Monday, December 29, 2008

Desotorow Gallery | The Extended Moment


Desotorow Gallery is seeking submissions of photographic works for a juried exhibit scheduled for February 13-18. The exhibit, "The Extended Moment," will be juried and curated by a Guest Curator, Craig Stevens. Work submitted to this exhibit should explore the idea of the extended moment- a longer exposure, multiple exposure, or a sequential imagery theme.

Craig Stevens is currently a photography professor at Savannah College of Art and Design, and he has also taught at the Maine Photographic Workshop for 29 years. He has written numerous articles about photographic craft and vision and is a respected workshop leader and teacher. He is also the proprietor of L' Atelier, a fine art digital printing service in Savannah, GA. Please visit Stevens' website www.craigstevens.net to learn more.

Submissions (in digital form only) are due to Desotorow Gallery by January 23, 2009. Submissions may be made via mail:
Desotorow Gallery
2427 De Soto Avenue
Savannah, GA 31401

or by email: info@desotorow.org

Artists may submit up to 5 works for a $10 fee. Payment made be made via PayPal on Desotorow's website: www.desotorow.org/opportunities/entry.
or by check or cash mailed to Desotorow Gallery.


The exhibit will take place in TruSpace- a desotorow gallery. Please call 912-335-8204 or email info@desotorow.org with further questions.

PhotoSpiva

33rd Annual National Photography Competition
George A. Spiva Center for the Arts, Joplin, MO

Enter online at www.photospiva.org

Deadline: January 9th 2009

Juror: Jim Stone, Artist/Author/Associate Professor University of New Mexico

SPRAWL | SPE National | Dallas, TX

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Midwest SPE | Cleveland

In between the educational lectures, first-class exhibitions, and non-stop networking with our fellow photographic practitioners the GVSU SPE squad caught a few images of the trip to Cleveland this past November.

Monday, December 1, 2008

GV Lanthorn | ‘Shoots and Ladders’ prepares students for art world

‘Shoots and Ladders’ prepares students for art world

Grand Valley State University photography students will climb the rungs to success today during the opening reception for their "Shoots and Ladders" exhibit.

The event, featured from 5 to 7 p.m., will be held in the Fine Art Gallery Room 1121 in the Performing Arts Center.


photos by Matt La Vere for the Grand Valley Lanthorn

During the three-week exhibit, which began Monday and will run through Dec. 6, graduating photography students at GVSU will showcase their thesis works in the gallery.

Together, about 20 students have each chosen an individual theme for their selected works to showcase.

The event is part of a final project for a Senior Thesis/Project class, Photography 498, taught by Victoria Veenstra, assistant professor of the School of Communications.

In the class, students learn how to prepare for the real world after graduation and for photography outside of the classroom, said senior Chelsea Hoover. Her project, "Colors," is featured in the exhibit.

"We have learned a lot of things this semester like how to do resumes and frames, but mostly we have leaned a lot about real life experiences," Hoover said.

Like her fellow students, Hoover said the event is not only the final hurrah before graduation but is also a gateway into learning how to showcase their work in the future.

"This event is a way to prepare students for future exhibits and also for anything their future holds for them," Hoover added.

And this is an experience most college students do not get, said Danielle Elliot, whose project "Painting in Movement," is also featured in the show.

Elliot said she was informed that most colleges in the surrounding area do not have programs like the Senior Thesis Project class GVSU offers.

"This class has really prepared us," she said. "It has taught us how to approach galleries, how to get our work into galleries and how to be a photographer outside in the real world."

Although the class has received much praise by the students as a whole, the excitement, said Cacia Thompson -- whose work features high dynamic range processes -- comes from the opportunity for students to display their individuality through the exhibit.

"It is exciting just to see the different messages people have and the different dynamics of the works," Thompson said.

And in showcasing these different dynamics, the GVSU community can learn a lot, said Katie Hamilton, whose project "Sensations of Color" is featured in the show,

"We really need more events like these to help bring awareness about the art demographic and to be able to show off our skills," Hamilton said.

And in doing so, GVSU can celebrate the diversity of art, said Malin Towne, another senior featured in the show.

