Getty Researches Chemical Process Photography

Click here to read an article from Alternative Photography online magazine, about a thorough account of the Getty Museum’s ambitious research project of chemical process photography.

By Gina Genis

Sight Unseen – Photography by the Blind

Sight Unseen, at the California Museum of Photography, is on view through August 29th. This astounding exhibit, curated by Douglas McCulloh, stays with you long after you leave the museum. The images are bold, fresh, honest, powerful and gritty. The fact that they are all created by blind photographers presents an initial feeling of astonishment, giving way to humility by the time you reach the end. I encourage you to read/listen to the essay (yes, logically, an audio of the essay is available) on the CMP’s website. It provides a concise summary of the exhibit better than I can.

Two main questions bounced off the walls of my brain. First, “how did they do that?” I was curious about how the photographer knew what f stop and aperture to use, how to focus, and how they knew when to release the shutter if they could not see the subject?

Second, why? Why do they choose to make photographs if they cannot see the results? The payoff for a sighted photographer is the accomplishment of seeing and sharing the finished product. If a photographer is blind, and cannot experience the outcome, what is the payoff?

The intrigue was so strong, I called Douglas McCulloh to get the answers. He explained that there is special equipment such as light meters that work by sound, focus rails with notches, and measuring devices that speak. Many of the photographers have modified their equipment to their individual needs.

As for the reason why, it is a matter of sharing the images inside their minds. These artists have a running movie of rich imagery they feel compelled to share with us. I must say, its quite a film.

http://www.cmp.ucr.edu

California Museum of Photography – open Tu-Sat, 12-5

3824 Main St
Riverside, CA 92501
(951) 827-4787

by Gina Genis

OCMA’s Orange Lounge to shut down

Orange County Museum of Art(OCMA) has decided to shut down their Orange Lounge, located in South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, CA.  More information is available here, in a story published in the Orange County Register. The satellite gallery was focused on providing contemporary digital and video art.

Over the years, the Orange Lounge has hosted a number of video art exhibitions, including works by Diana Thater, John Baldessari and pieces done in conjunction with the museum’s California Biennial.

By Doug Stockdale

Annenberg Space for Photography

We have a photo gem in Los Angeles. If you haven’t yet been to the newly opened Annenberg Space for Photography, put it on your calendar. This state-of-the-art exhibit space has been designed to showcase traditional photography as well as embracing the new technology of digital imagery. The centerpiece of the Annenberg Space is its theater, with two massive screens that are currently displaying the images and profile vignettes of the exhibiting photographers. Traditionally presented photographic prints are shown on the outside walls around it. Touch screen computerized coffee tables allow you to view the photographer’s work in a more personal manner. A small library room houses books and two computers for research. There is a more intimate screening room that looks as if it will be the area for “Iris Nights”, the ASFP’s Thursday night lecture series. A beautiful kitchen hints at the promise of some wonderful openings.

The inaugural show includes John Baldessari, Carolyn Cole, Greg Gorman, Lauren Greenfield, Douglas Kirkland, Catherine Opie, Julius Schulman, and Tim Street-Porter. LA Times photographers Genero Molina Kirk McCoy, and Lawrence Ho are also represented. The exhibit is strong with compelling images that make you want to get out there and shoot for yourself. Well worth the drive and time to go through it. A tip: parking is only $1.00 with validation in the building’s underground lot.

http://www.annenbergfoundation.org/about/

by Gina Genis

PhotOC at the Muck

Photographs copyright of Frank Cancian

July 13 marks the opening of PhotOC: Contemporary Images by Artists in Orange County, a group photography exhibition at Fullerton’s Muckenthaler Cultural Center aka “The Muck” (OC). The exhibition includes works by Frank Cancian, Randall Chambers, Jacques Garnier, Bruce Hall, John Hesketh, Stan Kuran, Matthew May, Douglas McCulloh, Joey Lehman Morris, and Gabie Strong.

The photographs are on exhibit from July 13 to September 28, 2008 from 12:00 P.M.- 4:00 P.M. The exhibition opening day is part of ongoing “Second Sundays” festivals.

by Doug Stockdale

Call for Art – OCCCA

Call for Art – all media including photography

The Orange County Center for Contemporary Art (OCCCA), Santa Ana (OC) has issued an Call for Art on the theme of “Animal Magnetism” which you can find more information at the link. The juror is Mat Gleason, the Editor and Publisher of  Coagula Art Magazine.

The deadline for submissions is Saturday, July 19th (note: received submissions, not postmarked!). The exhibit is planned for September 4th – 28th, with the artist reception on September 6th, from 6pm  – 10 pm.

From OCCCA for the Call:

Animals, real and imaginary. We fear them, pamper them, tame them, trap them, eat them, lobby on their behalf, experiment on them, strut them as status symbols, and exterminate them. How do contemporary artists represent them?

From the caves of Lascaux, to the halls of the Louvre, there is no escaping them. With their long pedigree in the history of art, they prowl the great museums of the world. And today, animals leap from the work of contemporary artists, symbolically expressing their ideas and emotions. OCCCA’s terrific exhibition space will showcase a menagerie of superb examples of this trend, from the traditional to the avant-garde, from the realistic to the fantastic, in painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video and new media.

by Doug Stockdale

Two exhibits at Irvine Fine Art Center

“Watering Hole“ copyright of Amy Stein

Two phtographic exhibits are now at showing at the Irvine Fine Art Center, Irvine, CA (OC), both are available through July 26th. Although I did not make the opening, I did have the opportunity to view the exhibits today.

