CLINT McLEAN: The Girl Who Married a Snake

Bolivia Salt
Photograph (c) Clint McLean

Elephants, from the series Dubaï World
Photograph (c) Clint McLean

Kumari in Throne
Photograph (c) Clint McLean

Four Brothers and the Hyenas
Photograph (c) Clint McLean

The Girl Who Married A Snake
Photograph (c) Clint McLean

Clint McLean is a photographer and Director of Photography based in Dubaï/Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Having worked in Canada for many of the major titles, McLean was brought to the UAE to help launch a new weekend magazine. The new magazine won many International Photography Awards before he moved into a role of content creation and launched The National's photography blog NationalView.ae.

McLean is also a fellow correspondent for La Lettre de la Photographie. He's contributed several great pieces from Dubaï, such as Gazelle Samizay’s series Upon My Daughter and Alixandra Fazzina's Escape from Somalia, among others.

Returning to freelance photography and directing, Mclean is working on multiple long-term exhibition projects including ones on Salt and Fables. So far, he's created fable based images in India, Nepal, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Palestine. And, in case it's not evident, he doesn't use Photoshop for manipulation. There's no cut and paste, etc. The hyenas and the cobra are real and no images are combined.

I spoke with Clint recently and he explained about his ongoing projects:

"Salt is my first long term project. I have been working on it for over three years and there is no end in site. The series is a subtle way of looking at how simple things can have grand beginnings, or how great starts sometimes end humble. The often majestic Saltscapes make the end product seem somewhat pathetic, and emphasize the great changes through scale and context.

Dubaï World is a property development in the United Arab Emirates that never really got off the ground. The developer and the emirate have a great kitsch factor and no sense of irony which allows Dubai World to refer to both the development and the emirate.

The Kumari of Nepal are considered living goddesses and are chosen at about three years old to be spiritual leaders until they reach puberty at which time they return to being regular people. I have been following a number of current and former Kumari in this ongoing project. As in much of my work, there is an 'other-worldliness' to the Kumari which seems part real and part fairy tale.

The Girl Who Married a Snake (fables): This work is a series of staged images based on fables in various countries I have found myself in over the last couple years. The title of the series is taken from the first fable I staged which was in India. Folktales are an interesting insight into a culture, and the work becomes something between fact and fiction. Since the fables are part of the fabric of the society and culture, and the people, locations and props in the images are all authentic, there is a lot of true information in the staged images. Hopefully they help to add some context to places that people often have very narrow views of."

Clint McLean Website

EDWARD RANNEY: Monuments of the Incas

Saywite, 1971
Photograph (c) Edward Ranney

Machu Picchu
Photograph (c) Edward Ranney

Machu Picchu
Photograph (c) Edward Ranney

Ollantaytambo
Photograph (c) Edward Ranney

Machu Picchu
Photograph (c) Edward Ranney

"Edward Ranney has photographed the natural and man-altered landscape for over thirty years, specializing during that period in recording important aspects of pre-Columbian archaeological sites of Peru. His photographs of Inca sites of the Andean highlands were made during the 1970's and published in depth in Monuments of the Incas.

The photographs presented here reflect Ranney's ability to depict the rock shrines carved in situ at many sites, as well as his sensitivity to the Incas unique adaptation to the highland landscape around Cusco.

Individual showings of this work have been presented at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago, the Stanford University Art Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 1998 Ranney selected and supervised the photogravure printing of ten images of Machu Picchu to accompany the publication by The Limited Editions Club of Pablo Neruda's poem The Heights of Macchu Picchu."–photo-eye Gallery

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photo-eye Gallery, Santa Fe
First Wednesday Photography Salon
Artists Edward Ranney and
Christopher Benson presenting the work of Richard Benson
September 7th, 6:30-9:00

Photographer Edward Ranney will speak about his extensive career as a photographer working in the country of Peru and the American West. Painter, gallerist and custom book maker Christopher Benson will speak about his uncle Richard Benson's career as a photographer, photo historian and author, as well as discuss his own publication company The Fisher Press. In addition to the Salon, Axle Contemporary (mobile gallery) will be parked outside of photo-eye Gallery for a preview of their new exhibition, I Am Animal, Vegetable, Mineral.

