Prix De La Photographie announces competition winners

Prix De La Photographie, better known as Px3, had an immensely successful second year of its annual photography competition, having received thousands of incredible entries. Judging in categories in Advertising, Photojournalism, Photographic Books, Fine Art, Nature, and Portraiture, along with numerous sub-categories, the panel selected a First and Second place winner in each. Entries were judged on the basis of originality, creativity, the quality of execution, and overall impact on the viewer. What's more, the People's Choice Award is still open for voting.

The title of Px3 Photographer of the Year was given to Balasz Gardi of Hungary, and his single image "The Valley" was highlighted for particular recognition. The Best New Talent Award went to Ryan Schude of Los Angeles, with his image "The Saturn" also receiving distinct praise. These two photographers, along with the First and Second Place winners in each category, will be featured at the Galerie Acte 2 in Paris June 26-28, 2008, and published in the Px3 Annual Book. Click here to see a full list of winners and images, complete with subcategories.

From Px3, Lucie Awards and Focus on AIDS Founder Hossein Farmani:

"I was extremely impressed with the quality of the photographs submitted. Considering Px3 is only in its second year, the overall excellence of work submitted was really outstanding."

Vote for your favorite entries in 2008's Px3 competition by clicking here.

San Diego Natural History Museum presents Mitch Dobrowner

The landscape photography of Mitch Dobrowner will be exhibited at the Ordover Gallery of the San Diego Natural History Museum from May 17 to August 3, 2008. An opening reception on May 17 will take place from 11 am to 1 pm, and entry will be free of charge. The main feature will be Dobrowner's series "Enraptured," a 28-image collection of black and white landscape photographs from North America. These include varied scenes comprising locations such as the American Southwest and the cityscapes of Los Angeles. The exhibition also includes San Diego-born glass sculptor Dick Ditore, and photographers Richard Garrod and Robert Walter.

During the exhibition, all photography and artwork will be available for sale, with a large portion of the proceeds going to the San Diego Natural History Museum. The high archival quality of Dobrowner's prints, created using traditional methods and materials that encourage simplicity in technique, ensure that your investment will go to a long-lasting piece of art that is abstract in sensibility, yet quintessentially American.

From Mitch Dobrowner's website:

"Dobrowner's printmaking process is performed in a dry darkroom with minimal dodging and burning. Prints are produced using archival quality 100% cotton rag paper with pigment based inks. The results are black and white landscape photographs that are somewhat abstract, yet feature a detailed symmetry and depth that transforms 'everyday' objects into iconic images."

Find out more about the available selection of Mitch Dobrowner's photography here.

Mitch Dobrowner's photographs are available for purchase at galleries around the United States and the world. These have recently been joined by Wall Space gallery in Seattle, WA, and the Bond Street Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. For a full list of locations, go to Dobrowner's website here.

CALL FOR ENTRIES: The New Orleans Darkroom

The New Orleans Darkroom proudly presents the Emerging Photographer 2008 show, juried by living photography legend Herman Leonard, and open to all themes and genres. Five young photographers will be chosen for the award: an exhibition at The Darkroom and promotion on the official website. Entry fee is $45 for five images. These five images are the ones to be displayed at the exhibition, and the five photographers' exhibitions run together at The Darkroom Gallery in New Orleans' Garden District, opening October 4, 2008.

There is an age cap on applicants (must be born no earlier than October 1, 1973), and the five images submitted must have a coherent theme. This competition seems aimed to the flickr generation, with its emphasis on smaller photo-sets. To see great photographers such as Leonard fostering the recognition of such young talent through connections spanning generations is truly encouraging. Expect to see more competitions of this kind in the future, where these restrictions, perhaps seen as confining to more venerable photographers, will act to shape the pool of entrants.

From the New Orleans Darkroom:

"Herman Leonard is one of America's foremost fine art and commercial photographers, with a career spanning six decades. An apprentice of Yousuf Karsh, Leonard developed an instantly recognizable style of portraiture with jazz musicians as his subjects. His icons of American photography are displayed in museums around the globe and his entire collection is housed in The Smithsonian Institution's permanent archives."

Also, starting May 17, 2008, The Darkroom will present "Abstractions in the Landscape," a juried exhibition of photographs selected by Sandra Russell Clark, at The Darkroom's Lower Garden District showroom. The exhibition features 35 prints of abstract photographs taken in the urban and the natural landscape, and selected out of over 550 entries. Click here for a preview.

