Hearst Biennial 3/30/09

John Bennette, the curator of the Hearst Biennial posing with a friend in front of Brad Carile's photographs.

Miriam from El Foco Art Magazine, Gallery owner Michael Mazzeo and 8 x 10 winner Louie Palu

Our ever so Humble Amani Olu and Jon Feinstein

Will Steacy celebrating 8 x 10 Honorable mention

Photo- Michael Mazzeo, Jon Feinstein, John Bennette, Will Steacy and Michael Hoeh...what a gang!

Sorry guys, I was a bit tipsy while taking this photo!

8 x 10 Hearst Biennial Judge and amazing photographer Mary Ellen Mark

The Hearst Biennial opening party was Monday and it was such a good party. Great crowd, great photographic work and a magnificent space. Special thanks and congratulations to John Bennette for doing such a great job curating the show. If you have a chance please stop by and check it out.

http://www.hearst8x10.com/

BOMB Magazine’s 28th Anniversary Gala & Silent Auction, Friday, April 17, 2009

Photo-Cindy Sherman
Untitled, 2003
C-print
26 x 16 inches
Courtesy of the artist and
Metro Pictures, New York
Estimated Retail Value: $2,500

























Photo- Mickalene Thomas
Afro Muse, 2006
Photograph
Image: 4 x 6 inches;
Frame: 10 x 12 inches
Edition 1 of 1
Courtesy of the artist
Estimated Retail Value: $2,500






You don't own a Mickalene Thomas or a Cindy Sherman yet?
Well this might be your best chance!

BOMB Magazine’s 28th Anniversary Gala &
Silent Auction
Friday, April 17, 2009, The National Arts Club


Preview the 2009 works in auction!





View the Artists Draw Raffle
artworks and buy a ticket!




Buy tickets to the Gala & Silent Auction here.


Friday, April 17, 2009
The National Arts Club
15 Gramercy Park South
(20th Street between Park & Irving) New York City

6:00-8:30pm Cocktails, Canapes & Silent Auction


7:30 Toasts to Honorees
Clifford Ross
Marina Abramovic
Lisa Phillips

8:30 Silent Auction closes.
Those who have purchased Dinner Tickets or Tables will be seated.



CoChairs:

Melva Bucksbaum + Raymond Learsy
Barbara Gladstone
Heather M. Kirby
Susan Rothenberg + Bruce Nauman
Angela Westwater, Sperone Westwater

Silent Auction
View this year’s silent auction artwork and download an absentee bid form. Images are being added daily! Keep checking back in the weeks to come to learn more about how to be a part of the most fabulous party of the year!

Artists Draw Raffle
View the Artists Draw Raffle artworks and buy a ticket! Fourteen artists are generously creating twenty-five 3×5 inch signed drawings for the Artists Draw. Each $250 ticket guarantees a win! Gala attendance is not required.



Décor: Madeline Weinrib, Atelier
Music curated by: Laurie Anderson & Lou Reed
Invitation Design: Abby Goldstein
Web: Fred Krughoff
Wine: Chatham Importers
Spirits: Empire Merchants


For more information about the artwork and to purchase tickets, email or call Kate Montague at Livet Reichard Co. 212.868.8450×205 or kmontague@Livetreichard.com.

Helen Levitt, Who Froze New York Street Life on Film, Is Dead at 95

Untitled (broken mirror), Helen Levitt, New York, c.1940/all photos: Laurence Miller Gallery

© Estate of Helen Levitt
Helen Levitt in 1963.



© Estate of Helen Levitt
A 1939 image of trick-or-treaters by Ms. Levitt was part of the inaugural exhibition of the Museum of Modern Art’s photography department in 1940


Helen Levitt is one of my most admired photographers and an inspiration for some of my own photography.

By MARGARETT LOKE
Published: March 30, 2009



Helen Levitt, a major photographer of the 20th century who caught fleeting moments of surpassing lyricism, mystery and quiet drama on the streets of her native New York, died in her sleep at her home in Manhattan on Sunday. She was 95.

Her death was confirmed by her brother, Bill Levitt, of Alta, Utah.

Ms. Levitt captured instances of a cinematic and delightfully guileless form of street choreography that held at its heart, as William Butler Yeats put it, “the ceremony of innocence.” A man handles garbage-can lids like an exuberant child imitating a master juggler. Even an inanimate object — a broken record — appears to skip and dance on an empty street as a child might, observed by a group of women’s dresses in a shop window.

As marvelous as these images are, the masterpieces in Ms. Levitt’s oeuvre are her photographs of children living their zesty, improvised lives. A white girl and a black boy twirl in a dance of their own imagining. Four girls on a sidewalk turning to stare at five floating bubbles become contrapuntal musical notes in a lovely minor key.