"We all have different messages and we are just trying to show that through our different perspectives," Towne said.

The Fine Arts Gallery and the "Shoots and Ladders" exhibit will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. For more information visit http://www.gvsu.edu/artgallery.


Sunday, November 30, 2008

Turn Your Flatbed Scanner into a Camera

I’ve been following Make magazine online lately. They have some really cool/fun/interesting/useful projects and how-tos. Plus a lot of robots.

Today they posted a link to a pdf on how to turn your flatbed scanner into a camera. There’s also a video “weekend project” how-to going over the camera construction. If you get to building this before I do, I wanna see it!

On The Media | Snap Judgements

Snap Judgments

What are the rules that govern journalistic portrait photography? Wide-angle lenses, nonstandard lighting, shooting from below – they’re all fair game and frequently employed by photogs working for major publications. But what obligation is there to the subject? Bob searches for answers.

***NOTE: Follow along with our slide show to view the photo portraits mentioned in this piece.***

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Shoots and Ladders | Installation Shots


















The show is now up and open for visitors!

Make sure you make it to the opening tonight!

Shoots & Ladders

Performing Arts Center | Art Gallery
Thursday, Nov. 20, 5-7pm
Allendale, MI

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Mixtape Cafe | Generative Behaviors

Gallery(106) | Beyond Sprawl - New Forms of Development in Grand Rapids


From November 7-26, the Calvin College Department of Art and Art History presents an exhibition of new development plans at the (106) South Division Gallery entitled "Beyond Sprawl – New Development in Grand Rapids." This show is held in conjunction with the exhibition "A Field Guide to Sprawl - text by Dolores Hayden, Photographs by Jim Wark," hosted at the Center Art Gallery at Calvin College from November 14 to December 20.

Beyond Sprawl features many examples of urban redevelopment, as well as greenfield, brownfield, and infill development projects that seek to reconnect community and move beyond sprawl. Many of these current concepts are derived from traditional urban practices that have been lost over the years. Pieces of these urban practices can be seen in the example of the 1923 Grand Rapids City Plan that featured: urban blocks with internal parking, pedestrian friendly spaces, and high density housing.

Some of the projects included in this exhibition are: a proposed infill development next to 106 South Division Ave. by Calvin College Pre-Architecture students, a greenfield development at Knapp St. and Leffingwell Ave. by Mosaic Properties, a co-housing project near Belknap Park, a brownfield development at Diamond Ave. and Lake Dr. by Bazzani Associates, and a proposed urban redevelopment at Wealthy St. and Jefferson Ave. by Inner City Christian Federation.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Paul Smith Fisheye for Lomographic Society





















With a 180 degree wide-angle view and fisheye distortion, it not only produces amazing pictures but its fasionhable and chic!

Source | i heart art

Thursday, October 30, 2008

This is War! Robert Capa at Work

A new exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery in London provides a chance to see the work of photographer Robert Capa, once described as the greatest war photographer in the world.

Three boxes of his work containing over 3,500 negatives previously thought to have been lost were recently unearthed, and here Cynthia Young, the curator of these pictures at the International Center of Photography in New York, speaks about these and some of his more famous pictures.
Click on the link to view the video.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7675484.stm

Friday, October 24, 2008

Photographer's Forum | 29th Annual College Photography Contest

Photographer's Forum | 29th Annual College Photography Contest

This contest is open to all high school and college
students in the U.S., Canada, and around the world.

http://pfmagazine.com/Contest.aspx

Winning Photos will be published in the May 2009 issue
of Photographer's Forum Magazine. All contest finalists will be
published in The Best of Photography Annual 2009.

EARLY ENTRY Deadline:
October 20, 2008
Early entry fee is $3.95 per photo entered (uploaded/postmarked on or before October 20, 2008).

FINAL ENTRY Deadline:
November 20, 2008
Final entry fee is $4.95 per photo entered (uploaded/postmarked on or before November 20, 2008).

