Grants for Good

The application deadline for the Getty Images Grants for Good is March 1, 2012 and the grants will be announced in June.

Click here for information.

Grant recipients may use the entire award to offset shoot expenses, or donate all or part of the funds directly to their charity and contribute their own time and resources to their campaign. At the completion of the project, all three partners: the photographer, nonprofit and the communications agency involved will be showcased to the media and to Getty customers.

 

Hear the Haunting Voice of Diane Arbus

Widely recognized as one of the most iconic artists of the twentieth century, Diane Arbus's photographs are known to all, yet hardly anyone has ever heard her voice. To mark the fortieth anniversary of Arbus's passing in 1971, her long-time publisher Aperture presents a rare and exclusive opportunity to hear directly from the artist.  

At 7:30 pm on Thursday, December 15, Aperture and the School of Visual Arts will present a free rescreening of A Slide Show and Talk by Diane Arbus and the 1985 film Who is Marvin Israel? at the SVA Theatuer, 333 23rd Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues). The premiere screening, held earlier this fall, packed the auditorium while a long line of viewers remained waiting outside.

The Arbus piece is an original audio recording of a 1970 slide presentation in which the photographer speaks about her own photographs and those of others, refrencing snapshots and clippings from her collection. Compiled and edited by Neil Selkirk, Doon Arbus and Adam Shott, this is the only extant recording of Arbus and one in which she eloquently discusses her work and her motivations. 

The short documentary Who is Marvin Israel?, directed by Neil Selkirk, traces the life and work of the enigmatic artist, designer, art director, and teacher Israel (1924-1984), whose influence on Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon and Lee Friedlander, among others, is explored in the words of those who knew him. 
 
This presentation coincides with the highly anticipated release of Diane Arbus: A Chronology as well as the reissue of the universally acknowledged classic, Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph and Untitled: Diane Arbus. Follow the screenings, books will be available for sale during a reception in the theater lobby.

CCNY Darkroom Residency Program

CCNY invites emerging photographers living in New York City to apply for the 2012 Darkroom Residency Program.

The CCNY Darkroom Residency offers local photographers much-needed workspace in New York City as well as access to the CCNY community and programs.


Benefits of the Darkroom Residency:

Workspace: Darkroom Residents receive three months of free, 24/7 access to the CCNY facility.

Programs: Residents receive free admission to all 2012 CCNY events.

Stipend: Residents receive a monthly stipend and donated materials during their residency.


Eligibility:
All artists currently residing in New York City who are working in photography or lens-based art are eligible to apply. Please note that living accommodations are not provided. Students must have completed their studies on or before January 1, 2012 in order to be eligible to apply.

 

How to Apply:

CCNY is using an online service, CallForEntry.org (CAFÈ) for all submissions. There is no fee for submitting through CAFÈ, and registration with the CAFÈ system allows you to easily access and submit to other calls for entry using their simple standardized procedure. CCNY will ONLY accept entries submitted through this system.

Materials Needed:

Work Sample: Provide a work sample of up to 10 images. It is recommended that the work sample illustrate a single body of work.

Letter of Intent: Provide a short paragraph addressing what you aim to accomplish during a CCNY Darkroom Residency, and how that time at CCNY would most benefit your artistic work and career goals.

Artist Statement: Provide a brief artist statement (one paragraph).

CV: Provide a printed one-page artist’s resume.

Application Deadline: December 1, 2011

PDN's 30 Event Nov 4th in Atlanta!

 We're coming to Atlanta! Join us for the PDN's 30 Seminar at Portfolio Center on Friday, November 4th

Award Ceremony for YPA Scholarship Winners

Each October, the Young Photographers Alliance (YPA) invites five deserving students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to New York City, where they are awarded with a scholarship to help them realize their artistic dreams. To foster social and environmental responsibility in the photographers of tomorrow, scholarship recipients are selected not only for their ability and their need, but also for their demonstrated commitment to giving back to the larger community through their work.

© Hayden Myrick, 2011 Scholarship Recipient, Freshman at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago

This year’s YPA Awards Ceremony and Benefit Auction will be held on Wednesday, October 19th at the Calumet Gallery, from 7pm to 10pm.

Date: Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

Location: Calumet Gallery, 22 W. 22nd Street | New York, NY 10010

Time: 7pm-10pm

“My conversations with the 2010 YPA scholarship recipients made it clear to me that the work of YPA, through its scholarships and mentor programs, is making a real difference in people’s lives and careers,” says Eugene Mopsik, executive director of the American Society of Media Photographers, one of YPA’s major founding sponsors. “We look forward to continued participation with YPA to make a substantial contribution to the needs of emerging photographers.”

