Those two dark walls back there are a never before seen collabo with me and Busta. Just beyond the glass from where he sits will hang a lightbox of the same image. Come to the artist talk on the 16th or the reception on the 23rd to see the results (Taken with Instagram at Caporale/Bleicher)
“I’m a stand-off photographer. I don’t like a lot of interaction with a subject. This is work I can do on my own. I’m not as comfortable shooting people at this time. I rarely photograph people I don’t know. That is why I’m always in abandoned places.” - J Bennett Fitts
Now every kid out of school has a camera and a computer that displays a histogram that instantly evaluates the proper exposure for the image in question. In light of these great tools, I see very few photographers who can create images that in my opinion are worth considering. It is only those Photographers who have ideas and vision that make great pictures. Technical expertise is not the passport to the land of great images; without the idea you have nothing.
A few weeks ago, I received an email from Review Santa Fe alerting me my project was on a waiting list. Oh cool, I thought. I actually made it closer to the Review and promptly forgot about it. With at least 100 other folks on the waiting list, my chances could easily be none. And I suppose years of working in photography where jobs can suddenly disappear, I learn not to count on anything until confirmation.
Then I got accepted.
I was flabbergasted to say the least. I've never pursued a fine art career. If you look at my history, you'll see working at PIX, photo assistant and photographer. If you looked at my CV, it lists only one show in 2009 - where a friend ran a small bookstore/gallery in downtown Los Angeles and gave me space. At that time, it seems to be the calm before the storm. After that show, I started traveling to conventions to photograph for my project. I self-financed printing of the book in Shanghai via means of credit cards and bank loans. I figured if Kevin Smith can make his first movie on loans, credit cards and donations, then I can easily make a book.
Boy, was I wrong (but that's for another story....)
In 2010 I started traveling to promote the book through grass roots means as well as using social media which definitely help put me on the map for the market I was in. I'm currently still traveling but this year bringing my photo set-up to continue to take photos. In Jan. 2011, I attended photo LA and checked out Review LA's portfolio review open to the public. On a suggestion of a volunteer, I decided to submit Review Santa Fe. Fast forward 2 months and now I stand here looking at the acceptance email.
For years, I've heard of portfolio review events as well as the comments from those for and against paying for a review. My last portfolio review was in a college in 1997 and I doubt that counts. For Review Santa Fe, I figured I'll give it a shot. And as my friend Monica told me, it is an opportunity that I should take advantage of.
For the next two months leading up to the Review in June 2011, I'll be keeping y'all up to date with my experiences and what I'm doing to prepare and I hope some of y'all out there will find the information useful. Dang, this is gonna be a wild ride :)
The promise of sunshine, escape, and opportunity have long made Los Angeles a Mecca where people come to find and live their dreams. For the last century, the allure of Hollywood’s glamour and glitz and the chance for yet-to-be discovered stardom have inspired countless hopefuls to pack their bags and head west. The attraction of blue skies and sunny days, the scent of orange blossoms mixed with ocean breezes, and the prospect of starting over have defined life in Southern California for decades. But once here, dreams become elusive, morphing into the unexpected. What’s behind the velvet curtain isn’t always the yellow brick road.
A&I and MOPLA present Large Format Printing: Big Images, Big Opportunities. Breakthroughs in large format printing technologies have made this an affordable and attractive option for photographers seeking to sell their work to new markets. Find out what kind of images work in large format, tips for printing on canvas and the new substrates available, and how you can break into the market for large format work.
Humble is recognized as a keen observer of Los Angeles and was one of eight photographers awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to chronicle the city on its bicentennial.... Humble made a series of extensive trips, staying primarily on smaller country roads...these American pictures are about insights in juxtaposition; aged and vacant storefronts sit beside gaudy drive-thrus, hand-painted religious billboards stand in empty fields, as do newly constructed, box-like churches that look more like concrete-slab industrial parks. As a counterpoint to Humble’s photographs of Middle America, he will concurrently present a series of photographs of Venice Beach. As the artist describes it, “there is no place in the world like the tawdry three-ring circus of Venice…electric guitar players on rollerblades, marijuana doctors, tarot readers, muscle builders, tattoo shops, drug addicts, entertainers, and people speaking every language under the sun.”
These anonymous, sometimes featureless structures and locations exclude people but at the same time show the effect of human occupation and interaction. Like Baltz, Seltzer isolates his subjects, creating a head-on, cold and detached Kubrickian symmetry. Seltzer allows us to see beauty in the everyday and shows us order in the ordinary and mundane that we take for granted.
