Austin Center for Photography

2010-04-17T12:35:00.001-05:00

A Week of Art in Austin

You may be asking, “Isn’t every week in Austin a ‘week of art’?” Well, this week is of particular significance as Art Alliance Austin holds Art Week Austin. The AWA schedule includes over 700 public displays, multiple community events and lectures and forums; culminating with Art City Austin, an Austin-style celebration of art and culture on the 24^th and 25^th.

The action really gets going tonight with David Ellis Live at Co-Lab, and on Sunday testsite presents the opening reception for Maison Erectheum. Also, Dan Cameron, founder of the not-for-profit U.S. Biennial, Inc., and artistic director of Prospect New Orleans, will be giving a series of Art Talks discussing current trends in contemporary art and his selection process. There’re docent-led Public Art Bike Tours departing from Mellow Johnny’s, as well as events at AMoA on Saturday and Sunday. Plus, Fusebox, Mindpop! Action Summit, and Pecha Kucha night are all happening this week in conjunction with AWA. And while you’re out there getting involved in all of AWA’s 700 plus programs, make sure you participate in the 2^nd Street District Installation “One swallow doesn’t make a summer”, addressing the City’s development concerns and featuring the work of one of our favorite Austin photographer’s Barry Stone.

This is going to be a huge event, focused intently on your favorite city. So scour through that schedule for your must-sees, or just pop into your favorite gallery and check out what’s happening. And don’t forget the ACP event on Friday at Caffé Medici. See you then!

2010-04-17T06:18:00.004-05:00

FotoFest: Part II

We haven’t quite had enough of FotoFest just yet, so ACP ventured down to Houston again last weekend for some exciting Contemporary U.S. Photography, as well as the Richard Misrach lecture. The weather was lovely, the venues were astounding, the lecture was educational and the city was welcoming.

Our first stop was at 2101 Winter St. to see the highly recommended FotoFest headliner, The Road to Nowhere? curated by Natasha Egan, Associate Director and Curator, Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago. Egan describes this show as “address(ing) a repertoire of diverse but related themes including politics, surveillance, race, war, and economic insecurity. While the work is oftentimes critical, a quintessentially American optimism is evident.” Egan did a terrific job in selecting artists for this show, which somehow filled the massive complex that is Winter Street Studios: an old furniture factory that now houses 75 studios over its two enormous floors.

Eirik Johnson

While there were over 20 artists in the exhibition, a handful stood out in my mind as having a particularly beautiful sensibility and consistency while addressing the show’s theme. Eirik Johnson’s series Sawdust Mountain is based on the Oregon wilderness and the poverty that plagues this naturally beautiful and visually rich area. Johnson uses a large format camera to make interesting, yet simple compositions of the frontier. His prints are nice and large, enough so that all of the information he records is easily readable. Take a look here to see the entire series and more projects from Eirik Johnson.

An-My Lé

An-My Lé is another photographer whose work stood out from the pack at The Road to Nowhere?. Lé has been featured on Art21 and has shown photographs from her series Small Wars at many esteemed institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Photography. The aesthetics of her photographs convey the notion of the human footprint within the larger scope of the environment, as the large-scale of her prints often depict warfare as a toy-like game. This image in particular, 29 Palms: Mechanized Assault, looks more like a detailed drawing than a photograph when viewed from any further than a couple of feet. Lé has a unique approach to war documentation and the effect of her images is especially sobering.

Victoria Sambunaris

Victoria Sambunaris is the third artist from this exhibition who really stuck with me, partially because we saw her work again later that day. Sambunaris works with a similar approach as that of An-My Lé, but she points her camera at uninhabited areas to emphasis the landscape. Sambunaris’ scenes are stark and expansive, often featuring an interruption from some organic form. The two images above take the conventional landscape as frequently seen in painting and enlarge them to a scale that we almost can’t recognize. As we try to put ourselves into these images, we begin to understand how transient our worldly significance actually is. We later saw Sambunaris’ work at the MFAH for their FotoFest exhibition Ruptures and Discontinuities. More on that below.

After spending hours on Winter Street, we went back to the Menil to see Leaps into the Void: Documents of Nouveau Realist Performance. Ironically, there are no photographs to document our visit, as we didn’t want to get asked to leave in the process of recording the exhibition. However, we can tell you that the exhibit spans all mediums and has a particularly vivid film piece documenting the construction of a large sculpture that was later destroyed as part of the performance. While the prints themselves were merely fast, blurry snapshots serving to record various performances, the show as a whole did a nice job of recreating the Nouveau Realist movement.

