Photography
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David Ricci’s Edge of Chaos
Studio Visit with a Berkshire Photographer
By: - Feb 14th, 2018For the past year the Berkshire based photographer, David Ricci, has been working on a large format, expensive and ambitious book. It has a working title of Edge of Chaos and surveys four decades of his oeuvre. During a studio visit we viewed the work and how it is evolving into a publication.
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Kaleidoscapes and Sights Unseen by J. Alexander Baker
North Adams Eclipse Mill Gallery
By: - Jul 02nd, 2021“Kaleidoscapes and Sights Unseen”, an exhibition by photographer J. Alexander Baker, at the Eclipse Mill Gallery, is a series of semi-abstract waterside scenes of rivers that reveal unexpected patterns hidden within the natural world. Baker’s digital manipulation of limited color palettes, reflection, repetition and focus transform the Hudson, and other rivers, into kaleidoscopic dreamscapes that exist in the space between observed reality and imagination - "Riparian Kaleidoscapes".
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FEVER: A 1981 Photographic Time Capsule
Allen Frame’s Portraits of New York Friends Before AIDS
By: - Jun 17th, 2021In this new book of color photographs, all shot in 1981, Allen Frame attempts to revisit a zeitgeist that had given rise to an aesthetic that was distinctly New York. The distinctiveness was related to a circle of friends, many – though not all of them - gay men, who were making art at a specific moment in New York’s history. FEVER is Frame’s personal documentary of that time, before the deepening tragedy of AIDS that would claim the lives of many of the young artists pictured in this book.
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The Abstract Photography of Carl Chiarenza
Retrospective at George Eastman House
By: - Mar 13th, 2021Growing up in Rochester, the home of Eastman Kodak, Carl Chiarenza's interest in photography began at an early age. On many levels it is significant that Career Retrospective: Journey into the Unknown is being presented at the George Eastman Museum. It remains on view through June 20.
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MFA Acquires Holocaust Trove
48 Photographs by Henryk Ross
By: - Feb 22nd, 2021“This extraordinary collection of images reminds us of photography’s power to preserve and amplify the full emotional range of lived experience. Together, these 48 photographs serve as both memory and documentary evidence of the extremes of war. They are powerful and memorable,” said Matthew Teitelbaum, Ann and Graham Gund Director. “Imagine the journey: passed from the photographer to a fellow prisoner in the Lodz Ghetto, hidden and brought to New York City in a small envelope, passed from one generation to another after a lifetime of care, and now preserved permanently in one of America’s great collections of photography. That, too, is powerful and memorable.”
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Carl Chiarenza at the George Eastman Museum
Career Retrospective: Journey into the Unknown
By: - Feb 05th, 2021Throughout his career, Carl Chiarenza (American, b. 1935) has demonstrated that photographs can provide much more than just documentary evidence. Rather than create straightforward records of the cast-off materials that appear before his camera, Chiarenza photographically transforms them into new and provocative images.
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The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography
A Netflix Documentary
By: - Aug 30th, 2020Elsa Dorfman was the limner of the Beat Generation. She made deadpan, large-format Polaroid potraits of her celebrity pals as well as ordinary folks. She passed away a few months ago but is superbly recalled in a Netflix documentary by Errol Morris. It's so like Elsa who is regarded as a major artist but described herself repeatedly as a "nice Jewish girl."
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Kendall Messick’s "Blind Sight"
To See and to be Seen
By: - Aug 13th, 2020In October 2019, I was having dinner with my friend Kendall Messick, an artist who creates installations with still photography, film, video and ever-evolving two-and three-dimensional media. Over dinner he told me he was flying to Bogota, Colombia, the next day for a major installation of his work. The show is an achievement of both patience and memory. It was thirty-four years in the making.
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Kendall Messick's The Projectionist
An Outsider Artist's Secret World
By: - Jul 09th, 2020How one man lovingly – and obsessively - constructed his very own movie palace in the basement of his suburban home.
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Alice Sachs Zimet The Collector
Follow Heart and Eyes, but not Your Ears
By: - Jul 05th, 2020In December of 1984 Alice Sachs Zimet attended an exhibition at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, New York. She had come with Sam Wagstaff, the lover of Robert Mapplethorpe. They were there to see a flower photography exhibition from Wagstaff’s vast and groundbreaking collection.That’s where Zimet saw an image by contemporary photographer Andrew Bush titled Columbines. It was love at first sight.
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Alice Sachs Zimet The Collector
Follow Your Heart and Eyes, but not Your Ears
By: - Jul 02nd, 2020In December of 1984 Alice Sachs Zimet attended an exhibition at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, New York. She had come with Sam Wagstaff, the lover of Robert Mapplethorpe. They were there to see a flower photography exhibition from Wagstaff’s vast and groundbreaking collection.That’s where Zimet saw an image by contemporary photographer Andrew Bush titled Columbines. It was love at first sight.
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Poloroid Photographer Elsa Dorfman at 83
Known for Studio Portraits Including Allen Ginsberg
By: - May 31st, 2020At 83 the reowned portrait photographer, Elsa Dorfman, passed away at home in the People's Republic of Cambridge. As a young women she worked for Grove Press in New York. There she met many writers including Allen Ginsberg who became a lifelong subject and friend. I included her in exhibitions and wrote about her for Art News.
