Things Are Strange Group Show

The opening of the group show Things are Strange, curated by Jon Feinstein, is tomorrow. The exhibit features images work from some very talented artists, including: Cara Phillips, Amy Stein, Eric Percher, Matthew Porter, William Lambson, and Hannah Whitaker to name a few.

New Century Artists
530 West 25th Street, Suite 406

Tuesday, November 4 – Saturday, November 15, 2008

OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, November 6, 2008 6PM – 9PM

There will be an informal after party starting at 9:30:

Black Door
127 W. 26th St.
212-645-0215

Nutopia Members Show

From Andrew Hetherington's blog, I learned about the Nutopia's Members show. To read about his experience with the Nutopia Forum, click here.

The Nutopia Forum is holding a one night only members show and all comers are welcome:

Thursday November 6

7.30pm - 10.00pm

K&M Studios

385 Broadway Third Floor

Bet Walker & White

BYOB

PDN Photoplus Expo Oct 23-25

The PDN Photoplus Expo begins tomorrow. Touted as The Most Important Event in Photography: October 23-25, 2008. Located at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City the show boasts a huge expo floor, hundreds of exhibitors, thousands of new products and a conference with over 100 seminars.

Here's the schedule:

Thursday, October 23
9am - 10am
Preview for Gold Expo Pass/Conference
Attendee Badge Holders only
10am - 5 pm
Exhibit Hall Open

Friday, October 24
9am - 10am
Preview for Gold Expo Pass/Conference
Attendee Badge Holders only
10am - 5pm
Exhibit Hall Open

Saturday, October 25
10am - 4pm
Exhibit Hall Open

Hope to see you all there!

Photography Book Now

Wednesday Oct 22

Blurb: Photography Book Now Symposium - A Primer on Publishing Photography Books

2.30pm - 6.30pm

New Museum

235 Bowery

This event is currently sold out but you can RSVP here to get on the wait list and also to see the attendee list

This will be followed by: Photography Book Now New York City Meet-Up

6.30pm - 8.30pm

also at The New Museum

RSVP here: there are still 68 spots available and as before you can see who has all ready RSVP’d to attend.

Upcoming ASMP events

OCT 20th THOMAS WERNER BUSINESS OF FINE ART

The Business of Fine Art Photography - Core Concepts by Thomas Werner Is the Fine Art Photography world a place for you? How do you analyze your work? How do you build a relationship with a gallery? And what happens when you get an exhibition? Thomas Werner presents this fast-paced seminar giving you insights into the fine art business world. It is critically important to develop multiple ways to promote and support your business. Thomas explains how creating and properly marketing a body of fine art work can help you achieve these goals.

Monday Oct 20
7-9pm
Location: Apple Store 767 5th Ave

OCT 21st, 2nd annual meet and great PPE warm up!!!

stop by to meet some of the vendors participating in ppe, along with fellow members, panelists, and the curious about asmp! FREE AND OPEN TO ALL, FOOD AND DRINK WILL BE SERVED!

we will be having a slide show of members work again, please email me your best one image for the projection, have your name in the image, preferrably against a neutral background at the lower right hand corner. send the files to me stephen@stephenmallon.com resolution - 1000x1000 pixels @ 72dpi, jpeg level 8. see my example up there? if its a vertical put the black on the vertical axis ONE IMAGE EACH ONE IMAGE ONLY!

Tuesday Oct 21
6-10pm
Location: Studio 385
385 Broadway, Suite 3F

OCT 25TH asmp national members meeting! All ASMP members are cordially invited to the annual member meeting on Saturday morning, October 25. The meeting is at Splashlight Studios at 535 West 35th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues - just half a block from the Javits Center. Door prize: The first 100 members to arrive will receive an ASMP-branded one-gig flash drive. Doors open at 8:30am (continental breakfast) 9 am - ASMP business session 10 am - speaker: Carolyn Potts, "21st-Century Marketing Tips for Photographers Who Weren't Born Yesterday" 11 am - speaker: Julieanne Kost, "Next Generation of Image Editing Software" 12 noon - adjourn

Art for Obama auction

A BENEFIT ART AUCTION ORGANIZED IN SUPPORT OF THE OBAMA/BIDEN CAMPAIGN

Bidding began at 5 pm on October 1st through October 8th. See all the donated works here.

I would love to bid on the photos above but have the reality of rent and groceries to deal with.

ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS OF THIS BENEFIT AUCTION, from the event website:

MISSION
ART FOR OBAMA is an online auction of photographs to benefit the Obama Campaign. Fifty of the country’s most prominent artists and photographers have donated their work for this cause. The auction will launch on October 1st and will run for one week. All proceeds from the auction will go to the Obama Campaign, to the Democratic National Committee and to non-profit organizations such as MoveOn.org, which are currently devoting their energy to helping the Obama campaign. Proceeds will be distributed in strict accordance with Federal Election Commission regulations.

WHO WE ARE
ART FOR OBAMA is a group of five artists who have come together to help the Obama campaign. Because we cannot afford to make large donations ourselves, we want to bring together the leaders of our community to help create change. We are all unpaid volunteers.

Deadline for Critical Mass

The deadline for Photolucida's Critical Mass is tonight and I just finished editing my entry. I submitted my most recent project Isolation/Identity and hope the portraits present a strong and cohesive body of work.

From Photolucida's Blog;

Introducing the Reviewer's Scrapbook!

Here in the States these days, it's hard to turn on the tv or radio without getting an earful about that particular day's political winners and losers. I suppose it makes sense when it comes to an election and one office up for grabs, but I worry that the competitive tone extends unnecessarily into the rest of the world. Here, for example, with Critical Mass.

One of our goals with Critical Mass is to emphasize its function as a resource and not necessarily a competition. The idea, from the beginning, was never about tabulating winners and losers, but to create a resource for contemporary art photography, allowing photographers from anywhere to get their work seen by editors, curators, and other people who actually use photography. Critical Mass was designed as a way to play matchmaker and then reward some of the photographers who everyone agrees are great with well-deserved monographs that automatically go into the collections of every single person involved. Ultimately though, it's not about the books, but about a process that allows everyone who enters to have a fair shot at having their work seen by people who actually use photography.

This year, in addition to the monographs, we've come up with an idea to celebrate the differences of opinion jurors may have by adding a "Reviewer's Scrapbook" section to our web site. This becomes a place where we can emphasize the individual tastes of select Reviewers. We've got lots of great reviewers but Laurel Ptak, for example, is going to have a significantly different list of favorites than Brooks Jensen, isn't she? The idea is simple- we're selecting 12 reviewers and inviting them to keep a folder on their desktop of their favorite images. After the voting has taken place, these images will then be turned into web slideshows, with one new slideshow coming out each month.

So far, invitations have been extended and are still coming in. Let's see, as of this moment, 86 hours before the deadline for Critical Mass entries, the following jurors have confirmed that they're willing to keep and share their scrapbooks:

Andy Adams, Flak Photo
Paul Buckley, Penguin Group
Roy Flukinger, Harry Ransom Center
Rob Haggart, APhotoEditor.com / APhotoFolio.com
Whitney Johnson, New Yorker Magazine

We'll keep you posted as more confirmations come in. I tell you, we're excited...

Isolation/Identity exhibit as part of Jersey City Studio Tour

I've been neglecting my poor blog as last week I had been preparing for my exhibit as part of the Jersey City Artists Studio Tour. From the Jersey Journal:

ART ON THE LOOSE

From barks to Barack, studio tour hosts variety

Monday, October 06, 2008

CHARLES HACK

JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

"With 600 registered artists showing at 90 venues, this year's Jersey City Artists Studio Tour held over the weekend was the largest in its 18-year history, Jersey City Art Curator Greg Brickey said.

Brickey estimated the tour, which attracted 10,000 visitors this year, has added 100 artists each year during the last four years.

"There is a whole new population of young hipsters here and a lot of them are artists and musicians," Brickey said.

Visitors to Van Vorst Park could pick up a portable radio from a desk and listen to a composition by sound artist Damian Catera.

Catera placed microphones around the park to pick up live sounds, such as people talking and dogs barking, and created his own music that was transmitted from one of three low power FM radio transmitters in the park.

At a former warehouse at 150 Bay St. in the Powerhouse Arts District residents threw open their double doors to their cavernous live/work loft spaces to show diverse works. For example, Canadian photographer Daphne Chan's portraits explore the feeling of isolation of her subjects and Cheryl Renee Riley's wall hangings and furniture are inspired by African art.

Brickey said some of the tour's highlights included the first exhibition at the Beacon complex of a sculpture curated by Jim Pustorino of the Victory Arts Project.

Another highlight was Jersey City artist Ron English's wall-sized exhibit "ABRAHAMOBAMA" that fuses the faces of Abraham Lincoln and presidential hopeful Barack Obama shown at the Canco lofts on Dey Street, he said."

About an hour before the studio tour ended on Sunday, a reporter stepped into my studio, perused the art, peppered me with questions while he frantically wrote in his notebook, then ran out. The whole thing took about two minutes. I wasn't sure what would come of that so thank you to Charles Hack for the shout out.