The story is pretty similar from the MFAH unfortunately, where cameras are not allowed to open their shutters on the artwork. We arrived early to get a good seat to hear Richard Misrach speak and in the process managed to get a look at the Alice Neel paintings on exhibit in the main gallery. Along the way, we also got a glimpse of a few Frank Stella pieces from the MFAH’s permanent collection, which are casually hung up in a narrow hallway. Apparently, either by mistake or design, not many people knew about Richard Misrach’s lecture, making for an intimate setting inside the MFAH’s pristine theatre. Misrach reviewed work over his career all the way up to his current digital color negatives, showing one beautiful slide after another, all the while tying into the theme of Ruptures and Continuities. One of the interesting events at the MFAH, aside from this lecture of course, was finding the exhibition. Ruptures and Continuities: Photography Made after 1960 from the MFAH Collection, is located through a long underground tunnel, across the street and obscured in one of the hundreds of galleries within the museum, and features almost 200 iconic images from the photographic hall of fame including Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, William Eggleston, Richard Misrach, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, and Andy Warhol. Also on display was another of Victoria Sambunaris’ landscapes. There is so much incredible work here, most of which is scattered throughout various canonical textbooks on photography and photo history, to view it all in one place is an absolute treat. Meanwhile, outside of the photography exhibit, there are world famous paintings and sculptures, as well as ancient artifacts. There’s really nothing like the MFAH in Austin. But I, for one, was especially tickled just to be in the presence of an original Eggleston print, but there was so much to look at it was difficult to let it all fully sink in. Ruptures and Continuities is up until May 9^th at the Audrey Jones Beck Building and is definitely worthy of a second visit.

All in all, not a bad return visit to the FotoFest Biennial. We sure would like to have included some installation shots from the Menil and MFAH, but if maintaining their incredible collections requires forgoing documentation, then who are we to argue. Please support this amazing, one of a kind festival and treat yourself to an experience, the likes of which may never be rivaled. These museums and galleries are comforting places whose sole purpose is to open their doors to you. So get out there! Carpool, share a room, day trip if you have to, but support FotoFest and support the photographic community, all the while expanding your own knowledge and interests and participating in the larger Arts community.

2010-04-06T19:49:00.003-05:00

Abelardo Morell: The Camera Obscura

In this video Abe Morell demonstrates the Camera Obscura right before our eyes.

I'm very much looking forward to hearing him speak about his work and how he decided

to utilize this basic optical phenomenon of which photography so heavily depends.

2010-03-25T22:09:00.001-05:00

Photojournalists, if you're looking to make things happen, keep reading.

June 20-25, 2010, Pulitzer prize-winning photojournalist David Hume Kennerly leads a unique one-week Summer Institute at the Annenberg Center, The University of Southern California.

http://www.kennerlyinstitute.com/

Blending an extraordinary hands-on assignment photography experience with intensive academic inquiry, the Kennerly Institute is tailored for individuals who seek to hone their photojournalistic skills and to become leading edge visual communicators. The Institute encourages participants from the private, public and non-profit sectors who have a wide range of responsibilities and interests, including photojournalists, university fellows, journalism professionals, military photographers, semi-professionals and dedicated amateurs. Participants will be selected on the basis of experience and a personal statement.

Enrollment is limited to maximize one-on-one mentorship and keep ratios small. Apply early to secure a spot. $250 discount for applications received by April 1, 2010.
Select Seminars

* The Top Ten Photos that Changed History
David Hume Kennerly, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photojournalist
Geoffrey Cowan, Director of the Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy

* The Role of Photography in Documenting – and Making History
Jim Gaines, former managing editor, Time, Life, People Magazines

* Relevant Impactful Images in Today’s Media Reality
David Friend, Vanity Fair's editor of creative development

Photography Instruction sessions include:

* Assignment shooting, editing and presentation with Kennerly and a team of award-winning photographers
* The Lost Art of Photo Editing
* Shooting Hollywood
* One-on-one portfolio reviews and mentoring
* New Media & Emerging Technologies seminar
* Creation of a self-published book of images using the most current technology

Select participants will study and work with world-class photographers, political figures, journalists, and new media experts in an intimate setting in Los Angeles, California at the home of the Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy on the University of Southern California campus.

2010-03-25T10:28:00.005-05:00

Richard Mishrach Lecture at the MFAH

In conjunction with FotoFest and Ruptures and Continuities: Photography Made after 1960 from the MFAH Collection the MFAH will host a number of lectures around the subject of photography, beginning with a lecture by Richard Misrach at 6:30 p.m. Friday, March 26. Misrach’s work has changed formally over the years, but his images have consistently played with the fine line between the sublimely beautiful and the desolate and devastated. Stop by for this lecture and see the incredible collection of photography the MFAH is exhibiting.

See the exhibit overview and images h ere.

2010-03-22T22:12:00.014-05:00

FotoFest: Week 1

It really isn't easy to leave Houston this time of year. Only the SXSW activity in Austin over the last few days compares with the excitement down by the gulf. The comtemporary art scene is flourishing in H-town right now, forming the perfect foundation for FotoFest’s theme; U.S. Contemporary Photography. We visited Houston for the opening weekend and are here to tell tales of amazing places and fantastic visions.

(Asha Schechter/Matt Lipps)

Arriving in Houston on a wonderful sunny and 70˚ spring Saturday, we headed straight for the Galleria. The Williams Tower on Post Oak Blvd hosted Assembly: Eight Emerging Photographers from Southern California, an awe inspiring curation from Edward Robinson and Sarah Bay Williams with the Wallis Annenberg Photo Department at LACMA. The eight participating artists include Nicole Belle, Matthew Brandt, Peter Holzhauer, Whitney Hubbs, Matt Lipps, Joey Lehman Morris, Asha Schechter and Augusta Wood. Contemporary photo historian Charlotte Cotton was originally asked to currate this show, at which point she suggested the team from LACMA. The prints here are big and beautiful, some of the largest C-Prints I have ever seen, and all presented differently but wonderfully. Although each artist presented equally amazing work, Matt Lipps’ photo-collages have become some of my favorite contemporary images with their vibrant, saturated colours and confusing use of space. Asha Schechter shares a wing with Lipps and offers a unique take on the materiality and nostalgia we associate with our photographs by imaging the editing process of sorting and stacking prints. Be sure to pick up one of her free newspapers while you’re here too. More about Assembly and LACMA here.

