photo-eye is pleased to announce the newest addition to the Photographer's Showcase: Aaron Blum and his portfolio Born and Raised

Mon River, 2010 -- Aaron Blum

Shot in Aaron Blum's hometown in West Virginia, Born and Raised is a personal investigation of a community in the heart of Appalachia. It's an intentionally different view of this region than is typically depicted in films and television -- and strikingly unlike the image of Appalachia made by photographer Shelby Lee Adams. Blume's Appalachia is upper middle class, shot in vivid color and bathed in gorgeous golden light. Beautiful and somber, it is somehow a world where nothing feels out of place. Though the people and locations are real, this project is not a documentary. Instead of capturing life as he encountered it, Blum subtly arranged his scenes, adjusting reality to meet his unique and personal interpretation of the place, the people who live there, and how the two relate.

Like looking through a view-master, the scenes from this guided tour of Blum's hometown seem both detailed and oddly removed. Beautiful landscapes move into sensitive and emotional portraits, interspersed with a handful of tidy interiors. Blum establishes a resonate tone in these images, an ambiance that is both still and eerie. But in looking at these images something feels off -- we have encountered a view of this town carefully presented by the photographer. Blum describes his process and series like this:

The subjects in my photographs are my upper middle class family and friends in West Virginia. They play slightly exaggerated roles of themselves within sets I have constructed using their homes, furniture and objects. I do this to produce my interpretation of them and how I believe they fit into the landscape of Appalachia, and ultimately to assemble my conception of my home. The end product becomes a recreation of my design, a strand of life pulled from the whole never intended to be a complete representation. -- Aaron Blum

Though it may not be a complete representation, it is perhaps, an unreasonable expectation to put on a photo project, no matter what the photographer's intent is. Instead, we are left with a resounding sense of place, and maybe also a better sense of Blum through his personal expression of just what that place is like.

The Daughter of Morgan Morgan, 2010 -- Aaron Blum

Blum came to the Photographer's Showcase as a Jurors' Choice from Center's Project Competition. The jury was comprised of Simon Baker of Tate Modern, Alexa Becker of Kehrer Verlag and Christina Cahill of Editorial Reportage by Getty Images.

See Aaron Blum's Born and Raised portfolio on the Photographer's Showcase here.

For more information, please contact photo-eye Gallery Associate Director Anne Kelly by email or by calling the gallery at (505) 988-5152 x202

The Rape of a Nation, Photographs by Marcus Bleasdale.
Published by Schilt Publishing, 2010.

The Rape of a Nation
Reviewed by Sara Terry

______________________________________

 Marcus Bleasdale The Rape of a Nation
Photographs by Marcus Bleasdale. Foreword by John Le Carré.
Schilt Publishing, 2010. Hardbound. 240 pp., 117 duotone illustrations, 6-3/4x9."

I've been a fan of Marcus Bleasdale ever since I first heard the story, years ago, of how he became a photographer. With a degree in finance and economics, he'd wound up working in London after college -- with some doubts, as I recall, about the moral code of his profession. Things came to a head the day a colleague walked into the office after some particularly horrendous conflict had hit the news and said, "I wonder how much the price of gold will go up?" as a result of the crisis. That was the breaking point for Bleasdale. He quit that day and never looked back -- going on to get a post-graduate diploma in photojournalism, and from there to years of passionate coverage of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the consequences resulting from the conflict and greed. I admire the man, and his commitment to bringing these stories to a global audience.

I have to admit to my own biases here -- as a photographer who works in color, and has worked in many post-conflict settings in Africa, I often tire of the endless portrayals, in gritty black-and-white, of the "darkness" of this amazing continent, its disasters, wars, famines and diseases. My experience has shown me far more life, far more spirit, far more determination, than what is captured in many of these earnest reportages. That said, Bleasdale's work still stands for me as a compelling, honorable -- and model -- documentation of one of the most critical human rights stories in Africa.

The Rape of a Nation, by Marcus Bleasdale. Published by Schilt Publishing, 2010.

Bleasdale's photos are beautifully composed, quietly elegant and always full of compassion for his subjects. In these pages, he creates a sweeping tale of the DRC, opening with his well-known photos of forced-labor gold mining, and moving through conflict and child soldiers, displaced persons' camps, street children, contentious presidential elections, cholera and malaria, the rape of women, and closing finally with somber images of burials.

As sobering as the images (and their brief accompanying captions in the black margins of the pages) are, there is often a deft sensibility at work here, one that captures beauty and humanity, in the midst of dire situations. One of my favorites is the photo of the young child soldier, riding a bicycle down a dirt road, back to his base. With gun slung over his back, he struggles to control the bike - which is too big for him -- a glimpse of innocence in the most inhumane of conditions. Equally powerful is the image of the body of a dead government soldier in the road; Bleasdale frames the image so that the body is barely visible, and the background out of focus. Instead of the horror of death, he draws us to the man's forearm, which rises in the middle of the frame, fingers gently folded in a loose fist. For the briefest of moments, we are allowed to remember what it means to be human, that this could be a man contentedly stretched out on the ground, hand moving towards the sky, contemplating life -- not death.

The Rape of a Nation, by Marcus Bleasdale. Published by Schilt Publishing, 2010.

