thoughts on photography
Here is part of the reason I have been MIA from blogging. My first solo show will run from August 17th – October 10th, 2009 at the Suffolk University Art Gallery. I hope those of you in the Boston area can make it to the opening on September 17th. Needless to say, I can’t wait to see the work on the wall in a finished installation.
Singular Beauty
Curated by James Hull
Suffolk University Art Museum at NESAD
Opening Reception September 17th, 6-8:30pm
75 Arlington St, Boston MA
It was funny for me to read Joerg Colberg’s recent post on blogs, I myself have had a half-hearted post about the state of blogs lingering as an unfinished draft for some time. But not surprisingly with my current life, I never got around to posting it. My general feeling about photo blogs has been a bit negative lately–that is not against other people’s blogs, but towards the overly insular and self-contained universe that it created. While I think some incredible things came out of it, and I have made some real friendships, ultimately it was not satisfying the true need I had to be more engaged in the photo process with my peers. In fact, it started to feel like an impediment to my own creative process. The amount of energy and time that was going into Ground Glass, was sucking me a little dry–leaving very little time or energy to make pictures.
However after my recent experience of having a meaningful, engaged dialog with my peers in person, I left re-energized and brimming with ideas. In a way, not blogging has helped me finally really edit of my Singular Beauty work, it gave me time to finish my book and actually start sending out my mock-up, and it gave me time to make room for a new project. So as much as I loved blogging, I realized for me right now, I had to choose. And paying my bills and my own photo work has to come first. Followed by Women in Photography. There is not a whole lot left over after that. I wish I could be super woman, but sadly I am not.
But at the Young Curators New Ideas, II opening, I got into a conversation with two woman who are still actively blogging. I will admit I was a bit negative about the entire “blogoshpere,” but the next day I got a google alert and went to PalmAire, (WIPNYC artist) Tema Stauffer’s blog and realized that is it me that is currently experiencing blog exhaustion. Both Tema, and Tethered’s, Elizabeth Fleming, have really engaging, personal and intelligent posts. And other blog’s, like Horses Think, and Nina Corvallo’s blog, and others, have continued to be really great reads. I think at the heart of the blog, is the personal voice. For me, blogs that stay like personal online diaries, and have an certain intimacy and that focus on sharing information about a subject they truly love, work best. When blogs move into the professional media territory, they start to lose a bit of soul.
Once blogs become “professionalized,” to me they are less interesting. The internet is the great equalizer, it is a place where major news organizations compete with small individuals for market share and audience. Something that was impossible when you had to pay to publishing costs. So I understand the temptation to step up your game, but there are so many blogs now from the mainstream press, why not keep the individual blog more personal and less concerned with blog stats. Unless you want to become a mainstream media outlet, with advertising etc. Which, by the way, I am not against.
Yet blogs like PalmAire and Horses Think, remind of what a valuable part of the photo community a blog can be–and perhaps now that my first solo show is close to being completely framed and delivered to the gallery, I will again be drawn back to share some of the amazing things that have happened in the last few months. But until then, there are a lot of wonderful voices out there, you just need to find the ones you care enough to listen to.
If you have not heard about it already something exciting has been brewing in Chelsea. I think this is a very intelligent and positive way to respond to the current economic crisis, and I am involved with a similar effort to unite artists.
While the portfolio’s are bit outside of my budget, the portfolio reviews are an amazing opportunity and I am sure will sell out fast. I can say from personal experience that these reviews really can lead to things, even if it takes some time.
So take a look if you have a new project, just graduated school, or want to introduce your work to some of the best NY photo galleries. Also, I am very honored to be taking part in their first “Artist Salon” on September 26th. See all the info below, the Project 5’s press release:
Amador Gallery, ClampArt, Daniel Cooney Fine Art, Foley Gallery and Sasha Wolf Gallery are proud to announce their collaboration on a series of projects.
This unique cooperation between gallerists has grown from years of friendships and shared ambitions in the photography market. Reaching out to one another to create these new initiatives seemed like the next step for these 5 to collectively grow their shared ideals while maintaining their own distinguished programming.
