CALL FOR ENTRY: The World as of 09/10/01

Manhattan Skyline Pre-9/11

Man On A Wire, August 7, 1974 Photograph by Jim Moore

Philippe Petit illegally walked a high wire between the Twin Towers

SB D Gallery, a non-profit art digital gallery, is calling for entry for their exhibition and book, “The World, as of 09/10/01.” Enter your photographs, drawings, paintings, sculpture, or any art form that reflects good memories of where the Twin Towers once stood (1966-2001). Last year, 46 international artists participated in “Pre 911, Twin Towers Once Stood”. Your submission will be reviewed and ones that are selected will be shown at SB D Gallery and added as part of an exhibition poster and book SB D Gallery publishes. More Information Here.

SB D Gallery

Opening reception: September 11, 2010, 3-8 pm
125 East 4th Street New York, NY 10003

MATT EICH: collect.give

Elvis the Zebra, edition of 20 for collect.give
Photograph (c) Matt Eich /All Rights Reserved

collect.give

Matt's Pledge: 100% of print sales. To Benefit: Critical Exposure teaches youth to use the power of photography and their own voices to become effective advocates for school reform and social change. This money is pledged towards purchasing a new professional quality camera setup for a small group of these students who have shown interest and talent in photography. By empowering young people to develop skills as documentary photographers and advocates, we expose citizens and policymakers to the realities of our current two-tiered education system as seen through the eyes of the students who confront those realities each day. www.criticalexposure.org

Carry Me Ohio
Photograph (c) Matt Eich /All Rights Reserved

Sin and Salvation in Baptist Town
Photograph (c) Matt Eich /All Rights Reserved

MATT EICH

TIBETAN ARTISTS TRANSFORMED: Gonkar Gyatso & Losang Gyatso at The Rubin Museum

"Gonyar Gyatso's photographic series My Identity is emblematic of the artist´s major ideological shifts across national, political and stylistic borders that constitute “Tibet.” The series portrays a thangka painter at work, seated before a canvas looking out at the viewer, but each time the context is radically different." The series is in Tradition Transformed: Tibetan Artists Respond at the The Rubin Museum of Art through October 18.

My Identity No. 1, 2003

The first image of four depicts Gyatso dressed in a traditional Tibetan robe drawing a devotional Buddha figure.

My Identity No. 2, 2003

In the second image Gyatso is dressed as a Communist Chinese painter rendering an image of Mao Tse-Tung.

My Identity No. 3, 2003

In the third image Gyatso is dressed as a contemporary refugee artist painting the Potala Palace, chief residence of the Dalai Lama before he fled to Dharamsala.

My Identity No. 4, 2003

The fourth image shows the contemporary Gyatso sitting in a modern flat in the act of creating abstract art. Photographs (c) Gonkar Gyatso /All Rights Reserved

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Gonkar Gyatso was born in 1961 in Lhasa, Tibet. After he studied fine art in Beijing, in the early ´80s he returned to Lhasa where he came into contact with the Dalai Lama’s speeches. These led him to question the truthfulness of the history he was taught as the son of governmental officers and he became acquainted with Tibetan Buddhism. He later went on a self-imposed refugee in Dharamsala, center of the Dalai Lama's Tibetan government in exile, and finally emigrated to London, where he currently lives and works.

Gyatso's art has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, including in China, India, Scotland, The Netherlands, and the United States. Works by Gyatso are held in such institutions as the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford, the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art in Australia, the Burger Collection in Switzerland, the Red Gate Gallery in Beijing, and the Newark Museum in New Jersey, as well as in numerous private collections.

Having lived throughout Asia and in the West, Gyatso's art proposes insightful statements on the cultural hybridism of globalization as well as the sea changes yet to come. (Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary)

Losang Gyatso was born in Tibet "when one could walk around Lhasa without running into a single Chinese" and grew up mainly in Britain, where he attended secondary schools during the era of the Beatles and Vietnam, the moon landing and Vietnam. Returning to a Tibetan refugee community in India, he studied Tibetan painting for two years, before arriving in the United States in 1974. He studied advertising in San Francisco, and then worked as a Creative Director for major ad agencies in New York City in the 80s and early 90s.

