8.30.2014

CASTELL PHOTOGRAPHY: 2014 Annual Juried Exhibition, NEXT! Contemporary Photography


//////////////// CALL FOR ENTRIES ////////////////
What is NEXT in Contemporary Photography? 
SHOW US!

NEXT is the sixth annual juried exhibition for Castell Photography. This year’s competition will be juried by me (Elizabeth Avedon, Independent Curator and Writer/Contributor to L'Oeil de la Photographie).

NEXT is an Open Call for Entries of Contemporary Photo based works. We are looking for exceptional photography with a unique perspective and a cohesive look. Works submitted should be from a single, unified body of work. Show us new photographic visions we haven't seen before. I look forward to viewing your work!


HOW TO ENTER: Download the Prospectus for NEXT here. Fill it out completely and email to next@castellphotography.com or mail to 2C Wilson Alley Asheville, NC 28801.


Deadline For Submissions Oct 1
Notification of Winning Entries Oct 10 by email
Winning Entries Arrive at Gallery Oct 27-Oct 31
Opening Reception Friday, Nov 7, 6-8 pm

ELLEN JACOB: Waiting Room

 Ellen Jacob's Installation Waiting Room: Kay 
Soho Photo Gallery, NYC
 
Nameplate
Photograph (c) Ellen Jacob

Profile In Bed
Photograph (c) Ellen Jacob

The Queen and the Pope
"Kay loved the royal family and I brought her a solar powered queen who waves." Photograph (c) Ellen Jacob 

The View
Photograph (c) Ellen Jacob  


Waiting Room is the story of Kay’s time at the boundary between life and death and the place where she spent that time.

"Ellen Jacob's highly unusual installation, which I have seen, is a courageous look at how a courageous woman died in a nursing home on New York's Upper West Side. But I think it is also about the fundamental courage required from each of us to sustain our lives in the face of such vast uncertainty and, finally, to wait for the end without losing ourselves in that uncertainty. What I see in this work—in the photos and quotes and reconstructions of the environment—is that Kay remained Kay throughout her waiting." – Kirk Cheyfitz, CEO Story Worldwide


Ellen Jacob: Waiting Room: Kay
September 3-October 2
Soho Photo Gallery, 15 White St, NYC

Artist Reception:
September 4, 6-8pm

Ellen Jacob is the recipient of a Ford Foundation Grant and a Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association. Her photography has been featured on the Voice of America, Slate, Huffington Post, The Daily Mail and appeared in Harvard’s Nieman Reports, selected by The Center for Fine Art Photography juried Family show, selected by f-stop documentary juried issue, and been highlighted as a Jen Beckman HotShot Contender. She holds a BFA with honors from Pratt Institute. Ellen exhibits at the Soho Photo Gallery and lives in New York City. read more here

8.27.2014

SEAN PERRY: Graciela Iturbide - No Hay Nadie, The Sunday Find

  "Mujer ángel, Desierto de Sonora, Mexico 1979"
Photograph (c) Graciela Iturbide

The Sunday Find – Graciela Iturbide by Sean Perry

Graciela Iturbide (b.1942) is a powerful rarity, a truly soulful photographer and master from Mexico City. I first discovered her work through another inspired artist I hold in the highest regard, the venerable Mr. William D. Wittliff. Her exhibition (and monograph), Eyes to Fly With at his namesake collection in San Marcos was simply stellar. You can see (and I insist you must!) her deeply poetic black and white prints held in the formidable permanent collection there – the largest institutional holdings of her work in the United States. Acquiring the exceptional book that was published alongside the exhibition by University of Texas Press and The Wittliff Collections is certainly worthy of your efforts, it remains a faithful friend and one I return to often.

I find her pictures otherworldly and mystic, deftly transposed from the subconscious ether. They ask me to look again and again, to reassess the many layers of what I think I have seen or remembered. With each visit I am rewarded with something new, and for the moment another small wonder untwined. She describes herself as an actress and her photographs "a companion to the reality of the situation." The eldest of 13 children, she developed an early interest in photography inspired by her father. While studying filmmaking and scriptwriting at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in the early 1970's, she met Manuel Alvarez Bravo – an apprenticeship would follow, inspiriting a new discovery of her homeland through picture making. In addition to winning the prestigious W. Eugene Smith Prize for Photography (1987), the Gran Prix Mois (1988) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (1988), Ms. Graciela was honored in 2008 with the Hasselblad Foundation award.

