Happy Halloween

Via stevechasmar

I was so busy shooting today I almost forgot to wish everyone a Happy Halloween.

Do My Bidding

Sunburned GSP #144 © Chris McCaw

Just a few more days to bid on the impressive photographs in the Aperture Foundation auction.

The live auction includes works by Matthew Pillsbury, Diane, Arbus, Joel Meyerowitz and Abelardo Morell.

The silent auction promises even more great work by Chris McCaw, Jane Hammond, Trevor Paglen, Phillip Toledano and yours truly.

Must See Shows

My Mother's Scar © Doug Dubois

I'm really looking forward to two openings Thursday night. Doug Dubois' ...all the days and nights at Higher Pictures and Phil Toledano's America: The Gift Shop at Hous Projects.

In advance of his show, I spoke with Phil about the project and one of my favorite pieces in the show, the Abu Ghraib bobblehead. It's based on the all too familiar image of a man being mock electrocuted as he stands Christlike and hooded.



Phil first approached a US company to make the pieces. An employee with limited knowledge of news and popular culture initially took the bobblehead order, but Phil got a quick call back from the company saying there wasn't a chance in hell. Phil then sent the Abu Ghraib images to a manufacturer in Shenzen, China who created the pieces based solely on the original photographs. Below is the original image and an early prototype for the bobblehead.



I asked Phil, why a bobblehead and he said "I suppose it was the most logical because it was the only 'figure' in the project, plus, it was one of the most iconic images of the war...It was the Iraq war's 'naked girl running down the road after being napalmed."

Here are the details on these two shows:

Doug Dubois | ...all the days and nights
October 29-December 5, 2009
Higher Pictures
764 Madison Avenue
New York, NY
Opening: October 29, 2009, 6-8pm

Phillip Toledano | America the Gift Shop
October 29 - December 19, 2009
Hous Projects
31 Howard Street, 2nd floor
New York, NY
Opening: October 29, 2009, 6-8pm

Something's Happening in DUMBO

Dina © Phillip Toldedano

There's a lot of good energy in Dumbo this season. And much of it is centered around 111 Front Street. New galleries have opened and existing galleries are deepening their programs. There's a lot of interesting and diverse photography on view.

Here are some highlights from the next few weeks:

October 16

Winter, Alton, Illinois © Jo Ann Walters

Of Land
Featuring the work of Lois Conner, Laura McPhee and Jo Ann Walters (a huge photographic hero of mine).
Kris Graves Projects
Suite 224

October 22
UNSEEN: A Photographers Salon
The always fabulous Ruben Natal-San Miguel curates a show of some of his favorites (and mine) including Phillip Toldedano, Richard Renaldi and fellow SVA alum Ryan Pfluger.
Randall Scott Gallery
Suite 204

November 5
DreamBoats
Images from the new photographer's collective featuring Adam Golfer, Daniel Shea, Joe Levenworth and TJ Proechel
Umbrage Editions
Suite 208

Foreign Body
Antony Crossfield
Klompching Gallery
Suite 206

Surface Tension Thesis Show

© Jaime Permuth

This Wednesday will see me at the opening of my SVA student's thesis show. The students have worked long and hard over the past year and now they get to strut their stuff. Old friend and all around sweetheart Dan Halm has curated a thought provoking show.

Here are the details:

Surface Tension
An exhibition of thesis work from the 2009 graduating class of the
MPS Digital Photography Department at the School of Visual Arts.

October 21 to November 14
SVA Gallery
209 East 23 Street
New York, NY

Opening Reception: Wednesday, October 21, 6 to 8 pm

Foreclosure: Death of the American Dream

Lauren Greenfield continues to push further into the new media realm mixing still photography and video for this piece on the foreclosure crisis. From Frank Evers.

Dutch Accidents

Accident photos from the Nationaal Archief's photostream on Flickr.

Eames Polaroid Promotional Film

Promotional film for the Polaroid SX-70 made by Charles and Ray Eames.

Discover: Vivian Maier

John Maloof recently purchased more than 40,000 mostly medium format negatives at an auction for items from an unpaid storage locker. He soon discovered he had found the life's work of a hereto unknown Chicago street photographer name Vivian Maier. The work spans most of the 1950s to the 1970s. Vivian passed away on April 22, 2009. Her photographs are some of the more accomplished street images I have seen and deserve attention. You can see more of here work on John Maloof's Vivian Maier blog.