Losang Gyatso played a major role as the Lord Chamberlain Phala in Martin Scorsese's film, "Kundun", about the life of the 14th Dalai Lama.

Clearlight Tara by Losang Gyatso
The Rubin Museum of Art

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I knew contemporary artist Losang Gyatso for many years when he was one NYC's top advertising executives, winning awards like the Clio's, Addy's and the One show. He was the first to successfully sign and direct Whitney Houston in major commercials for Coca Cola. He began making artwork around 1990 and over the years has also designed several books on Tibet, created identity logos for Tibetan organizations such as International Campaign for Tibet, Students for a Free Tibet, Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, Tibet Fund, and opened Tibetan restaurants in San Francisco and New York City, as well as playing a major role in Martin Scorsese's movie Kundun!

In an effort to create a network for Tibetan artists, Losang founded a website and is the current Director of the Mechak Center for Contemporary Tibetan Art, which includes artist inside and outside of Tibet. He has exhibited widely in the US and Europe, and lives outside Washington D.C.

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Tradition Transformed: Tibetan Artists Respond marks the first exhibition of contemporary Tibetan art in a New York City museum. The nine Tibetan artists featured in the Rubin Museum exhibition each explore contemporary issues--personal, political, and cultural--by integrating the centuries-old traditional imagery, techniques, and materials found in Tibetan Buddhist art with modern influences and media. Tradition Transformed represents the unique position of this groundbreaking generation of Tibetan artists that includes Gonkar Gyatso, Tenzing Rigdol, Losang Gyatso, and Dedron. Several of the artists were born in Tibet while others come from Nepal or one of the large Tibetan settlements in India. Three continue to work in their Himalayan homelands, though the majority have emigrated to Europe and the United States. All have benefited from the possibilities of technology, travel, and personal artistic freedom, which inform their individual responses to the complex interaction between the traditional and the modern in both art and culture.

June 11, 2010 - October 18, 2010
Tradition Transformed: Tibetan Artists Respond
The Rubin Museum of Art

COLETTE FU: We Are Tiger Dragon People Pop-Up Project

Yi Tiger Festival
Collage (c) Colette Fu

It is said that the Yi people from Shuangbai County once lived in a dense forest disturbed by snakes and wild animals. In order to prevent themselves from being hurt, they thought out a way to guard the village. Under the lead of the black “Tiger King”, they perform all kinds of dances reflecting the production, living, and procreation of the Yi people and go to each house at the village to help get rid of evils. Thus the Tiger Dance was created ever since, showing their tiger-like strength and valor. Collage (c) Colette Fu /All Rights Reserved

Rub You Black
Collage (c) Colette Fu

The Wa people live in Cangyuan, within the Awa Mountains on the borders of Burma and China. According to legend, if the Wa sacred medicine niangbuluo" is rubbed onto girls" faces, they become increasingly beautiful; onto elders"faces, they will be healthy and long-lived; onto children's faces, they will be safe and lucky. Now they rub mud mixed with perfume. Collage (c) Colette Fu /All Rights Reserved

The Stone Forest
Photograph (c) Colette Fu

The Stone Forest
Pop-Up (c) Colette Fu

The Stone Forest
Pop-Up (c) Colette Fu

The Stone Forest dates back to the Ming Dynasty- 270 million years ago an immense expanse of water with a vast stretch of limestone sediment formed over the years on the seafloor. As a result of the crustal movement, the seabed rose gradually and a large piece of land came into being. Eroded by rain and wind, limestone ranges were shaped by time. About 200 million years ago stone peaks, pillars, and stalagmites rose abruptly from the ground and towered into the sky, looking like a vast forest of stone.

The Sani live in and around the Stone Forest, and are a subgroup of the Yi. Their lives are as colorful as their embroidered clothing, and they treasure song and dance above wealth and success. Their legend of Ashima is sung from generation to generation and is an inspiration for Sani women today who refer to it as "the song of our ethics.”

