Photography Festivals -- Late Fall 2014

The Photography Festivals in Atlanta and North Carolina's Research Triangle are winding down, but the fall festival season continues.

Next up is FotoWeekDC, in our nation's capital, running November 8th to the 16th, with a rich array of activities, including shows, lectures, contests, and, especially, since its DC, parties and social events. 

For a full list, go HERE.

December brings PhotoNOLA, scheduled for December 4th to 7th, in New Orleans. 

PhotoNOLA seems to cram more major events into a single week than some festivals do in a much longer run. 

This year's PhotoNOLA will include a major address by Distinguished Southern Photographer Emmet Gowin, as well as a vast array of exhibitions, educational events, and the Portfolio Review, which has become a multi-day event with prizes and awards. 

For a full schedule, go HERE.

So many festivals, so much to see, so much to do, so little time! 

Sigh . . . . .

Carrie Mae Weems in London, and Elsewhere

Honorary Southern Photographer Carrie Mae Weems is having a show of her work in London at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, now up through November 15th, 2014. 

The show offers Weems' work from her Color: Real and Imagined portfolio  Images in the show are here.

There is a nice profile of Weems in the Guardian Newspaper, here.  

In other news, Weems recently closed a show of her work at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC with a 3-day gala on April 25–27, 2014, entitled Carrie Mae Weems LIVE: Past Tense/Future Perfect. 

The Guggenheim describes Weems' work, thus:

"Carrie Mae Weems is a socially motivated artist whose works invite contemplation of race, gender, and class. Increasingly, she has broadened her view to include global struggles for equality and justice. 

"The exhibition traces the evolution of Weems’s career over the last 30 years, from her early documentary and autobiographical photographic series to the more conceptual and philosophically complex works that have placed her at the forefront of contemporary art. 

"All of her work displays an overarching commitment to better understanding the present by closely examining history and identity. 

"It also contains a desire for universality: while African Americans are typically her primary subjects, Weems wants “people of color to stand for the human multitudes” and for her art to resonate with all audiences." 

"An overarching commitment to better understanding the present by closely examining history and identity" -- that's a pretty good description of what makes a Southern photographer Southern.  

It's been quite a year for Weems, not to mention the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.  

Dennis Church is having an Amazing 2014, and Its Only October

Bonita Springs, Florida-based photographer Dennis Church is having an exceptional 2014, and its only October. 

In late October, brilliantly-colored and meticulously composed images from his AMERICOLOR portfolio were featured on Jeff Rich's Eyes on the South blog for late October.

His book of these images, also called AMERICOLOR, has just been published through BLURB, and is available here.

Church has also had work featured in a number of overseas venues, including 

1. Wonderzine, a magazine based in Moscow, Russia

2. Image in Progress, an Italian photography magazine

3. ARTPHOTO Magazine, Prague, Czech Republic

In September of 2014, he had a solo show of his work at the Kaori Gallery in Canberra, Australia, up from September 4th - 27th, 2014. 

And, among other achievements, late last year, LensCulture listed Church's AMERICOLOR portfolio as one of their favorite 13 portfolios from all of 2013.

I had the good fortune to see Church's work at the recent ACP Portfolio Review. I found his images stunning, a riot of color, yet meticulously composed.

Church told me that many of his images were made from his car while sitting at stop lights, the composition of a moment. 

That's breathtaking. Everything is in the right place, lined up perfectly.  Church's ability to bring the light, color, and chaos of the Southern landscape into remarkable order is simply stunning.

All this work in all these diverse and far-flung places suggests that his work has wide appeal, bringing him well-deserved recognition as a fine art photographer.

And who knows what the rest of the year will bring.

 

Maude Clay Proclaimed Visual Artist of the Year in Mississippi

Congratulations to Maude Schuyler Clay, Sumner, Mississippi-based photographer, who has been named recipient of the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Visual Arts for the State of Mississippi for 2014.

Clay's citation from the Mississippi Arts Commission reads,

"Maude Schuyler Clay was born in Greenwood, Mississippi.  A self-described lifer of Tallahatchie County (six generations), she attended the University of Mississippi and Memphis Academy of the Arts.  

"She began her career assisting her cousin, the celebrated photographer, William Eggleston.  

"While living in New Your City, Clay worked with the LIGHT Gallery and later as a photography editor and photographer for Esquire, Fortune, Vanity Fair and a number of other publications.  

 

"Over several decades, she has made her native Mississippi the prime focus of her work, and her vision of this land, particularly the storied Delta, is the image many conjure when they think of Mississippi.

"In 1993, she turned her focus to a series of black and white photographs, that for her captured the complexities of the Delta landscape.  For this work, she preferred to “take photographs in the natural low light of early morning or late afternoon.” 

"The resulting culmination of her black and white series, the book Delta Land, was published in 1999 and earned her a Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award for photography in 2000.

"Her current collection is Delta Dogs, inspired by her love for dogs and their unique place in the landscape of the Delta."

Congratulations to Clay for this well-deserved recognition of her achievement as an artist and for her contribution to the cultural life of Mississippi.

Lenscratch Celebrates Slow Exposures

The Lenscratch Photography Blog is celebrating the SlowExposures Photography Festival this week, bringing some exceptionally-well deserved love to Chris Curry and all the good folks in Pike County, Georgia, who make Slow Exposures a joyous event every year.

Chapter One of this series is here, from October 20th, and features a report by Aline Smithson, one of this year's jurors, on her experience with SlowExposures this year. 

Chapter Two, for October 21st, gives us the statements about this year's show by jurors Smithson and her co-conspirator in the jury room, Alexa Dilworth, as well as a generous selection of images from the main show at SlowExposures and a list of the overall winners as well as all those juried into the show. 

Chapter Three profiles MacNair Evans and his solo show, Confessions of a Son, a show growing out of Evans' first place award at the 2013 SlowExposures juried show. Evan's work is deeply personal and also documentary, linking his own coming-to-terms with his late father and the economic crisis faced by many Southern small towns while Southern big cities boom.

Chapter Four, for October 23, 2014, features the pop-up show organized and presented by a group of photographers collectively known as The Posse, and individually known as Lori Vrba, Bryce Lankard, Ann George, Anne Berry, and S. Gayle Stevens.

Their installation, called Time, Place, and Eternity: Flannery O’Connor and the Craft of Photography, went up in Chris Curry's horse barn. Aline Smithson, writing for Lenscratch,  calls it "one of the most interesting and innovative exhibitions I’ve seen in a long while.

Chapter Five, for October  25th, 2014, features the Do Good Fund's growing collection of Southern photography, focusing on its show at this year's SlowExposures, under the title Brought to Light, presented at the Whiskey Bonding Barn and curated by Constance Lewis.

Chapter Six, for October 26th, 2014, features a second pop-up show that was part of SlowExposures this year, this one entitled Off the Page, featuring work by the Southlight Salon of Nashville —Jerry Atnip, Nick Dantona, Robert McCurley, Jerry Park, Mark Mosrie, Rick Smith, and Chuck Arlund.

Great for SlowExposures to get this kind of, well, exposure. 

The Lenscratch folks nailed it when they said, "The entire show was filled with stellar work."

Make sure you check this out.