Found this today - a Charles and Ray Eames movie on the SX-70



Following up from my post last week - here is what the Paul Giambarba Edition Polaroid Film box looks like

Labels: Design, movies, Photography

When: December 18th, 2009, 5:00 - 7:30pm
Where: ICP, 1133 Avenue of the Americans at 43rd Street, New York
Who: Paul Giambarba - PG is the designer of the entire spectrum of Polaroid design. This is no mean feat - and the work he did remains iconic to this day.

The Impossible Project is presenting the last of the "old" Polaroid film in a special event honoring and designed by PG. The claim is to help shorten the wait time until the new film is released. This should be a fairly fun - and light hearted event. Hope to see you there.

References
The Story of the Branding of Polaroid
Grant Hamilton's upcoming Polaroid movie trailer

Labels: Photography

Somehow book news is all over me this week - I'm going with the flow of it - for today anyway. The Strand is having "Art Week" with a nice line up of events starting today and going into next week. All of these events are at the Broadway and 12th Street location as well as being free and open to the public. I'll also admit this is straight from the press release...

Tuesday, December 8, 7:00pm
Lisa Kereszi, whose photographs are in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Brooklyn Museum of Art; and the Study Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, will show images from her new book, Fun and Games.

Wednesday, December 9, 7:00pm
Award-winning photographer Joel Meyerowitz will present images from the project he was commissioned to do by the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation, collected in the book, Legacy: The Preservation of Wilderness in New York City Parks.

Thursday, December 10, 7:00pm
Robert Polidori, staff photographer for The New Yorker, shows images of Versaille’s conservation project from his new book, Transitional States/Parcours Muséologique Revisité.

Tuesday, December 15, 7:00pm
Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for The New Yorker and author of Building Up and Tearing Down, in discussion with architecture critic James Russell of Bloomberg News.

Above: Lisa Kereszi, Junkyard office with TV, Trainer, Penna. 2001

Labels: books, New York, Photography

Bad Barbie By David Levinthal
I made the trip out of Bushwick tonight to see the latest show from David Levinthal this evening. The evening turned into a pop culture night that could only happen in two cities here in the states.

First things first. Bad Barbie is hardly new work from Levinthal in fact it predates his more celebrated work Hitler Moves East a collaboration with Gary Trudeau. The interesting thing about the Bad Barbie images to me is the way the culture of the late sixties/early seventies is clearly reflected and amplified. Levinthal Shows Barbie not as a mild mannered woman hoping to marry the right man (her boyfriend Ken) but as a woman who clearly revels in her sexuality and freedom. You could also say that in these photographs Ken becomes her cuckold while her "mandingo fantasy" is played out with (an african american) G.I. Joe.

Either way you read this, these images are charged with enough thought and minimal theatrics to have a honest sexuality about them. For me that was more than enough. The images have a reality about them that seems for the most part to transform the dolls into characters worth watching.

Off topic, but clearly on the evenings pop culture vibe...
Gossip Girl was being filmed tonight as I was leaving the gallery - that made me stop and think - although I'm not a fan of the show, I know enough about it to know what it is. Comparing that to the free wheeling version of Barbie I just saw, I thought how tame Gossip Girl really is.

I saw Neal Casssdy's typewriter. That was pretty big thrill for me (I'll admit to being a beat generation junkie...). FYI Neal Casssdy is perhaps best known for being characterized as Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road among others as well as the driver of the bus in The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. He also wrote an amazing book called The First Third.

I found myself in a back room for a moment as well and could swear that I saw some of the Vivienne Westwood clothing that Sid Vicious was known for. I wonder ... nah.

Special Note to Sharon Butler - I came face to Face with Alec Baldwin tonight, ok we look something like each other...

Bad Barbie By David Levinthal is on display until December 5th at John McWhinnie @ Glenn Horowitz Bookseller

Labels: books, Galleries, New York, Photography

"Polaroid will re-launch the legendary Polaroid One Step Camera and is commissioning The Impossible Project to develop and produce a limited edition of Polaroid® branded Instant Films in the middle of 2010."

This is great, if it's true. Let's hope for it being true.

Labels: Photography

Sputnik Gallery launches 09.09.09 with Alexey Salmanov in his U.S. Debut, Dance | Trash | Glamour. Sputnick has a focus on post-Soviet contemporary photography.

We wish them the best

Sputnik Gallery 547 West 27th, No. 518

Labels: Chelsea, Galleries, Photography

That means there is really no reason not to go see William Eggleston: Democratic Camera again. I know you probably saw it in New York earlier but it's here in DC so go see it again. I think some of the great things about Eggleston's images are how much is really there, and how quiet the images are at the same time.

The Corcoran is at the intersection of New York Ave and 17th Street NW Washington DC

Labels: Galleries, Museums, Photography, Washington DC

“Your Magnum Edit” is a new even from Magnum Photo. Go into the Magnum archive and put together a handful of photos that express this idea:

“A man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is her work of fiction.” - Oscar Wilde

Follow this link for more information.

The photographer Elliott Erwitt. Photograph by Marion Wedekind. 1991

Labels: Photography

Jeffry Cudlin has put together a thought provoking show built on a premise of Arts relationship with life as we live it. All of the artists have developed works that are built with objects and items that are in our day-to-day life experience.

My highlights of the show:
Anissa Mack, My Sister's Diary. Every week, new copies of redacted pages from the artist's sister's journal are posted onto this public bulletin board outside of the arts center. What I really like about this is the handwriting of the journal pages are different and the same all at the same time - it has an authenticity that is really engaging.

Mandy Burrow, creates tableau that are made and meant to be seen in her subjects' living spaces. The installations could be just about anything, but the artist claims a collaboration with the intended subject. I believe this, but miss what might be a certain unspoken eccentricity to the installations. They seem almost too in order. However they are rich in detail and pathos.

Christian Moeller, Mojo. A curious video of a theater spotlight follows random passer-bys' as the move through the beam. This is both amusing and weirdly big brother-ish. I feel it asks more questions than it answers and at the same time, the questions are barely whispered by the art - while only coming to the forefront upon further thought about the work.

All in all the show puts forth an idea of art not always thought about or seen. If fact I'm sure you could point at some of the "major art critics" of our time (and years gone by) and see their disdain for this sort of thinking. It's a curious place to visualize a group of art works from, and to be most successful, I think it requires viewers to think about the show afterwords and question a notion or two about what they expect from the art in our time.

Labels: Galleries, Painting, Paperworks, Photography, Sculpture, Washington DC

In the late forties and fifties the problem of American art had been in the subject matter - we painted portraits of ourselves when we did not know who we were, we painted landscapes as fast as we could strip mine the forest, we painted indians as fast as we could kill them and in the time of the industrial revolution we painted ourselves as rustics, it had become clear that a unique brand of American art was being discovered - not just in paint and on paper (as well as sculpture) but in a "newer" form - photography.

