Cyanotype workshop with Jesseca Ferguson

I’ve happily worked as a studio assistant for Jesseca Ferguson for almost two years now. She’s fantastic, incredibly knowledgeable, and a great teacher. The Griffin Museum is holding a Cyanotype demonstration in Jesseca’s studio, which you definitely want to see. Details are below. Sign up!

Cyanotype Demonstration and Studio Visit
with Jesseca Ferguson
Fort Point Studios, Boston

As photography becomes increasingly digital, many photographers are turning to techniques and processes from the dawn of the medium to reinvent their image making. Jesseca Ferguson has been working with so-called “antiquarian” photo processes since 1990. In this demonstration, Ferguson prints images from her large format pinhole negatives on artists’ paper using cyanotype, an iron-based, hand-applied photo process invented in 1842. Handouts provide further information for those photographers interested in pursing cyanotype on their own.

Ferguson’s pinhole photographs and collaged “photo objects” have been exhibited in the United States and Europe and are in a number of public collections, including Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Harvard University’s Fogg Museum, Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris, the Museet for Fotokunst in Denmark; and Muzeum Historii Fotografii in Poland. Ferguson teaches at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The workshop is limited to 10 people. Fee is $30
The address of the studio will be sent with enrollment. Please RSVP to the Griffin, 781-729-1158.

Virtuoso Illusion: Cross-Dressing and the New Media Avant Garde

Virtuoso Illusion: Cross-Dressing and the New Media Avant Garde
February 5, 2010 – April 4, 2010

I’m so totally excited for this show at the MIT List Visual Arts Center and I’m really bummed that I can’t make it to the opening tonight.  Look at some of these names: Charles Atlas, Matthew Barney, Claude Cahun, Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn, Marcel Duchamp, Michelle Handelman, John Kelly, Katarzyna Kozyra, Kalup Linzy, Ma Liuming, Manon, Pierre Molinier, Yasumasa Morimura, Brian O’Doherty, Ryan Trecartin, and Andy Warhol.  I mean, are you kidding me?!? Sounds amazing.  And we all know how I feel about gender performance in art.  I’ll report back with more details after I have a chance to make it to the show.

Vernacular Photo

I sort of have a thing for odd vernacular kissing photos, and this one probably takes the cake.  It’s just SO PERFECT.  Every little detail.  I bought it on ebay a little while ago and still love it so much.

Flo McGarrell and Living to the Fullest

© Inside the Artist’s Studio: Flo McGarrell | August 28th, 2009 | by Georgia Kotretsos

I’ve never met Flo but a lot of my friends have, or my friends are friends with his friends, that sort of thing.  When I found out that he died in Haiti, I found myself wanting to know more about this person who everyone seemed to love and respect so much.  One link I found was to an article/interview on the Art 21 blog from August 2009.  He spoke really intelligently about being an artist and said so many things that resonated with me, including this:

I have a few guiding principles, which I think must propel me toward this artistic freedom you speak about:

* Don’t hide, don’t lie.
* Do that which scares me.
* Resist the urge to settle.
* Be as many things as possible in this lifetime.

That kind of hit me in the gut.  It seems so simple, but living by these principles can prove to be incredibly difficult, at least for me.  Are certain people somehow more capable of living this freely or can it be learned?  I want do what scares me.  I want to be as many things as possible while I’m alive.  But sometimes I worry that I don’t dream big enough.  I’m making it a priority this year to take some big risks and see more things and make more art.  I can’t afford to spend any more time not living my life to the fullest.

I wish I had known Flo.  He seemed to have changed the lives of everyone he met.

More articles/sites on Flo:

NPR – Haiti’s Arts City Loses Much But Retains Vision

Going with Flo – Flo McGarrell Memorial Blog

Flo’s Website

SHOW

Saturday night I will be shooting and working at SHOW, a really awesome event put on by the PRC that brings together a documentary film (about a drag king!), a live burlesque and drag show featuring some of the best local talent, and a book-signing of Henry Horenstein’s latest monograph about the world of burlesque, drag, fetish, and sideshow.  I’ve seen a mock-up of the book and it looks spectacular.  I would really urge you to stay up past your bedtime for once and check out this show.  It’s going to be a blast.  See details below.