Participating in the tour was, as always, a great experience and this year was the best. It was the first time I had exhibited work from my project Isolation/Identity so I was curious and a little nervous about the reception it would receive. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive which was balm to my ears and made all the hard work worth it. When that feedback is accompanied by a sale, it's even better (and goes a long way to supporting and producing new work). You can never predict who will attend a studio tour so I was pleased to meet many artists, photographers and collectors. Hopefully some of those connections will lead to good opportunities so I'm crossing my fingers for now.

Women in Photography at Aperture

Tomorrow there's a panel discussion about Women in Photography at Aperture that I highly recommend.

Women In Photography
Spotlight

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
6:30 p.m.

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor
New York, New York
(212) 505-5555

Women In Photography is a new online venue showcasing work by contemporary female photographers and providing a vital platform for support and the exchange of ideas. Join WIP co-founders Cara Philips and Amy Elkins, alongside noted contributing photographers Robin Schwartz and Elinor Carucci, for lively discussion of their work and what it means to be a woman in photography today. Moderated by Laurel Ptak, Aperture's Educational Programs Manager.

Photolucida Critical Mass

From Photolucida, "The aim of Critical Mass, and all Photolucida programming, is to provide participants with career-building opportunities and to promote the best emerging and mid-career artists working today.

Critical Mass is a program about exposure and community. The idea is simple- photographers (from anywhere) submit a 10 image portfolio for $75. This work then gets pre-screened by a committee of 25 great jurors and from there, 175 top finalists are determined. These top finalists then pay an additional submission fee and their work goes on to a jury of approximately 200 of the world's best curators, editors, and professionals who have agreed to vote on these finalists. From these votes, two or three photographers receive book awards and once the monographs are published, everyone who enters and reviews will receive copies of the books."

Mary Virginia Swanson has some advice about entering:

"My best advice: submit 10 images that are coherent as a group. EDIT! Each image should add to the strength of the submission; don’t throw a curve ball into the submission, to show how broad your capabilities are… Carefully consider which image you elect to identify as “signature” from the submission, which will be used on the checklist we receive. If the selection of images you submit comes from a larger project or series, tell us. Provide us with titles. Write about your work with clarity."

Stripeman Gallery Call for Entry

Stripeman Gallery invites artists to submit work for the Kings and Queens group show, opening on October 10, 2008. This opening coincides with Second Fridays, the monthly program led by the Williamsburg Gallery Association to encourage visitors, where 36 galleries keep their doors open until 9 PM, or later.

Entries must be postmarked no later than tomorrow, Tuesday, September 23.

ETA: The deadline has been extended to Wednesday, October 1.

Rachel Hulin's new blog

The recent and regrettable demise of Photoshelter Collection also means the end of Rachel Hulin's clever and informative posts on Shoot!TheBlog. Here's an interview with her on Heather Morton's blog. I haven't had a chance to check out Rachel's new blog until now and I'm happy to see it has the same charm.

Jill Greenberg shows her version of John McCain

Then Jill Greenberg shot the version below for her website:

When The Atlantic called Jill Greenberg, a committed Democrat, to shoot a portrait of John McCain for its October cover, she rubbed her hands with glee.

She delivered the image the magazine asked for—a shot that makes the Republican presidential nominee look heroic. Greenberg is well known for her highly retouched images of bears and crying babies. But she didn’t bother to do much retouching on her McCain images. “I left his eyes red and his skin looking bad,” she says.

After getting that shot, Greenberg asked McCain to “please come over here” for one more set-up before the 15-minute shoot was over. There, she had a beauty dish with a modeling light set up. “That’s what he thought he was being lit by,” Greenberg says. “But that wasn’t firing.”

What was firing was a strobe positioned below him, which cast the horror movie shadows across his face and on the wall right behind him. “He had no idea he was being lit from below,” Greenberg says. And his handlers didn’t seem to notice it either. “I guess they’re not very sophisticated,” she adds.

The Atlantic didn’t select the diabolical looking McCain for its cover. Greenberg is hoping to license that image to some other magazine (she negotiated a two-week embargo with The Atlantic so she could re-license images from the shoot before the election).

Warned that the image is just the kind of thing that will stir up the anti-media vitriol in the conservative blogosphere, Greenberg said, “Good. I want to stir stuff up, but not to the point where I get audited if he becomes president.”

That said, she goes on to explain that she’s thought about replacing McCain’s mouth with bloody shark teeth and displaying the image on a billboard with the message that the candidate is a bloodthirsty war monger.

Given her strong feelings about John McCain, we asked whether she had any reservations about taking the assignment in the first place.