It is this "Americanism" that becomes really interesting to me. It is clear to everyone that the influx of European artists help turn the art of that time around in a way that was forward thinking, and put to an end the idea of the french school of easel painting. The "American Painters" such as de Kooning and Rothko, who are clearly immigrants, but are considered "American Painters" led this revolution in the painting world, but photographically it was Robert Frank (Swiss) with his publication of The Americans. It is clear that the role of the European immigrant played as big a role in the art of that time as it has played in the role of industrializing the United States as a whole.

With the publishing of The Americans fifty years ago, Frank establishes a new iconography for contemporary photography that is still in use today, bits of bus depots, lunch counters, cars, anonymous faces, movie stars and the land mass of the sea shore and the great plains, in essence "America" is the subject in all of it's warts and glitter.

In Hollywood, the publication of The Americans would be the end of the story, it's success celebrated. However this was not to be with The Americans, in fact it was considered a commercial failure. Later with every passing day (or year) a critical drumbeat was being heard and it became obvious that The Americans, with it's positive and negative views was as complex as the country it was named for. By the 1970's it was clear the The Americans was the most influential, and the most important book of photography published in the previous 30 years. This personal political approach would become a standard in how we view photography for the years to come.

To bring this full circle, it was Robert Frank that taught us how to see ourselves as "Americans".

Currently on view at the National Gallery, Looking In, Robert Frank's The Americans, marks the Fiftieth anniversary of the publication of The Americans, with an exhibit of the book, as well as earlier books and contact sheets from the Frank Archive. I'm thrilled that the show was more than just plowing forward with a linear view of the book (think page one, two, etc), instead it breaks the work into four distinct groups and presents the material in a way that allows for a reading of the work understanding that you will never be able to enforce the linear flow of a book when a show is staged in multiple rooms. The work is as strong and as fresh feeling to me as it was the first time I saw the book in 1983.

Labels: 50's, Museums, Photography, Washington DC

Martin Bromirski Gallery 817, at the University of the Arts, in Philadelphia, Through March 6th. Artist talk on February 25th, from 11:30 AM, Room 815, Anderson Building, U of Arts, 333 South Broad

Lori Nix Abandoned: But Not Forgotten Miller Block Gallery, 38 Newbury Street, Boston. Through March 14th.

Labels: Boston, Galleries, Painting, Philadelphia, Photography

Hiroshi Sugimoto - 7 days 7 nights at Gagosian
In what was probably the biggest surprise to me, this is probably the most intense and rewarding show currently up right now. In the past, I have never been the biggest fan of Sugimoto - he seemed a little easy, and the images seemed a bit boring - I really thought it was the case of the emperor's new clothes. I don't think I've ever been so wrong in my life.

Here's the easy part, it's a show of 14 photos. Upon entering the gallery you see seven photos in a line in a pristine white room. Everything is equally spaced it is literally like looking at one line of a calendar. The images are close to identical and frankly at this point I went in and studied the images, they reveal themselves slowly and force the viewer to spend some time with the image to get anything out of it. Then a guard led me into a totally black room, I took a corner and saw another line of seven. The night photos are shown in the black room are displayed almost the same way that Avedon showed the miners in the American West show here at the Corcoran in the early eighties, while the two shows have almost nothing in common they have almost everything in common. Eventually your eyes adjust and the images are popping off the wall. Its almost violent how much info your getting from the images. I started to notice that the images were revealing themselves in subtle ways I wasn't expecting, the blacks and grays are so close that when they finally show the differences between each other it is just amazing.

A question I had leaving the gallery was who is able to print these? I mean your talking about some serious tonal differences that I don't think anyone can calibrate these in a standard darkroom environment, the printing of these alone is masterwork, while the installation is genius. Combined it makes for a very special gallery experience.

I know very little of the official approach of the work, however, ideas of time, motion and stillness become the guideposts of the work in its entirety.

Hiroshi Sugimoto
Ligurian Sea, Saviore, 1993
Gelatin silver print
47 x 58 3/4 inches unframed (119.4 x 149.2 cm)
Ed. of 5



Imi Knoebel at Mary Boone
Have I ever said that the Mary Boone Gallery in Chelsea is like a church? It's just an amazing structure, that certain shows kind of get swallowed up in that great space. This is not one of them.

As a friend of Blinky Palermo, Knoebel currently has an exhibition up at Dia:Beacon of works of his from the late sixties that are dedicated to Palermo, however the new work being show at Boone is really interesting These continue to explore his interest in picture space, support and color. The presentation is just amazing and the images themselves quiet but demanding of your attention.

Imi Knoebel, installation view

Worth Noting: Andrew Moore currently has a pair of amazing photographs up at Yancey Richardson. Although not an exhibit the two images by themselves are very close. Currently hung is new work showing the decay of the american rust belt, the images are sublime and tinged with a warmth that is hard to dislike. These were up in the back area, I hope they are still there if you get a chance to go.

Andrew Moore is also the Producer/Director of Photography of one of my favorite art biographies How To Paint A Bunny, a feature about the life of Ray Johnson.



Jim Dine - Hot Dream (52 Books) at Pace
I know that Jim Dine has ben focusing on his poetry quite a little bit, and upon looking at the current show, I think it's the best thing he could ever have done. This show is like someone took his mind opened it up, dumped it on the floor and threw it all over the place. You have everything in this show it's all there, all over the place and it's all right. Those magnificent drawing of tools he did in the seventies are here, as are photos and sculptures of the recent "Pinocchio" works, as well as Santa Claus and every little bit of detritus floating around his brain. It is a brilliant and magnificent show. It's also messy and fucked up and even stronger because of it.

It's almost unbelievable as well, especially when you consider that it is showing at Pace, not a smaller, but larger risk taking type space.

The work on display means less to me than watching dine take over this space and change it to match the psychographic mood of what he does and possibly how he works. The show is fascinating and inspiring. I wonder if we might be moving into an era where only successful artists will be able to take these kind of risks in a commercial space - I want to see even bigger risks being taken with even bigger approaches getting even better results. This is not the show of an artist who is slowing down, but of an artist that is still looking with his eyes, heart, and mind - and then thinking about it to new and unexpected results.

Jim Dine, installation view



Peter Dayton - Black Boards, White Chicks, part II at Salon 94 Freemans
One complaint - what a pain in the ass to find this gallery. I had mapped it and still needed directions.

Other than that the show is a knockout. Peter Dayton has been on my hit list for the last few months and when I received word that this show would consist mostly of his amazing Black Stella paintings, well, I wanted to go. For those late to the party, here is what Dayton does; (in a nut shell) He plays the high culture/low culture game better than anyone I've ever seen. It's that simple.

