News

2008 Archive

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Moving Still: Derek Shapton’s Here
Davin — May 2nd, 2008

Heather Morton has posted a video she produced with Derek Shapton. It gives a further narrative glimpse into the childhood memories that are crystalized in his series Here.

“For the past year, I have been revisiting and photographing the locations of vivid early memories, ranging from the sidewalk in front of my childhood house to the park I used to play in to the former location of the pool where I first learned to swim. The images in Here are selections from this ongoing exploration.” — Derek Shapton on heathermorton.ca

Shapton’s series shares some of the visual language of location-based studies like Joel Sternfeld’s On This Site but adds a layer of personal remembrance and emotional response. I’m also reminded of projects like Gayla Trail’s Not Now, Not Ever which also takes childhood location as a jumping off point for creating new images with their own set of possible emotional reactions.

“Because I started this particular project while revisiting my childhood geography, time and place is very important to me. I try to create imagery that is difficult to date, capturing something that isn’t ‘right now’ but isn’t any specific time that has ever been or ever will be.” — Gayla Trail

I hope to see more of these videos from Heather Morton. I really like getting insight into an artist’s practice (which should be clear from from MakingRoom’s mandate) and even brief videos can shed a lot of light on how people work.

Derek Shapton has a show at The Gladstone Hotel here in Toronto (1214 Queen West) running until May 31st.

heathermorton.ca
derekshapton.com

Posted in People, Video — Comment
Christian Patterson - Sound Affects
Davin — April 26th, 2008

Spotted over at Shane’s site, Christian Patterson has posted a video teaser for his forthcoming book Sound Affects.

christianpatterson.com

Posted in Books, People, Video — Comment
Remain in Light Vol.1 Photographers Announced
Davin — April 17th, 2008

Shane Lavalette and Karly Wildenhaus have announced the photographers to be featured in Vol. 1 of their contemporary photography project, Remain in Light. The photographers chosen are varied and unique and should make for an incredible portfolio of images.

Andreas Weinand
Anne Lass
Coley Brown
Debora Mittelstaedt
Ed Panar
Estelle Hanania
Gustav Almestål
Hiroyo Kaneko
Kamden Vencill
Mark McKnight
Michel Campeau
Nicolai Howalt & Trine Søndergaard
Nicola Kast
Nicholas Haggard
Shawn Records
Raimond Wouda
Richard Barnes
Thobias Fäldt
Whitney Hubbs
Yann Orhan

Vol.1 of Remain in Light will also include a booklet with the texts: One Credo After Another by Tim Davis and A Telephone Conversation with Mike Mandel by Shane Lavalette

remaininlight.org/

Posted in Books, Magazines, People, Websites — Comment
Women in Photography
Davin — April 16th, 2008

This has been posted fairly widely at this point, but just in case… Amy Elkins and Cara Phillips have come together to act as curators of a new site which will present the work of female photographers on a monthly basis.

“There are more women working in the contemporary photo world then ever before. Their methods, choice of subject matter, visual language, and processes run the gamut of artistic possibility. What unites them is their passion and the effort they devote to creating extraordinary bodies of work. Women in Photography is a showcase for this work. It is also a resource for photographers, editors, curators, gallery owners, and viewers alike to discover and enjoy the work of female artists. By mixing the work of emerging photographers with artists that have achieved high levels of success within fine art and commercial worlds, the project is designed to open a visual dialogue and create a venue to share work, support, and ideas.” — Women in Photography

The site is currently seeking submissions and will launch in earnest with the first chosen photographers in June 2008. To submit, follow the guidelines below and send to womeninphotography at gmail dot com.

- 5 jpegs from a cohesive project or a work in progress.
5×7 @150 dpi named “myname_title.jpg”
- short statement/bio

There has been some discussion around the merits of websites, exhibitions, and projects which focus on women—whether it’s exhibitions organized around gender or support systems aimed at the needs of women only. Some have suggested that there is an isolationism, or worse a form of bigotry, in making the assumption that art created by women or the practices of female artists share a context simply because of gender. Another argument has been that there isn’t really a gender divide in contemporary photography and that talking about the possibility actually does a disservice to women by creating a schism.

I tend to disagree with both arguments and do believe that gender (plus race and class) bias is quite alive and unwell in society at large and certainly so in the photography world be it fine art or commercial. Recent exhibitions such as Humble’s 31Under31 may have featured only the work of younger female photographers but I don’t believe that an argument could be made that the curatorial process in their case simply involved choosing any work as long as it was created by a woman. The suggestion has been that grouping work simply because its creators are women is too thin and too arbitrary a context. But I have yet to see any real example of curators only looking at gender, even when gender is a primary focus of an exhibition.

There are a growing number of examples of women gaining reputations in contemporary photography and there is certainly a huge amount of incredible work being created by women. But because more female photographers are becoming known (often online), it doesn’t mean that they don’t face gender bias leading to warped expectations and different treatment related to male artists.

