Sunday, February 28, 2010

Chad Muthard's No Mistake

I've been enjoying Chad Muthard's project No Mistake quite a bit lately. The anecdotal piece of writing that accompanies the work reads:

"My brother Steven and I were walking along the train tracks by the river - four, maybe five years ago - seeing who could keep their balance the longest. One foot in front of the other, when he turned to me and said, "I bet you I could throw a stone a hundred feet." I thought to myself for an instant that such an act was of little accomplishment and replied back contemptuously with "One hundred feet exactly?" He jumped off the rail and walked over to the side of the tracks. The determination in his eyes grew with confident resolution as he chose a stone from the ballast, roughly three quarters the size of a baseball. Without a single glance back in my direction, I swear I heard him mumble under his breath, "No more, no less..."


From No Mistake
© Chad Muthard



From No Mistake
© Chad Muthard



From No Mistake
© Chad Muthard



From No Mistake
© Chad Muthard



From No Mistake
© Chad Muthard

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Angela Strassheim's Evidence

Angela Strassheim's project Evidence hybridizes aspects of criminology and photography into an eerie, often visually savage body of work. In the press release for her recent exhibition at Marvelli Gallery, it states:

"Long after the struggles ended in these spaces, despite the cleaning, repainting and subsequent re-habitation of the rooms, the "Blue Star" solution is capable of activating the physical memory of blood through its contact with remaining proteins on the walls. Long exposures- from ten minutes to one hour- with minimal ambient night light pouring in from the crevices of windows and doors, capture the physical presence of blood as a lurid glow: a constellation of stars embedded in the walls.

Through a long and painstaking research process, Angela mapped out the exact locations where violent, often horrific crimes were perpetrated. She convinced new owners and tenants, some unaware of the violent history of their residences, to revisit the unnoticed, unseen past. Angela captures the tracing of a final struggle through the hard evidence of a violent moment, thereby revealing the silent yet omniscient memory of everyday living spaces. The physical result of her work is a series of luscious, large black and white prints, which attract the viewer like stills from a film noir with their eerie seduction and mysterious quality. Ultimately, these images are honest and true to the original space; they make visible, once again, the traces of violence and death that took place in those spaces in a forgotten past."



"Evidence No. 1, 2008"
© Angela Strassheim



"Evidence No. 2, 2009"
© Angela Strassheim



"Evidence No. 5, 2009"
© Angela Strassheim



"Evidence No. 3, 2009"
© Angela Strassheim



"Evidence No. 4, 2009"
© Angela Strassheim

Thursday, February 25, 2010

The Photography Post

The good people over at The Photography Post asked me to contribute a piece about The Exposure Project for this week's content. You can view the feature here.




Thanks to Kate and Rachel for the opportunity!

Vernacular: #05


Photographer Unknown

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Graphic Intersections v. 02: Photographers Announced

After spending the last month painstakingly reviewing submissions for Graphic Intersections v. 02, it's with great pleasure that Anastasia and I announce the final list of participating artists:

Peter Happel Christian
Phil Jung

We would like to congratulate everyone who was selected. In addition, we would like to thank everyone who submitted to, or supported this project along the way.

Stay tuned for further updates...

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Penelope Umbrico Lecture




2010 CCNY LECTURE SERIES

Penelope Umbrico

Thursday, February 18, 7pm
The School of Visual Arts Amphitheatre
209 East 23rd Street (between 2nd/ 3rd Ave), Third Floor

Free to CCNY members, SVA students, faculty, and staff
General admission $5, $3 for other students with valid student ID


© Penelope Umbrico

A New York based artist and educator, Penelope Umbrico has, in her work, examined typologies found in sales catalogs, search engines, photo sharing sites and online classified communities. She attended Ontario College of Art in Toronto, Canada, and received her MFA at the School of Visual Arts. Umbrico has exhibited nationally and internationally, and is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, NY; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, International Center of Photography, NY; Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others. She also has received numerous grants and fellowships, including Anonymous Was A Woman, Aaron Siskind Foundation Fellowship, NYFA Artists Fellowship, NYFA Catalogue Project Grant, and the Harvestworks Scholar Fellowship. Umbrico is currently core faculty at the School of Visual Arts, both its BFA Photography program and MFA Photography and Related Media program and is the Chair of MFA Photography at Bard College, NY.

Anthony Scrocca

New work from Anthony Scrocca. You can see more images from this project, as well as read a brief Q & A with him, here.


© Anthony Scrocca


© Anthony Scrocca


© Anthony Scrocca


© Anthony Scrocca


© Anthony Scrocca

Just A Reminder...

that we will be announcing the 20 chosen photographers for Graphic Intersections v. 02 tomorrow at 12pm on this blog and our website. Stay tuned...

Friday, February 12, 2010

Growing

I don't typically post about music on this blog, but the two promotional videos (below) for the new Growing record PUMPS compelled me to step outside our largely photo-centric focus. I mean seriously, one of their new songs is entitled "Drone Burger". Need I say more?





PUMPS is being released on April 6th by VICE Records. You can pre-order it here.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Unless You Will - Issue 4 Now Online

The new issue of the online webzine Unless You Will went live yesterday and contains some really nice work. I am honored to have a selection of images from my series The Family Dig included alongside photography from:

Carlos & Jason Sanchez, Jari Silomäki, Jean Claude Delalande, Rip Hopkins, Trinidad H. Carrillo, Brendan George Ko, Phil Toledano, Francesco Millefiori and Daniel Glazer









You can view the issue here, or download the PDF here.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Vernacular: #04


Photographer Unknown

Shadi Ghadirian

Iranian photographer Shadi Ghadirian's portraits replace:

"the expected monotone of the black chador with vibrantly patterned fabrics, each portrait suggests a vivacious individuality and character, belying the limitations of stereotype. Similarly, the mundane objects, when transformed into faces, become highly poised and charismatic caricatures, embodying individual personalities."


From "Like Everyday"
© Shadi Ghadirian



From "Like Everyday"
© Shadi Ghadirian



From "Like Everyday"
© Shadi Ghadirian



From "Like Everyday"
© Shadi Ghadirian



From "Like Everyday"
© Shadi Ghadirian

Monday, February 8, 2010

Matthias Koch

A friend showed me the landscape of work of German photographer Matthias Koch today. See more here.


© Matthias Koch


© Matthias Koch


© Matthias Koch



© Matthias Koch


© Matthias Koch

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Tessellations

Wm Matthew Harvey e-mailed me the other day with a link to the collaborative project Tessellations - an intriguing exploration of the interconnectivity between disparate images. Harvey elaborates:

"In the spirit of visual conversations, we created a blog in which both of us alternately post images in response to the images previously posted. Creating something of an open ended, often oblique narrative we try to make sense of the expansive and dissonant patterns of the internet. Each image we post links to outside source material or subtext of creative thought, drawing conceptual and interpretive connections between the posts."








Vernacular: #03


Photographer Unknown

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Corin Hewitt

Work from Corin Hewitt's Seed Stage - an installation that was exhibited at the Whitney combining aspects of performance art, live theater and specific references to the representational history of the still life.


Untitled #40, November 16, 2008 from Seed Stage
© Corin Hewitt



Untitled #13, October 18, 2008 from Seed Stage
© Corin Hewitt



Untitled #32, November 9, 2008 from Seed Stage
© Corin Hewitt



Untitled #38, November 15, 2008 from Seed Stage
© Corin Hewitt