Quote of the Week - Leo Rubinfien, Pictures Without Words

"If you already knew what a great photograph was, you would be doing something you, or someone else, had done before, and in that case, what would be the point? The more things you recognized to be possibilities for pictures, (Winogrand) would say - the more varied these possibilities were - the less you were likely to know in advance whether they'd work. You had to allow yourself to be led by pictures, your own or anyone else's, and the pronouncements of the Artiste, when he encountered them, filled him, I think, with disgust. His refusal to try to translate pictures into words was not, as one writer called it, anti-intellectualism, it came from the supremely intelligent awareness that sophisticated pictures cannot be summed up - that only they themselves can tell you what they mean, that if you could state their meanings in words there would be no need for them."

- Leo Rubinfien

Closing Reception - Sat. @ Duncan Miller

Toward Los Angeles, California, 1937, Dorothea Lange

Collectors' Favorites is an exhibition created in cooperation with The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), based on works from the collections of members of LACMA's photographic arts council. The closing reception at Duncan Miller Gallery is this Saturday, August 28 from 7-9pm.

The following photographers are represented:

Diane Arbus, Sia Aryai, Karen Bellone, Kermit Berg, Julie Blackmon, Marcel Bolomet, Bill Brandt, Keith Carter, Lorenzo Castore, Adam Clark Vroman, Larry Colwell, Mario Cravo-Neto, Imogen Cunningham, Edmund Dubois, Michael Eastman, William Eggleston, Barry Feinstein, Martine Franck, Allen Ginsberg, Florence Gruere, Anthony Hernandez, Nicholas Hughes, Lotte Jacobi, Rinko Kawauchi, Dorothea Lange, Saul Leiter, Margrethe Mather, Chris McCaw, Eadweard Muybridge, Arnold Newman, Said Nuseibeh, Catherine Opie, Paul Outerbridge, Tatiana Parcero, Frank Paulin, Martha Pearson, Jack Picone, Man Ray, Richard Renaldi, Willy Ronis, August Sander, Robyn Stoutenberg, Paul Strand, Minayoshi Takada, Henry Wessel, Kim Weston, Adam Wilder, Garry Winogrand, Max Yavno

LAT

Quote of the Week - Ansel Adams

"We are confronted today with a dichotomy; as our equipment and materials constantly grow in scope and quality the creative and technical standards appear to be diminishing; there is a near-cult of photographers who seem to intentionally avoid the beautiful and precise image, concentrating only on subject and obvious function. My personal reaction to this attitude is a determination to go as far in the opposite direction as possible. I believe in the most beautiful and appropriate prints, and the most clarifying and revealing approach of mind, heart, and craft. I believe that firm objectives in this direction can fulfill the promise of photography as one of the great visual arts. However, we must always be logical in our critical estimates; most of photography is not intended as art and should not be judged as such. But if art is intended, compromise must not be tolerated"

- Ansel Adams

Pro'jekt LA #2 - Thursday

Volume 2 of Pro'Jekt LA will be taking place on Thursday from 8-10pm. Click the flyer for details.

Kickstart my Heart - Jewish Veterans

Copyright Andy Hurvitz

Andy Hurvitz is trying to raise funds through Kickstarter for a portrait project of elderly Jewish war veterans living in the San Fernando Valley. Seems like a worthy cause and the project is endorsed by the Museum of the San Fernando Valley.

Quote of the Week - Aaron Siskind

Copyright Lucia Colella: Designer, Educator

Hugh Brown @ Robert Berman

I'm admittedly feeling a bit lazy about this one but I'll direct you all to Jame's post on the current show up at Robert Berman, for which Hugh Brown redid works by other artists, incorporating chainsaws.


Copyright Hugh Brown
David Hockney (Saw at Howard and Catherine’s *now Anne’s, 1994), 1994
Polaroids on ragboard

Classic Feature - John Divola, Vandalism Series

Taken between 1973 and 1975, native son John Divola's Vandalism series in which he manipulates abandoned houses is truly excellent. Anyone else think Mr. Ballen might have seen these early on and been inspired?

There's an interview regarding the series under "Artist Statements & Reviews" on his website.

Buy the book here.






















All images Copyright John Divola

Opening Saturday - Vice Photo Show

Copyright Asger Carlsen


Free copies of the annual photo issue will be on hand. Presumably PBR's at the open bar too?

Feature - Sonia Paulino

Echo Park is pretty great, in that there are a ton of lights and security patrolling 24/7 so that you can feel safe there at 1am. As a result, many people jog or walk their dogs there and Sonia Paulino took portraits of the latter. I like how she included the dogs' names in the titles.

Sonia talks about the series in this video.











All images copyright Sonia Paulino

The New Digital Zone System @ The Icon - 2 spots left

There are just 2 spots left for a two-hour class on Saturday on the New Digital Zone System with Lee Varis at the Icon. It only costs 10 bucks.

• Calibrating your camera and building custom profiles for ACR/Lightroom

• Developing correct exposure strategies

• Setting up ACR/Lightroom for ideal RAW processing

• Fine tuning images in Photoshop for maximum impact

The 2 hour seminar will also provide an introduction to the 10-Channel Workflow, a new image enhancement workflow for Photoshop to take your imagery to the next level.

UPDATE: None left.

The Education of a Photographer - Free (sort of)

So I guess it's give away week here or something. I just saw that The Education of a Photographer, which is a phenomenal read is available to read for free on Google Books here. Of course, you may not want to read it all online or if you're like me will want a hard copy to underline and mark up but perhaps you're just interested in a few things it contains and this will be useful.

UPDATE: Only certain sections can be viewed.

Feature - Matt Boeddiker, Santa Cruz, CA

We all become part of the landscape.

From Matt Boeddiker's Into Nature Series:














All images Copyright Matt Boeddiker

Shulman Print

This file of a Julius Shulman via Shorpy looks big enough to make a nice print from if you need some art. Just sayin'.

Quote of the Week - Paul Strand

"Cartier-Bresson has said that photography seizes a 'decisive moment', that's true except that it shouldn't be taken too narrowly...does my picture of a cobweb in the rain represent a decisive moment? The exposure time was probably three or four minutes. That's a pretty long moment. I would say the decisive moment in that case was the moment in which I saw this thing and decided I wanted to photograph it."

- Paul Strand

Feature and Opening - Christine Caldwell

Christine Caldwell makes beautiful x-ray like photograms of things found in nature. She seems to have found a great fit in G2 Gallery in Venice, which specializes in nature photography and donates all proceeds from sales to environmental causes.

The opening reception for Christine's show is this Friday, August 6, from 6-9pm.