 The book's design, beautiful in its understatement, is by Teun van der Heijden, who is by far the most interesting designer working with photographers today (Black Passport by Stanley Greene; Diamond Matters by Kadir von Lohuizen). The black-bordered pages (each photo lays out across two pages) are interleaved with white, vertical half-pages of text -- interviews with individuals who are named on the reverse of each chilling statement. A sharply observed foreword by novelist John Le Carre serves as both background and commentary to the photos that follow.

The Rape of a Nation, by Marcus Bleasdale. Published by Schilt Publishing, 2010.

 In the current debate flying in the photojournalism community about conflict photographers - why are the photographers the story these days, and not their subjects? Do they get too much glory? Does their much-lauded work lead editors to the neglect of quieter equally important stories? Bleasdale's work stands as a quiet testament to the best of his field, as does his own integrity. Not only has he committed himself to a long-term project, producing a remarkable series of images, he has devoted himself to making sure his subjects ARE the story -- partnering with groups like Human Rights Watch to tell the story of the DRC, to keep its people in the news and on the minds of legislators who have the power to act.—Sara Terry

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Sara Terry A former staff correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor and magazine freelance writer, Sara Terry made a mid-career transition into documentary photography in the late 1990s. Her long-term project about the aftermath of war in Bosnia -- “Aftermath: Bosnia’s Long Road to Peace” -- was published in September 2005 by Channel Photographics, and was named as one of the best photo books of the year by Photo District News. Her work has been widely exhibited, at such venues as the United Nations, the Museum of Photography in Antwerp, and the Moving Walls exhibition at the Open Society Institute. She is the founder of The Aftermath Project (www.theaftermathproject.org), a non-profit grant program which helps photographers cover the aftermath of conflict. She is currently directing and producing "Fambul Tok," a documentary about a post-conflict forgiveness and reconciliation program in Sierra Leone, which recently won a grant from the Sundance Documentary Institute. bosniaaftermath.com 

from the book Allerseelen

Alexander Binder’s new publication Allerseelen (German for the term 'All Souls') is a fantastic object produced by Morel Books. The title refers to those who are cast into purgatory, waiting for their coming redemption. Wandering through dense forests, Binder creates a short series of mythical images reminiscent of what one might expect to see if they suddenly woke up in Middle Earth. Intense figures seemingly pulled from the middle ages or futuristic film sets meander through the psychedelic landscapes of dense forests and ancient graveyards. The artist addresses symbolic elements of good and evil, using recognizable, but terrifying characters as protagonists to heighten the underlying intensity of his story.

Using a digital camera with self-made lenses, Binder creates unique photographs that, as he states, are “some kind of modern interpretation of the medieval Memento Mori” -- a Latin phrase meaning remember your mortality.  Recurring reminders of death and fear mix heavily with images alluding to the occult, reminding the viewer of their own eventual mortality and what may lie in store in the afterlife. That being said, Allerseelen also seems to be an affirmation of life, with the dark imagery often being overshadowed by photographs depicting piercing sunlight falling through the dark woods or psychedelic lens flares obstructing large parts of the image.

from the book Allerseelen

from the book Allerseelen

from the book Allerseelen

The artist’s ability to weave subtle symbols of life and death together, while also using playful image manipulation makes this book a truly unique series of contemporary photographs. Binder’s influence is more aligned with Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy than of contemporary photography and this title is both a refreshing series of photographs and an exquisite production. -- Antone Dolezal

Purchase a copy of this book here.

Recently, I have noticed an abundance of documentary photobooks published where once the books are sold, the proceeds are donated to a charity related to the photographic project. Over the next few weeks, I will focus on a few of these titles benefiting charities in locations such as Congo, Russia, United States, Japan and Cambodia among other locations and philanthropic causes such as hospice care, reconstruction after a natural or man-made disaster and the building of and funding for children's hospitals. For the first installment in this series, I am featuring Wyatt Gallery's Tent Life: Haiti.

Cover of Wyatt Gallery's Tent Life: Haiti

In March 2010, Wyatt Gallery and six other artists formed the Le Sét Collective and traveled to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, to volunteer with Healing Haiti and document the widespread devastation. The artists were amazed to discover an intense sense of hope and resilience, and, at times, joy among the people of Haiti. On September 20, 2010, Gallery returned to Haiti to continue photographing the massive tent cities that had emerged, creating the project and book Tent Life: Haiti to share his experience and help raise awareness and funding.

Wyatt Gallery's Tent Life: Haiti

Wyatt Gallery's Tent Life: Haiti

 Gallery is no stranger to natural disasters as he took on the task of documenting the tsunami in Sri Lanka in 2004 and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. His first trade edition book Tent Life:Haiti begins with a introduction by Gallery; essay by Edwidge Danticat (former Port-au-Prince native and writer of the acclaimed Breath, Eyes, Memory); a resource guide to some relief organizations working in this area; a reading list for information on this part of the island and a brief history dating back to the landing of Columbus on Hispaniola in 1492 to January 2010 when the 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked the country killing over 200,000 and displacing thousands to the makeshift refugee camps. The book has paper-wrapped boards, printed endpapers and over 60 four-color illustrations including many full page bleeds of the cityscape. The photographer's focus of the project and the book are primarily the portraits of the inhabitants of post-earthquake communities and their new tent "homes" which are set up in many locations around the country. As of today, many still reside in what was supposed to be temporary housing and, according to a Huffington Post piece published early in 2011, many still want for "basic services like healthcare, clean water, toilets, sanitation." There is an ongoing need for support and 100% of the book’s royalties go towards three organizations actively working in this country:  J/P Haitian Relief Organization, Healing Haiti, and the Global Syndicate.