...a collection of portfolios developed by Silas during the past decade. The series began serendipitously, when a small sparrow fell dead on the sidewalk at the artist’s feet. Silas documents with patient and focused resolve the irreversible transition from being to matter. Revealing aspects of decay and transformation, death and renewal, Silas simultaneously examines the continuum and resilience of life, self-consciously enlisting her photographs to do what photography does best — mining the medium’s ability to expose exactly what existed in front of the lens — conveying the unique fragility of sentient beings and their inevitable loss.
In order for Roth to create his photograph, he takes hundreds of digital pictures of one location or subject. He then creates an image that incorporates various elements from the hundreds of digital images and seamlessly recomposing them in a constructed image that more closely resembles what was seen by the naked eye. Roth creates idealized spatial concepts that rely on radically manipulating perspectives, axes, sizes and proportions.
Carmichael Gallery is pleased to announce Martha Cooper: Remix, an expansive group show featuring highlights from Martha Cooper’s photographic archive and works by over 50 artists who have created their own unique interpretations of her iconic, historically significant imagery. There will be an opening reception for the exhibition on Saturday, April 9 from 6 to 8pm with Martha Cooper and several of the participating artists in attendance. The exhibition will run through May 7, 2011.
Mark Moore Gallery presents the opening reception for Josh Azzarella's photographic and video works to date. Including a combination of manipulated photos, video and projection, "Works 2004-2011" explores Azzarella's developments in practice, technique and content –and culminates with the debut of his seminal "Untitled #105 (SFDF)" multi-channel video installation.
Scapes is a unique dialog of photography and painting and a reconciliation of contemporary and traditional aesthetic. Many of the photographers employ approaches more common to painters as can be seen in the churning mist of colors drifting over Jeff Alu's haunting barren scenes, while some painters such as Michelle Nielsen attempt to capture frozen moments in an environment more common to photographic approaches. David Skinner will for the first time combine elements of his sought after rural California scenes with his introspective personal series.
\"ALT to the ALT\" is an XXX-themed art event showcasing the top movers and porn directors within the Alt Porn industry through their photography and art. Featured artists: Eon McKai, Carlos Batts, Courtney Trouble, Bob Coulter, Kimberly Kane, Steak Mtn. Curated by Rae Threat
This show includes an eclectic mix of facial and full body portraiture with elemental mixed media. Featuring the works of 9 amazing artists, About Face puts a new twist on conventional photographic works – incorporating mixed media with traditional photographic portraiture. Featured artists include: Aline Smithson, Anna Stump, Franklin Londin, Pascal Giacomini, Paula Kayne, Stéphane Tourné, Ted Meyer, Wahb Mabkhout, and Tim Sabatino.
Mr. Musichead Gallery presents the opening of Glen Wexler's conceptual album covers and musician portraits from over a 30 year range (1978 to 2010). Portraits include Michael Jackson, ZZ Top, Chaka Kahn and Herbie Hancock. Album covers include projects for Van Halen, Black Sabbath, Rush and Missing Persons.
ON|PAUSE (MOPLA) in association with PRETTYBIRD and KENTcollective present "The Edge." This is an exhibition and fundraiser for Communities in Schools. Their mission is to surround students with a community of support, empower them to stay in school and achieve in life.
PRETTYBIRD photographers included in the exhibit are: Mark Anderson, Rick Chapman, Jeremy Goldberg, Justin Harder, Joe Hill, John Huba, Max Malkin, Mike McGill, Michael Miller, David Prince, Jen Rosenstein, and Chris Stanford.
All prints are available for sale in a fundraiser silent auction to benefit Communities in Schools.
Photojournalism and editorial photography has changed substantially with the digital age. Magazines and newspapers still publish on paper but what about digital formats on phones, websites and tablets? A panelist of photographers, an editor, and a news agency owner will talk about how the photojournalism world has changed and what factors remain the same.
Panelists include Jeremiah Bogert (photo editor, LA Times), Catherine Ledner (photographer), Michael Robinson Chavez (photographer, LA Times), Melissa Golden (photographer), Brian Frank (photographer), Scott McKiernan (owner of Zuma Press).
Topics include:
- Multimedia and video has entered the picture, but what does it take to produce?
- Non-fiction photography can lead to commercial jobs, but how does that work -
when it does work?
- What's happening to licensing, and what are photographers expected to deliver?
- What has changed for editors? For agencies? For publishers?
- What about non-profits? NGOs? Self-financed projects?
- Are the old days really, really gone, and are the new days already here?
I walk for hours and hours each day when I visit a place. I enjoy getting to experience and connect with the urban landscape, and raise the camera as I feel compelled. In time, I return to these places through pictures, weeks or even years later. A particular image catches my eye and the adventure begins again. I travel inward this time, and study its bits of shadow and light, and find a new excitement about that moment, a possibility I had not seen before.
