The New Orleans Darkroom opens online gallery

The New Orleans Darkroom, the source for contemporary fine art photography in the Big Easy, has announced a new online gallery. The gallery offers browsing criteria in searching for books and photographs, either by artist, by genre, theme, and price, among many others. This latest feature is a part of the Darkroom's efforts to achieve wider recognition of its artists on a national scale. A section is also given over to entry fees for juried competitions and other events, with easy online payment options.

Says New Orleans Darkroom owner Charles Magnin:

"New Orleans is replete with outstanding photographic talent who suffer from the scarcity of venues that focus on their promotion. The purpose of the online gallery is to offer Southern artists a truly broad audience."

Featured photographers include Jackie Brenner (whose book, Friday Night Grind, was released by Shine Media Group, and is available to order here), Richard Sexton, and Joséphine Sacabo (CameraArts August/September 2003), to name only a few. The online gallery can be viewed at gallery.neworleansdarkroom.com.

Image ©Harold Gee

A tribute to Burt Glinn

This week Magnum Photos announced that long-time member Burt Glinn has passed away. The photographer and his legacy have been honored with a special exhibition in Seattle's SAM Gallery. The show will run until May 3, 2008, and will present much of Glinn's work from the 50s and 60s, while the photographer documented The Seattle Tubing Society (see below). As counterpoint, Glinn's dramatic photographs of the Cuban Revolution will also be included. Glinn is also the photographer behind the world-famous image of Khrushchev viewing the Lincoln Memorial.

Glinn has also served as a president of the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), during the organization's 35th Anniversary. Click here for excerpts from the photographer, collected for the 60th Anniversary celelbration of the ASMP.

From Magnum Photos Blog:

"Glinn became an associate member of Magnum in 1951, along with Eve Arnold and Dennis Stock—the first Americans to join the young photo agency—and a full member in 1954. He made his mark with spectacular color series on the South Seas, Japan, Russia, Mexico and California. In 1959 he received the Mathew Brady Award for Magazine Photographer of the Year from the University of Missouri.

"In collaboration with the writer Laurens van der Post, Glinn published A Portrait of All the Russians and A Portrait of Japan. His reportages appeared in magazines including Esquire, Geo, Travel + Leisure, Fortune, Life and Paris-Match. He covered the Sinai War as well as the U.S. Marine invasion of Lebanon."

If the sound of "The Seattle Tubing Society" has you scratching your head, click here for a slide-show obit at Magnum Photos. Preview the exhibition here.

Image ©Burt Glinn.

Palm Springs Photo Festival: Complete portfolio!

Our own Publisher/Managing Editor here at CameraArts, Tim Anderson, has taken an impressive number of photographs during the Palm Springs Photo Festival in March 2008. Tim has dished non-stop about the beautiful weather and endless opportunities for photographers to share images and attend courses.

From Tim Anderson:

"Relatively new in the photo festival world, Jeff Dunas (right) and his absolutely incredible crew have done a fantastic job of attracting world-class workshop leaders and top-of-the-line photo pros to do portfolio reviews, not to mention the sun. Ah, the sun. For the short time I was there, the weather was very agreeable, blue skies all the way, every day!"

Click here to download the full .pdf file on our website.

CALL FOR ENTRIES: The Art of Photography Show

The Art of Photography Show 2008, an international exhibition of fine art photography, will take place April 25 to May 23, 2008. The show will be hosted once again at the Lyceum Theatre Gallery in the historic Gaslamp Quarter of Downtown San Diego. Applying for the competition is as simple as filling out an online registration form and uploading .jpgs of photographic art. Images created using any medium will be accepted, whether it is by film, digital media (with photographic elements, of course), alternative processes, montages, and so on. $5,000 in cash prizes will be awarded at a world-class opening ceremony. Entry fees are $25 for the initial entry, and $10 for each additional.

The deadline for entries is March 1, 2008.

From artofphotographyshow.com:

"Carol McCusker is the Judge for the Art of Photography Show 2008. Dr. McCusker is Curator of Photography at the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego. She has curated over 40 exhibitions at MoPA and has written numerous books, catalogs, essays and articles on various aspects of photography. Carol McCusker is highly respected in the global photographic community, so it's a significant honor to be selected by her."

For details on entering this competition, visit www.artofphotographyshow.com.

photo l.a. 2008 to begin next week at new location

photo l.a.'s 17th Annual International Los Angeles Photographic Art Exposition will take place January 10 to 13, 2008, at Barker Hangar at Santa Monica Airport. The new location has been chosen for its capacity for larger crowds and more art space. Higher foot traffic will be expected during the week during which both the photo l.a. and the Golden Globes will take place, with prospected numbers of over 10,000 people at the photography festival.

From ArtFairs, Inc:

"Created by Stephen Cohen, producer of the highly acclaimed art fairs photo MIAMI and ART LA, photo l.a. will feature the finest photographic art on display and for sale, from the earliest 19th-Century photographic experiments to the most contemporary photography and photo-based art. Seventy of the world’s leading galleries and private dealers representing international and U.S. artists will display work at photo l.a. 2008.

"...Highlights of the exhibition will include works by world-renowned contemporary artists including Masao Yamamoto, Chris Jordan, James Fee, William Eggleston, and Luis Gonzalez Palma. Works by photography luminaries Eugene Atget, Brassai, Dorothea Lange, Julius Shulman, Aaron Siskind, Walker Evans, Irving Penn, Diane Arbus, Weegee, Josef Sudek, Edward Weston, Edmund Teske, Henry Callahan and Ansel Adams also will be on display."

