photo-eye 2011 Staff Show

Cropped images shown above by Allison Ramirez, Anne Kelly, Antone Dolezal, Cliff Shapiro, Melanie McWhorter and Sarah Bradley, respectively

The 3rd Annual Staff Show

Photographs and other works by Allison Ramirez, Anne Kelly, Antone Dolezal, Cliff Shapiro, Melanie McWhorter and Sarah Bradley.

Opening Friday, December 16th, 4:30-7:00 pm
On Display through February 4th, 2012
At photo-eye Bookstore, 370 Garcia Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501

A reception and opening party will be held Friday, December 16th from 4:30 to 7 pm at photo-eye Bookstore. This year’s exhibition will feature photographs, drawings, masks and other mixed media formats by photo-eye Bookstore and Gallery staff. Artist and staff members featured are Allison Ramirez, Anne Kelly, Antone Dolezal, Cliff Shapiro, Melanie McWhorter and Sarah Bradley.

Contact Melanie McWhorter (505.988.5152 x112) for more information.

Come visit us if in Santa Fe!

Adventures in China: Lishui Photo Festival

Read a brief post on some of my experience for Lishui 14th International Photography Festival in China on photo-eye's Blog. 


For more reading from some of my humorous travel companions, visit Jennifer Schwartz's entries Taking China by Storm, Day... I have no idea what day it is in China, Holgas, hikes and holes, Back to Shanghai or And the China Adventure Comes to an End or Michael Sebastian's blog.

Access2Editors

I am one of the editors to be selected for the new portfolio review website Access2Editors. Access2Editors will help people prepare for a more successful review experience...finalize sequencing, get feedback on a statement, etc. Access2Editors is partnering with CENTER's annual competitions leading up to Review Santa Fe. The prizes are listed on the respective pages for CENTER's The Project Launch Award and The Project Competition Award. More info on Access2Editors can be found by visiting the site.

 

Postcards By My Desk: McNair Evans

McNair Evans is from my world-- both the American South and, of course, photography. He is a southern gentleman and being the small photo world as it is, we have some friends in common who still live and practice the art in South Carolina and surrounding states. His photos bring to mind the slow living in this area of the United States. He captures quite moments that could be almost anywhere, but are undeniably Southern. His card with the image from the project and zine, A Journal of Southern History, make me pine for my homeland every day (even though I simply think I am too cosmopolitan, I am a country girl at heart). Many of his images are taken in the winter months, with leaves falling off the deciduous trees and the kudzu even relenting for a while. The fading light that falls over most of the images giving them a glow and light falls on its subjects who for a time can forget the unrelenting heat of the hot summer months. There is an ease and comfortable feeling to his photos that epitomize the lifestyle of this region. This project and others can be found on his website and blog.

Postcard of image by McNair Evans

Back of postcard by McNair Evans

McNair Evans' zine, A Journal of Southern History

copyright McNair Evans

copyright McNair Evans

Postcards By My Desk: An Artist Feature

I have been trying to think of a creative way to promote the artist I like. Like is such a good, simple word even if Facebook has usurped its meaning. I feel a connection and a warm feeling when looking at the work whatever the subject matter-- comforting or disturbing. I finally just started looking around my desk. At work, I hang up family pictures, phone lists, drawings but also postcards with images or projects that I do not want to forget. Despite the fact that I recycle almost every item I can, I still love the consumption of paper products for images, and of course books. I confess I love letters and postcards, and as many of my personal friends and family will note, I do not send them enough. I love to get them in the mail. It might harken back to my brief time in college in England when I would run down every day to see if there was a card or package on the table for me. If a box arrived, I was delighted to get my next shipment of grits from South Carolina. Most of all, I looked from cards that said love Mama, Dad and Mama Jo. There is something comforting about holding that paper in your hands and reading the words that a special person chose to write to you. Thus my love for paper, images and written word continues. 

Postcard, Nadine Boughton

Back side postcard, Nadine Boughton (complete with Scotch tape)

I meet many artists at portfolio reviews and I attempt to contain all the faces, personalities and images in my head. It is an overwhelming task especially for a feeble brain with horrible memory retention. Although many cards that I get at the event and as a follow up do not contain special notes or the signing off with a closing such as "Love, reviewee", I still want to keep them because of an image contained on the front. At Photolucida 2010, I met Nadine Boughton. Boughton's work incorporates images that she appropriated from men's adventure magazines from mid-century. The women are shown in as bosom bearing, sexy seductresses often in need of rescue and the men are often fighting off other men or some sort of wild beast, but most of the action is set in a domestic setting like you would see on the set of The Brady Bunch. Although Nadine and I may be of a different generation, the work makes me think of the days playing with our Barbie and Ken dolls calling them names like Samantha and Todd and dreaming up scenarios where we are often the damsel in need of rescue from distress. I just look at Boughton's photo and say "fight that jaguar, honey". You can do it. Boughton creatively uses images from suburban cultural history to bring to attention to how these male/female roles have or have not changed today. 

