Do they include any from this excellent list of 10 songs with photographic themes courtesy of Photo Shelter’s most excellent Shoot the Blog?
Besides Outkast’s Hey Ya! and their iconic “shake it like a Polaroid picture” chorus, what else, pun intended, develops? (Be sure to also check out the above post’s comment section for even more photo songs and photo punniness.)
A mix of such tunes might just be the perfect soundtrack for the next PRC PhotoSLAM! What do you think?
While you contemplate, you can listen to Jack Jackson’sF-Stop Blues!
A couple of weeks ago, the Boston Globe had a huge story about the 14 Boston commercial galleries that are changing, moving, or closing. Read the piece by Cate McQuaid here and see a slideshow here. If you really want fancy, try out their interactive map here. This coming fall’s openings will certainly be different. We wish all the best!
For other perspectives - be sure to check out Greg Cook’s recent post, as well as his excellent overview and coverage of the breaking gallery news since the spring as it happened.
Over in Big Red, and Shiny land, Matt Nash posted his take on their blog Our Daily Red. Also in the last issue of Big Red, Jess T. Dugan has an interview with Joseph Carroll on his new gallery endeavor and and Steve Aishman gave a beautiful eulogy to Allston Skirt.
Above is just one of the many images featured on the hilarious blog photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com. Check back daily and be sure to browse their older posts, accessible at the bottom of the page. Do give yourself enough time to browse, you’ll be sucked in!
Below is their ode to post modernism that accompanies the above classic from Mexico’s Maxim as well as their open call for erased furniture, missing belly buttons, elongated body parts, and cloning gone wild.
“By renormalizing the model’s waistline, Maxim Mexico takes a bold socio-political stance in the ongoing battle of the politics of representation, clearly referencing the oppressive reification of male-gaze heteronormative modes of synthesis in a semiotic blancmange of post-structural teakettle barbecue hatstand fishmonger.”
Have you seen a truly awful piece of Photoshop work? Clumsy manipulation, senseless comping, lazy cloning and thoughtless retouching are our bread and butter. And yes, deep down, we love Photoshop.
If it is commercial and awful then please let us know! Anonymity can be arranged for the easily embarrassed/canned. Although I am hopeless at replying to email, be assured that each and every tip is followed up.
We hope all photo friends enjoy the long weekend and celebrate in your respective ways! The PRC will be closed the 4th and through the weekend.
Today, I begin to take down the PRC Juried Exhibition (a great run! - but all good things must come to an end). The gallery will soon be given over to Summer Photo Camp, so there will be no exhibition on display until early September. Make no mistake, we’re still here, busy prepping for the next year and our upcoming 2008 PRC Benefit Auction!
Above is a Flickr montage for your enjoyment and here are some tips for photographing fireworks from the Boston Globe. Have a safe and happy 4th!
In this feature, we showcase an image per week from our current exhibition, EXPOSURE: 13th Annual PRC Juried Exhibition, juried by Aperture’s Lesley A. Martin. In celebration of the last weeks of the show, we increased the frequency (and the excitement). This is the last image!
Today is the last day to see the PRC Juried show! We’re open today - Wednesday - from 10am - 6pm. (If you are out of town, browse our flicker set.)
This week’s image is from Ellen Susan and is a gorgeous wet plate image. Ellen has been getting a lot of attention as of late. Besides the multi-page spread in June’s PDN, American Photo’s excellent State of the Art blog has a very long post on her work. Congrats!
ABOUT : Ellen Susan (Savannah, GA) produces one-of-a-kind portraits of U.S. Army soldiers based in Southeast Georgia using the historical wet plate process. The majority of men and women in her “Soldier Portraits” have been deployed to Iraq two or three times since 2003. A graduate of MassArt and RISD, Susan has shown at the Houston Center for Photography; RISD|Works in Providence, RI; New Orleans Photo Alliance Gallery in New Orleans, LA; and has an upcoming solo show at Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, OR this summer.
