Our embedded portrait photographer: Fritz Leidtke

Usually we are behind the camera and rarely in the pictures. One of the benefits of traveling to China with photographers was that I came away with some wonderful portraits from the time in Lishui by Fritz Leidtke, who intently photographed us all. See more of his great work and read his accounts of his experience at http://fritzphoto.com/arts/

Filter Photo Festival Reviews

This October, at the Filter Photography Festival we were fortunate to review our work with a number of thoughtful photography thinkers including:

Elizabeth Avedon, book, exhibition and web designer. We presented the Dialogues with Michelangelo book project and  discussed subtitles, image quantity and order, as well as additional content. Her blog is a great resource. Her take on the Festival can be found on her blogspot.

Paula Tognarelli, Executive Director Griffin Museum, in addition to being the juror of the Festival’s fourth annual juried exhibition, Mapping: borders, bodies, to be held at David Weinberg Photography.

In an interview here at the Filter Photo blog, Image 37, Tognarelli reveals her interests: "I have a collection of globes that dot my living room. But mapping doesn’t necessarily have to do with geography, as explained in the call for entries. It can be a boundary or a point that connects an idea or  person with the land, or with another person."

Nancy Barr, Associate Curator at the Detroit Institute of Arts, learned  much when she worked with Dawoud Bey, "particularly how a museum could move away from static exhibition planning and engage audiences in very powerful and directly communicative way. It was a completely different way of working….My interest has revolved around urban photography in recent years, but I also enjoy artists who work with communities in different ways."  Her comments regarding Dialogues were unique and we wish to continue the conversation on a trip to see Anna Atkins' prints at DIA.

Kyohei Abe Executie Director of Detroit Center for Contemporary Art spoke about Detroit, it " is like a blank page, where we have a lot of new ideas and not afraid to put them into action, and things like the DCCP helps tremendously…. As a director here at the DCCP, my position is to build connections, getting to know other people and share ideas." He made thoughtful connections in terms of our Natural History prints. His own work was showcased  last year on Aline Smithson's Lenscratch blog last years

We got to know Karen Irvine during events surrounding  MoCP's exhibition of the MoCP collection project and artwork of  Jan Tichy last year. We enjoyed  familiarizing her with our current work.  We love her curatoral essays and sought out her ideas about combining words and text in both Dialogues and Natural History projects.

Samples of her writing include:

http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/2011/12/review_redheaded_peckerwood_by_christian_patterson/

http://www.deankessmann.com/files/essays/Irvine,%20Karen.pdf

http://www.mocp.org/exhibitions/2010/04/sarah_pickering.php

http://www.susanareisman.com/1/category/exhibitions/1.html

In addition, we had the opportunity to visit with other honored photographers,  photography thinkers and friends including Michel Weinstein, New City photo reviewer and philosopher  who discussed with us  the fine points of  intertextuality and enculturated vs. pure humanity.   Fred Bidwell, collector,  Bidwell Projects  and photographic transformer of  Transformer Station, who brought insights regarding our new herbarium labels for Natural History. images.

We put our feet up,  had a drink and  laughs with friend and mentor, Aline Smithson. We gobbled up her two new photo books and caught up with her Milwaukee MIAD assistants, Grant Gill and Sarah Stankey. 

We're extremely  grateful to Sarah Hadley and the Filter Fest gang, for their tireless work to continually improve the festival and provide great opportunities for us!  we agree Aline's assessment:  "I think Filter creates such a collegial festival and review experience: everybody comes with positive intentions, from the reviewers to the photographers, and there are lots of opportunities for connections, conversation, and future exposure."

Sebastiaan Bremer Painted, Interrupted, Exquisite

As fans of manipulated photographs, we saw Sebastiaan Bremer's latest work at Edwin Houk gallery exhibition and had to go deeper. 

Sebastiaan Bremer 2013

Sebastiaan Bremer 2012 

Sebastiaan Bremer 2010

Sebastiaan Bremer 2009

Natural History Research: Botanical Lore

The Naming of Names,  Alina Pavord

Pacific/Midwest at Newspace Center for Photography

 We were delighted to be part of a group photography exhibition at Newspace Center for Photography.
September 3 - 29, 2013
Opening Reception and Artists' Presentation: Friday, September 6
Special thanks to Milwaukee, for organization and transportation, Mark Brautigam for his elegant catalogue design and Mel Trittin for her essay.

installation

Newspace Center for Photography is pleased to announce a group exhibition with ten photographers based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  This exhibition will present a diverse sampling of work created by the Milwaukee, (pronounce Milwaukee Comma) group, which is a collaborative photographic project that transplants the work of Milwaukee artists to geographies beyond Wisconsin’s borders.

This exhibition will give Portlanders the unique opportunity to see work being created in a community just over 2,000 miles away.  In the coming year Newspace Director, Chris Bennett, will be working with the Milwaukee, group to create an exhibition of Portland photographers to be exhibited in Milwaukee.

