PHOTO NEW ORLEANS OPENS; STEPHEN WILKES LECTURE DEC. 11

PhotoNOLA is an annual celebration of photography in New Orleans, coordinated by the New Orleans Photo Alliance in partnership with museums, galleries and alternative venues citywide. Showcasing work by photographers near and far, the festival spans the first two weekends of December. It includes exhibitions, workshops, lectures, a portfolio review, gala and more. PhotoNOLA draws hundreds of photography professionals to the city to partake in a variety of educational programs, and reaches broadly into the local community with exhibitions and events that are largely free and open to the public.

PhotoNOLA seeks to enhance dialogue around the medium of photography and further develop New Orleans as a prime destination for photography collectors, enthusiasts and professionals in the field.

The 5th Annual PhotoNOLA will take place December 2-11, 2010. A full schedule of events may be found here.

Photographer Stephen Wilkes will be sharing a selection of his personal work, including his Ellis Island collection, China series and most recent work documenting the Gulf Oil Spill on December 11. His talk will review the evolution of his fine arts career. Stephen’s photographs have been exhibited in galleries and museums across the nation and featured in the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Life, Time, London Sunday Times, and Travel + Leisure. His photographs can be found on permanent collection at The George Eastman House Intl. Museum of Photography & Film, Library of Congress, Dow Jones Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and The Jewish Museum, New York. His most recent monograph, Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom was named as one of the 5 Best Photography Books by Time Magazine.

Bio: Stephen Wilkes has been highly recognized for his fine arts photography with three major exhibitions in the last four years. Margaret Loke of the New York Times writes, “Each of the rooms that he photographs with care seems to have its own luxurious color scheme. Mr. Wilkes sees pleasing palettes of impressionism in walls and ceilings of peeling paint.”

Wilkes was recognized as the 2004 Fine Art Photographer of the Year at the Lucie Awards. Wilkes has been recognized by the photographic and design industry with additional awards including the Alfred Eisenstaedt Awards for Magazine Photography, Photographer of the Year, Eastcoast, Adweek Magazine, honors in Graphis Magazine, and the award of excellence in Communication Arts. Wilkes was also featured in Communication Arts in March of 2001.

In 1999 Wilkes completed a personal project photographing the south side of Ellis Island. With his photographs and video work, Wilkes was able to help secure $6 million in funding to restore the south side of the island. The work was exhibited in April of 2001 in a one-person exhibition at The Soho Triad Fine Arts Gallery, in New York, and in 2006 at Monroe Gallery of Photography in Santa Fe. His exhibition on the exploration of the nude form in the jungles and on the lava flows of Hawaii ran in December of 2002; his Bethlehem Steel collection was exhibited in 2005; and his China series in 2008, also at Monroe Gallery of Photography.

Wilkes shoots advertising and fashion campaigns for many of the country’s leading advertising agencies and companies, including Arizona Jeans, California Tourism, New York Stock Exchange American Express, ABB, Honda, and many others. His editorial work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Time Magazine, and Sports Illustrated.

He began working on his own at age 15 and attended Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications, graduating in 1980. In 1983, Wilkes opened his studio in Manhattan.

This lecture is generously sponsored by Canon.

Stephen Wilkes Lecture
December 11, 2010
3-5pm
Free and open to the public: Advance registration recommended
The Historic New Orleans Collection
Williams Research Center
410 Chartres Street
New Orleans, LA 70130

Registration here. Event website with more details and map here.

Related: Stephen Wilkes "Central Park: Day Into Night" and interview in Venu Magazine

HURRICANE KATRINA: FIVE YEARS LATER

Stephen Wilkes: In Katrina's Wake: TV in Sand,  Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

August 29 is the five-year anniversary of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The Sun-Herald ran an editorial in December, 2005, that sums up the singular importance of the event for journalists, and indeed all of us:

"As Aug. 29 recedes into the conscious time of many Americans, the great storm that devastated, fades into a black hole of media obscurity.....So, why does that matter? It matters first as it relates to journalism's obligations to cover human beings whose conditions are as dire as those that exist here." See the full editorial here.

Five years after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf region, the area is still recovering from the disaster -- a recovery now compounded by the worldwide recession and the effects of the BP oil spill. There are several noteworthy photography-related projects that have covered the destruction and aftermath of Katrina. We have assembled a small selection below for this blog.