(Luis Mallo)

Next, we headed over to Sicardi Gallery on Richmond Ave to check out Luis Mallo’s series Open Secrets. Mallo pointed his camera at catalogueing and archiving systems to produce a stunning set of C-Prints, most of which span 30 x 39 inches. His shots are all frontal and offer a clear look at the organization and uniformity necessary to keep archives accessible, reverting back to how we organize our own lives and questioning what will seem worth archiving in future generations.

Then, a not-so-quick stop by the Menil to treat ourselves to the surrealist collection and the Maurizio Cattelan work that is on display ( sorry no cameras allowed ). While we didn’t see any photogrpahy on exhibit, Leaps into the Void: Documents of Nouveau Realist Performance was being installed during our visit and will feature both documentation and original works from the Nouveau Réalisme movement as the Menil’s contribution to FotoFest. More to come on this next time.

(Eileen Maxson)

Afterward the Menil, we payed Russel Etchen a visit down the street at Domy Books on Westheimer and looked at Eileen Maxson’s new work Orphans of Failure. Maxson discovered a consistancy in the years 1993 and 2010, which she explores through the creation of a 2010 version of a ‘93 calendar. Using digital media and on-demand production techniques with original and found images, Maxson uses 1993 as an analogue to the current year, depicting an odd rift in American culture and offering up the notion that 1993 is a foreign and distant place. There’s always tons to look at while you’re at a Domy Books, and Orphans of Failure holds its own nicely. Maxson’s sequencing is well executed, while each image carries its own mystique.

(Ben Ruggiero/Anna Krachey)

By this point I was getting hungry and the Austinite in me could just sense a Whole Foods near by. So after a nice snack and refreshing beverage, we found our way over to the Box 13 Art Space on Harrisburg Blvd to enjoy the Panta Rei opening. Panta Rei, Greek for “everything flows” in reference to an ever fluctuating worldly existance, features eleven Austin based photographers dedicated to the progression of the medium. The space at Box 13 was ample enough to hold this juggernaut of contemporary, forward thinking work. Aside from varied framing and camera play, images such as Barry Stone’s Black Cloud have been rotated upside-down and inverted. In the case of Adam Schrieber’s Halliburton Archiving Solutions (II), 1987, a light leak casts a beautiful blue light over the confusing picture plane. Scales change, colors are sometimes altered, framing is often suprising, lighting situations may be unusual but every single image maintains its own confidence and beauty sustained through knowledge and consideration. Although each print is lovely in it own way, Panta Rei is largely successful at controlling how images are read. This is an exhibition on photo fluency beyond all others.

And that was just the opening weekend. We’ll be back next week with more FotoFest action.

2010-03-06T08:53:00.007-06:00

Elizabeth Chiles @ testsite

ACP’s own Elizabeth Chiles will be showing her work a lot this month. Her solo show, Book of Praise, will open at testsite on Sunday, March 7th from 3-5pm. In the announcement for Book of Praise, Claire Ruud writes:

“Taking compositions found within the landscape as a starting place, Elizabeth Chiles builds syntax out of the formal and affective relationships between darkness and natural light. Her photographs endow light with temporal and spatial presence—a visible presence that nonetheless gestures toward the imperceptible and ineffable. This handling of light transforms the everyday into something to be revered. In this way, the works in Book of Praise become an ode to a presence akin to that of an altar or inspired text, or what may be the aura of the sacred.”

testsite has been a multifaceted advocate of the collaboration between written and visual media since 2003, combining artists from near and far to experiment and freely explore projects in an environment conducive to an intimate conversation. Book of Praise responds to this space by creating an installation that Chiles sees as sacred in its balance and in its feeling of empty expanse.

Elizabeth Chiles is currently a professor of Art History at Texas State University and will be participating in the 2010 FotoFest Biennial, as well as the Texas State School of Fine Arts faculty show this month. Look for more on these events very soon.

testsite is located at 502 West 33rd Street and is open from 2-5pm on Sundays or by appointment.

Read more about testsite here and view Elizabeth Chiles’ work here.

2010-02-21T15:06:00.004-06:00

Austin East of I-35: A Photo Essay by Rama Tiru
Book Signing and Artist Talk @ Domy Books 913 E Cesar Chavez
Saturday, February 27th 7-9 pm

I was given this book for Christmas and am so happy to see it picked up by Domy, the authority for fine art books in Austin. I found Tiru’s photo essay vividly captured the varied interests and lifestyles that converge on the ever developing east side of Austin.

Come by and enjoy the book signing and artist talk. Domy is a treasure trove and their openings are always a great time!

More on Tiru’s East of I-35 here.