The galleries, referred to here as, Project 5, will begin their collaboration with a portfolio of 5 images by 5 artists, one from each of the participating Project 5 galleries to be released on September 15. All images will be unique to the portfolio—made specifically by the participating artists for this project. The artists included are: Olaf Otto Becker from Amador, Jill Greenberg from ClampArt, Stuart O’Sullivan from Daniel Cooney, Thomas Allen from Foley Gallery and Guido Castagnoli from Sasha Wolf Gallery.
The portfolios will be released in an edition of 30, priced with new collectors in mind at $2500. Each print will be signed and numbered by the artist and the portfolio will be enclosed in a custom made clothbound case. The portfolio offers collectors the unique opportunity of starting a relationship with five different artists and galleries at the same time.
Additionally, Project 5 is introducing a series of Portfolio Reviews for artists who feel they would benefit from the valuable input of these gallerists’ expertise. The first Portfolio review will be Sunday, September 20th. Project 5 asks that artists send ten jpgs to projectfivecontact@gmail.com.
Another exciting collaboration will be a monthly series of Artist’s Salons that will alternate between Project 5’s galleries. The first Salon will be held at Daniel Cooney Fine Art on Saturday, September 26th at 3:00 p.m. and will feature four emerging artists presenting their latest bodies of work for a half hour each. Participating artists are Timothy Briner, Yola Monakhov, Jessica Dimmock, and Cara Phillips.
While I know I have been not blogging very much the last 3 or 4 months, I have been immersed in my own work, in Women in Photography and in my day job. While I miss you all very much and the blog community, I have had so many great things happening I have decided to be ok with letting the blog go a bit until I can redefine its next incarnation.
But just so you know how I am spending my time here are two of the things I am happily immersed in. More soon on my own work….
The loss of Polaroid has been pretty devastating to many photographers, it has had a big effect on my UV work, and I am still trying to figure out how to do it without type 54 or 55. So when they said they were doing a piece on the loss of Polaroid at work, I was immediately excited to do something.
We put together an online gallery of the incredibly varied work made by photographer’s who use the instant film. And we asked them to tell us why they chose to work with Polaroid or what made it special. This meant that I got to speak to Chuck Close and David Levinthal about working with the 20×24 camera and email with Philp Lorca di Corcia. Suffice to say, it was a fantastic experience. You can see the gallery and read the quotes now on newsweek.com.
And today a new WIPNYC show went up with Lynne Cohen. She has a new book out of all her color work, which is fantastic. This show is personally very exciting for me because Lynne is one of my favorite photographers. I will never forget a few months into what would become Singular Beauty, my photo teacher Joel Sternfled, looked at my empty spa room and said, “I think you should look at Lynne Cohen.” Of course after seeing her extraordinary work, I almost abandoned my entire project. But after some time and thought, her work made me realize how important conceptual framework is to a body of work, and I also began to see how despite the similar subject matter, how very different our approach and ultimate goals were.
If you have a chance check out her show here.
Lynne Cohen | Untitled (Submarines)
While I am sure you have all already seen it, Joerg Colberg is holding a fundraiser for his blog Conscientious. Blogs are indeed a labor of love, and Amy and I have certainly discovered from Women in Photography how demanding and time consuming they can be. And Joerg certainly treats his blog as a professional endeavour, all done for no compensation. The reality of internet advertising, is that if you have less than a 100,000 hits a day, you really are not going to make any money.
So, if you read his blog and can spare $5, $10, or $20+ dollars, it is a worthy cause indeed.
Some of you may know that last year, Singular Beauty, was the 1st runner-up in the themed book category of Blurb’s inaugural “Photography Book Now” contest. Last year’s contest had over 2000 entries and needless to say I was incredibly honored to have been chosen. The great thing about the Blurb contest is that they really make it into an event, for instance last year I flew out to San Francisco for the awards, and there was an entire day of excellent seminars about photo books followed by a formal award ceremony. And while yes, it was lovely to win, more importantly just by entering the contest, I was able to solidify what a photo book of my work should be that I am currently submitting to publishers.
One other great thing to come out of the award for me, was getting to meet Darius Himes, head judge of the contest, publisher of Radius Books, writer, photographer, and truly one of the nicest and smartest people in photography. So as this year’s contest is about to really kick off, (DEADLINE FOR ENTRY IS JULY 16TH) I thought it would be an ideal moment to interview Darius about the contest and about the state of the photo book in general.
1. First off Darius, let me just say your current blog post about the Photography Book Now contest is incredibly informative and very useful for anyone interested in making a photo book. I am particularly struck by your comments here:
A book, in general, is a very democratic and accessible vehicle to disseminate ideas, in the form of either text or images—two primary advantages are that books require no electricity and can be returned to again and again, unlike an exhibition, for instance, or the Internet.
Can you expand a bit on this? As you know there has been an explosion of internet magazines and photo sites/blogs, and the word most often used to differentiate them from the mainstream photo world is “democratic,” in that they are free and available to anyone with internet access. And truthfully, most sites have archives, so the images can be seen as long as the website stays up. So how to you see the photo book as more democratic than the internet?
DH: That’s a great question. Potentially, books are more accessible precisely because they don’t require any “interface”—a computer + electricity + Internet connection—to access their contents. I’m talking about books in general here, not just photobooks. I don’t have current figures at my fingertips, but I would assume that many hundreds of millions, if not billions of people, have no computer + electricity + Internet connections. But I’m not trying to set books against the Internet in this equation.
I think that when the word “democratic” is used in this context, we’re talking about the fact that there is direct access, by people like you and me and other image makers, to a means of expression that previously had fierce “goal-keepers” in the form of magazine and book editors. You couldn’t really be “published” in either of those formats without having the endorsement of an editor (and if you just paid for it yourself, you suffered the dreaded “vanity press” stigma).
So the Internet and this new print-on-demand technology does represent a “handing over” of the power to the people. That of course begs the question of the role of a good editor and the place of an endorsement by a publisher….
2. I ask this because obviously the print world, like film, is in danger of becoming obsolete. I think print books, however have a rosier future, but this is an important distinction to make, the experience of viewing images online versus in print. What do you think is the relevance of print books as a means of communication in the age of the internet?
DH: Another great question. First, the Internet is an amazing thing. Undeniably. Unbelievable access to information that the people of previous centuries would never have dreamed of. But somewhere deep in my gut sits the sense that because we are physical creatures, we still appreciate a physical object. The difference between printed text and printed images is that they generally serve different masters. Sometimes we just need information, and that information is conveyed through words or images. The Internet is great for that. Sometimes though the images (less so with words) are not about information as they are about the experience of viewing, and that involves a physical object. Here, the Internet falls short. Photography, because it is used for so many different intents, is very complicated in this regards. Sculptors don’t think about these issues. They make an object and then if you want to see that object, you have a limited number of options: either come to where the object is and gaze on it, or view it through a photographic representation (whether in a book, online, or in a magazine). End of story. It’s not so clear with photography.
3. Following up on that, you have a pretty strong web presence, do you think the web and print can actually co-exist and be mutually beneficial, or is print really being killed by the web as some might argue?
DH: The Internet is obviously a relatively new place for people to get news about their world and their surroundings. And it is undeniable that it is having an impact on the world of printed periodicals. But I think it is very dangerous for anyone in this day and age to become too “attached” to a commercial product. The commercial world is driven by market forces that are out of the control of any of us. Here’s another way of thinking about it: the daguerreotype was killed by the wet-plate collodion negative was killed by the dry-plate negative was killed by the tintype was killed by albumen prints was killed by nitrate film was killed by gelatin-silver film & paper was killed by Iris prints was killed by Epson was killed by …. You get the idea. I wrote an essay about this (which you can find here) as it relates to photographic materials and the really groovy work of Alison Rossiter.
I think that “killed” is the wrong word, because you can still make a daguerreotype if you really want, so it’s not dead. It’s just not a viable mass-market product. Magazines and newspapers are only a vehicle, in the end. They are a means (an “organ” in the old parlance). If they are the means, then what’s the “end”? The end is good, quality writing and journalism (+ news of the world, one’s industry, whatever). The periodical and book publishing industries are being reconfigured before our eyes and we get to play a role, if we think of it that way. This is the task of our generation! (Even though I may be too old, at this point. Perhaps it’s for the 20 yr olds to sort out).
4. If the web is a threat to publishing, what is the effect of on-demand publishing? Do you think there is a way for both business models to survive?
