Photography

Without Apology

April 30, 2012 | by Alissa Guzman | Category: Photography | Leave a Comment

Zoe Strauss: Ten Years, Philadelphia Museum of Art, January 14 - April 22, 2012 – Zoe Strauss: Ten Years, on view earlier this spring at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is by far the most provocative show I’ve seen this year. Only 42 now, Strauss who was born and raised in Philadelphia, discovered photography when she was given a camera for her 30th birthday. Approaching picture taking with a self-taught sense of freedom, she quickly adapted the medium to her already developed conceptual ideas. Having founded the Philadelphia Public Art Project in 1995, well before she began her Ten Years project, the goal of the public art program was to give the residents of Philly access to art in their everyday lives. Expanding upon this idea ... [Read more]

Tagged: Alissa Guzman, south Philly, Street Photography, Zoe Strauss

Forensic Epistemology

April 23, 2012 | by Aram Yardumian | Category: Photography | Leave a Comment

Believing Is Seeing (Observations on the Mysteries of Photography), by Errol Morris, (2011) The question of knowledge and what can be known is as old as literature itself. Even before the concepts of physos and kosmos [1], observations of pattern in the natural world were hatching in Babylonian omens and Sumerian riddles. Western philosophy has incubated these questions ever since, but their growth has been bounded by the problems of studying our perceptive organs with our perceptive organs. The problem of the reliability of perception and how we approximate the welt extends the epistemological current into the hearts of jurisprudence, aesthetics, semiotics, and even physics, deepening their lines and muddying their waters. Thankfully, ... [Read more]

Tagged: Abu Ghraib, American Civil War, Aram Yardumian, Ben Curtis, Crimean War, Epistemology, Errol Morris, Great Depression, Roger Fenton, William Henry Fox Talbot

Three Suitcases: Walter Benjamin; Agusti Centelles; and the Hypothetical Suitcase of Baltasar Garzon -Part Two

April 12, 2012 | by Janet Sternburg | Category: Photography | 2 Comments

“Photography and Time at the Border,” by Janet Sternburg, is a multi-part series of essays that explores issues surrounding history, memory, exile and home. The Museum of Exile is the opening essay that focuses on the Museu Memorial d’Exili, in La Jonquera, Spain, juxtaposed with the music of Paco Ibanez. Three Suitcases, a two part commentary, continues this exploration by linking the lives and work of three pivotal figures: Walter Benjamin, Agusti Centelles and Baltasar Garzon, juxtaposed with the music of Lluis Llach and Joan Manuel Serrat. 3. UNCOVERED Metaphors don’t always line up: a suitcase can be an emblem of belonging to a place, and of ensuring the safety of one’s belongings; it can also signify something ... [Read more]

Tagged: Baltasar Garzon, Janet Sternburg, Joan Manuel Serrat, Photography and Time at the Border, Spanish Civil War, Three Suitcases, Walter Benjamin

Three Suitcases: Walter Benjamin; Agusti Centelles; and the Hypothetical Suitcase of Baltasar Garzon – Part One

April 9, 2012 | by Janet Sternburg | Category: Photography | 1 Comment

“Photography and Time at the Border,” by Janet Sternburg, is a multi-part series of essays that explores issues surrounding history, memory, exile and home. The Museum of Exile is the opening essay that focuses on the Museu Memorial d’Exili, in La Jonquera, Spain, juxtaposed with the music of Paco Ibanez. Three Suitcases, a two part commentary, continues this exploration by linking the lives and work of three pivotal figures: Walter Benjamin, Agusti Centelles and Baltasar Garzon, juxtaposed with the music of Lluis Llach and Joan Manuel Serrat. This is a tale of three suitcases, two real, and one hypothetical, each journeying at different times and in different directions, but bound together by a shared history and ... [Read more]

Tagged: Agusti Centelles, Janet Sternburg, Lluis Llach, Photography and Time at the Border, Portbou, Spanish Civil War, Three Suitcases, Walter Benjamin

Night@Mare

March 12, 2012 | by Nancy Cantwell | Category: Photography | 8 Comments

Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Photography by Robert A. Kato Mare Island was my first foray into night photography, a self imposed challenge to find light in darkness. I would typically visit Mare on full moon and or two days on either side of full, waxing or waning. Mare’s nocturnal appeal had more to do with what I couldn’t see than what I could. Frequent visits to the abandoned shipyard during the day left very little to the imagination. The night was a complete theatrical experience for me. Each structure, location had it’s own story to tell and they invited me to participate in this imagined dialogue embraced by night. The great reflector in the night sky was my main fill light, often supplemented by various ambient sources, ... [Read more]

