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Tierney Gearon: The Mother Project
Davin — November 10th, 2007

Tierney Gearon: The Mother ProjectI recently watched the DVD release of Tierney Gearon: The Mother Project a documentary by Jack Youngelson and Peter Sutherland.

The documentary follows Tierney over the course of three years as she assembles her new body of work, a project that promises to be even more provocative than the photos that originally made her career.

The film documents an incredibly tumultuous period in Tierney’s life, from her move from London to Los Angeles to having a third child at age 41. Tierney is famously reclusive and has always wanted her work to speak for itself, for her audience not to have any preconceived ideas about what motivates the photographs. As Tierney says, all of her photographs are portraits of herself.

— Press Kit, Tierney Gearon: The Mother Project

Gearon’s mother — diagnosed as manic-depressive, schizophrenic — became the primary subject of her personal work after a period where she became notorious for her photos of her young children. She has been challenged on the validity of both projects and labeled by some an opportunist, exploiter, and very nearly a child pornographer. Gearon’s images are very often intense but also infused with the brightness and warmth of saturated commercial images.

Their relationship is complicated – her mother has suffered from mental illness for much of her adult life. Through the process of making these photographs, Tierney has struggled to understand how her mother lives now, as well as coming to grips with how her illness effected Tierney as a young girl. By extension, the process of taking the photographs also reflects Tierney’s struggle to be a good parent to her own children. Tierney describes her pictures as a form of therapy – a means of healing herself. The truth is never what it seems in Tierney’s world, however; the eerie tableaus at the heart of her work always hide a deeper meaning just beyond the edges of the photographs.

The documentary addresses the questions that have long been associated with Tierney’s controversial work, and by extension, questions that face all artists who draw on their family for inspiration. Are the photographs as therapeutic for her subjects as they are for her? Is the camera Tierney’s way of communicating with her family, or is it a protective shield?

— Press Kit, Tierney Gearon: The Mother Project

The documentary has been superficially compared to Albert and David Maysles’s 1976 documentary Grey Gardens. Similarities are drawn between Gearon’s mother and Grey Gardens’ subject “Little” Edie Beale. The more valid comparison seems to be the working style of the filmmakers; in each case they have maintained a long-term intimate relationship with their subjects while managing to portray them naturally. Their presence is felt but doesn’t seem to alter the relationships of the subjects radically.

This film was powerful for me for personal reasons but it is also a very effective document of an artist at work — both quite in control of her intent and vision and also struggling with its effect on her and her family.

Posted in Books, Video, Websites — Comment
Christian Patterson - Neu!
Davin — November 10th, 2007

Christian has redesigned and updated his portfolio site with recent work from Germany and a different take on displaying set of images. Some of the images are presented at almost thumbnail size within wide collaged groupings of frames.

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Pause, to begin
Davin — November 6th, 2007

Pause, to begin is a photographically driven publication with an emphasis on the process of making work.

This new initiative is interesting for a couple of reasons: one because it’s mission seems to be quite in line with ours here at MR and two because it reminded me somewhat of the recently started Fjord project in that it’s purpose is to use the web as a means towards making a print project. I suppose what I find missing in both is context — I’m not entirely sure what the form or intent of these print projects is. In the case of Pause, to begin, those interested in being a part of the project can pay $25 to have their work reviewed by a panel while Fjord’s large group have been personally selected. I think I’d just like to know more about these projects since each of them are rather sparing in what they disclose.

Posted in Books, Websites — 3 Comments
Humble
Davin — October 20th, 2007

Humble Arts Foundation is a not-for-profit group based in New York that fosters and presents the work of emerging photographers. Well known for their online “Group Show” series — currently in it’s 19th incarnation — Humble has also curated a number of gallery exhibitions and is now offering a “grant for emerging photographers.”

humbleartsfoundation.org

Posted in Websites — 1 Comment
ASDF
Davin — October 20th, 2007

ASDF “is a series of collaborative projects by Mylinh Trieu Nguyen and David Horvitz. They are first and foremost works that can be translated through digital mediums, enabling free access and reproduction of the files.”

The first project from ASDF is a “photography publication” presented as a downloadable PDF and featuring the work of photographers: Reggie Guerrero, David Horvitz, Andrea Longacre-White, Ye Rin Mok, and Tony Papin.

Nguyen and Horvitz don’t necessarily see the online presentation of their projects as their final form. They suggest that through donations or sponsorship they would like to see these works evolve into printed publications.

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Kickass Young Photographers
Davin — September 16th, 2007

This week, Fjord, a new organization aiming to promote the work of young emerging photographers launched online. The project’s stated goal is to aid photographers who currently have some presence on the web by curating their work into book form.

Each of Fjord’s current roster of over 60 photographers is featured with brief set of images and contact information. No more details are provided about the book project at this point. The list includes quite a few photographers who’s work I know either from their blogs or from Flickr. Michelle Arcila, Shane Lavalette, Ye Rin Mok, Justin James Reed, Bryan Schutmaat, Shen Wei, and Davin Youngs are just a few of the names that jumped out at me.

At least some of the artists listed are also members of the Young Photographers Unlimited foundation whose similar aim is to promote and foster the work of emerging photographers.

What’s interesting even beyond the variety of great work these two projects promote is that it seems like the majority of these young photographers are entering their careers (commercial, fine art, or both) using the web quite naturally as a promotional and communications tools. While the art world (read as commercial interests) continues to focus on printed works as the defacto art ‘product’ of photography, a generation of artists who are comfortable with their work being functioning across a variety of media may produce an alternate effect.

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20×200 Launch
Davin — September 16th, 2007

I received an announcement email that Jen Bekman’s 20×200 project is officially open today after launching earlier this month in ’sneak-peek’ mode. Jen Bekman is well-known as a New York gallerist and the curatorial force behind the Hey, Hot Shot emerging artist juried profile series.

20×200 is a new concept in providing low-cost, small run art editions from a growing pool of hand-picked artists. Editions of 200 are offered at $20 a piece with other smaller numbered editions offered of larger versions at equally approachable prices.

The pre-launch buzz around the launch of the 20×200 project has prompted some artists like Tim Atherton to market their own affordable editions.

The 20×200 concept will only grow in interest as the project’s team adds new work weekly which promises to build a vast and varied selection of work in no time. Watch the 20×200 blog or mailing list for announcements of new work each week.

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Do You Know What it Means
Davin — August 30th, 2007

“Do You Know What it Means is a collaborative, educational effort designed to help the public better understand what life was like in New Orleans before the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster. Our mission is to collect the untold stories of the people of New Orleans by chronicling and preserving them in an accessible and public digital archive comprised of collected photographs, videos, family histories, interviews and other artifacts. The archive will result in a virtual representation of New Orleans that will in turn help bring a divided community back together.”

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Jörg Colberg: Higher Education
Davin — August 7th, 2007

Jörg Colberg, who maintains the wonderfully prolific and insightful photography blog Conscientious, has recently revealed a group of images form his series Higher Education. They are still and solitary but warm images of academic spaces. Joerg writes that more contextual information is coming soon so follow-up at his site: jmcolberg.com.

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Strife Photography
Davin — March 12th, 2007

rossevertson.com/blog

Ross on the contentious issue of aesthetics and documentation:

“It encompasses any documentary work that might not fetishize, but aesthetizes the unpleasant nature of a given situation, whether it be the war in Iraq or a holler in Appalachia. From war to the poor.”

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