All that as a long-winded way of saying that I totally support efforts like Elkins and Phillips’ Women in Photography and also the related “Ask Me. I’ve got answers” badge campaign that Liz Kuball initated.

Posted in Organizations, People, Websites — Comment
Pause, to Begin - 15 photographers selected
Davin — April 15th, 2008

Pause, to Begin has selected the 15 photographers that will become the focus of the project’s first year.

Colin Blakely; Ann Arbor, Michigan
Timothy Briner; Boonville, California
Alejandro Cartagena; Monterrey, Mexico
Hin Chua; London, England
Tealia Ellis-Ritter; Barrington, Illinois
Matt Eich; Athens, Ohio
Matthew Gamber; Savannah, Georgia
Shawn Gust; Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
Shannon Johnstone; Cary, North Carolina
Erika Larsen; Hoboken, New Jersey
John Mann; Tallahassee, Florida
Thomas Prior; Brooklyn, New York
Brea Souders; New York, New York
Sonja Thomsen; Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Shawn Records; Portland, Oregon

Starting May 1, 2008, David and Ethan will depart the state of Maine with documentary filmmaker Bruno Toré for 1 month to meet the aforementioned photographers. Upon returning in June, 2008, Pause, to Begin will begin to unveil one photographer’s complete series of work per day at www.pausetobegin.com.

Posted in Organizations, People, Websites — Comment
Click! at Brooklyn Museum
Davin — April 15th, 2008

“Click! is a photography exhibition that invites Brooklyn Museum’s visitors, the online community, and the general public to participate in the exhibition process.”

“Click! … begins with an open call—artists are asked to electronically submit a work of photography that responds to the exhibition’s theme, Changing Faces of Brooklyn, along with an artist statement.”

Brooklyn Museum has entered the public evaluation phase of Click!. The work of each artist (chosen in the project’s first phase) is presented with a short statement and a sliding rank tool. I’m not sure about the granularity of the evaluation slider — I think that an out-of-five Likert scale may have worked better but that’s not overly important.

“Click! culminates in an exhibition at the Museum, where the artworks are installed according to their relative ranking from the juried process. Visitors will also be able to see how different groups within the crowd evaluated the same works of art. The results will be analyzed and discussed by experts in the fields of art, online communities, and crowd theory.”

brooklynmuseum.org

Posted in Exhibitions, Websites — Comment
Amy Stein - Stranded
Davin — March 22nd, 2008

Recently presented as part of SMoCA’s Car Culture exhibition, Amy Stein’s on-going Stranded series visualizes American social and political isolation. Stein’s extensive travels across the US to purposefully witness motorists stranded in America’s in-between spaces form a unique look at another middle America. I talked with Amy about Stranded and her motivations.

Read the Interview

Posted in Interviews, People — 1 Comment
Women in Art Photography panel
Davin — March 18th, 2008

Humble Arts Foundation and 3rd Ward are presenting a panel discussion moderated by Amy Stein with an wonderful cross-section of female photographers: Rachael Dunville, Tema Stauffer, Cara Phillips, Mary Mattingly, and Sarah Small.

Women in Art Photography
Saturday, March 22, 6 – 8 pm
3rd Ward
195 Morgan Avenue
Brooklyn, NY

RSVP to events@hafny.org

humbleartsfoundation.org/wiap_panel.html

Mostly unrelated web rant… hey Humble folks, why is the majority of the text on your site rendered as images?

Posted in Events, Organizations, People, Questions — 1 Comment
Robyn Cumming
Davin — March 18th, 2008

by Robyn CummingToronto photographer Robyn Cumming was interviewed about her latest work, Little Legs by Heather Morton. I interviewed Cumming a couple of years ago about her series In Place and as Morton notes, it’s exciting to see where she has taken things in her current work.

There is also a follow-up post discussing Cumming’s editorial/commercial work which is very timely given the amount of blog talk around the “fine art” photographers doing commercial work.

Morton is an independent art buyer, a misunderstood and to most people invisible profession and her new site already gives a different and interesting perspective — plus she’s also based in Toronto so there’s a further personal interest on the art buying decisions made by Canadian agencies and publications.

heathermorton.ca/blog/

Posted in Interviews, People, Websites — Comment
You were there, too.
Davin — March 18th, 2008

You were there, too.The Present Group is an art subscription service which offers a limited edition project from a new artist each quarter.

Their latest release is You were there, too., an edition of 45 three booklet sets by photographer Davin Youngs.

Davin says about the work, “My photographs are an investigation of how the nature of my relationships with those I photograph is visually represented. Gesture, location, and position of subject raise questions about the ways in which my interactions with the subjects exist and the space we occupy, even as it relates to self-portraiture. Some relational elements are clear, while others are questionable. This is meant to be the case, with the only consistent elements being the presence of me and the subject, as well as an awareness of my medium.” — Davin Youngs

thepresentgroup.com

Posted in Books, Organizations, Websites — Comment
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