Exploring Time in Relation to the Moving Image

The Hamburger Kunsthalle presents Roman Signer Exploring Time in Relation to the Moving Image

Posted: 25 Jun 2011 06:35 PM PDT

HAMBURG, GERMANY - The Swiss artist Roman Signer works with time as if it were just another artistic material, using it to create what he calls “events”: sculptures that are transformed in and by time. Many of them have been documented on film or were conceived as filmed pieces. In his projections of films and videos Signer focuses on a central theme in his work: the exploration of materials and time in relation to the moving image. In cooperation with Helmhaus Zürich,the Hamburger Kunsthalle is presenting a selection of 33 of his film works spanning the period between 1975 and 2008. 

Landscapes and Viewpoints at SKMU Sørlandets Museum in Norway

Landscapes and Viewpoints at SKMU Sørlandets Museum in Norway

Posted: 25 Jun 2011 06:55 PM PDT

KRISTIANSAND, NORWAY - Screaming from the Mountain: Landscapes and Viewpoints is a large scale exhibition examining the Northern European landscape tradition, departing from the painterly tradition of Romanticism, but with its main focus on how this can be mirrored and re-contextualised through contemporary art practices. The viewpoint proves as important as the view: where you stand in regards of geography, history, gender, power—or if you actually are not looking at a landscape at all, but on the genre as such. Now on view at the SKMU Sørlandets Kunstmuseum in Norway

Robert Hite's "Imagined Histories" Photographs

The Nassau County Museum of Art Presents Robert Hite's "Imagined Histories" Photographs

Posted: 25 Jun 2011 06:56 PM PDT

Roslyn Harbor, NY.- The Nassau Museum of Art is proud to present "Robert Hite: Imagined Histories", on view at the museum until September 4th. Sculptures sited among Hudson Valley landscapes and dramatic black and white photographs are all featured in th exhibition which is hosted by the museum's Contemporary Gallery and Art Space for Children on view through September 4. Hite is a sculptor, painter and photographer. A native of Virginia, he now lives and works in Esopus, in NY’s Hudson Valley. His work, always reflective of nature and of the surrounding landscape, reveals the influence of the rich Southern narrative tradition and his Hudson Valley surroundings. Hite has studied and photographed rural dwellings in Central and South America, Asia, Europe, the Caribbean and the Southern United States.

the Complex Dog-Human Relationship

Laumeier Sculpture Park Explores the Complex Dog-Human Relationship

Posted: 25 Jun 2011 09:42 PM PDT

ST. LOUIS, MO.- Laumeier Sculpture Park presents an exhibition that examines the complex intersection between our human behavior and that of our domesticated partners. Dog Days of Summer features the work of ten artists spanning nearly three centuries in both the indoor and outdoor exhibition spaces at Laumeier. The show explores the relationship between humans and canines as depicted in visual art, from an 18th century drawing to a 21st century site specific installation. The mutual impact humans and dogs have had on each other over time is a particular focus. 

Ships of the Desert

The BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts To Show Works by Belgian Photographers

Posted: 21 Jun 2011 09:05 PM PDT

Brussels.- The latest exhibition at BOZAR brings together 14 photographers at the instigation of BOZAR and the photography museums of Antwerp and Charleroi. Together, they will examine the fine line that now separates documentary photography and fine art photography. The fact is that, since the 1980s, photography has been permanently elevated to the rank of art, but has never been so used in the vast stock of photo-journalism. 

Legendary Polaroid Collection from Ansel Adams to Andy Warhol at WestLicht

Legendary Polaroid Collection from Ansel Adams to Andy Warhol at WestLicht

Posted: 19 Jun 2011 08:31 PM PDT

VIENNA.- Vienna-based photo museum WestLicht is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a show on instant photography and for the opening weekend the entrance is free of charge. On its 10th anniversary WestLicht is celebrating the never-ending fascination of instant photography. The Viennese photo museum showing a representative cross section of Polaroid inventor Edwin Herbert Land’s legendary collection. From the 1960’s Land began to provide artists with Polaroid material for them to experiment. More than 350 works by around 150 of the international artists and photographers represented in the collection are on display until the 21 August. 

"Adam Fuss ~ A Survey of His Work"

Museum Huis Marseille in Amsterdam Shows "Adam Fuss ~ A Survey of His Work"

Posted: 19 Jun 2011 10:14 PM PDT

AMSTERDAM.- What immediately stands out with the work of Adam Fuss is that, both in terms of the chosen subject matter and in his approach to the photographic technique, he has greatly dissociated himself from conventional photography. That which Fuss produces is, in fact, still a photograph; but in order to achieve that, he did rid himself of all the finer luxuries available to users of the medium nowadays. Like a present-day alchemist, Fuss has mastered the medium's most elementary and primitive forms; he sees just as much potential for creativity in technical knowledge as in the imagination, or the visionary power of the photographer. 

