PhotoNOLA This Weekend

PhotoNOLA opens today, December 12th, for its annual 4-day run. 

PhotoNOLA is quickly becoming a major event in Southern photography. The folks in New Orleans pack a lot of life, energy, and photography into just a few days' time.

Organized by the New Orleans Photo Alliance, in partnership with the galleries, museums and photographers of New Orleans, PhotoNOLA offers a wide range of photography exhibitions, many of which are on display not just this weekend, but also throughout the month.

Work on display includes images by photographers with (dare I say) a Southern focus like Deborah Luster or Emerson Matabele (see image above) but also nationally and internationally prominent photographers like Andres Serrano, Edward Burtynsky, and Gerry Yaum.

The festival lineup also  includes portfolio reviews, workshops, lectures, demonstrations, book signings and the PhotoGALA.

And, wherever you are during PhotoNOLA,  you've got New Orleans itself right outside the door. Let the good times roll!

Latest News Updated -- Southern Fine Art Photography, Late Fall 2013

I've been attending to other projects, as faithful readers may have surmised. Go here to find out what I've been up to. While I was otherwise occupied, a lot has been happening in the world of Southern photography.

Here are a few items.

Tierney Gearon is having a show at Jackson Fine Art in Atlanta, up now with work from her  Colorshape portfolio through Saturday, December 21st, and with work from her Alphabet Book portfolio up now through February 2nd, 2014.

William Eggleston had a show at the PDNB Gallery in Dallas, TX last fall. He now has a show up at the Gagosian Gallery in NYC, through December with images from his At Zenith portfolio of cloud photography (see image above).

This work dates from the late 1970's and suggests of course that Eggleston had been thinking aobut Alfred Stieglitz's Equivalents images of forty years earlier. The catalogue is available here.

Eggleston continues to have a major show at the Tate Modern Museum in London, and is also featured at the Gagosian Gallery's booth at Art Basil Miami Beach, happening now.

Also, Chapel Hill, NC-based photographer Lori Vrba had a show at Wall Space Gallery in Santa Barbara, CA, where she now officially has gallery representation and a wider audience for her work.

Finally, for now, the following photographers have appeared -- since we last checked -- in Jeff Rich's ongoing Eyes on the South series in The Oxford American.

Margaret Holland Adams
Ari Gabel
Dylan De Rose
Tim Gruber

Jeff also brings our attention to a series of books called The American Guide, patterned after the Depression-era guidebooks sponsored by the U.S. Government as part of the Federal Writers Project.

 Several volumes in this series are on states in the American South and feature work by Southern photographers, including

Darin Acosta 
Breonne Dedecker
Michael McCraw 
Tammy Mercure
Missy Prince
John Lusk Hathaway
Lindsay Scott
Brittany Kearns
Aaron Canipe
David Jones

And that's enough news for one message. More later.

Jennifer Schwartz Gallery Closing, Crusade Continuing

Atlanta's Jennifer Schwartz opened a show of work on November 1st, 2013 by Winston-Salem-based photographer Heather Evans Smith, from her portfolio The Heart and The Heavy,  with a one-night-only event at Atlanta’s Goat Farm Arts Center and a subsequent exhibition at Schwartz' gallery at 675 Drewry Street in Atlanta's Virginia Highlands, now up through December, and viewable by appointment.

Schwartz then immediately announced that her gallery was closing at the end of the year -- with presumably Smith's show the last one for this long-time major player in the Atlanta photography scene.

Schwartz will now be devoting her time and seemingly boundless energy to her Crusade for Art project.

This project -- which last year involved a cross-country trip in a VW bus -- seeks to create more demand for art, specifically photographic art, or as the announcement puts it, "promoting and developing the careers of photographers and cultivating collectors."

The purpose of Crusade for Art is "to build artists’ capacity to create demand for their work" by "educating and mentoring artists to higher levels of creative and professional development" and by incubating, through programs and advocacy, innovative solutions that connect artists with their audiences."

This new phase of Crusade for Art will involve a range of activities, including national and local chapters of Crusade for Art as well as Crusade Engagement Grants, and you can learn more about it on the Crusade's new website.

I know a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, but I can't help but believe that the closing of Jennifer Schwartz's gallery is a significant blow to the photography scene in Atlanta.

Brandon Thibodeaux Named Exhibition Winner for Critical Mass

Dallas-based photographer Brandon Thibodeaux has been named one of three exhibition winners through this year's Critical Mass review process.

Thibodeaux won on the strength of his portfolio When Morning Comes, the result of a three-year-long exploration of life in the Mississippi Delta.

The folks at Critical Mass say of Thibodeaux's work that "while this work makes specific reference to the rural black experience," it also "reminds us that themes of faith, identity, and perseverance are common to us all.

"What started as a personal redemptive journey ends up illustrating the unwavering nature of the human spirit."

Congratulations to Thibodeaux on this achievement.

Interesting how the Mississippi Delta region (known to some as "the most Southern place on earth") keeps drawing photographers, and keeps inspiring them to produce outstanding work. 

Updated -- Is Art Basil Miami Beach an Event in the Narrative of Southern Photography?

For a quick tour of Art Basil Miami Beach 2013, go here:
 
Then ponder this Question: Is Art Basil Miami Beach an event in the narrative or history or culture of Southern Fine Art Photography?

Discuss.