News

My colleague, Sarah Stolfa, opened a center for photography in Philadelphia, and hosts classes, workshops, screenings, exhibitions, as well as a digital darkoom for rent. This Summer, they have lots of things planned, including workshops in digital basics and also RAW file management, a screening of the creepy Robin Williams' film One Hour Photo, and a potluck and slideshow event: Slideluck Potshow, a New York City-based, non-profit arts organization that provides an opportunity for artists and arts-appreciators to gather around food, friends, and artwork for an unforgettable night. This event, which began in a Seattle backyard ten years ago and regularly draws crowds of a thousand people in NYC, is finally coming to the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center.

The evening begins with a couple hours of mingling and dining on the home-cooked delights of those who attend, and then the lights are dimmed, the crowd is hushed, and a spectacular slideshow commences. Think slideshow + potluck dinner.

SLIDELUCK POTSHOW Philadelphia

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Philadelphia Photo Arts Center

7pm Potluck  |  9pm Slideshow  |  Afterparty to follow

Submit your artwork for SLPS Philadelphia!  We are currently seeking cohesive, creative, and thought-provoking submissions for the slideshow! It doesn’t matter if you are a photojournalist, painter, glassblower, fashion or fine-art photographer, or sculptor. Artists working in every medium are invited to submit, and those selected by our curators will present their work alongside one another in a relaxed and spirited atmosphere. Submissions will be collected online in advance of the slideshow. Multimedia presentations are also welcomed and all shows must be accompanied by music, commentary, or other audio surprises.

Submissions will be curated by:
Robert Cozzolino
Curator of Modern Art, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts

Martin McNamara
Principal, Gallery 339

Andrew Suggs
Executive Director, Vox Populi

Submission guidelines can be found at:
http://network.slideluckpotshow.com/group/philly

The deadline for submissions is Friday, September 10, 2010.

The Philadelphia Photo Arts Center is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization devoted to the study, practice, and appreciation of photography in the Philadelphia region. The organization fulfills this mission by offering educational programs, photographic exhibitions, lectures by practicing artists, and affordable access to high-end digital equipment for the creation of photographs. PPAC is a resource for both practicing artists as well as individuals interested in learning about all aspects of contemporary photography. PPAC provides needed technical services and instruction and promotes the relationships and connections that will lead to a more vibrant photography community.

PPAC's site: http://www.philaphotoarts.org/

If you have not yet seen the Cartier-Bresson show at Moma, get there before June 28th. I had hoped crowds would thin once the Marina Abramovic show closed, but, alas, I was wrong. It'll be "a zoo," but try to nudge in there to get close to as many of these phenomenal pictures as possible. There are many you have never seen, and may never will get the chance to see again. It is also interesting to get to see how his clients (magazines) cropped and edited and laid out his work while he was out shooting; he often never saw his images until they were already in print, having sent the film back way ahead of him. The giant maps as you walk in attest to his long trips to just about everywhere. The audio guide is even illuminating, with Peter Galassi's calming voice there to make the crowds start to melt away.

http://moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2010/henricartierbresson/#/

In Review

Kyohei Abe, Peter Ainsworth, Gabriel Benaim, John Chervinsky, Chang Kim, Joel Lederer,

 Isa Leshko, Hannah Price, Dustin Ream, Philip Toledano

June 18 – September 4, 2010

Opening Reception: Friday, June 18, 6-8pm

From June 18 through September 4, Gallery 339 is pleased to present In Review, a group show featuring 9 artists:  Kyohei Abe, Peter Ainsworth, Gabriel Benaim, John Chervinsky, Chang Kim, Joel Lederer, Isa Leshko, Hannah Price, Dustin Ream, and Philip Toledano.  The show will open at Gallery 339 the evening of Friday, June 18, with a reception from 6:00 – 8:00 pm.

Over the past six months, Gallery 339 has had the opportunity to participate in a series of portfolio review sessions, which introduced us to the work of many artists from around the world.  None of these sessions were juried, which made the events inconsistent at times, yet exciting in their diversity.  Without the filter of a gallery, a curator, an editor, or a selection committee, the sessions seemed to offer a messy yet more complete view of what is happening in contemporary photography.  The work that we saw suggested a dynamic and inventive landscape, where artists are making creative use of new and old technologies and are exploring ideas and subject matter that are both current and substantive.  We, of course, are now applying our own filter to present an exhibition, yet our intent is to preserve a sense of the depth and variety that we saw, ranging from Philip Toledano’s compelling and unsettling explorations of beauty to Isa Leshko’s affecting portraits of older animals to Gabriel Benaim’s crisp, layered views of Tel Aviv.  Collectively, the works of the ten artists in In Review suggest a medium that is engaged in a lively, complex, and intelligent dialogue about meaningful issues.

