Southern Photographers in the Galleries -- Late Spring 2016

Southern photographers have had lots of their work on the walls of galleries and museums in the spring of 2016.  

Some of the photographers with work on display include the following:

1. Hattiesburg, MS-based photographer Betty Press (see image above) has received the Director's Award for her work now on display, through June 26th, 2016, at the A. Smith Gallery of the Photographic Arts in Johnson City, TX.

 2. Williamsburg, VA-based photographer Eliot Dudik has two shows up now at the Center for Fine Art Photography, in Fort Collins, Colorado, up now through June 25th, 2016. 

In the Gould Gallery are images from Dudik's Broken Land portfolio (see image above).

 In the C4FAP's North Gallery are images from Dudik's Still Lives portfolio (see image above). 

3. Chapel Hill, NC-based photographer Tama Hochbaum (see image above) has had work from her Silver Screen portfolio up at Raleigh's Flanders Gallery. 

Still more to come! Watch this space.
 

Emmett Munger Mann (1979 - 2016)

Sad news from the Lexington (VA) News-Gazette:

"Emmett Munger Mann, born Nov. 20, 1979, the son of Lexington attorney Larry Mann and Distinguished Southern Photographer Sally Mann, and co-parents Karen (KB) Bailey and Hunter Mohring, died Sunday, June 5th, 2016, at home. 

"Mann graduated from John Dewey Academy in Massachusetts and Mary Washington University in Fredericksburg, and served in the Peace Corps in Niger.

"A man of eclectic interests and talents, he owned a lawn and garden service, played guitar with his E. Mann Band, enjoyed composing blends of funk and reggae, and entertained friends and family with his humor and love of language.

"He was passionate about topics as diverse as screwball American politics, biomass energy, the plight of women in Africa, solar power and the ethics of drinking bottled water.

"He took great pride in his hard work for longtime family friends, Washington and Lee’s Blue Bike Program and the broader Lexington community, which was central to his life.

"Members of his community spontaneously gathered at the Blue Phoenix Café on Washington Street Monday evening. The owner, Amenie Hopkins, also a county native, recalled Mann’s high school years. “He was always this idolized figure. Half the girls in Lexington had a crush on him.”

"In his later life, he dealt with his schizophrenia with grace, joking about his demons: “My charisma is broke.”

"In addition to his parents and co-parents, he is survived by two sisters, Jessie and Virginia Mann, and two uncles, Bob and Chris Munger. They are all so proud of him.

"Memorial contributions may be sent to the Rockbridge Area Community Services Board, attention John Young, 241 Greenhouse Road, Lexington, Va. 24450."

May his soul, and the souls of all the departed, rest in peace. And may his parents, and all who loved him, be comforted in their grief. 

For the full obituary, go here.

Southern Photographers on the Web, Late Spring 2016

The World Wide Web has become a significant display medium for photographers. 

Southern photographers recently singled out for celebration on the Web include the following:

  1. Winston-Salem, NC-based photographer Heather Evans Smith (see image above), in the New York Times, for the "quiet yet telling images" from her Seen Not Heard portfolio. 

2.  Distinguished Southern photographer Burk Uzzle (see image above), also in the New York Times, for his capability for "being in the right place at the right time" to make "pictures that capture the humanity in historical moments." 

 

3.  Raleigh-based photographer Diana Hooper Bloomfield (see image above) the On-Line Featured Artist at the moment for the VERVE GALLERY of Contemporary Photography, go here.
 

Bloomfield has also been the Featured Photographer recently on Rfotofolio (see image from that show directly above).

4. Savannah, GA-based photographer Fred Hirschman (see image above) is featured in AINT-BAD Magazine, here.

Photographers featured in Jeff Rich's ongoing Eyes on the South for the Oxford American include the following:

5. Oxford, MS-based photographer Shaun H. Kelly (see image above), with work from his Overgrown South portfolio. 

 
6. Lauren Henkin (see image above), with work from her what's found is yours to keep portfolio.  

7. Washington, DC-based photographer Grant Ellis (see image above), with work from his portfolio Bless your Heart. 

8. Western NC-based photographer Ken Abbott (see image above), with work from his portfolio Useful Work: Photographs of Hickory Nut Gap Farm.

9. Orlando, Florida-based photographer M. Laine Wyatt (see image above), with work from her Interiors portfolio. Wyatt was also featured by Aline Smithson on Lenscratch last year, go here.

10. Colleen Mullins (see image above), with images of post-Katrina New Orleans from her Elysium portfolio. 

Congratulations to all these fine photographers!

More to come -- keep watching this space. 

Deadline for Slow Exposures Fast Approaching

Slow Exposures, the annual photography show about the Rural South, will be held this September 15 - 18 in Pike County, Georgia.

There is still time to get your work into Chris and all the good folks in Pike County. The deadline for entries is midnight on Sunday, June 19th, 2016. 

This year's jurors are David Carol and Eliot Dudik. 

This year, for the first time, the entire show will move to the Cochran Gallery in LaGrange, Georgia, where it will be up for a longer time than is possible in the exhibit areas in Pike County. 