Images from Final Roll of Kodachrome Donated to George Eastman House

Images from Final Roll of Kodachrome Donated to George Eastman House

Posted: 16 Jun 2011 07:45 PM PDT

ROCHESTER, NY.- When Kodak announced in 2009 it would no longer produce Kodachrome film, company officials announced two ways the famed film would be celebrated: 1) National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry would be given the last roll off the Kodak production line and 2) the images from that historic roll would be donated to the archives at George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. McCurry today donated photographs from that final role to George Eastman House during a press conference in the museum. Eastman House will present a display of projected images beginning July 9 and will mount an international tour of the photographs in 2012. 
McCurry’s historic journey took him in 2010 to his hometown of New York City to western India and finally to Parsons, Kansas. That final stop was to the last lab in existence to process Kodachrome, which would close at the end of 2010, but not before developing his precious roll. 

“I don't think there's ever been, in the history of photography, a better film, a better way to actually look at the world than with Kodachrome,” McCurry said. “This was the only way I shot for decades.” 

McCurry spoke at Eastman House , sharing the 31 photographs he captured from the 36-frame roll – some frames were duplicate images -- and telling stories of his travels and his fears the roll would be harmed by airport security scanners. He and Eastman House officials also talked about the celebration of Kodachrome, a color film process that lasted longer than any other. 

“We celebrate Kodachrome at George Eastman House,” said Dr. Anthony Bannon, the Ron and Donna Fielding Director. “It was the world's first commercially successful color film, extolled since the Great Depression for its sharpness, archival durability, and vibrant yet realistic hues.” 

The subjects he shot on the last roll include Robert DeNiro and photographer Elliott Erwitt, plus unknown people in various parks in New York City; McCurry in his hotel room in Parsons awaiting film processing; and in India – where McCurry noted “color is important culturally” and where he used Kodachrome's magic to subtly render contrast and color harmony in depictions of Bollywood luminaries in Mumbai and the Rubari tribe in Rajasthan on the verge of extinction. 

“I thought, ‘What better way to honor the memory of Kodachrome than to try and photograph iconic places and people?’ It's in (my) DNA to want to tell stories where the action is, that shed light on the human condition,” McCurry said. He planned the trip, which he calls “a six-week odyssey,” for nine months. A crew from the National Geographic Channel followed him on his journey. That special has not aired yet in the United States but debuted this spring on European television. 

Kodachrome was produced for 74 years, from 1935 to 2009, in a wide variety of formats, including 35mm slide film and 8mm movie film. McCurry used Kodachrome for his well-known 1984 portrait of Sharbat Gula, the “Afghan Girl,” for National Geographic magazine. It also was used in 1953 for the official moving footage of the coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second. 

Kodachrome is appreciated in the archival and professional market for its dark-storage longevity, with colors remaining intact for decades. As digital photography reduced the demand for all varieties of film in the first decade of the 21st century, Kodachrome sales also declined. On June 22, 2009, Kodak announced the end of Kodachrome production. 

Kodachrome was invented in the early 1930s by two professional musicians, Leopold Godowsky Jr. and Leopold Mannes. A known comment in relation to these two men is “Kodachrome was made by God and Man.” Godowsky’s early papers are held in the archives at Eastman House, as are many varieties of Kodachrome film in original boxes from several decades as well as moving footage, slides, and photographs, including the documentation of Sir Edmund Hillary’s history ascent of Mt. Everest. 

“It's definitely the end of an era,” he said of Kodachrome. “It has such a wonderful color palette...a poetic look, not particularly garish or cartoonish, but wonderful, true colors that were vibrant, but true to what you were shooting. It was the gold standard of imagery.”

About Kodachrome 
Kodachrome was the first commercially successful color film. Kodachrome was the trademarked brand name of a type of color reversal film manufactured by Eastman Kodak Company from 1935 to 2009. It used a subtractive method -- in contrast to earlier additive “screenplate” methods such as autochrome and Dufaycolor -- and remained the oldest brand of color film. 

Kodachrome film was manufactured for 74 years in various formats to suit still and motion picture cameras, including 8mm, Super 8, 16mm, and 35mm for movies and 35mm, 120, 110, 126, 828 and large format for still photography. For many years it was used for professional color photography, especially for images intended for publication in print media. The film was sold with processing included in the purchase price except in the United States, where a 1954 legal ruling ended that practice. 

