Posts from the “Photography” Category

Wyatt Gallery: The Windows of My Studio

Posted on February 10, 2018

1:50pm November 26, 2011 – Port of Spain, Trinidad. © Wyatt Gallery

“Wherever you go, there you are,” Confucius observed, explaining one of the inherent paradoxes of life. The nature of the human mind is one of an eternal quest, a seeking for answers – or maybe even the questions themselves.

We come to this earth without words, able to communicate through gesture, facial expression, guttural sounds and tones. It is enough to keep up going during our earliest, most vulnerable period of life but soon we are compelled to go beyond this visceral state. We are given words, words, and more words and shown how and when to use them: how to ask, how to answer – and, ultimately, how to think.

Life then becomes a process of accumulation until it reaches the tipping point and we discover that we are trapped inside losing paradigms made by lesser minds. It is then that our search takes a powerful turn, as we are forced to unwire our programming in the search for truth, undergoing the pain of stripping away lies that have shaped our identity in the most intimate and profound of ways.

This journey in inevitable although some may wish never to go, digging their heels in through denial, distraction, or delusion. But even within that, the yearning occurs, as we catch ourselves gazing out the window wondering, “What if? What is? What could be?”

It is here, in this moment of quiet repose, that our imagination is set free, able to launch itself into the world of possibility. This possibility is the essence of hope – the thing we dare not to say aloud for fear that it might escape our grasp. We hold it close to our heart, so close it lives in silence until the courage comes, to see out in the world whom we are truly meant to be.

Read the Full Story at Feature Shoot

11:15am May 22, 2011 – Kapa’a, Kauai, Hawaii, USA. © Wyatt Gallery

2:20pm October 9, 2011 – Jacmel, Haiti. © Wyatt Gallery

Categories: Art, Feature Shoot, Photography

Q. Sakamaki: Buffalo Nation

Posted on February 9, 2018

A scene of Wakpamni Lake Annual Powwow on the 4th of July. In the late 19 century to the 1970s, the practice of native American religious ceremonies had been banned, even the use of their language in public. Now they can freely practice any faith or tradition, but the cost of losing their identity is big: most practitioners nowadays are the elder or children, not the youths. In addition, some Lakotas feel no sense about that they have the traditional ceremony on the 4th of July because of the historical relations between native Americans, surely including Lakotas, and the US government. But others would like to purposely use the day to appeal their culture and tradition, especially as many of Lakotas have served the US military. © Q. Sakamaki

Young Lakota native Americans join Lakota War Pony Races at Kiza Park, Pine Ridge, that environmentalists say faces the high risk of pollution in the ground water due to the nearby abandoned uranium mines and wells, often creating the risks of cancer, diabetes and other illness. © Q. Sakamaki

Established in 1899, Prisoner of War Camp #334 (aka Pine Ridge Reservation) is home to the people of the Oglala Lakota tribe, and has been ever since they were forced to abandon their native lands by the U.S. government. It was also the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre, the largest slaughter of innocent men, women, and children on American soil – a fact the often gets ignored when the U.S. media reports on mass shootings.

On 29 December, 1890, troops from the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment went into the South Dakota camp on a mission to disarm Black Coyote, a deaf man, while he was performing a ritual called the Ghost Dance. The rifle in question went off, and the U.S. soldiers charged the Lakota people, who had been disarmed. By the time they were done, some 300 innocent Lakota men, women, and children had been killed.

The U.S. government awarded Medals of Honor to 20 soldiers in the massacre at the time – only to express “deep regret” for the slaughter a century later, as reported by The New York Times in 1990.

That regret did not extend beyond mere words. For the past century, the Oglala Lakota, one of the seven tribes of the Great Sioux Nation, have been forced to live at Pine Ridge, the nation’s eighth largest reservation in conditions of extreme poverty, enforced by government policy and the breaking of treaties, which has resulted in the loss of vast natural holdings for the Lakota peoples.