Signed copies arriving in about 2-4 weeks. Purchase a copy of Tent Life here or follow the links included and donate to the charity of your choice. For more information on a charity's rating, visit Charity Watch or Charity Navigator.

Read the other posts in this series here.

State of the Union, Photographs by Faye Robson.
Published by Hatje Cantz, 2011.

State of the Union
Reviewed by Faye Robson
________________________________________
Mitch Epstein State of the Union
Photographs by Mitch Epstein
Hatje Cantz, 2011. Hardbound. 120 pp., 59 color illustrations, 10-1/4x14-3/4".

State of the Union has the scope and character of a photographic 'Great American Novel' (even if it does not trumpet its status as such) and it's hard to avoid the description 'novelistic' when turning the pages of this handsome, thematically substantial volume. The comparison is somewhat specious, in that authorship here is the business of publisher Hatje Cantz and the Kunstmuseum Bonn - this is, strictly speaking, an exhibition catalogue rather than a monograph - as much as it is of the photographer. Strictly speaking (again) these photos also constitute two chronologically distinct bodies of work rather than one long narrative. However, the description seems to suit work that is as complex and eloquent, and as sensitive to the shifting relations of individual, social and natural scale, as this photography is.

Epstein himself remarks in the engaging interview with Stefan Gronert, that he is working in 'a tradition of projects that address the idea of nation, and specifically America as a nation.' The two photographic projects presented form a coherent, intelligent overview of the artist's engagement with American life, both from a street-level, intimate perspective (more frequently in the earlier Recreation series) and from a wider, more emphatically detached point of view (in American Power). These series have been published previously as discrete monographs, but this volume makes plain how the artist's distinctive vision has persisted - and evolved - over time.

State of the Union, by Mitch Epstein. Published by Hatje Cantz, 2011.

 Prevailing characteristics include an ability to 'disappear' into a scene, enabling the photographer to capture intimate, even whimsical, moments in everyday life without the resulting image feeling either too staged or else incoherent. A photograph of four women crowded round an obscured object on the city sidewalk in Recreation, for example, is a cannily snapped piece of street theatre. A dense, hectic, unmistakably urban composition as well as a magical visual moment; four crazily-patterned dresses that are, the photographer knows, a joy to look at, though their owners strain to look elsewhere. There is also a genius for making visually legible the relationships between people and their neighbours, their belongings and their surroundings. In the earlier series, this skill manifests itself most obviously in portraits of groups of people, whether it be a family - strung out in a long line, each member subtly failing to connect either physically or by eye-contact with each of the others - or a crowd of Vietnam veterans, each individuated but not one detached or dispensable in terms of the composition. In American Power, an investigation of energy production, consumption and waste in the United States made in 2009, this skill transfers onto a (literally) larger canvas, where Epstein juxtaposes human beings (rarely individuals), their homes and their industry, all within the setting of grand American landscapes.

State of the Union, by Mitch Epstein. Published by Hatje Cantz, 2011.

It is hard to adequately convey the impact of these wide-angle, densely detailed landscapes, which document domestic American rituals, industrial apparatus and epic landscapes, often all within the same frame. The photographs individually become colder, both in mood and palette, partly as a result of the flattening effect that occurs when elements far and near - a golf course and a wind farm, in one memorable example - are given equal attention and brought into direct visual comparison. This is partly also, as both Christoph Schreier and Stephan Berg point out in their thoughtful, precise essays, because the photographer who was once in-amongst-the-crowd, close to his human subjects, has now distanced himself and resists the vivid, humanistic images he made in earlier, less pointedly political works. The cover photograph of this volume - from American Power, depicting an unfinished concrete bridge cutting through untamed countryside - seems to suggest that the 'State of the Union' is not necessarily cause for optimism; technologized but alienating, ambitious but without direction.

State of the Union, by Mitch Epstein. Published by Hatje Cantz, 2011.

What is equally impressive, however, is the sensitivity and variety of Epstein's response to his surroundings and subjects, so that at no point do the photographs (or the book itself) become heavy handedly didactic or self-righteous. This is a point made variously by each of the three focused, analytical texts that have been contributed to this volume, as well as by the photographer himself, who states that he was keen to avoid a 'simplistic agenda' in American Power. The almost collage-like effect of some of these photographs - showing, for example, a glowing oil refinery at the end of a long avenue of trees, or a vast windfarm in the background of a sleepy small town - does not act simply as an indictment of complacent consumers, or a representation of the impassive face of big business. It is also a manifestation of the difficulties many of us face when confronted with 'energy issues', our blankness when presented with, as Stephan Berg puts it, 'the simultaneity of necessary energy production and the exploitation and destruction it wreaks.'

State of the Union, by Mitch Epstein. Published by Hatje Cantz, 2011.

