Steve_Pyke_Philosophers.jpgSteve Pyke's project 'Philosophers' has reached across two decades. Steve has an essay in the New York Times about how this project grew exponentially, and a gallery of images that feature quotes by the subject made during the photo session.

"I have spent almost a quarter century photographing philosophers. For the most part, philosophers exist, and have always existed, outside the public spotlight. Yet when we reflect upon those eras of humankind that burn especially bright, it is largely the philosophers that we remember. Despite being unknown at a time, the philosophers of an era survive longer in collective memory than wealthy nobleman and politicians, or the popular figures of stage, song and stadium. Because of this disconnect between living fame and later recognition, we have less of a record of these thinkers than we should. Our museums are filled with busts and paintings of long-forgotten wealth and beauty instead of the philosophers who have so influenced contemporary politics and society. My aim in this project has been the modest one of making sure that, for this era at least, there is some record of the philosophers."

Professor Peter Strawson, Oxford, 21 May 1990, © Steve Pyke
| Permalink |

Lori_Nix_Control_Room.jpg

ClampArt is very pleased to present an exhibition of work by artist Lori Nix, her first solo show at the gallery.

Since the mid-1990s, Lori Nix has been building tiny dioramas in her studio in Brooklyn which she then photographs with a large-format 8 x 10-inch camera. The monumental prints that are produced showcase the wondrous and obsessive care that goes into every minute detail of Nix's breathtakingly convincing miniatures.

For her newest body of work, "The City" (2005-2010), Nix has been constructing indoor, post-apocalyptic, urban scenes imagining what the city may look like when all the humans are dead and gone.  As critic, Sidney Lawrence, wrote in 'Art in America':  "The implications of Nix's tableaux never seem to stop.  Oddly endearing, terrifying and often electrifyingly plausible, they prod us to ponder the fact that, like it or not, our fate is uncertain."

Due to the great pains the artist takes in attending to every last feature of her constructions, some of the artworks, such as her new masterpiece, "Map Room," require up to six months to realize. Thus, Nix's scenes are highly planned in advance, and her output notably small.  ClampArt has been patiently waiting three years for the artist to produce enough work to mount a solo exhibition.

Lori Nix has received several photography awards. She is a 2004 New York Foundation for the Arts Individual Artist Grant recipient.  In 2001 she was awarded a residency at Light Work (an internationally recognized photography organization in Syracuse, New York). Nix was a 1999 recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Grant; a 1998 recipient of a Greater Columbus Ohio Arts Grant; and she participated in the Artist in the Market-place program at the Bronx Museum of the Arts in 2000.  Museum exhibitions include 'Fresh! Contemporary Takes on Nature and Allegory' at the Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington; 'Picturing Eden' and "Vital Signs" at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York; Katonah Museum of Art's 'I Love the Burbs' in Katonah, New York; and 'Innocence' at the New Britain Museum of Art, New Britain, Connecticut; to name just a few. Her work is represented in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; George Eastman House, Rochester, New York; Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas; and the El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas; among many others. - Brian Clamp, Director.

The City opens at ClampArt, NYC, on November 4th and runs through December 18th, 2010.

View the full screen magazine photo feature.

Control Room, 2010 © Lori Nix

Strand_Mexico_Aperture.jpg


aCurator is proud to support Aperture Foundation.

Paul Strand (born 1890, New York; died 1976, Orgeval, France) was one of the great photographers of the twentieth century. As a youth, he studied under Lewis Hine at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, going on to draw acclaim from such illustrious sources as Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen. After World War II, Strand traveled around the world - from New England to Ghana, France to the Outer Hebrides - to photograph, and in the process created a dynamic and significant body of work. During the 1970s, major exhibitions of his work were displayed internationally, cementing his reputation as one of the greatest American photographers.

'Paul Strand in Mexico' is an exhibition of over a hundred photographic works including vintage prints and previously unseen documents and ephemera related to Strand's time in Mexico and is accompanied by a printed volume that documents the complete photographic works made by Strand during his 1932-34 trip to Mexico as well as a second journey in 1966 -- a total of 234 photographs, 123 of which have never before been published.

The exhibition is at Aperture through November 13th but you can see Strand's 'The Mexican Portfolio', presented by Aperture, at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, through January 2, 2011.

View the full screen magazine photo feature.