Ashima was a young Sani girl engaged to be married to (her cousin) Ahei. Azhi, the son of the village leader, in a jealous rage Kidnapped Ashima and tried to force her to marry him. Azhi unleashed a trio of tigers to kill Ahei who killed the tigers with arrows and escaped unscathed.

When Ashima and Ahei were playing by a river, Azhi used his power to generate a flood. Ashima drowned but Ahei continued to call her name only to hear his own echo. Ashima turned into river stones and her words echoed through the forest: I will never disappear even as the sun and cloud disappear, my soul and my sound will exist till the end of time. Sani people say that Ashima’s suffering is their suffering. Pop-Up (c) Colette Fu /All Rights Reserved

Red Hat Yao Woman
Pop-Up (c) Colette Fu

Single women wear black Turbans, married women shave their heads and wear a red cone hat. Pop-Up (c) Colette Fu /All Rights Reserved

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“Pop-up and flap books arose in the 13th century and illustrated ideas about astronomy, fortune telling, navigation, anatomy of the body, and other scientific principles. This history prompted me to make my own series of photographic pop-up books."–Colette Fu

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With the help of a Fulbright fellowship in 2008, Colette Fu began photographing her project "We Are Tiger Dragon People". 25 of the 55 minority tribes of China reside in Yunnan and comprise only 8% of the nation’s population, with the Han representing the majority. Many people inside China and most people outside are unaware of this cultural richness. These ethnic groups have customs, histories, religious practices, languages and lifestyles that greatly differ from their Han majority neighbors. Fu's mother is a member of the Black Yi (Nuosuo) tribe. In Yunnan, an old Yi man told her, "Although an eagle flies far into the distance, its wings will fold back." A fitting image for her work.

COLETTE FU WEBSITE

Pop-Up Video's
All text courtesy of Colette Fu...Thank you!

JESSICA HINES: Philly Exhibition

Photograph (c) Jessica Hines /All Rights Reserved

"On November 4th, my brother arrived in Qui Nhon, Viet Nam. It was my eighth birthday. Because my parents could no longer care for me, I was sent to live with various relatives. Gary and I didn’t see one another for years."

Photograph (c) Jessica Hines /All Rights Reserved

"While perusing Gary’s Vietnamese/English dictionary, I found it had hand-written declarations of love to him from a Vietnamese woman with whom he had fallen in love. I have since found information that confirmed their plans to marry."

Photograph (c) Jessica Hines /All Rights Reserved

"My pre-war brother, a normal and well-adjusted person had become, according to the Veterans Administration, 50% disabled. He took his own life ten years later."

Jessica Hines Exhibition "My Brother's War"
August 20 - Sept 17/ Sol Mednick Gallery
at the University of the Arts, Philly

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VOTE NOW!

People’s Choice Voting has begun and we want your vote!
Vote Now! Jessica Hines BLURB Book My Brother's War

"Brilliant combination of great photography, thoughtful text, and excellent book design. Highly recommended!"–Jim Casper, Lens Culture

More About Jessica Hines and www.jessicahines

FOUND MY PHOTOS: Master Photographers

Photographer Saul Leiter in his Studio, 1972

Contact sheet (c) Elizabeth Paul Avedon /All Rights Reserved

Photographer Ernst Haas and Artist Anders Holmquist  
Contact sheet, 1976 (c) Elizabeth Paul Avedon /All Rights Reserved

Photographer Art Kane and model Susan Forristal, Puerto Rico

Contact sheet 1972 (c) Elizabeth Paul /All Rights Reserved

Found my contact sheets and found my negatives, 
but no longer have a darkroom to print in...

FOUND PHOTOS: 4x5 Glass Plates

These photographs belong to Elizabeth Avedon/All Rights Reserved

I found a package of turn of the century 4x5 glass plates in a junk store. I gave them as a present to a photographer many years ago, who gave me prints made from the plates. I just found these three.