***************************

SHOW
a film, burlesque/drag show and book signing with Henry Horenstein

Date: Saturday, January 23, 2010
Time: MIDNIGHT
Location: Coolidge Corner Theater – 290 Harvard St, Brookline, MA

Cost: $20 in advance / $25 night of performance
** All tickets must be purchased at the Coolidge Corner Theater box office or via the web by (clicking here).

The Photographic Resource Center (PRC) at Boston University in collaboration with the Coolidge Corner Theater present, SHOW , a film, burlesque extravaganza and book signing with local photographer and long-time PRC supporter Henry Horenstein.

SHOW
Midnight:
Preview of the film Mr. Showbiz: The Murray Hill Story by William A. Anderson, Henry Horenstein , and Hillary Spera

12:20 AM:
Live burlesque and drag show featuring:
Big Moves, Bitches of Destiny, Miss Darcey Leonard, Devilicia of Black Cat Burlesque, Femme Brulee, Heywood Wakefield, Lolli Hoops, Miss Lolita LaVamp, Pamela Passion, Pixy Dust, Thru the Keyhole Burlesque, UnAmerika’s Sweetheart Karin Webb

1:45 AM:
Booksigning for Horenstein’s newest monograph SHOW , published by Pond Press www.pondpress.com

THE EXHIBITION – An exhibition of the images from the SHOW monograph will be on display at Walker Contemporary , 450 Harrison in the South End from January 22 through February 27, 2010. The Opening Reception will be on First Friday, February 5, 2010 from 6:00 – 8:00pm.

Haiti Relief Benefit Print Sale

I’m honored to be taking part in a benefit print sale full of really dedicated emerging photographers who want to do what they can to help. All prints 8×10, all editions of 10, all $50 with 100% of the proceeds going to Yele Haiti Foundation. If you’ve been admiring any of these photographers from afar, reading their blogs and wishing you could afford a print, now is the time to buy.  If every print sells out we will be able to donate over $10,000.  That could do a lot of good.  Go take a look and BUY.  And tell your friends.  Sales go live at noon today.

Appreciate a Photographer Week

James Pomerantz of A Photo Student has suggested that in light of recent reports ranking the job of photographer as not particularly desirable, this week shall be named  Appreciate a Photographer Week.  I love this idea— to contact a photographer every day who you’ve never met before but whose work you admire to tell them how you feel.  I’ve started a bit late but will try to do at least part of the week.  I’m making my list of photographers to contact now, but I’m not kissing and telling!

Post-artist talk thoughts and last chance to see the show

[Note: It's the last week to see my show! This Family of La Antigua at the Griffin Museum's Aberjona River Gallery is still on exhibit through January 10th. For details please visit the Griffin's website]

Rosa Bathes, La Antigua, Guatemala, 2008

I had the exciting opportunity last month to do a Senior Sunday artist talk at the Griffin Museum, in conjunction with my current show. I’ve never been invited to speak about my work before, so I’m generally used to talking about it only in the form of promotion or a portfolio review. It was refreshing to be able to talk to an audience of people who attended because they were genuinely interested, and to answer their questions. Plus many of my family members came, who’ve never been able to see my work before.

I started by showing some images I made while in the Palestinian West Bank in 2005 and 2006. Those experiences were what eventually drove me to become a professional photographer. I talked about how I originally wanted to be a photojournalist, but realized I was more attracted to images that told stories but weren’t necessarily newsworthy, and that my experiences doing human rights work and working in domestic violence really made all the different things I photograph come together for me under very broad themes.

After the Invasion, El ‘Ein Beit El Ma Refugee Camp, 2006

I then talked about how I met Ana and Julio and their children in La Antigua, Guatemala, what it was like spending time with them, and how I shot the series. Luckily for me this series has shown before and I’m now used to and can expect the kinds of questions I get asked each time. I addressed those answers in advance, so when I did get asked questions after I’d finished talking, they dug a little bit deeper than the typical logistics of making the work. I also got to point out in specific images where I feel like “I” exist inside them — basically where I made an impact on what was in the frame. I think a lot of people in documentary and photojournalism follow the rule of never impacting the moment or situation. But I really don’t (and can’t) work that way. This series was just as much about my experience there as it was about the family. And since one might not pick up on some of those details while just looking at the prints, this was my opportunity to talk about and share them. That is the fantastic thing about doing an artist talk — you finally get a chance to say ALL you want to say about your work. It was like a golden opportunity for me.