The competition is open to any photographer under 35 years of age. The deadline to submit original works will be August 22, 2008. Click here for more information.

The Photographic Resource Center presents EXPOSURE

The annual juried exhibition of photography and film-based art at the Photographic Research Center (PRC) at Boston University will be returning again this year. EXPOSURE: The 13th Annual PRC Juried Exhibition, formerly known as the PRC Members' Exhibition, has been made even more prestigious in 2008 by the participation of juror Lesley A. Martin, Publisher of Aperture's Book Program. This year's exhibition, set to open May 23 and continue through July 2, 2008, will present 14 artists selected from a pool of 376 entries, a PRC record for international submissions. Established photographers and hot up-and-comers will bring their own perceptions on popular genres, in a show intended to gather the best of the best.

From the Photographic Research Center's newsletter, concerning the photographers:

"Mariliana Arvelo has been documenting her family and herself in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and the United States in her evolving series 'Generations'...In large constructed lightboxes, Clint Baclawski (Boston, MA) investigates places where people congregate...Claire Beckett (Jamaica Plain, MA) is documenting soldiers, military training, and fabricated Iraqi spaces within America in her series 'Simulating Iraq.'

"...Cree Bruins (Cambridge, MA) collects, scans, and prints discarded ends from processed 35mm film in her 'Leader Series'...Lana Z Caplan (Boston, MA) has been researching and photographing former sites of public executions in Europe and the United States...Talia Chetrit (Providence, RI) considers essential qualities of her subjects and photography itself in a series of straightforward, yet open-ended images...Martine Fougeron (New York, NY) is documenting her two sons and their circle of friends in a series of intimate portraits titled 'Tête-à-Tête.'

"Robert Knight (Newton, MA) creates subjective portraits of people via found objects in their domestic surroundings. In this subset of his 'Dwelling' series, Knight explores expectations that parents place on their children...Marta Labad (Providence, RI) photographs crumpled up images of historical artworks depicting conflict...Molly Landreth (Seattle, WA) is traveling around the country photographing and gathering statements from queer individuals and couples in her project 'Embodiment: A Portrait of Queer Life in America.'

"...Benjamin Lowy (New York, NY) is capturing everyday scenes in Iraq as seen through the lens of his camera and the inches-thick, bulletproof window of an American Army Humvee...Eric Percher (Brooklyn, NY) considers the limitations we accept in order to obtain success in his series 'Work,' a semi-autobiographical response to his seven-year experience in the financial offices of Manhattan...

"Erik Schubert (Cambridge, MA), inspired in part by his businessman father and Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends and Influence People, has been collecting and documenting scenes and ephemera of corporate aspirations and failure...In her series “Soldier Portraits,” Ellen Susan (Savannah, GA) produces unique portraits using the historical wet plate process of U.S. Army soldiers based in Southeast Georgia, many of which have been deployed to Iraq two or three times."

A special Summer edition of the PRC's newsletter, in the loupe, will include a spread article of the EXPOSURE exhibition. Click here to find out more.

Image: Private Dan Floyd at Basic Training, Fort Knox, KY, © Claire Beckett, from “Simulating Iraq”

CALL FOR ENTRIES: Blow-Up

Blow-Up, a national competition for photography and photo-based media, is seeking submissions for its juried exhibition to be held from July 10 to August 23, 2008, at Bromfield Gallery in Boston, MA. Juried by New York-based photographer and educator Harvey Stein, the competition invites fresh, original interpretations of the theme: literal explosions, photographic enlargement, temper tantrums, inflatables, and any other play on words one can, and should, imagine. Even the movie with the same title, Blow Up (see below comment for clarification; even I make mistakes—ed) is ripe for reinterpretation. Entry fee is $30 for five jpg-format images.

Deadline for submissions is June 1, 2008. Click here to upload your images online. Only digital jpg-format images will be considered.

Image: Untitled, from "Mexico: Between Life and Death" © Harvey Stein

Education Based Series of Exhibitions continues at MoPA

The Museum of Photographic Art (MoPA) in San Diego, CA will present its second installment in a series of education-related exhibitions titled "Picturing the Process: Landscape Through Time and Space." Lasting from July 12, 2008 to February 1, 2009, the Museum will present 40 works from its collection, arranged in chronological fashion from the earliest landscape photographers of the 19th Century to the contemporary photographic artists seeking to define the Landscape as medium. Featured photographers include (to name a few) Industrial Revolution photographer Carlton Watkins, 20th Century legend Ansel Adams, and contemporary photographer of the Atlantic Joan Myers.