2010-02-20T16:29:00.003-06:00

THE SARAH GREENOUGH LECTURE HAS BEEN CANCELLED - no further information is available at this time. Bummer!

Harry Ransom Center Lecture: Sarah Greenough

This Thursday, February 25th, at 7pm the Harry Ransom Center presents Sarah Greenough with her lecture “Transforming Destiny into Awareness: Robert Frank’s The Americans, 1959.”

Sarah Greenough is the Senior Curator of Photographs at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and has authored numerous publications on some of photography’s most iconic figures. I’ve never heard Greenough speak before but her interest in and scholarship on Alfred Stieglitz form an instant soft spot in my heart and personally, I couldn’t resist a discussion on Robert Frank.

The Ransom Center announced this event a while back, so here’s your reminder. Don’t miss this one! It’s free, doors are at 6:30 with the lecture scheduled for 7pm and seating is first come first serve.

See more on the Harry Ransom Center’s upcoming events and general event information here.

2010-02-20T16:22:00.002-06:00

FotoFest 2010 is opening in Houston soon and there are enough curatorial dialogues, lectures, workshops and portfolio reviews to tide us all over until 2012 (and that’s not even including the numerous exhibitions happening).

Workshops are just $75 and take place on March 16^th and 21^st.

FotoFest’s International Portfolio Review has four separate sessions to attend. You can still register here.

All exhibitions are free to the public, and with this year’s theme being Contemporary U.S. Photography the who's who of the US photographic community will be a plenty.

Whether you’re a student, professor, young artist or seasoned vet, FotoFest is THE photography event to attend and it lasts over a month!

Between the David Alan Harvey workshop and lecture in Austin, FotoFest in Houston, and of course that little thing called SXSW, March stands to be quite eventful for photography in Texas.

Stay tuned and we’ll keep you up to date on the openings, workshops and lectures from FotoFest.

The FotoFest 2010 Biennial, the Thirteenth International Biennial of Photography and Photo-related Arts takes place March 12 through April 25, 2010 in Houston, Texas.

The FotoFest Biennial is the longest running and most acclaimed photography biennial in the United States. Five curators are invited to put together the exhibition program, which focuses on Contemporary U.S. Photography. The FotoFest 2010 Biennial will also see the return of its most popular programs: the Meeting Place Portfolio Review, the FotoFest Fine Print Auction, the FotoFest Workshops, as well as Curatorial Dialogues, Symposia, and film and video programs that will encompass the whole city of Houston for a month and a half.

In addition to the exhibitions produced by FotoFest, The FotoFest 2010 Biennial features hundreds of exhibitions at Participating Spaces across the city. These spaces include every major museum and non-profit art space, most commercial galleries, corporate office spaces and dozens of retail and restaurant spaces.

You can see the FotoFest calendar here, and a list of participating spaces here.

2010-02-13T13:35:00.004-06:00

Travis Kent at SOFA

Travis Kent recently relocated to Austin from New York, and has just opened his first solo exhibition entitled Hope You’re Well, at SOFA Gallery at the beginning of the month. SOFA was started by Katie Geha, former curator at The University Museum in Wichita, Kansas. The name SOFA is not an acronym, but is a nod to the term Sofa Art. A pejarotive in the art community referring to generic art bought for display over your sofa. (My personal sofa art is a diptych of Roy Lichtenstein's "Whaam!")

Kent's photographs are dynamic, yet his images remain somewhat diaristic due to their low-fi, snapshot feel. He presents unusual moments collected from experience and meticulously sequenced. This exhibit explores whether a photo taken in a way that does not imply composition and screams spontanaity can be considered as serious art. This would be akin to a musician choosing to record their album in a basement on the worst equipment they could find because they wanted that sound to help express their medium. It does not take away from the piece, but adds to it because the choice was specific and calculated.

SOFA has a wonderful and we hope to see even more great things from them. The show has been noted in ArtForum and will be on display until February 21st at SOFA Gallery, 301 E 33rdStreet.

Learn more about SOFA and Travis Kent here, and let us know what your Sofa Art is in the comments.

2010-02-03T21:31:00.003-06:00

Hope In Haiti

Austin based photographer Esther Havens was in Haiti within a week of the earthquake. Haven's is a humanitarian photographer and works primarily with water charities. She does not consider herself to be simply a photojournalist because in any situation she is involved with she wants to do more than document those she is around. In her words, "sometimes you have to just put down the camera." She is driven by a desire to bring real, and lasting change to the areas of the world that she is able to visit. Using her photographic ability to raise awareness and help organizations raise funds to do their work.

Esther took her most recent trip with safewaternexus, and will be returning to Haiti with them next week. Then she will be doing a two week trip for Charity Water. The images speak for themselves, and are below. If you would like to know more about Esther and her work you can go to her website, and follow her twitter for the latest updates from wherever she is working.

2010-02-01T20:35:00.006-06:00

Thinking of Buying a New Camera?

I recently bought a used film camera off of eBay. This was an incredibly stressful experience. Would the shutter work? Will there be light leaks? Is the glass scratched? Does the camera even take good images? The fears about my specific camera were reasonable, but there was a lot that I could do in advance to make sure that the specific model of camera I wanted would perform well.

