Asako Narahashi at Rose Gallery in Bergamot Station
ROSEGALLERY is pleased to present an exhibition of photographs by Asako Narahashi. This presentation unites three bodies of her work: her most recent works of a somber and partially-gutted Dubai, her hauntingly beautiful water shots along Japan’s coastline, and her earliest black and white street photography, which is being shown in the west for the first time.
The exhibition is titled “Coming Closer and Getting Further Away”.
Dates of the show are 14 Novemer 2009 – 30 January 2010
The artist will join us for a reception and book signing Saturday 23 January 2010, 6 to 8 pm
Asako Narahashi began experimenting with photography as a member of Daido Moriyama’s group Photo session in the mid-1980s, photographing street scenes of her native Japan. She established the private gallery 03FOTOS to display her work in 1990 and then published her first book, NU-E, in 1997, followed by FUNICULI FUNICULA in 2003. These early photographs reflect her roots as a member of Moriyama’s photography group, yet they hint at the unique sense of distance and the unnerving acknowledgment of human frailty that her later work expands upon. Haziness and shadows spill over these images like liquid, and the rare human subject is partially obscured, blurred, or tiny and insignificant in the distance.
In 2007, Nazraeli Press published Asako Narahashi’s half awake and half asleep in the water, a series of photographs of the Japanese coastline. In this series, she inverts the composition of the traditional, harmonious coastal shot by capturing the images from offshore, while partially submerged in the water. Suspended between enchantment and unease, this jarring perspective suggests that we are either clinging to the back of a sea creature or drowning, struggling for one final, desperate glimpse of land. All indications of civilization are minute and inconsequential in the distance, hopelessly far away and dangerously close to being engulfed by water. With a murky palette of blues, grays, and browns, Narahashi intensifies the disquieting uncertainty conveyed by this fragile balance between the remote signs of earth and the inescapable waves looming in the foreground.
Narahashi’s photographs of Dubai similarly convey a foreboding sense of ambiguity. Again, we are confronted with a chilling acknowledgment of man’s inability to create permanence when faced with the vast and powerful forces of the natural world. In her disorienting images of construction sites, it is difficult to discern whether the buildings are being demolished or built, but it is clear that their brief life span is inconsequential to the vast expanse of arid soil beneath them, which – like the ocean – existed long before us and will continue to exist long after we are gone.
Narahashi’s work is currently being exhibited as part of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition Photography Now: China, Korea, Japan. She was also included in the 2008 exhibition at the International Center for Photography in New York, Heavy Light: Recent Photography and Video from Japan. Her work is held in such permanent collections as the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She was the 2008 recipient of the Higashikawa Photography “Domestic Photographer” Award.
Asako Narahashi Coming Closer and Getting Further Away will be on view from 14 Novemer 2009 through 30 January 2010. ROSEGALLERY is located in the Bergamot Station Arts Center at 2525 Michigan Avenue, Gallery G-5, Santa Monica, CA 90404. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 6pm.
For more information, please contact us at 310.264.8440 or
By Jim McKinniss
ArtLA – A new avenue for photographers to showcase their work.
Image copyright by ArtLA
Image copyright by ArtLA
ArtLA.com was built and conceived by art gallery owners that have been in business in Los Angeles for over 20 years. ArtLA is the most advanced, contemporary art site for research and acquisition of highly established artists, as well as newly emerging artists. It serves dealers and art collectors with a professional and comprehensive database of artists, their bios, galleries and collections.
It offers timely, innovative features, including an interactive Virtual Gallery, video interviews, extensive Artist Profile pages, specialized services, and the latest news about the Los Angeles art market. Also, ArtLA is a highly effective advertising tool, as well as a key platform service connecting artists around the globe with galleries, dealers, art advisors, collectors, curators and museum directors.
ArtLA membership is open to artists working in multiple fields from traditional oil painting to photography.
For more information, please contact us at (310) 315-0282 or email contact@artla.com.
By Jim McKinniss
The End of Film – Exhibit at CMP
California Museum of Photography is exhibiting “The End of Film, a Brief History of Digital Cameras, 1987-2009″ through January 30, 2010.
The exhibit includes digital cameras beginning with Casio’s 1987 VS-101 .28 mp, which digitized video signals rather than capturing a still image. It holds the esteemed label of being the first digital camera used by fine art photographers.
The first truly still image camera on display is Kodak’s DCS-100 from 1991. It boasted 1.3 mp, weighed 20 pounds, and cost a mere $13,000.00.
Fast forward to 2009. Multi media is calling, and the exhibit ends with the Canon 5D Mark II. This camera is capable of capturing stills with 21 mp and can take 1920×1080 HD video for up to 45 minutes.