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Carl Chiarenza on Boston Photography
Harvard Dissertation on Aaron Siskind First on Photography in US
By: - Aug 07th, 2019During graduate study at Boston University photographer Carl Chiarenza was a professor, mentor and friend. We spoke at length about how JFK and the Vietnam War nudged him into studying art history. At Harvard he was the first American to write a dissertation on photography. It was a biography and critical study of then living American icon Aaron Siskind. Now retired from the University of Rochester he continues to create new work.
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Leo Mazzeo Photographs MASS MoCA
The Night Watch
By: - Jun 24th, 2019Working the night shift as a security guard at MASS MoCA has inspired Leo Mazzeo to use his cell phone to make images. They are shared with a growing fan base through Instagram. Here is a stunning sample of these night visions.
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Recalling Carol Channing at Lulu White’s
Boston’s Golden Era of Jazz and Cabaret
By: - Feb 19th, 2018Printing four decades of images for, Heads and Tales, an exhibit at Gallery 51 in North Adams this summer has kicked up a treasure trove of memories. A series of photos of Carol Channing with Craig Russel who impersonated her evoked the ambiance of a fabulous night at Boston's jazz club Lulu White's.
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Roman Iwasiwka Shows Classic Rock Photos
At The Falcon in Marlboro, New York
By: - Jan 17th, 2017A selection of fourteen rock portraits by Roman Iwasiwka will be on view at The Falcon – 1348 Rte 9W, Marlboro, NY through March 31. A reception for the artist will be held on January 28, from 5:30 to 7:30 PM.
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Evocations by Carl Chiarenza
Photographing Abstract Collages
By: - Dec 16th, 2016In 1973 Carl Chiarenza earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He was the first to write a dissertation on a living photohrapher, Aaron Siskind. While regarded as one of the foremost scholars in the field he has had more that 80 one-person and participated in some 260 group exhibitions since 1957. This is a review of his 2002 monograph Evocations.
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Photographer Eric Myrvaagnes' Stunning Book
Captured by Light: Black and White Photographs- Fifty Years
By: - Nov 22nd, 2016The elegant, exquisitely designed and printed book "Captured by Light: Black and White Photographs-Fifty Years" summarizes a lifetime of work by Eric Myrvaagnes.
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First Berkshire Mountains Faerie Fest in Adams, MA
A Family Day Built Around Fun and Fantasy, June 25
By: - Jun 28th, 2016While looking into the concept of Faerie or Fairy Festivals, one might discover that there are quite a number of such events happening each year all over America. 'The Faerie Festival Bug' hit six months ago in the town of Adams, MA, among a group of believers, at the Adams Arts Advisory Board. They enlisted many participants, word spread quickly among like-minded fantasy lovers, and here is the result in photos and report of the First Berkshire Mountains Faerie Festival.
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Sand and Seas - Part Two
Reflections and Anticipation
By: - Mar 07th, 2016Sand and Seas - Part One found hundreds of viewers and readers. What delight! We are offering in Part Two long views and nearly abstract images and textures that oceans and beaches offer to a keen eye and a camera lense.
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Sand and Seas – Part One
A Summer Tale for Winter Days
By: - Feb 29th, 2016It takes time to collect and develop a photo project. The subject may have spooked around my head for days, weeks, perhaps months. The raw material are thousands of digital photographs, which include the subject matter at hand. Then questions arise: What is there to work from? What do I want to say? What can I show? How many images do I need to convey my ideas? Too many sub-categories for one essay? Yes! So, please peruse the first part of 'Sand and Seas.'
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Journey Poetically Documents a Decade of Travels
Urban Designer/Artist Mark Favermann's Critical Eye to the Built Environment
By: - Dec 02nd, 2015For the past several decades, photography has been a creative media for urban designer/artist Mark Favermann. However, he came to it rather late only starting to take pictures when he was 33. His current exhibit at Newbury College in Brookline, MA displays his critical and appreciative eye for architecture, environment and culturally relevant structures and details.
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Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival
Overview of a Week in the Sun: Literally and Culturally
By: - Oct 01st, 2015The 10th Tennessee Williams Theater Festival in Provincetown, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, occurred from September 24 to 27 with great success during a week of daily sunshine. The weather helped: there were outdoor performances on the beach and on a large deck of the Boat Slip. The town took part with venues including Town Hall, the former High School, a radio station and a Night Club. Of course, two major plays were smashingly performed at the Provincetown Theater. And the buzz was all about TW - Tenn at Ten!
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Amy Arbus: After Images
Provincetown Arts Association and Museum
By: - Oct 02nd, 2015Blessed/ burdened with the fame of her photographer mother, Amy Arbus, after youthful resistance and the pursuit of studying music, was lured into a career in photography. She has had some 25 one woman shows and published five books. The stunning and sensual exhibition of modern master appropriations, Amy Arbus: After Images, is on view at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum through November 15.
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Ride Hamilton and David Kaplan Collaborate
The Hotel Plays at Berta Walker Gallery
By: - Oct 01st, 2015Last April, cramped into small rooms in the French Quarter for The Hotel Plays of Tennessee Williams, we first encountered the photographer Ride Hamilton. This past week we again interacted during the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival. In addition to the performances we much enjoyed his installation, a collaborator with the festival curator, director and scholar, David Kaplan, at the Berta Walker Gallery. It richly evoked memories of New Orleans.
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