John Divola – Medium festival Keynote speaker
from Dogs Chasing My Car in the Desert, ©John Divola
The Medium Festival has just announced their Keynote Speaker, who is photographer/artist John Divola, who will present the 7th annual Keynote Lecture on Fri., Oct. 19, 2018 in San Diego at the festival.
John Divola’s work combines ideas of performance, painting, photography, and land art into a career spanning nearly five decades. He currently lives and works in Riverside, CA. Divola works in photography, describing himself as exploring the landscape by looking for the edge between the abstract and the specific. He is a Professor in the art department at University of Riverside since 1988 and has published four books: Continuity, Isolated Houses, Dogs Chasing My Car In The Desert, and Three Acts.
More information on the Medium Festival, which runs October 18-21st in San Diego, CA can be found here.
For those who are interested in the Medium Portfolio Reviews, registration opens later this week on April 19-20. Last year these review slots disappeared fast. Just saying….
Cheers!
Report on the First Annual “Faculty, Member, and Alumni Exhibit” at LACP
Last night was the opening of the first annual “Faculty, Member, and Alumni (FMA) Exhibit,” which will run through May 18 at the Los Angeles Center of Photography (LACP).
It was a great occasion to catch up with friends and to see some of the latest work of folks that were included (we previously published a list of participants). Julia Dean exhibited an amazing new street image, “Noirish” (2018), as shown below. Douglas Stockdale showed the image “America” from his forthcoming book, Middle Ground /En Medio Tierra. The monochrome images by Eric Joseph and Sarah Hadley also stood out. I also enjoyed the Bosch Redux series by Lori Pond. Many other images also demonstrated a substantial amount of talent and energy.
I was very pleased to see a huge number of younger folks that showed an avid interest in the work shown. I would hope that next year a more theme-oriented exhibition would be planned to represent this talented group.
Gerhard Clausing
“Noirish” (2018) by Julia Dean
Douglas Stockdale with his image “America” from his forthcoming book
Work by Eric Joseph (upper left) and Sarah Hadley (right), and others
Sarah Hadley
All images © 2018 by Gerhard Clausing
Special MOPLA Event This Week: LOST ROLLS AMERICA Featured April 12-15
A special event sponsored by the project LOST ROLLS AMERICA will be featured this week as part of the 10th Month of Photography Los Angeles, to take place at the Line Hotel, April 12-15. I spent a bit of time familiarizing myself with the project and would like to share some of my thoughts.
Ron Haviv, well-known award-winning photographer, and Lauren Walsh, Director of NYU Gallatin’s Photojournalism Lab, are the forces behind the project. The idea was to solicit undeveloped film that might be hiding in people’s drawers, almost forgotten, but perhaps worthy of seeing the light of day. The deal was, you sent them your undeveloped roll of film, they had it developed by FujiFilm, and the finished images were then returned to you, with the option of incorporating one or two into the archive, after some questions regarding time, place, subject, and photographer’s reaction and memories evoked are answered. Here is the project’s original description:
Lost Rolls America is a national photo archive created by a democratized process: Anyone can submit their lost roll of film to the project for processing (the images must be at least 3 years old), and the images are subsequently returned to the originator. These contributors, who are members of the general public, are asked to select one image, answer several questions that are provided, and return it to the project for inclusion in the archive.
This photography project is the brainchild of Ron Haviv, Project Creator and Emmy-nominated, award winning photojournalist and co-founder of the photo agency VII, and Lauren Walsh, Project Director and Director of NYU Gallatin’s Photojournalism Lab. Her work focuses on the history of photography, contemporary visual culture, war reportage and journalistic ethics. Ron’s prior book, The Lost Rolls, was the jumping off point for this project.
Meanwhile, the archive has grown into several hundred images, and these can be studied along with the fascinating answers to the questions, on the website devoted to the project.
Here is the poster for this week’s event:
Studying the pictures in the collection is a great adventure into recent popular, “vernacular,” and even some professional lost photography. Forgotten places and people take on a mysterious aura: friends, relatives, and pets in long-forgotten moments of levity or seriousness remind all of us about the fleeting nature of life. Indeed, even experiments with fine art photography may be hidden among the undeveloped rolls still hidden in your closets or other places, as the images submitted by Melanie Chapman and Chris Jurgenson demonstrate. I leave it to you to find these and other images in the archives and to read the responses of the photographers who found the films. Not every ambiguous moment can be disambiguated! And yet, memories from our past, when shared, can become a part of our universal experience and help us understand our common concerns.
Gerhard Clausing
© Walker Sayen / Courtesy Lost Rolls America
Anne Olmstead (assumed), © Jeff Olmstead / Courtesy Lost Rolls America
© Melanie Chapman / Courtesy Lost Rolls America
© Chris Jurgenson / Courtesy Lost Rolls America
Palm Springs Photo Festival – Deadlines approaching
There are a number of events that occurring in conjunction with the Palm Springs Photo Festival (PSPF) this year.