The Black Stella paintings play with shared images of Frank Stella's "Black" paintings of the fifties through a filter of the california finish fetish movement of the sixties. Although these have one more layer attached - they look almost exactly like a Stacey Peralta Warp Tail Skateboard deck that was manufactured by Gordon & Smith in the late seventies/early eighties. I should know because every little hessian rocker type kid I knew had one - even me. In fact I had two because my first one got ran over by a car and was snapped in half.

Back to the work, earlier Dayton's that I've seen play with color field painting - usually early Kenneth Noland (his stripes before the targets and chevrons), but these, with the Frank Stella "logo" on the top of the board mimic every important signifier that the real boards had, while using the geometric approach that Stella used. The idea is just so well executed it is hard not to be thrilled with the work. It is a show that asks a little bit from the viewer but returns more than asked with a smart approach and pristine execution along with smart aleck humor thrown in for good measure.

Bonus Play: A great little story told to me in a gallery that day.
I was talking to a friend at a gallery about how bad the Diebenkorn show recently at the Phillips was - and we were bummed because we both really like his work but this was just student stuff that probably was best to be shown as a piece of two for guidance in a larger show as opposed to an entire show of immature works he did while pursuing his masters.

Here's the story I was told. It is similar, but kind of worse.

She was at a show and the curator pulls out this painting from a flat file, that even in the best of times is laced with every bad Aryan stereotype you can think of. it's a blond haired, blue eyed mother in traditional german garb (think sound of music here) with a daughter in front, same kind of features, etc. while in the background it's the alps on the cleanest day that there ever was. Both of the figures are staring up and out to the bright future only illustrated in images like that. She turns to the curator and says "what is this?" The curator without missing a beat says. "It's a Franz Kline".

Labels: Galleries, New York, Painting, Paperworks, Photography, Sculpture

My father passed away about 2 years back and in some ways I am still going through the process of grieving and moving forward. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm crying all the time or anything like that, in fact I'm as normal as I've ever been. (whatever that means) Recently I spoke of my new camera, a Voigtlander rangefinder, not thinking that it would take me down a path that my father traveled over 60 years ago.

The Photos in todays post are of his rangefinder, a Nicca 3 (One of the many Japanese knockoffs of the Leica 3 made in the early fifties - although I've been told this is one of the better ones) The camera, when I took it from my parents house was in ill repair, it leaked light, and was dusty and a bit dirty. I shot a roll of film through it one day and after developing it realized that repairs or retirement was needed. So I ended up at my local camera shop and after a long discussion and some research I went forward and had it repaired. The camera now is as nice as the day it was new, if fact it might even be nicer since the entire thing is adjusted, cleaned, and lubricated and put in optimal order.



I don't think my father ever thought that the camera was going to be a possession passed down from one generation to the next - in fact, my folks had a yard sale one year and almost sold it for 10 dollars. At the yard sale the guy who was interested got to be a little bit snarky in the haggling process and it pissed dad off - so he said the hell with it, took the camera inside and decided not to sell it. From that time on it sat on a shelf in the downstairs office my parents paid their bills in for 15 years.

It's funny, you never really know what objects you will bring forward with you from one generation to the next, however in this case, the camera is literally an old friend that has seen me at some of my best and worst, and now allows me to do the same with my loved ones. While I make images for myself, I see the past reflected in the future of these images made with this camera.

Labels: Matthew Langley, Photography

Before I get to what I should have known, let me remind you that William Eggleston: The Democratic Camera opens at the Whitney this week.

Ok here is the interesting part. After the Velvet Underground many people would consider Big Star to be the most important bands no one really knows. (Bare with me on this poor choice of words) Anyway I was reading the liner notes to the third Big Star record (it's called either Third or Sisters Lovers) and I stumbled over the name of the keyboard player in many of the sessions - that keyboardist is William Eggelston. Consider me floored.

I'm a huge Alex Chilton/Big Star fan and as close to an Eggleston fanboy as there is - so I thought I would share.

Go vote.

Labels: music, New York, Photography

Please Note: If you go see any of these, do not miss Invasion 68 Prague I saw this show at Aperture earlier this year - it is not to be missed.

Invasion 68 Prague – photographs by Josef Koudelka. Koudelka’s negatives were smuggled out of Prague into the hands of the Magnum photography agency, and published anonymously in The Sunday Times Magazine. In 1969, the "anonymous Czech photographer" was awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal for photographs requiring exceptional courage. The Katzen Arts Center at American University, 4400 Massachusettes Ave. NW, Washington DC 20016. November 11-December 28, 2008. Telephone 202.885.1300/www.american.edu/academic.depts/cas/katzen

Kendall Messick: The Projectionist – Kendall Messick’s haunting photographs of the Shalimar Theatre, a fully functional, faux-vintage 9-seat movie theater that Gordon Brinkle, a film projectionist devoted his life to constructing in his Delaware basement until his death in 2007. Hemphill Fine Arts, 1515 14th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005. November 8-December 20, 2008. Opening Reception: Saturday, November 8, 6:30 - 8:30 PM. Telephone 202.234.5601/www.hemphillfinearts.com

Big Blue Marble and Images from NASA - photos by Bill Ingalls, NASA lead photographer and DC area Camera Club members’ work at Washington School of Photography, 4850 Rugby Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20814. November 14-December 10. Opening reception Friday, November 14, 6-9pm. Telephone 301.654.1998/ www.wsp-photo.com

Road to Freedom – Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, 1956-1968 presented in coordination with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, S. Dillon Ripley Center’s International Gallery, 1100 Jefferson Drive, SW, Washington, DC 20560. November 8-March 9, 2009. Telephone 202.633.1000/www.si.edu/ripley

Historical Photographs from the Washington Post – highlights from decades of photographs from one of the nation’s premier news sources. Featuring the photographs of Joyce Tenneson, Jill Enfield, Sue Bloom, Bruce Barnbaum and Clay Blackmore Post. November 15-23. Metropolitan Center for the Visual Arts, 155 Gibbs St., Rockville MD, 20850. Telephone 301.315.8200/www.VisArtsCenter.org
 
Odysseys and Photographs - Masters from the National Geographic Archives, including Tom Abercrombie, Maynard Owen Williams, Luis Marden, Volkmar Wentzel at the National Geographic Museum, 1145 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036. Through January 4, 2009. Telephone 202.857.7588/www.nationalgeographic.com

Labels: Photography, Washington DC

I thought this was interesting if your curious about polaroid and how it got to where it was. My wife gave me this the other day, I think it's from the latest Departures magazine.

