Photo LA 2013: Diary of Jeff Dunas

Bill Eppridge, Senator Robert F Kennedy Shot,

Ambassador Hotel Kitchen, Los Angeles, California, June 5, 1968

Via Le Journal de la Photographie

 Slide Show #1


Same venue. A generous group of galleries reconvened this past weekend, January 17 - 21 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium for the 21st annual PhotoLA print fair.

Stephen Cohen, PhotoLA's founder, was in good form and seemed happy with the turnout and the exhibitions. The opening night was a wonderful social occasion for the photography community who turned up to benefit the Inner City Arts organization.

The hands-down shining moment of the event was a one and half hour lecture by the great Bill Eppridge. There wasn't a dry eye in the house for the moderately attended talk. Monroe gallery artist Eppridge discussed and showed work from his spectacular career as a photojournalist centering on his assignments from the 1960s including the Beatle's first US tour and the Robert Kennedy assassination If there is a photo-book publisher reading this - here is an incredible opportunity to publish a phenomenal monograph.

It's hard to say if there were detectible new currents on show this year - there was a surprising number of contemporary female nudes evident in many of the exhibitor's spaces but in terms of one emerging star of the program, none surfaced. Ben Nixon, a young photographer working with 19th century wet-plate technology, had a strong show of his forest work as well as his exquisite new title from 21st Editions. A lot of pigment printing on view, with an exceptional piece by Michael Lang at the Cohen Gallery booth. While many tend to pump the colors of modern ink-jet prints, Lang's images displayed a remarkable restraint and mastery of his craft. Less early 20th century masters on display than in prior years, a greater emphasis on the work of contemporary photographers - a good direction for mid-career image-makers. Most were American although a collective booth showing the work of Czech photography was wonderful. Daniel Miller of the Verge and Duncan Miller galleries hosted a booth for a group of women, all emerging photographers which was a good development.

This year an expanded series of seminars, some even tech seminars were added to bring in more photographers who were everywhere this year - a great chance to catch up with friends.

All in all, worthwhile, to be sure. Will I attend the 22nd PhotoLA?
Absolutely.


Jeff Dunas, Los Angeles

Slide Show #2

 Stephen Wilkes Day to Night Series

Stephen Wilkes, Sandy : Seaside Heights, New Jersey, November 4, 2012

Digital C-print, signed, limited edition #1/20 $10,000

Links

http://www.photola.com

Photo LA Highlights New Frontiers In Photography

Stephen Wilkes Day To Night/Photo by Rebecca Joyce/LAist

By Rebecca Joyce/Special to LAist

Via LAist

Photo LA has once again returned to the Santa Monica Civic Center for a 4-day photography exhibition. Photo LA features the best iconic work, vernacular pieces—and also the new frontiers in fine art photography.

Classic pieces by Araki, Cartier-Bresson and Lange share space with the new and noteworthy. Garnering attention are Chris McCaw's sunburned negative series, never-before-seen images of Andy Warhol as a model, astonishing work by the Blind Photographers Guild, a new and iconic image of Roger Waters by Jerome Brunet and large lightjet prints by Stephen Wilkes of the Jersey Shore after Sandy.

New attendees can attend seminars and go on docent tours to get a guided introduction to the work featured.

After last year's success, Emerging Focus—which is open to amateurs—returns with 20 finalists from an international photography competition. There is also a full schedule of workshops and portfolio reviews geared toward student and emerging artists. A larger variety of seminars provides classes on portraiture, lighting, travel, black and white and many other facets of photography. The Emerging Focus programming noticeably changes the demographic of the crowd at Photo LA—there are more students, emerging and aspiring artists, and a new generation of photography lovers and collectors.

One of the most important fine art events in Los Angeles, the annual Photo LA gives us a panorama of the state of photography in the art world, as well as the changing face of those who are practicing, embracing and collecting the medium. Photo LA is on exhibit at the Santa Monica Civic Center until tomorrow. For more information about the event check out its website.

Related: Le Journal de la Photography: Photo LA 2013

Inaguration Day (to Night)

 © Stephen Wilkes Instagram "This will be my view for the Presidential Inauguration"

Today is a rare combination of the Presidential Inauguration and Martin Luther King Day. If you are attending the inauguration ceremonies, or watching them on tv, look for Stephen Wilkes on the platform between CBS and CNN as he creates an Inaugural "Day To Night" photograph.