 The book itself makes light work of crafting an enjoyable, absorbing reading experience from two sections of dense, large-format photography, combined with a substantial amount of text in both German and English. The text is handled elegantly through a two-colour, highly readable design, and the two 'plate' sections are laid out in two distinct styles, contrasting the less consistent Recreation works with the more imposing, formal American Power. The only obstacle to the reading experience one may encounter is that the upright format of this book seems wilfully designed to disrupt the large square and landscape-format images - a deep gutter cutting right through the centre of some works. Yet somehow this 'human' orientation does not prove disastrously distracting. The format is dynamic like the work itself and seems to complement images that throw the reader back on his or her analytical skills, as much as on their appreciation for sheer aesthetic skill.—Faye Robson

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Faye Robson is an editor of illustrated books, currently based in London, UK. She has worked on photobooks for publishers including Aperture Foundation, New York and Phaidon Press, London.

photo-eye is please to announce a portfolio from the winners of the Center Project Launch competition -- Migrant Workers Journey by Michele Palazzi & Alessandro Penso

Migrant Workers During the Tomato Harvest, Basilicata, Italy -- Michele Palazzi & Alessandro Penso

Selected by juror Dewi Lewis of Dewi Lewis Publishing, Michele Palazzi & Alessandro Penso's work documents the conditions of migrant workers in Italy. Coming to Italy from various locations in Africa, the workers often move around the country based on the harvest season, picking everything from melons to citrus, kiwis to tomatoes. Starting in August or September, the tomato harvest can be particularly brutal.

The status of the migrant agricultural worker in Italy has become an increasing source of tension. Recent shootings and resulting migrant worker riots have exposed racism, though the profound poverty in some of these Italian farmlands is the bigger underlying issue. Despite vast unemployment in some of these regions, the migrant workers fill jobs that most Italians would not take themselves. Working for twelve hours a day and living in awful conditions, the migrant agricultural workers typically make around 30 euros a day.  The conditions endured by the workers are terrible -- one Father speaking on behalf of the migrants likened their situation to one of the rings of hell in Dante's Divine Comedy.

Taking on this country-wide issue, photographers Palazzi & Penso have manged to illustrate the lives of these workers by centering in on a specific group. Dewi Lewis praised this technique in this juror's statement:

I particularly like the fact that Michele and Alessandro have kept the focus of their subject tight by narrowing down on agricultural workers within a specific region. This offers the opportunity to really confront the problems this group of workers faces - but it will require creating relationships of trust, even friendship. A project such as this needs to go beyond the portrayal of the workers simply as victims, it must reveal our common humanity. -- Dewi Lewis

Seasonal Workers During the Lunch, Basilicata, Italy -- Michele Palazzi & Alessandro Penso

In this collection of scenes and portraits, Palazzi & Penso do not present simply a tragedy, but also the life one carves out of an appalling situation. Images of workers in the fields mingle with photographs depicting the other side of this life: food preparation, rest and prayer. The tawny landscape and pale sky of the Italian farmland, on the cusp of or undergoing decay from summer abundance, make for an arresting backdrop. The images are both striking and beautiful, but are captured with a beauty that does not over shadow the seriousness of the worker's conditions. Rather, the beauty works in favor, creating images that intrigue the eye and linger in the mind.

See Michele Palazzi & Alessandro Penso Migrant Workers Journey portfolio here.

For more information, please contact photo-eye Gallery Associate Director Anne Kelly by email or by calling the gallery at (505) 988-5152 x202

From left to right: by Patrick Nagatani, Dave Hyams and image of Axle Contemporary

First Wednesday Photography Salon
Artists presenting: Patrick Nagatani and David Hyams
July 6th, 2011, 6:30-9:00 Salon, book signing for Nagatani’s Desire for Magic and exhibit preview of Axle Contemporary
photo-eye Gallery, 376-A Garcia Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501
Contact: Anne Kelly 505.988.5152 x 121

First Wednesday’s July Salon will be held on July 6th, 2011. Photographers Patrick Nagatani and David Hyams will present work beginning at 6:30pm, followed by a book signing by Nagatani and exhibit preview of Axle Contemporary’s photography exhibition Reprocessed Photography in the Physical World. David Hyams will be present his recent work – contemporary portraits utilizing the wet-plate collodion process. Nagatani will be discussing his prolific photographic career and book Desire for Magic published by University of New Mexico Art Museum..

In addition to the Salon and book signing, Axle Contemporary (mobile gallery) will be parked outside of photo-eye Gallery for a preview of their new exhibition, Reprocessed Photography in the Physical World, which opens Friday July 8th, 5-8 pm in front of SITE Santa Fe, 1606 Paseo de Peralta. The show includes work by Patrick Nagatani, Matthew Chase-Daniel, Key Sanders, Jetsonorama, Jay Etkin, Guy Cross and Marion Wasserman.