In Ms. Levitt’s best-known picture, three properly dressed children prepare to go trick-or-treating on Halloween 1939. Standing on the stoop outside their house, they are in almost metaphorical stages of readiness. The girl on the top step is putting on her mask; a boy near her, his mask in place, takes a graceful step down, while another boy, also masked, lounges on a lower step, coolly surveying the world.

“At the peak of Helen’s form,” John Szarkowski, former director of the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art, once said, “there was no one better.”

The late 1930s and early ’40s, when Ms. Levitt created an astonishing body of work, was a time when many noted photographers produced stark images to inspire social change. Ms. Levitt also took her camera to the city’s poorer neighborhoods, like Spanish Harlem and the Lower East Side, where people treated their streets as their living rooms and where she showed an unerring instinct for a street drama’s perfect pitch. In his 1999 biography of Walker Evans, James R. Mellow wrote that the only photographers Evans “felt had something original to say were Cartier-Bresson, Helen Levitt and himself.”

Helen Levitt was born on Aug. 31, 1913, in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Her father, Sam, a Russian-Jewish immigrant, ran a successful wholesale knit-goods business; her mother, May, was a bookkeeper before her marriage.

Finding high school unstimulating, Ms. Levitt dropped out during her senior year. In a 2002 interview with The New York Times in her fourth-floor walk-up near Union Square, she said that as a young woman she had wanted to do something in the arts though she could not draw well.

Her mother knew the family of J. Florian Mitchell, a commercial portrait photographer in the Bronx, and in 1931 Ms. Levitt began to work for him. “I helped in darkroom printing and developing,” she said. “My salary was six bucks a week.”

With a used Voigtländer camera, she photographed her mother’s friends. Through publications and exhibitions, she knew the documentary work of members of the Film and Photo League and of Cartier-Bresson, Evans and Ben Shahn.

In 1935 she met Cartier-Bresson when he spent a year in New York. On one occasion she accompanied him when he photographed along the Brooklyn waterfront. She also trained her eye, she said, by going to museums and art galleries. “I looked at paintings for composition,” she said. In 1936, she bought a secondhand Leica, the camera Cartier-Bresson favored.

Two years later, she contacted Evans to show him the photographs she had taken of children playing in the streets and their buoyantly unrestrained chalk graffiti. “I went to see him,” she recalled, “the way kids do, and got to be friends with him.” She helped Evans make prints for his exhibition and book “American Photographs.”

Both the quintessentially French Cartier-Bresson and the essentially American Evans influenced Ms. Levitt. Cartier-Bresson had a gift for catching everyday life in graceful, seemingly transparent flux; Evans had a way of being sparingly, frontally direct with his commonplace subjects. Ms. Levitt credited Shahn, whom she had met through Evans, with being a greater influence than Evans. Photographs Shahn took of life on New York sidewalks in the ’30s have an unmediated, gritty spontaneity.

James Agee, a good friend, was also a major influence. She had met him through Evans, who noted, “Levitt’s work was one of James Agee’s great loves, and, in turn, Agee’s own magnificent eye was part of her early training.”





Please read more:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/arts/design/30levitt.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=arts

Vanessa Beecroft's 'VB65' Attempts to Force Spectators to See Africans Differently

Photo-Vanessa Beecroft
Here is anoher controversial but, quite fascinating artist... Vanessa Beecroft

Some people just don't get her!

Read about it in this NY Times article by Elisabeta Povoledo.

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
Published: March 29, 2009

These days, the most talked about representation of a ritual repast in Milan is not the “Last Supper” that Leonardo da Vinci painted 510 years ago, but a performance by the conceptual artist Vanessa Beecroft for the city that launched her artistic career.

For “VB65” (Ms. Beecroft numbers her performances sequentially) the artist selected about two dozen African immigrants (some in Italy illegally, others with papers) and posed them along a 12-meter, or 39-foot, table for a three-hour meal during which they languidly munched on roast chicken with their bare hands. The men wore vintage dinner jackets or suits by the designer Martin Margiela, but some were bare-chested, others sans shoes.

“I wanted to force the Milanese bourgeoisie to enter a private space regulated by the statutes of art, that is the museum, and observe people widely seen as the violators of privacy, people that are seen as different,” Ms. Beecroft, 39, said during an interview at the Pavilion of Contemporary Art, or PAC, where the performance took place on March 16. “You need to put something crude on show to provoke a reaction in the public.”

Compared with other European countries, Italy’s immigrants are relative newcomers, and the country’s response to its growing foreign population has been colored by a political agenda that has shifted much of the blame for criminal activity onto immigrants. “There’s widespread diffidence here; I feel it, it’s on the streets,” said Ms. Beecroft, who is Italian.

The performance was a major event for this fashion and design capital accustomed to its fair share of happenings, and hundreds thronged to the museum for a rare chance to see the artist — who photographs the performances — in action.

“It was like a rock concert,” said Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, the show’s curator, who has known Beecroft since her student days at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, which she attended during the early 1990s.

