Aperture's Blog, page 185

Shen Wei: I Miss You Already (Video)

On October 22, Aperture Foundation and Parsons the New School for Design presented an artist talk with photographer Shen Wei. Inspired by his conservative upbringing in Shanghai, Wei showed work exploring identity, memory, and sexuality. His series Chinese Sentiment documents modern China from an intimate perspective, while I Miss You Already exposes the artist’s own process of self-discovery. In both series, Wei’s images provided a seductive blend of instinct, fantasy, anxiety, and emptiness. A slideshow of images was shown, and time was granted for a brief Q&A at the end of the presentation.



View “Shen Wei: I Miss You Already” Parts 2, 3, and 4 on Vimeo.



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Shen Wei’s limited-edition print Half Persimmon (2009) is now available. 

Half Persimmon, 2009




$600.00

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Pictures in Motion

By Isabel Stevens

Eugene Robert Richee, Louise Brooks, Hollywood, 1927. An icon of modernist minimalism.

Most people have seen a film still or actor’s portrait that has made them look twice and realize the artistry behind movie publicity. Mine was a photograph of silent film star Louise Brooks, her black robe and dark cropped hair dissolved into an inky abyss. The only visible elements in Eugene Robert Richee’s minimal 1927 composition were Brooks’s face, hands, and the string of pearls clasped in them. Her dissected body hovers amid the darkness like a surreal statue. Man Ray, in his many years working in Hollywood, never captured anything this strange.

This startling modernist photograph appears near the end of Still: American Silent Motion Picture Photography, David S. Shields’s survey of photography from cinema’s silent era. To put into perspective how overlooked images from this period have been, consider that in previous histories of Hollywood film photography, Richee’s vision of Brooks would appear at the beginning of the book. John Kobal, the collector and historian who rescued film stills and portraits from being seen as throwaway publicity material, saw little image-making of note before sound, remarking in his 1976 book Hollywood Glamour Portraits that photographs of actors in the 1920s were “not that much different to the sort that might be seen in any small town” and that any extraordinary images were so “because of the subject, rarely because of the photographer.”

In Still, Shields spends 401 pages refuting this, employing a strict editing process to gather a selection of the most exceptional images produced by the large number of little-known photographers working during this time (many of whom were rarely allowed a signature on their work). But what could easily have been a glossy, visual celebration of silent-era film photography is instead a forensic study, the product of years of research and archive-scavenging; Shields began writing the book in 2004. He reaches back, right to the origins of cinema, long before the studios emerged—when actors and starlets-to-be all traveled to independent photography studios—and he traces the emergence of the cinematic photo from the worlds of theatrical publicity and society portraiture. He maps its evolution from adorning the cabinet cards collected by fans to mass-production in newspapers and magazines (from the early 1910s onward), while also illustrating how its importance grew with the rise of feature-length films and the birth of the major studios.

Of course, it is of little surprise that stills and portraits from this period are so arresting. This was when movies were pictures in motion, cinema was known as “photoplay,” and spectacle was the chief export of the dream factory. Photography itself was not sixty years old when the movies were born, and so this is an exploration of how one nascent medium recorded another. Shields charts technological and aesthetic developments, noting how photographers began to refuse the movie camera’s perspective on set, how they welcomed and experimented with artificial light, and how they tried to challenge tired modes of representation (choosing mystery over likeness; depicting not just subjects, but moods). Throughout, Shields interrogates the meaning of glamour, excavates a buried corner of photography’s past, and tells the story of silent cinema—its ambitious directors, stars, opulent designs, and special effects—from an unusual angle.

Top: Junius “June” Estep, William S. Hart as Blaze Tracy in Hell’s Hinges, Los Angeles, Kay-Bee Pictures, March 5, 1916. The apocalyptic final fight in which Blaze Tracy personally pummels corrupt Rev. Bob Henley while the tainted village of Hell’s Hinges burns in the fire’s judgment. Bottom: Junius “June” Estep, William S. Hart, as the title character in Selfish Yates, Los Angeles, Artcraft Pictures, May 12, 1918.