SlowExposures PHOTO FESTIVAL: Book Design Workshop

Sept 17th • 9AM - 3PM • Zebulon, Georgia

Self-Publishing Your Photography Book with Elizabeth Avedon
The basic principles of designing your own Photography Book

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Now that artists are able to produce their own hardcover and softcover books online at a relatively low cost, self-publishing has become a popular alternative for photographers. My workshop, "Self-Publishing Your Photography Book," will cover the basic principles of designing your own photography book including; design decisions, sequencing, typography (Serif vs Sans Serif) and the cover. We'll explore what comprises good design from bad, creating a framework for the participant to build upon with their own book project, and briefly discuss the self-publishing companies available. We'll work together and as a group to evolve each of the individual projects. (The workshop will not cover technical questions - pdf-to-book workflow - or software questions). Contact SlowExposures

Be a part of a unique photography scene in the rural American South….

"...every year since 2003, tiny Concord, Georgia, population 336, becomes a photography mecca. “SlowExposures” lures photographers, curators, and editors to look at pictures from the South, to discuss and debate them, and to exchange experiences...Southern conviviality and hospitality create an ambiance that is most of all creative and communicative." –Elisabeth Biondi, New Yorker Magazine (read more)

SlowExposures Schedule of Workshops + Talks

• Sept 16: Opening Reception and Southern Memories Exhibition in the landmark Whiskey Bonding Barn (open to the public, free). Southern Memories is a satellite exhibition, curated by Alabama native and New York photography collector, John A. Bennette. 5-7pm

• Sept 16: Collector's Afternoon with Alex Novak. Photo Roadshow and Lecture 2-5PM

• Sept 17: Self-Publishing Your Photography Book with Elizabeth Avedon: the basic principles of designing your own photography book, including cover and interior design, sequencing, typography 9AM - 3PM

• Sept 18th: Lunch and Learn With Sylvia Plachy: Sylvia Plachy will show slides of her photography, followed by a discussion about what makes a good photograph 1-3:30PM

• Sept 18th: Juror’s Talk (open to the public, free)

MARIA TERESA FISCHER: And the Space Around

Photograph (c) Teresa Fischer

And the Space Around by Teresa Fischer (Blurb, 2011)

"My mother’s mother died in a very unexpected way. This happened a long time ago, and I never got to meet her, but she has always been very present in our family. My mother kept some of her belongings and through them memories were passed on and stories told. And the Space Around is my way of dealing with issues related to death and loss."–Teresa Fischer

"This body of work is a series of domestic landscapes in which Fischer focusing on "objects as containers full of meaning. It takes place inside senior citizen houses where she explores people’s personal space and memories."

Photographer Teresa Fischer is from Puerto Varas, Chile. She graduated with a major in Photography from ARCIS University in Santiago and recently completed her Master of Professional Studies (MPS) in Digital Photography at The School of Visual Arts in New York City. She specializes in Architecture and Interior Photography. Fischer's book, And the Space Around, has been selected as a finalist in Photography Book Now competition's People's Choice Award category.

Teresa Fischer Photography

This work will be exhibited in a group exhibition curated by Michael Foley, October 21 - Nov 12, 2011, SVA Gallery, 209 East 23rd St, NYC.

MELISSA HARRISON: Thesis Project "Muse"

Photograph (c) Melissa Harrison

Photographer Melissa Harrison earned her BFA from The Rochester Institute of Technology before recently completing her Master of Professional Studies in Digital Photography at The School of Visual Arts. While completing her MPS at SVA, she interned at Hearst Magazines photo studios and worked as a freelance assistant for professional photographers in Manhattan.

The SVA Class of 2011 will be exhibiting their work in an upcoming group exhibition, curated by Michael Foley, October 21 - Nov 12, 2011, SVA Gallery, 209 East 23rd St, NYC.

Muse by Melissa Harrison (Blurb, 2011)

"The style of the photographs, deliberately soft and lacking in sharp detail, is meant to represent the elusive nature of creative inspiration...often ineffable." –Melissa Harrison, Muse

MARIANA COOK: Stone Walls

Window and Walls, Machu Picchu, Peru
Photograph (c) Mariana Cook

Terraces. Ollantaytambo, Peru
Photograph (c) Mariana Cook

Limestone Field with Puddle. Inishmaan, Ireland
Photograph (c) Mariana Cook

Stone Walls: Personal Boundaries (Damiani, 2011)

Stone Walls: Personal Boundaries was conceived by Mariana Cook, the last protégé of Ansel Adams, at her home on Martha’s Vineyard on the day before Thanksgiving in 2002. After 56 cows strayed through a crumbling section of the stone wall she shares with her neighbor, Cook studied the tumbled wall and was struck by its beauty. With that inspiration, Cook spent eight years traveling to farms, towns, and temples in Peru, Great Britain, Ireland, the Mediterranean, New England, and Kentucky in pursuit of dry stone walls.