The event was pretty well-attended, I appreciated the questions and comments, and the timing of it meant that I was talking in a room full of the images from the Three Concerned Women show that is currently on exhibit. What a great day — to have people come to a museum to be surrounded by and thinking about documentary photography, stories that are personal but also socio-political and timely, and all created by women, no less.

Oh, really? Ok. Change is slow. I get it.

Disclaimer: I am not a reader of fashion mags, “women’s” magazines, follow any of their trends, or am knowledgeable at all about fashion photography. However, I live in this world and am a consumer of media and therefore am qualified to comment on the following.

Today I learned of two small steps taken against the grain of how women’s bodies are portrayed/butchered/stereotyped in media. One was from Jörg Colberg at Conscientious mentioning the German magazine Brigitte’s new trend of using all non-professional models from now on. The criticisms are right-on, in that the models featured still fit a very conventional standard of beauty. It’s a safe step, not necessarily a radical one, but it caught my attention for 30 seconds (Also it made me wonder… won’t hiring amateur/non-professional models for shoots from now on, by default make them professionals?).

Amusingly, this may be the only time you ever see a mainstream magazine cover in one of our posts.

The second thing was that a friend of mine directed me to V magazine’s recent feature of full size models . Now, I’m a feminist with anti-capitalist tendencies, so of course I have to mention that both of these magazines are hardly concerned with any real form of safety, well-being and health of their readers, and there are articles in both that probably cancel out these images completely and encourage dieting and the like. They are magazines after all — they didn’t necessarily do this to make a statement and change the world as much as they are probably capitalizing on a possible new trend or something “different”.

While still having symmetrical features, seemingly perfect skin, being scantily clad, and heavily retouched as usual, these images don’t stray far at all from what we typically see. But they do throw a small (very tiny) wrench into the typical imagery. As my friend pointed out, this is the first attempt she’s seen to actually show off the bodies of full size women, rather than try to hide them under layers of clothing or awkward positions that conceal a lot and actually try to make them seem thinner. I don’t know, I think it comes close, but I also haven’t seen much of this yet besides those Dove commercials. We can of course go into all the problems with showing off and putting bodies on display, but that’s a whole other discussion.

Audre Lorde said “You cannot dismantle the master’s house with the master’s tools”, which immediately comes to mind here. It will take a drastic societal, political and economic overhaul of life as we know it to make any real, lasting changes. So I don’t expect a lot out of these small gestures (or commercial gains disguised as gestures). But every once in a while, being pretty damn weary of what I see in magazines on a daily basis, it’s nice to see a little bit of effort made to make me feel somewhat closer to “normal”. Even if I seriously question the concept of normal (yeah!). And don’t want to be normal anyway (yeah!). And basically think normal sucks (yeah!). But I get tired sometimes, you know?

The photographer for V is Sølve Sundsbø, by the way.

Earth As Art

Thank you to Rachel Hulin for sharing Earth As Art with us, which I didn’t know about yet (and now that void has been happily filled). I am a huge fan of photography from satellites and telescopes, so this has immediately become a favorite new find. I can’t stop looking through the images and I have a feeling that many will be decorating my walls in a matter of days…

This image of the Netherlands delta region is particularly timely and interesting to me given my recent obsession with the Discovery Channel show Extreme Engineering. Just yesterday I watched the episode on the building of Holland’s barriers to the North Sea.

Globe article on Rania Matar

Boston may be small, but there are plenty of excellent photographers based here who are getting a lot of attention (and rightfully so). Even and including documentary photographers!

Rania Matar’s work is moving and also very close to my heart. Check out this recent article about her by Mark Feeney of the Boston Globe. And make sure to go see her prints in various places around town, including right now at Gallery Kayafas and the Griffin Museum of Photography. Visit her website as well.

