Quote of the Week - Colin Pantall (sort of)

"Because if you did, then you would become a brand. Isn't that what it's really all about - becoming a brand. It might be a journalistic or an artistic or an academic brand, but it's a brand all the same. A brand where the bag and the outrage and the scarf are all part of it. And if you became a brand, isn't that the signal of your complete failure as a human being, isn't that completely contrary to what you or me or any documentary photographer or artist should want to become?"

From this, which you should read.

Feature - Peter Bohler

Peter Bohler's pictures below depict a training facility in the form of a recreated Iraqi village in the middle of the Mohave Desert at Fort Irwin.













All Images Copyright Peter Bohler

Tonight - Joachim Brohm @ Luisotti

Gallery Luisotti would like to remind everyone of Joachim Brohm's first solo show at the gallery, Ohio, opening this week. This body of work cemented the artist's place within the then nascent group of young German photographers investigating color photography as a serious field of practice. Ohio is a case study of a then relatively new practice of using color photography to fully depict the environment around us, which in the works' chromatic range furthers the documentary expanse of the depicted landscape. The objective coolness in these pictures renders color as an elemental form, one serving to further accentuate the contours of the scene. Brohm's Ohio is a place of bleached house paints, washed bricks, and faint neon signs - color of a distant fragment of time.

Please join us for the artist's reception on Thursday, May 19^th from 6:00 to 8:00pm. Joachim will be signing copies of the book Ohio which was recently published by Steidl. For further information please visit our website here or feel free to call the gallery at (310) 453-0043.


Related:

American Suburb X

Feature - Carlos Chavarria

Carlos Chavarria is from Madrid but now lives in San Francisco. His series, Dreamtown, is about the unattainability of the American dream.



















All photos copyright Carlos Chavarria

Your Plan for Saturday

Well, it's really my plan for Saturday but it should be yours too.

First up at Angles Gallery, Ori Gersht will give an artists talk at 4:30 ahead of the opening of his show from 6-8pm.



Next, pop right next door to Kopeikin for the opening of Kahn & Selesnick's Mars: Adrift on the Hourglass Sea, also from 6-8.


Copyright Kahn & Selesnick

After that, head up the road to the inauguration of OHWOW's L.A. Project space for the opening of Sam Fall's show and to catch David Benjamin Sherry's at the same time. 6-9pm. Info here.


Copyright Sam Falls

Don't dilly dally - you're close but you've got one more show to hit up over at M+B, also from 6-9. Anthony Lepore's first show at the gallery titled Wilderness should be a good one. Remember that recent feature? Info here.


Copyright Anthony Lepore

UPDATE: I was just informed that Anthony Lepore's show is in two parts, the aforementioned show at M+B plus another part at François Ghebaly Gallery just up the block from Kopeikin and Angels in Culver City so be sure to hit that half up before you head north.

Classic Feature - Adam Bartos, 1978-79

I love that Adam Bartos made these the year I was born. Buy the book here.














All images copyright Adam Bartos

Quote of the Week - John Nicolay

"Graphic art was powerless before a face that moved through a thousand delicate gradations of line and contour, light and shade, sparkle of the eye and curve of the lip, in the long gamut of expression from grave to gay, and back again from the rollicking jollity of laughter to that serious, far-away look that with prophetic intuitions beheld the awful panorama of war, and heard the cry of oppression and suffering. There are many pictures of Lincoln; there is no portrait of him."

- John Nicolay

Via

Quote of the Week - Paul Graham

"It’s that dance between the photographer and life – you might have some idea about what you’re going to do then life slaps you across the face and says “No, that’s not interesting, how about this?”," he said. "You can have this dialogue, this dance, with life and you can come back with something dramatically more interesting than you ever could dream up in your own little ideas."

- Paul Graham

Via

Last Chance

Tomorrow's your last chance to see the following shows:

Walead Beshty @ Regen Projects
and down the block, Carlo Van De Roer @ M+B
Florian Maier Aichen @ Blum & Poe

Also, Diane Arbus @ Gagosian comes down next weekend

Feature Marc Valesella

I really like Marc Valesella's minimalist Corners series; a simple concept that's been well executed. He's been calling LA home since 1986.

All images Copyright Marc Valesella















Marc's Legs series is currently on view at Edgar Varela Fine Arts through May 21st.

Fighting Digital...sort of.

LA Weekly article about current shows that are up now.

Feature - Adam Amengual

"Through the help of the non profit Homeboy Industries I photographed people who have made the decision to change their lives for the better. The people in these images were former gang members or had spent time incarcerated before walking through the doors at Homeboy Industries. Through a variety of services, Homeboy Industries helps these 'men and women redirect their lives and provide them with hope for their futures. In shooting this project I hope that people can see the subjects for what they are, humans trying to better themselves."

Adam Amengual

The Art of Photography Show

Just 12 days left to submit for the Art of Photography Show down in San Diego. I was selected last year and I can tell you they do a great job with the show and that I've never been to a more packed opening (and the space is huge). This year, Ann Lyden, Associate Photo Curator at the Getty is the juror.

Info here.

Walead Beshty in conversation @ LACMA Sunday

Walead Beshty and Britt Salveson
Sunday, May 8 | 4:00 pm
On the occasion of the publication of two new books, and the opening of two new exhibitions, artist Walead Beshty and LACMA's Head Photography Curator, Britt Salvesen, will talk about the process of production, the make-ready and the readymade, reproduction and transmission.
Art Catalogues Bookstore, Ahmanson Building | Free, no reservations | Refreshments will be served
Image: Cover image courtesy JRP Ringier