© Vivian Maier

© Vivian Maier

© Vivian Maier

© Vivian Maier

© Vivian Maier

© Vivian Maier

Thanks to Chriss Pagani for sending the link my way.

A Response to Pieter Hugo's Photographs

A little over a week ago I posted images from Pieter Hugo's newest series Nollywood. Almost immediately I received a very considered email from Sebastien Boncy who took issue with the work. I've always thought Pieter was an amazing portraitist (I own one of his prints), but his work suggests a dialogue with the countries and peoples he captures that, as an American, I am not privy to. In the spirit of opening that dialogue to debate, I asked Mr. Boncy to write a response to Pieter Hugo's photographs. The full, unedited text of his response is posted below. Comments are welcomed and encouraged.


White People Are Looking At You
by Sebastien Boncy

Mallam Mantari Lamal with Mainasara, Nigeria 2005 © Pieter Hugo

Pieter Hugo’s images (I’m speaking specifically of The Hyena and Other Men and Nollywood) make me uncomfortable: weird, highly stylized, meticulously crafted images of crazy looking niggers doing crazy looking shit. Hold on, let me check myself before this dissolves into an ugly, useless attack. Let’s give Hugo the benefit of the doubt. Let’s take it for granted that Pieter Hugo is a talented and conscientious photographer and assume he has not a racist bone in his body. Somehow, that isn’t enough and I’m still disturbed.

Maybe it has something to do with the way Hugo and his defenders are so quick to dismiss or minimize concerns about the racial context that this work travels in. Hugo himself denies any claims of othering black Africans and turns the table on his accusers by calling them "condescending" "white liberals" that deny his subjects any real agency in the fabrication of these images, but we know that permission during process does not mean control or even approval over the final product. Larry Clark and Diane Arbus had permission, yet the ethics of their work is always front and center of any serious discussion about their legacy. It is not just about what goes into the work, it is also important to consider where it’s headed, where it comes from and who’s doing the buying.

Hugo is worldwide. He has a gallery in South Africa, one in the USA, one in Italy, and one in the Netherlands. None of those countries are known for their happy, well-integrated black populations. The people sipping wine and spending money at most Hugo openings are highly unlikely to have any significant knowledge of Nigeria or even first-hand knowledge of being part of the black-beans-for-dinner-three-nights-in-a-row club. And these pictures do not offer any sort of education for one unfamiliar with Nigeria. Now in a Nigerian gallery or magazine these would be very different images: the audience would be able to decipher and discuss the references, the meanings of the fictions and icons that are specific to Nigerian lives, Nigerian economies, Nigerian histories, Nigerian religions. What is an Italian aristocrat thinking when confronted with a moolignon Vader with his dick out? I think it is beautiful that Hugo trusts the audience to come up with complex and insightful conclusions, but I also think it is naive if he thinks he can just toss these photographs at societies that continue to oppress their black populations and not expect negative readings of race to stick to or be amplified by the work.

Azuka Adindu. Enugu, Nigeria, 2008 © Pieter Hugo

In her essay for Nollywood, Stacy Hardy hits up against the wall of inequity early. It is interesting to look at how she circumvents it. Hardy offers up a reading of Nollywood that claims that the work speaks of transgression and the disintegration of barriers and so invests its subject with strong sexy magic that will rewire Western minds (These niggers are meant to scare us out of or cultural and intellectual torpor). She invokes the vampire myth as the organizing principle for her arguments. Vampires are for Victorian sensibilities. I am from a culture that shares many similarities with Nigeria (Haiti) and the vampire holds little cultural significance in a society where the same barriers are so fluid. The Victorian conjures up the Vampire as a tool, as a weapon against the moribund strictures of his own culture. But Nigeria is not conjured up, it is not immaterial invention, and it is not for the Victorian. Transposed to other images of black bodies in white media Hardy’s reading would pretty much explain black-stud-white-chick porno as another strong political statement when we all know that the charge from those films come from the regimented, carefully controlled illusion of taboo breaking: the white viewer and producer are still in control no matter how many Jennas and Taylors make the acquaintance of Lexington Steele’s superlative member.