Kodachrome was first sold in 1935 as 16 mm movie film. In 1936 it was made available in 8 mm movie film, and slide film in both 35mm and 828 formats. Kodachrome would eventually be produced in a wide variety of film formats including 120 and 4x5, and in ISO/ASA values ranging from 8 to 200. Each of these formats was discontinued one by one through the last decade of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century. 

Unlike transparency and negative color films with dye couplers incorporated into the emulsion layers, Kodachrome had none. The dye couplers were added during processing. Without couplers, the emulsion layers were thinner, causing less light scattering and allowing the film to record a sharper image. A Kodachrome slide is discernible by an easily-visible relief image on the emulsion side of the film. Kodachrome had a dynamic range of around eight stops. 

Kodachrome required complex processing that could not practicably be carried out by amateurs. After labs around the world closed, Kodak subcontracted in recent years the processing work to Dwayne's Photo, an independent facility in Kansas, which was the world's last Kodachrome pressing facility. Dwayne's announced in late 2010 that it would process all Kodachrome rolls received at the lab by Dec, 30, 2010, after which further processing would cease. Due to high demand, the processing continued into January 2011, and then the world's last K-14 processing machine was taken out of service. 

Proof of its affect on popular culture, Kodachrome was the subject of Paul Simon's song “Kodachrome,” and Kodachrome Basin State Park in Utah was named for it, becoming the only park named for a brand of film. 

Andreas Feininger ~ New York in the Forties

Andreas Feininger ~ New York in the Forties ~ at the Bauhaus Archive

Posted: 12 Jun 2011 08:08 PM PDT

Berlin, Germany - Andreas Feininger (1906-1999), a Bauhaus student and the eldest son of Lyonel Feininger, regarded this as the most important prerequisite for good photography. He belonged to a generation of artists who, during the period after the First World War, discovered photography as an artistic medium that utilized an unbiased apparatus-the camera-to represent reality objectively. In the process, they developed a new mode of photographic perception. Clarity, simplicity and organisation were basic principles of Andreas Feininger's work. In a way that was almost unparalleled, he successfully combined thematic content with rigorous formal criteria and the demands of perspective and composition. 

Photographs by André Kertész

Martin-Gropius-Bau Displays Retrospective of Over 300 Photographs by André Kertész

Posted: 12 Jun 2011 09:49 PM PDT

BERLIN.- As the creator of images like Underwater Swimmer (1917), Chez Mondrian (1926) or Gabel (1929) André Kertész has a firm place in 20th century photographic history. It is not only his formally outstanding compositions which won him great esteem, but the surreally inspired poetry with which he captures such apparently simple things and situations. His innovative photographic instinct inspired many of his colleagues: Brassaï learned from him and Henri Cartier-Bresson betrays his influence. Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau is showing a grand retrospective of over 300 photographs by André Kertész, who was born in Hungary and lived in Budapest, Paris and New York.

Photographs of Social Behaviour

Martin Parr's Photographs of Social Behaviour on View at Studio Trisorio

Posted: 11 Jun 2011 07:36 PM PDT

NAPLES, ITALY - A solo exhibit of the works of photographer Martin Parr was inaugurated at Studio Trisorio in Naples, at via Riviera di Chiaia 215. Since the start of his career, Martin Parr has been fascinated with social behaviour, the manner in which people furnish their homes, the foods they choose to eat, the clothes they choose to wear and the places they choose to go on holiday. As he catalogued these everyday routines, his vision became increasing keen and ironic.

Arndt & Partner open Gilbert and George's Jack Freak Pictures in Berlin

Arndt & Partner open Gilbert and George's Jack Freak Pictures in Berlin

Posted: 11 Jun 2011 07:37 PM PDT

BERLIN.- As the international tour of the last Gilbert & George retrospective (2007–2009) did not include Berlin, Arndt & Partner are now presenting a solo exhibition of the celebrity artist duo in its gallery rooms behind the Hamburger Bahnhof. It is the first Gilbert & George solo show in Berlin for 14 years. The exhibition features a selection of 20 large-scale pieces from the Jack Freak Pictures, the largest Gilbert & George group of pictures to date.The thrust of the content is given by the colors and shapes of the Union Jack flag that dominate the bulk of the pictures as well as the recurring motive of medals, emblems and trees. In the Jack Freak Pictures the artist duo explores aspects of nationhood and of the sentient individual in the nets of society. In his essay published in the catalogue accompanying the exhibition the British writer Michael Bracewell describes these pictures as “the most iconic, philosophically astute and visually violent works that Gilbert & George have ever created...”