When I started shopping I knew that I wanted to get a medium format camera, and I knew that my budget would not allow me to buy a Hasselblad. I started my search by going to eBay and searching for any variation of medium format camera I could think of, and then narrowing the results by limiting them to my price range. I was then able to see all the camera's that would be available to me.

The next step was to figure out which camera would give me what I wanted. My price range restricted me to Twin Lens Reflex cameras. Photojournalists used these in the fifties and sixties. If you've ever seen La Dolce Vita the "Paprazzo" can be seen chasing everyone around with them. I knew that I wanted the camera to have a 1x1 aspect ratio, and many of the cameras that I was looking at would not provide that. I was able to cross those off of my short list.

I then went to flickr.com, and started searching for the specific model of camera I wanted. I was able to see pictures that people had taken in the last few years with the very camera I was planning on buying. Being able to see that I might be able to get images I would like out of the camera greatly increased my confidence.

The last step I went through was searching photography forums to see what people had said about their experiences with the camera. I was able to see that for a few of the models I was considering that quality was a serious issue, and that some people would get broken cameras right out of the box. That would explain why the camera was in my price range, and helped talk me out of that purchase. For the Rolleicord I settled on the forums all had wonderful things to say. They were well built, lasted, and it looked like anyone who had owned one had fallen in love with it.

When I finally returned to eBay to make my purchase, after I had checked a few local camera shops for the chance at instant gratification, I was able to click the bid button without any fear aside from the normal worries about my specific camera working.

The internet is a powerful tool that can make buying a camera sight unseen a great way to save money, and experiment. What are some other ways you have been able to research cameras online without knowing much about them before buying?

2010-01-28T18:31:00.003-06:00

A Few Notes

We have been busy here at ACP working on the latest installment of our Icons of Photography series. David Alan Harvey will be joining us during South By Southwest. He began shooting when he purchased his first camera, a used Leica (not bad!) in 1956. Since then David has gone on to shoot over 40 essays for National Geographic and has been published extensively. From March 16th through the 21st he will be holding workshops as well as giving a lecture and book signing. Keep you eyes open as we will post more details as the event nears.

For those of you who are needing a dark room. Holland Photo Imaging has one available for rent on Saturdays from 10-5. There is a $25 orientation class, and then the hourly rates are reasonable, $15, or you can purchase a punch-card for 5 hours @ $12.50/hr or 10 hours @ $10/hr. Go to their website, or give them a call for more information.

There has been a great deal written about the tragedy that struck Haiti two weeks ago, and there is not much that I can say that hasn't already been said. The need is tremendous, and will be ongoing. We are aware of a few projects some photographers have undertaken to help those who have been effected by this crisis. They are listed below. If you know of any other photographers raising money to help please let us know and we will highlight them here.

Death Of A Marine: AP Releases Graphic Photos From Afghanistan Ambush

2009-09-04T12:12:00.000-05:00

NEW YORK, NY (September 4, 2009) – Associated Press photographer Julie Jones, caught in a fire fight with U.S. Marines who were pursuing Taliban fighters in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan, captured graphic photos of a Marine being mortally wounded by rocket fire during a dusk ambush last month.

The Associated Press released the photographs as part of a package yesterday after what it called long deliberations by their editors and a meeting with the dead Marine's parents. The pictures were embargoed until today to give editors "time to consider publication, a graphic image showing the Marine being assisted by his fellow Marines."

Jones was embedded with Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard's unit in Afghanistan, along with an AP reporter and an AP Television News cameraman. She was close by, crouching by a wall with Marines as they came under fire from Taliban fighters who were hiding in an orchard, when a rocket propelled grenade struck Bernard. The 21-year-old Marine from Portland, ME, was severely injured, a leg nearly severed, and bleeding profusely.

Using a telephoto lens from a distance, and not interfering with the Marines who came to Bernard's assistance, Jones photographed the action in the growing dusk of night as the battle raged on. Bernard was evacuated from the scene as the fire fight continued and after several other RPG attacks, the fighting ended. When the Marines returned to base, the medivac helicopter carrying Bernard was just departing for a field hospital. The Marines learned later that night that Bernard died during surgery at the hospital.

An audio slideshow of Jones' images and her narration of the fire fight and her own experience is online here, published online as a package by the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

To read the entire article click here

Image credit:
Julie Jones-AP

How Could This Happen to Annie Leibovitz?

2009-08-20T00:03:00.000-05:00

The $24 million question.

By Andrew Goldman

Annie Leibovitz clearly hated what a lifetime-achievement award implied about her—that the best days of her 40-year career were behind her. “Photography is not something you retire from,” the 59-year-old Leibovitz said from the stage, accepting the honor from the International Center of Photography last May at Pier 60. She was turned out in a simple black dress and glasses, her long straight hair a little unruly, as usual. Photographers, she said, “live to a very old age” and “work until the end.” She noted that Lartigue lived to be 92, Steichen 93, and Cartier-Bresson 94. “Irving Penn is going to be 92 next month, and he’s still working.” Then her tone turned rueful. “Seriously, though, this really is a big deal,” she said, hoisting her Infinity Award statuette, her voice quavering to the point where it seemed she might cry. “It means so much to me, you know, especially right now. It’s, it’s a very sweet award to get right now. I’m having some tough times right now, so … ”

Finished reading the article from New York magazine here.