The New York Photo Festival presents "The Future of Contemporary Photography" Screening


The New York Photo Festival and PDN PhotoPlus
are pleased to announce the photo world
premier screening of

The Future of Contemporary Photography:
The New York Photo Festival 2008



A Snorri Bros Production
Associate Producers Daniel Power and Frank Evers

Thursday, October 23 at 1:00pm
Friday, October 24 at 11:00am and 2:00pm
Saturday, October 25 at 10:20am and 2:40pm

Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York


www.newyorkphotofestival.com


This exciting new documentary short, The Future of Contemporary Photography, provides a dynamic look into the New York Photo Festival 2008 (NYPH08), and premieres at PDN Photo Plus Expo on Thursday, October 23, 2008. The film explores the curatorial insights of four leading photo editors, the festival’s founders, and the many cutting-edge artists who shared their work. The film asks curators, artists, and viewers to make their own aesthetic judgments on the state of modern photographic image making.

“PhotoPlus is always on the cutting edge of what’s happening in photography and imaging, so it's a natural fit for us to screen the Snorri Bros’ documentary The Future of Contemporary Photography during this huge industry event,” says Frank Evers, Co-Chairman and Co-Founder of the New York Photo Festival. “We think that the film is an brilliant documentation of the first ever New York Photo Festival and captures the incredible spirit, passion and excitement of that inaugural event. We can't give enough thanks to the folks at PDN PhotoPlus, who have proven steadfast supporters in helping us bring an annual world-class photo festival to New York City.”

The inaugural event in May 2008 was a surprise hit, and it delivered on the promise of presenting the “Future of Contemporary Photography” through the efforts of world-class curators and selected artists. The NYPH08 Festival Curators, Kathy Ryan, Martin Parr, Lesley A. Martin, and Tim Barber, delivered four stunning exhibitions dealing with everything from the ubiquity of imagery to typologies to artistic expression in photography. The New York Photo Festival has successfully filled the need for a large-scale, international cultural event in New York City dedicated to contemporary photography.

Founded by Daniel Power and Frank Evers, the New York Photo Festival is the first international-level festival of photography to be based in the U.S. With the ambition of documenting the future of photography in all its forms, this new annual event has selected a group of internationally respected curators who will deliver their personal vision of the newest and most important trends in contemporary photography. The inaugural edition (May 14–18, 2008) proved an astounding success with over 15,000 tickets sold, 2,500 VIPs and artists, 1,000 members of the international press, packed seating for all day and evening programming events at St. Ann’s Warehouse (450 capacity), 20 countries represented in curated and satellite pavilions, 85,000 clicked site visits, 47,000 blog posts, 2.5 million unique visits to www.nyphotofestival.com, 49 media partners, and over 3,000 submissions from 87 countries for the New York Photo Awards (www.newyorkphotoawards.com).

The New York Photo Festival 2009 will run from May 14 through May 24, made possible with the generous assistance of Two Trees Management and Canon USA. In addition to the curated pavilions, the festival will offer visitors an extensive range of activities that will generate dialogue and buzz among photo professionals, amateurs, students, and aficionados of art and culture, including seminars, slide shows, book signings, photographic workshops, live performances and events, and a gallery row. The New York Photo Festival will be headquartered in DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY.

The Future of Contemporary Photography is a Snorri Bros Production, directed by Eidur Snorri Eysteinsson, Snorri Sturluson, and David Weinstock, edited by Ruth Mamaril at Filmcore, with VFX by the Snorri Bros. Music provided by soundpets and Jody Redhage. Camera operator: Jérémy Lebreton. Associate Producers Daniel Power and Frank Evers.

About PDN PhotoPlus International Conference + Expo
Designed for professionals in the photographic and imaging industries, PDN PhotoPlus showcases the latest advances in photography, both traditional and digital. Held annually at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, attendees have the opportunity to explore an inspiring array of photography and imaging products and services—everything from image capture and color management to retouching and storage—all from the industry's leading manufacturers.

The show also offers over 100 photography and imaging seminars and hands-on workshops taught by world-renowned experts, with a focus on cutting-edge innovations in digital imaging products and techniques. The 2007 Expo recently received top rankings in Exhibit Survey Inc.’s annual Trade Show Trends Report for the second year in a row, as published in the April 2008 issue of Exhibitor magazine, ranking at or near the top in most major categories of its “Top Trade Shows of 2007”: Second-Highest Total Buying Plans; Eighth-Highest Net Buying Influence; and Second-Highest Traffic Density.

