Boris Mikhailov: Case History @ MoMA

May 26–September 5, 2011

Ukrainian-born Boris Mikhailov is one of the leading photographers from the former Soviet Union. For over 30 years, he has explored the position of the individual within the historical mechanisms of public ideology, touching on such subjects as Ukraine under Soviet rule, the living conditions in post-communist Eastern Europe, and the fallen ideals of the Soviet Union. Although deeply rooted in a historical context, Mikhailov’s work also incorporates profoundly engaging and personal narratives of humor, lust, vulnerability, aging, and death.

This exhibition is the first in-depth presentation of Mikhailov’s seminal Case History series (1997–98) in an American museum. This body of work explores the deeply troubling circumstances of people who have been left homeless by the collapse of the Soviet Union. Set against the bleak backdrop of the industrial city of Kharkov, Mikhailov’s life-size color photographs document the oppression, devastating poverty, and everyday reality of a disenfranchised community living on the margins of Russia’s new economic regime. Mikhailov recalls of his experience returning to Kharkov some years after the collapse of communism, “Devastation had stopped. The city had acquired an almost modern European centre. Much had been restored. Life became more beautiful and active, outwardly (with a lot of foreign advertisements)—simply a shiny wrapper. But I was shocked by the big number of homeless (before they had not been there). The rich and the homeless—the new classes of a new society—this was, as we had been taught, one of the features of capitalism.” One of the most haunting documents of post-Soviet urban conditions, Mikhailov’s pictures capture this new reality with poetry, clarity, and grit.

copied fromhttp://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1138
© 2011 Boris Mikhailov

Night Vision: Photography After Dark @ MET

April 26, 2011–September 18, 2011
The Howard Gilman Gallery, 2nd floor @ MET
At the turn of the last century, night photography came into its own as an artistic genre. In the early years of the medium, capturing images under low-light conditions was nearly impossible, but by the early twentieth century, faster films, portable cameras, and commercial flashbulbs freed artists to explore the graphic universe of shimmering light and velvety darkness that reveals itself in the hours between dusk and dawn. Modern camera artists were captivated by the many moods of electric light: the softly shining globes of street lamps, glittering skyscraper façades, dazzling neon signs, the intimate chiaroscuro of lamplit rooms. Night photographers were also particularly fond of rain, snow, ice, and fog—for both aesthetic and practical reasons. Wet pavement and rising mist can lend pictures an atmosphere of lush poetic reverie; they also reflect and diffuse the available light, shortening exposure times.
In the 1930s, inspired by the pioneering work of Brassaï in Paris and Bill Brandt in London, photographers began to turn their attention to the social life of the city at night, from the convivial hubbub of Little Italy's Feast of San Gennaro to the top-hatted elegance of opening night at the opera. Others were drawn to the gritty underworld of nocturnal outlaws or to lone figures on the margins, picturing the night as a shadowy realm of pleasure, danger, and transgression. More recently, artists have delved even deeper, adapting techniques of police and military surveillance (hidden cameras, searchlights, infrared film) to pry into hidden corners of the night, driven by an ageless desire to make darkness visible.

This installation surveys the ways in which modern photographers have used the camera to explore the visual and symbolic potential of the nocturnal image. Among the featured works are moody Pictorialist nocturnes by Edward Steichen and Alvin Langdon Coburn; shadowy street scenes by Brassaï, Bill Brandt, and Robert Frank; electric light abstractions by Italian Futurist Giuseppe Albergamo; and aerial views of suburban Los Angeles at night by contemporary artist David Deutsch. Drawn entirely from the Metropolitan's collection, the installation includes approximately forty photographs, ranging from the late 1890s to the present.

copied from http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={4F9E1DE0-D720-40FF-ACF3-ACFA8C4673A7}

between the books / Takashi Homma

"between the books" は写真家ホンマタカシを中心とした今日の写真情報サイトです。当サイトは井関ケン、高橋了（マウンテングラフィックス）、高橋真奈美によって運営されています。
ホンマの愛犬 『ホイス』の命日6月30日に設立されました。

“between the books” is a blog about Takashi Homma’s news, works and also is a place to talk about contemporary photography.This blog is written by Ken Iseki, Manami Takahashi and Takashi Homma, designed by Ryo Takahashi.

