Opportunity Knocks at Foley Gallery

I am a huge fan of Michael Foley.
He is talented, thoughtful, creative and now, giving of himself to help promote and support artists in a huge way.
I was honored to have him jury our very first New Directions exhibition in 2006, and some of his choices have been a great part of our gallery's vision since then. Cynthia Greig, Joseph O. Holmes, Joelle Jensen to name a few.

Now he has the Summer Project. Go now, do not delay, and submit to get the opportunity not only to get in front of the collection of talented artists and curators, but to have the ability to work with Michael is not to be missed.

Submissions are being accepted until 15 October, 2009.

here is more information.



The Summer Project offers the unique chance for artists to work directly with the gallery, creating new work to be curated in a group exhibition.

This new initiative will provide an opportunity for emerging photographers to have their work seen, recognized and reviewed by fellow artists, gallery directors, book editors, as well as curators from museum and corporate collections.

Upon acceptance, you will work on your own and with the guidance of gallery owner Michael Foley to create new work dedicated to a theme that will be suggested by the curatorial panel. A total of 12 photographers will be selected by the panel to participate.

From January to April you will meet with Michael Foley either in the gallery or via iChat/Skype for two 30 minute sessions where you can discuss your progress and share what you have been working on.

In May, a final edit will be made and two photographs from each photographer will be curated into a group exhibition at FOLEY Gallery opening in June 2010. In addition to the work of these 12 photographers, additional selections will be curated into the show from some of the most well known contemporary photographers working today.

This is the first year for The summer Show Project. We invite you to submit your work to participate in this unique opportunity and share the experience of exposure, guidance, feedback, community, recognition and support.

We invite photographers from all disciplines to apply. The Summer Show Project is open to all photographers world wide.

for the online application click here.

Opportunity at Rayko Photo

Here is a great opportunity for a photographer to have access to a great facility, staff and the fabulous town of San Francisco.

Apply by 2 October.

We here at the gallery are big fans of Rayko and its gallery director, the ever talented, clever and creative Ann Jastrab, and how can you pass up the option of working in such a cool, creative environment?

Give it a shot.

PhotoNola

I am telling you - go forth on September 1st, plunk down your ducats and plan on being in New Orleans on December 12& 13. This is a great portfolio review, and alas I won't be there, but really talented, hardworking and creative people will be.

Last year I met so many great people, it will be a weekend you won't soon forget.

Here is the link for more info, the fabulous reviewers who will be there to help further your career, and all the festivities surrounding the event. And did I mention its in New Orleans? Can't beat that with a stick.

don't hesitate - its a small event with a big impact. just go.

photo's by some of PhotoNola 08 participants - Wallace Merritt, Maja Georgiou, Sarah Wilson and Victoria Ryan

Benjamin Lowy

Ben's work is powerful and insightful. I follow politics, politicians and the war pretty closely, so when I saw this work I was immediately taken with it. To me it exemplifies the way we grasp what is happening in Iraq, how we see a different culture, and why we don't understand what happens to our families when our soldiers come home.
I have been trying to consolidate my feelings for this post, and I end up frustrated, trying to stay neutral. I just can't. I know, its my blog and I can say what I want. But this blog is about images, and the photographers who created them. So I found this wording from a PDN post Ben had done in June of this year. It says it all. Thanks to PDN and to Ben for letting me share.

In Ben's words -
In July 2005 I was being driven from an assignment—an endeavor that took two cars and 4 heavily armed Iraqi guards—when my mother called. She asked me if I had the chance to go to a shopping mall with Iraqis. Mouth agape, I told her that something like that is impossible, dangerous for someone like me—tall, white, and bald. I told her that I couldn’t go anywhere without guards, or without US soldiers—that Iraq was a land of blast walls and barbed wire fences. She replied that she had no idea, that she never saw any photographs or news reports illustrating what I had described. That was when I made my first image of a concrete blast wall through the window of my armored car.

“Iraq | Perspectives grew immediately out of that conversation, and as a response to what I felt was the general apathy and inability of people in the US to comprehend what Iraq is like. Confronted by a level of violence so high that walking on the streets to photograph is tantamount to suicidal behavior, I found myself confined to working with American soldiers, spending most of my time going on various missions in armored Humvees. My only view of Iraq was through the inches-thick bulletproof window.

“I wonder if Iraqis see me through these windows? I don’t know. But they do see the monstrous convoys of Humvees coming down the roads of their neighborhoods. Some stop to stare, some jeer, some cheer (rare), some just go about their business, oblivious to the tons of destructive force driving by. This view of the Iraqi street is one so rarely seen by the American public, but it is the most common sight for US soldiers. Do these soldiers see the Iraqis as they speed by? I’m not sure.

“I strive to create images that will hopefully overcome the public’s apathy to news pictures from Iraq. Metaphorically speaking, these windows represent a barrier that impedes dialogue. These pictures show a fragment of Iraqi daily life taken by a transient passenger in a Humvee. The images are not intimate—they often show a distant and detached perspective of a country so empty, so desolate and of a situation so dire.”

Emily Shur

Emily has got to be one of the coolest people I have ever met. I had the pleasure of meeting her in Santa Fe this June at the Reviews.

A commercial photographer by day, her personal work lends itself to her downtime, when she doesn't have to think on her feet. Reacting to her circumstance, giving us who she is, where she is, and that moment of peace, like an exhale, before gearing up to go out and do it again.
Her work is quiet and unassuming. The structure, color and sometimes the light of the images draws me in. I am not sure if it is the anticipation of whats next in the image, or it often feels like something just happened, and I am disappointed that I missed the event. She calls them small moments, but to me, who soaks up as much life as I can absorb, they all seem important. It seems like the yin and yang of the careless nature of what we do to our surroundings, and finding out it is all so deliberate.

ok, ok, enough. Take a look at the work.
Emily's statement about the work -

Some of my earliest memories are of light shining through a row of hospital windows and walking down that long hallway with my father, going to visit my mother who was sick with cancer at the age of twenty-nine. I was three years old. I’ve always found it interesting that I don’t remember seeing her in the hospital. I only remember the light coming through the window and forming bright, glowing rectangles in repetition along the floor. Through the years, I’ve thought a lot about how memory subconsciously manifests itself; how small and seemingly insignificant moments become important and meaningful over time; how a lifetime is slowly constructed out of these moments. There’s no doubt this has impacted my photography.

This body of work represents roughly ten years of picture taking and an examination of my individual experiences. These images were made all over the world, under all sorts of circumstances. Sometimes I was led to a place for work, sometimes for fun, but in every situation I found myself celebrating the supposedly small moments. Photography has allowed me to give due importance to all of the bits and pieces in my life. These images are not idealized views of life experience. Instead, they are representative of a conscious choice I have made regarding how and what I choose as my memories. Births, deaths, milestones, and change are a part of every life. A face or a smile is not required for me to associate imagery with emotion. In my world, the subtle, the natural, and the insignificant are just as powerful as the obviously epic.

Jon Edwards

I saw Jon's work in Los Angeles at ReviewLA two years ago, and loved it. Have been watching his growth and success ever since. The richness of his work both in content and in process is beautiful. Images of Maine, and its people (I say it as if it were a different country) Jon captures the strength, life and emotional connection of this way of life. Having been to Maine many times and seen this rugged beauty, I am drawn in to these images, remembering how simple and how stunning it is.

Jon's Statement -

After Practicing civil rights and environmental law for over twenty years, I have spent the last six years photographing inhabitants of islands off the coast of Maine. These individuals live simply, and demonstrate dignity and tenacity when, by choice or lack of opportunity, they are forced to survive under the harsh economics or isolation of island living, or an increasingly difficult way of life. They reside in a remote or isolated beauty and remain a direct connection with the natural environment. Their lifestyles demonstrate how far our society has come from the once organic, symbiotic relationships between human and natural conditions. My photographs are meant to be a celebration of people and places where the human spirit still connects with the natural world. It is my hope that, like my legal work, they will contribute in some small way to social justice and human progress.

Laurie Lambrecht

Laurie's trees are stark, architectural, and just plain beautiful to surround yourself with. Shot in winter, these lovely images really show how life survives. When everything goes dormant, here are these living breathing, survivors in such bleak grey.
I am excited to see Laurie's work be part of the upcoming Lishui Photo Festival in China this November.

This is what Laurie says about her work - I couldn't say it any better.

Often a symbol of strength, trees provide visual poetry for our life and its cycles. Throughout history, literature and painting have depicted the ever changing language of landscape.
With appreciation of this tradition, it is the tree that I have chosen to study. Over the past decade I have been photographing trees in urban areas, often revisiting and further exploring their individual character. This series of photographs was begun in November 2oo4 on the edge of Lake Zurich, Switzerland. To date there are almost 25 images in the series. They are photographed at the end of the day in silent moments before dark takes over. I consider them as being in a landscape in my mind as much as an actual place. The images hold some of my emotional experience of the trees rather than merely a physical description of them.