Chuck Close opens Saturday at the Austin Museum of Art

2009-08-19T17:52:00.000-05:00

“A Couple of Ways of Doing Something: Photographs by Chuck Close, Poems by Bob Holman” organized by Aperture opens this Saturday August 22 at the Austin Museum of Art.

Chuck Close (born Monroe, Washington, 1940) is an internationally renowned American painter, printmaker, and photographer who has radically changed the definition of modern portraiture. In the 1960s, Close was among the earliest artists to use photography as the foundation of his painting, and one of the most influential. A Couple of Ways of Doing Something focuses on explorations since 2001, presenting a stunning collection of portraits in dramatically different formats and scales. Subjects include his influential circle of artist colleagues who have made regular appearances in his paintings over the years—Laurie Anderson, Cecily Brown, Gregory Crewdson, Ellen Gallagher, Philip Glass, Elizabeth Peyton, Andres Serrano, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, and Kiki Smith, to name a few, as well as Chuck Close himself. The exhibition features 15 daguerreotypes, which Close used as the base to create the other works in the show—20 digital pigment prints, 7 tapestries, and 2 photogravures. Lyrical praise poems by New York School poet Bob Holman accompany many of the portraits. Holman, a celebrated and widely published New York School poet, originated and hosted the famous Poetry Slams at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe (1988–96) and now runs the Bowery Poetry Club. Collectively, A Couple of Ways of Doing Something is a challenging exploration of photographic techniques and processes that transcends any one medium.

The exhibition features 15 daguerreotypes, measuring 10 x 8 inches. Invented in 1839, the daguerreotype is among the oldest photographic processes and is renowned for the detail and depth of its rendering. It captures a direct positive image on a metal plate, usually copper coated with silver. Because of the way it refracts light, it must be viewed at the proper angle in order for the image to be visible; Oliver Wendell Holmes, an early writer on photography, called it “a mirror with a memory.” Close explained, “The thing I love about daguerreotypes is that everything I love in photography was already there in the beginning—1840. The incredible detail. The incredible range, from the brightest highlight of white, sometimes solarized, almost bluish in color, to the deepest, deepest darkest, most velvety blacks. I love the fact that, as opposed to so many photographs that are painting-sized, which thirty people can stand in front of, each daguerreotype requires the active participation of one viewer. It’s intimate, one-on-one personal.” Over the course of two years, Close worked with daguerreotype master Jerry Spagnoli to conquer the complexities of this process, which yields images of astonishing detail and gravity. As individual portraits, each image offers an intimate and revealing study of the subject, extending the hyperrealist tradition of portraiture for which Close is renowned.

The exhibition features seven 8-by-6-foot digital Jacquard portrait tapestries based on the daguerreotypes. Close first became interested in tapestries as a medium for portraiture when the artist Sol LeWitt brought back contemporary examples from China in the 1970s. Intrigued by how the individual strands could be woven together to comprise an image, Close began working with Chinese tapestry manufacturers in the 1990s. The advent of the digital Jacquard loom opened the possibility of more precise
translation of images into threads, and in 2006, Close began a collaboration with Magnolia Editions of Oakland, California, and their weavers in Belgium. A digital scan of the original is rendered into a computer program for the warp and weft threads, which the loom then processes into a tapestry. Each black-and-white tapestry is actually composed of up to 17,800 colored warp threads.

The exhibition features 20 digital pigment prints paired with poetry. Daguerreotypes, which are one-of-a-kind images, were scanned directly on a flatbed scanner. The high-resolution digital copy with great tonal fidelity could be enlarged to many times the size of the original daguerreotype and outputted in ink without significant loss of visual information. The exhibition’s 26 1/2-by-20-inch inkjet pigment prints, made on an Epson 9600 printer, have a tactile richness daguerreotypes cannot achieve and a precision that eludes most photographic reproductions. They represent a marriage between the nineteenth-century technology of capturing light and the twenty-first-century technology of mechanical reproduction. Holman’s accompanying poems are concise, witty, and beautifully typeset to reflect the personality and style of each person portrayed. The free cell phone audio guide created for the exhibition presents a reading by Bob Holman of the poems he composed. With the counterpoint of Holman’s engaging poetry, as well as the works in other media, the exhibition becomes a transfixing group portrait that explores the idea of the “art circle” and its importance to an artist’s work and life.

The exhibition features two photogravures measuring over 47 x 40 inches. Invented in 1869, the photogravure process was the earliest method used to widely distribute photographic imagery. It consists of etching a photographic image onto a metal plate, which is then inked and printed. Although he was intrigued by the idea of translating his photographs into prints, Close found most photogravures tonally flat or extreme in their contrasts. These problems were overcome in his recent collaboration with the University of South Florida Printstudio. The photogravures were created by a meticulous process of etching and re-etching to bring out the full depth and tonal range of the original images.

Information borrowed with permission from AMOA.

MEMBERS’ OPENING RECEPTION
AMOA-Downtown
Friday, August 21, 6-9 pm
Be the first to see the show and then enjoy complimentary light bites, cocktails and live music. Not a member?
Don’t worry! Join online now at amoa.org or at the door that evening!

