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22 October, 2009

Lishui Photo - Douglas Ethridge






Doug Ethridge is a prolific artist, every series is unique, beautiful and creative. He is constantly searching for new views, new ideas and ways of looking at the world. His black + white series, Solitary Voyagers, is one of my all time favorites, graphic, moody and Hitchcock-like in its shadowy qualities. Metropolis shows off his dry wit and sense of humor, Primordial Seas is a symphony of color.
His newest series,
Selective Memories, will be showing in Lishui. This newest series, done in palladium, has a romantic, dreamlike quality to images. Taken along beaches on the West coast, and being a beach girl myself, growing up in Southern California, these images remind me of days spent surfing, finding rocks and hanging out with my friends. The images have that feeling of the West, the openness of the sky, the feel of the sand between my toes, and that cold Pacific lapping at my feet.

About Selective Memories -

Our memories are often vague, imperfect and frequently embellished. Images, songs and smells trigger a flood of memories that are unique to each person. As a child, my family would often go on camping trips, usually to the forest or the ocean. My father enjoyed being on the road, seeing what there was to see – from him, I learned that every bend in the road had potential, every change of scenery could be interesting, every stop along the way was worthy of at least a moment’s notice. This series, like my childhood memories, is about fragments, details glimpsed along the way, about the journey, not the destination


His work is available at
Verve in Santa Fe, through Kevin Longino, and at Gallerie BMG in Woodstock, New York.

21 October, 2009

Lishui Photo - Mark Jaremko





I met Mark Jaremko on a beautiful sunny summer day in Portland, at Photolucida's summer reviews. I was hooked, I loved his images. His palette of blue and grey, the lights in the distance. I found myself falling into them, and enjoying their silence, the glow of an emerald city in the darkness. Nighttime is always so magical for me, bright lights big city. When I lived in the desert I had the stars as my bright light. not quite the same. The overwhelming stillness and quiet was sometimes too quiet. Mark's images have a great balance of both stillness and life. Always on the periphery, like creating his own universe.

We are excited and honored to be carrying his work in the Studio at the gallery, and he has a new show opening at John Cleary Gallery in Houston, as well as heading to Lishui in November.

Here is more from Mark about his Nightscapes -

I photograph at night. For the past four years, my focus has been on capturing urban landscapes over water photographed during a full moon, all taken with very long exposures. I am fascinated with the sky, the sea and the human presence on the horizon. The horizon can be peaceful, secluded and meditative. It can also reveal things that are distant, cold and artificial. The peaceful and secluded nature of the night draws me to scenes evoking tranquility, loneliness and isolation. My goal has always been to capture these moods in my photographs along with the finest distant details.

20 October, 2009

Lishui Photo - Rick Scott





Rick Scott is one of the artists who received an invitation to Lishui. He was a participant of PhotoLucida in Portland this spring. In his first review event, with a new portfolio, he received lots of feedback, and met some great people. He also crossed paths with the Lishui Photo Festival group who sent him an invitation to participate in this years festival. That is the beauty of the review process, the opportunities that come out of the events. He also was able to take the information he received, with a more critical eye and channel it into a more focused body of work, with great results.

Rick is showing a beautiful body of landscape images, all focusing on the five elements or Wu Xing in Chinese culture. He has selected a group of works honoring Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. His color, composition and focus on the light and beauty of the natural landscapes make for some lovely images.

Take a look.

19 October, 2009

Lishui Photo - Meg Birnbaum









I had the pleasure of meeting Meg and seeing her beautiful series Corn Dogs and Blue Ribbons in Portland during PhotoLucida, and was taken with the romantic notions of the fair, the texture and emotional pull that took me back to living in the southwest, and small county fairs I couldn't wait to get to. Of course, I can hardly wait any day until a good carny, fair or rodeo, but these images I found really lovely.

I will be excited to see the response in China to this work. I hope you like it as well.

More of Meg's work can be seen on her website, at photo-eye, and we are excited to be working with her to create an edition for collectible this winter.

Here is more about Corn Dogs and Blue Ribbons. -

Corn Dogs and Blue Ribbons is a portfolio of photographs that I took over a two-year period at fourteen summer fairs in New England ranging in size from small 4H fairs to giant ‘expos’.

Passing through the gates of the first fair since I was a teen, I found myself smitten again. I was surprised and delighted by the open and generous sharing of information from all ages of the 4H community. The deep connection with their animals was particularly intriguing and enviable to me. I found that fairs are still a complicated balance of startling innocence and huckster sleaze. Everything is for sale; from whirlpool baths to religious salvation. All of these disparate elements exist in harmony against a backdrop of gleeful screams, bells and whistles and the aroma of fried dough mixed with the pungent essence of livestock and exotic poultry.

This portfolio presents an emotional and somewhat wistful visual record of this long-standing American tradition. I chose to photograph in black and white using extremely basic plastic toy cameras because I purposely wanted to lose sharp detail and instead capture a fleeting moment, a broad stroke, the distillation of the experience in the hope of capturing an iconic image. The fairs have changed so little over the last century I felt that using toy cameras and black and white film were a good match for capturing these timeless activities and that these tools
work well at going beyond documentation but to instead illustrate the memory, the then-or-now of it.

Will organizations like the Future Farmers of America and 4H continue to educate, nourish and interest tomorrow’s students in an agricultural career? Will the future of these summer fairs rely on a continuing shift
away from agriculture to entertainment…. mostly food, specifically fried food; fried Oreo cookies, fried cheesecake “We’ll fry anything” one sign read.