Gallery 339 is located at 339 South 21^st Street (at the corner of Pine Street) in Center City, Philadelphia.  The Gallery is open Tuesday – Saturday, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM, and Sunday and Monday by appointment.  For more information, contact Martin McNamara at 215-731-1530 or info@gallery339.com.

I was recently visiting one of my favorite little, underappreciated museums, the New Haven Historical Society, which has nice displays of Early American furniture, oystering relics like barrels and tools and also a research library containing a the Dana Collection, an invaluable and obsessive scrapbook of New Haven history in pictures. In the little gift shop, alongside deaccessioned old books for sale is an extensive rack of the Connecticut Historical Society’s Bulletins from over the years.

One in particular caught my eye: an old, stamped or letterpress ad was pictured on the front cover -”Washington Daguerreian Gallery, No. 136 Main Street.” The ad gave no hint as to the race of the photographer, but it turns out that it announced the services of Augustus Washington, the vanguard black photographer of Hartford. The article, by David O. White, says that he was practicing the art of the daguerreotype from the get-go in the 1840’s and in the first half of the 1850’s. He was born to an Asian mother and a former slave father in Trenton, New Jersey in the early 1820’s, and his major ambition was to go to college. He pursued studies at the Oneida Institute, Kimball Union Academy and at Dartmouth College, the latter of which had opened its doors to African-Americans as early as 1824. During college, his parents refused to support him financially because they “were not in favor of such a waste of time in studying,” a line taken from Washington’s own writings. Sadly, he had to leave school in order to go out and work to pay his debts, but not-so-sadly, he did so by becoming a photographer, another thing his parents disapproved of, apparently. he had learned photography his freshman year in college. Against the obvious odds, he was able to pay off his debts,  and some of his biggest clients were members of the faculty at his former school in Hanover. In Hartford later, he become a teacher at one of Hartford’s only two black schools as well as operated a studio. Even though directories listed black businesses separate from whites’, Washington’s studio was listed under the white establishments, probably because many of his customers were Caucasian. (The Saunders’ Brothers tailor shop was also listed across color lines.) He also advertised the services of his new enterprise in the pages of Connecticut's antislavery newspaper, the Charter Oak. His was one of only 5 studios in the city at that time, and 4 of them were all on the same street. In 1854, he gave up his business to travel to Liberia, where he staunchly advocated the colonization of free blacks. He was sure that it was Africa that should be every black American’s new home, and part of that was because of the lack of opportunities for them in the United States. There he worked as a high school teacher, a photographer, a farmer and a store operator. At least once he complained that his work was more physical than mental, though he stated that he was happy there.

There is a wonderful online exhibition from ten years ago of his work made in the U.S, via the national Portrait Gallery website:

http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/awash/index.htm

There is also a 2007 auction page still up from the sale of a newly-discovered alternate portrait of the radical abolitionist John Brown, whose image graces this posting:

http://www.cowanauctions.com/department_view_item.asp?ItemId=55248

I had the good fortune to go to school with and get to know the lovely Pamela Pecchio, who now teaches photography at the University of Virginia, after a stint at Duke. She has just come out with a new limited edition book, entitled "509." Music industry veteran and publisher, Jefferson Holt of Daniel 13 Press, invited her into the home of his upbringing in Burlington, North Carolina two years after his Father passed away.

In Pecchio's words:
"When Jefferson approached me for this project, I was thrilled by the opportunity. My work explores my deep interest in connection to place, and well lived in homes are rich with subject matter. Before I made the work, I walked through the house with Jefferson and his mother. Both shared stories about each room and its contents. When I came back and had the place to myself for a week, I had time and freedom to explore, two things I value most in my photographic life. I worked through the house room by room. I’d begin by sitting in a room and looking all around, carefully taking in each detail, connecting some to the stories I had been told and inventing other stories of my own. Then I’d begin photographing. One photograph led naturally to the next and I stopped only when I felt I had exhausted all possibilities. Working with the large format camera is a production. It takes up more space than I do, so its presence is not insignificant. It was important to use, as it has the ability to visually control space like no other tool. I am very strict when it comes to the structure of my photographs, and seek to create tension by taking that strictly controlled frame and filling it with something less controlled, like sentiment or accident."

The above is from:

http://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/citation.cfm?catalog=ze091i=...

To see Pam's previous work, much of her own private domestic spaces:

www.pamelapecchio.com