Barker Hangar is located at 3021 Airport Avenue in Santa Monica. Click here to find out more about pre-ordering tickets for the opening. The reception will honor famous architectural photographer Julius Shuman, and will benefit the Photography Department of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Also, click here to view an Exclusive CameraArts Gallery of images from various participants at photo l.a. 2008.

Paris Photo 2007 presents the Magnum Photos Program

In celebration of its 60th year, Magnum Photo Agency has announced the upcoming inauguration of its first Paris gallery on November 17. The opening will take place during Paris Photo 2007, organized at the Carrousel du Louvre. The gallery will have regular exhibitions of vintage photography from Magnum's archives, as well as contemporary works of fine art photography. This dichotomy is represented in the inaugural exhibiton, a Tribute to Leonard Freed/Fashion Magazine by Alec Soth.

Having passed away last year at age 77, photographer Leonard Freed captured many lost periods and places in the American landscape: New York's Jewish community in the 1950s, the series "Black in America," which captures Harlem in the 60s, and "Police Work," a 70s portfolio of true crime photographs in the tradition of Weegee and other photographic greats.

Freed is a respectable addition to Magnum's collection of vintage work, and Soth, another American, may someday be right alongside.

For more information on Paris Photo, which takes place November 15 to 18, 2007, visit their website here.

December is A Month of Photography in New Orleans

In December 2007, New Orleans Photo Alliance will present, in collaboration with city museums, galleries, and local photographers, the Second Annual PhotoNOLA: A Month of Photography in New Orleans. For thirty days, the City will be host to fine art photography exhibitions, gallery lectures, portfolio reviews, panel discussions and workshops, and a street fair. The festivities begin November 30, 2007, with a Gala and Print Auction at the Annex of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. The works of Maggie Taylor, Hiroshi Watanabe, Keith Carter, and others will be up for sale. Carter, along with Chris Jordan, will be hosting workshops and public slide presentations on the first and second weekends of the month.

Coordinated gallery openings on the first and second Saturdays will showcase some great contemporary photography, including work by Debbie Fleming Caffery, Robert Polidori, Josephine Sacabo and Louviere+Vanessa. Another anticipated event is PhotoNOMA on December 5 at the New Orleans Museum of Art, where 100 photographers will display their portfolios as part of a community art walk. The Photo Alliance Street Fair will take place December 15.

If anyone without experience of these kinds of events imagines a staid, dull, and confusing affair for non-photographers, rest assured this cannot be further from the truth. When enough photographers are gathered together, with the incentives of portfolio reviews and meetings among industry professionals encouraging a turnout of their best work, the images and artwork on display rivals that of any national or international art festival. Participants bring not only their work, but their curiosity and passion as well.

For a full list of lectures, exhibitions, and events, click here.

Four masters of photography are the pride of Philly

Gallery 339, one of Philadelphia's finest photography-focused galleries, will present an exhibition from four local photographers who have achieved worldwide reknown: Philadelphia Masters. Running November 2, 2007 to January 28, 2008, the exhibition intends to recognize the contributions these photographers have made to Philadelphia's contemporary art scene and photography community. In honoring four distinst photographers, Gallery 339 intends to emphasize the diversity and long-term progressive nature of Philadelphia' photography scene.

George Krause, William Larson, Ray K. Metzker, and Ruth Thorne-Thomsen share a common passion for experimentation in their work: perhaps the only thread, aside from the city that they call home, that they can claim in common.

From Gallery 339's press announcement:

"Like a magician, Krause is able to take the average stuff of the world around him to conjure suspense and wonder. Since beginning his career in Philadelphia in the late 1950s, Krause has explored basic human concerns of sensuality, mortality, and spirituality to create his ambiguous, symbolically rich images...

"Since completing his studies at the Institute of Design in Chicago in the late 1960s, Larson has pursued a number of influential conceptual projects that reconsider the ways that the still and the moving image are rendered in art. Experimenting with a range of technologies, including early fax machines and slit-scan cameras, Larson disassembled and reconstructed traditional ways of recording time and movement...

"While experimenting with multiple exposures, unusual juxtapositions, and the unexpected use of light and darkness, Metzker has imbued his images with an emotional resonance. By bisecting a streetscape with an intense ribbon of sunlight or a dense wall of shadow, he is able to evoke a feeling of hope or an aura of menace...

"Thorne-Thomsen combines elements from myth, 19th century travel photography, folklore, allegory and other influences to compose landscapes that appear both familiar and impossible. While surreal, these constructed scenes have a seamlessness and an internal logic that makes them seem real, yet it is a reality that is remembered from a dream.

The reception will take place 6 pm, November 2, 2007. Gallery 339's website can be found here.

Image: Fountan Head, 1970 © George Krause.

Roger Mayne exhibition at Gitterman Gallery

Gitterman Gallery, located in New York, has dedicated itself to the art of photography. The photographs of Roger Mayne will be displayed September 21 to November 30, 2007. Images are taken from the breadth of the photographer's career, from his most celebrated to more obscure images from the 1960s. Born in 1929, Roger Mayne became known for shooting working-class neighborhoods in his native England. His nature photography of rural England and other places will also be on view.

As a boy, Mayne turned to photography to escape a rigid, controlled living environment and relate to people. This is reflected in the pathos contained in these images of everyday people in 1950s England. The sympathetic feel of Mayne's camera reveals more than just the way people looked, dressed, and gathered.

From the Gitterman Gallery's press release:

"These spare cityscapes express the anxiety that though the coming modernization of London would provide better housing and cleaner streets, it would also mark the end of community life in the street. During his travels abroad in the Mediterranean and later the East, Mayne photographed wherever he found vibrant street life continuing to exist. His choice to make some large scale prints was uncommon for the time and emphasized the immediacy of his expression."

Click here to view a gallery of images.

Image ©Roger Mayne