I am in awe of the newest versions of digital cameras, but walking through this show only makes me wonder how obsolete they will be in another decade. I hope CMP has a second exhibit of the history of digital cameras in 2019 so we can be wistfully nostalgic once again.
http://www.cmp.ucr.edu/
California Museum of Photography
3824 Main Street
Riverside, CA 92501 951 784-FOTO
by Gina Genis
Gina Genis exhibiting at the Women’s Club of Hollywood
© 2009 Gina Genis
Gina Genis will be exhibiting one of her photo collages at the Women’s Club of Hollywood. The exhibit will be for one night only, Sunday, November 22, with a reception from 5-9 p.m. The following is from a press release for the exhibit:
Genis’ work combines the most exceptional elements of nature and technology. Using a camera and software processing systems, a squirrel jaw bone found in the forest becomes an abstracted pattern of delicate beauty. This beauty, however, barely masks a strong presence of danger. The raw elegance of an animal skull reminds us of the tenuous nature of our existence, but through Genis’ photography, celebrates and memorializes life.
The Women’s Club of Hollywood is located at:
1749 N La Brea Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90046-3009
(323) 876-8383
Fine Art Photography Auctions
The American economy has had an effect on every aspect of our economy, and the fine art world has experienced some knocks along with it. Last year, fine art photography auctions in New York managed to hold steady. Bidders were thinner, and unsold lots were more numerous, but prices didn’t drop as much as expected.
There were a few stand outs that sold for more than the estimates. William Eggleston’s “Jackson, Mississippi, 1972 sold for $158,500 to a European bidder, an impressive $78,500 over the high estimate. One of Richard Prince’s large scale prints from his 1993 “Girlfriend” series sold to a phone bidder for $302,500, $2,500 over the high estimate. Cindy Sherman’s “Untitled #106 from 1982 brought $62,500 when the hammer came down. The estimate was $30,000-$50,000.
William Eggleston's "Jackson, Mississippi, 1972
The 2009 Christie’s photography auction is scheduled for October 7 & 8th. Offerings from “The American Landscape: Color Photographs from the Collection of Bruce and Nancy Berman” and “Photographs by Sally Mann from a Private Collection, Washington D.C.” will be offered on the 7th. “Photographs” and “The Miller-Plummer Collection of Photographs” are up for bid on the 8th.
It will be interesting to see what kind of prices photography will command this year.
By Gina Genis
Tribute to Jerry Burchfield
The art world, students of photography and friends will morn the loss of Jerry Burchfield, who passed away last Friday. Please visit my blog for my tribute to Jerry Burchfield “Loss of a Renaissance Man”
CALL FOR ENTRIES
My long time friend Kent Gunnufson has sent me this call for entries:
As a volunteer, I’m starting up an Environmental Photography Exhibition in conjunction with the Colorado Environmental Film Festival. This is backed by the environmental education community in Colorado and is a once a year event. As any new event, getting a good turnout the first year is important. Hopefully you might be able to help us get the word out. Details are at the link provided
Thanks for your time.
Kent Gunnufson
Info link: http://www.mountainmagazine.com/Photo-last-promo/photo-promolst.html
Civil Rights Photos at the Skirball Center
The following comes from Art Knowledge News:
Bill Eppridge’s Chaney Family as They Depart for the Funeral of James Chaney, Philadelphia, Mississippi, 1964
LOS ANGELES, CA.- The largest exhibition in more than twenty years devoted to photography of the Civil Rights Movement will open at the Skirball Cultural Center on November 19, 2009, in its West Coast premiere. Organized by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956–1968 features images that helped change the nation: they shed light on injustices prevalent in America at the time, promoted solidarity among citizens, and dramatically increased the momentum of the struggle for equal rights. Road to Freedom will remain on view at the Skirball through March 7, 2010. Breach of Peace will open simultaneously with Road to Freedom, on November 19, and will remain on view for an extended period through May 9, 2010. In addition to work by renowned photographers, the exhibition displays pictures taken by anonymous or unidentified individuals who made stirring visual documents of marches, demonstrations, and public gatherings out of a conviction for the social changes the movement represented.
The exhibition displays approximately 170 photographs by more than thirty-five photographers drawn primarily from the High’s permanent collection, which includes one of the most comprehensive holdings of civil rights–era photography in the country; many have never before been displayed to the public. Exclusively for this Southern California presentation of Road to Freedom, the Skirball has developed a new section focusing on Los Angeles civil rights history, with new loans from the Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive in the Department of Special Collections at the Charles E. Young Research Library at UCLA, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Getty Research Institute. Among the local events portrayed are the picketing of Kress Store in Pasadena in 1960, the march on Pershing Square on March 14, 1965, and the Watts Riots of 1965.
Also on view at the Skirball will be Breach of Peace: Photographs of Freedom Riders by Eric Etheridge. This companion exhibition displays more than a dozen contemporary portraits by photographer Eric Etheridge of Freedom Riders, as they came to be known. In 1961, these young women and men converged on Jackson, Mississippi, to challenge state segregation laws and were arrested and convicted of the charge “breach of the peace.” Etheridge’s images of the Freedom Riders, now senior citizens, will be displayed alongside their original mug shots. Breach of Peace originated as part of the High Museum’s Road to Freedom exhibition, but has been expanded for the Skirball presentation to encompass related historical objects, including student activist buttons and newspaper clippings.