From MoPA's press release:

"The exhibition will present a selection of discrete approaches to landscape photography from the landscape as a representation of beauty, as a means of artistic expressions, and as a forum for political and environmental issues. Each of the photographers represented in the exhibition has attempted to define the landscape while presenting discoveries concerning its structure, beauty, meaning, and future preservation."

Also running at MoPA are "Flesh: Portraits by Gary Schneider," until September 14, 2008; and "Humanitas: Images of India by Fredric Roberts," from May 3 to September 7, 2008. Click here to visit the museum's website.

Presenting Humanitas: Images of India by Fredric Roberts

The Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, CA has announced a special exhibition of the work of Fredric Roberts (CameraArts September/October 2006). Titled "Humanitas: Images of India," the exhibition comprises scenes of everyday life in India, photographed by Roberts over five years. Roberts' photographic catalogue spans countries as diverse as India, Cambodia, Bhutan, Thailand, Myanmar, and China. The two books that have been released under the name of the series have received many honors, including Honorable Mentions in the Fine Art and People categories of the 2007 Lucie Awards.

Though Roberts' photographs are mostly simple portraits, the photographer's eye captures in these images the subtelties of human interaction, its cultural undertones, and real-life implications of globalization, with the small societies that still exist in resistance of the greater tide. The photographs possess a real sense of worldliness, most likely a benefit of Roberts' 30-year career as an investment banker (and one-time member of the Nasdaq Board of Directors), followed by a long list of contributions and service to various cultural organizations, such as President of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and Founding Chairman of the Spotlight Awards Scholarship Program.

The exhibition takes place from May 3 to September 7, 2008. Click here to visit the Museum of Photographic Arts' website.

Image ©Fredric Roberts.

DHC Art presents six artistic visions of videography

DHC Art, the Montreal-based Foundation for Contemporary Art, will present an international exhibition, "Re-Enactments," with six artists whose work uniquely and brilliantly reassesses the mediums of film and media. Artists include Nancy Davenport, recipient of DHC's very first production grant; Stan Douglas, whose "Inconsolable Memories" draws inspiration from the Cuban film classic "Memories of Underdevelopment;" Harun Farocki, who will dissect the 2006 World Cup Final (with the infamous headbutt) using a dizzying number of perspectives; Ann Lislegaard will present a reenactment of daily life reflected on floorboard surfaces; Paul Pfeiffer melds the popular identity of Michael Jackson with the star's infamous run-ins with the law; and Kerry Tribe will simultaneously reinvent and pay homage to the TV masterpieces of Jean-Luc Goddard. The exhibition runs through May 25, 2008.

From DHC-Art:

"The aim is to generate new meanings and fresh relevance from this source material, often by reiterating its value in the form of homage or deflating its claims with critique, but always by rerouting it to mysterious and unexpected places. By vividly addressing politics, spectacle and subjectivity these re-workings of cultural texts or events of the past pose compelling questions about the present."

Click here to visit DHC's website.

Image: from Inconsolable Memories, ©Stan Douglas

The National Museum of Women in the Arts presents Women to Watch

Until June 15, 2008, The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, DC will exhibit "Women to Watch," in which 32 works by 11 contemporary female photographers. The exhibition was designed to increase the visibility of emerging female photographers deserving of both national and international attention. Participating artists include Marita Gootee from Mississippi, Lissa Rivera from Massachusetts, Zoe Strauss from Pennsylvania, Tricia Moreau Sweeney from Illinois, Tarrah Krajnak and Wilka Roig of Vermont, Valerie Belin from France, Jin-me Yoon from Canada, Elisa Sighicelli of Great Britain, Paulina Parra from Spain, and Joan Myers from New Mexico.

Joan Myers will contribute her images of industrial encroachment on nature—in this case, beautiful panoramas of generators and power plants. Strauss presents photographs of people in her hometown neighborhood of South Philadelphia. Gootee creates impressionistic images of nature, which emphasize the mutability of photographic perception. Rivera documents and unusual subject with deadpan attention to detail: the gaterings seen at college fraternity and sorority houses. Belin's images of Parisian models have been manipulated to appear lifeless and sexless, raising questions about contemporary identity.