The detailed profiles of so many photographers are the book’s triumph: key early innovators such as Arnold Genthe, whose ghostly, soft-focus portraits did away with the elaborate staging his contemporaries depended upon; revelations like M. I. Boris, who, under the influence of Symbolism, etched into his photographs; and unsung image masters such as Junius “June” Estep, who captured the epic, inhospitable Western landscape like no one else. Shields delves into their lives, illuminating their varied backgrounds (medical photography, conservation, even priesthood), how they talked their way onto movie sets, and, in some cases, their sad fates. For example, Jose Maria Mora, who became a recluse, was discovered on his death surrounded by images of the beauties he made famous. Shields even notes how his bathtub was filled with yellowed theatrical programs.

Also discussed are lesser-known images from celebrated Golden Age photographers, those who learned their craft in the silent era, such as Frank Powolny, whose elaborate forested nightmares for Dante’s Inferno provide a different breed of visual fantasy than his later iconic shots of Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe. Collaborations between photographers and directors—in particular Edward S. Curtis, who funded his ethnographic experiments by recreating medieval Persia for Ferdinand P. Earle from Earle’s seven hundred sets and three hundred painted backgrounds—provide another fascinating chapter in Shields’s history.

It was, of course, nearly always a male gaze behind the lens, but Shields does highlight the importance of two female figures: Lillian Gish and Alla Nazimova, performers who recognized the importance of photography and had the clout to champion adventurous still men such as Hendrik Sartov, James Abbe, and Arthur Rice. Renowned art photographers of the time are also mentioned, among them Edward Weston, but an in-depth contextualization of their work with that of the still men is the book’s only lacking feature (but is perhaps the subject of another tome entirely).

James Abbe, Mary Pickford as Amanda Afflick in Suds, Hollywood, Mary Pickford Company, United Artists, January 7, 1920. Dressed as a fantasy princess in the daydream of a kitchen drudge. Gown by Adele Crinley.

As Shields reminds us, over 80 percent of silent cinema is missing, presumed destroyed. In some instances these stills and portraits are the only remaining records of a film. In others, the photographs point to what a movie could have been had the grandiose follies of a director not dominated. Just as there were landmark productions (two hundred stills courtesy of Karl Strauss for Quo Vadis in 1912) there were also early mistakes (the toilet plungers which adorned horse-riders’ heads but weren’t noticed in the flurry of D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, but which were plain to see when frozen in cinematographer William Blitzer’s stills). Shields highlights the vast difference between these blurred, amateur snaps with those meticulous, epic scenes photographer James E. Woodbury labored over for Griffith’s next feature, Intolerance.

Today, would a big studio’s publicity department ever allow Twilight star Kristen Stewart to look as deranged as her 1915 vamp counterpart Theda Bara did when shot by Jack Freulich for Sin, her hands gripping tufts of hair above her head? Not just a reappraisal of a collection of daring, innovative artisans, Shields’s book makes all too apparent how bland and safe contemporary movie stills and portraits really are.

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Isabel Stevens works at Sight & Sound magazine. Her writing on film and photography has appeared in numerous publications, including the Guardian, Icon, Source, and World of Interiors. Follow her on Twitter: @IsStevens

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JH Engström: Sketch of Paris (Video)

On Wednesday, November 6, Aperture Foundation and the Consulate General of Sweden hosted a conversation with Swedish photographer JH Engström in honor of his first U.S. publication, Sketch of Paris (Aperture, 2013). Engström has lived and worked in Paris for over twenty years, and this body of work presents a gritty, no-holds-barred, guided tour of life in his adopted city. Engström leads us to read the photographs included in this volume as a type of homage to a city that has greatly influenced and inspired him as a photographer and as a person.



View “JH Engström: Sketch of Paris” Parts 2 and 3 on Vimeo.



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Sketch of Paris, photographs by JH Engström, and the Trying to Dance Portfolio, (2004) are now available.

Sketch of ParisJH Engström’s Sketch of Paris is a raw, lyrical homage to a city that has influenced and inspired him.




