Melinda Hurst Frye

Melinda, another submission for our New Directions 09 show, is a Seattle photographer with a quirky, creative eye.

Her use of color, pattern, texture, and the intentional placement of insects create a visual structure that I keep going back to and wondering where did that come from?

about Melissa -
Melinda received her Bachelor’s degree from Pacific Northwest College of Art, and earned her Master’s degree From the Savannah College of Art and Design. Melinda Hurst Frye has worked professionally in the field of photography, shooting everything from editorial work to medical imagery. In addition, Melinda is an accomplished photographic artist, exhibiting her work both locally and nationally.

I am anxiously awaiting what's next.

Brea Souders

I have watched Brea Souders over the last few years, her images are interesting, creative and thoughtful. She was recently highlighted by Dan Cooney and his Emerging Artists Auction group, and I see her continuing to grow and make a place for herself in photography. She is completing a Darkroom Residency at the Camera Club of New York, and has recently been part of Pause to Begin in Rochester, NY and at Katzen Museum in Washington DC, part of Washington Project for the Arts

I look forward to her future photographic contributions.

about Brea and her visual stories -
The photographs in this series are interpretations of superstitions that I have collected from various sources, including old texts, internet forums and word of mouth.

I’m interested in the way superstitions reflect the human urge for story telling and our need for control in an uncertain world. They act as portals to a childhood sensibility, and can transform an ordinary scene into a mysterious tableau, rich with new meaning. While researching this project, I found that superstitions morph from place to place, but certain themes remain constant. I became interested in what these themes can tell us about our fears and desires, and how they shape our psychology from an early age. Using both meditated and candid photography, I look to capture the whimsy and tension that superstitions evoke in us, and to illuminate the scope of our collective imaginings.

S. Doyle Hammond

I was introduced to Shauna Doyle Hammond last year when she was selected for our New Directions 08 show. I loved the strong structural lines, play with light, and great scale of her architectural work. I have since found a number of artists exploring this topic, and I think she was ahead of the curve and at the top of the class. Take a look.



about Shauna -
Shauna Doyle Hammond is a Seattle-born photographer currently based in New York. She earned her MFA in 2007 at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and has a BA in Art History from UCLA. Her most recent series, Nightfall, encompasses urban landscapes where commonplace subjects gain a heightened sense of mystery at night. Using only available light, trees are quietly illuminated in the darkness and the strange beauty of concrete is transformed into something otherworldly. Her upcoming work builds upon these themes, focusing on urban development and its impact on the neighborhoods of New York’s five boroughs.

David Trautrimas

The future of architecture has arrived.
I have found one of it's potential architects.
David Trautrimas has my vote.
Clever, creative, inventive and just a little bit off, as well as almost hospitable. Someplace I could call home. I don't know if it is the simplicity of the design, his household objects as his materials, or the open space around each building, the fact that there is green. The trash can in Sprinkler House is a nice touch. ecologically conscious, no wall-e here needed. Blade Runner meets Norman Bel Geddes.
He has had a recent show at KlompChing gallery in NY, in their group Visual Morphology show, and is coming up at Photo-Eye in July with our own Mitch Dobrowner, and that should be a great show.

images shown - Waffle Iron Heights, Iron Apartments, The Fishing Complex and Sprinkler
House

Sarah Wilson

At PhotoNola last December I kept hearing this phrase - Have you seen the blind prom pictures? You gotta see these images...


Well I tracked Sarah down, and was really all the better for it. I found them so beautiful, rich in color. Her subjects, The Texas School for the Blind students, so full of life, I didn't want to stop looking at them. She took the PhotoNola Review Prize and I look forward to seeing more and greater things from her.

I enjoy deconstructing the ideas we have about beauty, strength, our weaknesses and flaws. We spend our time so used to understanding beauty as a view of a supermodel, and here we have young adults who are so compellingly radiant, we want to be part of their joy. I want to know them, be part of their lives.

Based in Texas after graduating from NYU's Photo program, she has another compelling project based on Jasper, Texas called the Road to Redemption. Shot in Black & White, she captures the tension and questions the issues of race, justice, the Death Penalty and ultimately a certain level of forgiveness. I'll save that for another time.

Yet another opportunity-

NYMPHOTO (a Collective of Women Photographers) is pleased to announce it's forth group show and firs call for entries o be exhibited at the Sasha Wolf Gallery. Nymphoto is looking for the best in female contemporary and emerging photography. Work will be curated by the core members of the collective, in conjunction with highly respected curator and gallery owner, Sasha Wolf. Works selected will be included in "Nymphoto Presents at Sasha Wolf Gallery" and be on view from May 23 to June 6, 2009. Sasha Wolf Gallery is located in lower Manhattan, conveniently located and easily accessible from both Chelsea and Dumbo, two of New York's artistic centers.

Eligibility: Any woman working in photography.

Deadline: Midnight (EST) April 3, 2009.

For more information, go here.

NYMPHOTO is also publishing there first book: "Since we've grown in readership from our blog with our interviews, we've decided it was time to take the publishing step. There's no real publication dedicated to contemporary women photographers so we decided it needed to be done. We've made a curatorial selection from our long list of artists we've interviewed and was fortunate enough to meet gallery owner, Sasha Wolf, who approached us to collaborate in an exhibition to coincide with the book.

Our book is simply titled "Nymphoto: Conversations Volume I."

Including work by Michele Abeles, Juliana Beasley, Rona Chang, Michal Chelbin, Nina Buesing Corvallo, Candace Gottschalk, Jessica M. Kaufman, Klea McKenna, Talia Greene, Maria Passarotti, Susana Raab, Emily Shur, Tema Stauffer, Jane Tam, Garie Waltzer & Jennifer Williams."

Photo-Op at PCNW

I know its early - but send those entries in! Its a great space to exhibit and the juror is Jen Bekman. What do you have to lose?


The Photographic Center Northwest's 14th Annual Photographic Competition Exhibition, Photo-Op, will be chosen by Ms. Jen Bekman. This annual juried exhibition draws entries from across the country and around the world, and remains among the most popular shows in PCNW's annual schedule. Selected entries will be exhibited at PCNW in Seattle from July 13th - September 4th, 2009. First, second, and third prize winners will take home $1000, $500, and $250 as well as $75 Gift Certificates of Blurb Scrip for each winner. The competition is open to all photographers, all photographic processes, and all themes. The juror is looking for work that represents a larger, cohesive body of work and will be selecting a short series from each photographer chosen.

Here's the fine print - The entry fee is $47 for a minimum of five jpegs & artist statement file. Additional jpegs will be accepted if accompanied by a seven dollar per jpeg fee, up to ten jpegs total.

All entries must be received by Friday, May 15, 2009.