Read the Full Story at Huck Online

Lakota native American veterans and their family members tribute to the dead family members and comrades during the service, at Wakpamni Lake Annual Powwow on the U.S independent day. The Lakota in the Pine Ridge reservation, like other Native Americans, have served the US military generations to generations. It is very disproportional in terms of their population ratio, and somehow it creates an ethical dilemma to serve the U.S. military because of the historical relations between native Americans and the U.S. government. However, many of them have no choice since there are not so many job opportunities in the reservations. © Q. Sakamaki

An alcoholic native American man is arrested with the charge of domestic violence in the Pine Ridge reservation. Alcoholism affects 8 out of 10 families in the Pine Ridge reservation, as many cannot have a hope in their future. © Q. Sakamaki

Categories: Art, Huck, Photography

Lyle Ashton Harris: Today I Shall Judge Nothing That Occurs

Posted on February 8, 2018

M. Lamar, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 1993. © Lyle Ashton Harris.

In the early morning on 17 October 1997, Lyle Ashton Harris wrote a poem “For Lawrence,” which he printed out and pasted into his journal, asking, “is there other ways to know thyself? / I guess in a sense I am still waiting / peaking through / I cry / fear, wondering, what, if I let it go, / to discover, to unveil another, to write, / to share myself with another, to trust myself. / i am still that little boy.”

The poem goes on to reflect on dying and death, on fear and desire, on the nerve it takes to be true to one’s self. It is something we all face in one way or another in this life – though the artist may grapple with these issues openly in their work, taking vulnerability to new heights of the sublime.

For Harris, the ascent began in 1993, when his exhibition Face: Lyle Ashton Harris opened at the New Museum. Here, he used photography, video, and audio to examine race, sexuality, and gender during a period when multiculturalism, globalisation, and AIDS activism dominated the world stage, transforming the conversation around black masculinity to expand beyond the rigid boundaries proscribed for African-American men.

The following year, Harris exhibited The Good Life, his first solo show, at Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, where he subverted markers of identity to show just how vast blackness is when seen from the inside looking out. The show solidified Harris’s place in a new generation of artists transforming the art world.

Read the Full Story at Dazed

Essex Hemphill, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, 1992. © Lyle Ashton Harris.

“Altar, Koreatown (Journal #1)”, 1997. © Lyle Ashton Harris.

Categories: 1980s, 1990s, Art, Books, Dazed, Photography

Meryl Meisler: Self-Portraits Before Cindy Sherman

Posted on February 7, 2018

Self-Portrait, Playmate Hostess, NY, NY, December 1978 ©Meryl Meisler

Growing up in Long Island during the 1950s and 60s, Meryl Meisler had the typical suburban life: Girl Scouts, ballet and tap dance lessons, and prom. But while she loved her family and friends, she didn’t quite fit in. She quickly realized she didn’t want to be a housewife, teacher, nurse, or a secretary—pretty much the only options available to young women at that time.

As Meisler came of age, she began to discover her sexuality as a lesbian as well as her identity as an artist. “Photography is in my genes,” Meisler said. Her paternal grandfather Murray Meisler, her uncle Al, and her father Jack had all been lifelong practitioners of the art.

Meisler got her first camera in second grade, but it wasn’t until she enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in Madison during the mid-1970s that she became serious about the form while pursuing an MA in Art. During school breaks, she returned to her childhood home, where she staged a series of self-portraits that examined her past, present, and future. At this point, Meisler hadn’t heard of Cindy Sherman, but she had the same instinct. She sought to examine the construction of the female gender, from its rituals to its poses to its personas.

A selection of these photographs appears in Purgatory & Paradise: SASSY 70s Suburbia & The City (Bizarre), while others have recently come to light as Meisler prepares for her next book. Here, she speaks with us about this seminal period of her life, sharing a self-portrait of the artist as a young woman ready to take flight.

Read the Full Story at Vice

Self-Portrait, Girl Scout Applying Lipstick, North Massapequa, NY, January 1975 ©Meryl Meisler

Categories: 1970s, Books, Photography, Vice, Women

Patrick D. Pagnano: Empire Roller Disco

Posted on February 5, 2018

Photography © Patrick D. Pagnano // Courtesy of Benrubi Gallery, NYC

Photography © Patrick D. Pagnano // Courtesy of Benrubi Gallery, NYC

Deep in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, back in 1941, the Empire Roller Skating Center opened its doors to the world. Located across the street from Ebbets Field, back when the Dodgers were the hometown team, the Empire brought the joys of rollerskating to countless generations in its massive 36,000 square-foot space.