"Graciela Iturbide is considered one of the most important and influential Latin American photographers of the past four decades. Iturbide has extended the concept of documentary photography, to explore the relationships between man and nature, the individual and the cultural, the real and the psychological. She continues to inspire a younger generation of photographers in Latin America and beyond." – Hasselblad Foundation, 2008

  
"Take a poetic journey with Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide as she imparts the personal and cultural themes that inform her artistic vision and thread throughout her work. Filmmaker Alejandro Gómez de Tuddo follows Iturbide as she reveals her heart--from the religious legends she holds dear; to her regard for the dead "angelitos" or little  angels of the cemetery; and her esteem for the virtues of St. John of the Cross's Solitary Bird: he flies only at great heights, tolerates no one's company, juts out his beak into the wind, and sings gently. In Spanish with English subtitles."Video

No Hay Nadie, There is No-One (La Fabrica, 2011)

I am delighted to share with you today a most exquisite little find, the beautifully produced No Hay Nadie, There is No-One by Ms. Graciela. Published by La Fabrica in 2011, it is 68 pages with 25 sumptuous tritone plates of black and white images made between 1997 and 2010. Photographing across cities mostly in the north of India, this work encompasses Varanasi, Delhi, Benares, Bombay, and Calcutta. It also includes the essay Appearances Don't Deceive by Óscar Pujol.

Royal red cloth boards with inky black endpapers and wrapped image around center, cover to back. Handsomely typeset in Janson Text and Benton Sans, this mint example is still shrink wrapped – first edition in a limited first printing of only 2000 copies.

Direct from La Fabrica for 35.00€ ($55.00 List), it is available exclusively to The Sunday Find for $14.44, at the North Lamar HPB location in Austin, Texas. The first to ask for it at the checkout counter has it, held under the name 'Silver'. Friends outside of Texas might find it at other Half Price Books locations, as well as the usual online bibliophile speakeasies. It is a lovely book, well designed and richly printed, a noble addition to your collection for a mere song.

Until next time I leave you with this subtle, elegant quote from the artist herself:

“I look for surprise in ordinary things that I could have found anywhere in the world. The unconscious obsession that we photographers have is that wherever we go we want to find the theme that we carry inside ourselves.”  – Graciela Iturbide

No Hay Nadie, There is No-One (La Fabrica, 2011)

Also check out:
Lenscratch: Mexico Week

8.23.2014

LESLY DESCHLER CANOSSI: Ongoing Domestic Negotiations in Brooklyn

Noa’s Shadow, Hands on Paper, Brooklyn, 2012
Photograph (c) Lesly Deschler Canossi

Mateo's Bath at Two Months in Kitchen Sink, Brooklyn, 2012
Photograph (c) Lesly Deschler Canossi 

Olive and Noa Touching, Brooklyn, 2012
Photograph (c) Lesly Deschler Canossi

"Domestic Negotiations is an ongoing project and the result of a personal desire to make work while navigating the demands of a new marriage, motherhood, creative and professional work. In creating the irreversible bonds of family, I understand a life of domesticity to be a negotiation. Now that my hands are deeply plunged into this experience, I live in a constant flow of needs met or missed, a conversation on practical demands, expectations, and fleeting moments that must not go unnoticed. At this stage, feelings are more intensified and there is no rest. It is my hope that this work conveys the emotional and physical tenderness of a family while revealing the raw and delicate nature of the relationships we try so desperately to preserve." – Lesly Deschler Canossi

I first met and was enchanted by Lesly Deschler Canossi's work at Ruben Natal-San Miguel and Rafael Fuchs first annual "15 Minutes of Fame" Portfolio Review in Bushwick last month. With an MFA in Photography and Digital Imaging from Maryland Institute College of Art, Lesly works in New York City as an artist, as well as an instructor at the International Center of Photography (ICP) and owner of Fiber Ink Studio, a printing and drum scanning studio producing museum quality pigment prints. View more of her on-going project here

Follow on Instagram 

8.21.2014

GOMORRAH GIRL: Twin Palms Edition

Gomorrah Girl by Valerio Spada
Twin Palms Publishers, Fall 2014

Gomorrah Girl, by Valerio Spada, tells two stories in one: the problems of growing up in a crime-ridden area and the murder of Annalisa Durante, a young woman caught in the crossfire of a Mafia shootout. The stories are brought together through innovative, book-within-a-book design. 

Bound together are Spada’s photographs documenting adolescence in the land of Camorrah (the name for the Mafia in Naples) and pages detailing the police investigation. Twin Palms Publishers will release a new edition early this Fall. Very cool.


Gomorrah Girl by Valerio Spada
Unique hand assembled book with fold-out hard cover case

“In this book there are portraits of girls whose destinies can still change if not the destiny of the area in which they are growing up. Annalisa was one of them. She kept a diary, in which she wrote that Naples was becoming too dangerous to live in and how she was dreaming to escape.” - Valerio Spada

Gomorrah Girl was first released as a self-published edition, with a limited print run and garnered considerable attention. It was selected as the Grand Prize winner for Photography Book Now, 2011. Valerio Spada went on to receive a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in Creative Arts, Photography in 2013.