July 2011 First Wednesday Salon Artists’ Bios:

Patrick Nagatani is a professor emeritus in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of New Mexico. A major survey of his work from 1978-2008 opened at the UNM University Art Museum in the fall of 2010 and is currently traveling. The companion book, Desire for Magic, was recently published by the University of New Mexico Art Museum. In 1991 he earned the Outstanding Faculty Award from the College of Fine Arts and from 1998 to 2000 he was honored with a Regent's Professorship. In 2004 he was recognized for his scholarly achievements and exemplary contributions to the College of Fine Arts by the University of New Mexico Libraries. Nagatani received his M.F.A. degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1979. He is a recipient of two major National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowships. Some of his awards include: The Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Photographer's Fellowship, The Kraszna-Krausz Award for his book Nuclear Enchantment, the Leopold Godowsky Jr. Color Photography Award, the Eliot Porter Fellowship in New Mexico, and the California Distinguished Artist Award from the National Art Education Association. Nagatani has served as a panelist for the Illinois Art Council, Southern Arts Federation, Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, California Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He is an honored recipient of the "Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts” from Governor Bill Richardson in New Mexico as well as the Honored Educator Award from the Society of Photographic Education in 2008. Nagatani has given numerous public lectures, seminars and workshops and his work has been exhibited widely both nationally and internationally.


David Hyams is a photographic artist who specializes in historical and antique photographic processes. Hyams first joined the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops in the summer of 2007 as a member of the seasonal staff. He earned his stripes course-assisting for Christopher James, Cig Harvey and Jill Enfield. In 2008, Hyams joined the Bostick & Sullivan crew as Darkroom Manager. In that capacity, he taught and assisted workshops in a variety of historical processes. His personal work is expressed in wet-plate collodion, platinum, and carbon, and is in collections both at home and abroad. Hyams will be pursuing a MFA starting this fall at the Art Institute of Boston.

Photographs 1969-2009, Photographs by Roger Ballen.
Published by Kerber, 2011.

Roger Ballen: Photographs 1969-2009
Reviewed by Jonathan Blaustein
___________________________________
Roger Ballen Photographs 1969-2009
Photographs by Roger Ballen. Text by Ulrich Pohlmann.
Kerber, 2011. Hardbound. 148 pp., 268 black & white illustrations, 11-3/4x11-3/4".

I was late to the party for HBO's The Wire, and didn't get around to seeing it until last summer. So of course now I like to talk about it all the time. It's kind of the opposite of discovering a band before everyone else. When you're behind the curve, there's a perverse kind of pride.

It's the same with Roger Ballen's work. I'd heard his name a lot in the last couple of years, but never saw more than a small jpeg here or there until I picked up the book today. Wow. I get it. Everyone's talking about this guy for a reason. His work is transcendently good, and mashes up so many different strands of photo history.

But this article is not about Ballen's genius, it's about the new monograph of his work, Roger Ballen: Photographs 1969-2009. Well, it's fantastic, lyrical and disturbing. The plates are gorgeously printed, with a terrific use of grayscale and a sharpness that speaks well of his lens quality. The pictures start out firmly within a humanistic documentary tradition, slowly edge past crime-scene style reality narratives, and end up in an assemblage, sculptural studio-style. Everything is black and white. The evolution feels natural, and his vision remains consistently precise and primal throughout. Animals, razor wire, children and mentally challenged South Africans recur.

Photographs 1969-2009, by Roger Ballen. Published by Kerber, 2011.

Photographs 1969-2009, by Roger Ballen. Published by Kerber, 2011.

 Really, this book is a keeper. It's meant for all lovers of great photography and art, with the sole exception of those with weak stomachs. I have to include that qualifier, if for no other reason than it's an important way to talk about the work. It's tough stuff, but the best often is. I found myself thinking a few times, while page-turning, that it was almost a shame to try to codify my thoughts for this review, as the work is the kind of mysterious amalgam of images that tends to defy the need for words at all. (Essays included.) It's a magnificent book of pictures, and I look forward to returning to it for years to come.—Jonathan Blaustein

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Jonathan Blaustein is a photographer and writer based in Taos, NM. His work resides in several major museum collections and has been exhibited widely in the United States. For more information, please visit www.jonathanblaustein.com. 

It is always a delight to meet with David Chickey, designer for Chickey+Skolkin and one of the multi-talented founders of Radius Books. Last week, I stopped by the publishing house's clean, minimal, yet comfy and welcoming offices in downtown Santa Fe to pick up a few review copies of House of Love by Dayanita Singh, Janelle Lynch's Los Jardines de Mexico and Animals are Outside Today by Colleen Plumb for upcoming book reviews on photo-eye Magazine. David graciously offered me a cup of espresso and a preview of two new upcoming and one especially long-awaited Radius titles: Ralph Eugene Meatyard's Dolls and Masks and John Gossage and Alec Soth's The Auckland Project.

Limited Edition of Dolls and Masks by Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Verso of Print, Dolls and Masks by Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Sitting on the shelf were a few review copies of Meatyard's book which prompted David to bring out the limited edition presented in a chocolate brown clamshell box with book and print nestled neatly inside. The limited edition is being released in an edition of only 30 copies and contains the image Untitled 1962 printed on 8x10 silver gelatin paper. The print is stamped on the verso by the estate "Modern print by his son Christopher from the original negative" with negative, print date and number in this edition. This book is published to coincide with an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, contains 70 never-before-seen works from the Meatyard Archive and essays by writer and historian Eugenia Parry and curator Elizabeth Siegel. The limited edition will surely sell out quickly.

Untitled 1962 from Limited Edition of Dolls and Masks by Ralph Eugene Meatyard

David Chickey holds Alec Soth's piece from The Auckland Project

I was happy to see some of the sample images from the much awaited The Auckland Project by John Gossage and Alec Soth which will be arriving later this year. YEAH!