From Susan’s statement:
“Soldier Portraits” - The wet collodion process was the primary photographic method from the 1840s through the 1880s, encompassing the dates of the American Civil War. The men and women photographed for the Soldier Portraits project are members of the U.S. Army based in Southeast Georgia. Most have deployed to Iraq one to three times since 2003. Many are in Iraq now. Army deployments now last 15 months.
The necessarily long exposures of this slow process often result in an intensity of gaze, and the grainless, highly detailed surface brings out minute details of each individual. These attributes, combined with the historical military associations made me feel that the process could be a meaningful way to photograph contemporary soldiers and to provide a counterpoint to the anonymous representations seen in newspapers and on television. I wanted to produce physically enduring, visually arresting images of people who are being sent repeatedly into a war zone.
ABOVE IMAGE: Ellen Susan, SPC Shaun Kramer, 2007, from the series “Soldier Portraits,” Aluminotype, 10 x 8 inches, courtesy of the artist
In this feature, we showcase an image per week from our current exhibition, EXPOSURE: 13th Annual PRC Juried Exhibition, juried by Aperture’s Lesley A. Martin. In celebration of the last weeks of the show, we increased the frequency (and the excitement). This is the 2nd to last image!
You have 2 days to see the show - the last day is July 2nd! We’re open this week Tuesday and Wednesday 10am - 6pm. (If you are out of town, browse our flicker set.)
This week’s image is from Erik Shubert. Erik’s work, like the other Eric, is about work - and funny! Luckily, I haven’t had too many desk jobs, or these would hit even closer to home. I was thrilled that these two could meet at the opening reception.
ABOUT : Erik Schubert (Cambridge, MA), inspired in part by Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends and Influence People and his businessman father, has been collecting and documenting scenes and ephemera of corporate aspirations and failure. A 2007 MFA graduate of MassArt, Schubert has shown in several juried student shows in Boston such as Boston Young Contemporaries and the 2007 PRC Student Exhibition. He has an upcoming solo show, Thinking Big, at the Slocumb Gallery at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN.
From Erik’s statement:
“How to Win Friends and Influence People” - Realizing that we live in an increasingly business-centered society, how we navigate as “businesspeople” may determine the success or failure of our aspirations and the ability to pursue them. I am interested in how this kind of society shapes our visual world and language.
At a young age it was instilled in me that the mythology from Dale Carnegie’s classic book, How to Win Friends and Influence People was one that predicated success and happiness in life. The book has been widely published and accepted by businesspeople and corporate planners all over the world, including my father.
Some images are documentations of found items, constructed on location. Other images are documentations of ephemera that I have collected from such places as expositions, infomercials, my family, and home. With these photographs, I try to explore and communicate metaphorically the success, failure, and complexity of corporate mythologies in society.
ABOVE IMAGE: Erik Schubert, Level II, 2007/2008, from the series “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” Archival Inkjet Print, 19 x 23 inches, courtesy of the artist
Last night at the Wonder Bar in Allston, the PRC hosted its 3rd PhotoSLAM! A PRC member program, the PhotoSLAM! is a digital slideshow of photographs submitted by members, a democratic showcase of the work and talent within the PRC membership. Participants came to narrate their work, and cheered on friends in a supportive environment! A good time was had by all.
Check out the pics online by clicking here or on the above montage. We hope that you can join us next time!
In this feature, we showcase an image per week from our current exhibition, EXPOSURE: 13th Annual PRC Juried Exhibition, juried by Aperture’s Lesley A. Martin. In celebration of the last few weeks of the show, we are going to increase the frequency (and the excitement) and share 2 per week - it’s a veritable photo frenzy!
Don’t miss it. The show’s last day is July 2nd! (If you are out of town, browse our flicker set.)
This week’s image is from Eric Percher. Eric’s work is colorful and graphically stunning - and funny! Luckily, I haven’t had too many desk jobs, or these would hit even closer to home. Eric recently participated in Review Santa Fe. You can see some of his work here.
ABOUT : Eric Percher (Brooklyn, NY) considers the limitations we accept in order to obtain success. His series “Work” is in part a semi-autobiographical response to his seven-year experience in the financial offices and cubicles of Midtown Manhattan. A fine art photographer living in New York City, he recently received a CENTER (Santa Fe) Singular Image Color Award, Honorable Mention.
