Summer is a'Coming in the South -- Vrba, Schwartz, Thrasher, Summer Festivals

As the South warms up for summer 2013, there are lots of signs of new life in the world of Southern fine art photography. Here are a few.

Chapel Hill, NC-based photographer Lori Vrba (see image above) is interviewed on the current issue of RFOTOFOLIO - A curated online gallery space for fine art photography, here.



Atlanta-based gallery owner Jennifer Schwartz is out and about the country in her blue-and-white VW bus on her Crusade for Collecting Art bus tour. She has already been to the West Coast, and is headed for Chicago, Cleveland, NYC, Washington, DC, and Richmond, VA.

You can learn more about  this innovative approach to developing the market for fine art photography on her website, here, and the Crusade blog, here.

Ever since I heard about Jennifer's Crusade, I've been holding my breath. I'm old enough to remember when VW buses were new, and even then, the word was that when you bought one, you needed to hire a mechanic to ride around with you in the back seat.

Jennifer's vision is innovative, her plans are ambitious, and, for her, getting there is truly going to be a major part of the fun challenge.

Apparently while driving the bus with her left hand, Jennifer curated a show at the Kiernan Gallery in Lexington, VA, called Open Water, and this show is up now through June 1, 2013.

Also, the latest Southern photographer to be featured on Jeff Rich's Eyes on the South blog from the Oxford American is Kevin Thrasher (see image above).

And if that's not enough, Look3 Festival of the Photograph is almost upon us, featuring Gregory Crewdson, Josef Koudelk, Tim Lama, Susan Meisela, Richard Misrac, Michael Nichol, Martha Rosle, and Honorary Southern Photographer Carrie Mae Weems.