Labels: Magazines, Photography

Shimon Attie at Jack Shainman Gallery
Who know that images of car racing could be so interesting? These are very different than the photos that Andreas Gursky exhibited last winter in that these eliminate the background, taking it to black. Frankly these images are a "Strobist" dream. (I'll get back to that in a moment) these images feel as if they are shot in context, but really upon further looking, they really are studio shots - even with the presence of a prop or two (jersey wall, gas container, etc.) All in all a tight little show - it even had a video presentation that was done the right way.

What the hell do I mean by a "Strobist" dream? There is a web site devoted to photography called Strobist that is devoted to highly effective uses of lighting and approaches to images using less gear with maximum results - these images struck me as something that an avid reader of that site would get jazzed by - in no way am I belittling the work, or the site

Untitled Video Still, Racing Clocks Run Slow: Archeology of a Racetrack, 2007



Andres Serrano at Yvon Lambert "Shit"
These are exactly what you might expect them to be - macro photography of shit. Highly glossy, oversized, stylized, polished and over-saturated. The gallery even smells a little bit like shit - although it probably was just the smell of fresh paint - but anything you smell in the gallery this month or so will trigger that kind of response. I'll have to admit the show as a whole seems kind of easy and for a series of images that are as well done as these are, and don't get me wrong - the scope and approaches of these images is really impressive - still the show was kind of a bore.

Shit (Bull Shit), 2008



Christian Marclay at Paula Cooper
Watching what CM does with the detritus of the recording industry and our relationship with popular music as well as the places where our relationship sits with popular music becomes more and more interesting to me every time I see his work. I have been following his work for quite a while and although this show uses re-occuring subject matter (cassette tapes) the approach is very different and a little bit unexpected. The new work is cyanotypes of multiple exposed opened cassettes, pulled out, dropped down and layered in a way that doesn't allow you to see the artists that have "donated" music to the work.

Highly recommended.

Memento (True Love), 2008


One thing to note: Exhibitions that are hung like high school science fair projects. I'm seeing this more and more in Chelsea as well as a few exhibits here in DC. I think it's sad. I get the idea that these are approaches and mechanics that intersect with some kind or real or imagined anthropological or process based approach, however it rarely is as powerful as I think the artist or gallerist would like. More and more it's a bit like the emperors new clothes.



Peter Dayton at Winston Watcher
Peter Dayton has this really great riff on color field work that plays with it's approach to decoration and california surf culture of the sixties. These are great images that gives the viewer both an intellectual kick and a goof at the same time. Susan Dory, who I've spoken of before was also showing - is continuing to produce great work.

Noland #13 "Surf Bunny Beach", 2008



Josef Koudelka: Prague 68 at the Aperture Foundation
I was not prepared for how much I liked this exhibition. Shot over a period of 7 days during the soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia by Josef Koudelka who would have to wait over 15 years to even put his name on the photos he would smuggle out of the country to show what was happening on the ground when no one could find out anything. This is an amazing show with one of the greatest back stories I've seen in quite a long time. This work has never been shown in it's entirety and is well worth waiting the 40 years it took to be able to show it. It is a powerful and urgent show, probably the best of the season.

Highly recommended.

Russian Tank in Prague, 1968

Labels: New York, Painting, Photography

Recently, you might have read that I was burgled and lost a pretty nice camera. Well today I can report that I have corrected that with the purchase of a new camera. A Voigtlander Bessa R3A with a Nokton lens.

Its a classic rangefinder camera (similar to the Leica M series) that will work very well with my renewed interest in tri-x style (for lack of a better stylistic name) photography.

Just thought I'd share.

Also if I ever end a post with my photo tools, the way some people do, it would look like this.

[Voigtlander Bessa R3A, Polaroid Big Shot, Polaroid 420, Holga, Lomo] This will be the last time I ever put a footer of equipment at the bottom of a page - please get the joke, if not laugh along like you do, please....

Labels: Matthew Langley, Photography

Recently Glen O'Brien has become the co-editor of Interview magazine. I think that is a great choice by the publisher - a kind of prodigal son returns home kind of thing. One of the great things about a son returning home is that all his friends are going to start dropping in, this month it's Richard Prince, Christopher Wool, and Richard Hell.

Interview has RP photographing the actresses from the new Battlestar Galactica show. He has shot them in a way that directly points at some of his work - notably "Girlfriends". You might remember the "Girlfriends" as the biker girl photographs. I call theses images "The New Girlfriends" - Hollywood starlets wearing all the right clothing labels and attitudes - but not the same sense of freedom or even sexiness. It makes perfect sense now why the "Girlfriends" are stronger (and sexier) when re-photographed. Maybe RP should have had some bikers take the photos, and then photographed those. Offhanded joke aside, I'm not sure RP needs to be re-engineering his past work - it just seems like there is so much still to do.

I bought Interview at a news stand, I hope you live near a place that sells magazines.

Photo by: Richard Prince

Labels: Photography, Richard Prince, Warhol

I've been looking at a great deal of documentary and, for lack of a better phrase "street level art photography" lately, and I've realized that I am now starting to miss to look of Tri-X photography. Tri-X is a film developed by the Kodak Company that is highly light sensitive as well as amazingly stable - it (or it's variants) have a grain, and contrast that sets it apart from other films. It is this look, done with Tri-X or some other manufacturer's film that I am starting to miss.

I don't want this to be a digital vs. film thing, but would Robert Frank's The Americans be the same if it was shot digitally? The point is, I'm already missing that Tri-X look.

I'll try to elaborate more on this later.

Note for people with database like photographic knowledge: I'm not sure if The Americans was shot on Tri-X, frankly, I don't really care, the point I'm making is that I'm missing that documentary look of slightly grainy, contrasty, pushed 35mm film.

Labels: Photography

Let's start with this quote from Metafilter - by someone named krippledkonscious.

"I had to think a little bit about why this is so stirring. This is not a technical achievement, nor an endeavor that requires an inaccessible skill set. This is one thing, done once a day. Something so spare and ordinary, just taken to extraordinary lengths. A simple thing: whatever struck his fancy on a given day - just capture one thing on film. Simple."

The story that you have probably found by now is the tale of Jamie Livingston, a man who took a photograph every day from March 31, 1979 till the day he died October25, 1997. It chronicles his life and eventual demise - well worth looking seeking out.

Follow this link.

A tip of the hat to: http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.typepad.com

Labels: New York, Photography

Robert Rauschenberg died.

I have a number of things to say, but I cant until tomorrow.

Robert Rauschenberg in 1953. Photo by Allan Grant, Life Magazine © Time Warner Inc/Robert Rauschenberg/VAGA, New York/DACS, London

Labels: Death, Painting, Photography, Sculpture

Thanks for sticking with me today while I continue talking about William Christenberry's current show at the Katzen Art Center at American University. I have been thinking about a discussion that arises with the idea of the grid and how it relates to WC's art in an era that could be defined as reductive - by this I mean the early seventies and into the very early eighties, the early stages of his mature artistic output.