Work by Mariana Cook is in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Los Angles County Museum and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles; the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.; and the National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, among others. Previous books: Fathers and Daughters, Mothers and Sons, Generations of Women, Couples, Faces of Science, and Mathematicians. She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.

Mariana Cook Photography

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more Stone and Rock posts:
Sacred Rocks
Stone Forest
Shiprock, New Mexico
Rock Album Cover Artist
Petroglyph

MANJARI SHARMA: Darshan | Photo Series KickStarter Project

Maa Laxmi, Hindu Goddess of Wealth and Fortune

Photograph (c) Manjari Sharma

PLAY KICKSTARTER VIDEO

"Darshan is a Sanskrit word that means 'sight,' 'view' or 'vision'. My project Darshan aims to photographically recreate 9 classical images of Gods and Goddesses pivotal to mythological stories in Hinduism.

What is innovative about Darshan is that I am recreating these icons as photographs while maintaining their spiritual sanctity. Historically considered a mechanical device to keep record, photography didn't even start to find a place in galleries until the 20th century. It's no surprise then that paintings and sculptures of Hindu deities were the dominant way to experience Indian mythology. Despite my extensive exposure to Hindu temples and artifacts, I have never seen a photograph of a deity created from scratch."

Darshan is my attempt to show that photos too can evoke a strong spiritual response. At a larger level Darshan is a cultural calling for me to preserve my heritage by using the medium of photography. Your money will go to the great cause of preserving this valuable Indian tradition and also towards a story being retold in a revolutionary way." – Manjari Sharma

2 Weeks Left!
Support this Kickstarter Project

Photographer Manjari Sharma, raised in Mumbai, India, now New York based, is represented by the Richard Levy Gallery in Albuquerque, NM and Paul Kopeikin in Los Angeles. More about Manjari Sharma on this PhotoBlog.

Manjari Sharma Photography

JOSEPHINE DVORKEN: A. Blessing

A. Blessing by Josephine Dvorken
Peoples Choice Nominee | Blurb Books Preview
Photograph (c) Josephine Dvorken

My Last Name is Blessing. I am A. Blessing
Photograph (c) Josephine Dvorken

Alfred and Mariette Sitting Together on the Couch
Photograph (c) Josephine Dvorken

Alfred Looking Out The Same Window
Photograph (c) Josephine Dvorken

Marriette Has Cared for People Her Whole Life
Photograph (c) Josephine Dvorken

"The first time I spotted him he was standing on a corner, wearing a brown suit and matching bowler hat. Folded in his left hand was a copy of The Wall Street Journal. He was positioned between two bank deposit boxes built into the granite wall. On the cornerstone was the building’s date, 1930. The man himself was certainly from another time and I marched straight across the street to ask if I could take his picture.

He agreed and was a natural in front of my lens. I confided to him that I had made a wish that the perfect subject would appear on this corner — someone who belonged right in the middle of the picture I wanted to take. I asked the man for his contact information.

“My last name is Blessing. I am A. Blessing.” He said with a wink and little bow. I had a feeling that Alfred had used this endearing introduction before, and it worked like a charm. I took him for ice cream and he told me about his first big failure in life… buying a gas station.

I kept in touch with Mr. Blessing and called him whenever I was exhibiting the project he was in. I quickly realized that he had difficulty with his memory. I needed to tell him the story of how we met each time we spoke. He loves that story and I love to tell it.

Alfred invited me to his house to take more pictures. This is when I met Mariette. She is from Switzerland and they have lived together in the same house for almost 45 years. She moved in shortly after his wife died to take care of the house and care for his young daughter. Though Mariette is a constant presence, I still haven’t quite figured out her relationship with Alfred. It is something less than romance but something more than that of a servant. And it is almost entirely unspoken." – Josephine Dvorken, from A. Blessing (Blurb Books, 2011)

Preview Book: A. Blessing

"People's Choice Award"

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Josephine Dvorken received her B.F.A. in 1994 from the University of New Mexico and her Master of Professional Studies degree from the School of Visual Arts in 2011. Her most recent project, A. Blessing, focuses on the complicated relationship between a man and his housekeeper. In 2009 she was recognized in the International Photography Book Now competition for Familiar Strangers: A Community Portrait with a solo show of this work at the Umbrella Arts Gallery in New York City. In addition to her Fine Art Projects, she accepts commissions in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut region.