This annual event for photographers occurs over the week of May 6th – 11th in Palm Springs, California.
Part of this event are the Portfolio Reviews with the registration occurring April 20th. That is when you will be able to select and prioritize your reviewer choices. After this date, usually only a few of the reviewers are still available. There will be some additional reviewers posted weekly until April 20th to the provisional listing.
PSPF Sponsors will offer 9 Special FREE Shooting Events during the festival week. Attendance is limited so sign up as soon as possible. Canon, Fuji, Leica & Pentax are all offering great free classes.
Another trade mark of PSPF are the intensive workshop classes that are offered through the week, which include; Virtual Reality for Still Photographers, Lightroom and Photoshop with Ben Willmore, Color Management and Digital Workflow with Mac Holbert, Reducing Unauthorized Usages of Your Images with Michael Grecco, The Creative Process with Mona Kuhn, Standing Out in a Saturated Market, Scanning Your Archive with Your DSLR, The Bottom Line with Ink-jet Papers, Writing Winning Grant Proposals, Securing Support for Your Personal Projects with Mary Virginia Swanson, Enhancing Your Creative Process, and Digital Asset Management.
There will be workshops by renown photographers inlcuding Dan Winters, Erwin Olaf, Debbie Fleming Caffery, Mark Edward Harris, Scott Frances, Art Streiber and Stephen Wilkes.
So check out their schedule, as it appears that there is something for every type of photography and photographer.
I plan to attend one day of this event, May 10th, so give me a shout-out to arrange a meet-up and discussion.
Cheers, Douglas Stockdale
Medium Photo Festival – Portfolio Review Registration opens on April 19-20
Medium Photo Festival, Portfolio review preparations, 2017 copyright Douglas Stockdale
The Portfolio Review registration for the 2018 Medium Festive opens April 19 -20 (click here)
The shout-out from Medium: So consider grabbing one of 65 spaces for the acclaimed Medium Festival Portfolio Reviews. Participating photographers meet with 8 reviewers from across the field of photography and consistently receive 90% of their top ranked reviewers—something few other review events can claim. Space is available on a first-come, first-served basis and will sell out quickly. They’ve posted a short list of our 2018 reviewers online to help you discover who can expand your career this fall.
If you are considering attending a Portfolio Review?
Each year Medium offers a two-hour workshop helping photographers plan properly for a portfolio review event. Join Medium on April 14 in San Diego as we explore the range of portfolio reviews available today. Whether you’re planning to attend Medium in October or another review, this workshop offers an opportunity to learn what you’ll need to successfully develop relationships with professionals from across the field.
Participants will have the opportunity to practice their presentation skills as part of the workshop. You will need to register for this two-hour workshop.
Roger Bennett – Center Gallery
Photo
Photographs copyright Roger Bennett
Roger Bennett will have a solo exhibition of his black and white landscape photographs at the Center Gallery, located at within the Downtown Anaheim Community Center. The Gallery address: at 250 E. Center Street, Anaheim, CA
The exhibition runs from April 22nd through June 18th, 2018.
The Opening Reception is Thursday, May 3rd, 2018 from 7pm to 8:30pm (see announcement below)
Roger is a long time member of the Photographers Exchange, a group of photographers and artists that meets monthly at the Irvine Fine Arts Center (IFAC). He has previously exhibited at the Festival of the Arts in Laguna Beach.
Cheers!
LACP’s First Annual “Faculty, Member and Alumni (FMA)” Exhibition – Opening Reception April 13
“America” – © Douglas Stockdale
Among others, the image “America” from Douglas Stockdale’s forthcoming self-published book Middle Ground will be featured in LACP’s First Annual “Faculty, Member and Alumni (FMA)” Exhibition at the Los Angeles Center of Photography. You are cordially invited!
Opening Reception: Friday, April 13, 7-10 pm
Shown through May 18
The exhibition features a collection of photography honoring the organization’s faculty, members and student alumni. 33 artists will be exhibiting their work, with a total of roughly 60 images on display. The exhibition will show at the Los Angeles Center of Photography in Hollywood, April 13 – May 18, 2018. The FMA will be an annual exhibition in the Spring of each year.
Exhibiting Faculty:
Aline Smithson, Art Streiber, Brad Buckman, Bonny Taylor, David Zentz, Douglas Stockdale, Eric Joseph, Erin Davis, Gabriella Muttone, Gina Valona, Jennifer Emery, Julia Dean, Kat Bawden, Michael Pliskin, Rollence Patugan, Sarah Hadley and Susan Burnstine.