By the 1970s, a new style had arrived: roller disco, which brought the uptempo dance music of the nightclubs to the rink. Sound systems were upgraded and DJ booths were installed, while skaters brought their moves, creating a new craze that took the nation by storm.

And, by 1980, the media was entranced. That February, Forbes magazine commissioned street photographer Patrick D. Pagnano to document the scene. “It was the first time I had been to Crown Heights,” he remembers. ”Once I entered the rink I was transported to another world and was in my element.”

Read the Full Story at Huck Online

Photography © Patrick D. Pagnano // Courtesy of Benrubi Gallery, NYC

Categories: 1980s, Art, Brooklyn, Exhibitions, Huck, Photography

Manhattan Transit: The Subway Photographs of Helen Levitt

Posted on February 2, 2018

Helen Levitt was an extremely private person and preferred to let her photographs speak for her – and if you listen very carefully, you might just hear the Bensonhurst accent coming through. “Dawling,” a photograph might intone with intimate familiarity, suggesting we come closer to get the gossip or a bite to eat. “Fuhgeddaboudit,” another might insist, making it clear the window for opportunity is firmly shut.

The Brooklyn soul of Levitt is firmly entrenched in her perfectly composed portraits of daily life in New York. Once upon a time before gentrification took hold, New Yorkers were everything America aspired to be. They came from all walks of life, frequently crossing paths, having the good sense not to gawk or to stare because that would be gauche. They came to expect the unexpected and took it in stride, spouting Cindy Adams catchphrase, “Only in New York, kids,” with pride.

They were characters, in every sense of the word, but rarely were they posers because somebody would pull their card. The New York of Helen Levitt spanned seven decades, from the 1930s through 90s, as she walked it streets, discreetly taking photographs without anyone clocking her. She was as much a part of the scene as everyone else, but she was on a mission: to create a body of work in tribute to this big galoot, this metropolis sitting on a pile of schist that would becoming the most powerful city in the world while Levitt walked its streets.

Read the Full Story at Feature Shoot

Categories: 1970s, Art, Books, Feature Shoot, Photography

Sara Shamsavari: World Hijab Day

Posted on February 1, 2018

The veil hides, just as it reveals, a deeper side of the woman beneath. It speaks without words, letting us know that she who wears the veil is a Muslimah. In celebration of these women who line the cityscapes of the world, Sara Shamsavari presents London Veil | Paris Veil | NYC Veil, a series of street portraits that capture the beauty, intimacy, and majesty of the Muslim women today.

Sara Shamsavari: “I am neither critic nor an advocate of the veil, I have a worldview that we are all one people and, although not religious, I respect all religions and faiths. I believe that each of us has the right to our choices without having to suffer prejudice, persecution or exclusion.

I am originally from Iran, a place where women are forced to veil. When I visited Paris, where some of these portraits were made, Muslim women are forced to unveil at their place of work or education. I don’t agree with anything by force. A person should not be forced to wear it or take it off. We are all human beings and we all deserve respect and fair treatment regardless of our background and choices. The women I met and photographed in these western cities wear their hijabs out of choice.

I think that sadly, even in the liberal West, people are still afraid and threatened by the idea of difference as well as change. I believe that differences should be embraced and celebrated. I believe in synergy and that the most incredible things can happen when those who are different come together. I also think these differences are part of the reason why cities like London and New York are so dynamic.

I like to work in different mediums however photography has the ability to connect people who are different in an instant and in a way I haven’t experienced with other art form. It brings people together. I actually began with a background of fine art-mainly painting drawing and also music and still produce work in other mediums. I got in to photography around the age of 16 and experimented with disposable cameras, then SLRs and black and white processing. To me it felt like making a painting or drawing instantly and it still feels that way, I think about color and composition a lot. Moreover I was profoundly impressed with its immediacy and ability to create a bond between myself and the person I was made a portrait of. This inspired me to push forward with photography.