“I didn’t,” she says. “It’s definitely exciting to shoot someone who is in the limelight like that. I am a pretty hard core Democrat. Some of my artwork has been pretty anti-Bush, so maybe it was somewhat irresponsible for them [The Atlantic] to hire me.”

The follow-up from PDN, "After our posting Friday, media outlets around the country picked up our story. Hundreds of you (including, evidently, a lot of first-time PDN readers) posted comments. The reaction was overwhelmingly critical of Greenberg. Even among professional photographers, many said Greenberg acted unprofessionally.

Atlantic editor James Bennet released a statement saying Greenberg "disgraced herself, and we are appalled by the manipulated images she has created for her Web site of John McCain." He told Fox News that the magazine would not pay Greenberg for the shoot and was considering legal action. The writer of The Atlantic's cover story, Jeffrey Goldberg, wrote on his blog that Greenberg "betrayed this magazine, and disgraced her profession."

Bill Hannigan of VAUGHAN HANNIGAN tells PDN today that the agency is no longer representing Greenberg, a decision that was "mutually agreed upon." UPDATE: Greenberg has also left the Montage Agency and is now repped by ArtMix Photography.

(With the upcoming Election 2008 Art Gotham show coming up in October, I've been looking at how photography and images of the candidates have been used. This one of John McCain certainly has me chuckling.)

How to Collect Photography

Yesterday I attended a panel discussion on how to collect affordable photography hosted by Aperture. It was moderated by the lovely and photogenic Laurel Ptak (more on this later), Aperture's Educational Programs Manager, Kellie McLaughlin of Aperture's Limited-Edition Photographs Program, Amani Olu, founder and executive director of the Humble Arts Foundation and Director of the Bond Street Gallery, collector Ruben Natal-San Miguel of ARTmostfierce arts blog, and photographer Brian Ulrich.

Although the discussion was geared towards first-time and young collectors, I attended hoping to learn what sort of advice was given to collectors and how, as a photographer, I might fit into that. The basic and obvious advice given was "To buy what you love". I was especially struck by Amani Olu's description of how he founded Humble Arts Foundation; it was simply a desire to host online group shows of photographers he admired without regard to their market value. "If I look at a photograph I just ask myself if I like it or not. I don't worry about whether it will sell." He did admit to some new challenges to this philosophy now as director of the commercial Bond Street Gallery. It will be interesting to see how he balances both roles.

I had the wonderful opportunity of meeting Ruben Natal-San Miguel, one of the most approachable, enthusiastic and charming art collectors I've come across. He was very passionate about photography (which he now exclusively collects) and advised potential collectors to do their homeowrk by thoroughly researching artists. With the presence of the web, almost all information regarding artists/art fairs/events can be found. He also cautioned, "If you see a limited edition photograph you think you may want buy it before it's too late. Time is of the essence."

The main conclusion of the evening was that technology has resulted in a paradigm shift that has helped to circumvent the gallery system in many respects. The informational resources we have access to has made collecting art and photography more democratic.

Stock Photography Photoshelter is closing

This is the notice I received:

THE PHOTOSHELTER COLLECTION IS CLOSING
OFFICIAL STATEMENT - SEPTEMBER 11, 2008

"Today, we regret to announce our plans to close The PhotoShelter Collection, our stock photography marketplace, effective October 10, 2008.

Going forward, PhotoShelter will focus our energy and resources on enhancing the PhotoShelter Personal Archive our original product that today provides thousands of photographers worldwide with bulletproof backup storage and robust ecommerce capabilities for managing image sales online. We will continue our commitment to developing new ways to use technology to advance the art and business of photography.

Just one year ago, we started the PhotoShelter Collection with a mission to change the image marketplace for good. Our objective was to provide an unprecedented selection of fresh, diverse, and authentic imagery culled from a global community of thousands of photographers, while bucking industry standards by treating our contributing artists fairly. Rather quickly, we built a unique position in the industry, fueled by integrity and a true passion for photography.

The PhotoShelter Collection became a haven where photographers could find a better deal based on our 70/30 revenue split, and access to professional insights directly from world class image buyers. Buyers welcomed the Collection as a much needed alternative - whether they liked the access to content never before seen, or simply because they appreciated our approach to better treatment for photographers.

Our unique approach, however, was insufficient to change buyer behavior on a grand scale and generate revenues quickly enough to satisfy our goals for this product line. Hence, our decision is to close the Collection. "

That last paragraph is so telling.

Anatomy of a Magazine Story

Via APE, Wired is giving everyone a look behind the magazine making curtain with a new blog called Storyboard.