First is ANALOG/DIGITAL III which was curated by Matt Mayand as the introduction states, this is a mix of analog and digital and a mix of things in between. This exhibit includes SUSAN BURNSTINE, THE DANGEROUS AMERICANS, AMANDINE NABARRA-PIOMELLI,  HUNTER REYNOLDS, SHELBY ROBERTS, AMY STEIN & ARTHUR TAUSSIG.What made this exhibit for me was being able to see the photographs by Amy Stein, especially her photograph “Watering Hole“. You find yourself really wondering about that bear. Also interesting was the juxtaposition of the Stein photograph “Howl” with the Burstine photograph “The Road Most Traveled“.

The second exhibit in the smaller gallery is the Toy Camera Photography Exhibit which is a curated exhibit by Edward Heyman, Jesus Jimenez and Joseph Munoz. As you might suspect, the photographs were made with toy cameras, usually the Holga or Diana. You know that these toy cameras are serious business when you can buy them at the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) book store.

by Doug Stockdale

This Side of Paradise at Huntington

The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens , San Marino (LA) is opening a major phtogography exbibition, titled This Side of Paradise: Body and Landscape in L.A. Photographs, which opens on June 14th and extends to September 15th.

From their press release: A sprawling, multi-ethnic city on the edge of a continent, Los Angeles conjures up imagery as seductive and contradictory as the place itself, equal parts glamour and cataclysm, sunshine and noir.  For more than 150 years, photographers have been capturing the landscape, people, and sprawling urban forms of Los Angeles, documenting—and mythologizing—this seminal American city. 

“This Side of Paradise” examines the relationship between Los Angeles and the art of photography from the mid-19th century to the present, focusing on the emergence of a distinct Los Angeles “style” of visual expression.  Comprising approximately 250 images from The Huntington’s photographic collections as well as other important lenders, the exhibit will use landscape and the human body as key themes through which both the city and its photographic self-image have been projected.  From L.A.’s beaches, freeways, and sprawling suburban tracts, to the city’s pervasive celebration of physical culture and Hollywood glamour, the imagery encapsulates both the glories and the unfulfilled promises of the great American enterprise.

Over 100 photographers will be represented. Featured photographers include documentarians as well as fine artists, both celebrated and little-known. The work of early figures such as Anne Brigman, William Henry Jackson, Carleton Watkins, and Edward Weston will be seen alongside works of 20th-century commercial practitioners, including Bill Claxton, George Hurrell, Toyo Miyatake, Maynard Parker, and works from the “Dick” Whittington Studios. Photographers of more recent generations include Robert Adams, John Baldessari, Eileen Cowin, Judy Fiskin, Robbert Flick, Lee Friedlander, Karen Halverson, Robert Heinecken, John Humble, Catherine Opie, Ed Ruscha, Allan Sekula, Larry Sultan, Edmund Teske, Gary Winogrand, and Max Yavno, among many others.

posted by Doug Stockdale with Larry Pribble

Bill Livingston at Long Beach Museum of Art

“Port of Long Beach” copyright of Bill Livingston

“The Art of Commerce: William Livingston’s Pinhole Photographs of the Port of Long Beach” is on exhibit at the Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach (LA), from May 23 – September 28, 2008.

The exhibition features a dozen, large breathtaking photos of The Port of Long Beach as never before seen. The photographer, William (Bill) Livingston, was given exclusive access to capture everyday images of Port activity using a pinhole camera.

The photos in The Art of Commerce effortlessly capture the combination of industrial beauty and dynamic reality that exist at the Port. Lively shades of blue, yellow and green illuminate the shipping yards, ships, docks, cranes, containers, trucks, and trains; all set against brilliant blue skies. The photographs embrace the commotion and activity of daily port activities – a shipment being lowered onto a truck, a train crisscrossing vast terminals, or simply the silky rippling of the ocean below.

Fittingly, The Art of Commerce is installed in the Museum’s Jean and Charles Lane Oceanview Gallery, whose south-facing, second-floor wall of windows offers dramatic views of the Port of Long Beach. Also included in the exhibition are several of Livingston’s hand-made (4×5″) pinhole cameras.

The Art of Commerce is made possible by the generous support of the Port of Long Beach. Additional support was provided by the B.C. McCabe Foundation and the Rudolph J. and Daphne A. Munzer Foundation.

Having seen these images upclose, they are beautiful industrial urban landscape photographs. The exibit is recommended.

post by Doug Stockdale

The Getty Center – May 6th 2008

On May 6th, the Getty Center in Brentwood (LA) is opening two new photographic exhibits, as well as a continuation of an on-going photographic exhibit.

August Sander: People of the Twentieth Centry opens on May 6th and will be exhibited until September 14. August Sander is the well known German photographer known for his body of work created in the first half of the twentieth century. From Larry Pribble; Beginning with farmers, skilled tradesmen and professionals, women and artist, and ending with the disabled and disenfranchised, Sander arranged his portraits in groupings that examined his sitters according to their classes and professions, as well as their association with the county or the city. Neither snapshots nor conventional studio portraits, Sander’s images have an appeal that is timeless and universal.

Also opening on May 6th, are the German photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher and the exhibit Basic Forms, which also extends until September 14th. Where Sander focuses on the individual, the Becher’s focus on the industrial architecture, first in Germany, then Western Euopre and then the United States.

Continuing until August 10th is the exhibit Ten Years in Focus: The Artist and the Camera.

posted by Doug Stockdale