Based in Montreal,
Ben Pobjoy is a producer, a creative director, a publisher, and still a young, hungry photographer. His photographs are straight-up, somewhat reflecting his tongue-in-cheek attitude: the latest issue of his brilliant photo newsprint publication '
The Tourist' features 40-pages on Justin Beiber by
Alex Sturrock; the accompanying blog demonstrates why The Tourist and aCurator hit it off. "One of the early motivations for founding the Tourist was our collective desire to establish a platform for long-form photo essays." I find Ben's varied activities refreshing, and love his attitude - he offers high-res files of some of his images: "Bare walls are sad walls, so make some prints and spruce up your place."
View the full screen magazine photo feature.
"On November 1-3, 2011
NYCFotoWorks will host the Fusion Portfolio Review, merging motion and still imagery into the most comprehensive professional portfolio review they have yet to host. All photographers must apply to the event in order to attend, ensuring professional quality of work."
Time to apply! This well-received portfolio review has an amazing roster of professionals available to meet one-on-one and critique your work. Do apply soon - you need to be pre-screened and then booking appointments is first-come, first-served. I am really impressed with the line-up -
check out the latest roster.Discount code JGFoto gets you 5% off.
In June 2011, NYCFotoWorks hosted the Emerge Portfolio Review that brought more than 180 professional photographers together from all over the world to meet with 150 of the industry's top professionals. Watch the video of the event here and see what some of the attending photographers had to say.
Here's a win-win situation: you get rid of your old digital cameras, their batteries and chargers, and in return, you get a pint and a dose of 'nachus' (Yiddish - look it up!). Help
cARTwheel, a fresh, young organization who is headed to Sri Lanka to bring photography fun to kids who until recently have known only wartime.
Simple.
Opening November 3rd at
Jackson Fine Art in Atlanta, is '
Paper-Cut-Project'. As per the press release, Amy Flurry and Nikki Salk of Paper-Cut-Project are Atlanta-based artists whose innovative paper wig sculptures have captured the imaginations of fashion's most illustrious houses. In 2010 their debut collection of paper wigs was featured as an installation in the Atlanta and New York locations of Jeffrey boutique.
I, of course, just love the photograph, by
Greg Lotus.
Image Courtesy of Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta and Greg Lotus. Image Copyright Greg Lotus. 
One of the more joyful meetings I had at the ASMP Commercial Portfolio Review earlier this month was with
Dolly Faibyshev. This impressive young woman has already published a book with Schiffer, '
Palm Springs Mid-Century Modern' and is one of a small handful represented by
Finch and Ada.
I was drawn to her lurid series 'Meatpacking District' which Dolly describes as "...a series of garish interiors. The eye-straining color palette, sexualized furnishings, disco balls hovering over fountains and urinals made to feel like an exotic island sunset come together to create the ultimate disturbed fantasy. There is something unsettling in this space designed for fun."
All images © Dolly Faibyshev
Life at the Karsh archive is always fascinating, entertaining and enlightening. I was contacted recently by a woman who shared the story of her mother's sitting with Mr. Karsh.
"It would have been late '30's, early '40's - from his Sparks St. Mall studio. She used to tell us this great story about it. She had booked the appointment and it was pouring rain out, so she wore a raincoat with a hood to protect her hairdo. When she walked in, Karsh stopped her and said, "Don't move! I'm going to take your photo just like that!" But she had saved up all her money for a professional portrait, so she pooh-poohed that idea and took the raincoat off. The portrait is lovely, but she regretted her haste in later years, and thought it would have made a really interesting photograph with the raindrops glistening on her hood."
Afghan police officer preparing to patrol a village, Panjwa'i District, Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Photo © Louie Palu
20 x 24 inch pigment print. 2010Honfleur Gallery presents award winning photographer
Louie Palu's work, The Fighting Season, which was completed as several related studies of Kandahar and the surrounding region of Southern Afghanistan. October 2011 marks the tenth anniversary of the current conflict in Afghanistan and FotoweekDC is the perfect opportunity to showcase this timely work. The exhibit's opening reception and artist talk will open November 2nd at 6pm, a few days before the official start of this year's
FotoweekDC.
Three brothers wounded by an insurgent's bomb, Zhari District, Kandahar, Afghanistan. 2010
Photo © Louie Palu20 x 24 inch pigment print.
Dust and smoke on helicopter landing zone, enemy possible, Zhari District, Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Photo © Louie Palu
24 x 30 inch pigment print. 2010
2010. A wounded soldier in a medevac helicopter after a night raid, Zhari District, Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Photo © Louie Palu
20 x 24 inch pigment print.
