Month of Photography in L.A. is Launched

Paris has its Mois de la Photo in November, probably because it gets dark early and everyone can enjoy the most beautifully illuminated city in the world. Now Los Angeles has its own Month of Photography, which runs through April, just as the weather gets really nice there. The  L.A. festival is being produced by the same people who bring us the Lucie Awards every autumn in New York.
      Like the Paris version, L.A.'s Month of Photography consists of exhibitions and lectures that take place in various venues around the city. Today there's a lecture at the Getty Center, tomorrow there will be a Douglas Kirkland exhibition at the new Annenberg Space for Photography, then next Tuesday the main exhibitions open at the Pacific Design Center. The highlight exhibition comes on April 21 with "Icons" by soon-to-be TV stars Markus Klinko and Indrani (that's their shot of Iman above.) A number of our favorite L.A.-based photographers will also be featured this year, including Art Streiber, Mark Edward Harris, and Gerd Ludwig.

Scholarships Available for LOOK3 Festival Workshops

The third annual LOOK3 Festival of the Photographs in Charlottesville, Virginia takes place on June 11 and 12, and we'll be telling you more about it in the coming weeks. (Go here from more information now.) Prior to this year's festival, from June 6-11, there will be a series of workshops available to undergraduate and graduate students at accredited two- or four-year photo programs. And thanks for backing from Canon USA and Leica Cameras, there are scholarships available. This is a great opportunity at a great American photo festival. Go here for more information on the workshops and how to apply.--David Schonauer

Save the Date: Bill Eppridge at PhotoPlus

All of us at American Photo are getting ready to hit the floor at the PhotoPlus Expo in New York later this week. This is a chance for photographers and journalists who couldn't get to Photokina in to see the new cameras and other gear we've been hearing about. PhotoPlus also offers some terrific panel discussions and exhibitions. In particular, I'm looking forward to hearing famed photojournalist Bill Eppridge on Friday. Bill is a wonderful guy, and his images of Robert Kennedy from 1968 are some of the most memorable ever made. He's being interviewed on stage by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Peter Arnett. That's this Friday, from 4:00 PM till 4:45, at the PDN Theater at the Jacob Javets Center.--David Schonauer

Donnie Hoyle Returns; Photoshop Fun Again!

I came to Photoshop late. I also came late to the web series called "You Suck at Photoshop." These short videos are tutorials on layering, cloning, and all those other things I hate about photography now. But they are surely the funniest tutorials ever created. Your instructor is one Donnie Hoyle, uber-nerd with a bad attitude, a wandering wife, and  an expertise in Photoshop which, in his eyes at least, makes him quite a bit better than you, or me. The series was the creation of two men, Matt Bledsoe and Troy Hitch, who produced 10 original episodes. The last ended with Donnie being taken away by a SWAT team. Bledsoe and Troy thought the series was finished, but fans clamored for more, so now it is being reported that Donnie will be back to teach all of us more of that special Photoshop magic. I should now also point out that not only did I come to Photoshop late, but I also suck at it and prefer not spending what little time is left to me creating lame special effects. As you'll see in the clip below, Donnie makes the whole experience worthwhile.--David Schonauer

Three Days in Charlottesville

In an ocean of bad news--picture editors being laid off, agency and magazines closures, recession--an island of hope, conviviality, and artistic recognition is thriving in Charlottesville, Virginia. The second-annual LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph, which ran last week from Thursday through Saturday, was a gathering of great talent and intelligent exhibitions, neither systematically desperate nor partisan.
    Created by photographer Michael K. “Nick” Nichols and sponsored by National Geographic magazine, Look3 is something entirely unique for the United States, which has never had a real photographic festival. Houston’s FotoFest is a provincial “salon,” and the New York Photo Festival, which debuted in Brooklyn last month, was an amateurish joke at best.
     As I see it, there are three reasons for the great success of the Charlottesville festival:

1. A Unity of Place
The festival’s activities, including exhibitions and presentations, are contained within an area that is easy to cover on foot—about a one-mile stretch through the charming city, featuring 20 galleries and exhibitions and three projection venues (the Pavilion, the Paramount Theater, and the IX Warehouse.)