$65.00





Trying to Dance Portfolio, 2004




$2,500.00





CDG/ JHE #41, 2006




$1,800.00

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Rick Sands: Breaking the Light Barrier

I always call him “the genius of light.” He puts all of the lighting scenes together. He thinks differently than everyone else I know. He just responds to light. It’s remarkable.
—Gregory Crewdson on Rick Sands

Join master illuminator Rick Sands for “Breaking the Light Barrier,” a workshop for photographers who would like to improve their understanding of lighting—from conceptualization through execution. For nearly fifteen years, Sands has created elaborate lighting for the narrative photographs of artist Gregory Crewdson. The class will cover varied philosophies of lighting technique, working under a wide range of conditions (day as well as night, interior as well as exterior) and studying separation through use of contrast via intensity and color. The class will also cover practical aspects like scheduling and budgetary concerns. Participants will then form teams to produce projects employing the techniques covered under the curriculum. The main objective of the class is to create and extend a lighting vernacular that allows you to design and execute diverse projects. Participants will gain a comfort and confidence level enabling them to work adeptly throughout the lighting design process.

Over the course of six days, “Breaking the Light Barrier” will cover contextual light, interior lighting, exterior lighting, and project flow as separate units of study. Each unit will be comprised of conceptual overview, study of examples, equipment demonstration, training exercises, and experimentation. Students will be asked to complete four assignments, the last being a comprehensive production exercisetaking place over three days. Additional concepts reviewed will include the motivation of light, the study of ambient light, light plots, the importance of time-of-day, and the set environment and its effect on lighting.

Rick Sands is a film technician whose roots are in cinema production. His portfolio includes thirty-five theatrically released motion pictures with directors such as Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola, forty-seven television movies, and countless one-hour television episodes. His work in advertising has won him several ADDY awards. Through his unique collaboration with Gregory Crewdson, Sands’s lighting has been featured in six books and several international exhibitions.

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Rinko Kawauchi: The Poetics of Photography

Leading up to the opening of Ametsuchi at Aperture Gallery, Rinko Kawauchi led an insightful workshop over the weekend of September 14 and 15. Students spent a rare eight hours with the Japanese artist, working through presentations and conducting a portfolio review. The course cultivated an intuitive approach to all aspects of photographic workflow, from shooting to bookmaking, and students were left with a refreshed conception of the poetics of photography.

From the students:

“Rinko’s ability to expand on ideas about process and the nature of photography was very helpful.”
“The discussion was enlightening . . .”

Rinko Kawauchi, Untitled, 2013

Rinko Kawauchi, Untitled, 2012

Rinko Kawauchi, Untitled, 2012

Rinko Kawauchi, Untitled, 2012

Rinko Kawauchi, Untitled, 2013

Join Rinko Kawauchi for a weekend workshop intended for the amateur and professional photographer seeking to re-examine his or her photographic practice. Through presentation, critique, and discussion, Kawauchi will provide students with the vocabulary required to articulate the intentions behind their work; the skills to effectively sequence and present their work; and strategies for professional growth. The workshop will commence with the friendly discussion of student portfolios, during which each student will receive personalized feedback and tasks for improvement. The discussion will continue around techniques for directly and spontaneously photographing the world around you. The main objectives of the workshop are to visually investigate human relationships, desires, and aspirations; explore new photographic avenues; and to diversify students’ creative palettes. Participants in the workshop should have a dedicated body of work that they feel comfortable sharing with others. Coffee and light snacks will be served.

Born in Shiga, Japan, in 1972, Rinko Kawauchi Lives and works in Tokyo. She began her career with the sensational, simultaneous publication of three books: UTATANE, HANABI, and HANAKO (Little More, 2001). With these works, she became recognized for her uncanny ability to photographically transform everyday details into significant existential ruminations. Since her debut, Kawauchi has published numerous monographs, including Illuminance (Aperture, 2011) and Ametsuchi (Aperture, 2013), and been widely exhibited, including shows at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; ARGOS Centre for Art and Media, Brussels; Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo; Photographers’ Gallery, London; and Foundation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris. Kawauchi received a 2009 ICP Infinity Award and took the Grand Prix Prize at the Guardian Garden’s 9th Hitotsubo Exhibition in 1997.

