Boston-based super-shooter and lovely man Lou Jones will exhibit images from his important series "Portraits from Death Row." If you're in the Boston area you have two weeks to go see the exhibition. Jones photographed inmates on death row across the US, and a book was published in 1996. Emerson College hosts the show, at Huret & Spector Gallery.

At the other end of Lou's career, are his breathtaking photographs of dancers (among many, many other subjects). See his previous aCurator post and visit Lou's website. 

Young boy reading comics with dog, New York City, 1944. Time Inc./Nina Leen/Courtesy of Daniel Cooney Fine Art 

Nina Leen (d. 1995) was one of the first female contract photographers with LIFE, working with them from the 1940s until it ceased its weekly printing in 1972; she contributed some 40 covers alone. Edward Steichen included two of her photographs in "The Family of Man" exhibition. But still, Leen has not had enough recognition to-date, so we're pleased to see that Daniel Cooney has curated a fabulous exhibition of her work. It opens on March 26, 2015, at Daniel Cooney Fine Art in New York and includes a lovely variety of vintage prints from the Time/Life archives. 

"One of Nina Leen's most famous photographic essays documents Tommy Tucker, an orphaned and celebrated trained gray squirrel owned by Zaidee Bullis of Washington D.C. who dressed Tommy in a variety of over 30 homemade outfits including Red Cross Nurse and a Dutch-girl dress with apron and bonnet."

Read a fabulous article over at Glitterati Incorporated

See Nina Leen: Lenslady, at Daniel Cooney, March 26 - May 16, 2015.

Giving cameras to farmers in northern Ghana has not just resulted in increased awareness of their development needs and more control over their lives - an enthusiastic volunteer with Christian Aid dropped me a line to tell me about "My Home, My Farm", a wonderful project she has been helping to develop into an exhibition in London.

From the press release: "We believe that the future of international development lies in utilising modern and innovative communication methods. Ghanaian farmers are faced with the problem of having little or no access to market information. This forces them to sell their produce at the roadside to tradesmen and middlemen at very low prices. 

Christian Aid partnered with Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana (YHFG) to develop the MyPharm project. This supplies the farmers with mobile phones and weekly text messages informing them exactly what their produce is worth. To record the progress of the project Christian Aid and YHFG partnered with PhotoVoice to give the farmers cameras and photography training. The result is a collection of beautifully honest photographs." 

"This photograph was exhibited at the Chief's Palace of Anafobisi where it caught the eye of community water and sanitation staff. They were so moved by the image that they have now provided an additional borehole for the community. Jonas Awinpala has also brought business into the community. He photographed baskets that people in his community had weaved and sent the images to an entrepreneur who has now entered into a contract with the community. Jonas has made approximately £192 from his photography."

These snapshots of Ghanaian life through local eyes will be exhibited at Kahaila café in London's Brick Lane, from April 2nd to May 5th. Go see!

"After Gibson" © Chuck Samuels, courtesy of ClampArt, New York.

You see now this is how to pay homage to the Greats in my opinion: in marvelously good taste, and with a statement to make about gender (especially in comparison to the hideously awful Sandro Miller/John Malkovich repellent bunch of knock-offs which is still pissing me off).

"After Mapplethorpe"

"For this early body of work being presented at ClampArt, Samuels created twelve astonishingly faithful reconstructions of portraits of nude women from the history of photography by such modern masters as Paul Outerbridge, Man Ray, Edward Weston, and Richard Avedon, among others. However, in place of the female subjects, Samuels has staged himself "before the camera."

"After Belloq"

Between seeing these in person, and the superb press release (nice work, Brian Clamp) I am over-excited! Samuels prints and presents the photographs in the same size and style as they were originally displayed.

"After Newton"

"After Weston"

"...Samuels caps his deconstructive statement by asking women to click the shutter release on the camera, finalizing his gender inversion. While everyone is aware of the ubiquity and violence of female objectification in Western culture, by parodying these iconic art historical images with his own body, Samuels establishes himself as an erotic object, confusing a typically implicit male gaze. As Deborah Bright writes in her groundbreaking book "The Passionate Camera": "Samuels' photographs expose the consistent heterosexist underpinnings of elite culture and taste as he vamps and camps through official photo history. Even better, he overtly homosexualizes those master photographers whose signature styles remain carefully preserved."

"After Man Ray"

"After Avedon"

"After Outerbridge"

All images © Chuck Samuels, courtesy of ClampArt, New York.