2. A Unity of Time
The festival included presentations each day by a single master, allowing us all to view and assess the work of these people in great depth. Mary Ellen Mark showed a fantastic exhibition called “Proms.” Joel Peter Witkin, a real creator of phenomenal culture who hides behind a systematic provocation, conducted a three-house presentation of his work that, God knows, was nothing less that provocative. James Nachtwey was interviewed by MaryAnne Golon, herself recently departed from Time magazine, where she was director of photography. Nachtwey is astonishing--the Rudolph Valentino of photography. Women adore him. In his conclusion to his conference, while answering the question “is there still room for love in photography,” he said, “to be the witness of suffering is in a way a proof of love”. At that moment I’m sure the 500 women in the room had an orgasm. I have to admit, a hint of jealousy also crossed my mind.

3. A Unity of Content
There was importance placed on images published in magazines and a wonderful unity imposed to the projections: Each six minutes, one subject matter, by one photographer.
     Among the 60 projections there were three gems: “Brothers in Arms” by Brian Plonka, “Earthlings” by Richard Kalvar, and “Another Country” by Scott Strazzante.
     These three days of photography were neither pessimistic nor nostalgic. Rather, they showcased what is being done today and the approach of tomorrow: The use of video, the use of music, and the combination of different media.
     An added bonus: I discovered of one of the strongest picture of the Iraq war (above), taken by Barry Gutierrez of the Rocky Mountain News. Entitled “Leia’s Daddy,” it was part of an exhibition of winners of this year’s Pictures of the Year contest. Gutierrez photographed the body of Sgt. Ryan John Baum, killed in Iraq 11 days before the birth of his daughter, Leia. Sgt. Baum’s widow, Dana Baum, said that all her husband wanted was to come home and put his baby on his chest, so at his funeral a picture of the child was placed there instead. Heartbreaking, extraordinary.—Jean Jacques Naudet

One Last Day in Wyoming

Last week I was posting from the Photography at the Summit digital photography workshop in Jackson, Wyoming. I had to leave a day early, but managed to squeeze in a few final early-morning hours of shooting at Teton National Park with nature photographer Tom Mangelsen and former National Geographic editor in chief Bill Allen before I caught my flight out.
     The workshop, organized by Rich Clarkson and Associates, is a classy affair all the way around, and without giving too much away I can tell you it made a list of American Photo’s favorite photo workshops. (You have to wait until our July/August issue comes out to see the entire list.)
      This year the workshop coincided with the annual meeting of the International League of Conservation Photographers, the organization of concerned nature photographers featured in the September/October 2007 issue of American Photo. Climate change was the topic of two of the workshop’s evening presentations, one by photographer James Balog another by photographer Gary Braasch. Balog, by the way, has been invited to testify before a congressional committee and show the images of disappearing glaciers that he has been making over the past two years as part of his ambitious Extreme Ice Survey. Can pictures make a difference? The answer seems to be yes.
      The ILCP photographers and a few of the workshop’s students also took part in what the organization calls a RAVE, which stands for Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition. The focus of this three-day event was Wyoming’s Upper Green River Basin, which is currently being extensively developed by oil companies. The photographers combed over the area shooting everything in sight, from beautiful landscapes and wildlife to the oil development itself. The goal, said ILCP head Cristina Mittermeir, is to collect imagery that can be used to show people (and national decision makers) threats to the environment. Above is a shot from the RAVE by ILCP photographer Balan Madhavan.
      For most of the workshop students, the wildlife around Jackson is the real draw is the main focus of interest, but as the week went on the range of the photography shown a the daily critique sessions really broadened. Here are a few choices from final session:

Darrin Harris Frisbe of Nederland, CO got a good shot of this moose bison and her offspring.

Scotty Craigshead of Kelly, WY was less concerned with animals than he was  with a macro view of water droplets on a tree branch.