Meanwhile, visitors to the final day of photo la 2013 are invited to view significant examples of 20th and 21st Century photojournalism at Monroe Gallery of Photography. The Gallery is exhibiting photographs spanning more than 85 years of history, including iconic civil rights images; Bill Eppridge's photographs of Robert F. Kennedy and The Beatles; work by Nina Berman, Yuri Kozyrev, and Stephen Wilkes Seaside Heights photograph after  Hurricane Sandy .

Stephen Wilkes: The 57th Presidential Inauguration, Day To Night

Stephen Wilkes announced today that he will be shooting a "Day to Night" of the 57th Presidential Inauguration on Monday January 21st in Washington, DC.

Read more about his Day to Night series, which was recently featured on the CBS Sunday Morning Show, here. And, if you are the in the greater Los Angeles area, be sure to visit us this weekend during Photo la 2013 to view a selection of Stephen's work, including the most recent location of the Day To Night series, Jerusalem, and his photograph of Seaside Heights, New Jersey following Hurricane Sandy.

To Do Monday: Stephen Wilkes Talks "Day To Night"

Sponsored by Adorama and Canon

Stephen Wilkes: The Big Picture

Monday, Dec 3, 2012

5:30PM - 7:30PM

Event location:

The Adorama Building, 42 West 18th Street 5th Floor

Event Description:

Stephen Wilkes is well known internationally for his fine art and commercial photography, and during this evening's presentation he'll be showing and discussing the pictures, themes, and genres that are signatures of his work. Many of his images, at once epic in scale all share a unique human narrative, showcasing his fascination with scale, and reflecting his passion for making 'The Big Picture.'

He'll show his latest fine art series, "Day to Night', where Stephen photographs a scene from the same perspective during a minimum of 10 hours, as he says, "capturing a fluid visual narrative of day into night within a single frame."

Stephen's assignments and projects have taken him around the globe, where his continuing interest in architectural imagery and how rapid industrial growth impacts our world and environment. He'll be showing examples that range from his series on China's transformation from it's rural and natural beauty to teeming cities as an industrial behemoth, to a recent commercial assignment in Mumbai that combined his expertise shooting on location in challenging situations and combining his exciting visualization capturing the essence and energy of a place. He'll also be showing images from his Ellis Island series, and from the Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf oil spill series among others.

Throughout the presentation, be prepared to look at things differently; you will see and hear about the symbiotic relationship between his commercial and fine art work, as Stephen shares how he manages to balance an active commercial and fine art career.

Register here  (event expired)


(A selection of Stephen Wilkes' Day To Night photographs are currently on view at the gallery. UPDATE: Contact the gallery for news about the newest international addition to the collection: Jerusalem, Day To Night.)

Biography: Stephen Wilkes

  For more than two decades Stephen Wilkes has been widely recognized for his fine art and commercial photography. His photographs have been exhibited in both galleries and museums, and featured in the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Time, Sports Illustrated, London Sunday Times, and Travel + Leisure.

In 2000, Epson America commissioned him to create a millennial portrait of the United States, a 52-day odyssey that resulted in a critically acclaimed exhibition that traveled to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

The monograph, Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom was published in 2006. Stephen was featured on Weekend Edition with Scott Simon of NPR, CBS Sunday Morning with Martha Teichner and the book received high critical acclaim including Time Magazine's 5 Best Photography Books of The Year, 2006. His newest body of work is titled Day to Night. The work embodies epic cityscapes of New York with fleeting moments throughout the day to night. Stephen photographs from one camera angle continuously for approximately 15 hours. A select group of images are then electronically blended into one photograph. The photographs have been exhibited at Clampart Gallery in NYC, and Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe. CBS Sunday Morning  featured Stephen in a segment on his process in creating Day to Night images on November 11, 2012.

In 1999 he completed a personal project photographing the south side of Ellis Island: the ruined landscape of the infectious disease and psychiatric hospital wings, where children and adults alike were detained before they could enter America. Through his photographs and video work, Stephen has inspired and helped secure $6 million in funding towards the restoration for the south side of the island.

Educated at Syracuse University's S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, his awards and honors include the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Magazine Photography, Photographer of the Year from Adweek Magazine, Fine Art Photographer of the Year 2004 Lucie Award, and the Epson Creativity Award.
Stephen's work is in the permanent collection of the International Museum of Photography in the George Eastman House, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Dow Jones Collection, Griffin Museum of Photography, Jewish Museum of New York, Library of Congress and numerous private collections.