Even in art school, “she was provocative and her work focused on society,” Mr. Di Pietrantonio said. Her first exhibit, in a Milanese art gallery in 1993, centered on a diet diary she had kept for a decade and the performance involved other Brera students — some with eating disorders — parading around the so-called “Book of Food.” Three years later she moved to New York (she now lives in Los Angeles) and began working on the ever more extravagant performances — involving usually nude models remaining still for hours — that has defined her work as an artist.

Beecroft courts controversy and contradiction, frequently working with designers even as she critiques our fashion and body-obsessed culture.

Or, in the case of “VB65,” showcasing “our prejudices towards Africans as primitive or savage” because they are eating with their hands, she said, adding that she could not have done this performance in the United States, where the piece might have been taken in the wrong way.

“I feel free to do more exaggerated works in Italy,” she said.

She claims to be tormented, from an ethical point of view, as to whether or not she exploits her subjects.

That issue has been very much in the public domain since the release last year of a documentary by Pietra Brettkelly, “The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins,” that chronicles Beecroft’s unsuccessful attempt to adopt a couple of orphaned babies that she’d breast-fed during a 2006 trip to Sudan. (It’s a long story.) The documentary leaves open the question whether Ms. Beecroft is just another adoption-obsessed celebrity of the Angelina Jolie or Madonna ilk, a postmodern colonialist, or is sincerely concerned about giving the twins a better life.

Although she allowed Ms. Brettkelly to film her for 16 months, Ms. Beecroft has now distanced herself from the film, claiming that it only tells a partial story.

Read more about it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/arts/26iht-beecroft.html?pagewanted=2&ref=arts

Zoe Strauss 1-95 Limited Edition

Photo-Zoe Strauss-Houston, AK 2009

Zoe ''La Divina Strauss'' is at it again!

This time this Philadelphia sweetheart has a limited edition sale... so open up the wallets !

Read more about it below:

I-95.09 Dated Edition Photos.

250 dollars for each photo, in a 2009 edition of 9.

Image size for each photo is 7.5"x9.5", paper size is 8.5."x11", and each photo is an archival ink-jet print.

These are a limited edition 2009 issue and they will be signed as such. They aren't traditional editions by any stretch... I am only printing 9 of each of these photos at 7.5" by 9.5" in 2009. I reserve the right to make as many of this photo in what ever size and medium for the rest of my life. But in 2009 I will only make 9 prints, at 7.5" by 9.5", of these specific photos.

Please specify in the "special instructions" box in paypal if you would like the photo signed to someone. That's actually how I prefer to do it, I really like it to be personal.


These prints will only be available for purchase until May 3, 2009. The prints will be mailed out to the purchaser between May 11, 2009 and May 18, 2009.
Hurry and get yours now!

zoestrausslimitededition@gmail.com

Grand Fiesta @ Joe Baios !

ARTmostfierce had the pleasure to attend and salivate in admiration during Art Collector Joe Baio's grand fiesta unveiling his new collection. All I can say is WOW!

Joe was the perfect host and I spend most of the night guessing who was who on the walls. Such a magnificent photography collection specialized in images of children at different stages of life.

The crowd was mostly of the most happening people in the art and photography business. Great food great cocktails , great crowd and just magnificent photography...what else can you ask for?

Thank you Joe for such an amazing party experience!

AIPAD New York

Photo-Jen Davis-Untitled No. 29, 2008

Chromogenic color photograph
Verso: signed, titled, dated & numbered by photographer
11 x 14", edition of 15, starting price $1300
20 x 24", edition of 10, starting price $1800

Photo- Jen Davis-Untitled No. 21, 2006

Chromogenic color photograph
Verso: signed, titled, dated & numbered by photographer
11 x 14", edition of 15, starting price $1300
20 x 24", edition of 10, starting price $180

Artmostfierce toured the AIPAD fair Friday and found some highlights along the way. Besides all the beautiful black and white vintage and classic photographs, there were the works of some artists that I knew off but, never before spent the time looking at in detail. They were some pleasant surprises. 

I have heard of Jen Davis before and at first glance the work, might not drive you right in because its so settle but, when you start looking more in detail the smooth portraiture work takes you in and the real story begins. I found them so honest , real and arresting that now, I want to start collecting her work. She is currently in a show at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and with a couple of more museums show coming up , Jen Davis work, I consider it  worth looking into and collecting.

http://www.leemarksfineart.com/

Photo-Abelardo Morell Camera Obscura Image of Central Park Looking North, Autumn, 2008 Pigment ink print

At Bonni Benrubi , the photographs of Abelardo Morell are just beautiful and created with a very interesting process
 www.bonnibenrubi.com

Right now, I am totally into Lori Nix photographs especially this  two shown below. I will clear my walls to make room for these two. I absolutely love them!


Photo-Lori Nix
Laundromat (day), 2008
Chromogenic Photograph

Photo- Lori Nix -Laundromat Night

Tonight 3/26/09 Mickalene Thomas-She's Come UnDone!

