March 18 - March 25, 2022
THE WEEKLY ROUNDUP
Great Photography Stories
Proof: On Screen: A Conversation With Matthew Kamholtz
Enjoyed reading friend of NYC Photo Community Reuben Radding’s conversation with Matthew Kamholtz on Lenscratch about Kamholtz’s new photobook ON SCREEN which consists of photographs of television and computer screens during the Summer and Fall of 2020 as Black Lives Matter protests streamed across screens all across the world:
“‘RR’: Were you just shooting the video streams in real time as they unfolded, or were you experimenting with freezing video to find images? Did you go back over things you’d possibly missed as the video played?
MK: When I first started doing it I was shooting TV news right as it happened. Then I realized that there was all this stuff on YouTube. Thousands and thousands of videos that people would post and I could play those on my computer. Sometimes I would play them and shoot directly off the computer. Sometimes I would attach the computer to the TV and watch the video on the TV because the TV is actually lower resolution than the computer screen, so I could see all the little pixels and stuff. And then somewhere along the line, probably about halfway through making the work, I realized that I could stop the video and frame it and take multiple pictures of the scene.”
Blind Magazine and the mystery of Rian Dundon’s lost photo book Changsha
By now we’re familiar with the story of an archive of astonishing photos by an unknown or lesser-known photographer being rediscovered ala Vivian Maier. But this was a new one for me - a photo book published in 2012 with a print run of 1000 that, due to the publisher going out of business, got largely lost for ten years (a few copies had made it out into the world). The books have now been found, and Blind Magazine has the full story here. The photos are excellent.
“Changsha was a sprawling metropolis of concrete and neon laced with an energy that made me dizzy. Here were six million people in a city literally built on top of its own ashes and I loved it. I did my best to absorb everything, every bit of local language or news or culinary offering. And I photographed, always photographed.”
How Designers Think About Photobooks
I’ve been thinking a lot about photobooks recently and so I appreciated this recent Aperture feature on Alex Lin/Studio Lin discussing some of the decisions and thought processes he engages with translating a photographer’s vision into a book.
“We were after a design that felt timeless, so you wouldn’t necessarily know when the book came out. Typography is often the element that dates a book, so we intentionally left that off the cover. Instead, we silkscreened a primary character from the book in fluorescent red for the cover. The exact color came from a parking sign in Manhattan that I walked by every day; it felt like the perfect supercharged red.”
The most recent episode of Sasha Wolf’s ‘PhotoWork’ photography podcast is with MACK Book Designer, Morgan Crowcroft-Brown, and that’s definitely worth a listen as well.
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
“How do you tell the story of absence? How do you visualize the space occupied by longing? These were the challenges in creating Sheila & Joe, a film about two people separated by incarceration who met, fell in love and committed their lives to one another through letters.”
The ICP is holding a special screening of the short film “Sheila & Joe,” Sunday March 20 at 3pm followed by a conversation with the filmmakers, director Julie Winokur and cinematographer Ed Kashi, and the subjects of the film, Sheila Rule and Joe Robinson. For more information or to attend the screening: [click here]
EQUITY AND ETHICS IN PHOTOGRAPHY
The Photo Ethics Centre is asking photographers and photo organizations to publish a statement of ethics.
A lot of ethical conversations in photography are reactive - some ethical transgression or possible ethical transgression has occurred and people react to what happened. A lot of ethical lapses, generally, could be avoided if one was to think about various scenarios in advance and consider the principles one might use to guide one’s ethical decision-making. This pledge, and the examples it has already set, are a good framework for thinking about ethics in your practice.
“What is a Statement of Ethics?
A Statement of Ethics is a declaration of your ethical principles and a description of how you enact those principles in your photography practice. The purpose is to explore what ethics means in your practice for yourself, and then to share your commitment to ethics with others.”
OPPORTUNITIES / CALLS FOR ENTRY
Grant Opportunity- Creatives Rebuild New York
This new philanthropic program sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation sounds fantastic - Together they’re dedicating 125 million dollars to New York State-based artists and arts organizations. 300 artists will be awarded grants of $65,000/year + benefits to focus on their practice. 2700 artists will be awarded $1,000.00/month for 18 months. And community-based arts organizations will receive grants of $25,000 - $100,000.00 a year to support their collaborations with artists. You can apply now, and applications are due March 25.
More information / Submit Work: [here]
NYC Photo Community Newsletter
Just published a new photo book or zine? Putting on a photo talk? Maybe an exhibition opening? Let us know. We'd love to share your good news or help publicize your photo talk or event. We also want to feature your work. Follow @nycphotocommunity and tag your photos #nycphotocommunity to be considered. If you've enjoyed what you read, please spread the word by sharing this subscription link. Thanks!
Photo at top of Weekly Roundup: Taxi and Muscle Car, Chinatown © James Prochnik