This Good Earth

My panorama piece "Lost" will be included in Newspace's themed exhibit "This Good Earth" curated by Laura Valenti. I appreciate Laura's enthusiasm and time. To quote Laura:  "I'd like to include your image "Lost"  in the show. It's a gorgeous image and it represents perfectly the beauty and mystery of our lovely planet Earth." Thanks Laura for the compliment. 

The exhibition will open on Friday, February 4th, with an opening reception from 6-9pm that evening.  Selected photographs will be shown in the Newspace gallery February 4th - 27th 2011.

Above Image © Angela Bacon Kidwell

Here is a list of all those participating: 
Jody Ake
Linda Alterwitz

David Ashman
Angela Bacon-Kidwell
Tami Bone
Lucy Call
Dennis DeHart
Peter Dressel
David Gardner
Richard Gilles
Robert Holmgren
Levi Jackson
Mary Shannon Johnstone
Dave Jordano
Eleanor Owen Kerr
Jeffrey Krolick
Richard Lasner
Jim Leisy
Blue Mitchell
Bruce Morton
Zach Nader
Lauren Orchowski
Jan Sonnenmair
Kendall Stewart
Michele Thompson
Julie Verdini

"We live on a beautiful planet. Despite war, poverty, disease, pollution, and the many other challenges we face, the Earth remains unaccountably beautiful and richly fertile in many places. We invite images that speak to the Earth's regenerative spirit and to humankind's close relationship to nature and the land. "

Newspace Center for Photography 1632 SE 10th Ave. Portland, OR 97214

http://www.newspacephoto.org

Check out the work (including mine ) at CEPA's 10th Biennial Photography Art Auction

http://www.cepagallery.org/auction/index.html

Character Recognition

A portfolio of my prints are for sale at the Photographic Center NW in Seattle

Ann Pallesen asked me to send her some prints for a retail venture at PCNW. Thanks Ann for thinking of me!

A portfolio of 10 prints (sold individually) will be on sale at the Photographic Center Northwest in Seattle.

Above is a sample image. Moss Log, 11"x14" on 13"x19" Museo Silver Rag Paper, Archival Pigment Print, 2008. From the series "The Salish Sea."

Dennis DeHart, Silver Print, 2008

A Camera Obscura by Mark McLoughlin

Ellen Smith-Past and Present

Ellen Garvens and others at SAM Rental Gallery in Seattle

Myra's work in San Francisco

Greetings from San Francisco,
I am excited to be participating in Double Exposure: African Americans Before and Behind the Camera at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. If you can make the party, it should be a great time. If not, I hope your travels bring you West and you can see the show.
http://www.moadsf.org/exhibits/?mode=current
Best
Myra

Snapshot of My Work at the CEPA Auction

Omar in front of my work at the CEPA art auction preview. The actual art auction is next Saturday, April 26. Hope to see you there!

Dennis DeHart, Pigment Print, 16"x20", Edition of 15, 2007

An image from the cover of Contact Sheet, of the beautiful Market Arcade where CEPA is located.

Robert McCall: Imagination Unbound

My friend Josie in Tucson recommended this show. It looks interesting.

Robert McCall, Viking Unmanned Mars Lander, 1970
india ink and acrylic on paper mounted on board, 29 x 46 1/2 inches

http://artmuseum.arizona.edu/exhibitions/mccall_imagination.shtml
The University of Arizona Museum of Art presents the paintings, drawings, prints and archival ephemera of noted artist and illustrator Robert McCall.

Installation Image from James Nakagawa's Show at Sepia

Installation Image, © James Nakagawa
medium: all images are printed on Crane Museo Silver Rug Paper with archival inkjet print mounted on aluminum board dimensions: 20"x66.5" , date: 2006-2008

Osamu James Nakagawa
Banta 2008

In Okinawa, the precipitous cliffs that fall hundreds of feet to the ocean below are called banta.

For years I have carried with me a vivid memory of the first time I stood atop these cliffs – a memory of beauty in the endless blue expanse of sea and sky intensified by the fearsome height and history that met my downward gaze.

Five years later this memory drove me to revisit and descend those very cliffs. Standing at its feet for the first time I felt in the cliff’s full visceral weight something so powerful that I was initially unable to take even a single photograph. The shadows seeping from the cliff’s surface, the white craters riddling the cliff’s coral limestone, and the charred black caves were stark reminders of all that these cliffs had witnessed.

I returned to my studio after six months of researching and exploring the South Pacific Theater with thousands of image files of the cliffs to piece together. As I re-shaped and re-experienced the original digital images, these cliffs became a metaphor for Okinawa’s history as well as digitally-manipulated, hyper-real vision of my experience standing between fear and beauty on Okinawa’s banta.

http://osamujamesnakagawa.com
http://www.sepia.org/home.html

Buffalo Historical Museum and Digital Backs

While in Denver, I was looking at a Leaf Aptus 65 camera back attached on a field camera like mine. I was very interested for obvious reasons and the rep let me experiment with the Aptus for a good half hour or so in the trade show. While the benefits of such a device are obvious, one could shoot and have processed, some 3500 sheets of color negative 4x5 film for the price of the Aptus. The rep was smart enough to not scare me away, by giving me a verbal price quote of about 35-40% less then the street cost (maybe he quoted me the used price for the 5 year old version) The rep also mentioned that the show at the Buffalo Historical Museum by Michael Horowitz was done with an Aptus. So today I grabbed the family and checked it out.