I am moved by the inclusivity of photography on many levels, it draws diverse audiences to spaces they may not ordinarily feel welcome, it has the ability to elevate and empower individuals and communities from the moment I photograph them to the time I enlarge their image and hang it proudly on gallery and museum walls. It has allowed me to share my vision without words, my vision of beauty beyond what I see celebrated on mass media.

I chose to photograph women in London, Paris, and New York because they are western cities where Muslim women are not required to wear Islamic dress, therefore those who do, mostly do this out of choice. New York is interesting because it is where 9/11 took place and, in the years that have followed ,I have noticed an increase in young women wearing hijab. The women in New York are strong, no-nonsense entrepreneurs. My dear friend Nailah Lymus (in the orange and leopard print hijab) is a good example- she is an incredible designer and the founder of UNDERWRAPS, the first hijabi modelling agency.

Paris is interesting because of the governments extreme attitude towards Muslims and the hijab. Parisians are particular and perfectionist and my ladies in London are stylish but often idiosyncratic, a fairly British trait. I think the way that some of the participants of the series express their identity through their hijab style show solidarity with other Muslims, as well as other influences such as western fashion and music that connects them with the environment and people of other cultures they have grown up with. I’m inspired by the idea of transformation and I see style as one example of how we respond to our challenges. Being in the minority is one challenge and the response of the women through their sense of style and expression is beautiful.

I think it is cruel and unfair that so many Muslims are judged or demonized because of the behaviors of a few extremists and it is amazing how ignorance still exists and thrives. I think it is important to take a visible stand against this real lack of education about Muslims, to take a stand against injustice, inequality, and prejudice. I think that it is really fear of difference that prevents people from truly seeking to understand one another. This is what I have experienced in my lifetime, a fear of difference, otherness.

This brings me back to photography, it is so amazing how it has the ability to include and bring people together. The photographer, the artist has that opportunity to spark a change in the way people view others and themselves. I see women’s rights as exactly that: A woman’s right to choose her life and experience whatever that may be. What ever a woman does must be her choice, not something that is imposed upon her.”

Categories: Art, Photography, Women

Mark Morrisroe (1959-1989): Boy Next Door (Beautiful but Dumb)

Posted on February 1, 2018

“Blow Both Of Us”, (1978/1986). Image: © Estate of Mark Morrisroe (Ringier Collection) at Fotomuseum Winterthur, Blow Both of Us, Gail Thacker and Me, Summer, 1978/1986, Vintage chromogenic print (negative sandwich), Courtesy of ClampArt, New York City

At the tender age of 30, American artist Mark Morrisroe died from complications due to Aids. The year was 1989 and by then the virus had claimed over 27,400 lives in its first decade. The loss was irreplaceable.

Morrisroe was the unofficial leader of The Boston School, a group of artists including Nan Goldin, David Armstrong, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Tabboo!, and Gail Thacker who attended either the School of the Museum of Fine Arts or Massachusetts College of Art between 1971 and 1984. Here, he helped kindle the nascent punk scene while also acting as a catalyst in bringing autobiographical photography to the forefront of the art world.

Morrisroe was an enigmatic figure whose diaristic artwork was fuelled by his notoriously radical persona. A teenage prostitute raised by an alcoholic mother, he walked with a cane and a pronounced limp due to a bullet lodged deep within his chest, a wound inflicted while in high school when he was shot by a john. The artist turned to photography to mediate his experiences of life. Working in Polaroids, he embraced the immediacy of the moment transformed into an object that could be manipulated at will. Morrisroe forsook the sanctity of the print in favour of engaging with a mixed-media approach, presciently prefiguring so much of the digital culture in which we currently live.

Yet his premature death has relegated his work to the shadows, making him one of the least-known figures of his time. For more than a decade, gallerist Brian Clamp has exhibited Morrisroe’s art, working tirelessly to restore his rightful place in the art world. In conjunction with the February 1 opening of Mark Morrisroe (1959-1989): Boy Next Door (Beautiful but Dumb) at ClampArt, New York, Clamp shares the details of Morrisroe’s spectacular life and the ways in which his personal experiences fuelled the creation of his art.

