VIVIAN MAIER BOOK RELEASE NOVEMBER 22

Vivian Maier: Street Photographer

Slideshow Presentation
and Q&A with John Maloof

Friday, November 18, 6:30–8:30 p.m.
Tickets $5 click here to buy tickets

The powerHouse Arena ·

37 Main Street (corner of Water & Main St.) · DUMBO, Brooklyn
For more information, please call 718.666.3049

Exhibitions: Howard Greenberg Gallery December 15 - January 28, 2012
Monroe Gallery of Photography February 3 - April 22, 2012



"We Are Journalists"

We just discovered a great new Tumblr blog, "We Are Journalists". Happy to recommend.

"I have known what I wanted to do since I was 17. Since then, I have been shot at by the police, I have run from them so that they wouldn’t confiscate my cameras. I have been punched, spit on, yelled at and threatened while doing my job. I love what I do and think I have never worked a day in my life. I am distrustful of authority. I loathe being referred to as a papparazi. I can count on one hand the number of celebrities I have photographed. I hate taking pictures of people like that. My job has taken me to Central America, the Middle East, and all over the United States. Since most of America does not like to go to places like Mississippi post-Hurricane Katrina (or even the bad neighborhoods in their own city), I choose to go for them, so that they might see the condition of their fellow man. People always talk of the sacrifices that journalists make. It isn’t a sacrifice; it is a choice. I chose this path in life, and still choose it, for better or worse. I believe that my camera is a powerful tool to combat injustice. Some of my pictures, in a small way, helped shut down a reform school where children were being abused. I will be proud of that for the rest of my life. I am now 30. I hope I am still doing this in some capacity when I am 60. Hopefully by that time I can afford to move out of my garage apartment.

I am a newspaper photojournalist."

57 YEARS AGO, ELLIS ISLAND CLOSED

Stephen Wilkes: Tuberculosis Ward, Statue of Liberty, Island 3, Ellis Island

November 12 marks the 57th anniversary of the closing of Ellis Island, a facility that will forever be linked to the concept of the American dream. From 1892 to 1954, over 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island. They came from Ireland, England, Germany, Italy, and many other countries, and together they formed the backbone of America.

beginning in 1998,  Stephen Wilkes immortalized the remaining ruins in his epic "Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom" project.

For the anniversary, Life.com has a slideshow "Faces of Ellis Island".

The Most Expensive Photo in the World

Christie’s, Andreas Gursky/Associated Press) - This 1999 photograph provided by Chrisitie’s shows the Rhine river by German artist Andreas Gursky. Titled “Rhein II,” the chromogenic color print face-mounted to acrylic glass was sold for $4.3 million Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011, at Christie’s in New York City, setting a record for any photograph sold at auction.

Via BBC:


Glass-mounted panoramic colour print Rhein II, created in 1999, is one of an edition of six works.

Others hang at New York's Museum of Modern Art and London's Tate Modern.

It beat the previous record of $3.9m (£2.5m) achieved by an untitled 1981 colour print by Cindy Sherman, who is the subject of all her own works.


"The viewer is not invited to consider a specific place along the river but rather an almost 'platonic' ideal of the body of water as it navigates the landscape” -- Christies

Gursky's print had a pre-sale estimate of $2.5m-$3.5m (£1.6m-£2.2m).

Rhein II is the largest of the six photographs, which are produced in various sizes.

As well as in New York and London, other photographs in the edition are housed in Munich's Pinakothek der Moderne and Glenstone art museum in the US.

Gursky has spoken of "a particular place with a view over the Rhine which has somehow always fascinated me, but it didn't suffice for a picture as it basically constituted only part of a picture".

He said he "carried this idea for a picture around with me for a year-and-a-half".

"In the end I decided to digitalise the pictures and leave out the elements that bothered me," he added.

Christie's said the viewer was "not invited to consider a specific place along the river, but rather an almost 'platonic' ideal of the body of water as it navigates the landscape."

After last year's Fall aucton season, we posted "The just-completed Contemporary sales totaled over $1 BILLION dollars in sales (with Andy Warhol accounting for over $200 million alone); the Impressionist/Modern sales about another half - BILLION; and almost as an afterthought a Qianlong-dynasty vase sold for $85.9 MILLION dollars. The Fall photo auctions in New York brought in $16 million."