ZWELETHU MTHETHWA: An Interview With Larissa Leclair

from the “Interiors” series
Photograph (c) Zwelethu Mthethwa /All Rights Reserved

From the series Sugar Cane, 2006
Photograph (c) Zwelethu Mthethwa /All Rights Reserved

from the “Interiors” series
Photograph (c) Zwelethu Mthethwa /All Rights Reserved

Aug 1st Last Day to Enter
Flak Photo Zwelethu Mthethwa Book Give-Away!
Enter Here!

Larissa Leclair teamed with Flak Photo's Weekend series featuring photographs by Zwelethu Mthethwa. Larissa corresponded with Zwelethu as he prepared to travel from South Africa to the U.S. for the opening of “Inner Views” at the Studio Museum in Harlem, July 15-Oct 24. They talked about his monograph, his Sugar Cane series, the South African photography community, and about the current show at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Below is an excerpt from their Interview courtesy of Larissa Leclair.

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LL: Your work as a whole addresses the economic and political reality of marginalized communities primarily in South Africa. Can you talk about your personal interest in these communities and professions (miners, sugarcane workers, etc.). Are you personally an outsider or is there more of a connection to these people and circumstances -politically, economically, culturally?

ZM: The work is about my personal history and personal observation. I grew up in contact with these different communities all the time. I was always interested in how the migrant workers would be ostracized from the main community, which was the community that I came from. The migrant workers were always seen as “the other” – they looked different, talked different, dressed different – they were just so different. As a kid I was curious to understand the dynamics of these differences, mainly because we were all black, I assumed we were all the same. Growing up as an artist I came to realize that I was also an outsider because with my views on life I probably didn’t belong to any of the communities, even the mainstream community.

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My first attraction to the sugar cane workers was that they were wearing skirts, and that they looked to me like Samurai warriors. I then found out that, not only were they wearing skirts, but also many other layers of clothing. This was odd to me because Durban is an incredibly hot and humid area. I thought they must be crazy to be wearing so many clothes and still doing manual labor. I discovered, through speaking with them, that the reason was to protect themselves from the burning ground and soot (sugar cane is burnt before harvested); from the very sharp leaves of the cane; and also from the many snakes that like to live in sugar cane fields. The most difficult part of taking these photographs was stopping them from working. These guys are paid according to the weight of sugar cane that they harvest; there is no hourly rate. I felt guilty that I was interrupting and taking their money away from them by asking them to pose for me. So this forced me to move in and out as quickly as possible, interrupting their flow of production as little as possible.

Read The Entire Interview Here

Zwelethu Mthethwa: Inner Views
Exhibition July 15-October 24, 2010

The Studio Museum in Harlem
144 West 125th Street, NYC

CARL COREY: Wisconsin Taverns

2664-Marty-Chippewa Club, Durand, WI
Photograph (c) Carl Corey /All Rights Reserved

2760-Moccasin Bar-Hayward, WI
Photograph (c) Carl Corey /All Rights Reserved

2774-Tom Theis-Rodeo Bar, Tomahawk, WI

Photograph (c) Carl Corey /All Rights Reserved

Editor: Andy Adams of Flak Photo
Publication: Wisconsin People & Ideas Magazine
Essay: Carl Corey's WISCONSIN TAVERNS
Check it out HERE!

NEW ORLEANS: Ancestors and Descendants

Antelope Priests Shaking Rattles, 1901
Hand-colored glass lantern slide by Sumner W. Matteson
Middle American Research Institute/Tulane University

George Hubbard Pepper slide from around 1899
Middle American Research Institute/Tulane University

Portrait of Hopi Maiden with Hair Whorls, 1901
Hand-colored glass lantern slide by Sumner W. Matteson
Middle American Research Institute/Tulane University

Leisure Time at George Pepper's Tent
Hand-colored glass lantern slide
Middle American Research Institute/Tulane University

"Ancestors and Descendants: Ancient Southwestern America at the Dawn of the 20th Century." Photography, Artifacts, and Archival Research from the George Hubbard Pepper Native American Archive.