Gomorrah Girl by Valerio Spada
Twin Palms Publishers: Fall, 2014
9 x 13", casebound. 54-color plates, 78 pages
First Edition, $85
ISBN 978-1-936611-07-2



8.15.2014

SUSAN MAY TELL: Appalachia and The Rust Belt

Appalachian Mist, Altoona Pennsylvania, 2012
Photograph (c) Susan May Tell

Mama's Kitchen, Elkins, West Virginia, 2012
Photograph (c) Susan May Tell

Replica, Elkins, West Virginia, 2012
Photograph (c) Susan May Tell


The Spirit of Brownton, Brownton, West Virginia, 2012
Photograph (c) Susan May Tell

Steel Mill Memories, Steubenville, Ohio, 2012
Photograph (c) Susan May Tell

"SEEN AND FELT: Appalachia, 2012" is a portfolio of photographs of contemporary rural Appalachia and the Rust Belt: West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The photos were taken with Tri-X (b+w) film in my Leica during a summer journey in 2012. The prints are gelatin silver. – Susan May Tell
+  +  +

A few summer's ago, Fine Art Photographer Susan May Tell disappeared for several months. I'm used to hearing from or read about Susan everywhere and often. As a former freelance photo-journalist for The New York Times (eventually covering the Middle East), Life Magazine, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Agence France Presse, Crain’s New York Business, the Washington Post, and finally on staff for The New York Post covering Sports, May Tell knows her way around "Photography." Now, as ASMP-NY’s Fine Art Chair, she organizes and moderates some of the best Fine Art Photography Conversations in New York, including an extraordinary evening with panelist's Howard Greenberg (Howard Greenberg Gallery owner), Jeff Rosenheim (Curator of Photographs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art), and Brian Wallis (Chief Curator at the International Center of Photography). Involved in all aspects of creating the successful ASMP-NY's Fine Art Portfolio Reviews twice a year, May Tell also advises about great photo exhibitions around town in her monthly Newsletter.

But one summer she just vanished. No emails, no phone calls, no news on Facebook. Months went by. Silence. More silence. And then slowly, a few posts letting us know she was in the darkroom with hundreds of rolls of film. And months after that, a few emails to say she was (still) editing hundreds or more images. Much later, she posted the results on her website of her 4,000 mile road trip through Appalachia (!) sleeping in campsites and sometimes sleeping in her car. You can read an excellent Interview with Susan May Tell that explains all about it. It's an informative and great read...begin HERE


and

and check out her moving Series: 


8.14.2014

AVEDONS MAKE NEWS: Top Fashion Magazines September Issues


Emma Ferrer, Grand-daughter of Audrey Hepburn
Photograph by Michael Avedon

"Harper’s Bazaar‘s September issue will feature a photograph of Audrey Hepburn’s granddaughter, Emma Ferrer, shot by Richard Avedon’s grandson, Michael Avedon. Avedon, 23, has been pursuing photography since 2006, and photographed fashion editorials for Harper’s Bazaar Paris and Carine Roitfeld’s CR Fashion Book."(from artnet news)

Check out Michael's website to view his fashion editorials and portraits including Coco Rocha, Chuck Close, Peter Beard, Francesco Clemente and beautiful series of his Grandmother, Elizabeth Moynihan.

Michael and (half-brother and my kid) Matthew Avedon, are both featured in this September's top fashion magazines. Matthew and Supermodel Magdalena Frackowiak were photographed by fashion Photographer Nathaniel Goldberg in "An Affair To Remember" story for Vogue China's September 2014 issue.

Magdalena Frackowiak and Matthew Avedon 
Photograph by Nathaniel Goldberg 
for Vogue China September 2014

Magdalena Frackowiak and Matthew Avedon
Photographs by Nathaniel Goldberg
Vogue China September 2014

Supermodel Magdalena Frackowiak and Matthew Avedon photographed by Fashion Photographer Nathaniel Goldberg in "An Affair To Remember"story for Vogue China's September 2014 issue.