Korewah group, aboriginal, Chota Nagpoor from The People of India

Hugo’s images are not coded in a way to upend or question Western conventions because there is nothing pictorially or narratively challenging or dissonant here. These images feel very familiar to me. I spent a bit of time looking and discussing colonial photography (mostly the British in India) in the second half of last year, and I am getting flashbacks to The People of India Edited by J. Forbes Watson and John William Kaye for the Viceroy of India. Many of the compositional tropes started by the photographers of the East India Company and refined during the British rule of India were developed to present the Indian as specimen, to fix him in trade roles and a past glory without the Western ideal of individuality. Those same techniques and attitudes are buried deep in much of today’s documentary and journalistic photography. This is why we have someone like Simon Norfolk working so hard to rewrite the rulebook on documentary work. It is possible that Hugo is using these archaic tropes in a subversive manner, but I am not seeing it and I have yet to see a sensible argument that would separate something like The Hyena and Other Men from this noxious canon. Hugo says that we are supposed to ask questions about Nigeria’s distribution of wealth and the situations that would force men to such strange dangerous livelihoods. But I don’t know how to read wealth in Nigeria in a visual sense, I don’t see the community that these men are from or where they work, I have no idea how the rest of Nigeria looks upon their activities. Most of my assumptions would be probably useless and Hugo’s photographs do not inform or explain.

This is not about Hugo really. It’s about the necessity for dialogue about issues of race. It’s about remembering that systematic racism is hidden in every aspect of our contemporary lives and it is very disturbing for any concerned marginalized out there when people are too quick to close down that avenue of discussion. Finally it is about the unpredictable lives of images and how good intentions are often the least of all factors.

Enter the Bubble Chamber

A classic example of a pimue decay

I have been very fascinated with bubble chamber photography lately. These photographic images capture short-lived reactions of electrically-charged particles moving through a chamber of superheated liquid. The resulting images offer a variety of straight lines, spirals, and curves that share a similarity to shapes humans seem predisposed to draw and enjoy. These shapes have been been part of our expressive output from the earliest cave drawings to the doodles of your average worker suffering through a long office meeting. They are also seen in the work of Roger Ballen and Wassily Kandinsky among others.

Chamber of Enigma © Roger Ballen

Composition VIII, Wassily Kandinsky

As a lover of film and vinyl records, bubble chamber photographs also hold a certain old school charm as they have been largely replaced with more modern particle detectors that use a variety of electronic readouts to track particle paths.

One final bubble chamber tidbit. A bubble chamber photograph was used for the US cover of The Stroke's debut album, Is This It.

Michael Schmelling Mails It In

There were so many wonderful things at this year's NY Art Book Fair that I'm kind of glad they didn't take credit cards. My favorite purchase was an envelope of Michael Schmelling prints he mailed to J & L Books just for the event. I finally opened the envelope today and found these little gems inside.

Side Effects May Include...

Vintage ad from Espacios publicitarios

Headache; infections; muscle pain; diarrhea; joint pain; inflammation of the sinuses; accidental injury; unexplained rash; abdominal pain (stomach pain); general feeling of weakness (asthenia); the flu; back pain; allergic reaction; constipation; sore throat (pharyngitis); ash, hives; itching; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue; unusual hoarseness); chest pain; fast heartbeat; fever, chills, or sore throat; red, swollen, blistered, or peeling skin; unusual bruising or bleeding; unusual tiredness; dry mouth; gas; severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; itching; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue); bleeding in the eye; change in vision; change in the amount of urine; chest pain; dark or bloody urine; black, tarry stools, unusual or severe bleeding (eg, excessive bleeding from cuts, increased menstrual bleeding, unexplained vaginal bleeding, unusual bleeding from the gums when brushing); loss of appetite; pale skin; seizures; severe, persistent headache; sore throat or fever; speech problems; unusual bruising; weakness; unexplained weight loss; yellowing of the skin or eyes; easy bruising; minor bleeding; mild muscle or bone pain; nausea; nervousness; throat irritation; tremor; vomiting; behavior changes; blurred vision or other vision changes; chest pain; choking; fast or irregular heartbeat; hoarseness; numbness or tingling in hands or feet; seizures; severe muscle weakness, cramps, or spasms; severe or persistent bone pain; severe or persistent dizziness or headache; signs of infection (eg, fever, chills, persistent headache/sore throat, ear pain, increased mucus production or change in mucus color); swelling or tightness in the throat; trouble sleeping; unusual tiredness or weakness; vaginal odor or discharge; weight gain; white patches or sores on the tongue or mouth; worsening of asthma symptoms (eg, increased wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, shortness of breath); confusion; fainting; fast, slow, or irregular heartbeat; fever, chills, or persistent sore throat; increased saliva production or drooling; increased sweating; memory loss; menstrual changes; muscle pain, stiffness, or weakness; new or worsening mental or mood changes (eg, aggressiveness, agitation, depression, exaggerated feeling of well-being, hallucination, hostility, impulsiveness, inability to sit still, irritability, panic attacks, restlessness); numbness or tingling; persistent, painful erection; seizures; severe or prolonged dizziness or headache; shortness of breath; swelling of the hands, legs, or feet; symptoms of high blood sugar (eg, increased thirst, hunger, or urination; unusual weakness); tremor; trouble concentrating, speaking, or swallowing; trouble walking or standing; uncontrolled muscle movements (eg, arm or leg movements, jerking or twisting, twitching of the face or tongue); vision changes.