This exhibition represents a collaborative effort between 10 of NMWA s national and international committees and the museum. For more information, click here.

Also, Joan Myers will soon present an exhibit at Andrew Smith Gallery in Santa Fe, titled "Brimsone: Photographs from Iceland, Yellowstone and Pompeii," from June 27 to September 10, 2008.

From Andrew Smith:

"Joan Myers is one of New Mexico's most intelligent and prolific artists. Over the last twenty-five years she has produced photographic projects and books about the Santa Fe Trail, Japanese relocation camps, images of older women, the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, the environment of the Salton Sea near Palm Springs, California, and a comprehensive document and book of Antarctica.

"In recent years Myers has been photographing globally. The exhibit highlights her color photographs made in Iceland, Italy and in Yellowstone where she has been concentrating on geothermal sites that include boiling lakes, mud pots, hot springs and geysers, as well as the ancient city of Pompeii that was destroyed by the fiery eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D."

Go to Andrew Smith Gallery's website for more information.

Image: Untitled (White), 2006 © Elisa Sighicelli. Partially backlit c-print on lightbox, 48 x 48 x 2.

Fotosphere Gallery presents Koichiro Kurita

A series of images inspired by psychological studies will be exhibited by Fotosphere Gallery in New York City until April 26, 2008. For the series "Perceiving," Koichiro Kurita used his camera as a moving eye, assembling individual photographs into unified works comprising four, eight, nine, and twelve images. Kurita is known for his tranquil, simple photographs of natural scenes. In the past, he has made platinum prints on handmade rice paper. With this exhibition, he aims to create a psychological examination on the concept of psychological comprehension as it relates to the photograph. Kurita's philosophy ties perception inextricably with experience of a form, object, or idea. Kurita has lived in New York City since 1990, and has been photographing landscapes (often in America, sometimes in Japan) for more than 20 years. This idea of "Chi-Su-Ki (Earth, Water, and Air)" is central to Kurita's work, as is the personal interpretation of these forces that takes place (whether aware or subcoscious) when one views these images.

From Fotosphere:

"Koichiro Kurita’s works are exhibited internationally and collected by major museums including Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The Princeton Art Museum, The Fogg Museum Harvard University, George Eastman House, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Maison de Europeanne de la Photographie, The Biblioteque Nationale de Paris, Fuji Art Museum and among others. He lives and works in New York City and gives workshops in his studio."

For more information about Fotosphere, click here. Image: The First Encounter Beach, Cape Cod, MA 2006 ©Koichiro Kurita 24x30"

Open Shutter Gallery presents Mitch Dobrowner

In Durango, Colorado, Open Shutter Gallery will present the black-and-white work of Mitch Dobrowner, along with the photographs of Thomas Carr. Dobrowner has assembled an impressive collection of stunning outdoor scenes of natural vistas in the United States. His ghostly reprentations of legendary geographic monuments, like New Mexico's Shiprock shrouded in stormclouds, or Merrick Butte in Arizona's famous Monument Valley, are but two examples in the photographer's magnificent catalogue. Dobrowner's images are captured with black-and-white film, and some are processed digitally, making him an impressive example of the "new school" of analog photography, in which a photographer's expertise in color, light and shadow has complemented, rather than hindered, the old school sensibility reminiscent of landscape photographers like Ansel Adams.

The exhibition runs March 14 to April 30, 2008.

From the Open Shutter Gallery:

"(Open Shutter) Gallery owner Margy Dudley carefully selects the finest quality works with an eye on photographers who address humanitarian and conservation issues through their photos. Dobrowner’s surreal photographic landscape images, created by using a mixture of black and white film and digital cameras, reflect the power of nature and the hushed beauty of outdoor scenes in North America. Other great photographers who have exhibited at the Open Shutter Gallery include Pentti Sammallahti, Nick Brandt, Peter Turner and Lois Greenfield. Coincidentally, Mitch, as a young photographer at age 18, assisted Peter Turner at his NY studio."

Dobrowner's work was featured in a 12-page spread in Silvershotz Journal of Fine Art Photography, and he was also featured as a participant in the 2008 Photo LA Festival. To find out more about the artist's works, visit his site here. Open Shutter Gallery's site is here.