I have always thought of the work as documentary in style and presentation - while I still find this to be true, I'm starting to think about the serial nature of the places that are photographed in Christenberry's work. Why for instance have I seen more that 10 different versions of The Palmist Building, The Green Warehouse, Sprott Church, and The Bar-B-Q Inn. Certainly these images could create a grid of changes to the location or even a timeline of the same, however could we now start to see that structure as a formal 3 dimensional grid that could represent; image of the location, deterioration of the location, year of the location, anthropological uses of the location. An x,y, and z axis if you will. This grid (or cube) could now start to also work in other disciplines - his drawings, paintings, and sculptures of the locations (or details thereof) of said subject combined.

There is a secondary question to this that needs to be asked as well - Is this an intention of the artist or is this something that has sprung from reading the output of his practice. Or is it a combination of both, in my mind, probably both. While this says nothing definitive of WC's work, it does raise a curious thought about art we (especially in the DC area) have grown very accustomed to.

Clearly this post is as much me thinking aloud as it is definitive theory - I have been kind of rolling the idea around for the last couple of days just to see where it might stick.

Labels: DC Galleries, Galleries, Painting, Photography, Sculpture, Washington DC

There is a body of Christenberry's work that I have been interested to see for quite a while. The installation is called The Klan Room. I only knew of The Klan Room by stories I had heard at the Corcoran when I was attending there in the early eighties. The stories were about G.I. Joes dressed up in Klan robes interacting with each other - and still holding a powerful presence - almost like the sculptures were as evil as the people they represent. I believe this show happened at the Corcoran in 1977.

Then the story starts to change.

1979 Christenberry's studio was burglarized by people who stole the entire contents of what constituted The Klan Room installation. Nothing else was taken, the intruders even locked the door on the way out. 20 years worth of artwork suddenly disappeared. Christenberry started over. He would expand the size of The Klan Room installation to three times its original.

At the same time WC's fans would ask, why pursue a subject so painful and divisive, galleries and museums have shied away from showing it due to corporate sponsorship concerns, others would say its not the right time or the right place. Others would say it's not a proper subject to make art about. All the while Christenberry has pursued this part of his work regardless of its desirability. The work that comprises The Klan Room is deadpan and in your face. It is some of the most shocking and shameful artwork I have ever seem that documents the United States.

The amount of The Klan Room shown in the current show at the Katzen is relatively small, however it packs quite a punch. WC is best known for a body of work that is both documentary in style and concerned with a history of story, and place of memory.

My wife joked about the current curatorial initiative at the Katzen when on the way over she said "Last time we got to see the torture at Abu Grahib - and now this - you really are quite the winner at choosing a date for the two of us...

I hope to discuss the rest of the show later this week, frankly there is so much to discuss.

Some research for this entry was gathered from Aperture #96. Copyright 1984, the Aperture Foundation.
Photo from the Klan Room are by me sneaking them when I was told of no photography for this show, my apologies to all.

Labels: DC Galleries, Galleries, Photography, Washington DC

Just a quick reminder about the craigslist show opening at Civilian Art Projects this Friday from 7-9 pm.

Jointly curated by Andrea Pollan of Curator's Office and Jayme McLellan of Civilian, the show features three artists that use the Craigslist web-site as part of their artistic practice. artists included are Joseph Dumbacher & John Dumbacher, Jason Horowitz, and Jason Zimmerman. The show runs until April 26th.

I am a fan of Jason Horowitz's work - he is showing images from the Corpus portfolio, its interesting work and worth looking at. One last bit of JH news, he recently received an Individual Photographer's Fellowship grant from the Siskind Foundation.

Civilian Art Projects
406 Seventh Street, NW
Third Floor
Washington, DC
202.347.0022

Labels: Galleries, Photography, Washington DC

A few of you may remember that I checked in with Jason a few months ago, well here is a quick update. Blue Sky Gallery in portland is showing his work through the end of the month. (I think - because I'm just not sure when the show ends) Anyway, it hardly matters, I'm a fan of Jasons work and I think its worth looking at. One of the things that is really interesting to me about the work is that is has to be seen in person, this is really one of those art as experience versus art as a jpeg.

Jason seems to have had a pretty good turnout for his opening - he sent over a photo of the installation as well.

My last post about Jason is here.

Labels: Galleries, Photography

I was able to see a preview of this show during it's hanging - most of the work was still on the floor. What follows is really just a few random thoughts put together about what I perceive along with what I was told. If you read the last Palm Springs report you will know that I regard JS to be one of the dominant forces in photographing the modern period of architecture - in fact he has been a force since the 1930's when he started photographing R. M. Schindler and Richard Neutra's work as early as 1936. Then moving into the 40 - 50's working with the Eames, Saarinen and the Case study houses, JS could have pretty much rested his career right about then.

The exhibition currently on display at the Palm Springs Museum is basically centered around four of the predominant Architects work in, plus a smattering of highly notable images from his past. The four (Richard Neutra, William F. Cody, Albert Frey, and E.Stewart Williams) architects are the core of Palms Springs modern (I would also add Donald Wexler and The Krisel/Alexander architect/builder team).

The work in the show is some of the best architectural photography ever made. Much of the work is still the benchmark to all architectural photography being produced today. Really it's an embarrassment of riches. It's interesting - the photography is so good it gets out of the way after a while - what I mean is that you start focusing on the buildings and what is good and great about each architectural vision - so you need to be careful about how you look at the work because you can get lost in the details pretty easily.

Highly Recommended.

Kaufmann house, Richard Neutra, 1946. Photo: 1947
Copyright J. Paul Getty Trust. Used with permission.
Julius Shulman Photography Archive
Research Library at the Getty Research Institute

Labels: modernism, Museums, Photography

Recently in the Washington Informer Patrice Gaines wrote about Lloyd Wolf's photographs of homemade street shrines to murder victims in Washington DC. Washington is home to a number of other more high profile shrines - and it's clear to me that these are more like the "forgotten ones".

I try not to get too high and mighty about politics on the blog, however, we as a nation seem to be more interested in the plight of other people in other nations, and are increasingly turning a blind eye to our own communities. Sometimes our light needs to be turned inward to see the problems we face on a more local level. Lloyds photographs carry a serious "personal is political" philosophy behind them and are all the more powerful because of it.

Don't get me wrong, I know not everyone gets to have a white marble monument, and I know it's hard everywhere, sometimes it just seems like we become too distracted by the things that are so far away.

Here's the article

Above, Lloyd Wolf, DeOnte' Rawlings's Shrine, 2007

Labels: Photography, Washington DC

The almost always interesting BLDGBLOG has a story today about the Australian artists The Glue Society. Here is the down low. TGS have put together a series of "satellite views" showing certain Biblical events as seen via Google Earth.