He also shoots advertising campaigns for many of the worlds leading agencies and corporations, including, SAP, IBM, PepsiCo, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, American Express, Nike, Sony, Verizon, IBM, AT&T, Rolex, Honda, J.W.T., EuroRSCG, McCann Erickson, Ogilvy & Mather, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, and Rubin Postaer among others.

Stephen Wilkes DAY TO NIGHT Photo Shoot Feature On CBS News Sunday Morning Show Nov 11

Bethesda Fountain, Day To Night

In his series, “Day to Night,” Stephen Wilkes photographs a scene “for a minimum of ten hours, from the same perspective, capturing a fluid visual narrative of day into night within a single frame.” CBS News Sunday Morning correspondent Martha Teichner joined Stephen Wilkes in a crane suspended over New York's Central Park during the recent creation of one of Wilkes "Day To Night" photographs. A special CBS Morning News segment, produced by Meggie Miao, was broadcast on November 11 - check local listings for time in your area.

WATCH IT HERE

"Day To Night", an exhibition of large-scale color photographs (up to 50 x 80 inches) was held at Monroe Gallery of Photography in Santa Fe April 27 through June 16, 2012, the first time the full collection was exhibited together. A selection of these photographs remains on view in the gallery.

 For more than two decades Stephen Wilkes has been widely recognized for his fine art, editorial, and commercial photography. With numerous awards and honors, as well as five major exhibitions in the last five years, Wilkes has made an impression on the world of photography. His most recent series features vibrant photographs of Times Square, Park Avenue, Coney Island, and Central Park, among other iconic New York locations, and capture, in a single frame, the transition from “Day to Night”. Using digital composites of images of the same site taken over a period of up to 15 hours, the photographs have a time-traveling quality, with the hustle and bustle in the afternoon sun giving way to the glow of city lights in darkening, cloud-streaked skies.


View the full "Day To Night collection here.  December 1, 2012 UPDATE: Contact the gallery for news about the newest international addition to the collection: Jerusalem, Day To Night.)


"Anything one can imagine one can create. Over the last several years, photographic technology has evolved to a point where anything is possible. I imagined changing time in a single photograph. I began to explore this fascination with time in a new series of photographs called: “Day to Night”. Photographing from one camera angle continuously for up to 15 hours, capturing the fleeting moments throughout the day and night. A select group of these images are then digitally blended into one photograph, capturing the changing of time within a single frame."

"Day to Night embodies a combination of my favorite things to photograph; documentary street photography melded with epic cityscapes. The work is a personal reflection of my deep love for New York. As this series has evolved, I discovered that the photographs began to highlight a form of emergent behavior within the daily life of the city. Studying the communication between pedestrians on sidewalks, cars and cabs on the street, these individual elements become a complex life form as they flow together to create the chaotic harmony that is Manhattan."

"Henri Cartier Bresson once said, “Photography is the recognition of a rhythm in the world of real things.” I am forever fascinated by the rhythm that is New York, the city’s relentless energy from “Day to Night”'.--Stephen Wilkes



Wilkes' photographs are in the permanent collection of The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; George Eastman House, Rochester, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dow Jones & Company, New York City; The Jewish Museum, New York City; and in numerous important private collections throughout the world. His work has graced the covers of numerous international publications, including Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, Life Magazine, and Time Magazine.

For further information, please contact the Gallery.

Related:

THE Magazine Review: Stephen Wilkes: Day to Night

 Opening Night: Stephen Wilkes "Day To Night"

Sunrise, sunset

Photographer shows morning and night in New York in a single frame

Sunday, July 1, 2012

 

 

 

Via The Daily

 

 

It’s called the city that never sleeps — and for good reason. Photographer Stephen Wilkes captured New York City from morning to night in one frame to create what he calls a “fluid narrative.”

“I have always been fascinated by the way the city’s energy ebbs and flows from morning to night,” Wilkes told The Daily.

His surreal-like “Day to Night” series of cityscapes comes from shooting 10 hours from the same perspective. His photography is what he describes as “a visualization of the energy that is New York.”

Wilkes just completed his first international piece of the same effect in Shanghai, and plans to shoot in Los Angeles, Chicago, Europe and Jerusalem. Visit his website for more images.

Elizabeth.Semrai@thedaily.com
@easemrai

Coney Island's endless summer

To create this image, the photographer spent 15 hours suspended in a crane 150 feet above the Coney Island boardwalk

Via Fortune Magazine

New York City's No. 1 destination for thrill-seekers is in the middle of a high-dollar facelift.