The Center for Creative Photography: March Exclusives

The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona presents a new line-up of events for the month of March 2008. First up is a Gallery Walk on March 9 with Becky Senf, organizer of "Debating Modern Photography: The Triumph of Group f/64." Senf will provide information on selected works and discuss their importance to the wider theme of this exhibition, which runs until May 4. Another Gallery Walk will take place April 24. On March 14, a lecture by Argentine photographer Marcelo Brodsky will discuss his work to remember “The Disappeared" as a result of military dictatorships in Latin America. Next up is a lecture presented by Joan Fontcuberta: "The Photography Paradox: Truth Against Beauty" takes place March 28.

From the Center for Creative Photography:

"Joan Fontcuberta, internationally acclaimed artist, curator, and theoretical writer, will discuss the tension between truth and beauty that has propelled photography's evolution since its origin. The aesthetic and ontological issues present in this tension can be observed in the present CCP exhibition, and in contemporary practice, including Fontcuberta’s own work."

For more information on upcoming events, click here to visit the Center's website.

Chicago Arts District to debut more than 30 exhibitions

On March 14, 2008, as a part of 2nd Fridays gallery night in Chicago, 30 member galleries of the Chicago Arts District will present new exhibitions, with many of the artists in attendance. It is part of a preview buildup to ARTROPOLIS Gallery Night on April 25, 2008. Visiting artists Theaster Gates and Barbara Hashimoto will present installations at 2003 S Halsted, the original address and main exhibition building of the Chicago Arts District. The event will also feature performances by the EP Theater. Many fine photographers are sure to be exhibiting at this event.

Hashimoto's installation "Junk Mail" involves photography, but only in a tangential way: imagine years of junk mail catalogs, with bright color photos stained by moisture and age, brought together into a monstrous sculpture. Gates will present a multimedia videography and still-image project, while bringing people of every race and creed to discuss the state of the world over a dinner table designed by the artist.

Though not strictly photography either, the installation/political forum is sure to make intriguing documentary material. Also, a presentation titled "Trade Show" will run in the Chicago Arts District's Special Exhibition space. It will be a combination of text, movement, and video portraits, along with 100 bags of used clothing, and will examine the unseen laws of labor that link all individuals making up a society, and the mysteriousness with which the thing keeps relentlessly chugging along.

The Chicago Arts District member galleries are listed here. No matter your preference in fine art, this should be a magnificent event!

Henry Art Gallery presents Kader Attia

In Seattle, Washington, The Henry Art Gallery, one of the most notable art destinations for fans of photography and contemporary art will present an exhibition from photographer Kader Attia: "New Work," running February 29 to May 25, 2008. Nestled in between the University of Washington campus and the always-hip University District, the Henry saw considerable renovations in 1997, which quadrupled the showing space, added an outdoor sculpture garden, and transformed the interior into an ideal showing space for both two dimensional wall artwork and large installations. Kader Attia, in an unusual twist, will be presenting in both mediums in the Stroum Gallery section. Photography, videography, and even sculpture will comprise the French-Algerian artist's first solo exhibition in the US.

From the Henry Art Gallery:

"Attia, born in 1970 to a Muslim family of Algerian origin, grew up in the outskirts of Paris in a largely immigrant-populated area. The impact the environment in which Attia grew up permeates much of the artist’s works. His early work captured identity and gender issues in Muslim immigrant populations living in a French consumerist society. Attia’s recent projects have turned darker and more intimate, presenting an apocalyptic outlook on the suburban landscape of today. His recent installations move away from explicit narratives to explore the affect of architectural scale."

Attia has taken a month-long residence at the Henry to create new work for the exhibition. The main installation, titled "Rocher Carré," was created specifically for the exhibiton, along with new drawings to complement the artist's work on film. The Henry should make an ideal showing space for such a multi-faceted exhibition. The installation titled "Ghost" will also be presented. The sculpture depicts scores of seated women, wearing hoods while at prayer, made from aluminum foil and deprived of facial features or any suggestion of individuality.

Click here for more information on the exhibition.

Galerie Poller in New York presents Kerim Aytac

Galerie Poller, of both New York and Frankfurt fame, presents a new exhibition of photography by Kerim Aytac: "Tokyo Hotel", running from Thursday, February 14, to April 5, 2008. A British-Turkish photographer, Aytac balances the style of his work between the abstract and the representational, the meditative and the obscure. These are not action photographs, nor are they meant to be true-life images. Instead, every photograph impresses as a self-contained mystery, as if the images displayed are those stolen from a person who is just waking in this environment. Galerie Poller is an excellent partner for this photographer, being solely dedicated to contemporary photography since 2002.

