As the annual Oscar buzz heats up, film buffs have a unique opportunity to enjoy an insider's view of movie making. Seen Behind the Scenes, an exhibition of Mary Ellen Mark's photographs made on location over the last 40 years, is currently on view at New York's Staley-Wise Gallery. But these are not production stills in any sense of the word. Mark, the consumate … Read the full Story >>
Roger Ballen is a photographer who sees before he looks. Having been behind the lens for nearly 50 years, first as a youth, then as a dedicated amateur while working as a geologist in the mineral extraction industry in South Africa, he has had decades to make the craft his own. A footloose New Yorker, he moved there permanently in 1982; he soon began to photograph the different … Read the full Story >>
Art Ludique—literally, recreational art—is the name of a new museum that opened in Paris, in November, with a presentation of Pixar: 25 Years of Animation. The show, which opened at MoMA New York in 2005, is on a world tour that has already made stops in Oakland, Lausanne, London, Tokyo, and Melbourne, and will move on to three venues in Spain in the spring. The show … Read the full Story >>
Concresco by David Galjaard was awarded the 2012 Paris Photo/Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Award for a first book. An exhibition of the 30 shortlisted books in twocategories [general and first book], featuring the winners, continues at Aperture Gallery and Bookstore through January 24. In his summary of the book, Galjaard writes, “Fearing an attack from abroad, Albanian Stalinist leader Enver Hoxha had around 750,000 above-ground bunkers built during his time in power, from 1945 … Read the full Story >>
Photography learned this week that it lost a bright young star: Chinese photographer Ren Hang died at age 29 of a reported suicide. Hang, who was championed by the Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei, was considered one of the leading lights of the new generation of Chinese photographers; his work was often censored in his homeland, however, and he was also arrested a number … Read the full Story >>
Jim Hughes, editor of Camera Arts magazine and author of "Shadow and Substance: The Life and Work of an American Photographer," the definitive biography of W. Eugene Smith, died late last month at his home in Camden, Maine. He was 81. PPD learned of his death through Hughes's longtime friend David Lyman, founder of the Maine Photographic Workshop. "Jim knew a little bit about … Read the full Story >>
British photographer Jim Naughten engages with subjects whose backstories and trappings share some of the allure of childhood fantasy. With Re-enactors, it was the war games that many children [and adults as well] get hooked on. With Hereros, it was "dress-up," through the extraordinary colonial and military dress (and its strange history) of the people of Namibia. In an interview with the Telegraph, regarding … Read the full Story >>
Peggy Roalf: Which came first, the pencil or the pen? David Cruz: First came the pen. At elementary school I use to populate my history books with ink drawings, and I also liked to delete some words to change the meaning of the texts, which made them more fun. My notebooks were always full of drawings from my imagination. PR: Please describe your work … Read the full Story >>
Peggy Roalf: Which came first the pen or the brush? Marcellus Hall: I would say the pen came first. In grade school I loved Mad Magazine. I bought quill pens and ink and emulated the art of Jack Davis, Mort Drucker, Paul Coker Jr, etcetera. Later, watercolor illustrations by Arnold Roth, James McMullan, and George Grosz had me under their spell, as well as … Read the full Story >>
This week in photography was a roller coaster of emotions. We started off by looking at artist Richard Prince's latest outrage, appropriating other people's Instagram photos and selling them for the usual gazillions. But at the risk of offending many of our friends, we offered some ideas about why it's not appropriate to hate Prince. Speaking of outrages: We also noted that a woman … Read the full Story >>
New York-based wedding photographer Roberto Falck has over the years worked on a continuing personal project that focuses on indigenous peoples around the world. It was in Papua New Guinea that he photographed members of the Simbu tribe, whose tradition of painting their bodies with a skeleton design using ash and clay ignited his imagination. He went on to create a series of striking … Read the full Story >>
How to maintain personal connections in an age that relies on accelerated connectedness with people we don’t know, through technology, is the theme of a timely exhibition that opened last Thursday night at Pace/MacGill Gallery in Chelsea. Curated by three faculty members in the School of Visual Arts MFA Photography, Video and Related Media department—Adam Bell, Seth Lambert, and Michelle Leftheris … Read the full Story >>
Pimp Your Bookcases continues with Paul Kopeikin, who must have had a sixth sense going when he shuttered his LA Gallery in January. He currently represents his artists from his Echo Park home and storage unit, while looking forward to the new normal of future fairs and pop-ups. Peggy Roalf: What were you involved with when you decided on your career choice? Paul Kopeikin: … Read the full Story >>
The artist Interview—whether a Proustian Q&A; a workspace story; an exploration of the role of bookcases; or the current In the Studio With series—has long been a summer feature in DART. These stories delve into choices about life and work at the most personal level. One of my favorite questions: How do you know when the art is finished—or to stop working on it, … Read the full Story >>
How could this be happening in 2022? That question was posed by photojournalist Heidi Levine, a 30-year veteran of war zones like Iraq and Syria, in a recent interview with CNN's John King. Levine, who is now covering the war in Ukraine for The Washington Post, said that she and her fellow photographers in the country are in shock that "what we're seeing is … Read the full Story >>
Giorgio Morandi – Time Suspended II is among the largest and most significant exhibitions devoted to the artist in the United States in 20 years. Curated by Marilena Pasquali – founder and director of the Giorgio Morandi Study Center, Bologna – and gallerist Mattia De Luca, this once-in—lifetime exhibition brings together approximately 60 works from across Morandi’s career on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the artist’s … Read the full Story >>
Time magazine called it the "Death of a Poet." Photojournalist Stanley Greene, who documented death and brutality on battlefields around the world, died a week ago after battling cancer for several years, and the photography world mourned the loss. The New York Times noted that Greene's "visceral and brutally honest images of conflict and fearlessness in the most perilous of places made him one … Read the full Story >>
This week at Motion Arts Pro we noted that two documentary filmmakers are facing serious felony charges and the possibility of decades in prison for recording oil pipeline protests in North Dakota and Washington State. First Amendment advocates say the arrests of filmmakers Deia Schlosberg and Lindsey Grayzel are part of a growing number of attacks on freedom of the press: Grayzel faces a … Read the full Story >>
In 2010, German-born and New York City-based photographer Lothar Troeller was visiting Medellin, Colombia, where his wife, the photographer Linda Troeller, was teaching a course in self-portraiture at the Centro Cultural de Moravia to young women from the city's favelas. "Each day, I would go out with my camera," he says. Troeller looked at the city as a visitor, trying to find what made … Read the full Story >>
Tonight, artist Marcllus Hall will be at Desert Island Comics, in Williamsburg, to launch Kaleidoscope City. His first graphic novel, this is story about a man recovering from a love affair gone wrong as well as a love letter to the city he lives in. The book presents a young artist as he wanders the streets, sketchbook in hand. Throughout the four seasons, … Read the full Story >>
