News

This fall, Venice Arts Gallery launches its first-ever Public Programs with a series of conversations with artists, idea makers, and educators focusing on current issues and ideas in the fields of documentary photography, photojournalism, and participant media. These programs augment Venice Arts Gallery’s presentation of “Injustice, Power, Unusual People,” a retrospective exhibition of work by Pulitzer Prize-nominated Photographer Jim Hubbard. On view through November 30th, the show tracks Jim’s development as a young Photographer at the “Detroit News” covering the 1967 Detroit Riots, through his most current work from Southern Africa and Palestine. The Public Programs are a joint presentation of Venice Arts and USC Institute for Photographic Empowerment. All events are free and open to the public.

Wednesday, October 20 at 7pm The first program, “Documentary Photography, Photojournalism Visual Storytelling in the Digital Age,” will be a conversation with Brett Abbott, Associate Curator, Department of Photographs, The J. Paul Getty Museum; Jim Hubbard, Documentary Photographer Photojournalist; and Michael Shaw, Publisher of “BagNews.” Abbott curated The Getty Center’s current exhibition “Engaged Observers: Documentary Photography since the Sixties.” Hubbard’s work is the subject of a 40-year retrospective exhibition currently on view at Venice Arts Gallery. Shaw’s blog “BagNews” seeks to better understand the levels of meaning, underlying story lines, and various agendas reflected in prominent news photographs. The three will bring various perspectives to bear on a conversation about the changing place of documentary photography and visual storytelling in our increasingly visual culture.

Wednesday, October 27 at 7pm Artist Natalie Bookchin will discuss her ongoing work entitled “Testament,” in which she uses material from culled from online video diaries (vlogs). These moving and insightful video installations focus on collectively told vignettes, stories, proclamations, and meditations reflecting on topics such as identity, the economy, illness, and politics. Bookchin’s work has been exhibited widely, including at LACMA, PS1, Mass MOCA, the Generali Foundation, the Walker Art Center, the Pompidou Centre, MOCA Los Angeles, the Whitney Museum, the Tate, and Creative Time. She has won numerous awards for her work and is co-Director of the Photography Media Program in the Art School at CalArts.

Wednesday, November 10, 7pm Neal Baer, M.D., Showrunner Executive Producer of Law Order: SVU will discuss “Mash-Ups: Merging Photography with New Media for Social Change.” Drawing on the work of Venice Arts and other organizations, photographers, and writers, Dr. Baer will give a visual exploration of how photography and new media are acting as compelling advocacy tools for community storytelling and social change.

http://www.venice-arts.org/

On view oct 9th-jan 8th 2011 at Fovea Exhibitions, located at 143 Main Street in the town of Beacon, New York.

http://www.foveaexhibitions.org/

"One Block is a portrait of post-Katrina New Orleans as seen through the prism of a single city block whose residents are attempting to rebuild their homes. While the project has a documentary quality, its nonlinear approach evokes something that might be more aptly called a psychological landscape." Dave Anderson

Currently on view at the High Museum of Art is Signs of Life: Photographs by Peter Sekaer.

You may only know him as the printer of Walker Evans' series of African masks, but he was a great photographer in his own right. Born in Denmark, he studied photography with Berenice Abbott. He was friends with Ben Shahn and also Evans, who also helped him to secure more contracts from 1936 to 1943 to work on assignment as a photographer for various government agencies. His untimely death in 1950 at the age of 49 put an end to an incredible body of work. Not only does the High present unseen pictures of black American life in the 30's, but also different views of scenes that we know well through the images of Evans, who he traveled with on photo trips. I will post about their trip to Bethlehem, PA next month. If you're in Atlanta, visit the High Museum of Art at 1280 Peachtree Street, N.E.http://www.high.org/main.taf?p=3,1,1,19,1 and also Lumiere Gallery at 425 Peachtree Hills Avenue for the concurrent show: Peter Sekaer . . . In Context – Collector’s Galleryhttp://lumieregallery.net/wp/2925/peter-sekaer-in-context/ Featuring the exceptional photography of Peter Sekaer in the context of other notable artists of the period: Berenice Abbott, Arnold Newman, Alexander Rodchenko, Dorothea Lange and John Gutmann. This show ends soon, October 15th, but work by Sekaer will also be featured in their upcoming exhibition: Photography as Propaganda, opening October 16th.

