My Personal Favorites of 2009

Tomorrow I will be featuring your personal favorite images of 2009, but today, I share some of my own favorites. Dalton Rooney did a similar post on his blog, Third Nature, about looking back at the work he made in 2009 and encouraged others to do the same. I think it's a good way to take stock and reflect about the year and help me refocus my goals.

I attended three portfolio reviews (Review LA, Photolucida, Review Santa Fe) in Winter/Spring of 2009--probably too many, but the opportunities were too great to pass up. The preparation for those, plus teaching, and preparing for exhibitions put a wrench in my making a significant amount of new work. I am finding that writing this blog, writing and curating, plus teaching, while fullfilling and wonderful, has sometimes left my visual gas tank near empty. I am always questioning my place in this world, wondering if I'm good enough, have enough to say. There's part of me that is frustrated by the box we photographers are in--the idea of working in projects, the notion that everything has to have a statement, that our single images get lost because they are not part of a series...so I'm going to share some of strays, along with some new project images, and some thoughts from along the way. Oh yes, I still shoot film and the last lab in Santa Monica has just closed, the only darkroom in LA is hanging on by a thread, and it's all very discouraging...and expensive. I don't shoot as much as I would like because of the cost, but can't afford the Hassleblad digital camera...oh well.

One idea that I began to play around with this year was trying to make imagery that didn't say much. It was almost like trying to take a bad photograph and I think this was the most successful of the bunch...it's not easy to make a quiet image that says something.


I wanted to take a shot of something dull, and let things get in the way of where the eye wants to go..not great, but a first attempt.


I asked my neighbor to hold this paper doll which I titled, Mother, and it represents much more than the simplicity it presents


There's been a lot of transition this year in my household, with my last child going off to college, my husband's parents both passing away and it's made me want to capture and think about the past and what has been left behind. These are a few images from a new series, A Death in the Family. I look forward to looking the other direction in 2010.










I continued to work on established series, in hopes of creating enough images for a book or a larger exhibition. These are newer images for In Case of Rain.





My favorites from the yearly vacation at the lake...








I loved photographing children on Halloween and definitely want to do it again, this time with a tripod..




I'm still excited to work on the Shadows and Stains series (silver gelatin prints that are hand painted) and these are somewhat new...





I've been venturing into more landscape work--these were a few trials, but I'd like to do more.






While working on my In Case of Rain series, I rediscovered paper dolls and created these images for an exhibition titled, Pretty/Dirty. I liked the idea of looking at how sexual paper dolls are and making them into prostitutes and more sleezy than how they are ususally portrayed. I have continued to make images with paper dolls this year, but haven't found the language that will make them totally pop...hopefully I will get there and have a new series in 2010.





Had some fun working with text in images..




I'm always making work, if only for fun, or to use for stock work...these were some of my favorites..






I'm looking at ways to document this time in history, taking images like this..


And finally, we always need a little more humor...


So my goals for 2010...
keep going...
spend more time in the darkroom...and fool around more
more landscape...
more humor...
more portraits..
more complexity in images...
create a Magcloud magazine...
work towards getting a book (books) published..
start that diet and exercise program (oh, wrong list)
And if anyone has a Mamiya 7 ii that they want to sell at a deeply discounted price....

Review LA, Photo LA, and the Photographer's Fling

In case you are heading west to Los Angeles in a couple of weeks, the big photo weekend is on the horizon from January 14-17th. Photo LA 2010 is back at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, and Review LA 2010 (hosted by Center) is just across the street at the Doubletree Guest Suites Santa Monica
1707 4th St, Santa Monica, 90401.



Besides these events, two not to be missed happenings are the Portfolio Viewing at the Doubletree on Friday Night. 5-8 pm, and the Photographer's Fling on Saturday Night from 9-12pm, also at the Doubletree, which is our first attempt to connect the Los Angeles Photo Community through dancing and....well, drinking! Would love to see you there and am urging (begging) you to come!!

Focus on China: Gallery Beaugeste Part 2

by Douglas Ethridge

Gallery Beaugeste is considered by the Shanghai photographers and gallerists I met on my trip to be perhaps the most “pure” and traditional of the venues exhibiting photography in Shanghai. Curator Jean Loh tends to show work by the quiet masters who have been pursuing their craft and story-telling for years with little regard to what is fashionable. I had several enjoyable conversations with Jean about photography, and wanted to share the work of three of his artists with a wider audience.

Lu Yuanmin – “Lomo Yuanmin”
Recognized as one of Shanghai’s most important documentary and humanistic photographers, Lu Yuanmin decided several years ago to embark upon a new way of shooting. Using a 35mm lomo camera (similar to a Diana), he bought a stock of outdated and no longer manufactured Chinese-made film and began shooting his familiar neighborhood with this toy-like camera.