Here, David Chickey holds Alec Soth's contribution to the uniquely designed book project. I am told, and I hope I get this right, that Soth arrived in Auckland with a new digital camera and, however advanced he is with analog format, he was still acquainting himself with the newer of the two. One day, he takes a low res photo of this attractive woman and much to his chagrin, realizes the pixelated mistake much too late in the day. Anyway, I do not want to ruin the entire story nor the mystique of the book so I will wait for you to read the rest of it yourself, as the actual story, presented in Alec's own handwriting and illustrations, is reproduced on the back of the large image and folded neatly in a printed folio inside the plastic slipcase.

John Gossage, from The Auckland Project

While shooting with Soth in Auckland, John Gossage found a beautiful object in a bookstore stacked on top of other books and LPs, a book called An Easy Guide to Southern Stars by M.A. Orr. Reproduced in a shade of deep blue reminding me of cyanotypes, this book attracted Gossage's attention enough to photograph it where it lay and then purchase a copy for his collection. When Gossage finished shooting and the project was ready to be translated into book format, John and David started a discussion about design and they decided to incorporate some of the elements of the book on star viewing into the design of The Auckland Project. An Easy Guide to Southern Stars is interactive, advising that when viewing the night sky in the month of May, the book was to be held upright to correctly gauge the positioning of, in the case of the illustration shown here, The Southern Cross. Three months later, when viewing in August, the book was to be turned 90 degrees and then turned again every three months to show the correct placement of the constellations in this region of the world until there was a full rotation of the book during the year's cycle. John's contribution to The Auckland Project will use this book and its analog interactive approach to seeing as a model of design. From what was described to me it will not be disappointing in its appeal.

An Easy Guide to Southern Star

Proofs from John Gossage's book, The Auckland Project

Signed copies of The Auckland Project and its limited edition are still available for pre-order. The limited edition will be released in only 40 copies and it includes a signed and numbered color archival pigment print by Alec Soth and John Gossage and the presentation is sure to be unlike any Radius has ever done before. -- Melanie McWhorter


Preorder a signed copy of The Auckland Project here.


Preorder a copy of Dolls and Masks here.

Tennis Courts, Photographs by Giasco Bertoli.
Published by Nieves, 2009.

Tennis Courts
Reviewed by Nicholas Chiarella
_________________________________________
Giasco Bertoli Tennis Courts
Photographs by Giasco Bertoli
Nieves, 2009. Softcover. 60 pp., Illustrated throughout, 7-1/2x10-1/4".

Giasco Bertoli's Tennis Courts is a slim, sleek collection of images designed with a smooth precision fitting to its subject matter. The premise of the photographs is simple: depict tennis courts without tennis - no players, no equipment, no spectators, no advertisements. The courts themselves are always outdoors, depicted in various conditions, season, and time of play. Neither introduction, descriptive essay, nor caption intrude to sell the images, comment on the play. The result is a book simultaneously minimal and lush, both in presentation and feeling.

The color images float centered on the page, sinking smoothly into the matte surface of the paper. This smooth appearance accents the meshing and softening of the strict, rectilinear courts that have settled or been manicured into their surroundings. Removed from use, either for an evening, a season, or permanent abandonment, the tennis courts are easier to consider in their role as landscape and architecture. The courts are presented from a variety of angles, positions at a distance or just outside the lines of play. Through this variety, Bertoli's images suggest that the courts do not interrupt their surrounding environment, but instead merge with the landscape in tone and composition. Asphalt, clay, cement, and grass surfaces lie in urban, suburban, park, and rural settings. The courts become integral functions of landscape. If any aspect of the courts seems to stand out, it would be the high chain-link fences and fabric barriers that - in the disuse of the courts - become ironic dividers between one bit of land and another.

Tennis Courts, by Giasco Bertoli. Published by Nieves, 2009.

Tennis Courts, by Giasco Bertoli. Published by Nieves, 2009.

 The book creates a subtle, lasting impression of the observer, as well, who so carefully chooses position and angle to shape these wonderfully mute images. The repetitions of form and color, coupled with the uniformity of subject matter, provide to the series a slightly ironic sense of pilgrimage or reverential collection - of someone absurdly outside the lines, defying expected relationships of meaning and representation that come from tennis and photography: competitive play, fast-action shots, grimaces of victory and defeat, trophies and world-repute. Still, innocent, and calm, Bertoli's images are on the brink of irony, but remain uncommitted to any particular satire, choosing instead a watchful silence.—Nicholas Chiarella

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Nicholas Chiarella is the imaging specialist at the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His poems and photographs have appeared in Santa Fe Trend, BathHouse, Slideluck Potshow Santa Fe, and other venues. He is a member of Meow Wolf artist collective, contributing technical and design skills to performance and art installations. Chiarella graduated from the St. John's College GI program in 2007. He can be reached at nicholas@nicholaschiarella.com. 

Where Fruit Comes From -- John Chervinsky

 Photographer's Showcase artist John Chervinsky has just completed his intriguing An Experiment in Perspective series and we have added 7 new images to his Showcase portfolios. Through the Looking Glass, The Key and Where Fruit Comes From can be found in his Mode of Inquiry portfolio and Abstract Implosionism, "Is That All There Is?", Earth Worship, and Medium of Message? can be found in An Experiment in Perspective. Using simple techniques of perspective and chalk applied to his subjects, Chervinsky creates unusual scenes that twist our perception of the physical world and the imaginary -- and all without digital manipulation. See Chervinsky's work on the Photographer's Showcase here.