Photo-Mickalene Thomas- Put something down on it, 2009, mounted c-print

Great show tonight from one of the most talented and recession proof artists, my dear friend Mickalene Thomas!
Don't miss it!
See you there!

Mickalene Thomas She's Come UnDone!
26 March - 2 May 2009

Opening Reception
6:00 - 8:00 PM, 26 March 2009

Lehmann Maupin
540 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001
Telephone 212 255 2923
info@lehmannmaupin.com

Please read press release.

Lehmann Maupin Gallery is pleased to present Mickalene Thomas' first New York solo exhibition She's Come UnDone! at the gallery's 540 West 26th Street location. This exhibition presents a new series of paintings, photographs and collages that continue her exploration of cultural and personal conceptions of female identity.

Known for her elaborate works composed with rhinestones, enamel and colorful acrylics, Thomas has created new works that introduce a complex vision of what it means to be a woman and expand common definitions of beauty. She has chosen her subjects for this body of work with an eye toward representations of women not typically seen in the canon of figurative painting. Drawing from her long study of art history and the classical genre of portraiture, she has infused her knowledge with more recent influences of popular culture and Pop Art.

In her painting, A-E-I-O-U (And Sometimes Y), Thomas has brought her multi-panel format to a grand scale. Each of the 40 panels of this painting depict the larger-than-life visage of a woman rendered in black rhinestones. Ten of the panels have been graced with a fuller spectrum of color, but all 40 have the simplified form and palette characteristic of Andy Warhol. With the disrupted grid arrangement and the primary colors, Thomas has orchestrated a lyrical composition reminiscent of Piet Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie.

New York-based artist Mickalene Thomas earned her MFA from Yale University in 2002 and, in 2002-2003, participated in the Artist-in-Residence program at the Studio Museum in Harlem. She has exhibited extensively and was included in the recent and critically acclaimed exhibitions 30 Americans at the Rubell Family Collection in Miami, FL; Black Is, Black Ain't at the Renaissance Society in Chicago, IL; and Greater New York 2005 at PS1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City, NY. Her work may also be seen in prestigious public collections such as the Brooklyn Museum; The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C.; and the Art Institute of Chicago among others.

For further information please contact Stephanie Smith at 212 255 2923 or Stephanie@LehmannMaupin.com, or you may visit our website at www.LehmannMaupin.com.

Dan Cooney -EMERGING PHOTOGRAPHERS AUCTION @ www.iGavel.com ends 2/26/09

Photo-Natalie Krick, Megan and The Laundry, 2007 D2AB























Photo-Troy Williams, Staring Into The Haze Of..(John Summons The Light) D2AB

Time again to put your bids and get some new fresh Photography!
It ends 3/26/09 so...get on with it.
There is a lot of new faces, names and talent besides, if you have a good eye...you never know!

http://www.igavel.com/
http://www.danielcooneyfineart.com/

Alana Celii Out of School Print Sale

Ok everybody ...Let's help Alana with her framing costs @ School and in return you can purchase some great prints in a limited edition of 15 to adorn your walls. It is all done in a budget. Who said that you can not buy great art for a $20.00 besides 20 x 200?

Here are some words from Alana!

Hello!

As some of you may know, I am graduating this May from Parsons School of Design. To help offset the cost of framing my senior thesis exhibition, I am offering a limited edition of five images from my thesis body of work.

1. Corey After He Shot Himself in the Eye, 2007
2. Hawks, 2008
3. 1 P.M., 2006
4. Virgin Mary Night Light, 2005
5. Motel, 2007

Each image is in an edition of 15. They are hand printed at 5 x 5" on 8 x 10" Fuji Super Type C Glossy paper. Each image is 20 dollars plus S/H, or all five for 85 dollars.

Please pass this on to anyone who you feel may be interested, or if you could please post it on your blog, if you have one. I greatly appreciate it!

For larger images please see: http://alanacelii.com/ps/

Parsons School of Design's photoFEAST presents4th annual curated spring exhibition: ONEIRIC 3/26/09

Photo-Chris Gabriel


ARTmostfierce highly recommends to all photography collectors and aficionados to check out this exhibit. The best new and raw talent is at the schools right now and this show might be one of the best examples of it. With Grant Willing and Alana Celii whom I collaborated for the Humble Arts Foundation Collectors Guide for Emerging Art Photography among the curators for this show , I can only expect the best.

Please  read show information below and see you @ the opening March 26, 2008. It is a good way to start the AIPAD fair weekend!

I am under the weather home...Happy Saint Patricks to you all! 

have some green beer for me!

  
photoFEAST presents its 4th annual curated spring exhibition: ONEIRIC.

ONEIRIC:

Photographs by: Callie Barlow, Nikol Burgos, Lily Ferguson, Chris Gabriel, Marisa Gertz, Esteban Gonzalez,Tara Fallon, Ryan Hale, Lena Hawkins, Joel Jagerroos, Frances J. Kwon, Robin Pak, Brandon Pavan, Barton Strang, Pembrooke Werden.