The New York Times Lens blog ran the photo-essay, "Dave Anderson in New Orleans". "What can one block tell you about a devastated city? Plenty, says Dave Anderson, 40, a photographer who chronicled the lives of people reclaiming their homes after Hurricane Katrina in the newly published “One Block: A New Orleans Neighborhood Rebuilds” (Aperture).

After the disaster, Mr. Anderson, who lives in Arkansas, brought his camera and his humane photographic approach to New Orleans. In such a shattered place, he was initially reluctant to do the kind of portraiture that is his specialty. “I didn’t feel right taking pictures of people,” he said. “It was such a brutal time.”

He decided instead on a project that would take in the place and its people, in details small and large."
See the full essay here.

Stephen Wilkes' project "In Katrina's Wake: Restoring a Sense of Place" reclaims and gives a voice to forgotten places and people. The series of large-format photographs portrays the victims of two devastated Gulf Coast communities: Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and the Holy Cross neighborhood of New Orleans Ninth Ward and their struggle to restore their lives, homes and the social fabric of their communities. Selected images from "In Katrina's Wake" has been exhibited at Monroe Gallery and prints are available.

msnbc.com has a great Photoblog, which features "Conversations sparked by Photojournalism". A recent post showed photographs of the Gulf Coast immediately after Katrina, and now, five years later.

The Boston Globe has a great photo blog, and they have just posted Remembering Katrina: Five Years Later.

Photography-collection.com is reporting that Umbrage Editions is publishing the forthcoming book, COMING BACK: New Orleans Resurgent, featuring the imagery captured by Getty Images photographer Mario Tama, with a introduction by Anderson Cooper.

KatrinaDestruction.com has almost 2,500 Hurricane Katrina Photos Images and other Graphics Displays.

http://www.photosfromkatrina.com/ has a specific look at some of Katrina's catastrophic effects on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

The New Orleans Museum of Art will present the exhibition UNTITLED (New Orleans and the Gulf Coast 2005): Photographs by Richard Misrach. The photographer Richard Misrach spent three months documenting the devastation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast after Katrina. Read a related article here.
And a review here.

The Ogden Museum exhibit "Telling Their stories: The Lingering Legacy of Katrina Photography" is an exhibition of photographs taken during the roiling 2005 tragedy that "remain as crisp and clear as the moment they were shot."

Feel free to add other Katrina-related photo stories in the comments section.

Stephen Wilkes: In Katrina's Wake, Brother Charles

STEPHEN WILKES PHOTOGRAPHS FOR TIME MAGAZINE ON BOARD RELIEF WELL FOR DEEPWATER HORIZON

Photographer Stephen Wilkes gets on board the drilling rigs that will fix the Deepwater Horizon disaster once and for all. Published in TIME, July 22, 2010. (All photographs Stephen Wilkes for TIME.)

Rig Control Room


After the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20, BP began to drill two relief wells — parallel pathways to the oil reservoir beneath the floor of the Gulf of Mexico — that will eventually intersect with the original well. In this photo, workers in the control room on one of the platforms drive the rig as it works.

Ships of the Spill


The platform (right rear, with flame) is supported by numerous craft, including: the Discoverer Enterprise (center with the tall tower), which was the first ship to collect oil from a cap placed over the well; the Helix Producer (lower right with green helicopter landing pad), another containment ship that is on hold while the well remains capped; and a small flotilla of ships that operate the remote operated vehicles, the underwater robots that carry out procedures on the wellhead.

On Board the Rig


The drilling begins vertically, pushing down some 10,000 ft. below the surface of the Gulf. Then the drill's path has to curve into the original well.

High Rise


The task presents an extraordinaly challenge: The drill must strike a tiny target more than three miles beneath the surface of the ocean. As of July 20, the main relief well was less than 5 ft. from its goal. "We're absolutely perfectly positioned," said BP vice president Kent Wells, who is leading the effort.

Fireman


When the linkup is made, BP will be able to pour mud and then concrete into the original well, finally cutting off the flow of oil for good.

Protected


The rigs are located about 40 miles off the southeast Louisiana coast and a one-hour and 15-minute helicopter ride from Houma, La., where booms protect the marshland, above

Thick


Even after the spill is permanently stopped, a vast amount of cleanup work in the affected areas of the Gulf will remain.



For more than two decades Stephen Wilkes has been widely recognized for his fine art and commercial photography. With numerous awards and honors, as well as five major exhibitions in the last five years Wilkes has left an impression on the world of photography. Stephen Wilkes has completed several documentary projects, including China, Bethlehem Steel, and In Katrina's Wake.

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 and his work will be part of a permanent exhibition at Ellis Island. 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.