No matter how you look at it, the prices for the "masters" of photography are a fraction of the prices for the masters of art.  The reaction to the Gursky sale seems to be "Really? $4.3 Million for That Photo?"

Here are just a few reactions:

@jmcolberg many shocked tweets at Gursky's photo price tag. Would people be so shocked if it were a painting that sold for $4M? Difference?

Raw File is asking " Really? $4.3 Million for That Photo? Let us know what you think in the comments or tweet us @rawfileblog." So far, there are more than 80 comments.

Seattle Post Intelligencer:   Here’s the world’s most expensive (and boring?) photo
via The Atlantic Wire:  "Gursky's photo is also the reason you should have become an art broker, like yesterday", with comments.

Related: Wall Street Journal: "New Art Drives $1 Billion Fall Auctions"

How will you remember?

Eric Smith: Washington, DC, 2006

National Veterans Day Ceremony

The Veterans Day National Ceremony is held each year on November 11th at Arlington National Cemetery. The ceremony commences precisely at 11:00 a.m. with a wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknowns and continues inside the Memorial Amphitheater with a parade of colors by veterans' organizations and remarks from dignitaries. The ceremony is intended to honor and thank all who served in the United States Armed Forces.

 Presidential Proclamation

Time LightBox: The  Art of War: Honoring the Fallen for a Lifetime

Remembering the wounded via Nina Berman: Purple Hearts


Need help, or someone to talk to? Real Warriors

J. Paul Getty Museum acquires seventy-two photographs by Andreas Feininger

Andreas Feininger, Stockholm (Shell sign at night), 1935. Gelatin silver print. 17.4 x 24.2 cm. © Estate of Gertrud E. Feininger. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Gift of the Estate of Gertrud E. Feininger.

Via artdaily.org

LOS ANGELES, CA.- The J. Paul Getty Museum announced the acquisition of 72 photographs by 20th century photographer Andreas Feininger (American, born Paris, 1906–1999). Son of the Expressionist painter, printmaker, caricaturist, and Bauhaus instructor Lyonel Feininger (American, 1871–1956), Andreas Feininger is best known for his work for LIFE magazine, which spanned 20 years, and his considerable work in nature photography.

The gift from the Andreas Feininger Estate represents a range of subjects from Feininger’s long photographic career, which spanned seven decades, and includes work made in Germany and Stockholm in the late 1920s and early 1930s, most notably several nude studies and experiments with printing techniques. The donation also includes examples from Feininger’s 1942 documentation of weapons factories for the U.S. Office of War Information, his views of New York in the 1940s and 1950s, and his nature photographs, including studies of shells and trees from the 1960s and 1970s. Prior to this acquisition, the Getty held thirteen photographs by Andreas Feininger, as well as 56 photographs by his younger brother Theodore, nicknamed T. Lux (American, born Germany, 1910–2011).

“We are very pleased to accept this gift from the Andreas Feininger Estate,” said Judith Keller, senior curator in the Getty Museum’s Department of Photographs. “His contributions to the art of photography are significant, and this gift enhances our collection of photographs from the Bauhaus, in particular those by his brother T. Lux, as well as our strong holdings of depictions of New York.”

Born in Paris in 1906 and raised in Berlin, Feininger did not live in the United States until the age of 33. He studied architecture in Weimar, where his family moved when his father was appointed to teach at the Bauhaus, Germany’s innovative school for design, art, and architecture. Feininger took up photography at this time, setting up a darkroom with T. Lux in the family residence when the Bauhaus moved from Weimar to Dessau in 1926. After a brief career in architecture, Feininger turned increasingly to photography, setting up a studio for architectural photography in Stockholm in 1934. He moved to New York City in 1939, and took at position with LIFE magazine, where he completed 430 assignments over the span of 20 years. After leaving LIFE in 1962, he dedicated himself to the documentation of nature, focusing on the interrelatedness of natural forms as well as the potential for photographs of nature to inspire environmental action. Throughout his career, Feininger also wrote numerous technical manuals and essays about photography

In 1966, the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) awarded Feininger its highest distinction, the Robert Leavitt Award, and in 1991 the International Center of Photography awarded Feininger the Infinity Lifetime Achievement Award.

