Phoenix Art Museum - Debating Modern Photography Exhibit

Phoenix Art Museum
Debating Modern Photography:
Triumph of Group f.64
Norton Photography Gallery
September 15, 2007 – December 30, 2007
In 1934, a heated debate between photographic factions considered the future of the medium. A small group of California photographers were challenging the painterly, soft-focus photography style of the pictorialists. They argued that the appropriate direction for the photographic arts exploited characteristics inherent to the camera’s mechanical nature: sharp focus and great depth of field. Their subjects – arranged still lives, industrial and architectural views, close-ups from nature, and portraits – were selected for their photographic potential, with rich textures and strong forms. This small association of innovators – named Group f.64 after the camera’s smallest aperture, which produces the greatest depth of field – included Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, Willard Van Dyke, Alma Lavenson and others. This exhibition endeavors to revive the controversy, not only to acknowledge the pictorialists’ arguments, but to illustrate how avant-garde the work of Group f.64 once was. It includes images by members of Group f.64 and such pictorialists as Anne Brigman, William Dassonville, Johan Hagemeyer, William Mortensen and Karl Struss.

Talking Books with Aperture's Lesley A. Martin

Lesley A. Martin, who has been with Aperture off and on for the last ten years and has been executive editor of the book-publishing program for the past four, was recently promoted to Publisher. Her promotion was “reinforcement,” as she put it, that the revamping of the book-publishing program that she has spearheaded over recent years is a vital part of Aperture and its mission to be the premiere not-for-profit arts institution dedicated to advancing fine photography.

American Photo recently had the chance to speak with Martin to discuss her promotion, how she approaches the refined art of bookmaking, and the overall developments happening within Aperture offices on 27th Street in Manhattan's burgeoning Chelsea district. But first, a look at two upcoming fall titles.

Read the entire article from popphoto.com.

image provided by popphoto.com

Kodak Updates T-MAX 400 Black & White Negative Film

If you're shooting black and white file, you'll be pleased to discover that Kodak has announced an improved version of its Professional T-Max 400 film. The new ISO 400 film offers finer grain and greater image sharpness. According to the company, the emulsion has been altered to further minimize light scatter, which can reduce image sharpness. A UV barrier layer has been added to the back of the film in medium-format and 35mm rolls to prevent accidental exposure to static inside the camera. (Large-format sheets, which might be used for contact printing on UV-sensitive materials, do not have the UV layer.)

Kodak recommends slight changes in processing time for the new T-Max 400. Development times with Kodak chemistry will be published on the box, and the company will update its processing instructions online when the new film is available.

The new Professional T-Max 400 will be available in stores beginning in December 2007. You'll be able to tell it apart from the old T-Max by the "World's Sharpest!" text emblazoned on the packaging. Kodak will also replace its 50-sheet packages of 8x10 T-Max 400 sheet film with 10-sheet packages.

Canadian Photographer Jeff Wall

Early in his career, Canadian photographer Jeff Wall, whose retrospective opens at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on Oct. 27, enjoyed a high reputation as an intellectual among contemporary artists.

When he first got noticed in the late '70s, critics saw Wall's work as a deconstruction of the imaging tactics of advertising. He made, and continues to make, carefully staged pictures presented as large color transparencies in fluorescent light boxes, like those seen in airports, train stations and department stores the world over.

Read the entire online article from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Leibovitz Exhibit Ranges From Royal To Personal

Three official portraits of Queen Elizabeth II will be displayed alongside Annie Leibovitz's signature celebrity photography in a 15-year retrospective exhibition of her work on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

The Corcoran is the third of seven stops for the show titled "Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life, 1990-2005" and the first gallery to include the queen's portraits, which were commissioned to mark her visit to the United States in May.

The exhibit -- a companion to the book of the same name -- includes 200 photographs that set recognizable high-fashion magazine portraits against a backdrop of reportage photography and personal snapshots.

Read the entire article from the Pittsburgh Tribune.

Chernobyl Photo Book Review On Lens Culture

Lens Culture looks at the recent “Chernobyl: The Hidden Legacy” Photography book on Trolley Books. The review includes a gallery of images featured in this volume by Pierparolo Mittica. “Photographer/author Pierpaolo Mittica states the premise of his passionate personal mission to investigate, research, document and expose the catastrophe that remains and continues 21 years after the nuclear explosion at Chernobyl in 1986.”

Read the entire review and view the gallery on the Lens Culture website.
Image © Pierpaolo Mittica

On the Street: The New York School of Photographers

Phoenix Art Museum
Norton Photography Gallery
Now until September 2, 2007
New York City exerts a powerful hold on the American imagination. The site of triumph and tragedy, home to the fabulously wealthy and the desperately poor, boasting modern technology and historical tradition, New York represents the contradictions inherent in our national identity. As such, it has always posed an irresistible challenge to photographers, notably those who came to be known as the “New York School.” On the Street brings together a lively group of 60 black-and-white images of the city’s street life seen through the lenses of 18 New York School photographers from the 1910s through the 1960s – such as Diane Arbus, Weegee, Lisette Model, Helen Levitt, William Klein, and Garry Winogrand – from the collection of the Center for Creative Photography.

Norton Photography Gallery – Upcoming Exhibition
September 15, 2007 – December 30, 2007
Debating Modern Photography: Triumph of Group f.64
In 1934, a heated debate between photographic factions considered the future of the medium. A small group of California photographers were challenging the painterly, soft-focus photography style of the pictorialists. They argued that the appropriate direction for the photographic arts exploited characteristics inherent to the camera’s mechanical nature: sharp focus and great depth of field. Their subjects – arranged still lives, industrial and architectural views, close-ups from nature, and portraits – were selected for their photographic potential, with rich textures and strong forms. This small association of innovators – named Group f.64 after the camera’s smallest aperture, which produces the greatest depth of field – included Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, Willard Van Dyke, Alma Lavenson and others. This exhibition endeavors to revive the controversy, not only to acknowledge the pictorialists’ arguments, but to illustrate how avant-garde the work of Group f.64 once was. It includes images by members of Group f.64 and such pictorialists as Anne Brigman, William Dassonville, Johan Hagemeyer, William Mortensen and Karl Struss.
Image © Louis Faurer