Photography and Other Arts in Vienna
Vienna, as seen from the Upper Belvedere Museum
Last week was spent in Vienna (Austria), a city bursting with history and art, as well as home of culinary specialties including the infamous Wiener Schnitzel (no, it’s not a hot dog!).
The occasion was my participation in a workshop on curating, conducted by the enterprising and well-informed art historian Kristin Dittrich, who also happens to be the Founder and Director of the Shift School for Photography in Dresden, Germany. The location was the Anzenberger Gallery, a place known for its emphasis on contemporary photography as well as its special nurturing of photobooks through its affiliated store. All these subtopics would certainly merit separate articles, especially since the Shift School is the site of the complete Steidl Library with well over a thousand volumes, a unique contribution to the documentation and use of photobooks.
The workshop was a highly fascinating experience. Kristin knows how to combine theory with practice, as well as how to build in the experience of the participants at various points in the proceedings. Many hints on the process of curating exhibitions were included, as well as some practical exercises on how to sort topics, issues, styles, and images into an actual exhibit, along with a formal presentation and the fielding of audience responses. A museum visit (Kunst Haus Wien) and the Ostlicht Gallery and Library were also included. The Shift School is offering a variety of events and classes throughout the year, highly recommended!
Naturally, you can’t be in Vienna without visiting some other museums and cultural events. Highlights were Belvedere Castle with its Klimt exhibits, 18th century Messerschmidt facial selfie sculptures, and Klemens Brosch, who was a particularly gifted early 20th century creator of drawings that approximated photographic quality and moods, with a special bent for science fiction. Kafka’s Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung) at the intimate Pygmalion Theater provided a stunning tour-de-force performance by Philipp Kaplan as the stressed outsider figure.
Lest you fear that I was lacking other sustenance, I am including a soupscape, first photographed and subsequently consumed at Anzenberger Gallery, as well as an image of a slice of walnut cake, for your vicarious pleasure. Wahnsinn!
Gerhard Clausing
Anzenberger Gallery: Gilbert Garcin exhibit, “Life is a Theater” (through May 19, 2018)
Kristin Dittrich, Director of the Shift School of Photography in Dresden, teaching the curating workshops at Anzenberger Gallery in Vienna
Sketch/model for a photography exhibit on positive aspects of aging, “Hey, we are still around!” designed by Franziska Neidhart and Gerhard Clausing as part of the Shift School Curating Workshops
Kunst Haus Wien exhibit: “It’s not me, it’s a photograph” by Elina Brotherus (through August 19, 2018)
“It’s not me, it’s my shadow”: The viewer (GC) superimposed on the video projection by Elina Brotherus
An early example of selfies: one of Messerschmidt’s 60 facial grimace sculptures of himself (this one, about to sneeze), 1771-1783; Upper Belvedere Museum
Lower Belvedere Museum exhibit featuring the rediscovered Klemens Brosch (through June 3, 2018)
Klemens Brosch, “The Crocodile on the Moon Disk” – ca. 1912, property of Österreichisches Landesmuseum
Soupscape, observed and consumed at the curating workshop, taking care of the stomach
Vienna is famous for its cakes and pastries: Walnut Cake, Café L. Heiner, Vienna
All photographs © 2018 Gerhard Clausing
An Image in Honor of President’s Day
© 2017 Gerhard Clausing
After the last presidential election, I created the self-portrait above (with some distortion) to express my feelings. And isn’t that really the main purpose of photography and art in general?
While I have been a citizen of the United States for over 50 years and have great respect for this country and the office of the President, I have had great qualms ever since this last election campaign was underway. I feel that much of what we believe in has been seriously distorted. Surely we deserve better than such divisive tactics and insulting rhetoric? And now that the occupant of that office has engaged in many shenanigans for over a year, perhaps on a day like this we should ask ourselves if we are worthy of better representation: someone who does not get elected with the help of foreign propaganda and fake news, someone who does not want to spend our money on “walls,” someone who does not emphasize tax breaks for the super wealthy, someone who does not use the government to solicit business for his own family’s enterprises?
Your mileage may vary from mine. Please send your comments and images that express your own emotions and opinions, so we may have a lively exchange here! That is what a real photo exchange is all about.
Happy President’s Day!
Gerry
Happy New Year!
Wishing all our readers the very best of everything for 2018!
Most of all unlimited creativity!