AmetsuchiShifting her attention from micro to macro, Rinko Kawauchi documents constellations and traditional controlled-burn farming in Ametsuchi.




$80.00

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Announcing the Winners of The Paris Photo—Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards 2013

Paris, November 15, 2013—Paris Photo and Aperture Foundation are pleased to announce the winners of The Paris Photo—Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards. A01 [COD.19.1.1.43] — A27 [S | COD.23] by Rosângela Rennó (Self-published) has been selected as the PhotoBook of the Year, and KARMA by Óscar Monzón (RVB Books, Paris / Dalpine, Madrid) is the winner of $10,000 in the First PhotoBook category.

A jury in Paris, including Gerry Badger, photographer, architect, and critic, Dr. Tobia Bezzola, Director of Folkwang Museum (Essen), Dr. Harald Falckenberg, Sammlung Falckenberg / Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Thyago Nogueira, Contemporary Photography Coordinator / ZUM Magazine Editor, Instituto Moreira Salles (Rio de Janeiro), and Maia-Mari Sutnik, Photography and Special Projects Curator of Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), selected the winners.

The thirty outstanding photobooks shortlisted for the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards 2013 are currently being exhibited at Paris Photo at the Grand Palais and will also be presented at Aperture Gallery in New York, December 5, 2013–January 30, 2014. The exhibition will travel thereafter to Copenhagen Photo Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark, June 5-15, 2014; PhotoIreland Festival, Dublin, July, 2014; Backlight Photo Festival, Tampere, Finland, September 2014, and FotoFocus Cincinnati, October 8-12, 2014, among other venues. The shortlist was first announced in The PhotoBook Review 005, Aperture’s biannual publication dedicated to the consideration of the photobook, and is also available at Paris Photo’s website.

The initial selection was made in New York by Vince Aletti, curator, critic, and author who writes photography reviews for the New Yorker; Julien Frydman, director of Paris Photo; Lesley A. Martin, publisher of the Aperture book program and of The PhotoBook Review; Mutsuko Ota, editorial director of IMA magazine; and Barbara Tannenbaum, curator of photography at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Initiated in November 2011 by Aperture Foundation and Paris Photo, the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards celebrate the photobook’s contribution to the evolving narrative of photography, with two major categories: First PhotoBook and PhotoBook of the Year. In 2012, First PhotoBook of the Year was awarded to Concresco by David Galjaard (Self-published), and PhotoBook of the Year went to City Diaries by Anders Petersen (Steidl).

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First PhotoBook Award 2013 Shortlist – Video

With this week’s opening of Paris Photo, we’re highlighting the thirty titles included in the the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards 2013 shortlist.



Stay tuned for the final announcement, to be made November 15 at Paris Photo and on The PhotoBook Awards website. In the meantime take a closer look at these twenty outstanding publications competing for the prize in the First PhotoBook category.



The 2013 edition of the Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation Photobook Awards will recognize two winners in the following categories: “First PhotoBook” and “PhotoBook of the Year”. A selection of 30 books (20 for the First Photobook Award, 10 for the Photobook of the Year Award), chosen by an international jury, are currently on view at Paris Photo Fair, November 14–17, 2013 at the Grand Palais.

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Read more about the thirty books shortlisted in the 5th issue of The PhotoBook Review.



The 2013 shortlist exhibition will also be presented at the Aperture Gallery, December 5, 2013-­January 30, 2014. The exhibition will travel thereafter to PhotoIreland Festival, Dublin, July, 2014; and FotoFocus Cincinnati, October 8-12, 2014, among other venues.



Video by Jason Bailey and Allison Kruger Pierce © Aperture 2013

Music: Is That You or Are You You? (Chris Zabriskie) / CC BY 3.0

The post First PhotoBook Award 2013 Shortlist – Video appeared first on Aperture Foundation NY.