From Percher’s statement:
Work considers the limitations we accept in order to obtain success: the constraints erected by the desires and fears that drive our initial ambitions; the stricture of further aspirations that becomes necessary to maintain the success we achieve; and the restrictions inherent to a life in an office-cube, within a numbered building, on a gridded city.
The series reveals moments of limitation, as demonstrated by subjects who are themselves the hard labor and emerging leaders of New York’s most profitable enterprises. The project does not intend to repudiate individual pursuits of success but to illuminate the tensions and sacrifices required to achieve such success. Consequently, the viewer is asked to consider the same question as the subject: is there sustenance in your hard work and satisfaction in its completion, or is this simply an economic transaction, dollars in exchange for hours, security swapped for autonomy? Or as the subjects might put it, does the return justify the investment?
ABOVE IMAGE: Eric Percher, Untitled, 2006/2008, from the series “Work,” Digital C-Print, 30 x 40 inches, courtesy of the artist
In this feature, we showcase an image per week from our current exhibition, EXPOSURE: 13th Annual PRC Juried Exhibition, juried by Aperture’s Lesley A. Martin. In celebration of the last few weeks of the show, we are going to increase the frequency (and the excitement) and share 2 per week - it’s a veritable photo frenzy!
Don’t miss it. The show’s last day is July 2nd! (If you are out of town, browse our flicker set.)
This week’s image is from Ben Lowy. Ben’s work has been generating a lot of buzz here. The suite of 4 images are an interesting and different look at the war in Iraq.
ABOUT : Benjamin Lowy (New York, NY) captures everyday scenes in Iraq as seen through the lens of his camera and the inches-thick, bulletproof window of an American Army Humvee. A self-represented assignment photographer with stock syndicated through the VII Network and clients ranging from TheNew York Times Magazine to Newsweek, Lowy was named one of PDN’s 30 emerging photographers to watch in 2004 and participated in the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass. Granted the Eddie Adams/Carl Mydans Award for War Photography, Lowy’s work has received awards from American Photography, Communication Arts, World Press Photo, and Pictures of the Year International, among others.
From Lowy’s statement:
I began this project as a response to what I felt was the general inability of people back home to comprehend what Iraq is like. Most people have never really seen or felt the effects of war. Confronted by a level of violence so high that walking on the streets to photograph is tantamount to suicidal behavior, I found myself confined to working with American soldiers, spending most of my time going on various missions while looking at the landscape of this broken country. My only view was through the inches-thick bulletproof window of an Army Humvee.
Metaphorically speaking, these windows represent a barrier that impedes dialogue. These pictures show a fragment of Iraqi life taken by a transient passenger in a Humvee. The images are not intimate - they often show a distant and detached perspective of a country so empty, so desolate and of a situation so dire.
ABOVE IMAGE:
Benjamin Lowy, A U.S. Army tank patrols in front of an often bombed Iraqi police station in Abu Ghraib as seen from a passing army Humvee patrol on July 11, 2007, 2007, from the series “Iraq: Perspectives,” Archival Inkjet Print, 11 ¾ x 16 ½ inches, courtesy of the artist and VII Network
In this feature, we showcase an image per week from our current exhibition, EXPOSURE: 13th Annual PRC Juried Exhibition. However, in celebration of the last few weeks of the show, we are going to increase the frequency (and the excitement) and share 2 per week - it’s a veritable photo frenzy!
Get thee to the PRC before the show’s last day of July 2nd!
Originally from Spain and trained as an architect, Marta is a 2nd year graduate student at one of our member schools, Rhode Island School of Design. Marta’s work has been striking quite a chord with our visitors and we’ve been getting a lot of inquiries. In her series “On War,” Marta takes images depicting war or conflict in art and photography. The recognizable images include Goya’s The Third of may, 1808; Picasso’s Guernica, 1936; Robert Capa’s Death of Militiaman, 1936 (seen above); Richard Misrach’s Submerged Trailer, Salton Sea, California, 1983.