22 October, 2009

Lishui Photo - Douglas Ethridge






Doug Ethridge is a prolific artist, every series is unique, beautiful and creative. He is constantly searching for new views, new ideas and ways of looking at the world. His black + white series, Solitary Voyagers, is one of my all time favorites, graphic, moody and Hitchcock-like in its shadowy qualities. Metropolis shows off his dry wit and sense of humor, Primordial Seas is a symphony of color.
His newest series,
Selective Memories, will be showing in Lishui. This newest series, done in palladium, has a romantic, dreamlike quality to images. Taken along beaches on the West coast, and being a beach girl myself, growing up in Southern California, these images remind me of days spent surfing, finding rocks and hanging out with my friends. The images have that feeling of the West, the openness of the sky, the feel of the sand between my toes, and that cold Pacific lapping at my feet.

About Selective Memories -

Our memories are often vague, imperfect and frequently embellished. Images, songs and smells trigger a flood of memories that are unique to each person. As a child, my family would often go on camping trips, usually to the forest or the ocean. My father enjoyed being on the road, seeing what there was to see – from him, I learned that every bend in the road had potential, every change of scenery could be interesting, every stop along the way was worthy of at least a moment’s notice. This series, like my childhood memories, is about fragments, details glimpsed along the way, about the journey, not the destination


His work is available at
Verve in Santa Fe, through Kevin Longino, and at Gallerie BMG in Woodstock, New York.

21 October, 2009

Lishui Photo - Mark Jaremko





I met Mark Jaremko on a beautiful sunny summer day in Portland, at Photolucida's summer reviews. I was hooked, I loved his images. His palette of blue and grey, the lights in the distance. I found myself falling into them, and enjoying their silence, the glow of an emerald city in the darkness. Nighttime is always so magical for me, bright lights big city. When I lived in the desert I had the stars as my bright light. not quite the same. The overwhelming stillness and quiet was sometimes too quiet. Mark's images have a great balance of both stillness and life. Always on the periphery, like creating his own universe.

We are excited and honored to be carrying his work in the Studio at the gallery, and he has a new show opening at John Cleary Gallery in Houston, as well as heading to Lishui in November.

Here is more from Mark about his Nightscapes -

I photograph at night. For the past four years, my focus has been on capturing urban landscapes over water photographed during a full moon, all taken with very long exposures. I am fascinated with the sky, the sea and the human presence on the horizon. The horizon can be peaceful, secluded and meditative. It can also reveal things that are distant, cold and artificial. The peaceful and secluded nature of the night draws me to scenes evoking tranquility, loneliness and isolation. My goal has always been to capture these moods in my photographs along with the finest distant details.

20 October, 2009

Lishui Photo - Rick Scott





Rick Scott is one of the artists who received an invitation to Lishui. He was a participant of PhotoLucida in Portland this spring. In his first review event, with a new portfolio, he received lots of feedback, and met some great people. He also crossed paths with the Lishui Photo Festival group who sent him an invitation to participate in this years festival. That is the beauty of the review process, the opportunities that come out of the events. He also was able to take the information he received, with a more critical eye and channel it into a more focused body of work, with great results.

Rick is showing a beautiful body of landscape images, all focusing on the five elements or Wu Xing in Chinese culture. He has selected a group of works honoring Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. His color, composition and focus on the light and beauty of the natural landscapes make for some lovely images.

Take a look.

19 October, 2009

Lishui Photo - Meg Birnbaum









I had the pleasure of meeting Meg and seeing her beautiful series Corn Dogs and Blue Ribbons in Portland during PhotoLucida, and was taken with the romantic notions of the fair, the texture and emotional pull that took me back to living in the southwest, and small county fairs I couldn't wait to get to. Of course, I can hardly wait any day until a good carny, fair or rodeo, but these images I found really lovely.

I will be excited to see the response in China to this work. I hope you like it as well.

More of Meg's work can be seen on her website, at photo-eye, and we are excited to be working with her to create an edition for collectible this winter.

Here is more about Corn Dogs and Blue Ribbons. -

Corn Dogs and Blue Ribbons is a portfolio of photographs that I took over a two-year period at fourteen summer fairs in New England ranging in size from small 4H fairs to giant ‘expos’.

Passing through the gates of the first fair since I was a teen, I found myself smitten again. I was surprised and delighted by the open and generous sharing of information from all ages of the 4H community. The deep connection with their animals was particularly intriguing and enviable to me. I found that fairs are still a complicated balance of startling innocence and huckster sleaze. Everything is for sale; from whirlpool baths to religious salvation. All of these disparate elements exist in harmony against a backdrop of gleeful screams, bells and whistles and the aroma of fried dough mixed with the pungent essence of livestock and exotic poultry.

This portfolio presents an emotional and somewhat wistful visual record of this long-standing American tradition. I chose to photograph in black and white using extremely basic plastic toy cameras because I purposely wanted to lose sharp detail and instead capture a fleeting moment, a broad stroke, the distillation of the experience in the hope of capturing an iconic image. The fairs have changed so little over the last century I felt that using toy cameras and black and white film were a good match for capturing these timeless activities and that these tools
work well at going beyond documentation but to instead illustrate the memory, the then-or-now of it.

Will organizations like the Future Farmers of America and 4H continue to educate, nourish and interest tomorrow’s students in an agricultural career? Will the future of these summer fairs rely on a continuing shift
away from agriculture to entertainment…. mostly food, specifically fried food; fried Oreo cookies, fried cheesecake “We’ll fry anything” one sign read.