Manon DePauw - Discovery of the Week

Just read about the work of this artist on e-flux, and then made my way to her website.  Worth a look around, for sure.  Click HERE to read the e-flux review for her current exhibition, and click HERE to view the artist's website.

From e-flux:  "If Manon De Pauw explores the appearing of the image—with its measure of unpredictability, suspended materiality, narrative potential and motion—it is because much of her work is produced in the darkroom or the shadows of the studio. She has the ability to latch onto this fragile breath of the image as it emerges under the effect of light, recording its luminous fluidity to create the tangible body of the image that asserts itself before our eyes."

Manon De Pauw, ”L’apprentie 2,” 2008.  Collection of art pieces from l’Université du Québec à Montréal.

Sarah Charlesworth - Available Light @ Susan Inglett

Sad to have missed this one....

From the Press Release:  "Light, in both a physical and metaphysical sense, is at the center of this new body of work from Sarah Charlesworth. Making use of a crystal ball, an assortment of prisms, and other optical instruments, Charlesworth engages the play of light from her studio window as it reflects and refracts to conjure a mysterious animated presence. At various turns our expectations are questioned and confounded by optical inversions and visual illusions. Composed images of spectral phenomena are shown side by side with documentary style images of the studio. Props arrayed on a desk and studio materials leaning against a wall hint at the show in progress. Individually and as a group these images lay bare the act of photography as they simultaneously mask and unmask the conditions of their creation. As test shots pinned to the wall mature into finished works, there is no neutral or objective point of closure, only the shifting perspectives of the observer and the observed. The making and the taking of a photograph is indistinguishable as each work celebrates the act of seeing."

Click HERE to see more images from the exhibition.

Image Credit:  Susan Inglett Gallery

Doug Aitken @ Hirshorn, Part II

Dout Aitken @ The Hirshorn

Man!  I only hope that my art history colleagues got a chance to see this while they were in DC last weekend.  This is phenomenal.  To see it person must be mesmerizing.  A blurb from the Hirshorn is below, and you can read the full content HERE.  Read a review of the work from the Washington Post by clicking HERE.

Image Credit:  The Washington Post

From the Hirshorn website
Doug Aitken: SONG 1
March 22, 2012 to May 13, 2012

Sunset to Midnight

For nearly eight weeks this spring, internationally renowned artist Doug Aitken (American, b. Redondo Beach, California, 1968; lives and works in Los Angeles and New York) will illuminate the entire facade of the Hirshhorn’s iconic building, transforming it into “liquid architecture” and an urban soundscape. Using eleven high-definition video projectors, Aitken will seamlessly blend imagery to envelop the Museum's exterior, creating a work that redefines cinematic space. A bold commission that will enter the Hirshhorn's permanent collection and enliven its public space, "SONG 1" allows visitors to the National Mall a chance to witness the first-ever work of 360-degree convex-screen cinema.

This work, which Aitken considers “a reflection of contemporary reality,” will alter the relationship between the museum building and its urban environment. “The building is at times emphasized and at times disappears completely into the content of the artwork,” he writes. At these latter moments, the structure recedes into cinematic space, rotating, rising and evolving into new forms.

Suspension - Screen Exhibition

Too bad this is all the way over, or down, in Perth.  Click HERE to read a nice synopsis from Daily Serving.

Sam Smith, 'Into the Void', 2009, single channel HD video, 5:50 minutes

Some thoughts on Cindy Sherman @ MOMA (and other things) by Joerg Colberg

Colberg brings up some important points in his discussion of the current Cindy Sherman show @ MOMA.  He also posits that "at museums photography is over" - and he might be right.  Photo II students, I encourage you to read over the essay as it relates nicely to this week's reading on considerations of photography "on and off the white walls".   Click HERE to read the full essay.

Cindy Sherman. Untitled #466. 2008. Chromogenic color print, 8' 1 1/8 x 63 15/16" (246.7 x 162.4 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Acquired through the generosity of Robert B. Menschel in honor of Jerry I. Speyer. © 2011 Cindy Sherman

Interview with Ed Kashi on NYT Lens

Click HERE to read an interview with visiting artist, Ed Kashi, about his newly released book from Nazraeli Press, Witness Number 8: Photojournalisms.

You can also listen to an interesting interview with Kashi about his process in selecting, editing and arranging the photographs in his book Three.  Click HERE to view images and hear the interview.