From Marta Labad’s statement: The following project is composed of crumpled-up familiar images that depict conflict. These images belong to my visual and cultural heritage and allow me to talk about the world surrounding us, especially conflict and aggression related to war, catastrophe, and the landscape.
ABOVE IMAGE: Marta Labad, ON WAR #5 (Robert Capa’s Death of Militiaman, 1936), 2008,Digital C-Print, 20 x 20 inches, courtesy of the artist
The blog Cigarettes and Purity has been on a Boston kick as of late (thanks for the shout out!). Leave it to Wisconsin to point us to a new blog in our own backyard, “The Big Picture” from the Boston Globe!
When they say big pictures, they mean BIG! While most blogs resize pictures to around 450 pixels wide, these are a whopping 990 pixels - it’s great to see images at this size! Keep checking back for news and photojournalist images, there is a new one almost daily. I am sharing the above image from the Chinese earthquakes as startilingly, I haven’t seen too many of them and I think we should see more. You can explore more in this album.
From their mission:
The Big Picture is a photo blog for the Boston Globe/boston.com, compiled semi-regularly by Alan Taylor. Inspired by publications like Life Magazine (of old), National Geographic, and online experiences like MSNBC.com’s Picture Stories galleries and Brian Storm’s MediaStorm, The Big Picture is intended to highlight high-quality, amazing imagery - with a focus on current events, lesser-known stories and, well, just about anything that comes across the wire that looks really interesting.
ABOVE IMAGE: A couple reacts immediately after an earthquake struck during their wedding photo shoot at a deserted catholic seminary in Pengzhou in southwest China’s Sichuan province Monday May 12, 2008. Five couples were having wedding photos taken when the earthquake struck, and all escaped without injury. The century-old seminary was destroyed in the quake, which left tens of thousands dead in Sichuan. (AP Photo)
In this new feature, we are showcasing an image per week from our current exhibition, the 13th Annual PRC Juried Exhibition. Molly Landreth is our 9th to date. Don’t forget, there is only 2 1/2 weeks left to see the show!
From Molly Landreth’s statement: “Embodiment: A Portrait of Queer Life in America” - This series of photographs is an archive and a journey through a rapidly changing community and the lives of people who offer brave new visions of what it means to be queer in America today. To be visible is to become both empowered and vulnerable, even in a world where progressive attitudes are beginning to take hold. These images depict subjects who meet my gaze with a rare combination of forthright self-awareness and total abandon, as if standing in for something much larger than themselves.
ABOVE IMAGE: Molly Landreth, Lindsay and Tina, Mills College, Oakland, CA, 2005, 2005/2008, from the series “Embodiment: A Portrait of Queer Life in America,” Digital Pigment Print, 20 x 24 inches, courtesy of the artist
Cara Phillips of the blog Ground Glass has emerged as a photographer and blogger to watch. Her blog is clock a block full of insightful posts.
I’d like to highlight a few of her amazing recent posts, both of which made me want to re-dub her CPRC (Cara Phillips Resource Center). Surf on in here to see her curated list of great web sites and blogs (ours among them, thanks for the shout out!). Another doozie of a post was “To be a photographer,” with Cara’s own 2-cents of career do’s and don’ts.
Cara along with Amy Elkins launched the entity/site “Women in Photography.” Currenly, they are showcasing the work of Elinor Carucci. Best of all, they accept submissions on a rolling basis. From their mission:
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 is co-curated by amy elkins and cara phillips. It will present a solo exhibition of work from select photographers every other Tuesday of the month.
In this new feature, we are showcasing an image per week from our current exhibition, the 13th Annual PRC Juried Exhibition. Robert Knight’s is our 8th to date.
A couple of weeks ago, we concluded a 2 week run of the PRC on Flak Photo. This “web photo happening” spotlighted 10 images from the Juried Show. We’re still a “feature” on their home page, www.flakphoto.com. Also be sure to check out Boston’s own Sage Sohier’s work as well. To see the show on the walls, check out our PRC Flickr page!
