I'm 1/7 it.

My esteemed MARN Mentor has tagged me with the meme. I have never fallen for a chain letter before, but will enter in the spirit that appears to have started this. Here is the progression as far as I have followed it Shelly Lowenkopf's Blog begat Liz Kuball's blog begat Susanna Raab's blog begat Kevin Miyazaki's blog begat me. Clearly you can see how out of hand these things can get.

I am going to go with a theme of the season:

1. The only reason I have a baby picture of myself is that I was the only baby born on Christmas day and in fact the only baby in the hospital in Bath, New York at that time (you'll just have to guess the year) so the newspaper came and took a picture (see above).

2. My middle name is thus Noel.

3. I have never felt deprived, which is what most people ask when they find out I am a Christmas baby. When I was a child most kids asked if I was Jesus' sister.

4. I can sing all four parts (bass, tenor, alto, soprano) of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus from memory.

5. One of my most memorable Christmases was going to Christmas Eve services at St. Paul's in London a few years ago. In the quiet or the evening service a single boy's voice came from the back to fill the cathedral with the opening verse to Once In Royal David's City followed by the organ, the choir, the procession of sextant, altar boys, minister in scarlet and ermine. It still brings goose bumps, but I am a sucker for pageantry.

6. I know all the words to Amahl and the Night Visitors by heart, having played the part of the Mother back when my life's calling was theater.

7. My favorite Christmas was 1981. My daughter was born 5 days earlier.

The theme to my tags are those (with blogs) from whom I was fortunate enough to buy work from or through in 2007 (the method to my madness is how angry can they be? I bought their work!).

Sonja Thomsen

Tim Atherton

Julian Thomas

Jen Bekman

Brian Ulrich

Zoe Strauss

Jon Gitelson (because he was kind enough to send me his Social Studies [if you haven't seen it, you don't know what you're missing] book and no good deed goes unpunished. Furthermore as soon as I can afford a piece, I'm there! That and I am hoping the Packers kick the Bears asses on Sunday.)

My wish for 2008 is that Blogger will let me set line spacing to my liking!!!

I am leaving early tomorrow for a week at the beach. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, best wishes to you all.

Why aren't we all Good Samaritans

After posting yesterday I came upon this talk by Daniel Goleman at the TED blog. I had also read Brian Ulrich's interview with Taj Forer where he asks "Is there room for art as activism?".

When Dr. Goleman sums up and addresses the way to elicit the hard wired empathic response we're all built with I made the connection between Zambia and an exhibit of photographs.

(I opened Preview and find the video very slow to load when embedded. You might be better off just watching in the TED site linked above where it runs immediately.)

Visual records

Bobsi 08 Bobsisa Saubateli

My sister brought this project to my attention. Klaus Schoenwiese went to Zambia to hold a photography workshop through Kids with Cameras. The results are featured in the November issue of Smithsonian Magazine.

The Zambia Workshop - Chishawasha Students' Gallery can be viewed here. I know I will never see an artist's bio the same way again.

"Bobsisa Saubateli (13): Bobsi is a little down on himself. He wants to be more physical. A great dancer and soccer player, he is currently overcoming TB. But treatment is tiresome. He's also getting tired of waiting for the powerful changes a boy of his age wants to see happening. He's quite mature in other respect and by the time you read this he may be getting what he asked for. Bobsi would like to be a journalist one day: "What inspires me is the way they collect information". Well here we go: Bobsi's dad "died in his sleep", and his mom Sarah "got sick and died". Unfortunately both died from AIDS related complications. Bobsi had a brother and a sister who died equally........"

If you are looking for a last minute gift, one of these prints would be a powerful thing.

I just love this photo

From Big Happy Funhouse.

Pictures of my cat

4 years ago or so I spent an evening with a man who has a very successful IT company. I asked him about blogging. How to get started, who to use, etc. (this was before Blogger had evolved to it's current Blogging for Dummies format). He didn't know me, didn't know what I was thinking of.