Woman and child, Hidalgo, 1933, courtesy and copyright
Aperture/The Paul Strand Archive

Aperture_Benefit.jpg



Monday, November 1, 2010
The Lighthouse, Chelsea Piers

Bids may be placed online for all auction lots starting Monday, October 18, 12:00 noon EST, and ending Monday, November 1, 12:00 noon EST. Absentee bids may be placed via fax at (212) 979-7759, or using the absentee bid form available online until Monday, November 1, 12:00 noon EST. Bids will be entered on behalf of absentee bidders at the event, up to the maximum amount specified on their forms. The highest bids at the close of the live and silent auctions are the winning bids. All proceeds benefit Aperture Foundation.

Image ©
Hank Willis Thomas


My prolific pal Jiri Rezac put together a new gallery of his photographs of London taken in the wee hours over the past six years.

"As this city never sleeps, these pictures took several years to complete and involved two Christmas Days, many early mornings, all-night scouting trips and countless missed opportunities... It is the absence of life that makes these otherwise ordinary images into something special."

See more on his Empty London website.

Kalle_Kataila_Shepherd.jpg


When reviewing the book 'reGeneration²' from Aperture earlier this year, I noticed the mysterious photograph by Kalle Kataila. Investigating further I discovered this ethereal body of work that engulfed me and took me on a journey across the world and through time. Kalle is "a Helsinki-based photographer whose work is based around concepts of landscape and how personal narratives attribute to our understandings of these spaces." Born in 1977, Kalle is young yet thoroughly well collected and exhibited - across Europe, in the US, China, Russia and Korea, both as part of the reGeneration² touring show and independently, and with work in the Finnish State Art Collections, Museé de l'Elysée in Lausanne and more. He's also a member of the impressive Helsinki School.

The reGeneration² exhibition travels to Milan in November and comes to New York in January 2011.

View the magazine full screen photo feature.

Buy a print of 'Shepherd'. Buy 'reGeneration²'.

Read an interview with Kalle from the National Post, Canada.

Shepherd, 2008 © Kalle Kataila

heidi_lender_baba.jpg
Heidi Lender is a "fashion-writer-turned-photographer from San Francisco". She's been busy since quitting the writing, spending six years part-time in India studying yoga, and now spending half her time in Northern California, half in Uruguay. 

Kumbh Mela is a mass pilgrimage where Hindus gather at the Ganges, and I just love this fun vibrant series from Heidi. Check out her other work, including the interesting self-portrait series 'Once Upon' - "Stand on a bench. Make sure it's Monday. Wear something pretty."

Babas and Pilgrims © Heidi Lender







heidi_lender_sari.jpg

heidi_lender_smoke.jpg

heidi_lender_kumbhmela-005.jpg

heidi_lender_babybaba.jpg


HVP_HaveFaith.jpg
Helena V contacted me about her simple but clever project The Museum of Messages. The images are organized into separate collections, such as Political, Scary and Loving Messages.

"The Museum of Messages, which began in 1999, are photographs of messages that people write in urban landscapes about the environment, love, politics, humor, fear, expression, loyalty and more. As an artist I think it is very important to document these visual voices because people are attempting to publicize their thoughts for others to read, think and learn. Since these words don't have a very long life span, because city crews clean up these expressions, I feel that it is my duty to document these words so I can exhibit and publish them for others to appreciate."
HVP_MendYourHeart.jpg


HVP_iLoveYou.jpg

HVP_Lights.jpg


All images New York City, 2008 © Helena V. Photo

Ross_Abby_b.jpg

Abby Ross is young and very hard working. I attended the opening of her first solo show, an event she essentially single-handedly put together last month at 92Y in Tribeca, Manhattan and which featured these images. They were taken during her recent travels in Senegal, capturing the people, landscape, and mood of the region.

"I've often been attracted to this essential energy that shines through where the spiritual far outweighs the material. I am interested in the poetic character of things, in the small, seemingly unimportant. There is hidden beauty in the ordinary, and great beauty in the overlooked. Little things are big, less is more. Imperfection is beautiful. Paradoxes such as these fascinate me." Abby Ross, October 2010


Haddim and Maguet © Abby Ross

Claudia_Hehrnaked_01.jpg


Today at The Heavy Light, Dirk Anschütz' blog, is an article about photographer Claudia Hehr.

"Claudia Hehr is a young, talented New York-based photographer transitioning from assisting to shooting full time. Obviously never an easy step, it is probably even harder in these tough times of ours. A great thing to do for a young photographer (or an old one, for that matter) is, to work on a good project. Hone your craft, build a showpiece and be a good human being, and that's exactly what Claudia Hehr did with NAKED, her beautiful, unflinching reportage about a woman's struggle with breast cancer." - Dirk.

The series works so well because it avoids sensationalism and voyeurism, simply depicting the reality of that which we all fear.

© Claudia Hehr

Recent Entries

Categories

Links