SxSE for Late Fall 2013

The latest issue (Volume VIII, Issue 6) of South by South East (SxSE) Photography Magazine is now out for late fall and early winter of 2013, and it has all the fine photography and engaging features we have come to expect from SxSE.

Editor Nancy McCrary has devoted this issue to bodies of work that tell us stories, chiefly but not exclusively about the American South.

The photographers whose work is on offer include Cameron Adams, Victoria Amador, Rhonda Prince, Clay Fisher, Forest McMullin, John Rosenthal, Mark Cáceres, Mike Nalley, Phil Winter, Roman Alokhin (see image above), Stephanie Bryan, Terri Garland, MaryAnne Mitchell, Vicki Hunt, Christian Harkness (see image below), and Beate Sass.

In addition to all this fine photography there are all the interviews, reviews, discussions, and conversations we have come to expect, and value, from SxSE.

And you can have access to all this fine -- and award-winning -- work for a very reasonable fee, a very reasonable fee indeed.

To subscribe, to do the right thing, go here.

Don't put it off any longer. We Southern photographers need to support our basic institutions,

You know you should subscribe. You know it, you really do.

Castell Photography in Asheville

Just off Eagle Street, and a block from busy Biltmore Avenue, in the heart of Asheville's thriving arts district, Brie Castell has fashioned an elegant multi-level gallery for the exhibition of fine art photography.

It's called Castell Photography Gallery, and it is an excellent space for the exhibition of images. Its also close to the Limones Restaurant, a fabulous Mexican eatery (but that's a whole 'nother story).

For the fall season, Castell has had the wisdom to get Larry Wheeler, the long-time Director of the NC Museum of Art, and Allen Thomas, eastern North Carolina's photography collector par excellence, to jury a show of photography.

The show is called NEXT, and it opens on Friday, November 1st, with a reception from 6:00 - 8:00 in the evening.

Among the 28 photographers whose work has been selected for this show are a number of people with Southern roots.

They include Nashville's Carla Ciuffo, Raleigh's Ian Dunn, Charlotte's Laurie Schorr, Chapel Hill's  Mike Sonnichsen, Atlanta's Ansley West, Raleigh's Tim Lytvinenko, Raleigh's Nick Pironio, Asheville's Adam Void, Greenville's Christine Zuercher, Savannah's Pablo Serrano-Otero, Athens, GA's Michelle Norris, and Johnson City, Tennessee's Joe Reynolds.

 Asheville is one of the South's great cities for art, and for photography, and Castell Photography is at the center of it.

This show is clearly worth a visit, and we will keep up with future goings-on at the Castell as well.

Southern Photographers in the News -- Early Fall Edition

Items of interest --

1. Honorary Southern photographer Jan Banning will show work from his Down and Out in the South portfolio at the Hagedorn Foundation Gallery, at 425 Peachtree Hills Avenue, in Atlanta, opening October 26th, 2013 and up through January 4th, 2014.

For more details, go here 

In 2014, the show will move to the 701 Center for Contemporary Art in Columbia, SC.

2. ACP (Atlanta Celebrates Photography) closes this week, with a gala on Friday night at the West Side Cultural Arts Center, at 760 Tenth Streeet NW, in Atlanta. For more details, go here.

3. But the photography show never stops in Atlanta. Winston-Salem, NC-based photographer Heather Evans Smith will open a show of her work at the Jennifer Schwartz Gallery, 675 Drewry Street, on Friday, November 1st, 2013.

4. FotoWeek DC also opens November 1st, go here for details.

5. Finally, since we last checked in, the following photographers have had their work featured by Jeff Rich on his unfolding anthology of Southern photography, called Eyes on the South, on the Oxford American website. 

Megan King 
John Lusk Hathaway
Melissa Stallard
Michael McCraw
Walter Beckham
Dawn Roe
Tamara Reynolds
Colin Stearns
Stephanie Dowda
Joe Leavinworth
Antone Dolezal
Laura Shipley
Tatum Shaw
Amanda Greene
Brett Schenning
David Simonton
Trish Gibson
Kate Winner
Tammy Mercure
Ashley Jones
Steve Eiden

Lots of fine work here, lots going on. So much to keep up with!

Matt Eich is Having a Great 2013, and It's Only October

Norfolk, VA-based photographer Matt Eich has had a whole slew of good news this year, and its only October.

Eich is working this month in Greenwood, Mississippi, on his portfolio Sin and Salvation in Baptist Town, funded by a Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography. You can learn more about that project, and the grant, on the Getty Images website, here and also on Eich's site devoted to this project, here.

In July, Eich was Artist-in-Residence at Light Work in Syracuse, NY, where he prepared for a solo exhibition of his work at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art in Virginia Beach, VA.

This show, Seven Cities, explores Eich's vision of the seven cities of Virginia's  Hampton Roads area. The show is up now at MOCA, through December 29th, 2013.

 
Eich also has a solo show at the Babcock Gallery of Virginia's Sweet Briar College, with work from his Carry Me Ohio portfolio, up now through December 8th, 2013.

 Eich has also had work in shows in Cortona, Italy; Washington, DC; Kansas City, MO; and NYC.

He has photographed the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Round-Up for the New Yorker and been featured in Photo District News, the British Journal of Photography, the FlakPhoto blog, the LENS blog of the New York Times, and American Photo magazine.

Eich has also announced the launch of a limited edition, self-published magazine called Smoke Signals, to feature ongoing projects and new bodies of his work, more here.  The first issue has sold out, but the next one is on the way.

That's a lot going on for a Southern photographer, and its only October. 

The Light Factory Regroups in Charlotte

The Light Factory, Charlotte's center for photography, has suspended its operations to engage in what is being called a "strategic planning process."

What that means is that they are out of money and are having to reassess their mission and means of operation.

For more information, go here. 

As they put it, "As the broader non-profit community has struggled to maintain funding support, The Light Factory also has experienced a decline in funding, including both contributed and earned revenue, of almost 30 percent over the past three years.

“Suspending operations was a very hard and difficult decision to make, and we had to do what is in the best interest of the organization,” said Light Factory Board Chair Jeff Wise.

“We have been going through a strategic planning process to determine the best operating model for the organization, but the reality is that we just didn’t have the cash flow necessary to keep the operations going while we evaluate our options and determine a viable, sustainable solution.”

 "The Light Factory’s board of directors is working proactively to find solutions to the financial challenges, including possible mergers or partnerships with other organizations. “Our hope is to find a solution that will allow The Light Factory’s mission to continue,” said Wise"

This is a significant crisis for the Southern photography community.

The Light Factory has been a major component of the revitalization of downtown (well, they call it "Uptown," but let that pass) Charlotte since its founding in 1972.

Charlotte has made serious commitments to developing its downtown as an arts center in the past few years, including new buildings for the Mint Museum and the Bectler Museum of Modern Art.

But The Light Factory was there first, as a pioneer, and as a statement about how a facility that combines the work of a museum and a school can nurture creativity and energy vital to urban life.

This crisis in its history obviously reflects broader trends in funding support for the arts, but locally it's hard to imagine Charlotte without the Light Factory.

The good news is that older members have rallied in support, and plans are developing for a return for the The Light Factory to an older model for its operation, a return to a volunteer-led, grassroots organization.

There will be elections for new members of the board of directors, redefinition of mission, new models for staffing, etc, but the future of the really splendid space in Charlotte's Spirit Square for exhibitions, classes, and the general nurture of the photography community in Charlotte still seems to be in doubt.

 Stay tuned for more developments.