Side effects of top 5 pharmaceutical products by sales, 2008.

Pieter Hugo's Nollywood

Obechukwu Nwoye. Enugu, Nigeria, 2008 © Pieter Hugo

The prolific and talented Pieter Hugo has a new body of work called Nollywood. Nollywood is the colloquial name given to the Nigerian film industry and all of the images appear to be portraits of actors in b-movies. The new photos share similarities to his previous work--desaturated tones and subjects looking at you with a bayonet gaze--but this work has a decided sense of humor. How does he do it?

Escort Kama. Enugu, Nigeria, 2008 © Pieter Hugo

John Dollar Emeka. Enugu, Nigeria, 2008 © Pieter Hugo

Azuka Adindu. Enugu, Nigeria, 2008 © Pieter Hugo

Chris Nkulo and Patience Umeh. Enugu, Nigeria, 2008 © Pieter Hugo

In The Street

Simply one of the most beautiful pieces of poetry ever put to film. Enjoy this classic film by Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb, and James Agee shot in the late 1940s on the streets of East Harlem.

The Americans

© Robert Frank

Tomorrow I'm going to see the "Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans" exhibit at the Met. For me this feels like my own personal hajj. It is impossible to understate Robert Frank's contribution to photography and the American identity. I have seen many of Frank's photographs individually, but this is the first time I will be able to experience the full sweep of his expression. I can't wait.

Please do not miss this landmark show.

In the meantime, give a listen to this interview with Robert Frank and curator of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Photographs (and my thesis advisor), Jeff Rosenheim on the Leonard Lopate Show.

Meet the Family

National Geographic announces discovery of oldest human skeleton.

Caught or Captured Thursday in DUMBO

© Charles Fréger and Bill Sullivan

On Thursday after teaching I'm heading across the river to DUMBO for first Thursday and one show in particular. Good friend Bill Sullivan will be showing work alongside Charles Fréger at the Caption Gallery.

This will be the first of a series of shows featuring work by photographers in the POC America collective, of which I'm very pleased to be a member.

Here are the details:

Caught or Captured: Portraits by Bill Sullivan and Charles Fréger
October 1-November 25, 2009
Caption Gallery
55 Washington Street, Suite 802
Brooklyn, NY
718-504-7991

Opening Reception, Thursday, October 1, 6:30-9:30pm

W. Eugene Smith: This Photo is Blowing My Mind

W. Eugene Smith, 1957

I recently came across a slide show of Kodachrome images on the Fortune magazine Web site. Included in the mix were a number of rare images by black and white masters Ansel Adams and Walker Evans. However, the real stunner of the group is the image above from W. Eugene Smith. In this glorious photo he manages to evoke both menace and mundanity and leaves me hoping the Fortune vaults contain more color surprises from Mr. Smith.

Oh Public Road!

Algiers, Louisiana, 2001 © Peter Kayafas

This afternoon I'm traveling to Cambridge, MA for a meeting to plan my upcoming show at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. I'm looking forward to hitting the road. I hope to find a few stranded motorists along the way.

I've had photography about the American road and cars on my mind lately with Robert Frank's The Americans opening this week at the Met and Nicolai Howalt's stark and abstract Car Crash Studies on view at Silverstein. I've also been looking at the (relatively) new book by Peter Kayafas, O Public Road!

Sasha Wolfe introduced me to Peter's work over the summer and I've been engrossed by the images ever since. The book includes spare black and white photos from the last 20 years of Peter's travels across the US. I appreciate the echoes of Frank's 1955 journey.

You can view images from the book on Peter's Web site and order it directly from Purple Martin Press.

Anderson Ranch

Wood shop at Anderson Ranch

In late July I taught a workshop called Seeing in Color at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, Colorado. Apart from being felled by a killer flu and a crippling touch of altitude sickness, my experience was overwhelmingly positive. It was my first time in Colorado and only my second time teaching such an intensive workshop.