Curated by: Alana Celii, Katy Everson, Camilo Godoy, Laura Alejandra González, Lisa Gonzalez, Cailla Quinn, Veronica Rafael, Ellie Trier, Cassandra Walsh, Grant Willing.

Photo-Ryan Hale


March 26th - March 31st 2009
Opening Reception: March 26th 2009 6:00-9:00pm



New York, NY (March 26, 2009) The photographs of these fifteen artists who depict images of the surreal and ephemeral will be exhibited from March 26th-31st at the Arnold and Sheila Aronson Gallery on the 1st floor of 66 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Beginning at 6:00pm on Thursday March 26th, Oneiric brings together artists who employ their camera to photograph the unexpected; it's an eclectic body of work ranging from the organic to the man made that captures the oddity of living and the everyday.

Oneiric is presented by Parsons School of Design's student runned organization photoFEAST. Since 2006, photoFeast has been exhibiting the selected works of Parsons students; once a year there is mass submission and the work is curated then presented.

Photo-LilyFerguson


www.photoFEAST.org

A fun Night in Brooklyn- Sarah Small: Tableau Of Delirium Constructions

ARTmostfierce had a blast last night in Brooklyn starting by stopping @ artist  Sarah Small live performance show tilted Sarah Small: Tableau Of Delirium Constructions @ the Jewel Studios in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It was a pretty interesting and cool performance and most of the performers were naked ! Yeah!

Her performance show had performers of various sex, age, race and sexual preference. Imagine Vanessa Beecroft gone global not only women but, people from all walks of life. A few of them were clothed and the interaction of all them was just fascinating. Tasty drinks, sushi and great crowd made this event a great night to say Ciao Manhattan!

I had the pleasure of seen Sarah's photographs during Critical Mass 2008 as a juror and then , she was one of my fifty picks. Sarah also happens to be one of the artists featured in the new just released Humble Art Foundation Collectors Guide of Emerging Art Photography. I believe we are going to see much more of Sarah so, keep and eye on her and check her interesting and experimental photography work.

As for me, I am discovering a new world , more of Brooklyn, meeting the nicest and talented people and doing some personal exploring of my own. Special thanks to my friend artist John Gauld for providing his i-phone for the photos(yeah no camera with me  again!) and his hospitality!

Hello Brooklyn...Ciao Manhattan!

www.sarahsmall.com

USA Network Character Project Party!

Photo-American Character by Chronicle Books

ARTmostfierce had quite a blast last Thursday during the USA Networks Character Project 3/12/09 party and book launch. The room was full of celebrities including hosts actors,Mena Suvari and Jeff Glodblum.One of the highlights of the night for me was to meet and have a conversation with  my favorite photographers, Bruce Davidson.  

The work of these amazing and talented photographers is captured and put together in a book published by Chronicle Books with a foreword by Tom Brokaw. The show was incredible with a great range of portraits of American characters from all parts and walks of life of the USA.

 Considering the economic times that we are experiencing right now, This show , book and travelling exhibit showcases and gives a sense of hope demonstrating a great American spirit captured through the lenses of unique and diverse photographers. For anybody interested in collecting American Photography the book is a good source. The exhibit will rejoice you and lift your spirits. The work of the photographers well...it is a must collect, specially for an American Photography collector like me!

Unfortunately, I left my camera home that day (damn!) but our dear friend Christina Caputo from Aperture Foundation was camera ready and got some cool shots of the show . See here:http://www.aperture.org/exposures/?p=1872

http://www.usanetwork.com/characterproject/
http://www.usanetwork.com/characterproject/#/book/overview

Richard Renaldi-Photographer- Fall River Boys Book Launch as part of The Current State of the ART Market Series #13

Photographer Richard Renaldi


ARTmostfierce had a chance to ask a few questions to the talented photographer Richard Renaldi whose new Fall River Boys book by Charles Lane Press and with an introduction written by Michael Cunningham is being released today March 10, 2009.

In addition Richard is part of the amazing new project sponsored by the USA Networks called the Character Project.

Ruben Natal-San Miguel- Richard...Can you tell us how the Fall River Boys series started ? Why Fall River? how long?


Richard Renaldi-I passed through Fall River ever time I drove to Cape Cod on 195. You drive over the Braga Bridge through the town and then onto New Bedford and Cape Cod. The view from the Bridge of Fall River is really impressive as it is situated along a hill that slopes down towards the Tauton River. That picturesque view combined with all the old nineteenth century brick mills that I spotted from the highway piqued my interest. Then it was just a matter of stopping there one day to make photographs. I liked what I brought back and kept going back for just about nine years.