AUSTIN RESPONDS
Director’s Tour
Saturday, August 22, 3 pm
Join AMOA Executive Director Dana Friis-Hansen for a gallery walk-through tour to discuss the art on view.

Film: Portrait of Close’s Creative Circle
Thursday, September 10, 7 pm
Artist Chuck Close redefined contemporary portraiture. In her film Chuck Close, director Marion Cajori examines
the appeal of the human face by interviewing the artist and his circle of creative friends, including Philip Glass,
Robert Rauschenberg, and Kiki Smith. Film introduction by Austin photographer George Krause.

Poetry Reading by Dean Young
Thursday, October 1, 7 pm
Poet Dean Young reads his new and published work. Largely influenced by the New York School of poets, Young
combines aspects of experimentation and surrealism. His Elegy on Toy Piano (2005) was a finalist for the Pulitzer
Prize for Poetry.

Slide Lecture: Realism of Low Resolution
Thursday, November 5, 7 pm
Art historian Richard Shiff will put the portraits of Chuck Close in context with the slide lecture Realism of
Low Resolution: Chuck Close (and Others).

Public Tours
Every Saturday, 2 pm

Photographers Needed!

2009-08-14T21:22:00.000-05:00

BD would like to extend its gratitude to all those who attended James Nachtwey's exhibition on XDR-TB (extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis) at this year's LOOK3, Festival of the Photograph.

BD is a medical technology company that serves health care institutions, life science researchers, clinical laboratories, industry and the general public.

By all measures the exhibit was truly a success. A special thank you to those who packed the room to participate in Saturday morning's discussion "How Can Photography Improve the World's Health?"

BD's search continues for like-minded individuals who feel their work in photography can help raise awareness of global health issues.

If you're interested in potentially being selected to work on assignment for BD (or maybe you already have an existing, relevant body of work), please go to here and fill out the short form for consideration.

Daniel Cooney Artist Auction

2009-08-14T14:23:00.001-05:00

Daniel Cooney's "Late Summer Emerging Artist Auction" is going on now through September 2nd. Works are priced at $200.00.

Artists include:
Samantha Cohn, June Glasson, Mikael Kennedy, Toni Pepe, Rafael Soldi, Sarah Sudhoff, Grant Willing among others.

Image credit:
Sarah Sudhoff
Cowboys and Indians (2008)

Worldwide Photography Gala Awards

2009-08-14T11:42:00.000-05:00

Call for Entries

The Worldwide Photography Gala Awards (WPGA) is open to all photographers, professionals, amateurs and students from all countries. They will be competing in six thematic categories, for the Photographer of the Year Award and Humanitarian Documentary Grant.

CATEGORIES

Images may be submitted online to any or all of the following 6 categories in color or black and white, as either digital or traditional images, or a blend of both.

1. Portrait: People and Figure
2. Fine Art
3. Landscape and Cityscape
4. Abstract
5. Digital Enhanced
6. Documentary, including Reportage & Photojournalism

Volunteer Opportunity for Austin Photographer

2009-08-09T22:51:00.002-05:00

Guy Monroe and his Mission Possible team is doing an historic workshop in one of central Texas' toughest counties on Saturday, August 15th.

The court in Williamson County has invited Guy and his team to do a motivational workshop for teens at risk similar to one he offered in Travis County last year.

Guy is looking for a volunteer photographer who is interested in taking pictures during the workshop. The workshop will be held at the library in Taylor.

Guy has offered to provide a ride to and from Austin if necessary.

To learn more, please contact Guy directly:

Phone: 512-554-8771
E-mail: mailto:Guy@GuyMonroe.com
Web: http://www.GuyMonroe.com

CapMac Meeting with Eli Reed

2009-08-09T22:21:00.002-05:00

ACP Advisory Board member, UT instructor, and Magnum Photos photographer Eli Reed is the guest of the Capitol Macintosh Advanced Photography SIG (Special Interest Group) on Thursday, August 27th.

Topic: Renowned Photographer Eli Reed

SIG Leader: Alex Suarez (alexsuarez@mac.com)

Location: Episcopal Church of the Resurrection - Parish Hall - (6:30 PM - 8:30 PM)

Web Site: Austin's Premier Macintosh User's Group

An Unlikely Weapon -- The Eddie Adams Story

2009-08-02T22:05:00.000-05:00

1/500th of a second to get the shot… a lifetime to forget it. Eddie Adams photographed 13 wars, 6 American Presidents, and virtually every cultural and historical figure of the last 50 years. History would be changed through his lens. But the photo that made Eddie famous would haunt him for his entire life.

A new film opens July 31.

See the trailer here.

Q&A with Collaborative Team Tribble & Mancenido

2009-07-28T20:17:00.001-05:00

If you haven't yet seen the recent show at the Houston Center for Photography the exhibition runs through August 23rd. I happened to attend the opening and was thrilled to meet another collaborative photographic team known as Tribble & Mancenido.

They were kind enough to answer a few questions about their work on view at HCP, Hurry Up & Wait, and the lengths they went to in order to make this project a reality.