I have been a fan of Robert Knight’s work for some time now, so I was tickled when our juror Lesley A. Martin liked his work too. I featured Robert’s work on Northeast Exposure Online (NEO) in May 2006 - right when he was graduating from MassArt. Robert is one of our juried show alumni; he was also selected for last year’s exhibition as well by juror Jen Bekman (looks like he’ll also be a 20×200 soon!). This coming fall, he’ll have a show at Gallery Kayafas as well! Congrats!
From Robert Knight’s statement: In this subset of my larger “Dwelling” project, I explore the expectations which parents place on their children and which are reinforced by societal institutions, imagery, and traditions. Through my photographs, I perceive a parent’s hopes and dreams about their child’s future physical image, intelligence, and success, as well as tensions that may exist between these aspirations and reality. Collectively, I hope this project will make us conscious of children’s pressures and aware of the potential effects of the myriad images to which they are exposed.
ABOVE IMAGE: Robert Knight, Free and Hazel (Ages 12 & 8) #1, Roslindale, MA, 2006, 2006/2007, from the series “Dwelling: Caution - Children at Play,” Archival Inkjet Print, 31 x 39 inches, courtesy of Gallery Kayafas
Review Santa Fe is this weekend. I just stumbled on in to their web site knowing this and came across this fantastically wonderful new feature: they have created a page for all of the 100+ selected photographers featuring about 5 images, their web site, and a portrait! For me, it’s almost like going as a reviewer, but by proxy.
I have already hungrily looked at all of the pages and clicked through to several web sites. You can get to it by following the above link, but I have copied all names and page links below.
We want to wish those going, both photographers and reviewers, the best of luck! For those who don’t know about Review Santa Fe, it is a juried review hosted by Center (in a Prince kind of way, the center formerly known as the Santa Fe Center for Photography), a new member of our Connections network. You can enter to be considered for Review Santa Fe as well as the coveted Project Competition. Reviews are usually in May or June, and the entry deadline is in January.
I want to give a special shout out to the Boston and New England participants (and PRC members!): Meg Birnbaum, Jared Leeds, Caleb Charland, and past New Englander Eric Percher, who is currently in our 13th Annual PRC Juried Exhibition. Boston’s very own Pelle Cass is quoted on the web site, a hearty recommendation indeed. I hoped you have as much fun looking at the images as I did.
“Review Santa Fe has given me the best possible opportunity to move my work forward that can be crammed into 48 hours.” — Pelle Cass, RSF participant
Review 2008 Photographers: Click on the names to see work from their projects and for links to their web sites:
Last week, I surfed on in to our blogs stats and saw that Jörg Colberg of the blog Conscientious had posted on Boston Photography Focus as a blog to check out! Our stats increased substantially and I wanted to return the favor to him and a few other blogs of note. We’ll keep highlighting great blogs, so keep checking back.
Conscientious is a font of information and images. Jörg seems to post every day, and sometimes several times a day. One of the best things on the blog are his extensive interviews. I wanted to give Jörg a hearty thanks and second his emotion on 2 of them (the others I still have to check out!).
Dawoud Bey just launched a new blog called What’s Going On. Dawoud teaches at Columbia College in Chicago and was one of our past visiting lecturers. An amazing, humble, wonderful man, you can tell he is a wonderful teacher.
We can’t paint blog is one I have stumbled across recently as well. It’s nicely designed and shows some great stuff. We can’t paint also accepts submissions, the deadline is August 1st, so check them out! Plus, We can’t paint is an excellent name and its author is Canadian, both very cool attributes.
We can’t paint recently posted on Pause, to Begin, a unique project dedicated to emerging photographers that combines the web, a book, and recordings. The team just announced the 15 photographers selected for 2008 - and it includes 3 folks I know: Matthew Gamber, Colin Blakely, and Shawn Records. Congrats guys!
In this new feature, we are showcasing an image per week from our current exhibition, the 13th Annual PRC Juried Exhibition. This is our 7th to date.
Last Friday concluded a 2 week run of the PRC on Flak Photo. This “web photo happening” spotlighted 10 images from the Juried Show. We’re still a “feature” on their home page, www.flakphoto.com, and in the gallery, so check it out. Thanks Andy!