(copied from http://betweenthebooks.com/wordpress/)

Review on MFA show

I received a review on my show for the first time and it says "There were other works in the show lacking conceptual crispness; installations that seemed to be either navel-gazing or over wrought and photography and printmaking that revisited old themes in familiar ways." (written by Katherine Rushworth , copied from the site: http://blog.syracuse.com/cny/2011/05/syracuse_university_mfa_exhibit_offers_glimpse_into_the_workings_of_young_artists.html#cmpid=v2mode_be_smoref_face)

The concept of my work may not be crisp. However, it deals with wide range of issues. It has to be this way not to simplify my subject matter.Also, I think my work may deal with old theme but not that familiar way. The insallation is not like ground breaking way of presentation but it is not conventional and I believe that there is good intentions.
However, I can imagine that these criticism can be said by many other people. The installation of my work has to be more emphasized as a space without works by other artists in the space. At least I learned that from this show.

too much chocolate: photo blog

I was introduced to this photo blog today. There are a few different sections here but Rotating Gallery is an interesting idea. There are numbers of good images and interesting conversations. I liked the interview series by Shawn Records. He interviewed Richard Renaldi, Alec Soth and Jason Fulford about book publishing.

"too much chocolate is an online photo exhibition/dialogue space run by photographer Jake Stangel. This site aims to serve and connect editorial, fine art, and commercial photographers all over the internet by focusing on dialogue, support, and exposure within the online photo community. I hope it transfers into real world relationships and photographic growth for its readers.

This space also (attempts) to function like a co-op in form: readers are encouraged to contribute site by authoring their own interviews and features of their own design/content. If interested, I encourage you to get in touch with me via the contact form above with your idea or proposal.

You can follow too much chocolate on TWITTER and/or FACEBOOK.

Sitemap:

• Rotating Gallery: The rotating gallery features the work of an emerging photographer, as well as an interview with him or her. It changes every Wednesday. The gallery is based off of ‘collective curatorship’, where the photographer from the preview week selects and interviews a photographer for the upcoming week, then that person chooses/interviews someone for the next week, etc.

• Interviews: A section full of conversations with established photographers, photo editors, art buyers, curators, etc. that explore issues in photography.

• Sunday Showcase: Shows a collection of work from one photographer- from a startup to an established shooter- each Sunday. Ideally, it will be a nice place to visit, with coffee in hand on Sunday mornings, possibly as you nurse a hangover.

• Forum: A place to have living conversations between photographers about anything on your mind. In a nice environment of inclusion, resource-sharing, and philosophical dialogue." (copied from the site:http://toomuchchocolate.org/)

Kehrer Verlag book publisher in Heidelberg, Germany

Kehrer Verlag book publisher in Heidelberg, Germany
suggested by Michael Tunnings. Alexa Becker for Acquisitions Editor / Submissions.

Founded in 1995, Kehrer Verlag in Heidelberg specializes in books in the fields of fine arts, culture and photography. Our publication program focuses on contemporary art and photography, the art of the 17th to 19th centuries, as well as international sound art.

Working together closely with international artists, authors, museums and cultural institutions, Kehrer Verlag creates its publications in alliance with Kehrer Design, the affiliated design and communication agency.

Each book is a unique creation testifying to the constructive collaboration between the respective partners – with consistently high technical and design quality as the unifying element. We put our heart and soul into every Kehrer book, with an attention to detail that can be felt page after page.

Kehrer books are available wherever fine art and photography books are sold, as well as from publishing agencies in many European countries, the USA, Canada and Asia. (copied from the site: http://www.artbooksheidelberg.de/html/en/recent_publications.html)

Roger Minick - American Biographics

For more than four decades, photographer Roger Minick
has been exploring the back roads of America, making
dozens of road trips alone and with his family. Between
1996 and 1998, he made a total of six road trips, driving
for more than 50,000 miles the width and breadth of the
United States of America.

From the hundreds of photographs Minick made during
these years of travel comes AMERICAN BIOGRAPHICS, the
tenth publication from Perambulation Press––a book that
promises to become a kind of time-capsule of the American
landscape at the beginning of the 21st century.

With quiet elegance and a keen sensibility, Roger Minick
herein gives us a timely and personal look at what he sees
as the unique visual interplay between America’s mythic
past, ironic present and uncertain future...

• from dust jacket

http://theindependentphotobook.blogspot.com/2011/02/roger-minick-american-biographics.html
http://www.facebook.com/notes/perambulation-press/american-biographics/10150142832791815