DH: l don’t think the web is a “threat” to “publishing”, though defining what we mean by “publishing” is required. Yes, things are changing because of the Internet (obviously), but that’s the nature of technology and the nature of the 20th/21st centuries. We’re actually seeing lots of small publishers—one- or two-person operations—flourishing, while we’re listening to large houses talk about the “death” of publishing as they know it.) So, from my perspective, I think that print-on-demand technology is another tool in the toolbox of an artist/writer.
5. One thing I have been thinking about lately now that I am taking my Photography Book Now winning book project to publishers, is the difference between a self-published book and a book done with a publisher. It seems like one of the benefits (or challenges) of working with a publisher is that the process is more of a collaboration. You get to work with an editor, a designer, and writers. When you make a self published book you tend to be the only voice present. Do you think collaboration is integral to making a successful photo book?
DH: Totally. Collaboration is essential, and being aware of all of the points along the way where collaboration *can* happen is important. Great collaboration can happen in conceiving the project and the aim of the book, in editing the photographs, in design, in the production and materials decisions that are made, in marketing the book, etc. In other words, there are lots of ways that collaboration can happen. Photographers that try to do all of those things singlehandedly often discover they’re not very good at one or some of those elements. Photographers often worry that they’ll “lose control”. But often they don’t have a clear idea of what type of book they want—from concept to audience to design—and they end up stifling the success of their book by trying to maintain what they think of as “control.” There’s nothing to stop a photographer from bringing all of those people into the mix, as freelancers, for their print-on-demand book, by the way.
6. As a follow up to the last question, in order to get your work published you obviously need to have a mock-up of some kind. Do you think contests like Photography Book Now, are a good way to test out your book and get the ball rolling? And of course if you win, $25,000 can help out with a lot of things.
DH: Exactly. For all those photographers that say they want a book of their photographs… well, bring it. Show us your best book.
7. One thing you mentioned last year in San Francisco at the awards event, was that you and the judges did not pick the winners based purely on photo quality. I think this is a very important caveat for artists to note. Can you talk a little about how a photo book is more than just a collection of good pictures? What about monographs, can they be structured more like a collection of prints that are bound or do they also need to be something more?
DH: Right. This is not a “photography” contest. This is a photography-book contest. The photography and the book elements carry equal weight. The judges will be looking at things like cover design, the subject matter of the book, the page layouts, the editing and sequencing, the emotional/intellectual/creative impact of the overall book, along with the strength of the photography itself. And the categories, as you can see from my own blog posting, are aimed at getting you thinking about books the way publishers think about books.
8. Getting specifically to the contest, you guys have had an amazing roster of judges both years, how did you get such a distinguished group to participate.
DH: I really credit the rising importance of art and photobooks for the reason that our judges want to be involved. Several of the judges have told me that they want to see what photographers are doing with this new creative medium.
9. The contest last year had a lot of great satellite events, will this year’s contests have more of the same?
DH: Yes, definitely. Keep checking here.
10. You must put an enormous amount of time and energy into this. What would you say you have learned, discovered, enjoyed, or been challenged by in this process? I ask this because I recently judged my first photo grant, the WIPNYC-Lightside Project Grant, and while I found it incredibly difficult to choose a winner, it was so gratifying to be able to give money to help another artist. It was quite a learning experience for me.
DH: Honestly, I just love the creative community. If you’re trying to work in the arts, you’re doing it because you love it. I love to be able to help and encourage photographers trying to pursue what they love. Plus, I love books + photography, so I wanna know what’s happening out there!
11. If you could give people applying one piece of advice for the contest, what would it be?
DH: Read my blog entry about the categories! :)
12. Lastly, you are out there is the photo world trenches. What right now is really exciting or interesting to you? What photo books are you looking at these days?
DH: Oh geez. Too many good books/publishers/photographers out there to list individually. I’m always thrilled to receive new Fraenkel Gallery announcements in the mail, and I’m pretty geeked out over the Google maps & timeline capabilities. I’m excited for the O’Sullivan show next Spring at the Smithsonian, and I’m kind of obsessed with John Gossage’s books right now. I’m also reading Titus Burckhardt essays on Islamic Art and “the Void” as well as looking at the work of Kandinsky, Augustus Vincent Tack, Mark Tobey, and Hiroshi Sugimoto in relation to each other and the presence of “the spiritual” in their work. And I’m trying to get some sun and desert hikes in amidst this very wet Santa Fe summer.