Fraction Magazine Holiday Print (and Book) Sale 2011

For a few years now, Fraction Magazine has been hosting a Holiday Print Sale to benefit the artists whose work has been show on Fraction. Many artists also choose to donate back to Fraction to keep this online magazine up and running as a valuable contribution to the online photography community. This year there are also a few book/book and print choices including the ones by Susan Burnstine and Paula McCartney shown below. Scroll through the many prints at Fraction Magazine and find many gifts for under $100 and a new Paypal option this year makes it even easier to purchase the print or book of your choice.

Paula McCartney's On Thin Ice, In a Blizzard offset printed artist book $25

Geoffrey Ellis, Luggage Cart, Jakarta, print edition of 9, 8x12 in / 9x13 paper Fuji Crystal Archive C-Print, $100

Lex Thompson, Breaking Wave, print edition of 100, 8x10 in C-print,  $25

Susan Burnstine, Within Shadows, Susan Burnstine. Book & Print set (select from 3 prints, edition 50 each: Threshold, Circuitous and ...When?), $150.00

Jennifer Schwartz Gallery and Crusade for Collecting

Atlanta-based gallerist and photographer Jennifer Schwartz is leaving on a crusade, a Crusade for Collecting. Much lighter in mission and less dangerous than the crusades of long ago, Schwartz is on a mission to encourage people of broad income levels to collect art, art that makes your life richer, and she is so dedicated to this mission that she is taking the message on the road. With the launch of The Ten, Schwartz is using some proven, yet expanded, methods to promote her artists and to put these artists' works in the hands of collectors for as little as $250 per print. The images from The Ten can not be collected anywhere else. Schwartz also promotes many women in her mission including the work of Kathleen Robbins, Lori Vrba, Elizabeth Fleming, Jennifer Shaw and Heidi Lender. The Kickstarter crowdfunding project is set to expire on December 1st and Schwartz needs all of the goal of $15,000 to start the project.

Find out more about Crusade for Collecting or to donate, visit the Kickstarter crowdfunding page, The Ten's website or for a bit more entertainment, visit Schwartz's blog.

There are still some great benefits still remaining as of today with your pledge of a certain dollar amount including a book and print by Jennifer Shaw (one left for $100 or more) and two one-of-a-kind 4x5 inch tintypes by Fritz Liedtke (one shown below).

copyright Fritz Liedtke

Review Santa Fe Recovery

Although I love to travel to other cities for portfolio reviews and art festivals, I feel privileged to live in a city that hosts Review Santa Fe, one of the most prestigious reviews in the world. When Review takes place in Santa Fe in June, the air is cool in the evenings and the days are often pleasant even with the unusually small amount of humidity in the air. This year's portfolios and awards were selected by a prominent jury which Elizabeth Avedon details in La Lettre de la Photographie (Avedon also details many of the event's festivities and other info can be found on CENTER's site). Although all the photographers are listed on CENTER's site, I wanted to point out the work of those who I had the pleasure meeting with one-on-one. Here are the links to the artists presented in order of appearance at the table. 

Jared Soares from Martinsville

Donna J. Wan from Promised Lands

Lauren Lancaster from Playing Normal

Jesse & Jason Pearson from Iron Sites in the Round

Ejen Chuang, Cosplay in America

Jesse & Jason Pearson, Iron Sites in the Round

Christopher Capozziello, The Distance Between Us

Laura Noel, Smoke Break

Haruhiko Kawaguchi aka Photographer Hal, Couple Jam

William Rugen, Western Dioramas

Christopher Dawson, Coverage

Laura El-Tantawy, I'll Die For You: suicide in rural India

Ayala Gazit, Was it a Dream

Donna J. Wan, Promised Lands

Jared Soares, On The Block: Hip Hop Culture in Small Town Virginia

Matt Slaby, Black Tide

Yolanda del Amo, Archipelago

Lauren Lancaster, Playing Normal

Michelle Given, Accommodations

Mark Peterman, Masonry: A Way of Life

Aaron Blum, Born and Raised: Reflections of a World Set Aside

Gregg Segal, State of the Union

Ahorn Magazine and Photo Radio

Liz Cohen, Bodywork. Michael Schmelling, Atlanta, James Mollison with Rainbow Nelson, The Memory of Pablo Escobar

My essay The Punctuation of Photobooks in Ahorn Magazine was published upon the release of Ahorn's newest issue. Check out the article along with interviews with Cuny Janssen and Jocelyn Lee, a conversation with Ron Jude and Ed Panar, and book reviews by Nicholas Gottlund and Adam Bell for Foreclosure by Taro Hirano and Jason Fulford's The Mushroom Collector, respectively.

My interview by Lauren Henkin on Photo Radio as part of her interview series from Photolucida. The interviews that have been released as of today are Aline Smithson, Cat Gwynn David Bram The interviews yet to come include:

Reviewer Susan Spiritus, Susan Spiritus Gallery
Reviewer Kevin Miller, Southeast Museum of Photography
Photographer Christopher Churchill, Amesbury, Massachusetts
Photographer Kirk Crippens, San Francisco, California
Photographer Michael Borek, Washington, DC
Photographer Rania Matar, Boston, Massachusetts

You can email Lauren Henkin to find out about updates to the Photo Radio Blog and contact Ahorn Magazine to join their mailing list.