Meanwhile, Michele Deslouge of Denver, CO focused on the human nature of downtown Jackson. By the way, the seats at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar are saddles, which are really more comfortable than one might think.—David Schonauer

Day Two at the Summit Workshop

Photography can be a tough job. That’s one thing I learned at day two of the Photography at the Summit workshop in Jackson, Wyoming. It can also be a lot of fun, which I already knew. But I’ve never seen a grizzly bear cub in the wild, and I got to early this morning on a photo expedition into Teton National Park with wildlife photographer Tom Mangelsen. More on that later.
 First, let’s talk about how tough photography can be. Have you seen those pictures on the Internet of the photographer from Utah who got the javelin jabbed through his leg and then kept on working? The guy’s name in Ryan McGeeney, and it turns out he’s one of the students enrolled in the workshop here. I met him in the afternoon when I reviewed his portfolio. Of course I asked him what it was like to be jabbed by a javelin. He corrected me. “I was javed, not jabbed,” he said.
     Also at the workshop is Gregg Bleakney, who we profiled in the May/June issue of American Photo. Gregg’s the guy who rode a bike from northern Alaska to the southern tip of South America. Along the way he found out he loved photography. He also found out what it’s like to be hit by lightning on his trip. “It felt like a shock,” he said in the understatement of the day.
 Then I reviewed a wonderful portfolio by Ali Darvish of Tampa, FLA. Ali flies all over the world to shoot wildlife, and last February he was in Alaska. The small plane he was in took off and climbed to about 1,000 feet, then lost some vital parts, especially the wings. It crashed, severely injuring the piliot and another passenger. Ali walked away with minor injuries.
 So at one workshop we have a photographed who was pierced by a javelin, a photographer who was hit by lightning, and a photographer who road an airplane into the ground. Photography is tough.
 Rain and snow didn’t stop students from shooting the wildlife around Jackson. I picked five images that stood out in today’s critique:

Cynthia Cassano of El Dorado Hills, CA went looking for little cowboys, and made this shot of a boy mounted up for a ride.

Ali Darvish, plane crash survivor, created a lovely layered composition of mountain ranges and sky.

Darren Harris Frisby of Nederland, CO made a black-and-white shot of Rocky Mountain big-horned sheep.

Treese Hellstrom of Canon City, CO photographed the spring green aspen leaves now popping out.

 

Ryan McGeeney, javed photographer, captured this two-year-old grizzly bear cub. The cub and his two siblings, plus his mother, have been making a lot of news here over the past year. The mother recently abandoned her offspring and moved up into the mountains to mate again. The cubs are still in the park, and they’ve become the Britney Spears of Jackson, as crowds of photographers convoy into the park to take pictures of them. I got some shots of this guy too, but they weren’t very good. Luckily, Ryan did better.—David Schonauer

 

Digital Photography in Jackson, Wyoming

This week I'm posting from Jackson, Wyoming, secret home of Dick Cheney as well as the site of the Photography at the Summit Workshop. The spring Summit workshop, organized by the renowned Rich Clarkson, focuses on digital photography. (Clarkson also has workshops on sports and adventure photography: go here for information.)
    In addition, the International League of Conservation Photographers held its annual meeting in Jackson, just prior to the workshop. That means many of the world's best nature photographers are on hand. The ILCP sponsored what it calls a RAVE (Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition) in which the organization's members and several workshop students document development around Yellowstone National Park.
     Every day students at the workshop go shooting in around around this ski-resort town, photographing the ample wildlife and theTeton mountain range. Their work is then analyzed at a critique with faculty members, which includes Bill Allen. I'll be selecting a few of my favorite images to spotlight on my daily posts.
     Today's pictures come from Johnny Bivera, of Washington, D.C.,who got a successful closeup of a horse (top). Michael Browna of Sinking Spring, PA shot a pastel house in shadows at the foot of the Teton range (above). Meanwhile,  Chris Linder of Seattle, WA shot roadkill as part of his contribution to the RAVE event--a striking example of the rough intersection of man and wildlife in the West (bottom).--David Schonauer

Book This

If you are among the many photographers who have recently self-published a book of your work, take note: A new competition wants to see it. Called the Photography.Book.Now International Salon and Symposium, this contest celebrates and surveys self-published photo books, with a grand prize of $25,000 going toward the completion — or the beginning — of a new photo project of the winner's choice.