Cathedrals of Industry
Photographs by Michael L. Horowitz
Part I: Colonel Ward Pumping Station
February 1 - July 25, 2008

First off, If you have not been to the Historical Museum, go! It is a great place to learn about the history of Buffalo. Buffalo has a lot of history and one could spend weeks exploring the region on this point alone. Admittedly, I went to see the exhibition Cathedrals of Industry more out of curiosity of how the Aptus performs then pictures of industry. Horowitz prints are well presented, semi salon style. It is quite pleasant to see photographs in this beautiful old building. I was not overly impressed with the image quality of the prints. This may be due, in part, to my preconceived expectations of the Aptus. A number of things could have also contributed to the quality of the prints (lenses on the camera, the quality of light, how the file was converted from Raw, sharpening filters, the printer used, paper stock, etc.) As with a majority of black and prints I have seen done digitally from beginning to end, the longer tonal range of film was missing in these prints. The digital prints that I have seen done well in black and white are generally from hybrid solutions derived from a film scan. I guess I am still a hold out for film both financially and aesthetically. I suppose if I was a commercial shooter, the Aptus could be a good tool. I can understand the need for convenience and immediacy, both of which don't always make for good art. Last week I had digital back envy, but fortunately today, I was cured of that, at least for now.

Photo: DeHart, 2nd floor Buffalo Historical Museum looking from above the Horowitz Exhibit

Since Returning Home

The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black at the Whitney

I usually don't pay a huge amount of attention to who is in the Whitney Biennial, though probably like everyone else, I secretly pine to be "discovered" one day. I usually skim the names of the participant and feel good about myself if I recognize a few. The other day I was both surprised and excited to see that the The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black is performing this year in the Biennial.

I first saw them in Seattle around 1995 at Moes (the first one) with my fellow bike courier, Marlena Dietrich fan extraordinaire, Adrienne. Adrienne was king queen of the Seattle couriers in the mid 90's, and invited me to what he considered simply the coolest performance art/ rock band in the universe. This was a long time ago, but I have to say, that it was one of the most memorable performances/music that I have seen. Of course all of this was before I went to graduate school and was properly socialized as as artist, and what constitutes good taste, so don't trust my word. Just check them out if you can. Their recorded music just does not do them justice.

Keith Johnson @ CEPA

Today I had the opportunity to view Keith Johnson's photographs at CEPA. It was great to see his signature square format (Hasselblad/film) photographs in action. While I appreciate his rectangle photos (I think they are digital, though I have never seen an actual print) I value the Extended Landscape on a formal level. I was particularly struck by two of Johnson's works. Clay, from 2005, is reminiscent of a detail of an Anselm Keifer painting. There is a wonderful luminosity that emerges from the images, which gives the work depth. Interesting enough, the actual piles in the photographs have very little depth in terms of volume. Of the actual prints in the gallery, three of the prints have a reddish, warm tint in the piles, while the fourth, a cooler green, which makes for a lovely, asymmetrical color balance. I found the grid, which is often used as a typological device, an interesting formal tool in creating a visual contrast of organic and human.

Keith Johnson, Clay, 2005

The second work that struck me was Pi/Life/18 from 2006. Again, the grid created an interesting formal tool in containing the various marks and traces, that Johnson captured with his camera on various green grass surface. There is formal restraint in this piece that allows the viewer eyes to dance among the 9 images. Your eyes never quite rest, yet one continually seems to be at ease. If you like looking, you will like Keith Johnsons' show. At CEPA through March 15.

Pi/Life/18, 2006

From Keith Johnson's website:

My photography is about my travels which I do a lot; sometimes to interesting places, sometimes not. I travel with my camera expecting to see things of interest photographically; I am rarely disappointed. I am interested in the way we have shaped the landscape, entertaining juxtapositions, color, and stuff. At its root it is about entertainment. Enjoy!

PS.2.26.08
Keith wrote me after this posting. He explained some of the tools he uses. Part of his email reads: All the work with the exception of P’town Shards was done either with the Hasselblad SWC or the Plaubel Makina W67. Shot on film (usually Kodak Portra 160VC but more recently Fuji 160C 120 or 220) Scanned with an Imacon 848 or Microtek 120tf, printed on Museo Silver Rag with Epson Ultrachrome on an Epson 7600.

Osuma James Nakagawa Upcoming Show at Sepia

Osuma James Nakagawa, From the Series Banta, Series consists of 21 images, 2008, Archival inkjet print mounted on aluminum board, 20" X 60"

Course, an upcoming exhibition in conjunction with Asian Contemporary Art Week
March 22-May 3, 08, Sepia Gallery, NY

As a well fed food Connoisseur, meals at the Nakagawa's stand out as some of the best meal we have had.http://www.osamujamesnakagawa.com

Natura at NIna Freudenheim

A specimen in Alida Fish's series, "Under the Oleander Tree."Photo: Artvoice online
Read Gerald Meads essay at: http://artvoice.com/issues/v7n2/nature_of_nature

I was fortunate to attend the opening of Natura at the Nina Freudenheim Gallery here in Buffalo, New York. The show was organized by one of my photo heros John Pfahl and consisted of four of his former students from when he taught at RIT from 1968-76. The group show consisted of work by Alida Fish, Paul Lange, Jeannie Pearced, and Stuart Rome (3 of which teach in Philly). It was a nice exhibit and it a pleasure to talk with several of the artists including Stuart. Hannah Freiser, Director of Lightworks in Syracuse, NY was also at the opening and she had some great insights on staying creative in upstate New York during the winter. The question of the evening was, where is AP Gorney?