If you are out of town, don’t worry, we posted lots of images of the installation and reception on our PRC Flickr page!
From Martine’s statement: “Tête-à-Tête is a series of intimate portraits of my two adolescent sons and their friends, taken in our home in New York City as well as in the South of France. …Begun in the fall of 2005, the work explores adolescence as a liminal state-a time between childhood and adulthood, the feminine and the masculine, and innocence and a burgeoning self-consciousness.”
ABOVE IMAGE: Martine Fougeron, Nicolas and Adrien Dining, October 2005, from the series “Tête-à-Tête,” Digital C-Print, 15 ½ x 19 ½ inches, courtesy of the artist
* New England Institute of Art Photo Faculty Molly Lamb and Jared Leeds (past PRC NEO!) come out to support exhibiting artist and NEIA faculty Claire Beckett (center)
* Exhibiting artist and MassArt alum Erik Schubert and PRC Curator Leslie K. Brown
* PRC Executive Director Jim Fitts and Gallery NAGA Director Arthur Dion
* Juried show alum Bob O’Connor and friend check out Eric Percher’s work
In this new feature, we are showcasing an image per week from our upcoming 13th Annual PRC Juried Exhibition. This is our 6th to date, slightly delayed due to the holiday on Monday.
I first saw Talia Chetrit’s work in the juried graduate exhibition, Boston Young Contemporaries. I always love when artists address their own mediums. BYC 2008will be coming soon to the 808 Gallery, right next door to the PRC, July 18th through August 2nd!
Talia’s work is different, it’s hard to put a finger on it. Enthralled, I showed her in our online series of emerging photographers, Northeast Exposure Online (or NEO for short). I was thrilled that our juror Lesley A. Martin liked her work too and selected it for this year’s show.
Here is a snippet from her artist statement:
“Photography records optical space. Light and time are its basic elements. I reduce my subject to these fundamental components to investigate the potential of photography’s inherent properties and how we perceive and categorize this medium. I examine the photographic process and experiment with perception-both the viewer’s and my own. How can the basic tools of light and space move us? How can we encounter them differently?…From white to black, Grayscalerefers to the Zone System, a chart traditionally used when exposing negatives for a perfect tonal spectrum.”
And don’t forget - since this past Monday, the PRC has been teaming up with the kind folks at Flak Photo to feature 10 images from the Juried Show, a “web photo happening” if you will. The series continue today, and runs weekdays through the end of this week, May 26 - 30.
If you are out of town, don’t worry, we posted some images of the installation and reception (with more to come this week) on our PRC Flickr page!
ABOVE IMAGE: Talia Chetrit, Rainbow, 2007, Inkjet Print, 24 x 20 inches, courtesy of the artist
The show is hung, the labels are up, and the carpet is vacuumed! If you are in the Boston area, stop by for some art, hummus, and good conversation TONIGHT from 5:30-7:30pm. The show looks great!
Online today is a super AV slideshow feature on BU Today. Our favorite BU reporter Kimberly Cornuelle spoke to 3 of the artists in the show - Lana Z Caplan, Claire Beckett, and Cree Bruins - and the slideshow features every image in the exhibition!
Here is some other press for you to check out - but do come by and see the work in person if you can!
* Boston Phoenixlast week
* Boston Phoenix, this week, May 22, 8 days a week/ critic’s pick
* Boston Globe, Sidekick, Friday, May 23
Boston Photography Focus is a blog dedicated to Boston photographers, Boston photography exhibitions and education, photo enthusiasts, and all manner of photo-based activities, news, happenings, topics, and ideas in and around Boston, New England, and beyond. It is sponsored by the Photographic Resource Center (PRC) at Boston University, New England's center for photography. The PRC is an independent non-profit organization that serves as a vital forum for the exploration and interpretation of new work, ideas, and methods in photography and related media.
Boston Photography Focus is a blog dedicated to Boston photographers, Boston photography exhibitions and education, photo enthusiasts, and all manner of photo-based activities, news, happenings, topics, and ideas in and around Boston, New England, and beyond. It is sponsored by the 
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