May 28, 2007
Final Santa Fe Roundup
I was going to blog these all separately but it would take forever, so here are a few more portfolios I saw at Review Santa Fe that caught my eye:
I've mentioned Birthe Piontek on this blog before. Meeting her in person and discovering her to be modest, sensitive and funny made me like the work all the more.
Paula McCartney showed a portfolio of fake birds in nature. Not sure if that description sounds appealing, but I assure you the prints had a touch of magic to them. She also handcrafts jewel-like artist's books.
I noted the work of Ferit Kuyas before heading out to Santa Fe and his work did not disappoint. While his website is still down it's worth checking back in to look for his project on Chongqing. One of the things that came out of the review was a name change for the project. The working title was Double Happiness which was a deeply personal choice (his wife is from Chongqing), but during the course of one of the reviews he realized a more apt title would be City of Ambition riffing on Stieglitz... I like the new title and love the images from the project.
Daniel Traub was also showing work from China. His project called The City's Edge an especially relevant in a time where Chinese cities are growing at an almost unfathomable pace. Daniel lives in Shanghai and was just selected to be in Jen Bekman's spring Hot Shots show (full disclosure I was on this Hot Shot's Reviewer Panel)
Rachel Herman was another photographer with really beautiful prints. The web doesn't do them justice.
Sarah Wilson is a photographer for Texas Monthly which is known for it's deeply researched stories and sharp photography. Her photographic essay on the murder of James Byrd in Jasper Texas reveals the ripples and scars left by the events of that night nine years ago.
Finally I hope you visit the work of Kay Lynn Deveney who presented a project called The Day to Day Life of Albert Hastings, a Welshman she she met while in graduate school. For each of her photographs she had Mr. Hastings write a caption and the images were presented together with his text. A book of their collaboration will be available soon from Princeton Architectural Press.
to this site
05/29/07 09:23 AM
Anonymous said...
Do you mind if I ask a bit more about the shape of the reviews (I've never done one)... how does it work exactly? Also were most of the people there art school grads or more established? Seeing all the portfolios you've selected makes me want to apply if only to see what my fellow photographers are doing.
05/29/07 12:56 PM
Anonymous said...
Another question (same person). Was there anything you didn't like about the experience? Also were there portfolios you didn't like?
05/29/07 11:18 PM
jane said...
I know Kay Lynn briefly from her residency at Light Work (in Syracuse) last winter. Her prints are absolutely beautiful and her dedication to Mr. Hastings is very honest. She went over my working series of prints and was extremely supportive and gave me many ideas. I'm so glad you are featuring her on your blog.
I'm really interested in participating in the Review in the future and it's always good to see what photographers are doing now.
05/30/07 04:58 PM
raul said...
@anonymous:
1. You submit
2. You're selected
3. You choose reviewers from a list
4. You show up in Santa Fe on Thursday and get a list of review times and sign up for a few extra ones.
5. On Friday you start meeting with reviewers. Sessions are 20 minutes and you have 5 or 6 in a day. In between reviews, photographers hang out and chat and show each other portfolios.
6. On Friday night everyone presents their work together in a big space that is open to the public for a couple of hours.
7. Saturday morning = more reviews. And then there were some lectures and gallery tours.
A wide mix of people attended from grad students, to people who go to many of these things and never seem to get anywhere, to fairly established photographers looking to get a take on new work.
There were plenty of portfolios I didn't like. My tastes tend to be binary... I either like something or hate it, but even the work I didn't like tended to be technically excellent...
Criticisms? Hmmm... I was surprised by the safeness of much of the work and wondered if that was a function of the selection committee.