Last but not least!

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 will present a solo exhibition of work from select photographers every other Tuesday of the month. Please join us in our launch June 3rd 2008: WIPNYC.ORG

Every time I slow my steps the world just starts spinning faster...

Last night at the Chelsea Art Museum for the Show and Sell auction I ran into a lot of good folks and a lot of good work. Some people really scored some good deals on amazing photographs.
Ended up staying out far far past my bed time. Each time I swear I'm staying in, something unfolds. I'll be heading to Chelsea on Thursday eve. Can't wait to see what those insane photog/artists Kahn and Selesnick are up to.

Things to see:

May 22, 6-8
Kahn/Selesnick: Eisbergfriestadt; Solitary Ice
Diane Cook, Lynn Davis, Sebastiao Salgado (project room)
Reception for the artists
On view through July 3
Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 W. 22nd St.

May 22, 6-8
Philippe Gronon
Artist's reception
On view through July 11
Yossi Milo Gallery
525 W. 25th St.

May 22, 7-9
Architecture of Authority: Photographs by Richard Ross
Opening reception
On view through July 31
Aperture Gallery
547 W. 27th St., 4th Floor

This portrait of Lewis Payne was shot in April 1865, three months before his execution.
This triptych is amazing for so many reasons. The expression on his face... so calm, haunting, almost transparent, almost not there. I can't help but imagine where his thoughts were. Did he care that he was facing death?

For some reason it reminds me of this part of a book I read on the subway this morning... maybe that's what was reeling through my mind when I sought the image out in a google search. It was from a chapter in The English Patient that goes as follows:


© Alexander Gardner

"There's a painting by Caravaggio, done late in his life. David with the Head of Goliath. In it, the young warrior holds at the end of his outstretched arm the head of Goliath, ravaged and old. But that is not the true sadness in the picture. It is assumed that the face of David is a portrait of the youthful Caravaggio and the head of Goliath is a portrait of him as an older man, how he looked when he did the painting. Youth judging age at the end of its outstretched hand. The judging of one's own mortality...."

"He had felt like a man in the darkness of a room imitating the calls of a bird. But here they were shedding skins. They could imitate nothing but what they were."

Can't help but wonder if Lewis Payne felt like a man in the darkness of a room... shedding skin.. imitating nothing... facing death.

Another piece that keeps echoing for me is this video by Bas Jan Ader. His work is amazing and has influenced many artists since. There used to be a full length documentary about him available online that has since disappeared. Bas Jan Ader: In Search of the Miraculous, Jan Verwoert, ISBN 1-84638-002-2, May 2006. Incredible what drives artists to make their work. Ader was in love with the idea of gravity, weight, limitations, the vast.

Bas Jan Ader wasn't facing death in this video... but was later lost at sea while attempting a single-handed west-east crossing of the Atlantic in a 13ft pocket cruiser, a modified Guppy 13 named "Ocean Wave". The passage was part of an art performance titled "In Search of the Miraculous". Radio contact broke off three weeks into the voyage, and Ader was presumed lost at sea. The boat was found after 10 months, floating partially submerged 150 miles West-Southwest of the coast of Ireland. His body was never found. The boat, after being recovered by the Spanish fishing vessel that found it, was taken to Coruña. The boat was later stolen.

© Bas Jan Ader - "I'm Too Sad To Tell You"

"My old man's gonna be back soon and if we're still here he's gonna shit Twinkies."



When I was around 14 years old and living in Ventura, CA I was really into punk rock and skate boarding. Yes. I was a tom boy. My older brother was in a band called Patient Zero. We were in the suburbs an hour north of Los Angeles. We went to clubs that used to be XXX theaters. My friends were in bands with names like Dick Circus, Coat Hanger Kids, The Missing 23rd and Peter Pans Army. Ridiculous? Yes. My first show was D.I at the Mayfair Theater. I think it was shortly after my 13th birthday. I had just seen the original version of Suburbia (which D.I. plays a huge amount of the soundtrack for) so I was pretty fired up. I'm sure my brother and I drove our parents crazy with all of it. And seeing that it's Mother's Day I'll just go ahead and say "Thanks Mom for putting up with us during those years." Ha.. I think we both turned out ok.

At any rate... I've stayed in touch with a few folks from back in the day.. one being Jacob Rhodes who recently got his MFA from Yale with a degree in sculpture. An ode to Oxnard is on his site that I find quite humorous. Maybe you just had to be there.

Madonna's rejection letter, dated 1981.


2008 has been full of no's so far:

No Magenta Foundation
No NY Photo Festival
No Hyeres Festival

But I can't really ever get too upset about these things... because I look at the work that did get in and I see right away why they deserve attention and recognition. It's a steep competition entering all of these things, far steeper now that I'm out of school. Just more incentive to work harder, reach further, make more work, etc.

Props to Will Steacy for nominations into NY Photo Fest and for acceptance into Magenta. And to all my other friends that got nominations for the NY Photo Fest. Good luck to all of you.
---

Pat On The Back Apparatus
Patent : US4,608,967 Date 1986
Inventor: ; Ralph R. Piro