The artists are now; "aiming to produce further works using the same satellite imagery next year but this time relating to mythological occurrences and major historical events." The future via the past gets more interesting everyday.

BLDGBLOG
The Glue Society
Creative Review

The Glue Society, Moses parting the Red Sea (above), Crucifixion (below)

Labels: international, Photography

I visited Jason Horowitz in his studio a few days ago. What I learned was interesting as well as proved points about the viewing of artworks that we (or I anyway) always say, but constantly break. By this I'm referring to the practice of believing that web images are the same as viewing art. JH's photographs are large in size - about 40 x 60 inches. The images themselves are close up (but not too close) of the human figure. Let's break this down a moment so you understand why I said "not too close" these are not some high school pictures of the body so abstracted you don't know what you see, just the opposite. In fact it is the recognition of the image that leads to further exploration by the viewer. So back to the size of the images - this is a key element to both viewing and understanding his work - shown smaller they don't seem to work in the same way.

JH shoots digitally, but these are for the most part "straight" photographs. They are sharp, and at the same time whole areas of an image reads as an abstract area. This flip-flop of detail (abstracted to sharp representation) for me becomes the most interesting part of the work. Recently, Horowitz has changed his approach as a photographer - stopping all of his commercial photography and is focusing exclusively on his studio work. I find this amazingly brave.

We spoke of many things in the studio, but at the core of our conversation was the thinking behind the approach of his work, and where it might go. A number of new things are on the horizon, and seem to be well worth waiting for.

Jason Horowitz is represented by Curator's Office.

Labels: Photography, Washington DC

I spent some time Saturday on 14th street and came away from two shows that I was excited to see, happy that I spent the time. A few things upfront about both shows, I actually own artworks by both of these artists. (This shocks me to no end - but that is another story) I became aware of both Lori Nix and Khan and Selesnick at various art fairs in Miami last year.

I"ve never really thought about it, but both artists set up environments and narratives, then produce work around those themes.

Lori Nix
Lori Nix's show is titled "The City". It shows and illustrates a version of New York that is growing back towards nature. These are not images that are trying to make you believe in the reality of the landscape, just the opposite - LN is only trying to suspend belief for a moment - to give the viewer a feeling that they have seen the location and then tell the story of the artwork. That said, the mis-en-scene is detailed and complete.

Nix's photographs are similar to telling stories over coffee, there is a simplicity and clarity - with fuzzy details that allows you to linger on her every word.

Kahn and Selesnick
Kahn and Selesnick come from a different place than Nix, K&S use documentary styles to bring you into a speculative fiction, one which although I'm sure they would hate is probably best termed "Steampunk". The current body of work titled "Eisbergfrestadt" (or Iceburg Free State) is based on the real incident of 1923 when an iceburg ran aground in the port town of Lubeck.

K&S use this jumping off point to develop images and relics of the period. One of the stories throughout the images is that the new currency printed for the state become so worthless that it is used as toilet paper and firewood. This reminds me of the stories my father told me about post World War I Germany, the currency was in such a state of inflation - people would practically carry money in wheel barrows to buy bread - this same story is illustrated here. The exhibition consists of photographs, sculptures, paintings, and ephemera. All of it interesting to see just for the approach to detail that these images take.

K&S's work in this particular series is laced with irony and satire allowing the viewer to realize that these works reflect not only a real or imagined past, but our present as well.

Extended Play
Kahn and Selesnick have recently received a commission from NASA. Based on Mars, the first of these new images "Mars Glider" is on display as well. In future posts, I promise not to go on too much about NASA and my feelings about how space travel was pulled away from me after being promised in my childhood.

I'm in New York Tuesday - there is just so much to see right now - here is the short list: Richard Prince, Martin Puryear, Jaq Chartier, Johnnie Winona Ross, just to name a few.

Labels: DC Galleries, Lori Nix, Photography, Washington DC

In something like my last post, I mentioned that Lori Nix is having a show at Randall Scott Gallery along with Dane Picard. Well I got home from work this friday afternoon and opened an invite from Irvine Contemporary and was thrilled with the news that Kahn and Selesnick (above) are returning to the DC area with a new show called "Eisbergfreistadt". No doubt that there is some type of fiction that will revolve around images and characters - what I do know is this is based just after the first world war. Expect something from me in the next week or so.

Lori Nix at Randall Scott. October 27 - December 8
Kahn and Selesnick at Irvine Contemporary. October 27 - December 8

Labels: DC Galleries, Photography, Washington DC

Matthew Collings
Regular readers know of my enjoyment of Matthew Collings dairy in Modern Painters. Here's a pretty good interview with him on Artnet (amazing how they interview their own writers as an article - but that's another story) Here's a quick snippet.

writer: You made your reputation with TV programs and books on modern and contemporary art, but more recently you've turned your attention to Matt's Old Masters, and now you've remade Sir Kenneth Clark's Civilization. It would seem that you really do hate contemporary art these days.

Matthew Collings: I know a lot about art and want to talk about it. But knowing about it isn't the same as feeling you have to mindlessly support it and say the accepted things about it to show you're in a creepy club, or that you can intimidate people who don't know about it. That's the theme of all my books and programs. The new series is about how we might understand "civilization" today (that is, if we think we've still got it). It goes from the Greeks to now, but it's all from the perspective of now. The book that comes out of the series is more diaristic and confessional; it's about my tragic parents and so on, what I thought yesterday, etc., as in Blimey. There's also some stuff about Clark and the whole idea of TV arts programs. But the true focus of both the book and the TV series is the anxieties and uncertainties of art now, taking "art" as a kind of culture or constant, ongoing discussion, not just a collection of individual objects or shows.

Glenn Branca
A couple of days I alerted readers about a GB performance of Symphony No.13: Hallucination City for 100 electric guitars. Well it seems that PGWP saw this performed in LA about a year os so ago.

Follow this link to the story

Johnnie Winona Ross
One of my favorite artists, JWR (above: Sand Bend Draw, 2005) has a new show in New York this week at Steven Haller Gallery. I'll review this later in the month. But don't wait for me, exhibition is from October 18 - November 24.

Lori Nix
Randall Scott Gallery is showing Lori Nix (another favorite / below: The Majestic, 2006) along with Dane Picard right here in Washington DC. Exhibition is from October 27 - December 8. I'm missing this opening, however do expect a review.

Labels: DC Galleries, Fontana Mix, Galleries, Lori Nix, New York, Painting, Photography

Jen Bekman's 20 X 200 - Well Done. I recently bought a print from the new Jen Bekman enterprise, 20 X 200 (which I spoke of recently). I received my first print earlier last week (Tema Staufer, Palm Aire) and I could not be more pleased. The printing is of a very high quality and the packaging is exactly as it should be. It is a hell of a lot of value for 20 bucks (24 with shipping).

