J R wins the TED Award

Last year I wrote about Parisian street artist J R on Lenscratch. If you missed the post, be sure to revisit it to understand the scope of this amazing work. I thought you'd enjoy a follow-up article, lifted from the New York Times, and written by Randy Kennedy:

The TED conference, the California lecture series named for its roots in technology, entertainment and design, said on Tuesday that it planned to give its annual $100,000 prize for 2011 — awarded in the past to figures like Bill Clinton, Bono and the biologist E. O. Wilson — to the Parisian street artist known as J R, a shadowy figure who has made a name for himself by plastering colossal photographs in downtrodden neighborhoods around the world. The images usually extol local residents, to whom he has become a Robin Hood-like hero.



For most recipients, the value of the six-year-old award has less to do with the money than with the opportunity it grants the winner to make a “wish”: to devote the funds to a humanitarian project that will almost inevitably draw donations and other help from the organization’s corporate partners and influential supporters. The chef Jamie Oliver, the 2010 prize winner, recently proposed setting up an international effort to further his campaign against obesity; Mr. Clinton’s wish has channeled significant resources toward the creation of a rural health system in Rwanda.



Reached by telephone on Wednesday morning on a bus in Shanghai, where he was headed to work on a largely unauthorized photo-pasting project to draw attention to the city’s demolition of historic neighborhoods, J R said that he had learned of the prize only two weeks ago and that he had not yet had time to think of a wish.



But he said that it would undoubtedly involve his kind of guerrilla art, which he has been creating with the help of volunteers in slums in Brazil, Cambodia and Kenya — where the outsize photographs, printed on waterproof vinyl, doubled as new roofs for ramshackle houses. “I’m kind of stunned,” he said of the prize. “I’ve never applied for an award in my life and didn’t know that somebody had nominated me for this.”



At a time when street art is being embraced not only by the art world but also by branding interests, J R, who dislikes being called a street artist, preferring the term “photograffeur” (graffeur is French for graffiti artist) has become known for rejecting corporate sponsorship offers and other outside help. He said that he reinvested most of the money he makes by selling his art in galleries and at auction — one piece went for more than $35,000 at Sotheby’s in 2009 — into creating more ambitious projects, and that he would use the TED prize money for the same purpose.



“If there’s one thing I’ve always taken care of with my work, it’s that it’s never an advertisement for anything other than the work itself and for the people it’s about — no ‘Coca-Cola presents,’ ” he said, speaking in English. “I think the TED people knew that that was one of my main concerns, and I feel pretty sure that we can come up with a project that works that way.”

Amy Novogratz, the director of the prize, said that picking an artist like JR — he is 27 and fiercely protective of his anonymity, identifying himself only by his initials — was an unusual choice but that the prize committee felt that his work could “catalyze the whole TED community” to support an art-centered philanthropic project, which will be announced at the organization’s next conference in March.

“One of my concerns at first was that he wasn’t going to be accessible or available, which could be off-putting when you’re trying to get partners to get excited about a project,” she added. And, in fact, the first time prize officials had a Skype conversation with the artist, he appeared in sunglasses with a hat pulled low over his forehead.

“But then he said, ‘You know, I trust you guys,’ and he took them off,” Ms. Novogratz said, “and we just had a regular old conversation.”

During the interview on Wednesday morning, J R said that he had not been nearly as trusting of Chinese officials, as he and a crew of helpers erect towering pictures of elderly Shanghai residents on the walls of a neighborhood that is now more than three-quarters demolished.

“I keep thinking we are going to get into trouble,” he said, adding that anyone he talks to might be an undercover police officer. But then he described an illegal act: pasting a 20-foot-tall wrinkled face around the facade of an old water tower he spotted from the highway.

“We went into the building next door, and it was empty, and we went up to the tower, and nobody stopped us, so we just started working,” he said. “It’s crazy. This city is so huge and overgrown, the more you’re in the middle of things, the more you feel transparent.”

Claxton Projects

Just wanted to give you a heads up about a new site created by London photographer's agent, Tom Claxton dedicated to looking at already published photography books . It's called Claxton Projects and the site is a bit like visiting with old friends, and meeting some new ones along the way. I also love the idea that it's just as important to look back, as to look forward.

Identities Now: Call for Entry

Deadline: December 3, 2010

Peter Hay Halpert Fine Art, a private NYC gallery focusing on young and emerging artists, is currently accepting submissions for a book showcasing contemporary figurative/portrait photographers titled Identities Now: Contemporary Portrait Photography.

