Botany and the Feminization of Photography - Katherina Steidl

Katharine Steidl’s article discussing early photography as botanical illustration addresess the technical accuracy of “contact printing” and it’s increasing popularity during the seaweed and fern-crazed 1830’s. 

During the Victorian Era, many women involved themselves in the study of natural history and embraced all aspects of botanical science, including documentation of specimens — what Steidl describes as the feminization of  photography. This afforded women a specific role in the scientific community.  The practice of contact-printed photographs used as scientific illustration fell out of favor when objects could be photographed with more dimensionality using a camera with lens.  By 1839, cameraless photography began to be viewed, like scrapbooking, as a women's hobby -- a technique for passing time, capturing trivial subject matter for amusement.
https://akbild.academia.edu/KatharinaSteidl

Discovered: Botanical Ideas at Yale Center for British Art

“Of Green Leaf, Bird, and Flower” highlighted the scientific pursuits of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that resulted in the collecting and cataloging of the natural world, and that informed the aesthetically oriented activities of the self-taught naturalists of the Victorian era, particularly those of women who collected and drew specimens of butterflies, ferns, grasses, feathers, seaweed, and shells, and assembled them into albums and commonplace books.

Natural History featured in FLOAT Magazine

A beautiful publication. Thanks to Dana Stirling and Yoav Friedländer for featuring 

both Natural History and Processed Views in Float Photo Magazine

Natural History - PhotoNOLA Review Prize

There was a wealth of outstanding work at this year's PhotoNOLA Reviews, Barbara enjoyed the intellectual and photographic camaraderie as well as culinary indulgence! She wasn't fully aware of the Review prize, so imagine our surprise at this fabulous information. The winners have been announced:

Eliot Dudik received the most votes, earning the PhotoNOLA Review Prize. 2nd Place winners, Barbara Ciurej and Lindsay Lochman, and 3rd Place winner, Susan Kae Grant, are recognized with image galleries on the PhotoNOLA website. In addition, all will be highlighted in a LensCulture feature article & social media.

Congratulations to all! And thank you to each of the seventy photographers who shared their work in our portfolio reviews this year.

Mary Ann S - Sweet Woodruff from Natural History

ABOUT  PhotoNOLA’s Portfolio Review program offers photographers the chance to present their work to influential members of the photographic community. One-on-one twenty-minute meetings with gallery owners, editors, publishers and museum curators from throughout the U.S. provide photographers with networking opportunities, critical advice, and guidance for bringing their work to a larger audience.

At the end of the weekend, reviewers rank their favorite portfolios. The photographer earning the most votes is awarded the PhotoNOLA Review Prize, which includes a solo exhibition at the New Orleans Photo Alliance gallery the following December, a $1000 cash prize, and a marketing consultation with Mary Virginia Swanson. Second and third place winners are recognized on the PhotoNOLA website

PhotoNOLA 2014

Stella: The Nature of A Collective - The Nature of Nature Workshop

The Nature of Nature: An Afternoon Repast of Botany and Memory
Sunday, 2 November 2014  2pm - 4pm 

A botanically themed workshop combining an artists' talk by exhibiting artists Barbara Ciurej and Lindsay Lochman, herbal refreshments, and participatory poetry writing led by poet Anja Notanja Sieger (Limited to 25 participants.)

Anja Notanja Sieger discusses sprouts with participants

Lauren Deutsch's memory stimulated with rosemary infused cookie 

Christine DiThomas discusses the Elders

Welcoming and helping tasked to Helene Fischmann, right

Barbara discusses Natural History  project with participants

Workshop participants discuss their responses

Chicago Artists Month Workshop

Nature, botany and memory coalesce

Stella: The Nature of a Collective Exhibition - Chicago Artists' Month

installation view at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art

The Stella Collective includes 13 artists, 

2 of whom work as a collaborative team.

Stella: The Nature of a Collective features work by 12 artists in a variety of media originating in photography. The exhibition is organized around joint issues of the collective and the natural world. In conjunction with the exhibition, the collective plans two lively events inviting a diversity of women to partake in physical and intellectual nourishment based on exhibition themes. Stella formed in 2008 as a monthly critique group and has a rich history of mutual support and creative challenge. Presented in cooperation with the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (UIMA) in Chicago's Ukrainian Village.

Stella: The Nature of a Collective will be part of Chicago Artists Month with a group show at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, opening October 3, 6-9pm. — with Christine DiThomas, Barbara Ciurej, Aimee Beaubien, Jean Sousa, Alice Hargrave, Suzette Bross Bulley, Lindsay Lochman, Peggy Wright, Kate Joyce, Patty Carroll, Mayumi Lake, Liz Chilsen and Mary Farmilant.

ChicagoArtist's Month Activity - Women and Ideas

Exhibition Opening Celebration - Aimee Beaubien and Alice Hargrave

Exhibition Review by Elin Spring

Artemisia After Forty Exhibition

Artemisia after 40: Current work by past members
Bridgeport Art Center
1200 West 35th Street - Chicago
2 May - 13 June 2014
opening reception 2 May  6-9pm
closing reception  13 June  6-9pm

Artemisia after 40: current work by past members is a showcase of work by artists who were members of the women’s cooperative Artemisia Gallery. From 1973 until closing in 2003, Artemisia played an essential role in supporting and nurturing the careers of over 150 women artist members, their mentees and exhibiting guest artists, who made their mark on the Chicago art scene and beyond. Join us to celebrate the legacy of this influential and groundbreaking women’s cooperative 40 years after its founding.  

Barbara congratulates another past-President and Exhibition organizer, Fern Schaeffer

l-r                 , Joan Fitzsimmons, Michelle Stone, Barbara Ciurej