"Chuck Samuels: Behind the Camera" is on view through March 28, 2015, at ClampArt, 531 West 25th Street, NYC.

Coming next month from Kehrer is a cracking-looking book of photographs by Nancy Baron made in and around Palm Springs, a desert resort city about 100 miles east of Los Angeles in California.

"For most people, Palm Springs evokes images of a resort town of exquisite homes, glittering swimming pools, lush palm trees, and stunning golf courses where the rich and famous go to relax and retire. For others, Palm Springs signifies a town that has faded with time along with the passing of a long procession of A-list celebrities that flocked there during the mid 20th century from Hollywood elite like Bing Crosby, Lucille Ball and Bob Hope, to Presidents from Eisenhower to Ford to Reagan."

According to Wikipedia, Palm Springs has one of the highest concentration of same-sex couples of any community in the United States. Aren't any of them working as interior designers?

There will be a solo show at the dnj Gallery in Santa Monica's Bergamot Station from September 6 - November 1, 2014, with an opening reception and book signing September 6, 6-8pm. 

Whilst not trying to wish away the coming few weeks of summer, this is something to look forward to in New York in September. Throckmorton Fine Art will open documentary photographer Valdir Cruz' sixth exhibition at their gallery. It is the culmination of a thirty-year-long photographic essay: 'Guarapuava,' about the photographer's hometown in Brazil. 

"I could use my photography to honor the people and the landscape of my youth. I like to think that their part in the history of Brazil is now a little more visible."

Valdir Cruz' bodies of work are so rich, you should check out more on his website.

The blurb:

It has been said that Cruz's interest in photography began when he first viewed some of George Stone's photographs in National Geographic magazines in the 1970s. "Stone was a master teacher and it is thanks to him that I became a photographer." Cruz adds that it was George Tice who helped him become a good printer. At the Germain School he studied photography, but he gained technical skills from George Tice at the New School for Social Research, in New York. He later collaborated with Tice in the authorized production of two important Edward Steichen portfolios, Juxtapositions (1986) and Blue Skies (1987) before focusing largely on his own works. Valdir Cruz developed a deep understanding of how 20th century photographers such as Edward Steichen and Horst P. Horst expressed their creativity in photography. He says, "Mr Horst was not only a great photographer, but a gentleman. I remember the 80's with affection. Those were years of learning and growing tremendously in my vision -  and photography - and in my life!  Those were the years dedicated to New York City...and learning photography."  Valdir Cruz's work has been the subject of more than fifty solo exhibitions.

'Guarapuava' is on view at Throckmorton, 145 East 57th St, NYC, from September 18th to November 1st, 2014.

News from the south: September 12th, 2014, marks the opening of an exhibition of photographs by Mobile, Alabama-based photographer Vincent Lawson, at the Mobile Arts Council. Add Vincent to the list of lovable artists I met in New Orleans last year; I wasn't able to review his portfolio but we connected regardless. Look Vincent in the eyes and you can sense he's going to be invested in producing photographs like this.

"It is my goal that this project will help those who have little or nothing, whose dreams have been shattered, who think that no one cares for them, who think that they don't matter. If this project can change one person's way of thinking it will be a success."

Sorry I can't make it - share with someone who you think can!

"These photographs also ask a question: if you see another human being in need, will you pass them by or help them? The two choices: Empathy / Apathy." - VL.

I am deeply humbled to have received communication from Shahidul Alam regarding the exhibition 1134 Lives Not Numbers, a group show dedicated to the lost garment workers of Bangladesh, which opened yesterday at Pathshala South Asian Media Institute in Dhaka. 

"This 24th April will mark a year of Rana Plaza collapse and death of a thousand workers, thousand dreams. To observe this day, Artist practicing in different mediums including Photography, Installation, Performance Art, Sound, Film, Theater & Music will be holding a group exhibition." 

A CBS news article said today "...promises of compensation for survivors of the disaster and the victims' families have been only partially kept, according to Human Rights Watch. The non-governmental organization says a financial trust fund, chaired by the International Labour Organization, was targeted to receive $40 million from global companies that purchased products from the Rana Plaza factories. However, only $15 million has been contributed so far. 

"The group also says none of the 15 international retailers whose clothing and brand labels were found in the rubble of the factory by journalists and labor activists have donated to the fund."

© Abir Abdullah

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