WIP wip wip

It's pretty nice to know that the hard work and time that goes into Women in Photography pays off in such wonderful ways. Our goal is to help promote and share the works of woman working in the photographic medium and hopefully to open up doors or at least aide in the process of getting more of the work out into the world. This past June we held our first grant opportunity: the WIP-Lightside Individual Project Grant. It took a tremendous amount of time to narrow down our selections (as there were a ton of amazing entries). We awarded the Individual project grant to Erika Larsen and the Individual project grant runner up to Erica Allen. Both of which have been up to so much great stuff. Erica Allen, who graduated from the MFA program at SVA has been keeping herself very busy lately. Her solo show, Untitled Gentlemen, opens up tonight at Melanie Flood Projects.. while over at CCNY her work is up in the group show curated by Jon Feinstein (see post below)



Exhibition Dates: November 8 -- December 2, 2009
Reception: Wednesday, November 11, 2009, 6-9pm

Untitled Gentlemen
a solo exhibit of photographs by Erica Allen.
Melanie Flood Projects
186 Washington Avenue Brooklyn
New York 11205
Hours are Tuesday-Friday by appointment only.

Make sure to check the show out, as it is the last thing running at Melanie Flood until further notice.

Sharon Core

© Sharon Core

Off the common Chelsea path! Tomorrow, Sharon Core will be exhibiting at the gallery of Hermes’ Madison Avenue store. The exhibit, curated by Corey Jacobs, is part of the Hermes Foundation’s efforts to aid the works of contemporary artists. Note that there is no public opening for this event. But make sure to see the work while it's up!

Gallery at Hermes, 691 Madison Avenue, New York. The show will be open to the public from 10am to 6pm Monday through Saturday and 10am to 7pm on Thursdays from November 12 to December 11.

Turning to Family

© Doug Dubois

Last week I was unable to make Doug Dubois solo show at Higher Pictures and was quite bummed about this. His work is potent.. chalk full of intimate moments, emotion and subtle pauses. I love it and will definitely have to make it up there soon! I've already heard good things and read a great review here.


© Robin Schwartz

This coming weekend Robin Schwartz, a photographer who turns the lens towards her daughter Amelia for inspiration, will be speaking at B & H's event space. More info here.

Next week is a busy one!

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Not sure if/how I'm going to pull this off but next Thursday includes quite a few shows, including one that I am in that is in Bronxville, NY.

Commercial Paper, a group show featuring Thomas Bangsted, Peter Deevakul, Daniel Gordon, Pablo Helguera, John Lehr, Matthew Monteith, Svetlana Rabey, Ruby Sky Stiler, Mamie Tinkler and myself.

Barbara Walters Gallery
@ Sarah Lawrence College
Bronxville, NY

Opening Reception Nov 5th 5:30p-8p

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Some winners for that evening include:

Still Life, a group show featuring: Erica Allen, Michael Buhler–Rose, Robyn Cumming, John Hutchings, Lyndsy Welgos and Ann Woo.
Curated by Jon Feinstein of Humble Arts Foundation
Camera Club of NY
336 W 37th St
Opening Thursday, Nov 5th- 6p-8p


Stephen Sitting June 2009, © Lyndsy Welgos
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Another winner of the evening is

Andrew Moore with his new show Detroit
Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 W 22nd St
Opening Thursday, Nov 5th- 6p-8p

Dragging my Feet

It's been a little while. I reckon I've been saturating myself with the cultural wealth that exists here in NYC and trying to break off of the computer more often. These past few days I have gone to quite a few good openings including:

Unseen at Randall Scott Gallery
Of Land at Kris Graves Projects
Bill Voila's Bodies of Light at James Cohan Gallery
1969 and other great exhibitions at PS1...


© Bill Viola

That along with trudging in the rain through the farmer's market in Union Square to get yummy treats including apple cider doughnuts, rummaging though the Strand to find a copy of Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer (also taking the time to peek at some photo books) and watching a few strange but good movies (Brother's Keeper and Lymelife in particular.)
--

I'm in a few things coming up in the not so distant future that I'll make sure to post about soon. For now a rough idea.. cause I'm excited

Nov 5th opening reception
Barbara Walters Gallery @ Sarah Lawrence College
Commercial Paper, a group exhibition
including: Thomas Bangsted, Peter Deevakul, Daniel Gordon, Pablo Helguera, John Lehr, Matthew Monteith, Svetlana Rabey, Ruby Sky Stiler, Mamie Tinkler and myself.