Many of Palu's photographs featured in this exhibition were taken in
combat conditions. Palu worked independently of military units and also
worked embedded while covering military operations where he spent
extensive periods of time with the U.S. Army, U.S. Marines including
Canadian and British combat units. In 2010 he flew on over 100 MEDEVAC
missions to the front lines with the U.S. 101st Combat Aviation Brigade. - Honfleur
aCurator had the honour of meeting Louie Palu at FOTOfusion in January where we were each on panels talking about our work. At the time, we were in the only contiguous state that was without snow, which is a good reason to join us this coming January for the 17th annual FOTOfusion.
Louise Dahl-Wolfe, 1988 © Abe Frajndlich
aCurator proudly presents images from a brand-new book by an old friend and supporter,
Abe Frajndlich; '
Penelope's Hungry Eyes: Portraits of the Master Photographers' just debuted at Frankfurt Book Fair. Here we touch briefly on the dozens of portraits that Abe has made across three decades. The book is not just packed with the greats but tells a tale of a young photographer, eyes opened by the unique gig of organizing Minor White's library in 1970, finding his place in history.
"The saga began in 1988 when Peter Howe, the picture editor at Life magazine at the time, asked me to photograph the 'Grandes Dames of Photography,' influential figures like Berenice Abbot, Barbara Morgan, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, and Ruth Bernhard. In the middle of the shootings I began to feel that Howe was exercising reverse sexism, by excluding the 'old boys,' and so he gave me a green light to photograph Aaron Siskind, Harry Callahan, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Andreas Feininger, Alfred Eisenstaedt, and others; and I was on my way."
The book is in US stores as of November 1st, and on December 7th the
New York Public Library will be host to a discussion between Abe; Henry Adams, author of the introductory text; and Duane Michals, one of the 101 photographers in the book.
Update: OUT NOW:
Get yours
Head of Medusa, after RubensLook carefully and discover the world of
Chadwick Gray & Laura Spector.
These two artists have been working with museums for many years, gaining access to storage facilities, working with the curators to find paintings (mostly 19th century female portraiture), documenting them, and Laura Spector subsequently recreating them on Chadwick Gray's body. The painting process takes between 6 and 18 hours, is then photographed and printed up to the size of the original art work, sometimes a large mural.
Employing the illusion of
multistable perception the final photograph often keeps your eye wandering around and around the frame.
"The recreated paintings of these historic portraits recapture the subjects in their own moment in history. The resulting photographs reveal a unification of art combining antiquity, history and technology in a contemporary context."
Most museums seem to not want people viewing their hidden treasures. Then there's examples such as New
York's Metropolitan Museum who claim they don't have a storage facility. Now, as Chadwick says, somewhat ironically they themselves have a body of work that hasn't been seen by the public. So the two award-winning artists are putting together an exhibition which will be shown initially at the Pratt MWP Arts Institute in Utica, NY and it is for this they are looking for crowd-funding to produce and frame the works. Information is available over at
Kickstarter. Incidentally, Chadwick & Spector are offering one of my favorite rewards: for a pledge at a certain level, wine and cheese via Skype!
There's a
TEDx lecture that's fun to watch, which includes a time-lapse video of a 15 hour painting, compressed to 45 seconds.
View the aCurator magazine full screen photo feature.
Opening today at
B. Hollyman Gallery, Austin, Texas, with a reception on the 6th, and a talk on the 13th, is
Loli Kantor's 'And If A Voice Was Heard'.
"Loli Kantor reminds us of the power of the photograph; the life it breathes, the destruction it stills. In her solo exhibition, 'And If A Voice Was Heard', Kantor shows us a collection of images anchored in history, loss and survival. Balanced by a personal exploration of her own roots, Kantor documents the complexities and remnants of Jewish life in Eastern Europe after the Holocaust and a tumultuous century of the rise and fall of the Soviet era.
In 2004, Kantor traveled to Krakow, Poland to participate in a reclamation project in Plaszow, a former Nazi labor camp. It was here she began researching the whereabouts of her immediate family, many of whom had perished during the Holocaust. What ensued was a journey into Eastern Europe's narrative of destruction, death, absence and grief, revealed to her along the many trips she took to Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine over the next three years. Using a variety of camera formats, the works were created in black and white and printed in gelatin silver. They are a poignant archive of survivors, empty synagogues, dilapidated monuments, and the faces, hands and homes of a generation old and new. Within a body of work so resonant with memory and what once was, Kantor also asks us to imagine what is to come."
All images © Loli Kantor, courtesy of B. Hollyman Gallery