The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) unveiled a little-known Native American archive this past week. Ancestors and Descendants presents a rare opportunity to see a collection that was put together over one hundred years ago by George H. Pepper, a museum ethnologist and early collector and scholar of Native American art. The exhibition, curated by Paul J. Tarver NOMA’s Curator of Pre-Columbian and Native American Art and co-curated by Cristin J. Nunez, includes 140 photographs and 150 objects from Pepper's personal collection. Pepper used textiles, pottery, baskets and other Pueblo and Navajo objects in his lectures. Many of these objects have never been seen by the general public since 1924. "Even in his lifetime, Pepper could only display a handful of objects with a few dozen images he projected through a magic lantern," said Tarver, "This is the first time the breadth of the archive has been researched and displayed."

"In the New Orleans show, An entire gallery is devoted to his relics of snake dances, the Hopis’ prayers for rain. The museum catalog ($24.95) quotes his unpublished eyewitness accounts, which turned up in the Tulane paperwork. Hopi tribesmen would collect a hundred snakes at a time, and then priests would emit a “weird droning” over the “writhing twisting forms of the reptiles,” Pepper wrote. Priests used their teeth to carry the snakes and waved around feathers to distract them. “Snake maidens” showered cornmeal on the reptiles, which were then released “in the sacred earth-mouths in the rock,” Pepper reported." (from NY Times, July 22, 2010)

The New Orleans Museum of Art
July 24-October 24, 2010

BEIJING MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: Beijing Tourist

Photograph (c) William Avedon /All Rights Reserved

Half a ram on display

Photograph (c) William Avedon /All Rights Reserved

Photograph (c) William Avedon /All Rights Reserved

Photograph (c) William Avedon /All Rights Reserved

"Who Is the Most Dangerous Animal?"
Sign over fun-house mirror
Photograph (c) William Avedon /All Rights Reserved

"I too have become Amber!"
(Chinese translation)
Photograph (c) William Avedon /All Rights Reserved

Photograph (c) William Avedon /All Rights Reserved

"Human Being Exhibition Room" reveals the process of how human beings stem from the animal. So let's enter into the nature museum and find the key to the nature enigma.–China Through a Lens

BEIJING MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
"Opening in the entire year without the resting day"
No. 126 Tianqiao South Street, Beijing

ZWELETHU MTHETHWA: Flak Photo Weekend

Zwelethu Mthethwa Monograph from The Aperture Foundation
Flak Photo is giving away 3 copies of this book to their Facebook fans!
Exhibition The Studio Museum in Harlem July 15-Oct 24, 2010

From the series Sugar Cane, 2003
Photograph (c) Zwelethu Mthethwa /All Rights Reserved

From the series Sugar Cane, 2007

Photograph (c) Zwelethu Mthethwa /All Rights Reserved

Untitled
Photograph (c) Zwelethu Mthethwa /All Rights Reserved

From the series Interiors, documenting the domestic lives of migrant workers around Johannesburg, South Africa. Photograph (c) Zwelethu Mthethwa /All Rights Reserved

Flak Photo July Weekend features work of South African photographer, Zwelethu Mthethwa. There's a link to the beautiful Photographer Video's. Worth the time to view or just listen to them. And incredibly Flak Photo is giving away 3 copies of the book to their Facebook fans! Join here

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"Since Apartheid's fall in 1994, South African photography has exploded from the grip of censorship onto the world stage. A key figure in this movement is Zwelethu Mthethwa, whose portraits powerfully frame black South Africans as dignified and defiant individuals, even under the duress of social and economic hardship.

Photographing in urban and rural industrial landscapes, Mthethwa documents a range of aspects in present-day South Africa, from domestic life and the environment to landscape and labor issues. His stunning portraits often portray rural immigrants on the margins of South African cities, revealing the efforts of his subjects to maintain their cultural identities through their choices in clothing, and the decoration of their dwellings. His singular oeuvre challenges both traditional conventions of African commercial studio photography and Western documentary work, marking a transition away from the typical exoticized images that encapsulate what curator Okwui Enwezor describes as "afro pessimism."

Zwelethu Mthethwa: Inner Views
Exhibition July 15-October 24, 2010

The Studio Museum in Harlem
144 West 125th Street, NYC