Digital Ink & Wash Photographs

The La Lanta Gallery Presents Lu Jun's Digital Ink & Wash Photographs

Posted: 11 Jun 2011 08:28 PM PDT

Bangkok.- The La Lanta Gallery is proud to present "How Far From Us" and exhibition by leading Chinese Arist, Lu Jun. With his name praised in several important art publications including Britain's Genuis list of top 100 International Artists, Chinese Photography, Art Magazine, Art Gallery, and Chinese Contemporary Artists 2009-2010 (to be released in 2011), Lu Jun's work is more than what the eyes can see. Lu Jun's work takes its cue from one of China's most well-known art forms -- traditional landscape painting -- but his process is wholly contemporary. His photography is “digital ink and wash”. 

'Spirit Red'

Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art features 'Spirit Red' a gift of Rennard Strickland

Posted: 09 Jun 2011 07:20 PM PDT

NORMAN, OK.- Art appreciation takes many forms, but for Rennard Strickland, collecting art has become a lifelong legacy. Over five decades, he has acquired more than 100 paintings, baskets, pottery, textiles and sculpture, representing some of the most acclaimed artists of the 20th century.Strickland, who is of Osage and Cherokee heritage, served as curator of Native American art at OU’s art museum in the early 1990s. In 2007, he announced that he wished to give his remarkable collection to the museum in memory of his mother, Adell Tucker Strickland. Highlights from his collection, which he recently gave to the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma

The Alfred Ehrhardt Foundation Shows "Flowers Contemporary Photography"

The Alfred Ehrhardt Foundation Shows "Flowers Contemporary Photography"

Posted: 09 Jun 2011 09:40 PM PDT

Berlin.- The Alfred Ehrhardt Foundation is proud to present "Flowers Contemporary Photography" from July 2nd through October 2nd. Beauty and transience, love and death. Hardly a living thing is used more frequently to symbolize these themes than the flower — even contemporary photographers repeatedly take up this century-old motif. For this reason the Alfred Ehrhardt Foundation is introducing its first exhibition surveying this theme. Presenting the exemplary work of 18 international artists and photographers, this selection brings together a great variety of approaches within contemporary flower photography. 

Hungarian Photography in the 20th Century

The Royal Academy To Host "Eyewitness: Hungarian Photography in the 20th Century"

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 05:40 PM PDT

London.- This summer, the Royal Academy of Arts will stage an exhibition dedicated to the birth of modern photography, featuring the work of Brassaï, Robert Capa, André Kertész, László Moholy-Nagy and Martin Munkácsi. Each left their homeland Hungary to make their names in Europe and the USA, profoundly influencing the course of modern photography. "Eyewitness: Hungarian Photography in the 20th Century" will be on view in the Sackler Wing of Galleries from June 30th through October 2nd.

Many other talented photographers who remained in Hungary, such as Rudolf Balogh and Károly Escher, will also be represented in the exhibition. Over 200 photographs from 1914 to 1989 will show how these world renowned photographers were at the forefront  of stylistic developments and reveal their achievements in the context of the rich photographic tradition of Hungary. Brassaï, Capa, Kertész, Moholy-Nagy and Munkácsi are each known for the important changes they brought about in photojournalism, documentary, art and fashion photography. By following their paths through Germany, France and the USA, the exhibition will explore their distinct approaches, signalling key aspects of modern photography.

André Kertész (1894 – 1985) showed an intuitive talent for photography which blossomed when he moved to Paris in 1925.  Using a hand-held camera,  he captured lyrical impressions of the ephemeral moments of everyday urban life. Proud of being self-taught, Kertész considered himself an ‘eternal amateur’ whose vision remained fresh; his highly personal style paved the way for a subjective, humanist approach to photography. A painter and designer as well as a photographer, László Moholy-Nagy (1895 – 1946) became an instructor at the Bauhaus in 1922.  He was a pioneer of photograms, photomontage and visual theory, using unconventional perspectives and bold tonal  contrasts to manifest his radical approach. His camera-less images and experimental techniques reflect on the centrality of light to the medium. Martin Munkácsi (1896 – 1963) was a highly successful photographer first in Budapest, then Berlin, covering everything from Greta Garbo to the Day of Potsdam. He moved to the US in 1934, securing a lucrative position with Harper’s Bazaar, revolutionising fashion photography by liberating it from the studio. Taking photographs of models and celebrities outdoors, he invested his photographs with a dynamism and vitality that became his hallmark.