Source | New York Photo Festival

Monday, October 13, 2008

Victoria Veenstra | Richard Avedon Portraits Lecture | GRAM


Victoria Veenstra, Associate Professor of Photography, Grand Valley State University

A look at Avedon's signature works with some sideways glances at his contemporaries and the times affecting them all. Learn what shaped his visual explorations into portraiture that sparked so much commentary in the year his photographic series In the American West, 1979-1984 emerged. Gain some insight and framework to view the photographer's pivotal work that influences contemporary photography today as much as it did when it was created.

Friday, Oct. 16, 7-7:45pm | GRAM [Cook Auditorium]

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Fall for the Arts

Saatchi Online Student Art

The esteemed Saatchi gallery, London, supports the Saatchi Online Student Art program. All students are invited to upload their work. Work sold through the website is free from commission to either seller or buyer. This is a unique opportunity to showcase your work to an international audience and to connect with other student artists world wide. Students are frequently selected from the Online program to participate in leading art fairs such as Scope, Pulse, and Zoo Art.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

GRAM | Richard Avedon



RICHARD AVEDON: LARGER THAN LIFE

made possible by
Daniel and Pamella DeVos Foundation
Steelcase Inc.
Douglas and Maria DeVos Foundation
Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts
A.K. Rikk’s
Varnum, Riddering, Schmidt & Howlett LLP
Bill and Marilyn Crawford
Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation
John R. Hunting
kantorwassink
VanderWeide Family Foundation
Michigan Radio 104.1 FM
WOOD TV8

and additional sponsors

October 3, 2008 – January 4, 2009


Richard Avedon (1923–2004), one of the most important American photographers of the modern era, traces his dynamic career from the postwar years of the late 1940s in Europe to the early 21st century. Avedon set new precedents in fashion and portrait photography with his innovative approach to the medium. He also established a reputation as one of the greatest camera portraitists of our time.

After World War II, Avedon began taking photographs of street performers in Italy while doing freelance fashion photography for Harper’s Bazaar, where he subsequently served as chief photographer until 1966. During his years at Harper’s, Avedon created a new kind of fashion photography that transformed models from posed mannequins into actresses. He set his models in the city streets, bistros, and urban landmarks of Paris. In the studio, he required them to move and leap like dancers. The 1957 film Funny Face, starring Audrey Hepburn, cast Fred Astaire as fashion photographer, Dick Avery, a character based on Avedon, who consulted on the film and designed the opening titles.

In 1966 Avedon left Harper’s for Vogue and shifted his focus to portraiture, which he had begun in the late 1950s. Through the rest of his life, Avedon created powerfully engaging and unsparing portraits of actors, artists, writers, politicians, and intellectuals. His portraits are distinguished by their minimalist style. Posed in front of a sheer white background, the subject looks squarely into the camera. Avedon considered portrait photography a collaborative process. He admired his subjects and captured them in revealing moments as they paused in conversation with him.

Avedon’s subjects were often larger than life personalities. His photographs of President Gerald Ford, Rose Kennedy, The Beatles, and Louis Armstrong are portraits that document the 20th century. The famous and familiar people that he photographed were distinctly un-glamorized, yet their images are monumental in presence. His subjects also included sitters such as the Napalm victims he photographed on his 1971 visit to Vietnam. Avedon’s series In the American West, 1979–84, included drifters, miners, field hands, and working people from the western United States. However anonymous these subjects were, they have the same psychological presence and dignity as Avedon’s portraits of the powerful and celebrated.

Richard Avedon died suddenly in 2004 from a brain hemorrhage while shooting in San Antonio, Texas, for The New Yorker magazine. His project was titled On Democracy, befitting an American photographer who defined the stylish optimism of postwar modernism and immortalized the forthright faces of people who, in their time, were larger than life.