Slow Exposures is one of the truly great events in the world of Southern photography, so its time to get your work together and send it on in for this year's show.
 

Lori Vrba at the Southeast Center for Photography

Chapel Hill-based photographer Lori Vrba has a major show of work from her Portal portfolio now up at Greenville, SC's Southeast Center for Photography, in their exhibition space downtown, at 1239 Pendleton Street. 

Vrba's show is up through August 27th, and has already begun to receive wide and enthusiastically positive notice, including this feature interview by Aline Smithson in Lenscratch and this feature story in Rfotofolio.

Vrba is a master of vision, and of realizing her vision in the darkroom and in the spaces she commands for installations of her work. Art, in her view, is a matter both of finely-made objects and of the settings in which she locates them. 

Happily, to give us an idea of what she has in store for us, Vrba has posted a video of the show on Vimeo, here:

https://vimeo.com/169367681

Vrba speaks of this portfolio as involving a journey both outward and inward, or as she puts it, "Portal is about the entry point into a world that is exotic, mystical, spiritual and maybe even a little bit dangerous.  (Or in other words…The South).  

"As I’ve gone deeper into the work, I’ve realized that the portal could lead inward as well; to an internal place of essence, magic, grace and fortitude."

This Portal show is definitely worth your trip to Greenville. Congratulations to Vrba on yet another fine body of work, and yet another compelling installation!

William Eggleston now represented in NYC by the Zwirner Gallery

The New York Times brings news that Distinguished Southern Photographer William Eggleston is now represented in New York City by the David Zwirner Gallery, at 525 W 19th Street. 

The press release announcing this move is here.  

Zwirner's first event featuring Eggleston's work will be a show at the West 20th Street location of the Zwirner Gallery of work from Eggleston's Democratic Forest portfolio.

Eggleston was previously represented in The Big Apple by Larry Gagosian, who still lists Eggleson as one of his artists, go here.

The New York Times quotes Zwirner to the effect that "the photo community sometimes takes their own and holds them hostage," but "it's important for Eggleston's work to be seen among the great art that's being made. I know that's very important for him in choosing our gallery."  

This seems to be An Event in the art world of NYC, go here for the story from ArtNet, and here for the story from The Observer.

ArtNet says that "Eggleston's decision to leave Gagosian comes hot on the heels of Julian Schnabel quitting Gagosian to return to Pace Gallery, on the grounds that he "wanted to have a more human relationship with the person who was representing my work."

ArtNet concludes that Eggleston's move "seems to be becoming quite a trend, as in 2012, Yayoi Kusama also left Gagosian for Zwirner.

"Eggleston, Kusama, and Schnabel are not the only artists to crave a less business-like approach from the mega-gallery Gagosian, which has and continues to expand across the globe."

Ah, yes, the NYC Gallery scene, a form of art consumption that I neither have access to, nor understand. 

Look3 photography Festival opening June 13th in Charlottesville, Virginia

Mary Virginia Swanson and all the good folks who bring us the Look3 Festival of Photography are looking forward to welcoming us to Charlottesville, Virginia for this year's Festival, opening June 13th and running through the 19th. 

For more information on this year's Festival, including speakers, events, and tickets, go here.

The mission of Look3, they tell us, is to "celebrate the vision of extraordinary photographers, ignite conversations about critical issues, and foster the next generation of artists." 

And so they do, and in the process turn the downtown area of Charlottesville, Virginia, into a true wall-to-wall celebration of photography.

In fact, I'm reliably informed that the exhibitions of photography in the street are already up for this year's festival. 

To get a glimpse of what awaits you in Charlottesville, at Look3, go here:

http://www.nbc29.com/story/32092471/photography-festival-installs-pictures-on-downtown-mall

And while you are in Charlottesville, if you want to eat at the best Italian restaurant in the USA south of NYC, check out Tavola on Hinton Avenue.

Just sayin'.  

Burk Uzzle shows now up in Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill

Distinguished Southern Photographer Burk Uzzle is being celebrated in North Carolina this summer with three simultaneous exhibitions in North Carolina's Research Triangle, in Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill.

Uzzle's Summer Trifecta includes the North Carolina Museum of Art's exhibition Burk Uzzle: American Chronicle, now up through September 25th, 2016.

The Nasher Museum at Duke University has also opened Burk Uzzle: Southern Landscapes, up in Durham through September 18th, 2016. 

The Nasher will host Uzzle for a Gallery Talk on Thursday, June 2nd, 2016, starting at 5:30 pm. 

The Ackland Museum at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, will present All About America: Photographs by Burk Uzzle, opening June 24 and up through September 11th, 2016. 

Uzzle's spectacular accomplishments are also being celebrated this summer in such outlets as Garden and Gun, go here.

Also coming up for Uzzle is a show of work from his portfolio documenting the Eastern North Carolina African American Community, opening at the Greenville, NC Museum of Art in spring of 2017. 

All this acclaim is richly deserved, by one of the world of Southern photography's most gracious and generous citizens.

Definitely worth a trip to the galleries in central North Carolina, folks. 

Come see us, ya heah?