Dec 3-6th
Beckers Galerie at Pulse Miami

Dec 12- Feb 21
Opening Reception Dec 12th, 2009 4p-7p
Homesick, curated by Joaquin Trujillo
Carnegie Art Museum
including: MALÚ ALVAREZ, JEFF BECK, LIVIA CORONA, JEN DESSINGER, EDWARD DOTY, EDUARDO R GARCIA, FEDERICO GUTIERREZ SCHOTT, STEPHANIE HALMOS, DENNIS McLEOD, DERICK MELANDER, BRIAN PAUMIER, KELLY REEMTSEN, JOAQUIN TRUJILLO, SOPHIA WALLACE, TONY ZEPEDA and myself.


Image Credit: Color Installation Experiment - Amy Elkins

A preview

I've been working on a lot of new things for the past several months and keeping them tucked away until I feel things have been resolved enough to share as a body of work. For now a preview thrown out there with a slight nervous smile.

John Ben, 7th Ward | New Orleans, 2009 from the series The Weight of Air (working title/work in progress)


And from an entirely different new body of work...


228 months from the series Black is the Day, Black is the Night


6:22 pm, September 22, 2009 from the series Black is the Day, Black is the Night

I don't post these nearly as much as I once posted images and text from Beyond this Place... but they are still being made every single day.

It has been 1351 days straight
Or 3 years, 8 months, 12 days

September 29, 2009 from the series Everybody Knows This is Nowhere


"I have officially started receiving Social Security. I'm not sure how I'd be able to get by without it. Especially here in LA. I might have to move soon into my own apartment."

Irving Penn passes away at 92

From the New York Times: Irving Penn, one of the 20th century’s most prolific and influential photographers of fashion and the famous, whose signature blend of classical elegance and cool minimalism was recognizable to magazine readers and museumgoers worldwide, died Wednesday morning at his home in Manhattan. He was 92.


© Irving Penn | Truman Capote, New York, 1948

I have always loved the work of Irving Penn. Hell I even tried to make my own corner style studio out of a painted fridge box to shoot in when I was just learning photography. His portraits are simply amazing. He will always remain in the top of my list for both influence and inspiration.

Rave music and Rineke



There are plenty of photographers I would love to meet.. but to sit and have a nice conversation with Rineke Dijkstra about her work would really make my day.

Waking to smoke

Last night I fell asleep watching an old episode of Lost.. Season 2, an episode called Fire + Water. In the episode the character Charlie starts a fire near the camp as a diversion, and while the rest of the camp puts the fire out he steals the baby and runs to the ocean, determined that he needed to have it baptized.

It was pretty late when I dozed off, perhaps close to 1am. I was out cold. I was having strange dreams. I woke to the strong smell of smoke and burning plastic. Confused as to if I were dreaming or not, it took me a moment to figure out what was occurring. I jumped up and checked around the apartment.. nothing. I walked back towards my bedroom and that's when I saw the glow behind my bedroom curtain. I opened it to see the two large plastic trashcans blazing on fire, flames over 8' tall. After much adrenaline had died down and the firemen had come and contained what could have very well burned my entire apartment building to the ground.. I managed to fall back asleep.

Upon waking and exiting for a day of work I see a puddle of yellow plastic melted and embedded into the cement, only feet away from a wall between my head on a pillow and the trash cans ablazing. Such a strange coincidence to fall asleep to the themes of fire and water and wake to them as well. I feel pretty lucky that I woke up to the smell of smoke.... and even more lucky that it was contained before it spread to the building. I still feel like I'm dreaming..

A few new images for the series Gray.. shot in Rhode Island in early September.



(Not sure why the color is so off. It looks perfect in photoshop)

Normally not one to get political...
But I felt compelled to quote a few lines after reading this BBC article about Afghanistan. Reinforcing the word failure... again and again. I never did believe in wars and this one just seems never-ending.
--

"US in Afghanistan failure warning... "

"The US mission in Afghanistan will "likely result in failure" unless troops are increased within a year... "

"Inadequate resources will likely result in failure... "

"Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the next 12 months... risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible... "

"Any of these risks, in turn, are likely to result in mission failure."


Naqoyqatsi: Life as War

Swarming Birds, 2009


©amy elkins

-

‘Tis of the essence of life here,
Though we choose greatly, still to lack
The lasting memory at all clear,
That life has for us on the wrack
Nothing but what we somehow chose;
Thus are we wholly stripped of pride
In the pain that has but one close,
Bearing it crushed and mystified.

--Robert Frost from The Trial by Existence

And to all those in Boston..
Head over to see the solo show of my wip co-curating partner, Cara Phillips!

Suffolk University Art Gallery
at the New England School of Art & Design
75 Arlington St.
Opening Reception TONIGHT, Sept, 17
On view until October 10th


Blue Laser Consultation Chair, New York City