I'm in a show at the Fort Worth Art Center. Cecil Touchon curated a collage show called White on White: Selected Works from the Collage Museum. I'm pretty happy with the collages I've been doing lately - I really should get them up on the site. Fort Worth Art Center, October 5 - October 30.

Andre Emmerich R.I.P.

Labels: Fontana Mix, Photography

Be sure to check out the retrospective of Pierre et Gilles at Jeu de Paume. Pierre et Gilles practically invented David LaChapelle and while you can't blame them for that, the hyperstylized/hypersexualized images are clearly expanding where Helmut Newton left off. Mix in vibrant color, kitsch, and homoerotic fantasy.

I won't be able to attend, however if your there, buy me the t-shirt.

Pierre et Gilles on google images.

Labels: Europe, Photography

The 20X200 project has been gaining some press for the last couple of couple of weeks. Now in soft launch. One thing for sure is that it is hard to pass up a 16"x20" Tema Stauffer print for $200.

You can even track the sales of various editions, wisely or unwisely each item shows the count remaining in the edition at the time of purchase.

Take a look at 20x200.

Labels: art bargins, Photography

Danny Lyon - At the Whitney (NYC), opens September 7
Larry Clark - At Luhring Augustine (NYC), opens September 8
Mark Stockton - At Acuna Hansen (LA), opens September 1

I've been meaning to point out this article on Lori Nix for the last month or so.

Labels: Galleries, Photography

New York Times reports: City May Seek Permit and Insurance for Many Kinds of Public Photography.

"Some tourists, amateur photographers, even would-be filmmakers hoping to make it big on YouTube could soon be forced to obtain a city permit and $1 million in liability insurance before taking pictures or filming on city property, including sidewalks.

New rules being considered by the Mayor's Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting would require any group of two or more people who want to use a camera in a single public location for more than a half hour to get a city permit and insurance. The same requirements would apply to any group of five or more people who plan to use a tripod in a public location for more than 10 minutes, including the time it takes to set up the equipment."

(The city recently extended the comment period until August 3rd)

For some reason I don't see this as a good sign - usually when things like this become laws in NY or CA the rest of the country tends to follow suit. In this climate, could Garry Winogrand or a new version thereof exist?

If not, that's a real shame.

Labels: Photography, thoughts

All of these are moderated by Michael Fried and Darsie Alexander. This is held at the Baltimore Museum of Art, and it's free.

March 21 - Thomas Demand and James Welling
April 12 - Thomas Struth and Mitch Epstien
April 26 - Anthony McCall and Tacita Dean

Labels: Baltimore, Photography

Lets talk a bit about your process, I know your work is made up of multiple photographs to create the larger image - what brought you to such a complex approach to building your images?

This question really ties in with the Photoshop as a tool question. I like photoshop. I wouldn't be making the color work that I am today without it. I've got an older iMac and with large files, a gig and over, when you zoom in or out it renders in big blocky sections. The first of my color prints "Foamcore" (below) is built from six photographs in Photoshop. I did this in order to create a high resolution print. In order to make the print seamless I had to overcome issues of perspective, vignetting, and color variations. While seamless is what I achieved in "Foamcore" I wanted to make another piece that used seams, disjointed imagery and obvious perspective anomalies. This led to "Extension Cord" and "Bookcase" (above).



I like the peculiarities of single perspective. By building "Bookcase" out of many different perspectives these peculiarities become more evident. It's also a way to imply that any photograph is built from many decisions, a nod to the idea that all pictures are from the subjective view of the photographer.

The images that you produce; electrical cords, foam core, books, etc. are all pretty banal. How do these images relate, is it through the banal approach or is there a collective unconscious to the selection/approach of the subjects?

All of the objects I photograph are mine. I like them. They are generic, almost iconic within the works, but to me they are specific. Through high school and college I almost solely wore white t-shirts. My studio is in the basement along with a small wood shop and storage shelves. I end up walking over extension cords and past my lawnmower (below) on a daily basis. I don't photograph Apple computers or copper frying pans because I don't want to celebrate the easy appeal of these objects. Most of my life I'm surrounded by ordinary things like extension cords, brooms, saws, and garden hoses. I like these things for their utilitarian function and character. I photograph them because while they are personal to me they don't cloud the finished work with sensational connotations.



I like this quote from Joyce Carol Oates, referring to Yeats,"How does the poet transform his banal thoughts (are not most thoughts banal?) into such stunning forms, into beauty?" I particularly like "are not most thought banal". I think most thoughts are banal as well as most things. But I also think mundane and precious don't have to be mutually exclusive. I feel warm towards the things I photograph.

I'm not after nostalgia at all. While these are specific objects for me, I want them to be generic to the viewer. By keeping the object that's in the photograph ordinary I can call attention to the decisions I've made regarding how it's represented.

I have only seen photographs of your new work on display at The Lawrimore Project, one of these seems to break with what I would call traditional photography and becomes sculptural - this seems to be quite a break with your past work (at least to my small knowledge of your entire body of work) how did this occur and what brought you to enter the third dimension (as it were)?

The "Lawnmower" was made in 2003. It and "Self portrait" are made practically the same way. In both an object was set on photographic paper that ran under the object and up the wall behind. In the case of "Self portrait" I chose to display the image flat. As a side note, I made this piece in Rome, where I was quite interested in marble and concrete figurative sculpture.

Although "Lawnmower" is the only piece that projects into the room, it plays to the question that spurs much of my work, "How does photography describe something" in this case the work highlights the absence of the subject.

Who are the artists you are looking at right now (new or old)?

I just saw the Matta-Clark retrospective at the Whitney and loved it. So much of his work is relevant to photography. His sections of freestanding walls are like an extreme expression of "taking a photograph". I also frequently think of Lucas Sameras's polaroids, the way he drew on the print surface conflating the represented and the factual. Maybe even more than the formal achievements of his work I find his personal reflection inspiring. I also think of Jim Dyne and Robert Rauschenberg.

We met initially in Miami this year, where it seems you had quite a successful introduction of your work to a larger audience, How has that been and what is next for you after this current show winds down?

It felt fantastic to have people look and think about my work. These objects are very personal to me. I've thought about them a lot and it was great to see other people considering them. The current show at Lawrimore Project showcases important moments for me, photograms, building an image from many single points of view, and running through out the work are my ideas regarding portraiture.

Currently I'm working on a show based on my residence in Seattle. While the "Bookcase" hid the book titles it revealed much more about my home that other works before, hard wood flooring, white trim etc. By drawing on aspects of cataloging and documentary I'm continuing to describe my place from the inside out. It's a little like taking pictures from inside the belly of a whale.

