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

Sanctuary Folk Art | Dia de Los Muertos

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

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]

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.

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.

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

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

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