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 The New 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

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)

There are a few key things that I’ve come to associate with summer in New England - longer and (slightly) warmer days, azure blue skies, gorgeous sandy beaches, more parking downtown (schools are out), Will Smith’s Summertime (alright, I can’t directly associate this “ode to summer” classic with New England but it is inextricably connected to my youth. If you too are of this generation and want to reminisce click here), and, of course, the PRC’s Summer Masters Workshops.

We have a great line-up of both skill and concept building workshops for a variety of interests. From Managing a Digital Workflow with Bruce Hamilton; to the travel workshop Environmental and Narrative Portraiture in Maine with Jocelyn Lee; to Barbara Bosworth’s workshop, the Uncanny Landscape; and Responsibility in Documentary Photography with Dominic Chavez; there is something for everyone.

For more detailed info on these workshops please visit the PRC website.

IMAGE CREDIT: Jocelyn Lee, Untitled (Long haired girl in water), 2002, chromogenic print