Read the Full Story at Dazed

“Hello From Bertha”, (1983). Image: © Estate of Mark Morrisroe (Ringier Collection) at Fotomuseum Winterthur, Hello From Bertha, 1983, Vintage chromogenic print (negative sandwich) retouched with ink, Courtesy of ClampArt, New York City

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, Art, Dazed, Exhibitions, Photography

Khalik Allah: Souls on Concrete

Posted on January 29, 2018

In the summer of 1998, Khalik Allah had come to a major crossroad after failing eighth grade. Dancing with a B-boy crew had been keeping him out late at night, and school had failed to interest him. Yet he understood the importance of educating himself. Concerned about his future, he headed up to Harlem and began to study with the Five-Percent Nation at the Allah School.

The Five-Percent teachings provided Allah with the self-knowledge and street smarts needed to turn his life around. When he graduated high school, he received a $1,000 scholarship that he used to buy his first camera. He took up filmmaking, then photography, with a mission to create an original style that he could use to create what he describes as “psychic x-rays” – portraits of the soul that lies within.

Read the Full Story at Huck Online

Categories: Art, Books, Huck, Manhattan, Photography

Francois Beaurain & Medina Dugger: Chromatin

Posted on January 27, 2018

In 2015, Francois Beaurain traveled to Lagos Photo, where he met Medina Dugger. Inspired by the work of late photographer J.D. Okhai Ojeikere and Nigerian hair color trends, they launched Chromatin, an on-going collaboration that transforms Dugger’s photographs of traditional Nigerian women’s hair styles into a series of mesmerizing gifs that are rooted in fractals, the very heart of African design and art.

Fractals are a curve or geometric figure where each part has the same statistical character as the whole, creating a never-ending pattern on an on-going feedback loop. While the West came to understand and name this phenomenon in 1975, fractals have been an integral part of African culture daring back to ancient Egyptian times, and can be seen in cultures in Sub-Saharan Africa writ large.

With the invasion of the continent by Euorpean imperialists for centuries, a great deal of the traditional cultures were destroyed and erased — with the exception of hair braiding. “African hair designs are among the last remaining remnants of an ancient African cultural pillar that has been almost completely annihilated by centuries of colonization and cultural domination,” Beaurain and Dugger note.

With Chromatin, the artists restore fractals to their rightful place: as the fundamental essence of African art and design, and imbue it with a modern twist, combining hair design and digital technology to create a powerful new way of seeing the depth and complexity of traditional African culture and thought. Beaurain speaks with us about making fractals the center of their art.

Read the Full Story at Feature Shoot

Categories: Africa, Art, Feature Shoot, Photography

Harry Gruyaert: East/West

Posted on January 24, 2018

Las Vegas downtown motel, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, 1982. © Harry Gruyaert Magnum Photos. Courtesy of Thames & Hudson.

“Higher emotions cannot be communicated in color,” American photographer Paul Strand claimed – revealing the power of irrational beliefs to take root in the mind and spread like a virus through those who fear to question ideology in search of the truth.

The decision to invite Belgian photographer Harry Gruyaert (b. 1941) to join Magnum Photos in 1982 caused dissent among the ranks. At that time Gruyaert had been working in color for two decades, but the powers that be “didn’t see color,” so to speak. Photography was still a fledgling medium in the art world, and those who were desperate to join the ranks revealed a powerful insecurity that fed simple-minded biases and false hierarchies designed to exclude innovative thinkers who worked outside the narrow frame of the status quo.

Gruyaert, however, was undeterred. His commitment remained consistent throughout his remarkable career. In 1981, Geo photo editor Alice Rose George commissioned Gruyaert to photograph Las Vegas. Rather than provide his take on the tired tropes of the Strip, Gruyaert ventured off the beaten path ton the Vegas where residents lived. The result was entirely too realistic; Vegas was not the place of fantasies and spectacle – it was a world where people eked out their existence on the margins.

Read the Full Story at Feature Shoot

Categories: 1980s, Art, Books, Feature Shoot, Photography