RICHARD AVEDON: LARGER THAN LIFE is organized by the Grand Rapids Art Museum and the Center for Creative Photography for an exclusive presentation at the Grand Rapids Art Museum from October 3, 2008 through January 4, 2009. The exhibition includes over 80 photographs drawn from the collection of the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, which houses the Richard Avedon Archive.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

New at the MOMA Design Store: Diana F+ Camera



Everyone and their mother knows that I am a huge fan of any Lomographic Society camera. For a limited time only, the MoMA edition of the new Diana F+ is a faithful reproduction of the 1960's classic. The capability of shooting dreamlike images with multiple exposures, pinhole shots, panoramas, night photos, and more makes it much more exciting than ever. It includes the classic plastic lens and a premium electronic flash with colored-gel filters. It also comes with a book about Diana F+ photography. Made of mold-injected plastic and slathered in fire engine red armor. One AA battery and 120-format film required (not included). Purchase now!

Source | i heart art

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Fall Photo Gathering


The Fall Photo Gathering is scheduled for tomorrow! [Friday, 10.3.08]

Sign up on Vikki's door [LSH 277] and let it be known that you'll be coming. If you forget to sign up, don't worry, Tony will welcome the non-RSVPers. Just come and enjoy the good photo-rific times!

4pm-ish to 7pm-ish

email for directions:
veenstrv@gvsu.edu
or
millarpa@gvsu.edu

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

The Met Enters Into Adulthood

Portrait of Self-Consciousness: Where the Medium Is the Message
By Richard B. Woodward

A great article from the Wall Street Journal that explains some new ideas about photography that are happening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

I think we should give the Met a warm welcome to the 20th and 21st Centuries!

Gallery (106) | Mars Attacks Fragonard


Mars Attacks Fragonard!

From September 12 to October 4, the Calvin College Art Department presents an exhibition of artwork at the (106) South Division Gallery entitled "Mars Attacks Fragonard!" by artist Vanessa Vobis.

She writes, "I am interested in things overlooked that exist in a slightly distorted world. Recent projects draw from ecology and reflect my enchantment with tide pools, aquariums, zoos, forests, rain forests, botanical gardens, Eden, greenhouses, islands, and coral reefs. We create our own realities, part fact with a lot of fiction, and we manufacture our own landscapes."

Reception and Gallery Hop on Friday, October 3 at 6-11pm
•Click to see Map of Galleries and Trolley Route.

ACTIVESITE | Friday, Oct. 3



ACTIVESITE has secured the Federal Building (the former home of Grand Rapids Art Museum), for our next event on Friday October 3rd 2008.

Furthermore, ACTIVESITE has been asked to participate in the 21st International Sculpture Conference held in Grand Rapids the weekend of October 2-4, 2008 [6-11pm].

So what exactly does this mean anyway? The ISC typically only holds events in larger markets like NY, LA, Seattle, London, Tokyo... you get the idea. However, due to the acclaim of Frederick Meijer Garden, the new Grand Rapids Art Museum, as well as the new JW Marriott; the ISC has decided to afford Grand Rapids this wonderful opportunity for our burgeoning city.

In short... this is HUGE for Grand Rapids and ACTIVESITE!

Artists participating from UICA, Kendall College of Art & Design, Grand Valley State University, Aquinas College, Calvin College, Hope College, Western Michigan University and the NYC School of Visual Arts.

Soundscape provided by Dj's Shannon Williams, Brandon Hill, Jarrett Wallace, and Jenny B.

SPE Regional Conference | Cleveland, OH


This years conference, Imag(in)ing the Future of Photography: The Photographic and the Digital, will be held in Cleveland, OH!

Check out the Conference Schdule.

MWSPE Regional Conference - Cleveland Ohio
Cleveland Institute of Art - CIA
November 6-8, 2008

Conference Registration: Download the PDF
Please Register by October 10, 2008

Midwest SPE Official Website

SPE National Conference | Dallas, TX

Join us in Dallas, Texas,
 for Sprawl, 
the 46th SPE National Conference. 
March 26 - 29, 2009. 
Fairmont Dallas Hotel www.spenational.org

Student Scholarship applications are due October 31. www.spenational.org/opportunities