Labels: A Few Questions, Isaac Layman, Photography

Lunar Procession (detail)

I am a child of the space program. Ask anyone who knows me, they will attest to this. When I was growing up kids my age were promised space exploration and possibly colonization, as this was truly the newest part of our existence we could explore. We were also feed images and ideas of this; Major Matt Mason, Star Trek, Silent Running, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Apollo, Gemini, Mercury, Soyuz, Gagarin, Armstrong and Laika. We all know there are thousands more - maybe you had them in your childhood as well. The amazing future that NASA presented me as a child is in no way keeping with the NASA we live with today.

Which bring me to Kahn and Selesnick: "The Apollo Prophecies".
A quick story is necessary to be told about the images before encountering them, although not critical, it does add a degree of deeper understanding to the viewing experience. The Apollo Prophecies depicts, in long panoramic images, an expedition of 1960s American astronauts who arrive on the moon to find a lost mission of Edwardian space-travellers. To the stranded Edwardians, the Americans are long-awaited gods - the fulfillment of prophecies revealed to them many years before.

That is the germane kernel of knowledge needed to enjoy these images to the fullest.

I was recently made aware of these images at the AQUA fair in Miami, they struck me like a version of what might be called "steampunk" (a version of science fiction set in the past with technology built with that days technology - steam engines, radiators, etc, but these could make computers, cars, rocketships, etc.) and in a way they are - however with this fable attached to them they become much more interesting.

The images are panoramic in approach most are 12" X 70" Each image is either a major event or a story cycle that carries you to the next image. Each image is perfectly built so that it feels "real" as well as fake, but fake in the right way. (if that makes a bit of sense). The staging of these with the forced horizon edge curving under the characters of the images with the edwardian looking space gear makes for a experience that you are indeed looking at a smaller planet than earth, so does the fact that everyone is wearing a space helmet of some kind. The built wood and metal structures, organic Edwardian outfits retro-fitted with space helmets and breathing apparatus bring to mind Jules Verne pushed through a science fiction story.

Today I hold a grudge at the future that was promised and eventually denied, These images that rework the NASA mythos are unexpected and brilliant. They might very well be a metaphor for the lack of exploration we are now engaged in and the way we could be seen in the not too near future. Regardless they are a masterful and eccentric approach to narrative and image making.

Please Note: Yes, I am aware of Spaceship 1 and the recent attempt to privatize space, it's really not the same as NASA and the Soviet program of the 60's and 70's. Todays astronauts wear polo shirts and jumpsuits, more importantly they are made to seem smaller than the technology - a unheroic stance and screaming of "the wrong stuff".

For more detail on Kahn and Selesnick, please follow this link

Labels: Art Basel Miami Beach, DC Galleries, Photography, Washington DC

Right off the bat, Colby Caldwell's latest show is set up to take advantage of the Hemphill gallery space, and does so with an ease that is almost unnoticeable. The first room is filled with his series of images of people - take a longer look and you will notice that these are far removed from portraiture, these are what the artist has labeled "gestus pictures" (more about that in a moment). The second room is full of landscape inspired images utterly devoid of people, and the third room is shaped by a video installation and images that reflect time long ago as well as photographic ephemera.

It is these three approaches that spell out the themes for the current show; presence, absence and memory.

Presence
Let's get back to the "gestus pictures". Gestus is a Brechtian Theatrical term for the physical gesture which defines a character in production. This gestus is not a cliche, but the representation of a character. As I said earlier these are not portraits, but carefully staged images of characters. and what characters they are; a hunter, friends, and family - displaying personalities that let us read our own biases and dislikes into them. These are quietly successful and imaginative images.



Absence
These images show just that, absence. However take a second look and many of these images are speaking of an absence that is not the naturalistic ideal. The absence is that of man and these images quietly show his past presence, and his now departure from the area. This is most notably felt in "after nature (33)" (shown above).

Memory
For me, the two standouts of the show play with memory and photographic ephemera. (t)here, and (t)here (1) are my personal standouts of this show. These images feel connected to CC's earlier work - which is no bad thing. (t)here documents the material of the work - film, while (t)here (1) distills the unknown quality of film, this image is an end of a film roll, an overshot. The final work in the Memory room is a 5 channel video installation, readers of this blog know of my trouble with video presentation in the gallery space, while the five monitors or "rounds" feature Bernard Welt's writing (which I care for very much) it is still hard for me to give a review of the video portion of the show. Please do note that this is not due to any fault of the artist - it is due to this reviewer.

Colby Caldwell | Small Game is highly recommended, and is on display through February 24.

One last note: There is a stamped, signed limited edition poster of (t)here, that will benefit the establishment of a wet darkroom at St. Mary's College in memory of Steve Szabo (1940 -2000). He was a teacher of mine as well as many that attended the Corcoran School. The poster is inexpensive ($20) and goes to a good cause in honor of a man who did much for the betterment of the arts in Washington. If you don't feel like owning the print, go ahead and drop the twenty dollars anyway.

Labels: Photography, Washington DC

I apologize for the bad reference in the title, however I do have some good news to share with everyone.

Here's the story: In June I was approached to show a few photographs at "Hon Fest" in Baltimore. I said yes or else this would not be a story you are reading. A collector there saw my work in the space and spoke to the owner that he was interested in purchasing some of the photo's. Well long story short, he just bought every photo I was showing.

Yeah! (for me).

I want to come right out and thank John Starling at Smith Content for arranging the show as well as his devotion for pursuing the sale. John runs a great writing studio in baltimore with local as well as national clients - Follow this link to his site.

Labels: Baltimore, Collecting, Photography

Imagine this book to be twice as large, with a hardbound cover and gold debossed title, beautiful endpapers, head and tail bands, and a dust cover with a French fold. The inside would have glossy, coated paper throughout. Printed on this paper would be a number of carefully selected full color reproductions of landscape photographs of the Mojave Desert. The photos would have been taken with a field camera holding 8 x 10 inch negative film. The reproductions would be scanned with the latest high-end scanning device and printed at 300 lines per inch in five colors with a spot varnish. The tonal qualities and detail of the reproductions would match the originals perfectly. To explain the images and create context, there would be two critical essays by well known critics. And to lend the book credibility it would be published by a New York art book publisher or institute of photography. It would be a beautiful book, indeed.

This is not that book.

I've always admired Rudy VanderLans work with emigre. I even went as far as to learn about Van Dyke Parks from his book "Plam Desert". I think the verbage above is as interesting as any critical text I've read in quite a while. I also think his 8 x 10 photographs of the California landscape are some of the most interesting and banal that I've seen. His other books; Palm Desert, Cucamonga, Joshua Tree are well worth looking at as well.

Follow this link for more info

Labels: Art Books, Photography