Image Credit:  Ed Kashi

Interview with Gregory Halpern

Another interesting read that should help some of you in Photo II think about further developing and editing your current projects.  As Halpern says, be rebellious, work hard and try to surprise yourselves - great advice!

A link to the article is HERE.

Image Credit:  Gregory Halpern

Sarah Palmer Wins Aperture Portfolio Prize

Beautiful, thoughtful work.  In her editorial statement, Lesley A. Martin of Aperture writes,  

"Sarah Palmer’s series As a Real House is rife with partially submerged tripwires that unsettle the usual process of reading a photograph. Each image contains something—an element or the juxtaposition of elements—that works to trigger an internal pattern-recognition scan of mental databases, in hopes of locking their meaning into recognizable form.  In today’s ecology of signs, a passing jet plane functions on par with the proverbial lonely seagull. Palmer’s work accomplishes a careful balancing act, giving the viewer enough to feel the currents of meaning underneath the surface of each image, yet leaving enough up in the air so as to withhold a quick and easy read. One is left with the sense that the key to whatever it is that the artist has intended to conjure is left intentionally, tantalizingly just out of reach."

You can view more of Palmer's work on her website, by clicking HERE.

Image Credit:  Sarah Palmer (Gulls the first sign of land)

Francesca Woodman @ The Guggenheim

Nice little review of this recently opened exhibition at the Guggenheim.  Sadly, I just missed the opening.  A perfect reason to return.

Read the article from the New York Times HERE.

Image Credit:  Francesca Woodman "Untitled, Providence, Rhode Island, 1976,"

DLK Review of Paul Graham @ Pace

This review provides a solid and thoughtful description of Graham's current show at Pace, and should give the reader a good sense of what Graham is up to with this work.  As I mentioned in class, it's absolutely phenomenal to see in person and was really important (for me) to fully experience the work in this way.  Of course, I couldn't disagree more with the suggestion that these photographs are "disposable and boring".  I was completely enthralled with the subtleties of what was captured and, to me, Graham's skillful attention to the inherently dramatic light pouring down between the buildings onto the streets and sidewalks made these images anything but boring.  Five stars from me.  The best thing I saw in New York all week.

Click HERE to read the full review.

Image Credit:  DLK Collection Blog

Who Needs Actual Bodies Anyway?

No big surprise here - H&M Admits It Pasted Models Heads on CGI Bodies.  Click HERE to read the little article.

Above image from theverge.com

Some Thoughts on Editing and Sequencing - by Harvey Benge

Below is a link to what I'm sure will be incredibly useful information to any of you struggling with how to create a cohesive and thoughtful series of images.  Although Benge is discussing the editing and sequencing of books in particular, the information also includes useful strategies for editing a body of work, or a series in general.  Photo II students and others working on an edit, I highly recommend you look this over.  Link to the post HERE.

Image Credit:  Harvey Benge
The Workprints

Still Searching - New Photography Discussion Blog

Found this one today while perusing other blogs via Google Reader.  Recently launched, this blog "aims to be a continually growing and developing Internet discourse on the medium of photography that features a multitude of participants; it is conceived as an online debate on forms of photographic production, techniques, applications, distribution strategies, contexts, theoretical foundations, ontology and perspectives on the medium. It explores photography’s role as a seminal visual medium of our time—as art, as a communication and information tool in the context of social media or photojournalism, and as a form of scientific or legal evidence. This discourse will be conducted by theorists, critics, educators, enthusiasts, users and also photographers. Still Searching is moderated by the Fotomuseum Winterthur and located on its website."


Above content from Still Searching blog.  Click HERE to access the site.

Brian Ulrich - Is This Place Great or What: Artifacts and Photographs @ Julie Saul in NYC

From the gallery website, "This show takes a final look back at the last decade and puts America’s retail apparatus in a post-war, historical context. Ulrich will juxtapose his work with various artifacts from an earlier time- selections from a large archive that Ulrich has amassed concurrently with his photographic project."

Click HERE to find out more about the exhibition (which opens March 22 in NYC) and view more images.

Brian Ulrich

Chicago, IL, 2007

pigmented ink print

26 x 20" edition of 4

Time Machine Magazine

Just discovered this new(ish) publication out of Australia.  I've enjoyed looking over the current issue, which you can link to HERE.  They've also got a fantastic links page, which you can link to HERE.