Submitted photographs will be reviewed by a selection committee of top photography professionals, including:

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders,Photographer/Director

Peter Hay Halpert (PHH Fine Art / Art dealer, professor, author, lecturer, curator and collector. Peter Halpert has been a Contributing Editor of The Art Newspaper, Photograph Magazine and American Photo, and has taught at colleges and universities throughout the world. He served on the Guggenheim Museum Photography Committee when it was first started, and work from his collection has been exhibited at numerous institutions in the U.S.),

David Harris (Vanity Fair Executive Design Director),

David Schonauer (American Photo / David Schonauer was editor-in-chief of American Photo Magazine for twenty years. He has worked with and published many of the world's most famous photographers, including Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, James Nachtwey, Annie Leibovitz, Mary Ellen Mark, Herb Ritts, Ansel Adams, and Harry Benson. David has written for publications as diverse as Atlantic Monthly, Outside, Worth, and The New York Times. He is currently working on a book project about the history of sports photography and writes a weekly blog called "I Like to Watch".),

Sam Shahid (Creative Director for Abercrombie & Fitch. Former Creative Director for Calvin Klein, Banana Republic, and Perry Ellis, Sam Shahid is also head of the New York-based ad agency Shahid and Co.).

Mei Xian Qiu

Los Angeles photographer, Mei Xian Qiu, mixes her identities and influences in her new exhibition, Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom, opening at Gallery 825 in Los Angeles on October 16 and running through November 12th.,

“Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom,” is a series of photographs exploring anxieties of power and globalism, national and intercultural identity, and the notion of non self-constructed and deconstructed individualism. The photographs present a sweet conceit of romance and violence. The subjects’ posture and expression remain sentimental, vulnerable and unformed, yet there is a hidden danger signaled by their military uniforms and the environment.



The models for the imagery are Pan Asian Americans who could be perceived as Chinese, artists, and academics specializing in Chinese studies. The costumes are taken from a Beijing photography studio that specializes in “get ups” for foreign tourists to re-enact Cultural Revolution Propaganda imagery.




A Kafkaesque tongue and cheek frolic of the takeover of the United States of America, “Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom,” takes its cues and title directly and indirectly from classic Chinese poetry, the Cultural Revolution Maoist movement, and Anselm Keifer’s series of paintings of the same name. It refers to the popular Western mistranslation of the Chinese poem “Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom, Let a Hundred Schools of Thought Contend (百花齊放, 百家爭鳴).” Echoing Kiefer’s earlier portrayals of himself in sieg Heil salute to come to terms with his country’s brutal Nazi past, Kiefer’s “Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom” showed Mao Zedong in the Chinese salute.



Mao used this poem to encourage a variety of views in the “arts and sciences,” and begin the Hundred Flowers Movement. He proclaimed that in a great society the arts, academia, and “a hundred schools of thought contend.” As a result, artists and academics came out of hiding and there was a brief flowering of culture before they were hunted down and destroyed.

Larry Brownstein

Los Angeles photographer Larry Brownstein knows how to be in the right place at the right time. Larry spreads his photographic life between wedding, commercial, stock, and fine art photography, and is a Contributing Editor to Rangefinder Magazine and frequently writes for PC Photo and After Capture. But what is at the heart of his image making is his street photography. Undoubtedly, Los Angeles is incredibly ripe with subject matter, ranging from the broad array of ethnic neighborhoods to Hollywood's cultural icons that seem to be as common place as the palm trees. Larry takes advantage of the city's stage and captures moments that when combined result in a rich visual tapestry of the contemporary west. I am featuring work from two series, Hollywood and Broadway. The first series explores the dreams of the glitter and glitz, and the second, the realities of a downtown that has seen better days.

Camera in hand, I explore Hollywood with an open mind and an open heart, searching for the face behind the mask that Hollywood presents to the world. On Oscar’s day I see the crowds looking for Brangelina or hoping to get a glimpse of the notorious Nicholson smile. But I never waste a moment looking for celebrities. Rather, I photograph the Snake Man wrapping his boa constrictor around children in exchange for a tip.



Turning around, I spot Snoopy the Dog and Barney the Dinosaur chatting in front of The Erotic Museum, no doubt comparing notes about their record-breaking day of business. Down the block, a street vendor sells bacon-wrapped hot dogs in front of Frederick's of Hollywood and the emaciated, lingerie-clad manikins seem to want a bite. Then, surprisingly, it starts to rain and I notice several actress types in high-heeled, leather boots splashing around on the stars embedded in the Walk of Fame. In other words, it’s a magical day, especially for a photographer.















Statement for Broadway: I've never seen any other place like Broadway - a mystery in the midst of Los Angeles. It must have been an incredibly prosperous area at one time. I base this upon the glorious architecture, including some art deco masterpieces and numerous theaters with ornate marquees.

Images from Broadway


Even the colorful sidewalks speak of a glorious past. Signs of decay exist side by side with shops displaying neon-colored Quinceanera dresses. Mexican cowboys can be spotted walking by a building that was once used as a set in Blade Runner. Yes there is a large hispanic population but this is a Twilight Zone unlike anything to be found in Mexico.