Alia 19, Beirut Lebanon, 2010 -- Rania Matar

Photographer's Showcase artist Rania Matar has just opened an exhibit of her A Girl and Her Room series at The Mosaic Rooms in London. The exhibition runs through July 23rd and is open Monday-Friday 11-6pm, and Saturday 11-4pm. Matar will be giving an artist talk on the work on Saturday July 2nd at 12pm. This series, in which Matar investigates the relationship between adolescent girls and their rooms, a space they create and control themselves, is sure to make for a fascinating talk. See Matar's A Girl and Her Room series on the Photographer's Showcase here.

from Lonely Boy Mag (No. A-2 Boys and their Cars)

Issue two of Alec Soth's Lonely Boy Mag (No. A-2 Boys and their Cars) was a challenge for me to digest. I originally wrote about this title in photo-eye's New Arrivals newsletter, and had to spend a fair amount of time contemplating the bizarre scenarios inside the book. When writing the original draft for the newsletter, Melanie McWhorter and I had a spirited discussion on my inability not to pass judgement on the work, as I thought the photographs  (which are fantastic) were dismal, taking me to places I wasn't completely comfortable being. And it was hard for me to leave these thoughts out of it, indicating to me that Soth has compiled another successfully intriguing publication and that I had more to say in the personal format of a blog post.

The new issue starts off with Todd Hido's Suburban Souls, a dark series of dreary exteriors and erotic interiors. Through these photographs, one can imagine sneaking through seedy streets and low-income neighborhoods, seeking cheap sex and unfulfilled fantasies. Hido's voyeuristic approach grabs the viewer in an arresting manner, creating an uneasy tension while also probing a fundamentally inherent male delusion. I have long been a fan of Hido's work and his ability as an editor, and considering the confines of this short magazine format, the photographer is still able to portray an ominous story that is also very direct.

from Lonely Boy Mag (No. A-2 Boys and their Cars)

from Lonely Boy Mag (No. A-2 Boys and their Cars)

Breaking up the dark ambiance established by Hido are five dioramas by Peter Davidson. The dioramas – created inside cutout novels – are a narrative of each novel title. Titles such as The Girl from Montana and Does God Exist form the overall structure of each individual piece. The odd humor displayed in Davidson's dioramas continues the theme of LBM's eclectic taste, sometimes steeped in the dingy underbelly of sexual fantasy and sometimes celebratory of pop culture's embrace of sexuality.

from Lonely Boy Mag (No. A-2 Boys and their Cars)

from Lonely Boy Mag (No. A-2 Boys and their Cars)

Diving back into illicit behavior is Chad States' series Give or Take. A series of photographs taken of public male hook-up spots, including parking lots, underpasses and heavily wooded forests, the viewer is drawn into a world many would consider to be sexually deviant. Public sex spots, barely hidden from the view of a family enjoying a picnic in a local park, immediately registers in my mind. As when looking through the previous issue of Lonely Boy Mag, long forgotten childhood memories have come back to life. I remember that the park I was dropped off at everyday as a kid was a local male hook-up spot and one day a friend and I walked in on two men in the bathroom thoroughly enjoying their short lunch break. We bolted through the bathroom doors at first horrified at witnessing a public sex act and then laughing about the new story we could pile onto our childhood tales. What interests me about this work is how commonplace it is to see men seeking sex in public spaces, most everyone has stumbled upon one of these locations, but it still belongs as a fringe element of society. Included with this work is a short narrative of a young teenage boy meeting and ultimately losing his virginity to an older man at a spot similar to those depicted in these photographs.

from Lonely Boy Mag (No. A-2 Boys and their Cars)

Lastly is Alec Soth's The Most Beautiful Woman in Georgia, a series previously published in the Magnum publication Georgian Spring. This work continues LBM's voyeuristic approach, with Soth seemingly stalking attractive women on side streets often from his car. Some photographs are taken through the car window, while in others it appears Soth has tracked them down for a more formal portrait. Including short text and descriptions of the story, this is a light-hearted but intriguing series, portrayed here in a context completely different to that in which it was originally published.

Thoughtfully designed by Jenny Tondera, the new issue continues along the lines of its predecessor by balancing between quirky humor and very real impressions of explicit behavior. And while some of the content may be hard to digest, it is also very much worth the challenge of engagement. -- Antone Dolezal

Purchase a copy of this title here.

Stephen Shore Lecturing on LA BREA MATRIX at PHOTO L.A. 2011 (Part 2), from photo L.A. + artLA projects on Vimeo.

Stephen Shore Lecturing on LA BREA MATRIX at PHOTO L.A. 2011 (Part 1), from photo L.A. + artLA projects on Vimeo.

photo-eye is pleased to announce a portfolio from Luigi Fieni -- The Room of 1000 Demons:

The Student -- Luigi Fieni

For The Room of 1000 Demons, Luigi Fieni took his inspiration from an old Buddhist legend about transformation through the confrontation of one's deepest fears. He explains the tale like this:

“Every hundred years, Buddhist students could undergo a ceremony in order to attain enlightenment.