The Awards Ceremony and Benefit Auction is YPA’s principal fundraising vehicle. The event is open to all and is a unique opportunity to meet leading players in the photography and stock image business, and to enjoy – and possibly acquire – some stunning photography, while celebrating and supporting young talent. Tickets cost $50 (or $75 at the door).

Related YPA Benefit Auction 

YPA’s associated benefit auction will feature 170 highly collectible prints by renowned photographers Amy Arbus, Barbara Bordnick, David Burnett, Cameron Davidson, Vincent Dixon, Jill Enfield, Henry Horenstein, Jimmy Fikes, Brad Trent and many other professionals as well as the 2011 YPA scholarship winners. The bidding starts with an exhibit of selected works during a silent auction at the Awards Ceremony and will continue online until October 31st.

To learn more about YPA’s many valuable programs and peruse the online gallery of sumptuous prints available for purchase, visit the YPA Web site today.

“It means a lot to know that I have an organization such as YPA supporting me each step of my career. Its desire is pure; YPA wants nothing more than to shape talent and support photography.”

--Haley Flores, 2010 YPA Scholarship Recipient

 

Teachers, Take Note of Imaging On the Verge

Imaging On the Verge (IOV) is a new conversation about teaching photography—by educators, for educators. Jointly sponsored by B&H, the MAC Group and PDN, the first IOV gathering is scheduled for Tuesday, October 4, 2011, at Manhattan’s New Yorker Hotel. This afternoon/evening session will be an exploration, a learning event and a place for lively debate about teaching, about photography—about the future of both. It will be an opportunity for educators to do what we ask of students: to think, to safely challenge each other in a discussion about what photography, imaging and education should be in the 21st century.

Attendance is limited to 150 educators and all proceeds from the $20 registration fee will be donated in a scholarship to the Young Photographers Alliance. For further details and to sign up, click here. Then join us in October for the first annual IOV gathering, followed by a cocktail party across the street at B&H.

 

Week Number Four: All Good Things Must Come to an End

Photo © Abby Robinson, Final Banquet, pork dish in foreground and (from left to right) Ivan, Phil, Ryan and Eleanor.

The last week is always a mélange of wonderment (what—the class is over already?!?), achievement (wow, I actually pulled my project together) and sadness (do I really have to leave? I was just getting the hang of it here).

We stalled the winding down a little by having Sean Hanratty—a young American photographer and friend of the program who lives and works in Shanghai—show us the series he’s been shooting. Sean hung out with us a fair amount last year; his enthusiasm and curiosity about the city both inspired and aided us. He was around less this year, as he was off visiting Istanbul and Ireland.

Also on Monday: A quick group crit to check on projects and to help people sort out how best to use their remaining shooting time. 

Tuesday: Individual crits for more in depth analyses and to figure out ways in which to carry project ideas further outside the confines of Shanghai. One thing we try to do in these workshop is make sure people leave excited by new ideas worth pursuing further.

Wednesday: Because one of the workshop's missions is to learn as much as possible about Chinese photography (and to move away from an Amerocentric point of view) we task participants to give a five to 10 minute talk on one to three Chinese photographers whose work they liked/admired/or inspired them. We had anticipated some overlap but curiously enough, there was none and the selections ran a wide and interesting gamut.

Jocelyn selected Houbo, Mao's personal photographer for 12 years during his time as the Chinese Communist Party head. Ivan discussed PenYue, who manipulates Chinese icons with industrial revolution images in a pop context. Phil chose Chen Man, a hot young fashion photographer, along with Li Wei, with his mirroring and gravity defying images. Cassie's report highlighted Zhou Hongbin, whose work we saw at OFoto, especially her work dealing with rabbits swimming in water. Christil picked Chin-Chin Wu, who explores identity and did provocative portraits of women's genitals in Beijing and Paris. Ryan investigated Xiang Liging's work after having seen some of it when we visited the Zendai Museum and Shanghart Gallery in M50, as well as Chen Wei's series' House of Recovery and Painkiller. Leah did a trifecta report, talking about Chan Xin's series Identity Exchange, which documented the artist changing clothes with people in a variety of professions, Yan Qian's images of women shot through fogged mirrors in hotel bathrooms, and self-taught Xing Danwen's project focused on large masses of discarded objects. Leah even added a bonus track, showing us images by Natsumi Hayashi, a young Japanese photographer (and Internet sensation) who takes a daily self-portrait of herself jumping in ways that seem to defy gravity.