Our April speaker is Michelle McIlroy, Southwest Territory Manager for Lomographic Corp. Lomography. She is responsible for opening up retail locations in the Southwest Region of the United States and managing the wholesale and online presence for her territory. Michelle will be talking about the past, present and future of Lomographic Corp.
CreativeMornings is a monthly morning gathering of creative types. Each event includes a 20 minute lecture, followed by a 20 minute group discussion. The gathering begins at 8:30am with the topic presentation starting at 9:00am and everyone taking off for work at 10am. CreativeMornings are free of charge! LosAngeles is now the third chapter and joins Zurich + NewYork / CreativeMornings. The LosAngeles/CreativeMornings chapter is run by Jon Setzen
“Set against a backdrop of poverty, crime, and the hemisphere’s longest running civil war, nowhere are the contests more ubiquitous and revered than in Colombia. In these carefully scripted shows of fantasy, beauty as a concept, commodity and singular goal is stripped to its raw elements. There is no ambiguity or pretense that anything else matters.
The queens are celebrities. Many of the roughly 400 contests a year can shut down a small town for days as thousands jam plazas and parade routes for a glimpse of them. Icons of a rigidly defined ideal, the contestants highlight the conflated relationship between beauty and attraction. Many of them seem familiar, stirring recollections of the same perfect features seen elsewhere, along with the identical flirtatious laughter, mock surprise and relentless optimism. In their quest for adoration, they erase all traces of individuality.”
You can learn lighting and other technical expertise in school, or assisting someone who knows what they’re doing. But the way you see things is unique to your background, how you were brought up, what your mother taught you, and being around people who have a sense of humor and irony. Why does Jim Nachtwey only take pictures of the dramatic, difficult part of life in a way that’s so compelling? Why does Elliott Erwitt shoot pictures that make you laugh? It’s because that’s how they see it. I don’t know how you could teach somebody to be funny if they’re not. It’s a natural gift for the most part, and if you are lucky you will discover that you have that gift. I think you’ve either got it or you don’t.
I hope people can look at the work and see things that remind them of their relationships with their own families. I think the concepts at play are universal; raising and supporting a family, the effect of time on people and their relationships, the loss of family members.
This image was one of my assignments for school. I was thinking about my culture, my people and all the new situations in Iran. With the new political movement in Iran, people have come to realize the dire situation in Iran. It makes me so disappointed and angry when I see how the government has killed inocent young generations, who just want a little bit freedom and democracy. To me, this image represents the Iranian people now. In my country, Iran, you are not allowed to talk about many subjects; people become strangers in their own homeland. Everything is became taboo in the government's eyes. People should be quiet and try to not mention what they see or understand. Now, we can see that there are more people who want to say or show their disagreement with government, but they are destroyed, prisoned and executed. This image is symbolic of one Iranian girl with the quotidian outfit in the streets. I wanted to give the impression that she was kind of immigrating with the background and the green tone is representative of the green movement in Iran. - Fate *
"The iPhone IS a simple, limited, almost awful camera, which is part of its great allure for me personally. I also love the apps we use to manipulate the images. Every iphonographer has a "toolkit" of apps he or she favors. The images we see are not manipulated as those in advertisements, or fashion magazines, or playboy, to sell something, but rather to bring out the greater truth of the image for the artist - and this is where, as much as the initial shot, the artist's personality emerges. The rule for the show (and our website) is no manipulation on a computer. It is a mistake, though an easy one to make, to compare iPhontography to traditional photography. It is a new medium, which begins with the photographic process."-Curator Knox Bronson
Sound unseen: KCRW’s Visual Diary in Print and Projections as told by Stephen Laufer and Larry Hirshowitz.
Bergamot photo hop: Robert Berman, dnj Gallery, Frank Pictures Gallery, Gallery Luisotti, Peter Fetterman and Rose Gallery.
Clark|Oshin Gallery presents an exhibition of photographs by Marjoria Salvaterra.
A special projection by the Los Angeles Times and photographer Kiino Villand.
Here Willhide presents a cautionary tale about illusion in to Adrian Rodriguez, with love. The title is a dedication to the person who burglarized the artist’s home in the spring of 2010. He stole and erased the artist’s hard drive. In a twist of fate the computer was returned. Recovery software returned the artist’s digital images corrupted. Rather than attempting to recreate what was lost, Willhide made the bold move to work with the corrupted files. Treating the pixels more like paint, Willhide takes the corrupted image files and augments them. This accident as artwork offers the viewer a formal two for one—both abstraction and realism in the same picture plane.
Bleicher/Golightly Gallery present a gallery exhibition of contemporary photography and paintings in the landscape tradition. The exhibit features works that have strong roots in traditional landscape approaches, while pushing the genre into more subjective, conceptual and expressive territory.