Those students had to pass a test consisting of walking through the room of a 1000 demons: an empty dark room guarded by 2 guardians.

Once inside, the 1000 demons would take the forms of the students’ worst fears, and the students would have to fight them in order to walk through the room. If they succeeded, they would attain enlightenment.”

As we look through the images, we walk through the tale; we meet the young-looking but confident warrior, the imposing guardians and a collection of strange and colorful demons, alive with movement. And in the end, the warrior breaks free and returns to the world enlightened. Shot in Nepal, Fieni first came to the region through his career as an art restorer. Since that initial trip he has frequently returned, working on the restoration of ancient art work in a variety of locales in Asia and teaching locals the craft of art restoration. With his background in painting, Fieni is specially skilled in reproducing a variety of styles and techniques with a paint brush, and that ability that makes him especially well suited to restoration, but that also comes through in his photographic images.

The Fears I -- Luigi Fieni

Fieni's mastery of these skills is evident in his photography. Photographing using a low shutter speed, Fieni rotates, zooms and pans his camera while shooting, capturing an image, but also streaks of color and light -- motion blurs that give the images an otherworldly feel. The effect is exceptionally painterly -- the strokes of light enhancing the tone and timbre of the images. They are almost impressionistic under the painterly definition, with their fine but visible strokes, and focus on light and movement. "As my background is mostly painting, my work is constantly trying to merge photography with painting, trying to produce photographs that are as pictorial as possible: my personal view of things," says Fieni. That personal view is certainly full of magical beauty.

See Luigi Fieni's portfolio The Room of 1000 Demons on the Photographer's Showcase here.

For more information, please contact photo-eye Gallery Associate Director Anne Kelly by email or by calling the gallery at (505) 988-5152 x202

Behind the Zines

Behind the Zines: Self-Publishing Culture, edited by Robert Klanten, Adeline Mollard and Matthias Hübner and published by Gestalten, is a canny look at the self-publishing industry, covering small indie publishers like Rollo Press, to periodical publications like 200% to prolific self-publishers like Erik van der Weijde. Opening with an understated preface, the body of the book is divided into five sections -- Gallery, Laboratory, Kiosk, Archive and Theater -- Gallery representing those zines that are little artistic ventures in and of themselves, Laboratory being those more experimental in nature, Kiosk representing the zines that are actual magazines, Archive describing those that are constructed from collections or found material, and Theater speaking to those books that aim at telling a story or narrative. As the book editors note, there are "plenty of overlaps."

Visually fascinating, Behind the Zines presents covers and interior pages from an enormous number of books, showing innovative layouts and use of space. Thick and with cloth covers, but without cover boards or cloth-covered spine (which shows the beautiful guts of the book), the book lays satisfyingly flat when opened, an important feature considering the detail in these pages. Each page captures a variety of photographs, illustrations and text, all notable for their graphic design. It's a treasure trove of resource material for anyone looking for design inspiration. Real credit is due to the book designer who didn't get tired of the possibly mundane task of showing similarly sized rectangular objects over and over again -- the book is dynamic in its layout, making each page lively. Yet Behind the Zines doesn't treat its subject matter as something too precious -- the books are an art form, a mode of expression to be explore and investigated. Judging from some of the publishers interviewed in this book, the general mindset of self-publishers seems to be focuses around design more than object, doing the most with limited means and notoriously finicky printers.
 

from Behind the Zines

from Behind the Zines

 Behind the Zines is not just an interesting look at the interiors of books, it's also filled with engaging commentary on the practice of zine-making itself. As clearly evidenced six months ago in our Best Books of 2010 feature, the self-published book has exploded, a fact that Behind the Zines engages, bringing up the aspect of self-publishing as a trend. "While it's very comforting that self-publishing, small publishing, independent publishing, or whatever you want to call it is experiencing a healthy boom right now, it brings back memories of a certain phase in the mid to late nineties when everyone became a DJ for a year or two -- and swapped their MK2 for a skateboard once they lost interest," says Rollo Press' Urs Lehni. Behind the Zines can be seen as an early formal attempt to separate the wheat from the chafe -- a protohistory of the movement -- but perhaps just before the bubble bursts in 2012, as Lehni predicts.

from Behind the Zines

from Behind the Zines

The five sections all open with an interview: Urs Lehni of Rollo Press for Gallery, Christopher Jung & Tobias Wenig of Jung + Wenig for Archive, Freek Lomme of Onomatopee for Laboratory, Thierry Somers of 200% for Kiosk and Erik van der Weijde of Rollo Press and 4478ZINE.COM for Theater. Each book featured includes a brief description and is accompanied by general publication information, and also includes the occasional publisher bio, giving a bit more background on featured projects. The book closes with a comprehensive index, providing the name and contact information for each book featured. Four of the books presented in Behind the Zines were selected as part of photo-eye's Best Books of 2010 -- Blindschleiche und Riesenblatt by Anne Schwalbe, Coney Island Baby by Anna Haas, See You Soon by Maxwell Anderson and Der Baum by Erik van der Weijde. Cabin and Woods by Coley Brown and Cristiano Guerri are also featured, as well as a number of titles from Erik van der Weijde. -- Sarah Bradley

Purchase a copy of Behind the Zines