Juggling, Aita El Chaab Southern Lebanon 2006

Barbie Girl, Haret Hreik Beirut 2006

Broken Glass, Aita El Chaab Southern Lebanon 2006

All images ©Rania Matar

Read books, shoot pictures

I read a lot. Because I want to share the things that motivate me, here’s the complete list of books I read in 2009, in chronological order. This does not include books of photography or other art (although I really should come up with a list of my favorites at some point). I *’d the ones that were exceptionally good and have earned a place in my top 10-15 all-time favorites.

*Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s by John Elder Robison
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Born Before Plastic: Stories from Boston’s Most Enduring Neighborhoods by City of Boston
The Day the World Ended at Little Bighorn: A Lakota History by Joseph M. Marshall III
Things I Have Been Silent About by Azar Nafisi
All Souls: A Family Story from Southie by Michael Patrick Macdonald
*Arm the Spirit: A Story from Underground and Back by Diane Block
Fat Kid Rules the World by K.I. Going
A Map of Home by Randa Jarrar
Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
Easter Rising: A Memoir of Roots and Rebellion by Michael Patrick Macdonald
The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jean Potocki
*Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
A World Apart: Women, Prison and Life Behind Bars by Christina Rathbone
Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran by Azadeh Moaveni
The Burning Plain and other stories by Juan Rulfo
The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho
How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization by Franklin Foer

2010 intentions

I knew that sharing a blog with Caleb would serve good purpose for multiple reasons. One of them is that sometimes I’m too busy to post and I slack off from it, but then I look at the blog and all the posts are from him, and it motivates me to put myself on here too. Let it be known to the world that Caleb Cole is like a good kick in the butt (I know you will appreciate that metaphor).

2009 began and ended with solo shows for me — my first and only two! They both featured the same body of work. I have to say a big thank you to Siiri and Benedict Fernandez at the Almanac Gallery of Photography in Hoboken, NJ, and to Paula Tognarelli at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA, for giving me chances to exhibit my work. They each chose to show a series that I never really felt was 100% complete, and from that I learned to relax a bit and just let myself be surprised by what people might see in my work. I also had some other great things happen in 2009, mainly being chosen as a finalist for the Artadia Awards! To have my work recognized in that way was incredibly exciting for me.

Since the beginning of the fall I’ve been struggling to find time to focus on my work. While I’m happy the bills are getting paid, I just can’t seem to take any time off from my day (and night) jobs to shoot, edit, print or promote. I’ve been shooting consistently, but am inching towards a new body of work more slowly than ever before. I learned that without the benefit of being in school or even taking a workshop, I am an incredibly scattered shooter. I am interested in so many things all around me that I shoot for different projects/goals/purposes every time I leave the house. I don’t necessarily want to change this about myself — to be cheesy for a second, I think my broad range of interests and desire to try and relate to everything and everyone around me is crucial to what I want to say through my images — but it does mean that at this rate, I probably won’t have one single solid new portfolio for about… oh… let’s say… 5 years? I am the most impatient person who loves long-term projects to probably ever exist.

So for 2010 I’m pretty much over making resolutions, but there are a few things on my mind that I feel like I NEED to do. One is to hold myself more accountable to making work on a more regular basis. I will no longer accept my own excuse that I am too busy to do it. I work an average of 55-60 hours a week right now between day jobs. I need to take some time off to shoot. It’s sometimes easier for me to steal a few hours here and there to do other related things: submitting images, re-designing my website, research, etc, but that’s not enough for me to actually shoot.

The second thing I need is to stick with and focus on one project long enough that by the end of the year I either have a new series, or am pretty damn close. This may sound like an arbitrary rule I just made up that could possibly go against the creative process, but I really do need and want this — I want deadlines because they give me structure. Without them I take all the liberties I can at being scattered and distracted and I end up adding more and more project-based, print-holding shoe boxes to my shelves, rather than actually filling any of the boxes.

My third “intention” for the year is to get rid of the logistical roadblocks that are holding up some of my work — like I need to acquire a car. This is obviously a more concrete goal, and not very interesting to write about here, so I won’t say anything more than this: when I think about applying for grants, the thing I need funding for the most is not necessarily equipment or paying myself to work, it’s actually transportation. At this point, if it will give me the ability to make more work, then it’s a priority.

In closing, a few recent images of mine.

Raven I and II, ©Steph Plourde-Simard