Thursday: Final presentations, which also demonstrated quite a range. Ryan took pictures—often in parks—and then removed background information so human interactions formed mysterious tableaux. Phil combined his graphic design skills with his passion for eating to make pictures of food, many formally borrowing ideas from traditional Chinese scroll paintings. Leah, who had done her senior thesis on self-portraits, left her comfort zone behind and photographed people in service industries whose efforts are under appreciated and very often overlooked. Ivan hit the streets, but instead of just shooting people out and about, focused instead on people’s reactions to him as a foreigner. He also worked on a subsidiary series where people were dramatically illuminated by artificial light. Cassie started a project on public spaces, stitching photos together to form irregular shapes. Her plan is to combine this 21^st century computer technology with 19^th century handcrafted book making. Christil focused on women and the daily tasks they perform, while Jocelyn, who spent hours poking and prowling around the city, produced a strong body of work shot with her iPhone depicting surprising and mysterious Shanghai moments.

Friday was dedicated to final shopping and packing. Then that night we celebrated—and pigged out—at a great banquet at Jardin du Jade, a restaurant known for its Shanghainese cuisine (there are a lot of eateries in town that showcase other Chinese culinary styles). Some continued the festivities in a number of clubs around town. Our only regret was that we were going to miss the July 9th opening of our friend and liaison Zane Mellupe’s solo show—In Memory of the Perfect Wife—at Ifa Gallery. Phil and I went to the gallery for a sneak preview and it looked like the show was going to be great. 

Photo © Abby Robinson, Final Farewell.

Saturday: Ryan was the first to depart, getting an early morning plane to New York. Ivan and Christil followed in the afternoon. Cassie headed to Ohio, while Leah went off to spend four days in Tokyo before going home to New Hampshire. Jocelyn decided to spend a week in Xian to see the famous terracotta warriors before returning to D.C. Phil stayed in Shanghai a few more days before going to Shenzhen for a couple of weeks to spend time with family and friends. Eli remained in Shanghai for a couple of extra days too, before winging her way back to NYC and SVA. And me? I left for Paris on July 4th, where I plan to spend time with friends, my visit punctuated by a couple of short hops to London and Brussels. In fact, I'm meeting up with Christophe Demaitre in Belgium to see his show. Christophe was one of the artists we met during our Moganshan tour. What happens in China doesn't necessarily stay in China. Connections become ongoing.

And so the workshop came to what for all of us was a productive and satisfying end. Now on to planning next year’s workshop…

--Abby Robinson

 

 

 

Ah, Week Number Three and Three More Great Speakers!

Photo © Xiao Quan, the writer San Mao Chengdu from early in Quan's career, 1990

 
Well, actually four speakers if we count both members of Birdhead, the photo collaboration begun in 2004 by artists Ji Wieyu and Sang Tao (although their Web site is only in Chinese).

They had what group member Ryan Mellinger called “swagger” and used their cameras both to examine the social and the manmade landscapes of Shanghai and their own relationships to it. 

They’d only just recently returned from Venice, where they were exhibiting their piece Song Poetry - Writing on the Wall along the Path to Bo Mountain at the Biennale. 

They showed us Tang Poetry - On a Gate Tower at Yuzho, the work presented this year in the "Artist File 2011" exhibition at the National Art Center, Tokyo. They also brought along copies of their books. The first Xincun was shot during four seasons of 2006 and concerns itself with a type of state supported housing development popular in Shanghai about 20 years ago. Birdhead documented the life and architecture in this typical xincun (they grew up in a similar development), their interest sparked by the destruction of many such housing complexes because Shanghai needed the land to host the 2010 World’s Fair. 

Birdhead’s second book—The End of the Mainland, another beefy image compilation—documents their own lives and the world around them. We’re now trying to get hold of their illusive partner/publisher/distributor so that we can all buy copies of the books to take home, even though they’ll add considerable kilos to our luggage.

Next, we were lucky enough to catch Shen Wei (an MFA SVA grad; I must say they turn up all over) before he went back to New York. He shared two of his projects, Almost Naked and his new self-portrait series I Miss You Already (he omitted his well received Chinese Sentiment because after almost a year of preparing the book and his recent show at New York's Daniel Cooney Gallery, he needed a break).  Brought up in a traditional and conservative Chinese family, Almost Naked was Shen’s first foray into the exploration of self-expression and identity. His current self-portrait images continue his examination of self-expression and investigation of the tensions extant in notions of boundaries and freedom. Shen was also gracious in taking time to critique everyone’s work; his comments and suggestions were on point and very helpful. And very much appreciated.