Images from A. Blessing will be included in an upcoming group exhibition, curated by Michael Foley, October 21 - Nov 12, 2011, SVA Gallery, 209 East 23rd St, NYC.

Josephine Dvorken Photography

TOM CHAMBERS: Dreaming In Reverse / Soñando Hacia Atrás

Presumptuous Guests / Invitados Presuntuosos
Photograph (c) Tom Chambers

Two Chairs / Dos Sillas
Photograph (c) Tom Chambers

Stuck In The Key Of C / Atrapado en la Tecla de C
Photograph (c) Tom Chambers

Glass Flower / Flor de Vidrio Photograph (c) Tom Chambers

"Twenty-five years ago I traveled freely throughout the Mexican countryside where I relished a warm, welcoming, and slow-paced style of living. I was heartened by the physical beauty of the landscape and the simple, pure lifestyles shared by both the Hispanic and indigenous people of Mexico. A sense of spirituality and magic were imbedded in their religious practices, crafts, art, dance, and literature...Sensing that little time remains to photograph the beauty of Mexico, I have created the series, Dreaming In Reverse, to express both my concern for cultural loss, as well as my appreciation for the inherent loveliness of Mexican life. Employing Magic Realism, an art genre used in the early twentieth century in Mexico, I have attempted to create images of Mexico which seem true and believable, but also perhaps improbable."– Photographer Tom Chambers

photo-eye Editions just released a portfolio of twelve pigment ink prints from this series, Dreaming In Reverse, housed in an archival anodized aluminum box is published in a limited edition of thirty with two artist’s and two printer’s proofs. The prints were produced with archival pigment inks printed on hahnemühle photo rag baryta.

Dreaming In Reverse / Soñando Hacia Atrás
Photographs by Tom Chambers
August 5 - September 25
photo-eye Gallery, Santa Fe

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Also on View
Aline Smithson: In Case of Rain

States Puzzle
Photograph (c) Aline Smithson

"We live in a world full of technical distractions. I see my children gathered around their computers as though it’s a summer campfire, faces aglow, as they peer into a world of friends and fantasy, participating in a new forms of entertainment that further remove them from the childhood that I experienced...

...And it’s because of this that I have been looking at bookshelves and untouched childhood pursuits with a new eye. With great sadness, I realize that these objects will someday be obsolete, at least in their current incarnations. And like a curator of antiquities, I see them now as beautiful objects to be admired and preserved, if only on film."—Aline Smithson

Aline Smithson: In Case of Rain
photo-eye Photographer's Showcase

Aline's PDN September 2011 Cover!

KARLI CADEL: Moving Meditation

View Moving Meditation on Blurb Books
Photographs by Karli Cadel

As a lifelong dancer, I have always wanted to express the aspects of dance that go beyond sheer physical performance, even at its most intense. I realized that for me, the most meaningful way to do this was not with dance itself, but through photography. –Karli Cadel

Karli Cadel is a documentary and editorial photographer specializing in Performing Arts Photography. Born and raised in San Diego, California, she is a graduate of the theater program at San Diego State University and the photography program at Grossmont College in El Cajon. She also holds a Master of Professional Studies in Digital Photography from the School of Visual Arts, located in New York City. Cadel’s photographs of dance and opera have been published in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and Dance Magazine. She currently resides in New York City.

Images from Moving Meditation will be included in an upcoming Group Exhibition, Curated by Michael Foley, October 21 - Nov 12, 2011, SVA Gallery, 209 East 23rd St, NYC.

Karli Cadel Photography

THE LEICA CAMERA BLOG: An Interview With Nicholas Vreeland

The Nechung Medium and Dog, Dharamsala, India, 1979
Photograph (c) Nicholas Vreeland

Q: The Oskar Barnack Room contains five very large color portraits from the 1970’s that you shot with a 5×7 camera. Can you tell us something about your experience with the large format?

