“I look for the unguarded moment, the essential soul peeking out, experience etched on a person’s face. I try to convey what it is like to be that person…I guess what you’d call the human condition.”
For more than twenty-five years Steve McCurry has covered areas of international and civil conflict, including the Iran–Iraq war, the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, Beirut, Cambodia, the Philippines, the Gulf War, and Afghanistan. Face of Asia concentrates on his extensive work from Asia, including images from India, Afghanistan, as well as recent work from Cambodia and Tibet. McCurry’s vivid color images and descriptive titles give us in the West a window into the cultures and peoples of Asia. Check out this podcast at eastmanhouse.org. Find out exhibition venues and dates here.
“There’s nothing more exciting for an artist than an exhibition showcasing new work, unless that show also features the work of an equally acclaimed and beloved spouse. Such is the story of photographer Jerry Uelsmann and artist Maggie Taylor at their recent “Just Suppose” exhibition at the University Gallery, University of Florida (UF), Gainesville, Fla.
Although the content of their art has a similar ethereal quality, both have very different approaches. Jerry Uelsmann rose to fame in the 60’s and 70’s as a master black-and-white printer creating composite images with multiple enlargers and long hours in the traditional darkroom. In contrast, Maggie Taylor produces her dreamlike color images by scanning objects into a computer using a flatbed scanner, manipulating the images with Adobe Photoshop, and printing them in a digital workflow using Epson Stylus Pro printers.” Find out more about the production of their new work for this exhibit here. Read my conversation with Jerry Uelsmann here. Find Jerry and Maggie’s books here.
Prices for photographs have hit historic records. Contemporary artists are now selling photographs for more than $3,000,000. Richard Prince created one of the most controversial and expensive photographs; an appropriated image used in advertsing, represented in large scale, printed on inkjet, in an edition of 2.
Here’s Sam Abell’s reaction to Prince’s appropriation of one of his images.
Here’s Richard Prince speaking about his work in general.
Princess Leiah, can you color manage that?
Now I know I’m a geek.
A bad Star Wars joke and color management in the same line?
But, this technology stuff is very cool.
Check this out.
Video in thin air?
The Helio display is a video projector that casts images on condensed air.
This video is a record of one of my new Participation Pieces. They use images projected in the dark – with no screen. You can’t see the image until you create one. That’s what I invite other people to do. Initially, I provide scattered flour. Other materials will surely be incorporated soon. The way the screen is created changes the image. The image is never the same twice. Sometimes you see it only partially. Sometimes the screen moves. Letting the flour fall produces a rain-like effect. Blowing the flour into the air creates a cloudy effect. The participant changes the image. Without a participant, there’s no image to see. And the viewer’s point of view changes what’s seen. If you’re a participant your activity limits your ability to see all angles. If you’re a viewer you have to move to see all angles and you can’t see all moments from all angles. It takes many people to create and view the entire event.
Projection changes the image. Two-dimensional images become three-dimensional. A point becomes a line. A line becomes a plane. A circle becomes a cylinder.
What kinds of images am I projecting? Images of celestial phenomena I normally exhibit in print form. Images of the light patterns I render in my series Refraction. Animations of those line patterns created in Photoshop. I’m sure I’ll find more locations, screens, and images in the days to come.
Many of these images are of eclipses. Coincidentally, August 1 and 16 there are eclipses (solar and lunar). Find out more about today’s solar eclipses here.
After thinking about environmental sculpture and projection for a long time, I finally started creating projections during a Creativity workshop with Sean Kernan. You can find my June posts on it right here on this blog. Just type in Kernan in the Search field and click Go. You can see my Annual Exhibit in person 8/2-3. Find out more here.
Stay tuned for online releases all weekend long.
Jay Tomioka visited with me last winter for a video interview. He’s doing a very interesting project on photography that includes extensive video interviews. Other photographers he’s interviewed include Jerry Uelsmann, Maggie Taylor, Steve McCurry and many more. One of his themes is the relationship between eastern and western sensibilities and uses of photography. It’s an important theme for me. We spent hours talking. It’s an interesting series about to be released. You can preview video excerpts here. (Each video is just under 10 minutes long.) Read the interview here. See more Jay Tomioka videos here. You can hear me speak about my new work during my Annual Open Studio Exhibit 8/2-3. Learn more here.
I just saw Pilobolus Dance Theatre’s Lanterna Magica this weekend. It was an inspiring performance! Two hours evaporated!
Honestly, as interesting as the video clips here are, they don’t do a full performance justice. (In two hours you get to know each dancer. Each experience builds on the previous one generating a big final effect.) But don’t let this stop you from watching more. They’re great! You can see more Pilobolus on YouTube. Find out more about Pilobolus here.
I’ve been intrigued with dance since I was very young. The Nutcracker and Firebird ballets captivated me at the age of 4. Mumenshantz modern dance / mime at 5. The Whirling Dervishes at 6. At 7, I moved to New Mexico and began attending native american ceremonial dances. Martha Graham’s Rites of Spring at 19. Cirque du Soleil at 40. And recently Alison Chase (former creative director of Pilobolus) was a guest instructor during a weeklong workshop on creativity led by Sean Kernan. (See my posts between June 9-13, 2008.)
I enjoy seeing anyone do anything really well. But watching other creative people engaged in different disciplines is particularly interesting to me. I learn about creativity. I learn about communication. I learn about myself. Often, I’m asked what does work in other fields offer me directly for my own work. Ideas. Ideas that I can apply to my own work? Yes. I find that if you don’t get stuck on specifics but make more generalized or abstracted statements about quality and perception that these become vital wellsprings for new ways of thinking. Here’s an example. Dance and sculpture have been increasingly influential to me with respect to representations, expressions, and experiences of two essential elements in my work – time and space. The stimulus in these two other disciplines has led me to develop many new images (For just one example, see my series Allies here.)
The other question that often arises is once you’re inspired by another discipline, should you engage it professionally. Yes. No. Maybe. You have to weigh many things before making this leap – talent, passion, means, etc. My recommendation is to sleep on it long and hard. Personally, take a little time to be stimulated and energized by a wide range of experiences, free of professional pressures. Professionally, stay focused on your core passions. I don’t plan to do dance or yoga professionally. Sculpture on the other hand … well stay tuned. It’s a long standing desire of mine to work with sculpture that goes way back to early childhood and simply won’t go away. That impulse is about to bear fruit this summer. It may well become a very strong current in my work for the foreseeable future.
Stay tuned here this summer. Sign up for my enews Insights for alerts here.
My wife made the comment that we should all make it a habit to spend a little time each year getting out and experiencing new things that will inspire and motivate us. I agree!
What was the last or most inspiring creative event you’ve attended? Comment here!
Climate change? Green house gases? Black balloons? How do you discuss and display what’s invisible? These public information commercials by the Victorian Government, Melbourne are simply first rate. They’re a testament to the power of images to concentrate big ideas into tiny packages in truly memorable ways. They’re artfully done. Art and socio-political relevance? Incompatible? Tell it to William Blake! Better yet, tell us what you think here. Comment!
Today, you can attend my Canon sponsored lecture “Antarctica” at the Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, MA) today at 3:15-4:15pm. It’s free! Read my Antarctica essays here. See my Antarctica images here.