Photo-Richard Renaldi-Craig, 2006



RNSM- How much different is this book from your previous books Figure And Ground and Western Lives ? Please explain


RR-Fall River Boys is different from my previous books in that this was a project that I conceived myself from start to finish. It feels like my complete vision realized in this book. Figure and Ground is more of a curated look at several bodies of work I had made to date. Both books were collaborations - working with editors and designers. I also think the printing in Fall River Boys is a step above. We printed at a 300 line screen with tri-tone separations from separations of scans from original 8 x10 negatives.


RNSM- Is the Fall River boys series completed with the publication of this book?


RR-Perhaps. But I reserve the right to Fall River Boys 2!

Photo-Richard Renaldi-Anthony and Wallace, 2008




RNSM- What is the main purpose of portraying these boys in such living setting?


RR-I wanted to show what it was like coming of age as a young in a American town without a lot of economic opportunity for it's inhabitants. I also was drawn to the story of the decline of American Manufacturing. Though Fall River's downturn happened some time ago I see it is a metaphor with what is happening all over the country today.

I choose to shoot this project in black & white because I wanted to highlight this connection to it's grander past in a subtle way and I thought that black and white was the appropriate feeling to that with.


RNSM- If the series began in the year 2000 till now can you tell us if such events like 9/11 , the Iraq War and the current economy downfall influenced your portrayal and the selection of boys in the series?

RR-After 9/11 there were many American flags and some "Never Forget" Graffiti that I captured in a few of my images. There is an Army recruiting Station at a strip mall in Fall River and I made some portraits there as well. Several of these young men I photographed had already been to Iraq.

Photo-Richard Renaldi-Carlos, Manuel and Eric, 2006








RNSM- Was the timing of the Fall River Boys being released as a direct reflection of our current economic times or just pure coincidence?

RR-I think that our economic situation has been a long time in the making. If you look around the Untied States there are several regions that have been depressed for a lot longer than this most recent severe recession. That said - certainly I think the work does speak to our present circumstance.


RNSM- I just saw the work of Tema Stauffer in which she went to Binghamton , NY (former IBM Town ) and photographed and created a series based of young boys running around Main street...Do you think that now most photographers are doing a lot of soul
searching and going back to neighborhoods in America and portraying what is happening with our youth now?

RR-I don't feel that I have the authority to suggest what other photographers are up to in regarding their souls. Youth as a subject has always been an engaging topic for exploration by artists.

Photo-Richard Renaldi-Crystalee, 2002







RNSM- Your work has a very Americana feel, is that the main purpose of it? if not what? Why?


RR-No. I did not set out to create a body of work about America or define what America is or means. I think American is a characteristic that one can draw from my photographs because the majority of my work has been created here and is made in the cities and towns across this fascinating country. I am interested in places that are not necessarily looked at as typically beautiful or important. I like quite places, depressed and abandoned place, both gray and colorful places - these are all part of the palette of our nation.

Photo-Richard Renaldi-Benjamin, 2006




RNSM- How do you feel as a photographer during this Economic World crisis ? Has affected your work or vision in any way? The way you see through the lenses?


RR-I did some work recently in Cairo, Illinois in December that has very much a post-apocalyptic feel. I just posted a few of them to my blog.


RNSM- Can you tell us what are you working on right now?


RR-I am working on a series of photographs called Touching Strangers where I am creating images of two or more strangers in am environmental setting and asking them to touch each other intimately as friends or family would. This work is getting a lot of great response. I am also working on a long term project on Alaska and Hawaii called 49 & 50 that I will eventually publish as a two volume set.

RNSM- Any final thoughts?


RR-Starting our own imprint Charles Lane Press has been a really exciting experience. The process of making books is fun and being so passionate about Photography Books it is extremely gratifying to be able to contribute to something I love and care about.

RNSM-Thanks Richard!

For a view of more photos of the Fall River Boys :
http://www.renaldi.com/photographs/friver1.html

http://www.charleslanepress.com/

The Current State of the ART Market Series # 12-Women In Photography NYC -Founders and Photographers, Cara Phillips & Amy Elkins

Women In Photography New York City Founders, Amy Elkins & Cara Phillips

This is installment #12 of The State of the Art Market Series . ARTmostfierce had a chance to catch up and ask a few questions to Amy Elkins and Cara Phillips,Photographers and  founders of Women In Photography NYC. Let's see what this talented and quite busy ladies have to say. In addition please see information below regarding the first and new project grant program from WIPNYC.

Photo-Cara Phillips-Ultraviolet #23
www.cara-phillips.com

Ruben Natal-San Miguel- Can you explain in brief words what WIPNYC is all about?

Amy Elkins/Cara Phillips-Women in photography is an online showcase created by and for female artists working in the photographic medium. It was launched in
June of 2008 and is co-curated by both Cara Phillips and Amy Elkins.
The site is open to submissions on a rolling basis, showcasing
bi-monthly solo shows, group shows and the occasional guest curated
show.