Feininger’s photographs reside in several museum collections, including those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Photographs by Lyonel and T. Lux Feininger, as well as those by other masters and students at the Bauhaus are included in the exhibition Lyonel Feininger: Photographs, 1928–1939, on view through March 11, 2012 at the Getty Center.

BBC Four explores the cultural legacy of 20th century America

Via BBC

From Hopper to Hollywood, Mississippi mud pies to music, Steinbeck and more, controller of BBC Four Richard Klein has announced an ambitious America Season, a collection of thought-provoking programming for Autumn/Winter 2011 which will explore the rich cultural heritage of 20th-century America.

The season will feature a broad range of American culture across visual arts, music, movies, gastronomy, photography and popular culture.

Programming ranges from Andrew Graham-Dixon on the Art Of America to Melvyn Bragg on Steinbeck; Rankin on the photography of Life Magazine to Rick Stein on food and blues in Mississippi; and from a series looking at African-American music legends of the Eighties to a documentary on diners.

America In Pictures (1x60-minute)

Established in 1936, LIFE was an iconic weekly magazine that specialized in extraordinarily vivid photojournalism. Through America's most dynamic decades – the 40s, 50s and 60s – read by over half the country, the magazine's influence on American people was unparalleled.

No other magazine in the world held the photograph in such high esteem; LIFE allowed the pictures, not the words, to do the talking.

As a result, at LIFE, the photographer was king.

In this film, the UK's leading fashion photographer, Rankin, looks at the work of LIFE's legendary photographers, including distinguished photographers Bill Eppridge, John Shearer, John Loengard, Burk Uzzle and Harry Benson, who between them have shot the biggest moments in American history from the assassination of Robert F Kennedy, the Civil Rights struggle and Vietnam to behind the scenes at the Playboy mansion and the greatest names of Hollywood.

Rankin discovers these photographers pioneered new forms of photojournalism like embedding – living with their subjects for weeks – and the Photo Essay, enabling them reveal intimate and compelling aspects of ordinary American life too; like 'The Small Town' or the life of 'The Country Doctor'. Rankin concludes that LIFE not only tells the story of America in pictures, but also taught America how to be American.

Video Shows Oakland Police Shooting Photographer

 Via PDN Pulse:

Video Shows Oakland Police Shooting Photographer

Yesterday we posted a story suggesting that the police are under pressure to respect constitutional rights, now that so many people are photographing their activities (especially at protests.)

But along comes this video of an Oakland policeman shooting the photographer for no obvious reason. The photographer, identified by the San Jose Mercury News as Oakland resident Scott Campbell, was filming the line of riot police last Thursday from a distance of about 50 feet. The police had moved in after Occupy Oakland protesters had defaced a nearby building, but the scene photographed by Campbell appears mostly calm.

As Campbell walked parallel to the line of police, the camera’s audio recorder picks up his voice asking, “Is this OK?” After about 30 seconds, one of the police fires a non-lethal projectile at Campbell, hitting him. As he falls, he cries out in pain and then says, “He shot me!” before the video cuts off.

Read more here.

Via San Jose Mercury News:  Experts in police use of force shocked by Oakland video

Photographic Truths and Other Illusions

Image copyright: Henry Aragoncillo, 2008

 

"Photographic Truths and Other Illusions”
Society for Photographic Education
2011 SPE Southwest Regional Conference: November 11-13, 2011
School of Arts & Design, Santa Fe Community College
Santa Fe, New Mexico

Details and information here.

A WEEKEND IN HISTORY

Photo by David Marks

On Friday evening, Bill Eppridge, one of the most accomplished photojournalists of the Twentieth Century, presented an eyewitness account of some of the most significant moments in American history he has covered: wars, political campaigns, riots, civil rights murders, heroin addiction, the arrival of the Beatles in the United States, Vietnam, Woodstock, the summer and winter Olympics, and perhaps the most dramatic moment of his career - the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles.

After a brief blackout Saturday morning, Bill returned to the gallery to sign copies of his book "A Time It Was: Bobby Kennedy in the Sixties" and meet with gallery viewers of the current exhibition celebrating his 2011 Lucie Award for Achievement in Photojournalism.

We will be posting highlights of Bill's conversations here in the near future. The exhibition continues through November 20, 2011

YouTube: Robert Kennedy's Last Days in Pictures by Bill Eppridge