Exhibition Overview
Tracking the twelve-year span between Rosa Parks’ famed act of resistance against racial segregation aboard a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1956 and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination in 1968, Road to Freedom chronicles such historical turning points as the Freedom Rides (1961), the March on Washington (1963), the Selma-to-Montgomery March (1965), and the Poor People’s Campaign (1968). Iconic images include Bob Adelman’s Kelly Ingram Park, Birmingham, 1963; Morton Broffman’s Dr. King and Coretta Scott King Leading Marchers, Montgomery, Alabama, 1965; Bill Eppridge’s Chaney Family as They Depart for the Funeral of James Chaney, Philadelphia, Mississippi, 1964; and Builder Levy’s I Am a Man/Union Justice Now, Memphis, Tennessee, 1968.
“The indelible images in Road to Freedom portray the hope and courage of the men and women who took to the streets and campaigned peacefully for social change,” remarks Robert Kirschner, Skirball Museum Director. “The Skirball is proud to bring this remarkable exhibition to Los Angeles as part of its ongoing mission to promote justice, equality, and human dignity in American life.”
“In many ways, the history of the Civil Rights Movement cannot be understood without contemplating the photographs that helped shape public opinion,” adds Cox. “Most of the photographs were taken by professional photojournalists sympathetic to the cause and by activists motivated to record newsworthy events with an objective and informing eye. Because of the moral energy they radiate, these are among the most important and beautiful photographs of our nation.”
“Press photographers defied threats of jail or worse to capture on film the fire hoses and police dogs of Birmingham, Alabama—and immortalized the spirit of those who withstood their attacks,” notes Erin Clancey, Skirball Associate Curator and managing curator of the exhibition’s presentation at the Skirball. She continues, “To this day, their images have the power to move, shock, and inspire.”
In the new section on local history added by the Skirball, photographs of the Watts Riots of 1965 document the violence that occurred in Los Angeles during the Civil Rights Movement. Yet other images illustrate the bravery of Angelenos who used nonviolent protest to fight discrimination in schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, and public places and who stood in solidarity with Southern civil rights workers by staging sympathy boycotts and vigils, such as the one held at Los Angeles Valley College in 1965.
Accompanying all photographs in the exhibition are extensive, informative captions, as well as related archival objects and documents. For example, Rosa Parks’s police fingerprint paperwork and the blueprint of the bus on which she made her fateful stand are shown alongside contemporaneous photographs. The exhibition also brings together newspapers, magazines, and posters from the period, demonstrating how, in the hands of community organizers and newspaper and magazine editors, photographs played a pivotal role in raising awareness of key issues and influencing public sentiment.
The exhibition also includes a short documentary film, Voices of Freedom, produced, edited, and directed by Neal Broffman, son of photographer Morton Broffman, whose work is represented in the exhibition. This poignant film weaves together historical footage and recent interviews with photographers, reporters, and activists from that time period. Co-produced by Julian Cox, the film was awarded the prestigious CINE Golden Eagle Award and the CINE Special Jury Prize in the “Arts and Exhibits Programs” category in 2008.
Visit the Skirball Cultural Center at : http://www.skirball.org/
Posted by Gina Genis
Photo Exchange Member Jim Koch in 2nd City Council Gallery Exhibition
Big Island, Hawaii 2006
Photo Exchange member Jim Koch will have a photograph in the 2009 Membership Exhibition at 2nd City Council gallery in Long Beach.
The show runs Saturday, August 15, 2009 – Thursday, September 17, 2009. The artist reception is Saturday, August 22, 2009 from 5:00 – 9:00 p.m.
2nd City Council is located at
435 Alamitos Ave
Long Beach, CA 90802-1643
(562) 901-0997
http://www.2ndcitycouncil.org/
To see more of Jim’s work go to http://www.jimkochstudio.com/
By Jim McKinniss
Photo Exchange Member Ellen Butler in 2nd City Council Show
A good story is often better than the truth
Photo Exchange member Ellen Butler will have a mixed media work in the 2009 Membership Exhibition at 2nd City Council gallery in Long Beach.
The work is a burned Altoids tin out of which a paper “book” unfolds. The rest of the construction is paper (mostly gessoed), photo transfers and other various objects.
The show runs Saturday, August 15, 2009 – Thursday, September 17, 2009. The artist reception is Saturday, August 22, 2009 from 5:00 – 9:00 p.m.
2nd City Council is located at
435 Alamitos Ave
Long Beach, CA 90802-1643
(562) 901-0997
http://www.2ndcitycouncil.org/
By Jim McKinniss
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