New Directions 2010

Thank you to everyone who submitted to Down + Out, New Directions 2010.
We have some incredible submissions, and it will be difficult for Carol to make her decisions. I have had a great time going through the work, and have picks of my own, which won't be divulged until after her decisions are made.

We will be announcing the selected artists in December, and the show opens in Seattle in January. We will announce the Best of Show in January, and thanks again to Blurb for donating publishing for the winner of Down + Out.

images by Aline Smithson, Badwater and Jennifer Schlesinger, North Noon

Lishui Photo - Charles Rozier

Charles is another participant in the Lishui Photo Festival.
Having met him in Portland, and really enjoying his work, I was pleased to see his inclusion in China.

His family fills the frame of his lens, watching who they are, how they grow and change over time. Broken into segments based on his camera, he defines his world by low and high resolution.

About the series -

“Low-Resolution Diary” is the second of three photographic series that form a 30-year diary of documentary portraits, mostly of my family. This project has driven almost all of my photography and remains a work in process. I can't say just how it got started, but I can say my first exposure as a teenager to Cartier-Bresson was life-changing.

The three series are defined by their media: 35mm monochrome (Tri-X Diary) through 2002; then small format digital (Low-Resolution Diary) 2003-2008; and currently medium format film (High- Resolution Diary) 2008-2009. Although I feel all the photographs emerge from the same point of view, each series is shaped differently by its format.

The Low-Resolution series was photographed digitally with a tiny camera that allowed me to unobtrusively capture fleeting situations that might otherwise have been missed or disrupted. The pictures are printed at a fairly large scale, at which the coarse character of the camera’s output becomes integral with the image, imposing a degree flatness and abstraction. Although some of the images may appear constructed, they are entirely documentary.

The High-Resolution seris is photographed on relatively larger and slower 6x7cm film. The resulting images are more static, formal, and perhaps more classically photographic in character than the earlier series. There are three key things I have been trying to accomplish: to capture a “live” documentary moment within a formal composition; to evoke a real environmental space; and to reveal the subject in a sense that is neither momentary nor expected.

Lishui Photo - Susan Berger

Susan Berger is another Lishui participant. Her focus? She stopped. While the rest of us go whizzing by at 80 miles an hour, she stopped and payed tribute, and helped us focus on those who have left us. Roadside memorials are all something we see, but don't look at. I think Susan has done us a great favor by honoring those who care for those memorials, as well as the individuals they pay homage to.

About Private Memories in Public Places -

My portfolio, “Private Memories in Public Places”, documents the roadside memorials that dot our highways and city streets.Most of us barely notice them as we drive along, but these memorials have become an integral part of the national landscape. Perhaps we don’t notice them because they have become so common that they no longer arrest our attention. And perhaps it’s because they often fit so naturally into the landscape.
As I look at these monuments, I am struck by the obvious care, time and work that went into their creation. They are intended to be permanent and to be visited again and again. The compelling question to me is why the survivors need to memorialize the place the person died. Some have suggested a belief that the soul still hovers at the sight. But I believe it’s because the death was so sudden, violent and unexpected. Perhaps the survivors want to remember that life stopped right here.
I began photographing these memorials in 2005. In 2009, I was awarded a project grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts to travel the country and photograph these little works of art. In 2009, I drove 18,000 miles from coast-to-coast and border-to-border photographing the memorials I found along the way.

Lishui Photo - Rita Maas

Rita Maas and curator Paula Tognarelli, from the Griffin Museum in Boston head to the Lishui Photo Festival to showcase Rita's series, Reality TV. I reviewed the work in Portland, at PhotoLucida, and found it fascinating. Reality TV is a world unto its own, creating a culture of reality stars and megastars, elevating the average to iconic status. It spawns some curious creatures, like Balloon Boy's Dad, in its more obvious surreal forms.

But what Rita is looking at is far more subliminal and seductive. Think about the palettes she is showing, from TV shows like Top Chef, The Home shopping Network, even news like Obama's Inaguration and baseball games - Pirates vs. Cardinals. We all know how we are affected by sunshine, and what that warm light does to us, how it lifts our spirits as it washes over us. But think about that light emanating form that big screen tv you have on all the time in that background. How does that affect your mood? Rita's presentation asks a good question, and showcases a perplexing answer.

About her series -

Reality TV was created as a direct response to living in a culture of You Tube and Twit- ter; constantly multitasking on multiple screens and the unending stream of informa- tion, both relevant and banal.

Feeling overwhelmed after the recent political season I felt the need to express my search for relief. The result is “Reality TV”. Each composite photograph represents a television program photographed with the camera directed towards a wall and ceiling or corner of the room where the program is being viewed. The camera takes in the information beamed from the television and reformulates it for the viewer as reflected color. The camera sensor is recording the light over several seconds, blending it as the capture takes place. It is recording the unseeable. The assembled images of saturated color vibrate against each other and are evocative of both field paintings and pixels. They are, in a sense, a reduction of the very notion of a photograph, the recording of light.

This piece is meant to highlight issues of observation and comprehension. How much of the world we inhabit do we really observe? How much do we comprehend of all we take in everyday? To what extent do we create our own reality?

The piece itself hangs on the wall as a kind of spiritual icon, presenting a space of mediation, a transformation of what it was created from.

“Nothing is more abstract than reality” —Giorgio Morandi

Lishui Photo - Stan Raucher

Stan Raucher has been traveling the world, capturing the streets of Paris, Latin America and soon, China. I can't wait. I have been watching Stan grow as a photographer over the last few years, and his newest group of portraits I have found really lovely, engaging and intense.

Stan started as an observer, photographing the life he saw around him, now he is a participant, engaging his subjects, and the change is evident.

Here is Stan's statement about his process.

Using natural light and a bit of serendipity, I strive to create compelling black and white photographs that provide a glimpse into aspects of the human condition.

My candid photography documents ordinary people going about their daily lives in public spaces. These images capture fleeting moments, spontaneous gestures and the ephemeral juxtaposition of people and their surroundings. They depict situations that are unexpected, mysterious, humorous, bizarre or poignant. These photos are neither posed nor staged and I do not interact with my subjects before or after photographing them. Creating these images requires both quick reactions and a great deal of shoe leather since there are no second takes for this type of photography.

My portrait photography conveys a distinctly different sensibility. Portraits from Latin America documents people I have met during my journeys through this region. Although these encounters are brief, I attempt to delve beneath the surface and reveal insights into the lives and character of these individuals. These photographs portray a variety of temperaments and display a range of emotions. Making these portraits involves genuine interpersonal interactions that transcend language and cultural barriers.

New Directions 2010 Submissions due 15 November

Pardon the interruption, but I wanted to make sure ya'll knew this was the last week to get your submissions in for New Directions 2010 and in front of Carol McCusker of Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, California.

Do Not Delay! Get 'em in soon.

Remember, the show hangs in Seattle and Portland in January and February, and will be showcased online as well.

I am so excited with the number of entries that have come in, as well as the quality of images! It will be tough for Ms. McCusker to make her choices.

Did I mention our Best of Show winner receives $100 credit from Blurb to produce a book? Who doesn't want that?

For more information about ND10 - Down + Out, log onto the website.

All of our submissions are considered for gallery representation to both wall space and 23 Sandy in Portland.

Some previous participants of ND now represented by the gallery - Joseph O. Holmes, Priya Kambli, Joelle Jensen, and Bill Vaccaro.

we look forward to your seeing your work.

Images shown Jennifer Schlessinger, Bill Vaccaro, Joelle Jensen and Joseph O. Holmes.

Lishui Photo - Carol Isaak

Carol Isaak was a participant of PhotoLucida in April of last year. I got the opportunity to sit down with her for 20 minutes and review her work. Her focus, China, showcased an outsider's view of a foreign landscape. Bright color, beautiful architecture, and a sense of place fill her images with life.

She is headed to Lishui, and will continue her travels and add more dimensions to her visuals. By incorporating sound, she hopes to give us as viewers a transported vision. Not unlike when we head to our own International District, or Chinatown. Documenting a changing culture is difficult, but I applaud her for her efforts. She has done a nice job of showcasing a beautiful culture.

Here is more on Carol's vision -

Core Sample: China

I photograph NOW. My worldview is as a “social documentarian.” I look at societies thru their material culture in order to understand the population primarily by documenting their objects, as well as documenting the lives of women, some men, and some children.

My photographs are not timeless; quite the opposite. Markers anchor us to a specific time, especially images of material culture. We recognize the time-signs by historical references, garments, vehicles, architecture, juxtapositions, or by something in process that inevitably gets completed.

My goal is to present bodies of work that tell the backside, or the inside of the story, the private side, the small picture, not the global, general big picture. I search for the intimate, which reveals something larger. Core Sample: China describes certain visual conventions (like the pierced spaces in window coverings), and the contrast and tensions between the different realities that are lived and aspired to. But it is a country in flux, and that movement is vital to its wellbeing as the population explores long suppressed traditions and newly government-encouraged innovations.