Snowmass and the surrounding area introduced me to a natural beauty my east-coast-eyes have rarely seen. Everywhere I turned I was surrounded by massive mountain peaks and thick formations of green pine trees. Even if Anderson Ranch wasn't set in such a divine location, it would still be a very special place. Artists of all disciplines go there to learn new skills, make work, connect with other artists, and recharge. The campus is usually abuzz with ceramicists, woodworkers, painters, and photographers creating work, discussing ideas, and attending classes. The energy and warmth sets the tone for your stay.

Snowmass. The hills are alive with the sound of art!

For my color workshop I worked with six talented students with wildly different approaches to photography. Over the course of five days I lead discussions on the history of color photography and the emotional aspects of color, critiqued their previous work, discussed how to build a career as a photographer, and took a few field trips to explore the area with our cameras.

At the end of the workshop I asked each student to send me their favorite image from the week so I could post them on my blog.

© Adrienne Zell

© Christopher Wurzbach

© Tess Freeman

© Roger Ewy

© Todd Walker

Mugging for the Camera

Recent mug shots from St. Petersburg Times

The Smithsonian photography blog, The Bigger Picture, points to a recent article in Time Magazine about the rise of mugshot features in online newspapers. As newspapers struggle to survive some are finding our insatiable thirst for voyeuristic content to be advertising revenue gold.

Mug shot from Least Wanted: A Century of American Mugshots

Yesterday I was at a vintage photography booth at the Brooklyn Flea market and bought some old mug shots. Vintage mug shots have such a depth of charm and quality they almost transcend the pragmatic nature of their purpose. Newer mug shots, like those on the St. Petersburg Times' Mug Shot site, are cheap by comparison; created and distributed with a bottom line efficiency.

Despite the differences in quality and format, both were created as pure ephemeral utility yet both have found a kind of permanence. The older mug shot photos continue to show up at flea markets and antique shops as curious and anonymous objects while the newer images live on as digital records forever Google-able to potential employers and grandchildren.

Big Night

Glamorous Hair © Tim Davis

Boy there are a lot of great shows opening in the next few weeks. Of course, I will be preoccupied with my own opening at ClampArt on Thursday night so I wont be able to see these other great exhibitions for a few days:

Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station, Nottinghamshire © Simon Roberts

Simon Roberts' We English at Klompching Gallery
If you can’t make it out to Brooklyn on Thursday, Simon will be giving a talk and book signing on Friday at 6:30pm. I may be missing his opening but I’ll be there for this!

Todd Hido A Road Divided at Bruce Silverstein
Todd is a big hero of mine and I always enjoy seeing his work.

Nicolai Howalt Car Crash Studies at Bruce Silverstein
I blogged about this wonderful series a few months ago and I'm excited to see the prints in person.

States of Union 8 © Alix Smith

Alix Smith States of the Union at Morgan Lehman
Fellow SVA grad and newlywed, Alix Smith, will be showing her new, highly anticipated body of portraiture work.

New York doesn't have exclusive rights on kick ass openings. In a land far far away called San Francisco, friend and all around great guy Brian Ulrich’s double header with Charnay is opening at The Koch gallery.

And, back in New York this Saturday...

Tim Davis’ The New Antiquity at Greenberg Van Doren Gallery

Talia Chetrit’s Reading at Renwick Gallery
Her work is intelligent and mesmerizing.

Labor Day

Is about this:

John Vachon

Not this:

School Daze

A high school graduate and friend in Baku, Azerbaijan © James Pomerantz

Photojournalist and newly minted graduate student James Pomerantz has launched a blog, A Photo Student, where he promises to detail all of his ups and downs during his first year in the MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media department at the School of Visual Arts.

As many of you may know I love to gush about the SVA. I graduated from the program in 2006 and I credit the experience with helping me rethink my work and approach to photography. And it has produced many stellar artists including Ofer Wolberger, Shen Wei, Alix Smith, Alejandra Laviada and Matthew Pillsbury.

In addition to blogging about life in an MFA program, James will be featuring interviews with famous alums (call me, James), students at other schools, and professors.

James just posted his class schedule and his first year lineup includes two of my favorite professors: lighting guru, Chris Callis, and the fantastically talented, Penelope Umbrico. He's also posted the summer reading list for incoming students. It includes some old familiar texts and few new ones (at least to me).

So if you want the grad school experience--but don’t want the debt--be sure to follow James’ progress during his first year.