"When we started talking about building this site last year, one of the first ideas that came up in our brainstorming meetings was the need/desire to "pull back the curtain" on the process of making (writing for, photographing for, designing for, producing) magazines. As the SPD continues to grow and expand its mission deeper into educational realms, the notion of (radical) transparency has stayed front and center in my mind. Heck, our magazine wrote a cover story about the trend back in our April 2007 issue.

Fast-forward to this summer. My friend and colleague, Jason Tanz, pitched a story at a WIRED editorial meeting about screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, he of Being John Malkovich/Adaptation/Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind fame. Charlie's a WIRED guy and has a new movie coming out, his directorial debut, Synecdoche. And as I'm sure you'll remember, his work is all about the search for meaning in the process itself. Very GEB: it's about the systems, the way the act of doing is meaning. In Adaptation, Nicholas Cage's character (Charlie Kaufman) writes himself into his own adaptation of Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief. We get to see the sausage-making and boy, is it fascinating.

Ok, so how did we get from there to here?

As is normal, we all chit-chat about the writing, our goals, the shoot, the layout, how we want the thing to turn out. Jason and I were at a little happy hour last week and got to talking about our hopes for the profile, since the very fact that Charlie had granted access was itself a coup. We're both big fans, but moreover, we've been wanting to do a little form-breaking.

Jason had the notion that we should inject some "Charlie Kaufman" into the making of the profile, go a little meta on the thing. That we walk our own talk. I was hooked. And so was Jason's editor, Nancy Miller. We got to planning. "What if we showed how we produced this story?" "What would happen if we broke the rules, we put the whole thing online as we produced it?" "What if we posted the edit--hell, the rough draft." "What if we posted the pitch letter?" "What if we posted the emails about the pitch letter?" "What if Charlie sees it?" "What if he hates the draft and refuses to cooperate for the rest of the reporting?" "What then?" "What if there was more story about the story than in the story itself?"

You can see where we went. And so, you can see where this blog is going.

And so here we are. A grand experiment.

It's all going online. Everything. Here, on this blog.

Stay tuned."

Upcoming events

A list of some upcoming openings and events that may interest you:

Alessandra Sanguinetti at Yossi Milo Gallery, NYC.
The Life that Came
September 4–October 18, 2008
Artist's Reception: Friday, September 12, 6:00–8:00pm
Yossi Milo Gallery
525 West 25th Street, NYC


Events:

Aperture Gallery Presents: Collector's Workshop: Introduction to Affordable Photography
Amani Olu from WIP sponor Humble Arts Foundation speaks.
Moderated by Laurel Ptak
Tuesday, September 16, 2008 | 6:30 p.m.
Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor
New York, New York
(212) 505-5555


Aperture Gallery Presents: Women In Photography Panel Discussion
WIP Founders Amy Elkins & Cara Phillips speak with WIP artists, Elinor Carucci & Robin Swartz
Moderated by Laurel Ptak.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008 | 6:30 p.m.
Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor
New York, New York
(212) 505-5555


CCNY Presents: Erika Larsen
Oct. 7th 2008 7 p.m.
School of Visual Arts Amphitheater
209 east 23rd street
Amphitheater
$10 general public, $5 students with ID,
free to SVA students, students and faculty and CCNY members.

II Amerika

My dear (and talented) friends are in a group show at ICP called II Amerika. The opening reception is on Friday, September 12, 7-9pm.

The photographers in this collection exemplify the cross-cultural nature of America. While living here- whether American born, foreign immigrants or just passing through - each one represents a facet of this diverse society and has a unique take on its culture. There is more here than just a geographical link; each photograph in some way addresses the nature of American life. These pictures are grounded in a particular American reality, a ‘New Americana’ if you like. Regarding the collection, Robert Stevens, former international photo editor at TIME and current ICP faculty member, identifies the notion that: “America, truth be told, is fractured into a thousand pieces. But it couldn’t be anything else.”

Originally premiered as part of Bushwick Open Studios in June 2008 and entitled simply AMERIKA,this exhibition—II AMERIKA—further expands upon the themes and issues addressed in the original, showcasing a broader spectrum of work and delving deeper into the nation's psyche. Though it would be a mistake to suggest this is a comprehensive review, there is here the making of a statement about where the country is today.

If America is a democratic idea, then Amerika is the social reality. These photographers live and breathe its air, they explore its people and its landscapes. They photograph what they find and their discoveries give us a better idea of the State of the Union than any Presidential address ever could. And to that, attention must be paid.

Why Attend Portfolio Reviews?

Mary Virginia Swanson provides a summary of why you might want to attend one.