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November, 2007 Archive

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Words Without Pictures
Davin — November 30th, 2007

The just launched website Words Without Pictures is essentially a relaunch of the Tip of the Tongue essay and discourse site that had a brief life in the past year. This relaunch is most likely in no small part due to Charlotte Cotton’s new position at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the project’s sponsor.

Words Without Pictures inaugural essay is Christopher Bedford’s provocatively titled, Qualifying Photography as Art, or, Is Photography All It Can Be?. The core of his question is squarely for those entrenched in art criticism and not necessarily for those involved in its creation. But there are some interesting distinctions to be made in terms of those artists who use photography to facilitate a broader conceptual goal and those whose intent is inherently about “capturing.”

Posted in Websites — Comment
Sander Plug - Chocolade Haas
Davin — November 30th, 2007

Just because.

© 2007 Sander Plug

Posted in Video — Comment
Sour grapes, cronyism, and pep
Davin — November 30th, 2007

Portland, OR photographer Shawn Records (website with fancy dots here) has recently started blogging and had a couple of con-joined posts on dealing with the mixed bag of feelings surrounding juried exhibitions and form letter laden rejection of all sorts: pep talk / sour grapes and cronyism… two from the home team

I’ve bounced similar thoughts around about the validity of juried shows and other pay-for-play opportunities to get work in front of what one hopes will be an influential set of eyeballs. I’ve wondered about the possible closed-loop of relationships that may effect decisions in these cases while never really putting my own work out there because of my own mixture of sour grapes and self deprecation. It’s easy to believe in corrupt systems that serve to line some person or corporation’s pockets but it’s maybe just as easy to take a look at the great work that is included in many juried shows and emerging annuals — great work chosen by people who are dedicating unpaid time for the most part to someone else’s work.

Shawn takes this latter approach in his recent posts. He recognizes his own misgivings and flips them into something more positive.

Posted in People, Rant, Websites — Comment
SOLO — Ye Rin Mok
Davin — November 29th, 2007

We missed SOLO last week but it’s back with an image from Ye Rin Mok.

Korean-born Ye Rin Mok is a photographer based in Los Angeles. Her portrait work has been featured in numerous magazines and has a recognizable fusion of chill and emotion. Her editorial and personal work is infused with cool light and a universal sense of reserve — sometimes even secrecy.

But the images aren’t cold. They’re emotional and have the occasional bursts of wry humour.

Posted in SOLO — Comment
Ed Panar - Golden Palms
Davin — November 29th, 2007

Ed Panar - Golden PalmsEd Panar’s new book Golden Palms has it’s release party Friday night in New York.

November 30th
International Center for Photography
1133 Sixth Avenue (at 43rd St) New York City
6:00 to 7:30 pm

Panar’s book is just one of the J&L titles being released: Stuff I Gotta Remember Not To Forget by Darin Mickey, 72 Girls and Some Boys Who Could Be Models by Anne Daems, and J&L Video by various artists.

Posted in Books, Events — Comment
The Abominable Charles Christopher
Davin — November 17th, 2007

The Abominable Charles ChristopherThis post is something a bit different for MakingRoom but we do occasionally feature non-photo visual art and there are really no rules to break. A couple of days ago, a friend pointed me to a fairly new web comic and I was instantly captivated by it. It’s called The Abominable Charles Christopher and it’s created by Toronto’s Karl Kerschl as part of a group of serialized web comics at transmission-x.com.

Transmission-X is also home to comics by friends, Claudia Dávila and Michael Cho, who are both supremely talented.

Posted in People, Websites — Comment
Must Not Sleep / Must Warn Others
Davin — November 17th, 2007

Must Warn OthersMust Not Sleep / Must Warn Others is a collective of photographers striving to promote positive social change through the power of photography.

Formed in Seattle, the group has expanded to include other like-minded US photographers:

Greg Wasserstrom - Brooklyn, NY
Greg Lutze - Seattle, WA
Bryan Schutmaat - Houston, TX
Christina Mei Lutze - Denver, CO
Leif Anderson - Seattle, WA
Ian Whitmore - Chicago, IL
Jerad Knudson - Seattle, WA

The collective seeks to effect change through “shows and books with proceeds going towards selected charities, pro bono work for non-profit organizations and personal projects with a heightened sense of humanity.”

mustwarnothers.com

Posted in People, Websites — Comment
Ross Evertson — Disappear Here
Davin — November 16th, 2007

Ross Evertson - Disappear HereMakingRoom Co-Editor, Ross Evertson, recently wrote about a project he did with Los Angeles’ People Assisting the Homeless (PATH) back in 2005. The project resulted in a series of images entitled Disappear Here which take an alternate look at how we see homelessness — or don’t.

Posted in People, Websites — 1 Comment
SOLO — Kemp Attwood
Davin — November 14th, 2007

thumbThis week’s SOLO feature is Kemp Attwood: “Late Fall”.

Kemp is a Canadian designer and photographer currently living in Paris, France. While working and traveling around the world, Kemp’s warm and evocative images have appeared on intransient.com. You can also see Kemp’s photos in the unique image-collage tool he developed the Photo Sampler.

Posted in SOLO — Comment
Ffffound!
Davin — November 13th, 2007

Ffffound!I was given an invite to the image bookmarking site Ffffound! about a week ago and I can definitely say I’m a little addicted. Ffffound! is currently still in private beta but you can still catch the spillover of new and popular images and subscribe to an “everyone” feed.

There’s already a very eclectic mix of images on the site: the standard web forwarded animated GIFs, countless examples of Modernist design ephemera, cheesecake photos past and present, hot new graphic design, photography, and other visual art. For a website originating from Japan, it is also highly Western and english-language in focus. I hope that aspect will get better when the site is eventually open to the public.

Ffffound! isn’t so much a social networking site but it does have some small hooks like “followers” and “following” between members but these are much more of an automated thing based on how your taste in images tracks versus other member’s taste.

Posted in Websites — 4 Comments
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