Amy Elkins
Title: Alexander, Brooklyn, NY. 2008
www.yanceyrichardson.com

RNSM- What additional criteria other than being of female gender does
WIPNYC look for when selecting featured photographers?

CP- Personally, I respond to submissions that are well crafted. If an
artist can pick 5 images that are strong individually and that can
work together, I will invest the time in looking closer at their work,
statement, and bio. Also, basic rules of politeness are good, as is
including your website and contact info. You would be surprised how
many people do not read the submission guidelines.

As for a curatorial strategy, I would say we look for variety as well
as for quality. Being artists ourselves, we are not so concerned with
our role as "curators" perhaps in the traditional sense. I hope that
the site functions more as an open space to explore the various
methods and aesthetic choices being made by both contemporary and
vintage artists.


AE- We look to the strength of work and the strength in an artists
editing ability. In addition we are looking at subject matter,
concept, originality, approach, etc. We look for diversity on the
site and remain conscious of the genres of work that we are
showcasing. Our curatorial strategy stems from all of these decisions
we are making together. We don’t have traditional curatorial roles,
rather a collaborating role with our artists.



Robin Schwartz
Title:The Tower
Represented by Michael Mazzeo Gallery
www.michaelmazzeo.com
mm@michaelmazzeo.com

RNSM- I like to know what kind of approach and business tactics is WIPNYC
taking with regards the current economic situation?

CP- Well that is the great thing about the web, we have almost no
overhead, and for now, no salaries, so it really does not affect us.
I think it actually provides an opportunity for the site. In a bad
economy, when the cost of mounting a show is so high, we are poised to
be an ideal place to show emerging artists or to show work that has
enormous artistic appeal, but less commercial value.

AE- Being a two-woman operation, things are very simple for us in
terms of maintaining wipnyc.org. We don’t have to worry about paying
rent, selling art, overhead or salaries. We therefore are freed up to
showcase works without worrying about these things and can take more
risk with the curatorial decisions we are making. Our online
following for the site is quite large and reaches a much broader
audience than a physical space could. This is fantastic for the
artists on the site, especially as more and more editors and gallery
owners have been keeping their eye on wipnyc. This in turn has the
ability to connect artists and the artist community. While our cost
remains next to nothing, our approach is to provide opportunities to
the artists on our site, which in the past has led some of our artists
to getting publications, gallery opportunities and sales as a direct
result of their wipnyc show being seen. Those publications, gallery
opportunities and sales brings money right back into the economy, so
it’s an interesting way to connect back into the physical world.




Erika Larsen
Title:The Flag
www.erikalarsenphoto.com
e@erikalarsenphoto.com
represented by REDUX www.reduxpictures.com
RNSM-In what sense WIPNYC is being affected by it? Yes? No? and Why?

CP. I think I answered that above

AE- On a personal level, I’m pretty sure both Cara and myself are
feeling the current economic situation as artists. While the site
itself doesn’t feel the strain, our level of multi-tasking during this
economic downturn has definitely been stressful at times. We are both
working next to full time jobs to pay the bills, all-the-while
maintaining our own art careers and trying to make new work. The
level of attention wipnyc takes is equivalent to an unpaid part-time
job. We both absolutely love the project, the site and the way it has
been received and wouldn’t give it up for the world though. It’s
truly a labor of love.


RNSM-Are you currently or in the near future seeking any private
donations? Fundraising events?

AE/CP- We just received a generous donation from Lightside
Photographic Services and we are currently gearing up to launch our
first grant: The WIPNYC - Lightside Individual Project Grant. One
photographer will be awarded a $3,000 grant to provide funding to
support project costs. We will begin accepting applications on April
1st, 2009 - May 1st, 2009. The application process will be online,
and the grant winner will be announced in June of 2009. An
application link will be posted on the site on or before April 1st.


RNSM- Is a Limited Edition Print program a possibility to be developed as
a good fundraising tool to help spread the visibility of the artists
featured and to help fund the WIPNYC organization?

CP- Well, now that we are launching the grant we are a bit busy at the
moment, but we are definitely interested in expanding the site, in
ways that make sense for our artists and for WIP.
AE- It quite often is a good opportunity to fundraise and bring
awareness to emerging artists and organizations working to showcase
such photographers. And it is a possibility for us, though at the
moment we are not focusing on developing a limited edition program for WIP.

RNSM-Is it always going to remain only as an on line gallery program?


AE/CP- Currently we are happy being an online venue, however, we will
see what the future brings.

RNSM-What kind of contribution and at which level do you think that
WIPNYC can contribute to help endure, support, facilitate, and manage
the featured artists through these tough economic times?


CP- As I mentioned before, because we do not have high overhead, we
can continue to show work that is not necessarily commercially a 'safe
bet.' Also, this year we are excited to reach out into the larger art
community. We are working on some of these ideas now, and hopefully
we will have some of these new projects on the site within the next 6
months



Alessandra Sanguinetti
Title:The Conjurers
www.yossimilo.com


RNSM-Are most of your featured artists considered Emerging Photographers?