Photo © Abby Robinson, Jean Loh in his Beaugeste Gallery

The last speaker of the week was Jean Loh at his Beaugeste Gallery on Taikang Lu. Loh started with some background information on Chinese photography and segued into a discussion of the contemporary photography scene—its exhibitions, festivals, and increased presence in galleries, museums and in collections. Plus, he offered background information on the portraits in his current show Xiao Quan’s Encounter with Remarkable Women. Loh, whose stable is made up what he calls “veteran photographers” rather than young, new talent, also showed us some of Lu Guang’s powerful images from his series on pollution in China.

Photo © Lu Guang, Wuhai City, Inner Mongolia.

Caption: Most of the workers in the factories come from poor areas, they have no immunity protection. After ingesting pollutants into their lungs daily, they become sick after one or two years on the job.

The rest of the week was devoted to work and travel. Cassie and Leah went off to Beijing for the weekend. It was Leah’s first trip there and she jaunted off to see The Forbidden City, The Temple of Heaven and The Great Wall; Cassie, who’d been in Beijing before, spent her time seeing parts of the city she hadn’t experienced before.

I went to Beijing as well, to give a talk on contemporary trends in American photography at the Beijing Film Academy, to pay a visit to Three Shadows Photography Art Centre (where I did a residency in 2008) and to see friends. The rest of the crew—Eleanor, Phil, Ryan, Ivan, Christil and Jocelyn—stayed in Shanghai to explore, shoot and continue work on their projects.

It’s amazing to think that we now have only one more week—the time whizzes by so swiftly. Last year’s workshop was three weeks long and Eleanor and I continue to marvel that we managed to cram so much into an even shorter period of time. Fast as this workshop is going, we continue to be delighted (and relieved) that we have the luxury of an additional seven days this year.

 

Week Number 2: The Now-That-You’re-Way-Over-Jet Lag-Let’s-Get-Even-More-Serious-About-Work Week

by Abby Robinson

Photo © Abby Robinson, View from the Brick and Wood North Temple Pagoda, the Highest Pagoda in Suzhou

What’s on the agenda for the week? More critiques—which almost goes without saying—to see what everyone has been shooting, and see how the images might turn into full-blown projects. There are now definitely real glimmers.

So what else is new? As I wrote last week, Stefen Chow launched the module of our program where we meet with people actively involved with Chinese/Asian photography (and he set the bar very high). On Tuesday, that component gained additional traction with a double header.

First up, a trip to Moganshan. Also known as M50, it’s located in the northwest part of the city, and is Shanghai’s version of the old Soho (It’s a bit too funky and small to qualify as current day Chelsea). Less than 10 years old, the district houses many of the city’s galleries along with some artist studios, a few boutiques and a couple of restaurants. Zane Mellupe, our wonderful liaison person, arranged a tour tailored to our interests. We started out with a visit to Island 6 founded in 2006 by SVA graduate Thomas Charvariat. Island 6 is a not-for-profit organization that shows artwork (ranging from traditional 2D to 3D work to interactive video pieces) by a group of Shanghai artists called the Liu Dao art collective.

This was followed by visits to Eastlink, Tangram and Epson where the gallerists discoursed about the artists that they showed. We also met with Steven Harris from M97; he gave a terrific talk last year about his gallery and the Shanghai photo world and he gave another equally good one this time on his current show “Some Days,” a solo exhibition by Wang Ningde. That was followed by a stop at Belgian photographer/multi-media artist Christophe Demaitre’s studio, to see the images he makes employing alternative processes.

Photo © Abby Robinson, Huang Yunhe of Ofoto Explaining Wang Tong's Reenactment Series

After a lunch break we dropped into ShanghArt and Other gallery.  At OV Gallery, the director and art critic Rebecca Catching spoke eloquently about the challenges faced by artists and gallerists working in China. As we did in 2010, we went to see Huang Yunhe, Ofoto’s director, who was as generous with his time this year as last. This time round, in addition to talking about the work on the walls done by the photographers in his stable, he’d arranged for one them, Shao Shao, to chat with us about the symbolism employed in one of his series. The discussion was quite instructive.

But the day wasn’t over yet.  That evening Lois Raimondo spoke with us in my suite (i.e. our classroom). Lois, who now occupies the Shott Chair in Journalism at the PIR School of Journalism at West Virginia University, has done extensive shooting in Asia; she was affiliated with AP in Hanoi and was later a staff photographer at The Washington Post. She showed some of the incredible work she’s shot in Afghanistan and remarked at length about how important it is to create a context for your images. She also stressed how vital it is to establish connections with local people, who not only make for good stories themselves but ultimately provide necessary and strategic contacts.

