A friend recently introduced me to some work by photographer Harold Feinstein. Feinstein photographed around Coney Island for over six decades and his documentary work had been exhibited widely, including being purchased early on by Edward Steichen while he was a curator at MoMA. The faces of the two people in the center of the frame captivate me. Some of his other early images remind me so much of Cartier-Bresson.
Art Review
A Topographical (re)View
By Jason Landry, Art Institute of Boston MFA in Visual Arts candidate | June 9, 2008
BOSTON - Abelardo Morell has a compelling ability to reinvent himself through his work. His experiments usually lead to images like this one, North America: Cliché Verre With Ink Transferred to 8†x 10†Film, 2007.
This image is part of the exhibition Pictures in Pictures on display from May 14 through June 28, 2008 at the Bernard Toale Gallery in Boston.
Think along the lines of a photogram or a monoprint. A Cliché-Verre is defined as a glass print or picture that is coated, in this case with a black ink, on which a design is scratched into the plate and then left to dry causing cracking and tones of ink to mix and bleed. Etched on this ink-based emulsion Morell has chosen to show topographical views of various continents. His final designs are then transferred onto 8×10 film from which silver gelatin print enlargements are made.
This Topography, unlike his colleagues and peers who were included in the 1975 exhibition and catalogue The New Topographics produced by the George Eastman House, can be attributed to what the world is now seeing through our many visual channels: images taken from the Mars rover, satellite imagery from Google maps, or from other photographers such as Emmet Gowin whose aerial photographs of military test sites throughout the United States show the damage that our continental crust has endured.
Morell’s images have entered a new phase of an artist evolving far from the days of Alice in Wonderland and pictures taken from a child’s perspective toward a more humanistic and scientific view that edifies our society.
Robert Doisneau created a few different variations of this images in 1948 as people passed the window of this store or gallery. This image I am drawn to, not only for the oil painting of the nude in the gold-leaf frame, but for the classic expression on the mans face, as he falls into a trance gazing at the painting. His female companion stands next to him totally oblivious, engaged in a single-sided conversation.
Here’s another version of the same scene.
Edward Weston’s image of Charis in the dunes titled, Nude 1936 from his book, Book of Nudes.
Hiroshi Watanabe is a Japaneses photographer living in Los Angeles, CA. I have enjoyed his work for some time now.
This image of Azusa Tukamoto as Osome is my favorite from the Kabuki Players series. She is tender, soft and shy which the shallow depth of field helps to define. The image speaks of innocence and tradition. It also resonates with a feeling I had after I returned from Japan and China in 2005.
My friend Lana Z Caplan has just got around to scanning some of the images she made while we were in China. You can see some samples on her (website).
I am drawn to the images by photographer Ken Rosenthal. Although the blur is a pictorial convention used often in film and photography to transition into a dream sequence, Rosenthal’s various bodies of work are created using this blur and have been sepia toned to give them an antique look and feel. His artist statement explains that many of the memories he has after looking at images in some old family photo albums were before he was born. He is interested in constructing experiences that he states could be, true and fictitious, remembered and reconstructed, seen and not seen.
I had my final mentor meeting with Abelardo Morell this morning. I brought him the 75 final prints I plan to show at my 2nd MFA residency in January. He seemed to be very pleased with my progress and continued to give me excellent advice.
One thing he brought up again was the “classical†theme that appears in my work. He said that in order to make it fresh, I might want to make a strange version of the classical image. A few of my newer prints included the use of shadows and reflections. He suggested viewing the mirror-distorted images that André Kertész made in the 1930’s (pictured here).
Now I need to finish up my readings and prepare for the holidays.
This Thursday, December 13th at 7:00pm, The Photographic Resource Center will be hosting a lecture by photographer Ralph Gibson. I wrote about Gibson’s work in a prior blog (here) when I went to an exhibition of his in Arizona. Gibson’s prints are known for their high contrast blacks and whites, limiting the tones of gray in the picture. The images above of a female torso with a shadow of a window blind cast upon her is one of my favorites.
This morning I met up with photographer Yoav Horesh for breakfast at the Brigham Circle Diner. Yoav is an excellent black and white photographer and educator. He is also one of the most truly genuine and candidly honest individuals I know. Born in Jerusalem, Horesh is known mostly for his documentary work and has frequently gone back to capture the effects of the changing political climate within Israel. Some of my favorite images come from his ‘Underwater’ series. These images are a rarity in the world of fine art photography but helps to show the diverse nature his work can convey. The project titled ‘Seascapes’ remind me of the Harry Callahan images he made on Cape Cod.
ParisPhoto is one of the largest fine art photography fairs bringing together many of the top galleries from all over the world. This is my second year attending this event and I was better prepared to tackle the endless labyrinth of booths that never seemed to end. Last year I was a bit overwhelmed because I had never been to an event of this magnitude. There were 83 galleries showcasing their artists and 21 publishers displaying some of the newest books out in the market.
I spoke with Bonni Benrubi, of the Bonni Benrubi Gallery in NY. She was displaying work of my current mentor Abelardo Morell as well some of the other artists she represents, like Matthew Pillsbury. Out of all of the galleries there, she seemed to be selling a lot of prints.
(Photo: Matthew Pillsbury )
When you float through the crowd, you can see many stern faces of the gallery owners manning their booths. This is a cutthroat industry and you either sink or swim. I have had many people ignore me but that never discourages me from continuing on my path and talking to as many people as possible.
I met up with Michael A. Smith and Paula Chamlee, two photographers who own Lodima Press, a small fine art photography publisher in Pennsylvania. I met them during my first trip to ParisPhoto and they were very welcoming and spent time talking about the fine art photography market with both my wife and myself. They publish photography books with some of the highest quality reproductions I have ever seen. If any one reading this has a moment, check out their website.