Entries will be accepted in two categories: General — pretty much open to any self-published photography volume — and Themed, which includes work that "demonstrates how photography can create a narrative in book form," according to the contest announcement, released today. (Above is a spread from a themed book on portraits.) Entry deadline is July 14. For entry details and guidelines, visit photographybooknow.com.

With a jury panel led by photographer and author Darius Himes, the contest will judge the entries based on creativity, innovation, and image quality. Along with an awards ceremony set for September 12 in San Francisco, related events include a traveling salon and symposium, detailed on the Website.

“To affordably make a book of one’s own photography, with complete creative control, is a liberating, exciting, highly personal, and satisfying experience," says Eileen Gittins, CEO of Blurb, one of the contest sponsors (others include Livebooks, Flickr, SmugMug, and American Photo). She adds that the contest is for "photographers making the books they’ve always wanted to make — with a real chance to gain worldwide recognition and win a tremendous prize.” — Jack Crager

Nature and Humanism at National Geographic

National Geographic’s annual photography seminar was pretty much a homerun, at least as I viewed it. The day-long program, which took place on Thursday at the National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., began by celebrating one of photography’s greatest names, then proceeded to some dazzling nature photography. Surprisingly, most of the program was devoted to humanistic themes. Is this a clue as to the future of Geographic?
      Leading off the day in a big way, National Geographic magazine director of photography David Griffin introduced a special guest, the famed photojournalist David Douglas Duncan, who, though nearly 92, flew in for the event from his home in the south of France. He was interviewed on stage at the seminar by Jean Francois Leroy, the director of the VISA Pour L’Image photojournalism festival in Perpignan, France.
     There is no underestimating the importance that Duncan held for this particular crowd of photographers. Photojournalist David Burnett summed it up when he said that Duncan’s book “This is War! A Photo Narrative of the Korean War” was the work that inspired him to become a photographer. On stage, Duncan’s memories came in lovely, meandering waves. Often a question would bring him to the edge of tears. “Change the subject,” he would then say. It was possible, in such instances, the catch a glimpse of the emotional soul that lies at the heart of great photography.
     On to natural history: Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen showed work from his recent series on leopard seals. He focused on pictures of one seal in particular, a 1,000-pound female (above). Though leopard seals are known for their aggressive behavior, this one, he said, seemed to take pity on him as “an inferior mammal” and brought him dead penguins to eat. (Go here to see the images on Nicklen’s website, and here to see the story in National Geographic.) You could call this nature with a humanistic backlight.
     After being named the recipient of National Geographic’s first Grant for Photography (worth $50,000), photographer Eugene Richards showed work from his project “War is Personal,” a multi-media piece on damaged American soldiers coming back from Iraq. The project has all the hallmarks of Richards’ work: it dwells fearlessly, relentlessly in a world of tragedy.
    Alec Soth, best known for his book “Sleeping by the Mississippi” and for his work in the New York Times magazine and other publications, gave a brief overview of his career, which started in the art world and then veered toward journalism.
    Louisiana-born Debbie Fleming Caffery, another photographer with roots in the art world, showed a group of post-Katrina images and work from her noted “Sugar Cane Harvest” series. Then came Larry Fink, who, as he himself noted, has been called “the world’s greatest party photographer.” Fink’s images of high-society soirees, distinguished by his off-camera flash and willingness to focus on legs and feet, are in fact not party pictures at all but ironic meditations of social class and identity.
     The show closed with the announcement (by photographer Michael K. Nichols) that his Look3 Festival of the Photograph would again take in Charlottesville, Virginia this June 14-14. This year’s festival will focus on the work of Mary Ellen Mark, Joel-Peter Witken, and James Nachtwey. Go here for information.