The Editors
© 2017 Gerhard Clausing
Street Shooting Around the World – One Week Left to Submit!
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Lectures and Events at Medium Festival, Oct. 27-29 (discounted registration through Oct.15)
LA 66 ©John Gossage
Discover Medium’s 2017 Present Tense Lecturers
Medium is defined by an exceptional program of artist lectures—creative voices in the field who share their recent work and creative development with you. The 2017 lectures kick off with a Keynote Lecture by John Gossage on Oct. 27. John Gossage is a revered artist who got his start at the Leo Castelli Gallery (in a two-person show with Jasper Johns, no less)!
The weekend continues with lectures by Justyna Badach, Claudia Kunin, John Chiara, Christina Seely, and J. Grant Brittain. Discover their work on our website and pick up a Festival Pass today—discounted registration is available online through Oct. 15.
Meet Claudia Kunin on Oct. 28 at 11am
Claudia Kunin is a Los Angeles native who has maintained a career in photography for more than 30 years. Her recent work as a filmmaker involves her use of family photographs, which the artist meticulously animates into short films that tell haunting, evocative stories. In 3-D!
The artist will discuss her career and current work as part of Medium’s Present Tense lecture series at 11:00am on Sat., Oct. 28. Festival participants will be invited a free film screening with the artist at the Digital Gym beginning at 7:00pm. We’re honored to have Claudia Kunin’s lecture as part of the 2017 Festival.
© Claudia Kunin
Free Festival events and exhibitions!
Don’t miss the ongoing series of free events and exhibition receptions this fall. We kick things off with an exhibition by Morgan DeLuna, a participant in our Far Sight Mentorship program. The exhibition Morgan DeLuna: Phenotype opens at Subtext Gallery on Oct. 12. from 6-8pm. Additional free events include:
- FLASH! Pop-Up Shop, Oct. 26, 7-10pm, Lafayette Hotel
- Open Portfolio Walk with participating Portfolio Review photographers, Oct. 26, 7-10pm, Lafayette Hotel
- Book signing with John Gossage, Oct. 27, 8-10pm, Lafayette Hotel
- Size Matters exhibition reception, Oct. 28, 7-10pm, Helmuth Projects
Creating “Contact Sheets” Using Adobe Bridge and Photoshop
If you have wanted to create sheets that show sets of images in your folders or series, in order to print them like the “contact sheets” from analog times, this is fairly easy to do. Reasons for doing so might be that you want to keep a printed visual record of what’s in your project folders or project collections, or you might want to document possible sequences for presentations or for photo books, to name just some reasons for using this process.
Here’s an example that goes through six easy steps. You need to have both Bridge and Photoshop running on your computer. I am currently using Bridge CC 2017 and Photoshop CC 2017 on the PC, but this works similarly on the Mac and with older versions of the two programs as well.
Step 1: Open Bridge and open the folder that contains the files that you want to print on a sheet, in the right order. Here I am using a folder with twelve “Bodyscapes” files of mine as an example.
Step 2: From the menu, select Tools > Photoshop > Contact Sheet II.
Step 3: The “Contact Sheet II” window will be activated in Photoshop automatically:
Step 4: Select the size you want the pages to be. For instance, I usually use 8×10” for printing properly on 8.5×11” sheets.
Step 5: Select the number of columns and rows you want – 4×4 is a good place to start. Do not use filenames as captions unless you want them to be appearing.
Step 6: Hit the “OK” button, and BINGO! The contact sheets will appear in Photoshop as if by magic, in sequence, and can then be saved and/or printed.
And there’s my contact sheet for this folder!
Enjoy!
Gerry
ContactSheet-001.jpg:
We are now an official sponsor of the Medium Festival of Photography!
Thanks to the fine work of Douglas Stockdale (Publisher and Founder) and Gerhard Clausing (Editor), our
is now an official media sponsor of the Medium Festival of Photography!
More coverage will follow, stay tuned!
Reminder: Last Day to Submit to Size Matters at Medium!
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Two Current Exhibits – Laguna Art Museum and LACMA
Wanted to call your attention to two interesting current exhibits:
The Laguna (Beach) Art Museum is featuring an extensive exhibit on the California School of Fine Arts’ first decade (now San Francisco Art Institute). Includes work by Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and many others. Only through May 29. Some work by Hurrell is also on exhibit in a separate section. Saw it yesterday, well worth it!
Also, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), an extensive exhibit on Moholy-Nagy, through June 18.
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