Bicycle boy


Street Tanks


Balloons


Angel


Yan Changjiang – “Paper Men”
When I first saw the book of this work, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Then Jen pulled out a stack of prints and proceeded to tell me the story of their making. Yan Changjiang began as a writer, and was sent on a journalistic assignment to the region where these ceremonial paper men are traditionally made. He was so taken with them that he began having dreams, and went back with a borrowed camera to make further enquiries. Over the years, he developed his skills as a photographer and actually wrote a short novel about the Paper Men. It’s a fascinating story- I don’t know if the book is available in the U.S.

The meaning of friendship


Love is like an umbrella


Happy ever after


Their own God


Lu Guang’s “Requium for Mountains and Waters” is powerful environmental work and was recognized this year with the W. Eugene Smith Award. These are painful and moving images. They remind us that generation after generation, mankind apparently has to learn the same horrible lessons over and over again as a nation or region transforms into an industrialized society. It falls to bold and courageous individuals such as Lu Guang to force awareness and action. While Lu Guang has been allowed to continue working, his circumstances are not without considerable risk.

A sheepherder along the bank of the Yellow River cannot stand the stench of the sewage


Husband and wife returning from work at a link kiln, Heilonggui Industrial District, Inner Mongolia


After daily ingesting pollutants into their lungs, workers may become sick in as little as a year. Wuhai City, Inner Mongolia


15 year-old Yang Xinrun quit school after second grade to work with his parents. He earns 16 yuan (less than 3 USD) per day


Many Chinese photographers do not have websites, and galleries in general seem to be slow in adopting this technology as well. And so I have created a mini-site where you can see more work by each of these artists and read extensive curator’s notes on each by Jean Loh.

More photos by Lu Guang are also here,
And an interview with Lu Guang is here.

The gallery website is only partially functional, but Jean’s e-mail works fine.
Beaugeste Photo Gallery, www.beaugeste-gallery.com
Jean Loh, curator. jean.loh@beaugeste-gallery.com

Thanks again, Doug, for all your efforts!

Focus on China: The Lishui International Photo Festival

This past November, I was invited, along with thirty photographers, to exhibit work at the Lishui International Photo Festival in China. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the festivities, but was incredibly grateful for the visual feedback from my fellow photographers. Douglas Ethridge has stepped up to the Lenscratch plate and is willing to share some of his experiences. This will be a two-part post. Thank you, Doug, for your insights and images!

On the photo trail to Lishui by Douglas Ethridge

In late November, I had the opportunity to exhibit work from my series “Selective Memories” at the Lishui International Photo Festival in Lishui, China.



The Chinese curator Wang Zheng invited a group of 30 overseas photographers and 20 curators- in total more than 60 photographers were exhibited in addition to a like number of Chinese photographers. It was an honor to be there, and fascinating to see so much good work exhibited in such a beautiful setting.

David Ellingsen, a photographer from Vancouver, has done such a great job of describing the festival on his blog, that there’s no point in duplicating his efforts.

So instead, I decided to share some random moments and thoughts from along the way as I traveled from Shanghai to Lishui to Hangzhou and back to Shanghai.

Scooters are everywhere in Shanghai, and indeed all over China. I saw this particular model a couple of times, always driven by some hip-looking dude.


Ballroom dancing seems to be all the rage. Here in Shanghai’s Fuxing Park, there were at least three groups of dancers, close by, each with their own sound system.


Construction seems to be at full speed ahead in China. Right alongside massive cranes are workers pushing carts by hand with every manner of materials on board.


These guys were hanging out on the back of a parked bike, goofing with passers-by. Even in a remote small town, check out the driver’s stylin hair cut and leathers.


Life in general seems to be a team sport in China, and so perhaps it’s no wonder that photographers seem to run in packs.


Grinding a sword at a traditional factory.


Skinning bamboo in a small village.


Like so many of the people we met, this old gentleman seemed pretty amused by having a camera pointed at him.


Preparing for a Chinese Opera performance.


Trees surrounding West Lake which is next to Hangzhou and has been a tourist destination for several thousand years.


Back in Shanghai, I had an opportunity to spend some time with curator Jean Loh, who operates a wonderful photography gallery called Beaugeste in an area known as Taikang Lu.


At ground level, this warren of shops and restaurants feels very much like a tourist trap, however the upper levels of many of the buildings serve as artist studios and galleries.


Tomorrow, Doug will introduce you to Jean Loh and three of his artists....