From Galerie Poller, originally by Kate Keara Pelen:

"Kerim Aytac seems to resist clichés of composition, resist the 'good' shot. Instead he seeks out small, incidental, sometimes even unremarkable goings-on. At times the work brings to mind Robert Frank or Walker Evans. But in fact these images adopt more of an in-between viewpoint; alongside an American low picturesque there is also nostalgia for the French semi-abstract black-and-white tradition. The B&W also serves to bring everything to an equal formal level; layers of reflections, markings and traces dissolve into the surface on the brink of the recognisable. As a viewer you have to struggle to identify individual elements, which resist, like embedded ciphers."

Aytac's website can be viewed here.

UnScene San Francisco features city's merging photographers

A collaboration between W San Francisco Hotel, 944 Magazine, and the UnScene Photography Tour presents UnScene San Francisco, a celebration of San Francisco's emerging photographers and gallery exhibition. This is only one stop in a multi-city event, comprising exhibitions in Dallas, New Orleans, San Diego, and New York, to name a few. Each juried event will feature five local artists, the top rated of which will receive a solo exhibition at a local gallery: in this case Jack Fischer Gallery. All events are held at participating W Hotels. The event will take place March 19, 2008, at W San Francisco.

The deadline for submissions is February 29, 2008. Click here to sign up, or for more information on future stops on the UnScene Photography Tour in 2008.

From the UnScene Photography Tour:

"Specializing in contemporary art and photography, the Jack Fischer Gallery will be judging the UnScene artists along with Emmy Kasten, editor-in-chief of 944 Magazine and the W San Francisco management team. All works will be on sale the night of the 19th with proceeds benefiting Creativity Explored, a nonprofit visual arts center where artists with developmental disabilities create, exhibit, and sell art."

Paul Ferman continues international tour of Necessary Illusions

Paul Ferman, Australian photographer and creator of the groundbreaking series "Necessary Illusions," will be exhibiting his mixed-media images at Interno Ventidue in Rome. Following an exhibition at M.O.P. Gallery in Sydney, Ferman continues his exhibition tour of composite photographic satire. The subject is Western culture's growing preoccupation with celebrity, and the vulgarity of tabloid sensationalism. With shocking juxtapositions of glossy magazine covers (deceptive, flashy headlines, airbrushed bodies and faces, and much more) with photographs of tragedy, squalor, and disaster, Ferman has attached an artistic microscope to the rose-colored lens of popular culture.

Fashion photography buffs need not picket this one: images of beautiful models and clothing are frequently covered up by other subjects, leaving only the over-energetic proclamations from an editorial formed and fed by information mass-consumption. With glamour squarely out of the equation, the context is completely transformed. There is also a savvy consciousness that points to a twisted kind of optimism: the anodyne of the masses is taking on a life of its own, and Ferman hints that is a childish, misguided—but benevolent—consciousness that is linking more and more people together.

From Paul Ferman's website:

"Celebrity Culture, let's call him CC, has followed a long and winding road to enlightenment, searching his soul in areas such as spiritualism, the arts, benevolent work and the media. It therefore seems only right that CC would at some point begin to compile sacred texts on all he has learnt."

Rome has ever been a center of art, both from the finest classical traditions and from the cutting-edge. This exhibition will satisfy fans of the latter, though this exhibition risks passing Rome's glamour community in the night, despite the prestige of the venue. Click here to view a gallery of images.

Image: Necessary Illusions #323 © Paul Ferman.

New Exhibition: CameraArts feature artist Ann Ginsburgh Hofkin

Based in Minneapolis, MN Ann Ginsburgh Hofkin (CameraArts November/December 2007) will be participating in a two-person show in her home city. Nina Bliese Gallery will be hosting the exhibition,which will feature Hofkin's inrared photographs, along with the wood sculpture of Robyn Horn. The exhibition begins February 18 and runs throughMarch 28, 2008. Ann Ginsburgh Hofkin's participation in a cultural exchange program in Israel led to her photographs being featured in a permanent installation at the Poriya Hospital in Tiberias, Israel.

From Nina Bliese Gallery:

"She recently exhibited her work in a one person show at Nof Tavor in Israel, and in June, 2007, her photographs were featured in a solo exhibition at the Givatayim Theatre in Tel Aviv. She says of her work, 'In my photographs, the elements of the invisible and immeasurable are added to the image area to produce surprises that may be frightening or exhilarating…or both. After all, many aspects of life are beyond our control.'”

