twelve

http://descubrimiento.tumblr.com/

July 1-3 Visual Studies Workshop

Rochester, NY

The following is a brief conversation with Tate Shaw, director of the Visual Studies Workshop, in regards to the upcoming Photo- Bookworks Symposium

What is the goal of the Symposium?

A few years ago we started recognizing that a lot of photographers were using print-on-demand services to make books, rather than portfolios, to present their work. But many of these photographers aren’t thinking enough about sequencing, pacing, or the possibilities for different materials to support their ideas. The goal of the symposium is to expand the potential for the photo book-as-art within a new production generation–in an era with access to print-on-demand and desktop publishing–in order to educate on the distinctive time/space art of the photo-bookwork.

Is there a theme?
There isn’t a theme per se. Photographers who work in the book form often blur subject lines and you’ll see many themes in one book alone. So we have gathered practitioners that are making complicated, interesting projects where the editing, sequencing, pacing, and sometimes the materials inform the photographs for books that are themselves works of art.

There is an impressive list of presenters, how did you decide who you wanted to have participate?
I focused a lot of attention on practitioners who are also invested with publishing projects. I felt artist/publishers would have more diverse experience to present from. I also contacted curators inviting them to suggest those books they would like to discuss. This is how the conversation between Anne Wilkes Tucker and Alec Soth materialized. In the very early stages I organized a photo-book club with some thoughtful friends and colleagues–a book club where you didn’t have to read anything prior to coming, you just had to come with a few photo-books to share. This was a great way to see a lot of books I may not have found on my own necessarily.

How do you see the artists’ book fitting into the photography world now and in the future?
The point of this for me is to further educate practitioners on the potential of the book as a complex form of display. It seems to me that if the facility is growing (with print-on-demand and the like) and the practitioners are informed of the potential for complexity in the book form, then more photographers will self-publish works and we will have direct access to artists’ ideas. The problem is always distribution–how to distribute books that you make on your own? Some interesting developments are taking place, however, such as Joachim Schmid’s small but growing ABC: Artists’ Books Cooperative with links to self-publishers where you can get books directly from the artists themselves. More book fairs and festivals for photo-books are popping up each year as well.

What is the Visual Studies Workshop’s mission?
Visual Studies Workshop is committed to expanding the potential of the media arts, and their impact on contemporary culture, through innovative programs in education, exhibition, publication, research, practice, and community service. We were founded in 1969 by Nathan Lyons and our programs support photography, artists’ books, film, video, and new media projects each year. We also have an MFA program in Visual Studies accredited through the College at Brockport, State University of New York. Our grad students are connected to the nonprofit media arts center, where activities such as the symposium are taking place, and their education and the center’s programs support one another.

What makes up the artists’ books archive?
Joan Lyons founded the VSW Press in 1971 to facilitate artists publishing projects. Because we have actively contributed to the field, publishing over 450 projects in the past 40 years, artists and publishers send us books for our collection and for review in the journal we publish, Afterimage. The Independent Press archive is where these books are held. The archive has grown to be around 5,000 titles by independent photographic, visual, and language artists. Some of the most influential artists’ books and small poetry of the past 35-40 years can be found in the archive.

For more information:
http://www.vsw.org/symposium.php

Tate Shaw

tate@vsw.org

Roger Ballen, 1982 – 2009, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY

A twisted tornado of wire whirls just above the cowering head of an old man in a black and white photograph that is one part magic and one part death; It was taken by Roger Ballen in a building called the Shadow Chamber in the far corner of the cement basement halfway around the world.

Ballen, a photographer from Johannesburg, South Africa, creates a fragmented reality in which fact and fiction are equally elusive. His current exhibition, featuring 74 square black-and-white prints, is on view at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York through June 6 . The images on display predominately come from Ballen’s most notable monograph, Shadow Chamber (2005) and his newest work, Boarding House (2009).

The Shadow Chamber is a deserted industrial building in South Africa inhabited by transients and local laborers. Within its walls all time and cultural contexts are lost, setting the stage perfectly for Ballen’s dark mischief. Though the level of direction is unclear, there is a playful interaction to the otherwise disturbing imagery that leads one to think; what, exactly, is going on here? Is this a dark social commentary? Are these meticulously placed objects in a thoroughly thought-out tableau? Or, is this real?

In a recent lecture at the George Eastman House, Ballen danced skillfully around all of these questions, and kept the audience rapt in his unique narrative that is comedy and tragedy, and defies common photographic tropes. The story being told is about a singular slice of time, in which all of the connotations of poverty, politics and history in South Africa are momentarily culminated and personified by an odd-looking man blankly staring at two puppies in small cages in a dingy room.

Ballen, who is a trained geologist, is an excellent speaker. His cryptic delivery and concise statements at times sounded absurd, but constantly had the audience on the edge of their seats. He described his process of a growth and discovery as an artist as a sort of an uncovering of how he perceived people and places. His travels and experiences in Africa seem to have allowed him to mine his own psyche and “cross the chasm” from documentarian to artist.

The most recent work in the exhibition is from his new monograph, Boarding House (2009). The Boarding House, as Ballen mentioned in his talk, is located almost adjacent to the Shadow Chamber Building. In this series, we are again taken to a dark corner of his world, only this time the people in the images have faded into, and now blend in with the background. Hands and mouths become texture-elements and creep in from the edges of the square frame with equal visual impact to doll’s heads and mangles of wire.

James Rajotte, Apr. 2010

Last weekend I held a day-long photographic portrait “inventory.” I invited many of the people that I know in Rochester and solicited some passersby and we made a series of portraits in my studio, umm I mean on my front porch. It was a beautiful day, fun was had and pictures were made. Here are my favorites:

Photo Arts 3 RIT 2010, Fuji 4x5 instant film

As a new quarter begins here at RIT, I pull out my favorite first day assignment for beginning photography classes. We check out 7 or 8 Sinar 4×5 cameras and some Fuji instant film backs and I let the students go.  They interact with each other, the camera and the light, and I watch as intimidation turns into instant gratification.

Above is the picture I made while demonstrating how to load and expose the film.

I photogrpahed some interesting stories last week.  Both had to do with legal matters. Here are my outtakes and links to the story. The first is who was Freddie Peacock, exonerated of rape after 28 years, and photographed him for The New York Times

Freddie Peacock, exonerated after 28 years, The New York Times

The second is Carol Tonzi, who who invested in another person’s life insurance policy and saw no return.

Life Settlements, The Wall Street Journal