A: I went to India with an old wooden 5×7 view camera and a lot of sheets of black and white film. A friend insisted that I take along some color sheets as well. At each sitting, I’d expose a sheet or two of color and the color turned out to be magnificent. Shooting in large format established a very different rapport between my subjects and myself. I was photographing some of the greatest living Tibetan Buddhist masters. The slow formal quality of the view camera process helped me to photograph them respectfully.– from the LEICA CAMERA BLOG Interview

Nicholas Vreeland and Elizabeth Avedon, Bodh Gaya, India, 1985
Photograph (c) All Rights Reserved

"In terms of my work as a monk-photographer, I feel that I’m photographing the extraordinary world in which I live, whether I’m in New York City, in my teacher’s home in New Jersey, my monastery India or in Tibet." – from the LEICA CAMERA BLOG Interview

Vreeland on the way to his Leica Gallery exhibition, NYC, 2011.
Photograph (c) Elizabeth Paul

Self Portrait, Rato Monastery, India
Photograph (c) Nicholas Vreeland

Q: ...your images transcend those of a typical travel photographer: they have a dimension, a spiritual dimension, and a sense of congruity because they represent the two parts of your life that are tied together?

A: They are two sides of my life that have begun to be brought into harmony with each other. Many years ago, I didn’t feel they were congruent. In fact, initially I didn’t even have a camera in the monastery. And when I was given one, I kept it locked in “Pandora’s box."– from the LEICA CAMERA BLOG Interview

LEICA CAMERA BLOG
Nicholas Vreeland Interview
"Capturing Photographs to Honor and Preserve His World"

More about Vreeland's exhibition Return to the Roof of the World
on La Lettre de la Photographie

SOUTH X SOUTHEAST Photomagazine

SOUTH X SOUTHEAST PHOTOMAGAZINE

STEVE McCURRY: The Iconic Photographs

Rabari Tribal Elder, from McCurry's "The Last Roll of Kodachrome"
Photograph (c) Steve McCurry

Fishermen at Wiligama, Sri Lanka
Photograph (c) Steve McCurry

Afghan Girl, 1984

McCurry's 1985 portrait of the blue-eyed Afghan refugee girl is one of National Geographic's most popular magazine covers

Steve McCurry: The Iconic Photographs, Phaidon Press; Limited Edition

Steve McCurry is credited as having taken "the world’s most recognizable photograph," a young Afghan girl refugee in 1985, and then 17 years later defying odds and finding her again in remote Afghanistan. This work, along with selected images from "The Last Roll of Kodachrome," slide film discontinued in 2010 by Kodak after 74 years, will be exhibited at the Open Shutter Gallery in Durango Colorado this the Fall. He will also give a special slideshow and lecture at the Durango Arts Center, September 9th, 100% of the proceeds from the lecture will go to support Imagine-Asia.org, a not for profit organization, he founded.

McCurry is the recipient of an unprecedented four first prizes from the World Press Photo contest, as well as the Robert Capa Gold Medal for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad Showing Courage and Enterprise. McCurry’s images span the globe documenting varying ethnicities and significant cultural icons.

Photographs by Steve McCurry Exhibition

September 9 – December 1, 2011
Open Shutter Gallery, Durango CO

MARK LAITA: Amaranthine, Sea, and Serpentine

Black Pakistan Cobra, 2010
Photograph (c)Mark Laita. Courtesy Fahey|Klein Gallery

Photograph (c)Mark Laita. Courtesy Fahey|Klein Gallery

Fahey|Klein Gallery will exhibit three new bodies of work from photographer Mark Laita: Amaranthine, Sea, and Serpentine. "In Amaranthine, Laita expertly documents over 100 species of birds from several natural history museums’ ornithological archives. Serpentine is a collection of images of the seductive and mythological snake. And in Sea, his photographs reveal the ethereal and otherworldly nature of sea life. Sea, will be published by Abrams in the Fall/ Winter of 2011."

Fahey|Klein Gallery
July 28 - September 3

SARA JANE BOYERS: Finding Chinatown

Stacked Chairs, Hanford CA 2009
Photograph (c) Sara Jane Boyers

Pork Delivered, Downtown NYC 2006
Photograph (c) Sara Jane Boyers

I am fascinated by the light, vibrance and history of the Chinatowns. The vitality of each living, changing community and the general welcoming nature of those who pass through inspire me always. –Sara Jane Boyers

"Sara Jane Boyers began this series, Finding Chinatown, in San Francisco in 2001, home to the oldest Chinatown in America and the largest Chinese community outside of Asia. This initial examination awakened Boyers’ childhood memories of visiting the Los Angeles Chinatown near her father’s downtown office, and inspired her to begin a tour of Chinatowns across North America. Over the past decade Boyers has photographed fifty Chinatowns in the United States and Canada."

Finding Chinatown | Photographs by Sara Jane Boyers
July 30 – September 3, 2011
CRAIG KRULL GALLERY, Santa Monica