By Anne VanderMey, reporter

FORTUNE -- In 1938, at the height of Coney Island's popularity, Fortune reported that the "narrow strip of land, about 800 to 1,000 feet in width and two and a quarter miles long," was valued at about $22 million, or $337 million in today's dollars. But the strip is probably worth more than that: New York City expects the boardwalk to generate $14 billion in the next three decades.

By the numbers:
11 million: Number of visitors to Coney Island last summer. Of those, 640,000 went to Luna Park and Scream Zone for the 26 rides -- the highest amusement park attendance since 1964. Two new rides will open this summer.

$4.5 million: Sale price of the Eldorado Auto Skooters building, purchased this spring by Thor Equities. Thor now owns about seven acres of land in Coney Island, and plans to develop some of its properties into ritzy hotels.

90 mph: Top speed of the Sling Shot, Luna Park's fastest ride. The first roller coaster in the U.S. made its debut in Coney Island in 1884. It cost 5¢ to ride and topped out at 6 mph. The Sling Shot costs $20 a pop.

Source: New York City Economic Development Corp.
This story is from the June 11, 2012 issue of Fortune.



Related: Stephen Wilkes: Day To Night exhibition extened through June 24

Stephen Wilkes: Day To Night Exhibition Featured in La Lettre de la Photographie

Flatiron Building, Day To Night (2010) © Stephen Wilkes

  COURTESY MONROE GALLERY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Via La Lettre de la Photographie

For more than two decades Stephen Wilkes has been widely recognized for his fine art, editorial, and commercial photography. With numerous awards and honors, as well as five major exhibitions in the last five years, Wilkes has made an impression on the world of photography. His most recent series features vibrant photographs of Times Square, Park Avenue, Coney Island, and Central Park, among other iconic New York locations, and capture, in a single frame, the transition from “Day to Night”. Using digital composites of images of the same site taken over a period of up to 15 hours, the photographs have a time-traveling quality, with the hustle and bustle in the afternoon sun giving way to the glow of city lights in darkening, cloud-streaked skies.

"Anything one can imagine one can create. Over the last several years, photographic technology has evolved to a point where anything is possible. I imagined changing time in a single photograph. I began to explore this fascination with time in a new series of photographs called: “Day to Night”. Photographing from one camera angle continuously for up to 15 hours, capturing the fleeting moments throughout the day and night. A select group of these images are then digitally blended into one photograph, capturing the changing of time within a single frame."

"Day to Night embodies a combination of my favorite things to photograph; documentary street photography melded with epic cityscapes. The work is a personal reflection of my deep love for New York. As this series has evolved, I discovered that the photographs began to highlight a form of emergent behavior within the daily life of the city. Studying the communication between pedestrians on sidewalks, cars and cabs on the street, these individual elements become a complex life form as they flow together to create the chaotic harmony that is Manhattan."

Full post and slide show here.

NOTE: Exhibition has been extended through June 24, 2012

Abandoned Ellis Island – And How It Can Be Saved

Via Scouting New York:

The following article was produced in participation with the Partners in Preservation program, which will be awarding $3 million in grants to historic sites across New York City based on your votes – so go vote now!

Chances are, when you think of Ellis Island, you picture just one building…

The “Main Building,” a Beaux-Arts masterpiece built in 1900, through which millions of immigrants passed until its closure in 1954. Today, it houses the Immigration Museum, and if you’ve ever visited on a school field trip, or passed through on a vacation, this is where you spent your day.

One question: while you were there, did you happen to turn around…

…and notice the row of gorgeous Belgian-style buildings across the water? The ones that seem to be totally abandoned?

Full article with numerous photograph here.

Monroe Gallery of Photography is currently exhibiting Stephen Wilkes' "Day To Night" collection.

 

Perhaps Wilkes’ most ambitious project was photographing the south side of Ellis Island (1998 – 2003). With his exclusive photographs and video work, Wilkes was able to help secure $6 million in funding to restore the south side of the island. Today all that remains of the past are Wilkes' haunting images. These photographs have appeared in The New York Times Magazine and have won numerous awards including American Photographer, The Art Directors Club, Applied Arts Magazine, Graphis and other industry awards. Wilkes continues to be involved with his passion for Ellis Island, working with the "Save Ellis Island" foundation. Wilkes received the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for magazine photography, and in 2004 he received the Lucie Award for Fine Art Photographer Of The Year Award. His work is in the permanent collection of several important museum collections. Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom was published by W.W. Norton & Company in the fall of 2006, and was accompanied by a major exhibition at Monroe Gallery of Photography October 6 – January 7, 2007.

