News

 Daylight/CDS Photo Awards Exhibition 

Cinema Play House: Photographs by Nandita Raman

Winner of the Daylight/CDS Photo Awards Project Prize

and

Photographs by Elizabeth Moreno

Winner of the Work-in-Process Prize

Jurors' Pick Winners include Erica Allen, Rachel Barrett, Priya Kimbli, Jan Lieski, Paula McCartney, Martin Roemers, Daniel Stier, and Monika Sziladi.

September 13–December 23, 2010 at the University Gallery, Center for Documentary Studies

Reception: Thursday, September 23, 6–9 p.m.

In recognition of mutual interests in documentary and fine art photography, Daylight Magazine and the Center for Documentary Studies started an international competition in spring 2010, the Daylight/CDS Photo Awards, to honor and promote talented and committed photographers, both emerging and established. 

He’s back in black-and-white. Gregory Crewdson’s latest endeavor, the jaw-dropping book and exhibition entitled Sanctuary. Last summer, I randomly happened to be in Rome while Crewdson was there working on this series, and he let me come by the set to see what he was up to. I was floored, not fully comprehending what I was about to see. It was my very first time in the Eternal City, and I was nursing the biggest blister in history from visits to the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. I went from seeing ruins of the real thing in the city center to a strangely-familiar set that once depicted life in ancient Rome for the HBO series of the same name. The movie studio, Cinecitta, which houses the sets, is in the outskirts of Rome,a nd has been home to directors like Fellini and Rosselini and, more recently, Wes Anderson. There is really no other way to describe how I was feeling at the moment I passed through the main gates, other than to say it was a mindf---.

The jetlag probably added to the sense of surrealism, as I passed through security and walked myself back past offices and miniature villages and halls of props. Towards the rear, over a metal fence, I saw the first hint of an ancient Roman façade in the now-warming late afternoon light. It almost knocked me off my feet. I quickly found myself being toured around a facades-and-scaffolding Ancient Rome by Crewdson’s young American  intern. I dodged feral cats and wondered at the tall weeds, which appeared to be the exact same species I was fighting back at home in the States. I was drawn for a moment out of the fantasy when a Communist-era-looking apartment building could be glimpsed over a wall around one corner. It was not of the correct century, my brain told me. I thought about how lucky those presidents were to get to watch movie shoots off their otherwise cold, hard balconies. Some of the sets were in better shape than others, and some had been altered a bit for use in Gangs of New York as Little Five Points, no less. The only obvious evidence of this re-use appears in one of Crewdson’s pictures, when you can just barely read “Pier 12” stenciled on a wall.

I quietly watched the photographer at work, directing a DP, not at an 8x10 film camera, but with a digital camera on a tripod with a high-end Phase One back, another shock to my system. The light was just getting golden, and the smoke machines kicked in, not for obvious eeriness, but more for atmospheric tone. He was shooting at dawn and just before dusk for the quality of light, and also, most likely, to be working in that short timeframe when a change is happening: light is turning to dark and dark to light. There is a change of state. This is not the photographer’s first time shooting during magic hour, or the first time working with black-and-white. His prior forays into monochrome were shot with a large format 8x10 inch view camera, of backyards in Hover and of fireflies at night, both in rural Western Massachusetts. This is Crewdson’s first venture into international waters, and into another age, another empire. This is also a venture around the corner, in a way, from setting up and staging the tableau vivants that we have become familiar with in the last decade of viewing his work.

But here, he has not created the sets – they are already fabricated for another use, abandoned, yet still standing, for the most part; he only adds that bit of smoke from a smoke machine to draw out the light and the ambience. Nothing could really make more sense as a logical progression (or right turn), if you think about it, and if you think about Crewdson’s oeuvre. The layering of time and place inherent is what makes the subtext so rich. He says, “In these pictures I draw upon the inherent quietness and uncanny aspects of the empty sets. As with much of my work, I looked at the blurred lines between reality and fiction, nature and artifice, and beauty and decay.” The press release goes on to explain how the scenographic architecture is use here as the subject of the narrative, not a mere setting in which it takes place.

The prints are smaller than one would expect, and the tonal range is wide. These are not high-key, smack-you-in the-face, contrasty, dark images. The prints are very quiet, very open, almost flat, and add to the feeling that we are looking at them through some screen, whether it be physical or metaphysical. In a city full of ruins and remains and religious sanctuaries, Crewdson has found a sanctuary of another sort.