Darius Himes is a founding member of Radius Books, a non-profit, Santa Fe-based organization created in 2007 that publishes books on the visual arts, where he works as an acquiring editor. Prior to that he was the founding editor of photo-eye Booklist, a quarterly magazine devoted to photography books, from 2002-2007. He is also a lecturer, consultant, educator and writer, having contributed to Aperture, Blind Spot, Bookforum, BOMB, PDN, and American Photo. He earned his BFA in Photography from Arizona State University and a Master of Arts in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College and actively pursues his own photographic image-making. In 2008, he was named by PDN as one of fifteen of the most influential people in photo book publishing.
“Darius Himes, lost in the Midwest, thinking that Purple Rain was just about the coolest movie ever.”
I know I am not writing here much lately but currently life is taking up all of my time, making blogging a bit impossible. Also, I am rethinking what I want to do here. Ground Glass was amazing for me as I first entered the photo world, but now that I have I grown as an artist and in my career, the blog will need to evolve with me. And I am still figuring that out. Until I do, I will try to add content here and there that I find interesting and keep people updated on what I am doing.
And on the subject of blogging, I got a google alert recently that made me very happy.
The above was posted on “We Love You So” which to my great delight is a blog affiliated with film director Spike Jonze’s new movie Where the Wild Things Are. The blog has some really cool stuff on it, and Being John Malkovich is one of the all time greatest movies. So needless to say having any connection to Jonze is thrilling.
Also very exciting, Issue #19 “Wonder” of FOAM magazine is on newsstands now. I am incredibly flattered to have a short essay on Cindy Sherman in the “On My Mind” section. And in one of the wonderful twists of photo fate, my fantastic photo professor, Penelope Umbrico, is also in On My Mind, written about by Leslie Martin of Aperture Books. The issue has some very strong work including WIP’s recently featured artist: Jessica Backhaus.
And finally I recently discovered this book, Clinic through Facebook of all places, and cannot wait to order my copy. Of course the work is right up my alley, but I am so impressed by the way the book is structured, the choice of work and in general the idea of doing a themed photo book of this quality with a group of photographers. Look for the work of Peter Granser, Ville Lenkkeri, and Jacqueline Hassink in addition to the terrific found images. Grab it while it’s at this special price.
Tomorrow at Julie Saul Gallery
Brian Ulrich
5/28/09 6-8 pm opening reception
535 W 22nd St
Klingman’s Furniture, 2008 © Brian Ulrich
And check out Salzburg-based photographer and blogger, Andrew Phelps‘s special edition pre-release of his new book:
NOT NIIGATA, 2009
28×28 cm, hardbound
ca 112 pages
ca 50 color images
ca 40,- Euro
Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg
You can contact him directly to purchase. I have seen both the book dummy and the work, and it is a great edition to any photo library.
© Andrew Phelps – from NOT NIIGATA, 2009
NY Times launches photo blog… hmmmm…blogs are going mainstream.
I love the idea of photojournalism getting such a high-profile outlet. Let’s see what they do with it….
Brooklyn, New York
Artist-Publisher:
Mass Produced for Mass Dissemination
Panel Discussion
Thursday, May 14, 2009
5:00 pm
FREE with Festival Admission
New York Photo Festival
St. Ann’s Warehouse
38 Water Street
Brooklyn, New York
(718) 254-8779
The panel discussion series, Aperture Presents, premiers with acclaimed NYPH08 curator and Aperture publisher, Lesley A. Martin, moderating the discussion Artist-Publisher: Mass Produced for Mass Dissemination. Participants will include Jason Fulford and Leanne Shapton (J&L Books); Richard Renaldi (Charles Lane Press); and others to be announced.
Photographer Jacob Holdt Friday, May 15, at 3PM.
St Ann’s Warehouse.
We are pleased to announce the participation of the following artists in the ”New Documentations” Special Screening scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 16th at 8pm, in St. Ann’s Warehouse during the upcoming New York Photo Festival 2009. Many of the artists will be in attendance and will participate in a Q&A immediately following the screening. There will also be a panel discussion on Sunday, May 17th at 2pm, entitled ”New Documentations”, featuring many of the same artists. Tickets required.