Hurry Up & Wait is an ongoing collection of images exploring the obscure and anonymous life of America’s trucking culture. Driving for a year in our own tractor-trailer, we focus on the banal repetition and periods of isolation from constant movement on the road. These images are a byproduct of the world we entered and a glimpse of the places eighteen-wheelers are allowed. We are constantly faced with the same landscape regardless of location, from moments of obliged waiting in truck stops to the docks of a warehouse. This is where we photograph. We showcase the openness of the road and the lonesome journey of the driver, hoping our images bring new light to the harsh beauty in the world of a truck driver.

1)How did you come up with/decide on the trucking project?

While visiting James’ father, an owner-operating truck driver (owns his own rig) in South Carolina, we had the opportunity to meet some of his trucker friends. We became interested in their stories, that culture and lifestyle, one commonly full of misconceptions and stereotypes. We started with a portrait of his father and the series grew from there.

2)Did you always plan to become truckers for the project or did that come about later?

Our initial idea was to take portraits of truckers by driving around to different truck stops throughout the country. Upon further deliberation and research, we were afraid our images would come short of fully understanding and commenting on the culture at large. We wanted a more intimate approach.

3)What were you working on before this series?

Pillow Talk is an ongoing series that began as a result of our new relationship in love and art. It is a body of work exploring intimacy and shared spaces, a reflection into our own lives and desires for human connection. Images from this series were recently featured in The New York Times.

4)What are you working on now?

Hurry Up & Wait is currently an ongoing series, one we plan to continue over the course of the next year. We have dedicated a full year driving in our own rig, employed to transport consumer products all over this vast country. Fully immersing ourselves in the culture, we now choose to proceed with the series on our own terms, without the obligation of on-time and long haul deliveries.

5)Did anything surprise you while working on this series?

As a truck driver, nothing can surprise you. We’ve almost seen and heard it all!

6)Did any new projects present themselves while living on the road or that were inspired by this series?

Winnebago’s, mobile homes, and RV’s have always fascinated us. The idea of leisurely living off the freedom of the road, and having provisional communities that support it interests us most. During the spring and summer seasons we saw them driving alongside us on the interstate and fueling in adjacent islands, jealous they get to stop and enjoy themselves at their next destination. Driving one of those would be effortless after driving a tractor-trailer, but for now we’ll stick to eighteen wheels.

7)What does your ideal exhibition look like?

For an ideal exhibition of Hurry Up & Wait, we wish to invite the viewer to step into the world of a driver. Our 40x50” (perhaps even larger) prints would reflect the colossal world of trucking. We would like to incorporate audio with this exhibition, using multi-media to transport the viewer into a different world within gallery walls. Throughout the space we hope to loop a recording of the humming of idling truck engines, a common and familiar sound found at truck stops, a lullaby that puts you and your truck to sleep. From our travels we have digitally recorded the cb conversations between truck drivers while on long and short-distance hauls. We plan to include several listening stations where viewers can listen to the broad conversations held on a cb, putting a voice to a face, and a culture of speech to this foreign world of commerce.

8) How do you feel working as a team? Do you discuss each shot or come together after a shoot to edit? What does you process look like?

We have been working collectively since 2006, our process hardly changing. Before each shot we generally discuss our ideas and explain to one another where we will be focusing and shooting first. Using both medium and large format film cameras, we dance around our sitters with tripods in hand, shooting in tandem. For our landscapes, we use one camera, each taking turns looking through the ground glass to make sure the image is framed right. Impartial to who pressed the button, we focus on the series as a whole when choosing a final image.

9)Do you ever work on solo projects? If so what?

For the past three years we have focused solely on our collaborative work, which doesn’t mean we never make images without one another. Our work constantly involves the need for conversation, a discourse about an image and ideas, before a series can form.

10)How do you fund your projects?
Like most young photographers, we are self-funding our own artistic pursuits. Difficult? Yes, very. Through truck driving we managed to purchase film. Our trucking company inadvertently sponsoring our project and life as OTR (over-the-road) truck drivers.

Image credits:
Moto Mart, Perryville, MO 2008
Nathaniel Baker, Rising Fawn, GA 2009

Otis Ike & Ivete Lucas

2009-07-17T08:58:00.002-05:00

For their second Austin installation OTIS IKE and Ivete Lucas present work culled from their experience embedded amongst Monterrey performers living in extreme poverty. Titled Libres y Lokas, the installation documents the lives of two distinct but perhaps inherently tied groups: lucha libre wrestlers and transgendered queens.

For many the figure of the Lucha is part and parcel of popular culture – brightly colored and flamboyant face masks parading on Univision. The performers documented by OTIS IKE are far away from such international fame. Instead of well-lit arenas these wrestlers spar in empty lots for a little money, which they funnel back into their art and use to buy more outfits and masks. In this context Lucha is a bloodsport, often resulting in extreme bodily harm. The stories of these men and women (and sometimes boys and girls) are fraught and often involve other per formative and marginal professions – many Luchas begin their careers as body-builders and/or strippers.

Opening reception: Saturday, August 1, 2009 at Domy Books, Austin
913 E Cesar Chavez, Austin, TX 78702
7-9pm, FREE ADMISSION

Exhibition runs August 1–September 3, 2009