OPENING NIGHT: STEPHEN WILKES - DAY TO NIGHT

All Photographs by Hance Partners/Image Craft ©All Rights Reserved

On April 27, 2012, Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, opened a one man show featuring photographer Stephen Wilkes' series of Day to Night images, Ten very large framed prints occupied the entire gallery in this first one man show of Stephen’s latest work.

Hance Partners/Image Craft, under the direction of master printer Richard Jackson, collaborated with Stephen to produce the prints said to be some of his most stunning images ever.

Hance Partners/Image Craft produces these magnificint images up to 80 inches wide, and also creates a complex four stage mounting and framing process to complete these works of art.

For more info on the images, please see the Hance Partners/Image Craft blog at:
imcraft.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/stephen-wilkes-ny-day-to...

OPENING RECEPTION TONIGHT, 5 - 7: STEPHEN WILKES - DAY TO NIGHT

Pasatiempo

Santa Fe--Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to present "Day To Night", an exhibition of large-scale color photographs (up to 50 x 80 inches) by leading contemporary photographer Stephen Wilkes. The exhibition opens with a public reception with Stephen Wilkes from 5 - 7 PM tonight, Friday, April 27. The exhibition continues through June 16. 

More.

STEPHEN WILKES: DAY TO NIGHT

 

 

Coney Island, Day To Night

Santa Fe--Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to present "Day To Night", an exhibition of large-scale color photographs (up to 50 x 80 inches) by leading contemporary photographer Stephen Wilkes. The exhibition opens with a public reception with Stephen Wilkes from 5 - 7 PM on Friday, April 27. The exhibition continues through June 16. 

For more than two decades Stephen Wilkes has been widely recognized for his fine art, editorial, and commercial photography. With numerous awards and honors, as well as five major exhibitions in the last five years, Wilkes has made an impression on the world of photography. His most recent series features vibrant photographs of Times Square, Park Avenue, Coney Island, and Central Park, among other iconic New York locations, and capture, in a single frame, the transition from “Day to Night”. Using digital composites of images of the same site taken over a period of up to 15 hours, the photographs have a time-traveling quality, with the hustle and bustle in the afternoon sun giving way to the glow of city lights in darkening, cloud-streaked skies.

 "Anything one can imagine one can create. Over the last several years, photographic technology has evolved to a point where anything is possible. I imagined changing time in a single photograph. I began to explore this fascination with time in a new series of photographs called: “Day to Night”. Photographing from one camera angle continuously for up to 15 hours, capturing the fleeting moments throughout the day and night. A select group of these images are then digitally blended into one photograph, capturing the changing of time within a single frame."

"Day to Night embodies a combination of my favorite things to photograph; documentary street photography melded with epic cityscapes. The work is a personal reflection of my deep love for New York. As this series has evolved, I discovered that the photographs began to highlight a form of emergent behavior within the daily life of the city. Studying the communication between pedestrians on sidewalks, cars and cabs on the street, these individual elements become a complex life form as they flow together to create the chaotic harmony that is Manhattan."

"Henri Cartier Bresson once said, “Photography is the recognition of a rhythm in the world of real things.” I am forever fascinated by the rhythm that is New York, the city’s relentless energy from “Day to Night”'.--Stephen Wilkes

Selected photographs from the Day To Night series were exhibited at 2011 Art Basel Miami, and just recently at the 2012 AIPAD Photography Show in New York to widespread acclaim. This exhibition will be the first time the full collection has been exhibited together.

 Photography has been Stephen’s passion since age 12, when his fascination with science led him to take photographs through a microscope. He began working on his own at age 15, attended Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications, graduating in 1980. In 1982, Wilkes opened his own studio in Manhattan.

 “Ever since I took my first pictures, photography has always been the joy of discovery for me,” says Wilkes. “The excitement not only lies with what I see and how I see it, but mostly when someone looks at the finished photograph and feels the same emotions I felt when I took the picture. There is something sacred about the right moment. The frame where all the energy comes together and, in one instant, a story is told.”

Wilkes' photographs are in the permanent collection of The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; George Eastman House, Rochester, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dow Jones & Company, New York City; The Jewish Museum, New York City; and in numerous important private collections throughout the world. His work has graced the covers of numerous international publications, including Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, Life Magazine, and Time Magazine.

AIPAD 2012: DAY TWO

Today we were very honored to welcome in our booth Deena Schutzer, daughter of the late Paul Schutzer, Grey Villet's widow Barbara Villet (selections of  Grey's photo essay of Richard and Mildred Loving are on exhibit); Ida Wyman, and Stephen Wilkes.

The AIPAD Photography Show was featured in numerous reviews and articles today, including the New York Times, MSNBC Photo Blog, The DLK Collection ("A startling Nina Berman of a veiled woman with her diploma is on the outside wall" at Monroe Gallery).

The Show continues tomorrow 11 - 7 (Bill Eppridge,   Stephen Wilkes, and many other photographers will be in our booth), and Sunday 11 - 6. We look forward to welcoming you at Booth #419!

AIPAD DAY 1

From this

to this and more

 Please visit us in Booth #419, at the AIPAD Photography Show through Sunday.

Related: Elizabeth Avedon: AIPAD 2012, New York City

Monroe Gallery at The AIPAD Photography Show 2012

Nina Berman: Afghan Woman with Diploma, Kabul, Afghanistan, 1998

We delighted to return to exhibit at the AIPAD Photography Show  in New York March 28 - April 1, 2012. The show is again at the Park Avenue Armory, and Monroe Gallery of Photography will be located in booth 419.


In our expanded booth, Monroe Gallery of Photography will be exhibiting specially selected work from the gallery's collection. Highlights include: new photographs from Stephen Wilkes' acclaimed "Day To Night" series; significant contemporary photographs by Nina Berman; important and historic photojournalism including photographs of the Civil Rights movement and Grey Villet's photographs of Richard and Mildred Loving taken during the landmark Supreme Court case overturning all race-based restrictions on marriage in the United States; and much more.

Show tickets are available for purchase at the Park Avenue Armory during Show hours.

Thursday, March 29 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Friday, March 30 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Saturday, March 31 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Sunday, April 1 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Stephen Wilkes: Coney Island, Day To Night

First Look: The AIPAD Photography Show

<><>   Stephen Wilkes, Coney Island, Day To Night, 2011 Monroe Gallery of Photography Booth #419

Via Gotham Magazine

Whether you’re seeking that perfect print by Diane Arbus (you know the one, the identical twin girls in pinafores) or something new from a contemporary photographer, such as a multimedia wall relief made of LED lights by Jim Campbell, you’ll likely find what you’re looking for at the annual photography fair organized by the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, better known as AIPAD. Now in its 32nd year, AIPAD will be held at the Park Avenue Armory from March 29 through April 1, with offerings ranging from rare 19th-century material to the latest works by today’s digital artists.

“AIPAD is definitely worth two or three visits, not one drive-through,” says William Hunt, a top collector in the field.

Photo LA Features Work of Masters, Amateurs, the Avant-Garde and Everything in Between

Grey Villet and Paul Schutzer photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe. (Photo by Rebecca Joyce/special to LAist via Flickr)



Via LAist

By Rebecca Joyce/Special to LAist

You might think photography shows are for the collectors and connoisseurs. They’re for people who wear turtlenecks, and sport coats over t-shirts. For people with shiny shoes and who use words like “exquisite” when discussing an artist’s work. People who begin conversations by identifying the art school they attended and sound very important even when discussing lunch.

That’s what I thought, too.

Art buyers and collectors are very important—after all, patrons keep galleries open and make it possible for artists to keep working—but photography shows are for everyone.

In addition to a good collection of works by master photographers, such as Ansel Adams, Photo LA is the place to see what is new and fresh in the photography world, a world ever-growing and constantly changing. Photography is an accessible art, and Photo LA has done everything possible to make this show accessible as well. Anyone who is a lover of photography at any level can be inspired here. There are photographs of the Civil Rights Movement and other works from the 60s, 50s and even earlier.

But for those wanting to see more contemporary work, there is music photography by Jerome Brunet and Ingrid Herfelder, digital work by Catherine Nelson, photographs of urban decay by Thomas Jorion, and the very popular work of Jay Mark Johnson and Stephen Wilkes.

Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe. On the right is one of the Stephen Wilkes "Day to Night" photographs. (Photo by Rebecca Joyce/special to LAist via Flickr)

 

There are great resources for photographers on hand. Lucie Foundation, which sponsors photography scholarships and Month of Photography, is currently accepting submissions from photographers at all levels. Women in Photography International accepts submissions for year-round photography contests for women of all levels and provides a way for new photographers to interact with established artists.

Check out the event schedule. In addition to guided tours, there are lectures and panels with photographers, collectors, and curators. For new photographers, the Emerging Focus learning series has educational lectures on topics such as travel photography and fine art printing. A Canon representative will be teaching a class on working with RAW files.

If you need further proof that this show is for everyone, The Emerging Focus installation, featuring finalists of a photography contest open to amateurs, seemed to be the most popular and drew the largest crowd while I was there.

So, collectors, curators, students, artists, professionals, enthusiasts, just-got-a-camera-for-Christmas people, whether you love it or don’t understand it, this photography show is for you.
Photo LA is on exhibit at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium until Monday. For more information about the event check out its website.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@laist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

Stephen Wilkes Explores New York as an Emergent Life Form in 'New York: Day to Night'

Via The Village Voice Blogs



Things We Like

By Jen Doll

Thursday, Aug. 18, 2011

When we first saw the photographs making up Stephen Wilkes' "New York: Day to Night" series, we gasped. We have long loved Magritte's "Empire of Light" painting, which plays with simultaneous experiences of darkness and light (you know, the one with the blue, day-like sky, the dark house, and the glowing lamppost?). And Wilkes' new offerings do that, but on the backdrop of New York, with so much detail and energy...not to mention, they're photos. Truly, they are so cool. We spoke with him recently to find out how he did it, and what inspired him.

How did you come up with the idea for the series?
The inception of the idea came about 15 years ago, when Life magazine was still in existence and I'd been commissioned to go to Mexico City to do a four-panel gatefold of all the people involved in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet. I ended up discovering that the main set where the movie was filmed was a square, so I couldn't do a gatefold unless I created another technique. At the time David Hockney was doing his montage technique, and I thought, I'd open the square and shoot it that way. I shot Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio, and on the side of the set there was a mirror in which you could see their reflection. In the center in the photo they were embracing, and in the mirror they were kissing. That was the only difference. That's when the idea of changing time in a photograph became intriguing to me. Fifteen years later, I can take a photo and literally change time in it -- that's become a reality.

More recently, I was commissioned to do a photo of the Highline for New York magazine, and in a conversation with Jody Quon, I said, I've got this crazy idea -- the Highline is an amazing place, you're intimate with New York but also distanced enough to take in the breadth of the city. I wanted to photograph it and show that. I had this cherry picker, and that's how it sort of evolved, looking from south to north, and thinking, what if it goes from day to night?

That was the first one I did, and that led to another image, also for New York, of Washington Square Park. That was a vertical day to night. After that I realized this was a unique thing, and I felt compelled to do more. I started exploring New York for these views.

"Gramercy Park," by Stephen Wilkes

​How do you identify the views you want to photograph?
I'm looking for these iconic views of New York, views we all sort of think about, areas we can relate to. But I'm trying to look at them in a way that people have never really seen them. It's like a voyeur, it's intimate, but there's also this breadth going on. I'm trying to work on a scale in which you can read body language and gesture. What are the people in the photograph all doing? It dawned on me, I'm studying New York as an emergent life form, and the way you can see the city flow, it's a form of emergent behavior. You realize that the pedestrians are communicating, the cabs, all these elements are coming together and creating a complex life form. In a way that's how the city works. And, in a strange way, photographically, it's almost an emergent form, the concept of a single photo is being changed in this way.

Do you have a favorite photo in the collection?
I'm finishing one that's quickly becoming my favorite. It's Coney Island on a Saturday afternoon. The perspective is from floating above the boardwalk. The amusement park is night, the beach is day, and it's full of activity. The level of detail -- I'm working with a large-format camera, and it's exciting that people can see the detail online, but in person, you can see it 60 inches big, and the photos look like windows, and you can actually see into people's windows...

"Coney Island" by Stephen Wilkes

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Tell us about the process of taking the photos.
We've been working with the city to get perspective that people haven't been able to see before. We'll be in the center of Park Avenue, 100 feet in the air. When I'm in the cherry picker, my eye is scanning every square inch of what the photo is. There is this sense of awe, when you make these discoveries: There's a person in that window, and she's having dinner, there's a person on the rooftop...
In the Park Avenue shot, we were taking pictures and this truck pulled onto the right-hand side of the street. It was a black truck with a logo that said "Day and Night," and you can see that in my photo! There have been all kinds of serendipity moments, and that's what New York is about.