Exhibiting Members:
Andy House, Jenna Mulhall-Brereton, John D. Elliott, Joshua Sarinana, Kathy Curtis Cahill, Kevin Weinstein, Lori Pond, Matthew Finley and Wendi Schneider
Exhibiting Alumni:
Amanda Rose, Brian Jung, Gila Silberman, Ilis Ruiz Cano, Jamie Siragusa, Sarah Rooney and Willie Mack
For further information and free admission tickets to the April 13 opening please click this link.
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
Jim McKinniss at SE Center for Photography
Iris, #2 copyright Jim McKinniss
The South East Center of Photography will be exhibiting their show The Still Life, which was curated by Kimberly Witham. We are excited that PhotoExchange member Jim McKinniss was juried in with two photographs, Iris #2, above, and Two Tulips, below.
I had a chance to talk to McKinniss recently about this still life series which came about when he had an opportunity to experiment in a photo studio. He brought with him some glass vases and a collection of flowers and then just played with the various combinations. What I note is that by placing the vases of flowers on a precarious edge of the support, he introduced a subtext of tension in which otherwise might appear as a tranquil subject.
The exhibition runs from April 13 thru May 19th, and the opening reception is April 13, 2018 from 6-8PM.
Juried into this exhibition and joining McKinniss are Hannah Arnette, Angie Pember Brockey, Susan Bryant, Jo Ann Chaus, Mihai Chebac, Robert Dutruch, William Earle,
Malcolm Easton, Vladimir Frumin, Daniel George, Nadide Goksun, Margaret Halaby, Jackie Heitchue, Gea Hogeveen, Susan Kott, Thomas Ladd, Carol Lawrence, Laura Malaterra, Lea Murphy, Katherine Richmond, Wilford Scott, Melissa Stewart, JP Terlizzi, Terry Towery, and Tina Weitz.
We have featured Jim McKinniss photographic work previously: represented by Collector Works
Cheers!
Report on Photobook Day at LACP Open House, March 17
Yesterday was a very exciting day at the Los Angeles Center of Photography (LACP) in Hollywood. During its Open House Weekend, March 17 emphasized photobooks.
The day started with a fascinating presentation by our own Douglas Stockdale. In covering the topic “Photobook Pre-Visualization,” he took the audience on a tour of his own book-publishing history, and shared some of the thoughts, trials, and tribulations behind each of several projects. Contrasting his commercially published volume Ciociaria with several projects in the self-publishing category (Bluewater Shore, Middle Ground), it was an apt demonstration how projects move from the conceptual stage to the finished product, and what all can happen in between. Doug especially emphasized the importance of the necessary haptic and visceral experience with physical “dummies” (maquettes), since you can change the format and sequence around as much as necessary until a satisfactory sample is arrived at. For his latest project, Middle Ground, he showed four stages of dummy preparation.
Dan Milnor, Creative Evangelist for Blurb, was next, with his presentation “Self-Publishing for Photographers: Blurb Books.” Here too the emphasis was on creativity and experimentation. Blurb provides a variety of tools and printing sizes and formats to fit any idea a photographer might have. Dan emphasized that potential photobook artists should dare to break out of the constraints of predictability and sameness. He encouraged each photographer to be “an interesting original human being” and to collaborate, especially with excellent designers. He then presented a range of photobooks, published by himself over time, as well as by others, showing multiple format ideas, and discussed some cost issues as well.
The third major event was a panel discussion on “How to Get Your Book Published.” With Douglas Stockdale as moderator, experiences were shared by Stephen Schafer (we will be reviewing his book here shortly), Cat Gwynn, Sarah Hadley, Dan Milnor, and Mark Edward Harris. Projects covered included, among others, photography in exotic locales, publishing offbeat projects, and the role of photography as a therapeutic experience.
In the vendor area, it was possible to check out products and services presented by ASMP-Los Angeles, Blurb, Canon, Dual Graphics, Fabrik Projects, Freestyle, Hahnemühle, and The Artist Corner. A portfolio and book walk by LACP members and presenters (shown above), as well as raffle prize drawings, rounded out the afternoon. The day was also enhanced by food and refreshments facilitated by the one and only Julia Dean (Executive Director), Brandon Gannon, and other dedicated staff members and assistants. Thank you to all — it was a lovely and productive day!
Gerhard Clausing
Douglas Stockdale, explaining one of the dummy stages of Middle Ground
Dan Milnor, Blurb Creative Evangelist
Panel Discussion: D. Stockdale with Stephen Schafer, Cat Gwynn discussing Ten-Mile Radius, and Sarah Hadley
Sarah Hadley discussing her project about Venice, with Dan Milnor
Dan Milnor listening to Mark Edward Harris
Photography is about sharing!
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