International Photo Competition to Award Winner a Trip Around the World NEW YORK CITY -- Artists Wanted is pleased to announce a collaboration with Photo District News (PDN) to present the One Life Photography Project, a time capsule of images illustrating the lives, loves and passions of the global community. The first of an annual series, the One Life Photography Project is a yearly archive that collects images from photographers all around the world to show that, despite the vastness of our different cultures, ideas and identities, we all speak with one inspired voice through photography. Images in the annual archive will be published and submitted to the Library of Congress to be saved in perpetuity. All entrants will also receive an online portfolio as part of the digital archive, viewable anywhere. To top off this great mission, Artists Wanted and PDN are awarding the Grand Prize winner with a choice between $25,000 and a Travel Adventure of a Lifetime - the winner and his/her traveling companion will get to visit cities across 6 continents! Clearly, the folks at Artists Wanted are continuing to offer their grand-slam prize packages - their last competition, Exposure, awarded $10,000 cash and a rent-free, one year stay in a $1.2 million NYC apartment. Joining them in selecting the winner are judges Jodi Peckman, Creative Director of Rolling Stone Magazine, Amy Kellner, Arts Editor of Vice Magazine, Conor Risch, Features Editor of Photo District News (PDN), Stephen Walker, Photo Director of Nylon Magazine, and James Morris, Photo Director of Lucky Magazine. General submissions will be accepted through October 29, 2010. More details at: www.onelifephotos.com/?f=pe2

Exhibition on view: Wednesday, October 6–Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Opening reception with the artist: October 6, 7:00-9:00 pm Artist talk: Wednesday, October 13, 7:00 pm

Location: GalleryBar, 120 Orchard Street (between Delancey and Rivington Streets), NYC/ 212-529-2266/ www.gallerybarnyc.com Gallery Hours: Tuesdays through Saturdays, 12:00 pm until closing and Sundays, 3:00-8:00 pm Directions: F, J, M, Z trains to Delancey Street

GalleryBar is pleased to present Along Bayou Road, an exhibition of photographs by Michael M. Koehler. Along Bayou Road documents the Louisiana bayous and a way of life in the middle of transition. The Louisiana bayous are home to the largest fisheries in the country and are at the crux of a unique relationship between the people and the land. Koehler’s lush photographs capture the value and vulnerability of the bayou’s deep-rooted culture with essential scenes from the fishing industry, the people’s resilience in rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina, and the horror of the oil spill that continues to threaten their lives, and ours.

Koehler’s frank black and white photographs document and preserve this rich bayou culture, raising awareness of environmental devastation. Along Bayou Road focuses on our moral responsibility to see that the bayous are not forgotten and ensure that this is not the end of the road, but rather a new beginning in protection for the fishermen, the wetlands, and this essential way of life. “These fisherman become a symbol for what’s happening in our country, and if we lose this way of life, we lose a piece of ourselves,” says Koehler with passion. The photographs document fisherman who were the first responders after Katrina and were forced to work on the front lines after the BP oil spill without ample resources and protection.

Koehler first photographed the New Orleans region while working to rebuild communities after Katrina in 2006. Koehler has returned to the region many times to rebuild homes and develop relationships with the people and the landscape. In 2008, he befriended Ricky Robin, a seventh generation shrimper from Saint Bernard Parish. Robin––a gifted storyteller who descended from pirate Jean Lafitte––is a true American hero, and became a major subject for Along Bayou Road. Koehler’s journeys to the heart of the Bayou’s ecosystem provide an honest view of the fisherman, hard working Americans who maintain a unique way of life on the brink of extinction.

Additionally, three 11 x 14 inch limited-edition pigment prints will be available for sale throughout the exhibition. 100% of the proceeds from these sales will go directly to two charities in the New Orleans region, The Voice of the Wetlands and the Fisherman of St. Bernard.

Michael M. Koehler (b. 1982) was raised in Philadelphia and currently lives in New York City. Koehler received his B.F.A from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2005. He has worked as a staff photographer for the Philadelphia Tribune and the Philadelphia City Paper, and his work has been published in numerous magazines including, American Photo and Complex. He has exhibited widely, at Leica Gallery, New York; the Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia; Subliminal Projects Gallery, Los Angeles; and the Sandro Chia Studio, Rome. Koehler was recently awarded the Purchase Award by the Perkins Center for the Arts, in association with the Philadelphia Museum of Art.