Very much so...
I get to the location and I have no control of who's in or out of my photo, and all the hustle and bustle and documentary aspect is what it is....it's like a fusion of documentary street photography and at the same time, the epic study of the city and architecture and scope of New York. It's really been exciting to meld those two things together.

What's your goal for the completion of the series?
I plan on doing a book with this work, so the finished amount is still up in the air. I have another opening in the spring in Santa Fe, and we'll probably have at that point 15 images. It just keeps evolving. I'm shooting very specific seasons, like Rockefeller Center with the Christmas tree. Combining seasons is something in the back of my mind, showing how unique New York is through the seasons and how different it feels.

It's the most complex thing I've ever done photographically. I think when people look at the medium of photography today, there's a sense of everything's going to video, but I look at still photos, and I think there's lots of room to push that medium. The bottom line is, do you discover something new every time you look at it? I shoot for 15 hours at a time and people ask, "How do you possibly do that?" I say, New York is such a wondrous place, and to sit above it like that...people spend afternoons sipping coffee and people watching...you can just imagine my views!

"Times Square," by Stephen Wilkes

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Wilkes' show runs from September 8 to October 29 at ClampArt. He'll also show at Santa Fe's Monroe Gallery in the spring of 2012. (April 27 - June 30, 2012)

[JDoll / @thisisjendoll]

NEW YORK: DAY INTO NIGHT, WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK. Photograph by Stephen Wilkes

This photograph is in the current issue of New York magazine (although somewhat obscured by "10 Reasons To Love New York" text!). It continues Wilkes' experimentation of changing time withing a photograph.

In a recent interview with F-Stop, Wilkes explained:

"Changing time in a single photograph is a very interesting concept. The genesis of this idea really happened many years ago when I was working for Life magazine on “a big picture”. They hired me to photograph Claire Danes and Leonardo Dicaprio as Romeo and Juliet, and I had an opportunity to photograph them along with the entire cast and crew in Mexico City where they were filming. We spent about four days waiting to actually get the entire cast and crew into this one photograph and Life had asked me to create a panoramic gatefold. When we got to the set, I realized that the set was actually a huge square. So I decided to take the square and break it apart, ala David Hockney, using individual images. I ended up shooting over 250 images that I pasted together by hand. The interesting time aspect came into play when in the centre of the photograph is where the stars are, Leonardo Dicaprio and Claire Danes, they

literally in a moment of embrace when everybody else, cast and crew, is surrounding them. To the right side of the photograph is a huge mirror, probably 20 feet in height. I asked them to kiss for the reflection image. So the reflection does not match the centre embrace, they are kissing in the reflection. When you look at the photograph quickly you think the image in the mirror is a reflection. But then you realize that the reflection is a time change and a completely different moment. That idea stayed with me for a while. "

Here are the photographs:

detail

Wilkes' recently photographed The Highline using the same technique:

As Wilkes explained in the F-Stop interview:

"The shot appealed to Wilkes because of the “intimacy” it offered with the buildings. But shooting from rooftops didn’t satisfy him. “Everything was a little too high,” he said. “I was losing the intimacy.” So he shot from a cherry picker at points throughout the day, then worked with a retoucher to electronically blend the images together. He wanted to capture the floating, expansive feeling that had drawn him to the Highline to begin with, and settled on a 17th Street location. This ended up being key, as the other challenge of the shoot was finding an effective transition point between day and night shots. Wilkes picked a good spot.

Wilkes shot this image using a 39 megapixel digital back on a 4 x 5 camera. He embraces large-format photography because it gives his all-important details greater depth. “So much of my work is about levels of story,” he says. He rotated the camera manually on a tripod throughout the day as he shot tons of images of the Highline while different street scenes unfolded within his frame (“The last thing you want to do is come back to the studio and have this great picture but realize you’re missing something”). He varied his exposure throughout, keeping a constant f-stop but varying the shutter speed to allow for proper exposure as the sun set. Periodically he and his retoucher, who was in the cherry picker with him, would load images onto a laptop and start creating rough comps to make sure he was getting what he needed."

To see more of Stephen Wilkes' work, please click here. The full collection of  "New York, Day To Night" will be exhibited at Monroe Gallery of Photography April 27 - June 30, 2012