SoCal PhotoExchange

The Medium Festival of Photography in San Diego is one of the most delightful and productive photography events in Southern California, with many useful activities, as we have reported several times, such as our impressions and experiences at the 2017 and 2016 Medium Festivals, along with announcements in between.

This year, the Keynote Speaker was John Divola, whose lecture encompassed many examples of his work, beginning with the 1970s. Particularly interesting was his performance art applied to abandoned buildings, which, once photographed, became new art, with some of it subjected to further enhancements; work at abandoned military installations, fierce encounters with dogs in the desert, and experiments with color and light in many locations were further fascinating photographic adventures presented in an appealing and forthright manner by this local luminary, a professor at UC Riverside. He also did a book signing of his 2018 volume Vandalism:

The Executive Director, scott b. davis, introduces the keynote speaker

John Divola delivering his keynote presentation and signing his latest book, with Douglas Stockdale

At the Gym Standard in North Park, San Diego, the Paris Photo/Aperture PhotoBook Exhibition was a great opportunity to examine a number of outstanding photobooks first-hand. The following four books stood out to me as particularly noteworthy; I am showing a double-page spread from each, right below each bit of information:

Karoline Hjorth and Riitta Ikonen, Eyes as Big as Plates (Oslo: Forlaget Press, 2017), covering the role of the elderly in society, presented in nature:

Mayumi Suzuki, The Restoration Will  (Self-published, Tokyo, 2017), dealing with the loss of her parents in the tsunami of 2011:

Senta Simond, Rayon Vert (Self-published, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2017), an especially innovative approach to depicting the human face and form:

Debi Cornwall, Welcome to Camp America, Inside Guantánamo Bay (Santa Fe, NM: Radius. 2017), a comprehensive approach to detention:

Thanks again, Medium Festival, scott b. davis and team!