Photographers included in this exhibition:

Tara Bogart | Mark Brautigam | Nichiolas Grider | Barbara Ciurej & Lindsay Lochman | Jon Horvath | Kevin Miyazaki | Naomi Shersty | Sonja Thomsen | Jason Yi

Among those exhibiting, Tara Bogart will be showing her Modern Hair Study series, which consists of portraits of young women photographed from behind. “By focusing on the back, the viewer is forced to contend with all of the peripheral things that make each woman unique.”  Sonja Thomsen will present an interactive installation of photographic reproductions, titled lacuna.  This work “creates a constellation of recollection, as transient in nature as memory itself” and is composed of seventy small-scale images hung on the wall, waiting to be peeled away by the public.  Mark Brautigam will exhibit photographs that constitute a personal and unique portrayal of the state of Wisconsin. “The images are steeped in unassuming Midwestern solitude, populated by timeless characters, and set in a landscape that is neither dull nor spectacular and always seasonally in flux. While these photographs may live within the stereotypes of the Midwest, they also confound them with a reverent and dignified perspective on the land and people of Wisconsin.”

Natural History - Barbara Ciurej and Lindsay Lochman

Catalogue designed by Mark Brautigam

China Bound

Fifteen portraits from Natural History (and Barbara) will be heading to the Lishui Photo Festival in  Zhejiang Province, China from November 4-10, 2013. Curated by Yan Li of High Noon Culture and Art Corp. and Blue Mitchell, the show "Unconventional Photography" includes works by these outstanding unconventional photographers:
Jim Leisy "American Scientist"
S. Gayle Stevens  "Allegory"
Clay Lipsky  "Exposed"
Fritz Leidtke "Astra Velum"
Heidi Kirkpatrick "Lost and Found"
Ryan Zoghlin "Aerotones"
Bill Vaccaro "The Things She Left Behind"
Kim Kauffman "Confluence"
Jennifer B. Husdson "Medic"
Susan Kae Grant  "Theatrical Realms of the Whimsical and Tragic"
It ought to be an adventure traveling with these visionaries.

Natural History on the Move - Upcoming Exhibitions and Exhibitions to Date

We have made an effort to find a wide audience for our Natural History portraits. This fall they will be seen at Newspace Center for Photography,  Portland, Oregon and Lishiu Photography Festival in China. The exhibition history is gratifying.

June 8 - August 31, 2013
Historic Process/Contemporary Visions
Dina Mitrani Gallery, Wynwood Art District, Miami, Florida

July 5 - August 3, 2013
UnBounded! 2 Invitational Exhibition
Candela Books and Gallery, Richmond, Virginia

May 31 - June 2, 2013
“60 wrd/min art critic” review and performance by Lori Waxman
INOVA (Institute of Visual Arts) - UW-Milwaukee

Hayden's Ferry Review Spring/Summer 2013, Issue #52

People’s Photo Book - launch for the Pingyao Photo Festival, September 2013
People's Photography Beijing, China, February 27, 2013 issue

February 21 - March 20, 2013
The Joyce Elaine Grant exhibition
Texas Women's University, Denton, Texas
curated by Sarah Kennel, Associate Curator of Photographs, National Gallery of Art

February 4 - March 13, 2013
Parallax, a national exhibition 
juried by Martha Madigan, artist and Chair, Tyler School of Art, Temple University
University of Notre Dame, Gormley Gallery, Baltimore, MD

Critical Mass Photographic Competition 2012 finalist, first round

October 19-December 13, 2012
Natural History solo exhibition
Portrait Society, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

September 9-November 24, 2012
Wisconsin Photography at Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin

July 25-August 18, 2012
FRESH
The Wall: Klompching Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
The Page: Blink Magazine/August 2012 issue
The Internet: Flak Photo /July-August 2012

May4-July 7, 2012
After Classical Portraiture, Schneider Gallery, Chicago IL

May 3, 2012
Digital Darkroom Slide Show Night
Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, CA

May 25-June 23, 2012
Alternative Processes exhibition curated by Christopher James
The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, Colorado

Diffusion Magazine, Spring issue 2012
Showcase of hand-coated processes curated by Blue Mitchell

Imprints Magazine, June issue 2012
Interview in Professional Women Photographers magazine
November 21, 2011

LENSCRATCH blog feature by Aline Smithson
"The stunning series … Natural History, features one-of-a-kind cyanotypes that incorporate portraiture and botanicals.
The juxtaposition of faces that show history and presence with the fragility of flowers and plant life bring a renewed energy
to the standard portrait."

November 3- December 2, 2011
Soho Photo's Alternative Processes Competiton
curated by Michael Paris Mazzeo First place prize
“My top choice was Barbara Ciurej & Lindsay Lochman's exquisite portraits of elderly women adorned with botanical
specimens by way of cyanotype photograms. An elegant elegy to old age and the passage of time, this work also nicely
references Anna Atkins, an English botanist and the first recognized female photographer, who is credited with publishing
the first book of photographic illustrations, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions."