh, inspiring, insightful and thought-provoking. This book celebrates excellence in the visual language of photography in all genres: documentary, fine art, photojournalism, portrait, street photography, abstract, landscape, architecture, nature, alternative process, experimental, poetic, personal, and more. Anyone who is serious about the current state of photography around the globe will be delighted to discover the rich variety of photographers and their imagery presented in these pages. The Best of LensCulture, Vol. 1 and 2 here

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 JANELLE LYNCH 

Another Way of Looking at Love

“…full of delicate hope!” -Charlotte Cotton 

 JANELLE LYNCH
Another Way of Looking at Love
Hardcover, Accordion fold

JANELLE LYNCH
Another Way of Looking at Love

JANELLE LYNCH  
Another Way of Looking at Love
Photographs by Janelle Lynch. Essay by Darius Himes
(Radius Books, Santa Fe)

"In Another Way of Looking at Love, the landscape is explored as a metaphor to consider the personal, societal, and environmental consequences of disconnection, and simultaneously, our yearning to be connected. From 2015-2018, Janelle Lynch (born 1969) has used an 8 x 10 camera to create still lives in the landscape that combine similar and disparate visual and biological elements." Hardcover. Accordion-fold...read more  

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SHERI LYNN BEHR  BESEEINGYOU 

I photograph the surveillance cameras that hide in plain sight. When they blend into the walls, disappear into the architecture, or become part of the decor, I make these pictures so we see them, always watching us. Do we know who is taking our picture?  – Sheri Lynn Behr
Buy it here

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 RICHARD RENALDI  "I Want Your Love”

 Richard Renaldi "I Want Your Love”

RICHARD RENALDI  
"I Want Your Love” 
(Super Labo)

Richard Renaldi's autobiographical photo book I Want Your Love navigates through the most intimate moments in a happy life. "I Want Your Love follows the arc from childhood to middle age, exploring what it means to be young and perpetually seeking, and what it means both to find and to lose the things we most deeply treasure.” In an edition of 1000. 

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BILL SHAPIRO  WHAT WE KEEP  

What We Keep: 150 People Share the One Object that Brings Them Joy, Magic, and Meaning

BILL SHAPIRO WHAT WE KEEP 
150 People Share the One Object that Brings Them Joy, Magic, and Meaning (Running Press Adult)

Author / Editor Bill Shapiro is the former editor-in-chief of the iconic LIFE Magazine. "All of us have that one object that holds deep meaning–something that speaks to our past, that carries a remarkable story. Bestselling author Bill Shapiro, with Naomi Wax, collected this sweeping range of stories–he talked to everyone from renowned writers to Shark Tank hosts, from blackjack dealers to teachers, truckers, and nuns, even a reformed counterfeiter–to reveal the often hidden, always surprising lives of objects. With contributions from Cheryl Strayed, Mark Cuban, Ta-Nahesi Coates, Melinda Gates, James Patterson, and many more–this fascinating collection gives us a peek into 150 personal treasures and the secret histories behind them." What We Keep

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Don't miss 

BEST PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS OF 2018

ROUND-UP PART II

If it's in RED it's a link. Many descriptions are from the publishers promo's.

Follow Jonathan Blaustein’s Photography Book Reviews all year on aphotoeditor.com

Happy Holidays! 

Happy Holidays!

MONA KUHN + STEIDL + PARIS PHOTO: "Private" Book Signing at Paris Photo

Mona Kuhn "PRIVATE"

Monograph Published by Steidl (Nov 2014)

November 15, 2014

"Private" Book Signing at Steidl Booth, ParisPhoto 

Grand Palais, Paris  4PM

"PRIVATE" 

Photograph © Mona Kuhn

"PRIVATE"

Photograph © Mona Kuhn

MONA KUHN + STEIDL + PARIS PHOTO

"“Private” is a personal journey, weaving together the desert beauty with its brutal sense of mortality, understanding mysticism and our place in it." – Mona Kuhn

Mona Kuhn Talks About "PRIVATE"

with Elizabeth Avedon on L'Oeil de la Photographie

“Private” is a calm and introspective series; a meditative collection of images I took over a period of 2-years. I entered the heart of the American desert, traveling through the Mojave and Arizona regions, entering for the first time the remote parts of a Navajo reservation, areas close to James Turrel’s Roden Crater. “Private” is a personal journey, weaving together the desert beauty with its brutal sense of mortality, understanding mysticism and our place in it.

I usually start a new series with colors. I knew I wanted a little bit of that golden sand skin tonality. I wanted black as it has a certain sense of mortality. You are constantly testing your endurance in the desert, the limits of how long you can stay out there or how debilitating it is to be at 100 and some degrees. Your system really slows down and you can’t think straight. So the whole series is about our vulnerability in that environment as a metaphor to life.

At the time I was reading T. S. Eliot  “The Waste Land.” There are no direct parallels, but I noticed a certain essence of his poem in the work, like a perfume that stays in the air after someone left.

I wanted to approach what is truly strange, beautiful and disorienting about the desert. Aside from vast landscapes and intimate nudes, for the first time I also photographed a few desert animals as metaphors. I was intrigued by their mysticism, like desert shamans, they have an instinct of their own. They know well their place and function in that vast space. Like the California pale moths that fly into the light. Or a black widow tattooed on a woman’s hand. I photographed a majestic black condor, then I photographed a Nephila’s golden spider web. Animals seem to understand nature's balance and survive better than humans in the desert.   

I met a lot of people who moved to the desert because they want to escape or get “off the grid”. But the desert is not for the weak of the heart. It offers an alluring American sense of freedom, but its harsh reality does not cease to remind us of our own limitations. It is shocking to face one’s own mortality. Lee Friedlander once said: “The desert is a wonderful, awful, seductive, alluring stage on which to be acting out the photography game.”

One of the homes I stayed in was built on top of this slanted rock formation. Underneath that slanted rock, there was a large shaded open area, like the shape of a mouth half open. A perfect habitat for rattlesnakes.  This guy had dozens of stretched rattlesnake skins stapled on plywood board to dry out, all over the place.  Hundreds of snakes live right under his rock foundation.  I arrived at places and entered homes I could have never imagined before. But at the same time, being who I am, I wasn’t going to photograph the desert like “Breaking Bad.” I wanted to photograph the desert with a certain human element to relate to the beauty and the harshness. So there is a lot more landscape in this series than most.

The light is incredibly sharp; it contracts the pupils into tiny dots, making views of crystal clarity in which light and land are one. At times, I would photograph just the light by itself, its abstractions, bright sunlight and the graphic dark shadows - it had a powerful and minimal feel to it. 

I photographed some people along the way, at times in their homes. Most homes I have been inside had their curtains closed. People get tired of the heat, you start feeling the weight of light, it becomes heavy. You go into people’s homes and all shades are down. Some of the desert people I met prefer to live in darkness. 

You can easily loose the sense of scale in the desert.

In 1930’s, Georgia O’Keefe would often refer to what she called the “Faraway Nearby”.  I photographed what seemed to have a force and scale of its own, that being macro or micro.

One of these beautiful places was Grand Falls in a Navajo Reserve in Arizona.  It is a larger than life multilayered waterfall system. But the water is not clear; the water carries this monochromatic sand-like tonalities with it. It looks like a waterfall of skin tones.  There, water and skin become one.

On the opposite scale, I found a little spring flower that was so frail. It’s very delicate image shot from above.  T.S. Elliot would say that Spring season lasts only one day in the desert.  The Spring flower rises in the morning and dies at night. 

Along a similar scale curiously I shot from the computer screen an image of California City, a planned but unrealized urban development.  The roads marked out in the dust for a civilization that never really came, seen from a camera orbiting miles above the desert.   Like ruins in reverse.

November 13-16, 2014

Private, solo booth at Jackson Fine Art, ParisPhoto

Grand Palais, Paris

November 15, 2014

Private Book Signing at Steidl Booth, ParisPhoto 

Grand Palais, Paris  4PM

Mona Kuhn Website