CP-No not at all. We have worked very hard to include the work of
women at different stages in their careers. For instance, Nicola Kast
& Naho Kabota are relatively recent graduates, while Lisa Kereszi
received her MFA from Yale in 2000. And some of artists including:
Lisa, Laura Letinsky, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Elinor Carucci and Sally
Gall, are represented by major NY galleries, while some have just
started showing in group exhibitions--others are somewhere in between.
Currently, we are also working with galleries and publishers to show
work in conjunction with physical exhibitions and with book releases.

AE- The definition of ‘emerging’ can be so hard to figure out at
times. Our site focuses on making sure we have a range from emerging
(perhaps fairly unseen photographers) all the way to highly successful
photographers. Even those who have had their taste of success still
have expressed the fact that they still feel uncertain about things at
times. The site for us is a good way of bridging the gaps between all
of the various stages of careers out there, hopefully connecting the
artists with one another and the community.



RNSM- There are several organizations like lets say for example GMHC
(Gay Mens Health Crisis) that started exclusively only to respond to
gay men health needs only, but eventually grew and now caters and
provide services to anybody regardless gender, age, religion etc
etc...Do you think that down the road if that happens to WINPNYC,your
organization will you be open to accommodate and embrace such demand?

CP- That is a good question; currently we have our hands full, and
have more work than we have room to show. And there are so many great
online venues that show a large range of work. Right now, I am not
sure what we could add to that mix by expanding. The internet does one
thing exceedingly well, and that is providing places to discover and
archive information. I like to think of wipnyc.org as a long-term
project that hopefully will be a source for research. Because when
you try to search online for many of the great early women
photographers, a great deal of it is missing.

AE- I think wipnyc.org, will in the long term, serve an amazing
purpose of archiving a huge range of female artists. I don’t see us
opening the submissions to all genders, as it would go against our
main goal of bringing attention to the works of female photographers.
We have always been open to works by female photographers regardless
of age, religion, race, etc though. There are plenty of other sites,
resources and organizations helping both male and female
photographers.


RNSM-Lets say if there is a transgender talented photographer or someone
does not identify at all with being a male as gender...Can this person
be considered as a potential feature in WINPNYC if the work fits the
standard program criteria?

AE/CP- Absolutely. If a transgender female artist applies, they will
be considered just like any other female artist.

RNSM-Thank you Cara and Amy for taking time of your busy schedule to be part of this interview series

Photos Below:

Francesca Romeo
Title Billy Keith (left);

Tema Stauffer
Title: Matthew, Main Street, Binghamton, NY, 2008

Contact for both:
Daniel Cooney Fine Art
www.danielcooneyfineart.com
dan@danielcooneyfineart.com
www.francescaromeo.com
www.temastauffer.com

Please read below the information for the new WIPNYC Lightside Individual Project Grant.


WIPNYC - Lightside Individual Project Grant

Women in Photography, co-founded by Amy Elkins and Cara Phillips in June 2008 to showcase the works of female fine art photographers, is pleased to announce their first project grant, funded by Lightside Photographic Services/ and co-sponsored by LTI. The $3,000 grant award will provide funding to one photographer to support project costs.

GRANT: $3000.00. One grant will be awarded

APPLICATION PROCESS OPENS: Wednesday April 1, 2009 12am
Link to online application will be made available on wipnyc.org.

DEADLINE: FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2009, 12AM

GRANT ANNOUNCEMENT: JUNE 10, 2009
Grant announcement will be made at evening event at the National Arts Club, Grand Gallery. There will be a reception for the grant winner and a slideshow presentation of their work. The Grant winner's work will be featured in a wipnyc.org online solo showcase opening on 6/16/09.

APPLICANT ELIGIBILITY
Applications will be only be accepted from photographers who are at least 18 years old, and who are NOT currently enrolled in any full-time or part-time degree program.

PROJECT ELIGIBILITY
Projects submitted for consideration can be new or ongoing. Applicants should submit no more than one proposal in support for one project.

REVIEW PROCESS
WIP’s curatorial staff, Amy Elkins & Cara Phillips will review projects for visual & conceptual strength, rigor of purpose, and clarity of stated
project goals.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
WIPNY will only accept online submissions.
Applicants must submit exactly five images. Each image must be:

JPEG format
72dpi
sRGB
650 pixels wide

Contact Info
BIO (Under 200 words)
CV

**Please direct all grant submission questions to the email address which will be made available as APRIL 1, 2009**

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Describe the project in 300 words or less* ( IN PLACE OF ARTISTS STATEMENT)
Please include: Project start date, or in progress staus. Estimated finish date?*
Please provide a detailed list of expenses. Itemize each expense and provide a dollar amount.*
Please list any estimated income or other funding sources.*

--
Women In Photography
co-curated by Amy Elkins and Cara Phillips
WIPNYC is a Humble Arts Foundation project.