PhotoBook of the Year Shortlist 2013 – Video

With this week’s opening of Paris Photo, we’re highlighting the thirty titles included in the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards 2013 shortlist.



Stay tuned for the final announcement, to be made November 15 at Paris Photo and on The PhotoBook Awards website. In the meantime take a closer look at these ten outstanding publications competing for the prize in the PhotoBook of the Year category.



The 2013 edition of the Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation Photobook Awards will recognize two winners in the following categories: “First PhotoBook” and “PhotoBook of the Year”. A selection of 30 books (20 for the First Photobook Award, 10 for the Photobook of the Year Award), chosen by an international jury, are currently on view at Paris Photo Fair, November 14–17, 2013 at the Grand Palais.

—

Read more about the thirty books shortlisted in the 5th issue of The PhotoBook Review.



The 2013 shortlist exhibition will also be presented at the Aperture Gallery, December 5, 2013-­January 30, 2014. The exhibition will travel thereafter to PhotoIreland Festival, Dublin, July, 2014; and FotoFocus Cincinnati, October 8-12, 2014, among other venues.



Video by Jason Bailey and Allison Kruger Pierce © Aperture 2013

Music: Is That You or Are You You? (Chris Zabriskie) / CC BY 3.0

The post PhotoBook of the Year Shortlist 2013 – Video appeared first on Aperture Foundation NY.

Aperture Matters: Christopher Kurtz

Members of the photography community and beyond reflect on the role that Aperture’s magazine, books, and educational programs have played in their lives.

Image courtesy Christopher Kurtz, © Kirstie Tweed

As a young boy growing up in rural Missouri, the worlds of high art and design were not always accessible in the immediate landscape. However, I had the advantage of having two parents who are both artists and educators. They brought the vast world of “culture” to us, largely in the form of books and magazines.


My father subscribed to and collected Aperture magazine. I remember seeing it arrive in the mail, enclosed in its special cardboard container to protect its corners, instantly distinguished from the other mail. I always got excited when it came because it epitomized a window into something special. It was through this publication that I learned what the word “aperture” meant: my father explained that an aperture is an opening in a camera lens, but not limited to that—it could also mean a window. With clean hands, I was allowed to explore the pages of the magazine I was so intrigued by. I didn’t always understand what I was looking at, but I understood it in a primal way—drinking in all of the visual sophistication, and sometimes challenging imagery. The thickness of the paper, luscious inks, and slightly oversized format delivered the content in a powerful way that left a lasting impression on me.


I didn’t grow up to be a photographer, but I do work professionally in the fields of sculpture and studio furniture. I fondly look at Aperture as a formative object in my life—one that opened a window to the beautiful and strange world of images, and to large ideas.



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Christopher Kurtz is a sculptor who lives in Accord, New York with his wife and daughter. He is represented by Hedge Gallery in San Francisco.

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Call for Entries: Visible White Photo & Video Prize 2014

Visible White is an international call for photographic and video artworks curated by Paul di Felice and Marinella Paderni, which invites artists to reflect on the theme: You See Me. Personal Identities in the Digital Age.

 

Which values does artistic portrait photography have today in the digital age of social networks, in which everyone can become a do-it-yourself portrait photographer? The project explores new tendencies in contemporary, artistic portrait photography, which deals daily with the proliferation of DIY portraiture and the need to differentiate itself from amateur forms.

 

Twenty finalists will be chosen by a selection panel which includes:
 Jim Casper, LensCulture, Paris; Clare Grafik, head of exhibitions at The Photographers’ Gallery, London; Hripsimé Visser, curator of photography at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and Bas Vroege, director of Paradox, Edam, the Netherlands. An exhibition of the twenty finalists’ artworks will be shown at the Fondazione Studio Marangoni Gallery, Florence, and will run May 16–June 16, 2014.

 

Visible White is a collaboration between Celeste Network, Fondazione Studio Marangoni, Stedelijk Museum, Paradox, LensCulture, and The Photographers’ Gallery.

 

The call for entries closes February 28, 2014. For more details, visit the prize page.

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