And speaking of context, Edwin Lai, senior lecturer and subject coordinator (photography) at Hong Kong Art School flew to Shanghai later in the week to give us a comprehensive, informative and valuable lecture on the history of Chinese photography, which put much of the imagery that we’ve seen in perspective. 

As perspective is key, it’s important to see and photograph other venues besides Shanghai. So we took a day trip out of the city with our informative guide Henry Hong.  Our destinations: the ancient water town of Zhu Jia Jiao with its distinctive bridges and Suzhou, the Venice of the East renown for its silk* and for its World Heritage Site, The Master of Nets Garden. 

Some of our students—Christil, Ryan, Leah, Cassie and Ivan—decided to travel even a little further a field, heading off for the weekend to shoot in Huangshan (a.k.a. Yellow Mountain), where they made some good images. Jocelyn and Phil opted to stay in Shanghai, where they too made good images.

The upshot of all of this: final projects are firming up as we catapult into Week number 3.

Photo © Abby Robinson, Workers Pull Fabric Into Thin Layers at the Silk Factory in Suzhou

*When we visited a silk factory we were given a useful lesson on how to tell if something is really made of silk (which is worth passing on). Real silk should feel exactly the same on both sides; if you blow on it, you’ll feel the air pass from one side of the material to the other; and if set on fire, the real stuff burns like paper rather than balling up and disintegrating like plastic.

 

 

Week Number One of The School of Visual Arts’ Digital Photography Residency in Shanghai, China.

Ni hao (hello) again from Abby Robinson. Here’s a communiqué about week number one of The School of Visual Arts’ Digital Photography Residency in Shanghai, China.

Photo © Abby Robinson, Yuan Gong's Installation at the Zendai Museum

The “Work” in Workshop:

 Monday: a session where everyone comes to my suite (which doubles as our classroom) and gives a presentation of his or her past work so we have an idea where everyone is coming from—visually, conceptually, geographically and psychologically. This gets followed up on Thursday with in-depth individual crits. More critiques—group and individual—are scheduled during the course of the workshop.

Celebrations and Investigations:

June 6 was the Dragon Boat Festival, commemorating the date in 277 B.C. when renowned Chinese dissident poet, Qu Yuan, drowned himself in the Milou River as a form of political protest. One aspect of the celebration is by the consumption of glutinous sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves (zong zi), which we were lucky enough to eat because we were invited to the house of our Chinese student/translator (Phil’s) grandmother for dinner. Not only did we devour zong zi, Phil’s relatives gave us a tutorial on how to wrap uncooked rice with the long leaves and then tie them up with string. Plus we learned how to prepare dumplings and wantons. Some of us showed talent; others (I sadly include myself in this group) were pretty klutzy. The whole meal, with its many, many delicious dishes was incredible and we left feeling like stuffed dumplings ourselves.

Photo © Abby Robinson, Dumpling Stuffing Lesson

Also this week: a trip on the Bund Tourist Tunnel, a bizarre, hilarious attraction that is mystifying and logic-defying in concept followed by a fun jaunt to the rooftop restaurant of the Captain’s Hostel to watch the sun go down and the buildings of Pudong light up. 

Art and Commerce

Of course, art and photography punctuated the week. We spent hours at the Shanghai Museum with its amazing collections of furniture, seals, paintings, calligraphy, coins and jade. We also had an excellent visit to the Zendai Museum, where the director and video artist Li Xiaofei gave us a terrific tour, sharing background about the various installations and showing us examples of his own work. Last, but hardly least, Stefen Chow, a very talented Malaysian photographer now based in Beijing and Singapore, (and featured as PDNedu's One To Watch photographer in Spring 2011) came to speak to us about both his commercial and personal projects. He spent a terrific and instructive two-and-a-half hours telling us about his interesting and diverse projects and providing valuable information and advice.

The “Shop” in Workshop

Sure there’s shopping. Which is why we made a pilgrimage to Shanghai’s six-floor camera superstore at the intersection of Luban and Xietu Roads, which is like New York’s B&H on a mega-dose of steroids. Going there is similar to visiting an Apple store: you experience unbridled lust, wanting everything in sight even if you don’t really need it. Although at the Apple store I want all the packaging too, but here I don’t care.

Photo © Abby Robinson, Wang Jingsong Installation at the Zendai Museum

Wow! Looking back, it’s amazing to think that this is just the first week.

Week two is coming up…