Jeff Rich is Another Photographer Who is Off to a Big Start in 2012

Not content to rest on his laurels after reeling in the book publication prize in 2010's Critical Mass competition, Savannah-based photographer Jeff Rich has just closed a group show of landscape photography at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville, Florida, and has a host of events ongoing and upcoming.

His work -- featured earlier on this blog -- about Erwin, Tennessee resident Steve Harris and the Nuclear Contamination of his property is featured in Jennifer Schwartz' The Ten Project.

His Photolucida book, Watershed: The French Broad River, will be published in February 2012.

AND, Jeff will have a solo show of the Watershed portfolio at Jennifer Schwartz Gallery, opening on February 3rd, with a reception from 6-9. The show will be up at the Jennifer Schwartz Gallery through March 17th.

Jeff's images are part of a post-Ansel Adams movement in American, and Southern, landscape photography that is about the relationship between the human and the landscape. His photographs look wonderful on the web, but they have a luminosity in person that simply does not come through online.

My point -- his work is very much worth your getting to Atlanta, and to Jennifer Schwartz's gallery, to have a look at. My guess is, this is only the beginning of a really special year for Jeff.

Southern Images In the Galleries -- January 2012

Some museum and gallery news of photographers young and photographers old, including 4 items of interest.

1. Kathleen Robbins and Eliot Dudik, faculty members in photography at the University of South Carolina at Columbia, along with some of their students are opening a show of photographs this weekend at Tapp's Arts Center, 1644 Main Street, in Columbia.

This show will be up through February, and you can learn more about it on Tapp's Art Center's Facebook page.

2. Duke's Center for Documentary Studies is opening a major show of color photographs taken by a variety of photographers during the Depression, up in the Juanita Krepps Gallery at CDS now through July 23rd, 2012 in their home at  1317 W. Pettigrew Street, in Durham. 

This show is called Full Color Depression, and some of the images on view were made in the South (like the one above by Jack Delano), and you can learn more about the show here and preview some of the images here.

They were shot on Kodachrome, which Kodak  took away, contrary to Paul Simon's wishes, just before Kodak itself went belly up.

3. The International Center for Photography in New York City now has up a major exhibition of work by the South African photographer Grey Villet now up through May 6th, 2012.  

The show is called The Loving Story: Photographs by Grey Villet and includes images made by Villet while he was working for Life Magazine in 1958 on assignment in Virginia documented the lives of the Lovings, an interracial couple who were married in 1958 in Washington, DC.

They settled in Virginia, but were soon arrested by Virginia authorities for violating the state's laws against interracial marriages.The Lovings eventually were vindicated by the US Supreme Court, which in 1967 declared such laws unconstitutional.

Villet shot 73 rolls of film in this assignment, but Life Magazine published only 9 of his images.The ICP now has a major show of this work on view, mostly for the first time anywhere.

4. Finally, the New York Times reports William Eggleston has decided to make digital enlargements of some of his iconic images to benefit his Foundation.

He is blowing up 36 photographs he made in the Mississippi Delta in the '70's and '80's from their original 16-by-20-inch prints and printing them in a new, oversize format at 44x60 inches. He plans to sell the entire collection at Christie's on March 12 to benefit the Eggleston Artistic Trust.

I've seen wall-sized prints made digitally from some of Walker Evans' WPA photographs and they are stunning. Eggleston's work should be equally commanding in a larger format.

South Light Photographers -- Salon and Group Show in Nashville

South Light is a group of photographers in Nashville, and it consists of Chuck Arlund,  Jerry Atnip, Nick Dantona, David Robert Farmerie, Robert McCurley, Mark Mosrie, Jerry Park, and Pierre Vreyen.

These guys -- experienced photographers all -- have found each other in Nashville, and have formed a Salon, and are now having a group show called Southern Light: The South through Eight Lenses, up at The Arts Company, at 215 5th Avenue of the Arts, in  Nashville through February 18th, 2012.

You can sample the work on offer in the show by going here, to the website of The Arts Company.

They have taken the opportunity of the group show to expand the event into a photography festival, with a talk by Sylvia Plachy, a portfolio review coming up on February 4th, and a host of other presentations, exhibits, and receptions. You can find the entire schedule here.

I'm hoping this festival will be the precursor of things to come. The guys have what they need to build on -- a sense of purpose, a mission statement, and high aspirations for what they have begun. They are establishing themselves as "an expert resource for the photographic and art community through lectures, workshops and exhibitions."

They say, "The genesis of the name is an indication that photographic art is alive and well below the Mason-Dixon Line."

Which is good to know.

Their "common Artistic Statement" commits them to "participate in a model of art, which is holistic; a meeting of the conscious and unconscious, thought and emotion, spiritual and material, private and public," to "endeavor to make art that is the visible manifestation, evidence and facilitator of the soul’s journey," and to "make photographs as a quest for authenticity and a plea for the rediscovery of connection."

There is much fine work here, much to celebrate in this year's Festival, and much to hope for as they make plans for future events. Keep us posted, guys.

Marilyn Suriani Makes the Atlantic Cities Blog Two Weeks in a Row

Marilyn Suriani has been photographing in places far removed from her home in Atlanta.

Her shot of Tokyo is featured on the Atlantic Cities blog this week, a happy follow-up to the appearance of her photograph from Key West last week. Who knows what might show up next week.

Sometimes, good things happen repeatedly. And congratulations to Marilyn!

Upcoming Show -- Puppy Love in Zebulon, Georgia

What do the folks behind the Slow Exposures Southern Photography Festival and SXSE do in their spare time? Run a photography competition, of course.

The annual Puppy Love Show at A Novel Experience Bookstore in Zebulon, GA will be up from January 30th through February 25th, 2012, with a closing reception on the 25th, featuring hot dogs, of course.

Puppy Love is a juried photo exhibition held each February, featuring images of dogs being dogs. All profits go to local animal shelters and to guide and assistance dogs for returning soldiers injured in combat.

This year's jurors were Jerry Atnip and Paul Conlan, and the Winner of Best in Show (see image above) is Shannon Johnstone, my friend who is Associate Professor of Studio Art at Meredith College, here in Raleigh.

Other winners in this year's Puppy Love Competition include Kathryn Kolb, Anne Berry, Donna Black, Valerie Hayes, Donna Rosser, Gary Gruby, and Beau Gentry, and you can see all their work on on the new Puppy Love Facebook page 

Oen more word about Shannon Johnstone -- she is passionate about dogs, and she is also passionate about animal rights and the issues around animal overpopulation. Look at her portfolio Breeding Ignorance only if you are ready for some heartbreak.