The show opens this Thursday, September 23^rd, at Gagosian’s Madison Avenue location, and is on view through October 30th. The sumptuous, large book is already out, from Hajte Cantz:

http://www.hatjecantz.de/controller.php?cmd=detail=00002734=en

To watch a video about the production, and place yourself in the faux cobblestone streets:

http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/2010-09-23_gregory-crewdson/

He will also be doing a TimesTalks event with director Noah Baumbach and writer A.O. Scott: Stories Pictures on Tuesday, October 5 at 6:30 pm

http://www.gagosian.com/news/2010-10-05_gregory-crewdson/

Daylight/CDS Photo Awards Exhibition 

Cinema Play House: Photographs by Nandita Raman

Winner of the Daylight/CDS Photo Awards Project Prize

and

Photograph by Elizabeth Moreno

Winner of the Work-in-Process Prize

and Erica Allen, Rachel Barrett, Priya Kimbli, Jan Lieski, Paula McCartney, Martin Roemers, Daniel Stier, and Monika Sziladi, Jurors' Pick Winners

September 13–December 23, 2010 at the University Gallery, Center for Documentary Studies

Reception: Thursday, September 23, 6–9 p.m.

In recognition of mutual interests in documentary and fine art photography, Daylight Magazine and the Center for Documentary Studies started an international competition in spring 2010, the Daylight/CDS Photo Awards, to honor and promote talented and committed photographers, both emerging and established. There are two awards, a Project Prize and a Work-in-Process Prize.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS SEPTEMBER 18.

 Lens Culture International Exposure Awards discover, reward, and promote talented, new, emerging and established photographers from around the world.

An international jury of photography experts will review and judge every photo submitted. 

This year, in addition to cash awards and other prizes, Lens Culture is delighted to announce that all winning photographs will be featured in well-publicized International Exposure Awards traveling exhibitions at galleries in Paris, New York and San Francisco in 2011. (Additional international gallery venues may be announced soon.) The winning photographs will also get prominent, exclusive photo features in Lens Culture, giving them access and broad exposure to an enthusiastic, influential worldwide audience. 

Enter your photographs here: 

http://lensculture.slideroom.com







Governors Island Welcomes New Arts Events in Last Weeks of 2010 Season

Photographer to show photos of Governors Island and give a tour of two of the Island’s buildings

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Children’s Museum of the Arts and other groups launch exhibitions and events for last four weekends

New York, NY: September 16, 2010: Several new arts events and exhibitions are coming to Governors Island during the last few weeks of its 2010 season, The Trust for Governors Island today announced. The first of these events is a gallery talk and tour with photographer Lisa Kereszi this Saturday. Other events include new exhibitions by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) and the Children’s Museum of the Arts.

The Island is open every Friday – Sunday through October 10.

This Saturday, September 18, photographer Lisa Kereszi will give a gallery talk in the Commanding Officer’s House. In 2003, the Public Art Fund commissioned Kereszi and fellow New York-based photographer Andrew Moore to document Governors Island with a series of photographs. These photos were exhibited in 2004 by the Public Art Fund in cooperation with Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation and the Municipal Art Society. Many of those photographs currently hang in the Commanding Officer’s House and are always available for the public to view. The photos depict the architecture, landscape and hidden spaces of Governors Island. Ms. Kereszi will talk about her experiences photographing the island after the Coast Guard left, when it was largely an abandoned place. Following the talk, she will lead a tour into two of her favorite indoor spaces on the Island, the Officer’s Club and the Movie Theater. These buildings are normally closed to the public.

“The photographs displayed on Governors Island give visitors a window into the Island’s

past and what it was like once the Coast Guard left,” said Lisa Kereszi. “I am so pleased

that visitors can enjoy these photographs and imagine what the Island was like before it

was bustling as it is today, with thousands enjoying arts and cultural events here.”

In addition to the gallery talk, visitors to Governors Island can enjoy several unique, free art exhibitions on their visit. The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) has opened “Floating World,” an exhibit of works created by the visual artists-in-residence in Building 110: LMCC's Arts Center. Floating World includes photographs, video and sculpture. Some pieces directly interpret aspects of the landscape, seascape, architecture, topography, and history of the Island, while others are reflections of the artists’ own experiences of working on the Island. On the last weekend of the public season, LMCC will again open its artist studios to the public so that they can meet these artists in residence and see their works in progress.

The Children’s Museum of the Arts, which runs the Free Island Outpost program on Governors Island, has produced “Beyond the Refrigerator Door.” This exhibit displays the work of all children who attended the Children’s Museum of the Arts summer camp and the Free Island Outpost program, which has run more than 40 sessions since the beginning of the summer. The exhibit features murals, drawings and sculpture. It is open every weekend and is housed in Building 20 in Nolan Park.

These events and exhibits join other free arts programs that are ongoing on the Island. The 4 Heads’ Art Fair features the work of more than 100 independent artists. This group has taken over Building 12, a former barracks, and given a room to each  artist. No Longer Empty has transformed four officer’s houses in Colonels Row with site specific pieces in their exhibit “The Sixth Borough.” FIGMENT’s artist designed miniature golf course and sculpture garden continue to provide adults and children with unique opportunities to interact with art. Visitors can also continue to enjoy sculptures and other outdoor pieces by the Sculptors Guild and the Brooklyn Waterfront Coalition