ROBERT ADAMS WINS HASSELBLAD AWARD

The Hasselblad Foundation, founded in 1979, announced Tuesday that its annual award for outstanding achievement in photography will go to American Robert Adams. … click here

WITNESS TO THE AMERICAN WEST

Posted by Mike Melia, March 25, 2009
Like most great figures of the American West, there is a touch of legend in the tale of how Ernest L. Blumenschein made it to New Mexico. As the story goes, Blumenschein set out with fellow artist Bert Geer Phillips on a drawing expedition from Denver to Mexico in 1897, but the two never made it across the border. A wheel on their horse-drawn wagon broke outside the town of Taos. … click here

HARLEM RENAISSANCE VISITS OKLAHOMA CITY

"The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line," W.E.B. Du Bois wrote in 1901 in the Atlantic Monthly. What soon followed was an intellectual and artistic revolution that was first embodied in the Harlem Renaissance. At the dawn of this century, we find plenty of problems, but a transforming color line and racial diversity now informs and enriches our culture. … click here

ROBERT FRANK: AN OUTSIDER LOOKING IN

In the late 1950s, a Swiss-born photographer named Robert Frank traveled America, documenting its days and nights. With a Guggenheim fellowship, Frank captured Americans in 48 states, on 767 rolls of film and almost 27,000 frames. His images were published in 1958 in "The Americans," which many call the most important book of photography of the 20th century. Through April 26, all of the photographs in "The Americans" will be on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. … click here

THE DRAWING POWER OF PRESIDENTIAL IMAGE

Perhaps never in American history has a politician inspired so many artists as President-elect Barack Obama. His face, seen in magazines, in murals and in posters on buildings and bedroom walls alike all over the world, helped to propel a once unlikely campaign into the fundraising and publicity stratosphere. One image in particular became an icon and was embraced by the Obama campaign. Shepard Fairey's "Barack Obama" is in a style reminiscent of political screen-print posters of the 1960s, bringing to mind the simple graphic power of the iconic images (if not the policies) of JFK, Che and Mao. … click here

CONVERSATION: ANDY GOLDSWORTHY

Sculptor Andy Goldsworthy has spent much of the last three decades creating works amid natural settings in his native England or across Europe and North America, or even at the North Pole. His materials: leaves, rocks, sticks and ice as well as the natural forces of time and weather. There are a number of photographic collections of his work with photographs that he himself has taken. Those are in print, as well as the 2001 documentary "Rivers and Tides." … click here

FILM IN THE WORKS ABOUT 291 - STIEGLITZ AND O'KEEFFEE

Steve Zeifman, writer, producer has made the decision to direct his long held property, 291 ~ O'Keeffe and Stieglitz in the Beginning. This original screenplay created nearly 20 years ago has now resurfaced with Steve in Santa Fe New Mexico. "The decision was made to make this film here in Santa Fe now that the resources have finally come to the state and the creative community is awash with the talent necessary to take this wonderful story to the screen," according to Zeifman. Pre-Production and casting for 291 has begun as well as the decision to shoot this independent film on the "Red Camera," the latest technology in film making. … click here

ANNENBERG SPACE FOR PHOTOGRAPHY OPENS

The Annenberg Space for Photography will open its doors on March 27, 2009. We recently had Julius Shulman, the eminence of architectural photography, shoot interior and exterior images of the Space. Please come back for up-to-date news and information about the Space as well as some special previews of the Shulman images in the coming days and weeks. … click here

CHRISTINA CHALMERS: THE UNDERBELLY OF CLOUDS

Christina Chalmers, a career artist who has exhibited throughout the United States, Italy and France will have a unique multi-media exhibit entitled, "The Underbelly of Clouds". Chalmers, who works in video, oil, mixed media and bronze, employs the Fibonacci number sequence in much of her art. Her presentation will blend disciplines and present a cohesive overview of the artistic and esoteric applications of her vision. The large format photographic images for this show were produced at Rush Creek Editions in Santa Fe. The printing was supervised by Christina Chalmers. … click here

TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF

Inspired by the ecological crisis, artists are seeking to connect with nature on a personal level-listening to glaciers, talking to plants, or taking biospheres for a walk … click here

MYTHIC WEST OF DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES

Mr. Shore's mordant photograph pretty much sums up "Into the Sunset: Photography's Image of the American West," a resonant exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Almost every one of the approximately 150 pictures by about 70 photographers evokes that tension between myth and reality. … click here

CHRISTO & WILKINSON: THE 18TH ANNUAL ARTISTS FOR AFRICA BENEFIT

Over the last 17 years many artists contribute to Africa Rainforest Conservancy's mission has been vital to the preservation of one of the oldest and most bio-diverse rainforests in the world. By generously donating their stunning images of Africa, year after year, to our annual benefit in New York City, these photographers have helped raise nearly $1 million dollars for grass roots community development and conservation in the Eastern Arc Mountains and Coastal Forests of Tanzania. For this year Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson have donated their landmark photograph: Convergence of the Tribes - Amboseli for the ARC auction in New York City on April 20th. To mark the occasion they recreated this image for the first time as a very large format (56") archival pigment fiber print. Working directly with Rush Creek Editions in Santa Fe, an extraordinary print was accomplished and the image has been chosen as the lead photograph for the auction. … click here... to go to the ARC event site or ... click here... to see the Christo & Wilkinson Portfolios.

CHARACTER PROJECT CAPTURES FACES OF AMERICA

Walt Whitman, paradigmatic poet of American idealism, once said, "Other lands have their vitality in a few, a class, but we have it in the bulk of our people."

That vital character is on show (and on the road) in a new photography exhibit called the 'Character Project.' It features the work of 11 contemporary photographers who each shot a small series of photographs of Americans during the summer of 2008. The photographs play witness to the summer parades in New York in beautiful black and white from Mary Ellen Mark, and the life of Columbia College students in Chicago from Dawoud Bey. … click here to see the full article.

THE MANY FACES OF CHE

When Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara is asked "How does it feel to be a symbol?" in Steven Soderbergh's new movie about him, Guevara replies, "A symbol of what?"

While Soderbergh leaves that question largely rhetorical for viewers, countless artists have drawn inspiration from Guevara's image and come to their own conclusions. In the mainstream, Guevara -- the communist thinker, doctor and guerilla -- is a free-floating symbol of counterculture. ...click here to see the full article

EGGLESTON: AN EXCEPTIONAL EYE FOR THE ORDINARY

When"In landscapes, cityscapes, street scenes, roadside scenes, at every sort of public converging-point, in dreaming long view and arresting close-up, through hours of dark and light, he sets forth what makes up our ordinary world. What is there, however strange, can be accepted without question; familiarity will be what overwhelms us."
--Eudora Welty, from the introduction to William Eggleston's 1989 book of photographs, The Democratic Forest

For more than 40 years, photographer William Eggleston has captured common, everyday instances or objects that, through his particular framing, elevates the familiar and makes the ordinary beautiful. Through his lens, a moment can be made monumental. ... click here to see the full article

KODAK RETIRES ICONIC KODACHROME FILM

Eastman Kodak Co. announced this week that it was retiring its iconic Kodachrome film because of declining demand. Introduced in 1935, Kodachrome became the world's first commercially successful color film.

Paul Simon sang about it, Abraham Zapruder used a reel of it to capture President John F. Kennedy's assassination, and photojournalist Steve McCurry had Kodachrome in his camera when he took a famous portrait of an Afghan girl for National Geographic in 1985.

Families made vacation slide shows with the film, and countless amateurs appreciated the rich colors brought out by the film processing. But the film wasn't just for professionals, and it still had its admirers in the digital age. Yet sales of Kodachrome are just a fraction of 1 percent of Kodak's film sales, and only one Kodak-certified lab in the country processes it (Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kan., in case you were wondering).

To celebrate the film’s storied history, Kodak has created a gallery of iconic images, including the Afghan girl and other McCurry photos, as well as others from professional photographers Eric Meola and Peter Guttman on its website. ... click here to see kodachrome slideshow