Matthew Avedon, represented by DNA Models, is a talented musician, well-known around the New York City and Brooklyn music scene. He plays a mix of gypsy jazz, country and swing. Kings County Swing


8.10.2014

AMY POWELL: ERICA + I

 Photograph © Amy Powell

Photograph © Amy Powell

Photograph © Amy Powell

Photograph © Amy Powell

"When my mother gave birth to my half-sister Erica, I was twenty years old. Sitting in the hospital room with my camera, she made giving birth look easy.  I photographed as Erica made her way into the world, cut her umbilical cord myself, and was the very first to hold her.  In that moment, I gave her a name she inevitably didn't get to keep.  And she peed on me. Ever since, having a much younger sibling has given me the unique experience of observing the way in which I may have been raised. Photographing Erica has become a window into my own elusive childhood." –Amy Powell

Erica:  I see my camera.  I see your camera.  You always print your pictures big.  It ain't fair.  I want mine big.  Can you get me more cameras again for Christmas next year?
Amy:  Sure, why do you want more cameras?
Erica:  I like taking pictures.
Amy:  What do you like to take pictures of?
Erica:  My toys.  Hannah Montana.  My mom.  My princess tent.  You got that tent for me, and now it's broken. 
Amy:  Anything else you like to photograph?
Erica:  I think that's it mommy... I mean Amy!

8.05.2014

SHERI LYNN BEHR: No Safe Distance

Photograph © Sheri Lynn Behr, from the series No Safe Distance

This photograph is in the current exhibition at the 
Griffin Museum of Photography's
Juried by Aline Smithson
Exhibition to August 31, 2014

No Safe Distance: "These photographs address my interest in photography without permission. Today we live in a post-privacy world, an image-obsessed society where cameras are everywhere. With or without our knowledge, we are being photographed countless times a day. When I make these images, I am separated from my subjects by glass store windows. Having a camera with a big lens pointed by an unknown person outside the store creates a moment of sudden awareness of something unexpected. Reactions are varied."

"By cropping and enlarging the faces, which are often distorted by the window's reflections, and by removing the context, there is a certain ambiguity created. The images can reference mug shots, identity cards, Facebook friends, missing persons, even paparazzi celebrity captures. More closely they resemble surveillance photos, which is what they really are. They are meant to challenge our expectations of anonymity and privacy." 

Sheri Lynn Behr

Work from this series was used to receive a 2012 Individual Artist Fellowship for Photography from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

Photograph © Sheri Lynn Behr, from the series Watching You


Photograph © Sheri Lynn Behr, from the series Watching You

Watching You: "The camera portraits of Watching You are taken with my iPhone. While the quality of the images is acceptable, they are often grainy and soft. The more I see surveillance footage on the news, the more odd and abstract the images appear. I want to give these photographs a similar distance from reality." read more here

Photograph © Sheri Lynn Behr, from the series No Matter Where

Photograph © Sheri Lynn Behr, from the series No Matter Where

No Matter Where: "We know that cameras are everywhere. We try to avoid people pointing smartphones and other hand-held cameras at us as we walk down the street, but are we conscious of all the cameras lurking above, hiding in plain sight? We know we’re being watched, even in the most benign locations, yet as we become more accustomed to the presence of surveillance cameras, we stop paying attention." read more here

Catalog Back Cover Photograph © Sheri Lynn Behr,
from the series No Safe Distance 

Griffin Museum of Photography's
Juried by Aline Smithson
Exhibition to August 31, 2014
The complete list of photographers selected for the exhibition here

Sheri Lynn Behr Website

8.01.2014

NEW YORK PHOTO FESTIVAL: PhotoWorld 2014 Exhibition Invitation

Photograph © Martine Fougeron, Tête-à-Tête
NYPH, 2011

"New York Photo Festival presents PhotoWorld 2014, a wide-ranging exhibition invitational selecting the best new documentary, fine art, and motion and drone photography being produced today, determined by top photo and image professionals from The New Yorker, CNN, Fortune, National Geographic, International Center for Photography, Esquire, Foto Visura, LensCulture and L'Oeil de la Photographie."

"Finalists chosen will exhibit their work in an installation at POWERHOUSE Arena opening September 26 during the DUMBO Arts Festival. Grand prize winners also receive a one-hour consultation with one of the esteemed jurors. PhotoWorld 2014 is an unparalleled opportunity to jump start your career in Photography."

Jurors: Elizabeth Avedon, L'Oeil de la Photographie; Jim Casper, LensCulture; Neil Harris, Fortune; Elizabeth Griffin, Esquire; Whitney Johnson, The New Yorker; Elizabeth Krist, National Geographic; Adriana Letorney, FotoVisura; Graham Letorney, FotoVisura; Aline Smithson, Lenscratch.

Follow NYPH News for Juror Features here.

Extended Deadline: September 16th, 2014

Complete your uploads by 
Tuesday September 16, at midnight (pst).
Extended Deadline: September 16th, 2014

Complete your uploads by 
Tuesday September 16, at midnight (pst).
Dumbo - Brooklyn NY