All he had to say was "Nobody wants to look at pictures of your cat."

I was dumbfounded! How did he know that's exactly the level of conversation I was hoping to have!

This post is for Jim.

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).

Words Without Pictures

A yearlong project is underway. Words Without Pictures is an extraordinary undertaking by an impressive group of artists, curators, historians, writers, educators and even a blogger to spend the coming year examining opinions concerning the art of photography. In their words:

"WORDS WITHOUT PICTURES is purposefully multi-voiced and multi-layered. It includes essays, discussion forums, debates, one-to-one conversations, and questionnaires. Words Without Pictures is using this range of formats to gauge a broad range of opinions about photography before they become received wisdom. We offer the ideas that begin this year-long process fully aware that subsequent discussions on this site will determine the directions the project will take. Words Without Pictures invites you to contribute your perspective on the directional shifts in photography and help us define their meaning."

The first essay is written by Christopher Bedford, Curatorial Assistant in the Department of Contemporary Art at the Los Angeles Museum of Art.

Pablo Lopez

from the series Terrazo: View of Mexico City Pablo Lopez

Kelly Klingman was good enough to include me in the notice on the work of Pablo Lopez, currently being exhibited at Sasha Wolf Gallery in New York. I hate to think that a certain visual statement has been forever co-opted by a particular artist and think that this "epic" style is a powerful way to communicate the tideline of ever expanding cities.

While you are at the site take a look at Thomas Holton's series The Lams of Ludlow Street. I loved this work when I first came across it in the Spring 2007 issue of Aperture and was glad to revisit it.

Is Photography Dead?

You choose. Like Monty Python, I refuse to take this seriously.

(I am updating with a link to the article that is causing all the discussion for the 1 or 2 of you who haven't seen the flurry of posts.)

Edit

I have made Christmas cards for the past several years. This image didn't make the cut but I still like it well enough to let it hang around.

Tilt

detail of Marden Manufacturing chair Brian Ulrich

If you're noticing things being off kilter or sliding toward the South it could be because we have stayed home (the hotel rooms were gone and I am too damn old to sleep on the floor) while the rest of the art world has taken over Miami causing a definite tilt. Brian Ulrich left us with a smile. If you haven't been to his site for a while I recommend you take a few moments. In his parting post he writes of "actually seeing physical art objects". I had the distinct honor of looking at his book dummy for the Copia series last summer. The physical object always beats the virtual experience, period.

Chris Jordan interview

Skull with Cigarette Chris Jordan 2007

Here is a link to a short interview (scroll down and click on Artistic Calculations to listen) with Chris Jordan concerning his series Running the Numbers which is on display here in Milwaukee until December 14. He discusses concept as well as process.

Foto: Modernity in Central Europe 1918-1945

Herbert Bayer (1900–1985)Lonely Metropolitan, 1932

I am pleased that the Winter 2007 edition of Aperture has an essay by Lyle Rexner on Foto: Modernity in Central Europe 1918-1945. The exhibition is currently being shown at the Guggenheim and is coming to Milwaukee in early February. It's nice to get a preview.

"What he seems to have been thinking was to rewrite the history
of photography, shame us all for out parochialism, and mount the most compelling
and important historical exhibition of modern photography at a major U.S. museum
of the last decade."

Interesting. You can see more here and here.

!!!Please take note. I have performed a long overdue update of my list of recommended blogs. I subscribe to all of them. They are a source of daily education, inspiration and entertainment. If I have overlooked one it is , no doubt, caused by incompetance rather than editorial opinion.!!!

A Modern Twist

"The idea of the Inkafterlife Memorial Photo was developed by Ben Bohannon in 2007 after his grandparents passed away and were cremated. In his opinion the traditional Urn needed a modern twist so taking his ink and manufacturing background into consideration he developed a way to blend ash and ink into a formulation that will print on a custom designed desktop printer."

For your consideration, here is the site.

I'm not sure there is anything I can add except it brings a whole new dimension to portraits. It is no longer a mere likeness, it in fact IS the subject.