Contact Sheet

The day started with an ice/sleet storm that is enough to suck the enthusiasm right out of you. True to their "neither rain, nor sleet..." motto however the mail held Issues 143 and 144 of Contact Sheet.

Contact Sheet 143 is the work of Binh Danh. I have his catalogue from the Ancestral Altars exhibit at the Haines Gallery in 2006. This body of work, One Week's Dead, continues to pursue the "chlorophyll print" process, this time with American faces, the images taken from a 1969 Life Magazine story. This is an absolutely beautiful, compelling body of images. You can watch a short video interview with him here.

Contact Sheet 144 is the work of Angelika Rinnhofer. Sammelsurium includes the work of 3 separate series that all visually refer to the work of the Old Masters but the underlying context of torture and martyrdom has very current implications. She has a web site here.

Both catalogs present work drawn from history, but the axiom about "...being doomed to repeat it." is palpable. The printing of both is gorgeous. If you don't subscribe to Contact Sheet you can easily order single issues through the site (although a Basic subscription of $36 for 5 issues is a bargain for catalogs of this quality).