Go here to see Ann Ginsburgh Hofkin's personal website.

To see more images, go to the gallery's website here.

Exhibition Chronicles Turning Point in American Photography

"Debating Modern Photography: The Triumph of Group f/64" is an exhibition honoring both sides of a debate about the direction and state of photography in the 1930s. Running February 16 to May 4, 2008, at the Center for Creative Photography, the exhibition will present works from the members of Group f/64, including Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Willard Van Dyke, Sonya Noskowiak, Edward Weston, to name a few; and from the practitioners of the pictorial tradition of photography, which was the dominant style at the time that the group was formed. The mechanical nature of Group f64's images, with bold, angular shapes and strong shadows, and the painterly, soft-focus style that came before are presented as 100 works by 16 artists.

Pictorial photographers of the 1930s, like Anne Brigman, William Dassonville, Johan Hagemeyer, William Mortensen, and Karl Struss, represent the lasting tradition, heavily involved in hand-crafting images, dignified portraits, and romantic landscapes. As a result, photographs from the "pictorial" era are closer to individual, painterly visions, both in the method of creation and in the adherence to form and subject matter.

Group f/64 made its first exhibition a reality at de Young Memorial Museum on November 15, 1932, after uniting in San Francisco to celebrate the camera's underappreciated attributes: specifically, the exacting focus and clarity achievable at the aperture setting that made the group's name. Now, this retrospective exhibition comes courtesy of the Center for Creative Photography and the Phoenix Art Museum.

From the Center for Creative Photography:

“Group f/64 photographs include nearly every possible category: industrial, urban and natural landscapes; portraits of friends and fellow group members; isolated objects for sharp-focus still lifes; and details extracted from the visible world. ...To distinguish themselves from the Pictorialists, (Group f/64) wrote, 'Pure photography is defined as possessing no qualities of technic [sic], composition or idea, derivative of any other art-form.'"

Reception speakers include Susan Ehrens, who will examine the photographic legacies of Anne Brigman, Imogen Cunningham, and Alma Lavenson; and Joan Fontcuberta will "discuss the tension between truth and beauty that has propelled photography's evolution since its origin." The reception takes place March 28, 2008, at the Center for Creative Photography Gallery at the University of Arizona.

Click here for details.

CALL FOR ENTRIES: Galore!

No less than four calls for entry are now open to photographers. "Abstractions in the Landscape," at The Darkroom in New Orleans, is inviting submissions of non-representational urban and/or natural landscapes. "Railway Reflections," an international railroad art exhibition, is seeking one hundred works to be displayed in at the Nevada State Library Gallery in Carson City, NV. The Art of Photography Show is still accepting entries, with the exhibition taking place at the Lyceum Theatre Gallery in Historic San Diego, CA. Last but not least, Communication Arts magazine is now accepting entries for their 49th Photography Competition, with the winners to be published in the August 2008 Photography Annual.

"Abstractions in the Landscape," juried by photographer Sandra Russell Clark, is open to all processes and media, with an entry fee of $20. The juried exhibition will open May 17, 2008. The deadline for entries is April 11, 2008. Click here for details.

"Railway Reflections" offers $5,000 in cash awards, is open to the mediums of painting, photography, sculpture, and drawing. Entry fee is $25 per piece, up to a limit of three entries. Deadline for submissions is May 14, 2008. The exposition, running July 17 to August 17, 2008, will donate 30 percent of its proceeds to the reconstruction of the historic Virginia & Truckee Railroad. Click here for details.

The Art of Photography Show takes place April 25 to May 23, 2008. $5,000 cash awards are available for first to fourth place, as well as 11 honorable mentions. Carol McCusker, Curator of Photography at the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, will serve as juror. Entry fee is $25 for the first entry, $10 for each additional entry, with no limit to the number of entries per photographer. Deadline is March 1, 2008. Click here for details. Go here for a trailer from the 2007 Art of Photography Show.

Communication Arts' 49th Photography Competition is open to any photograph printed or produced between March 14, 2007 and March 11, 2008. Winning photographs are selected by a panel of distinguished art directors, photographers, and designers, then published in the August 2008 Photography Annual, of which 70,000 copies will be distributed worldwide. Deadline for the competition is March 11, 2008. Click here for details.