Participating Artists in the “New Documentations” Special Screening are:
Robert Hornstra
A Special MediaStorm Presentation of “Driftless: Stories from Iowa” by Danny Wilcox-Frazier
and…
“Blogging and The Photography Community”
| May 15, 2009 | ||
| 11:00 am | to | 12:00 pm |
Joined by Jorg Colberg, this panel will include Cara Philips, Laurel Ptak, Andrew Hetherington and Brian Ulrich.
Note from Frank Evers – This panel promises an open-ended discussion on the current state of the blogging and the photography community, or what I lamely call the “photosphere”. If you think that you have any clue as to what is actually going on in photography today, then you will be hogging a seat from the early morn.
Audience participation is expected, so bring your brain.
Panel participants are:
Jorg Colberg – http://www.jmcolberg.com/weblog/
Cara Philips – https://caraphillips.wordpress.com/
Laurel Ptak – http://www.iheartphotograph.blogspot.com/
Andrew Hetherington – http://www.whatsthejackanory.com/
Brian Ulrich – http://www.notifbutwhen.com/NIBW/
Exciting artist discovery, Thorsten Brinkmann, show up in Berlin now…but watch out he is coming to America. Also, great book of his work published by Hanje Cantz.
New photo theory book: Photography After Frank
Aperture Event tonight
Photography After Frank: Essays by Philip Gefter Book Party and Signing
601 West 26th Street 15th Floor, Suite 1502
New York, New York (212) 592-2145
One more sign that process is far too important in contemporary photo practice. This cat recently had a solo show. So all you gallery owners who think work is interesting purely because of it’s fresh use of “technology” this ones for you! Meet Cooper, he applying for the next round of the Guggenheim’s.
The answer is finally found to how your cat really sees you.
The hidden inner life of your cat….
My good friend and fab photographer Tema Stauffer is one of several talented women on view tonight in the group show organized by the online blog project NYMPHOTO. I will be on a plane, but I those of you in town should stop by and take a look.
From NY Times
Dieting in the Torture Memos
In a footnote to a May 10, 2005, memorandum from the Office of Legal Council, the Bush attorney general’s office argued that restricting the caloric intake of terrorist suspects to 1,000 calories a day was medically safe because people in the United States were dieting along those lines voluntarily.
“While detainees subject to dietary manipulation are obviously situated differently from individuals who voluntarily engage in commercial weight-loss programs, we note that widely available commercial weight-loss programs in the United States employ diets of 1,000 kcal/day for sustained periods of weeks or longer without requiring medical supervision,” the footnote reads. “While we do not equate commercial weight loss programs and this interrogation technique, the fact that these calorie levels are used in the weight-loss programs, in our view, is instructive in evaluating the medical safety of the interrogation technique.”
There are so many things wrong with this, I cannot begin to discuss them all. But just the basic idea that our government would use the fact that Americans suffer from eating disorders as a justification for using starvation as a torture method is enough…..
It has been great to see a growing contemporary art scene in my hometown of Detroit. The Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit, CAID, is still developing a program, but they just launched their first online exhibit, Contact. I am happy to have work from my UV project included.
I know I have been MIA for a while, however sometimes life takes precedence over blogging. Once I am caught up, (which may be never!) hopefully I devote some more attention to GG. But I could not resist posting this work featured in today’s Times. I have one word: Jealous! I have been fantasising about doing still lifes in the machines at the airport that scan you bags at security. Well I missed my chance. Satre Stuelke, a former SVA art professor now in med school used CAT scan technology to capture children’s toys and small electronics. You can see more at his website.
I am pleased to announce that the WIPNYC – LIGHTSIDE Individual Project Grant is now open! You have until May 1st to do your online entry form. We invite all female photographers to apply who have a project that needs funding. Exhibitions, books, travel for shooting, film, equipment are all acceptable requests for funding. The online application is easy and the $20 entrance payable with paypal.
Good luck! And thanks to our generous sponsor Lightside & LTI, LTI is my lab of choice and Lightside does my framing. I can vouch for the excellence of both.
A special thanks to Humble Arts, and Amani Olu & Dalton Rooney for getting our redesigned site up and running.
I am very excited to have work from my Singular Beauty series featured on Newsweek.com. The photo gallery is accompanied by an essay that touches on my personal motivations for making the work.
Ground Glass 
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