Barbara Cole

I first met Toronto photographer, Barbara Cole, six years ago, when we both attended Review Santa Fe. At the review, she shared her foray into underwater worlds and since then, I've watched her career excell in both the commercial and fine art arenas. In 2008, Barbara was the Grand Prix Winner of 6E FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL de la PHOTOGRAPHIE de MODE, Cannes and Dubai, (and was a winner again in 2009), where her work graced billboards all over Cannes.





Her work graces the Trump Hotel in Miami and the Princess Margaret Hospital breast cancer center in Canada. She also produced a catalog for the Anthropologie stores in May 2009 of clothing shot underwater.



Barbara has a new exhibition and a new body of work, Chromatics, opening at BAU-XI Photo in Toronto, from November 6th to November 20th. Chromatics marks Cole’s growing interest in colour abstraction. In this series, she has progressed towards a near-total dissolution of the figure, referencing and reinterpreting mid-century colour field painting. The result is a dramatic tension between the figure and form that tests the nature of photography and its impact on our experience of reality.

Images from Chromatics












Images from White Noise

Thomas Locke Hobbs

California born photographer, Thomas Locke Hobbs, lives in Argentina and has come to photography with a background in economics. As there are no MFA programs in Argentina, Thomas studied at the Centro Cultural Rojas with some of the best contemporary photographers in the country, including Ignacio Iasparra and Eduardo Gil. The results of his studies is his ability to observe his world in a sophisticated and intelligent way. Thomas has a number of smart series and is also masterful portrait photographer.

Carlos, 2009


Pablo, 2009


The two series I am featuring below speak to the architecture of the Buenos Aires and what it is to navigate the urban experience. I am interested in how economic policy and political ideology manifest themselves in the urban landscape. The abrupt shifts in Argentina's economic history of the last 80 years have expressed themselves in the aesthetics and forms of the city and its suburbs.

Lungs/Pulmones: These photos depcit the open, interior spaces of city blocks in Buenos Aires which are known as pulmones or, literally, lungs. Consisting of diptychs the first photo was taken at the exact minute of sunset, the second photo 15 minutes later. The final pair in the series was taken at sunrise from my own balcony with the same 15 minute interval.



The title refers to pulmón de manzana which is the open, interior space of city blocks. In Buenos Aires real estate parlance, apartments that overlook this area are called contrafrente because they face away from the street. In this series I’ve sought out views from different contrafrente apartments. Pulmones de manzana are typically these jumbled messes of buildings from different eras, sandwiched together without any aesthetic consideration. The space created is this weird mix of public and private, viewable to its residents but belonging to no one. It’s like a shared secret amongst all the neighbors on the block [at least the ones with contrafrente views].





The photos are presented as diptychs. The view is the same in each photo. The first was taken at the minute of sunset [I look it up online before hand]. The second photo is 15 minutes later. The light changes a lot in those 15 minutes. The second photo typically has about 3-stops more exposure so the artificial lights are 8-times stronger. Street lights turn on during this interval and people, if they are home, turn on their lights.











Ochava Solstice is a series that showcasing 1960's era apartment buildings which cast triangular shadows...
In Buenos Aires buildings on street corners have this beveled edge. The idea is to improve visibility at intersections for automobiles. The law dates back to the early part of the 20th century when cars [and collisions] were becoming increasingly common. The diagonal is known as an ochava because seen from above the four corners of the intersection appear to form an octagon.



Older buildings usually found a way to incorporate the diagonal into their design. During the 1960s, however, a new aesthetic emerged that was driven by an economic imperative to maximize the square footage allowed under zoning laws. The ochava requirement only applies to the ground floor so all the higher floors would come to a point, creating this triangular shadow which tracks the sun.



In this series I have gone to specific street corners which have these triangular shadows, set-up my 4×5 camera on a tripod and waited for the shadow to fall exactly in the middle. For almost two years I have been noting these street corners during my walks around Buenos Aires. The city is filled with these sorts of smallish, concrete apartment towers from the 1960s [indeed, I used to live in one], but very few have shadows like the ones in these photos. First of all, the building has to face north, towards the sun [remember, we're in the southern hemisphere down here]. There can’t be another tall building kitty-corner because that will block the sun. It needs to be on a residential street. Avenues are too wide and buildings on busier commercial streets usually have businesses on the ground floor.



Google Street View hasn’t made it to Argentina yet so I have to scout out these buildings on foot. I tend to find them in mixed density neighborhoods like Colegiales, Saavedra, Caballito and Flores. The exact time of the “solstice” varies according to the orientation of the building. Buenos Aires’ street grid is a little messy. Since I’m not sure of the exact time I try to arrive an hour or so early. I spend this time walking around the neighborhood, often discovering additional buildings with the same shadow. Like groves of giant sequoias that depend upon precise soil, light and weather conditions, these buildings tend to cluster. In fact, more than half in the series I discovered this way.