Tagged: Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Night@Mare, Robert Kato

The Museum of Exile

January 30, 2012 | by Janet Sternburg | Category: Photography | 16 Comments

“Photography and Time at the Border,” by Janet Sternburg, is a multi-part series of essays that explores issues surrounding history, memory, exile and home. The Museum of Exile is the opening essay that focuses on the Museu Memorial d’Exili, in La Jonquera, Spain, juxtaposed with the music of Paco Ibanez. Three Suitcases, a two part commentary, continues this exploration by linking the lives and work of three pivotal figures: Walter Benjamin, Agusti Centelles and Baltasar Garzon, juxtaposed with the music of Lluis Llach and Joan Manuel Serrat. ***************************** On January 26th,1939, Barcelona fell to Franco’s troops. With the defeat of the Republicans in Catalonia, the Spanish Civil War was in effect over. When ... [Read more]

Tagged: Gustavo Germano, Janet Sternburg, Museu Memorial d’Exili, Paco Ibanez, Photography and Time at the Border, Spanish Civil War, The Museum of Exile

Nesting Instinct – Outreach

December 5, 2011 | by Naomi Pitcairn | Category: Photography | 1 Comment

The Nests of Lindsay Wildlife Museum This is the third installment of a three part series on the Nests of Lindsay Wildlife Museum. Part 1, “First Encounter” tells how the author-photographer first became a part of the museum’s conservation efforts. Part 2, “Behind the Scenes” takes a look at how the nests are collected, categorized, conserved and studied before display. This final photographic essay is accompanied by the text “Outreach”, an interview with the museum’s Natural History Curator, Marty Buxton. ***** Naomi Pitcairn: Can you walk me through the creative process of preparing an exhibit? Marty Buxton: The process can be quite variable, but essentially it involves choosing a theme and tweaking it enough ... [Read more]

Tagged: Bird Nests, Lindsay Wildlife Museum, Marty Buxton, Naomi Pitcairn, Nesting Instinct

Salvage and Sabotage

November 28, 2011 | by Janet Sternburg | Category: Photography | 11 Comments

Maya Zack, W.G. Sebald, Walter Benjamin and Chris Marker, A Further Inquiry on Image and Text With Living Room, an installation I sought out at The Jewish Museum in New York, Israeli artist Maya Zack is salvaging the past of a particular man, Manfred Nomburg, and through his memories of the pre-Holocaust past, the Jewish experience in Germany. Zack is honoring what once was, what was lost and now remembered. But something else is at work, subtly undermining that formulation. Living Room combines the immemorial impulse to salvage with a more contemporary impulse to sabotage, and suggests ways that artists and writers are bringing these impulses together, not as separate and opposite, but rather in generative conjunction. On each wall ... [Read more]

Tagged: Chris Marker, Janet Sternburg, Maya Zack, Maya Zack: Living Room, W.G. Sebald, Walter Benjamin

Protest

November 6, 2011 | by Nancy Cantwell | Category: Photography | Leave a Comment

On the Ground with Occupy Oakland Photography by Naomi Pitcairn Naomi Pitcairn, activist, photographer and contributor to Times Quotidian, has a choice—and she chooses Oakland. When my husband and I were contemplating a move to the Bay Area she was begging us to please be open to the East Bay with it's diversity in art and culture. When the community calls she left the comfort zone of her sequestered studio work and took her camera to the streets to be a part of Occupy Oakland. Naomi is also a long time member of the Fresh Juice Party , "a politically prejudiced media group who produces custom media packets for causes we believe in." FJP sponsored two free vegetarian lunch programs for the protestors via the sympathetic Fountain ... [Read more]

Tagged: Fresh Juice Party, Naomi Pitcairn, Occupy Oakland, Oscar Grant

Nesting Instinct – Behind the Scenes

October 13, 2011 | by Naomi Pitcairn | Category: Photography | 2 Comments

The Nests of the Lindsey Wildlife Museum This is the second installment of a three part series on the Nests of Lindsay Wildlife Museum. Part 1, "First Encounter" tells how the author-photographer first became a part of the museum's conservation efforts. Part 3, "Outreach" is an interview with the museum's Natural History Curator, Marty Buxton. Behind the Scenes The word curator comes from the Latin word cura, which means care. Also known as a keeper, the museum curator needs to be an authority on the subject of his/her collection to not only assure the collection's good condition, but to organize, and interpret it's contents for the public. By designing meaningful ways for others to interact with the subject matter the curator's ... [Read more]

Tagged: Bird Nests, Lindsay Wildlife Museum, Naomi Pitcairn, Nesting Instinct