The image of modern Paris was defined by Brassaï (1899 – 1984).  Introduced to photography by Kertész, who was then at the heart of an energetic émigré community of artists, Brassaï is known for his classic portraits of Pablo Picasso.  His stunning photographs of sights, streets and people bring vividly to life the nocturnal characters and potent atmosphere of the city at night. Robert Capa (1913 – 1954) left Hungary aged seventeen, first for Berlin where he took up photography, then on to Paris. He is often called the ‘greatest war photographer’ documenting the Spanish Civil War, the D-Day landings and other events of World War II.  In 1947, he cofounded Magnum Photos with Henri Cartier-Bresson and George Rodger. The exhibition will also celebrate the diversity of the photographic milieu in Hungary, from the early 20th century professional and club photography of Rudolf Balogh, Károly Escher and József Pécsi, to the more recent documentary and art photography of Péter Korniss and Gábor Kerekes.

Key works by over forty photographers will show how major changes in modern photography have been interpreted through a particularly Hungarian sensibility. Varied subject matter will include ‘Magyar style’ rural images; urbanite ‘New Objectivity’ photography in Budapest and Berlin; vivacious fashion photographs; powerful photojournalism of war; and emotive social documentary in post-war Hungary. Highlights include images from Brassaï’s  Paris by Night series, and such iconic photographs as Capa’s  Death of a Loyalist Militiaman, 1936; Munkácsi’s Four Boys at Lake Tanganyika, c. 1930 and Kertész’s Satiric Dancer, 1926. The exhibition will feature works from the Hungarian National Museum of Photography in Kecskemét together with the National Museum Budapest and public and private collections in Hungary and the UK. Visit the Royal Academy's website at ... http://www.royalacademy.org.uk

"Breakfast in Tehran~Contemporary Iranian Women"

Janet Rady Fine Art Presents "Breakfast in Tehran~Contemporary Iranian Women" Posted: 07 Jun 2011 09:52 PM PDT London.- Janet Rady Fine Arts are pleased to present "Breakfast in Tehran: Contemporary Iranian Women" on exhibit from June 13th through June 26th. Breakfast in Tehran will be a chance to see a selection of drawings, collage, photography, video and printmaking from a group of new and established Iranian artists living in Iran and exhibiting in London together for the first time. Artists featured include, Azadeh Akhlaghi, Navid Azimi, Majid Koorang Beheshti, Taha Heydari, Khosro Khosravi, Azadeh Madani, Saba Masoumian, Kourosh Salehi, Atefe Samaei and Rozita Sharafjahan.

New Digital Magazine "Adore Noir" Showcases the Work of Photographers

New Digital Magazine "Adore Noir" Showcases the Work of Photographers Posted: 07 Jun 2011 11:00 PM PDT VANCOUVER.- This Spring saw the launch of a highly anticipated digital magazine titled "Adore Noir". The PDF based magazine is dedicated to fine art black and white photography. Editor and publisher Chris Kovacs describes the magazine as “An amalgamation of classic and modern styles with everything in between.” Chris then goes on to say “I created this magazine out of necessity to fill a much needed niche. I wanted to provide a stage on which to showcase the works of amazing artists that may have otherwise gone unnoticed”

Lee Friedlander is the first photographer to make the car an actual "form" for making photographs

Photographer Lee Friedlander's New Book ~ "America by Car"

Posted: 06 Jun 2011 08:11 PM PDT

NEW YORK, NY.- Enduring icons of American culture, the car and the highway remain vital as auguries of adventure and discovery, and a means by which to take in the country's vast scale. Lee Friedlander is the first photographer to make the car an actual "form" for making photographs. Driving across most of the country's 50 states in an ordinary rental car, Friedlander applied the brilliantly simple conceit of deploying the sideview mirror, rearview mirror, the windshield and the side windows as a picture frame within which to record the country's eccentricities and obsessions at the turn of the century. This method allows for fascinating effects in foreshortening, and wonderfully telling juxtapositions in which steering wheels, dashboards and leatherette bump up against roadside bars, motels, churches, monuments, suspension bridges, landscapes and often Friedlander's own image, via sideview mirror shots. 

Fernand Fonssagrives

Michael Hoppen Gallery Announces Exhibition by Fernand Fonssagrives

Posted: 06 Jun 2011 08:17 PM PDT

LONDON.- The Michael Hoppen gallery announced an exhibition of work by one of America’s foremost fashion photographers Fernand Fonssagrives. Once the highest paid photographers in the world, he was ambivalent about the acclaim he received in his chosen field, preferring to remain anonymous. Little was written about him, even at the peak of his success. He was linked to the early ‘Design Laboratory’ classes of Alexey Brodovitch, and was a key member of the close knit group of photographers now celebrated as ‘The New York School'.