Alia Malley - Feature on Conscientious

I've had Alia Malley on my list to feature for a while now but it seems Jorge beat me to it. He's got a nice feature and an interview up so I'll just direct you there instead.

To Be Published or Self-Published?

In Los Angeles at ARTBOOK @ Paper Chase
Monday July 11, 2011 at 7:00 pm

To Be Published Or Self-Published?: Options for Artists
A lecture and discussion lead by Mary Virginia Swanson and Darius Himes

MVS and DH will give a 30-minute visual presentation for artists who wish to bring their art work to book form, discussing both traditional publishing and self-publishing avenues towards helping determine the pros/cons of each path. Following their lecture, MVS and DH will lead a discussion with industry professionals involved in making, distributing and selling of art books: Nicole Katz, cofounder Paper Chase Press; Mathew Swenson, Creative Director, Paper Chase Press; Jane Brown, Director, ARTBOOK | D.A.P. (Distributed Art Publishers); and Tosh Berman, Book Buyer, Book Soup. Time will be allotted for Q&A. Copies of Publish Your Photography Book will be available for purchase at the event. Click here for details.

This event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP by sending an email torsvp@dapinc.com.

ARTBOOK @ Paper Chase
7174 Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, California [map]

There's also a date in San Fran on August 1st. Go here for details.

L.A. County's War on Desert Rats

Check out this excellent LA Weekly article about the County being jerks to folks trying to live in peace out in the desert. Kevin Scanlon shot the photos and created this video piece with interviews.

Feature - Wendy Fletcher

I can't recall who said it (a problem one faces when reading 50 blogs etc. on a daily basis, though maybe it was Vik Muniz?) but I'm pretty sure it was a photographer and that I read it in the last 6 months. He said, and I'm paraphrasing, that the work you most admire is the work you were just a step away from doing yourself but didn't - the work that you could have done in a parallel universe.

This, I think, is why I had a mix of emotions but was mostly excited when I came upon Wendy Fletcher's Vendedores series. I'd been thinking about shooting them myself over the past couple of years because I think it is dignified work they do and you see them all around Los Angeles. Well, Wendy beat me to it and did a damn fine job. I'd surely have shot them a bit differently but I'm ok with the fact that I didn't and I love her results.

All images copyright Wendy Fletcher - click for large views.

Wait, I've seen this before.

In looking at the winners of PDN's The Look fashion photography contest, my jaw dropped when I came upon Bjorn Iooss's first place winning series shot for Alex Casertano's Fall/Winter collection.

Ballen's style is so his own that this isn't inspiration, but rather blatantly ripping off another artist, chalk, hangers, cat and all. I'm perplexed as to how this could:

a) be done in the first place - why not hire Ballen directly to shoot your campaign if that's what you want? Mr. Iooss can certainly shoot quite well in a style of his own.

and b) have been awarded a prize in a contest.

All images Copyright (weird saying that here) Bjorn Iooss.

Quote of the Week - Jerry Saltz

"I went to Venice, and I came back worried. Every two years, the central attraction of the Biennale is a kind of State of the Art World show. This year’s, called “Illuminations,” has its share of high points and ­artistic intensity. (Frances Stark’s animated video of her online masturbatory tryst with a younger man hooked me; Christian Marclay’s The Clock, which captivated New York earlier this year, rightly won the Gold Lion Prize for Best ­Artist.) Yet many times over—too many times for comfort—I saw the same thing, a highly recognizable generic ­institutional style whose manifestations are by now extremely familiar. Neo-Structuralist film with overlapping geometric colors, photographs about photographs, projectors screening loops of grainy black-and-white archival footage, abstraction that’s supposed to be referencing other abstraction—it was all there, all straight out of the seventies, all dead in the ­water. It’s work stuck in a cul-de-sac of aesthetic regress, where everyone is deconstructing the same elements."

- Jerry Saltz, Via

(Emphasis mine)

Pictures Generation, anyone?

Photo Mantra

Good pictures come to me.

Quote of the Week - Conan O'Brien

"It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique."

- Conan O'Brien

Opening tonight - Rebecca Sittler & Adam Thorman @ Sam Lee

Previously featured photographer, Rebecca Sittler and yesterday's feature, Adam Thorman open their Two By Sea show tonight with a reception from 6-8pm @ Sam Lee Gallery. Looks like a good one.

Rebecca Sittler:




Adam Thorman:

Adam Thormon, Milking Tide

Feature - Adam Thorman

Bay Area photographer Adam Thorman's Out Along the Edges explores the Intertidal Zone in Northern California

"The exposed intertidal zone is an ephemeral place that allows access to an underwater world that is usually closed to us. Neither ocean nor land, the intertidal zone is a hybrid of the two."

His two-person show with Rebecca Sittler opens Saturday at Sam Lee Gallery in Chinatown (in LA).

Feature Jeff McLane

It was hard to choose just one of Jeff McLane's series to feature so I went with two. Central Valley was a must for inclusion considering how much time I've spent up there myself over the past year. Make sure you tyake a look at his site for more.

Jeff's also got a show on right now in San Pedro:

Angels Gate Cultural Center
3601 South Gaffey Street
San Pedro, CA 90731
310-519-0936
http://www.angelsgateart.org/

Effulgence: Jeff McLane
May 15 - August 14, 2011
Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11am - 6pm

Angels Gate Cultural Center is pleased to announce Effulgence, an exhibition of new color photographs by Los Angeles photographer Jeff McLane. McLane’s large scale photographs focus on the illuminated landscape of communities surrounding the Port of Los Angeles at night, offering a glimpse of a terrain tightly bonded with the energy of the nearby industrial structures. The exhibition opens May 15, 2011 and runs through August 14, 2011.

Video: Estevan Oriol

Here's a nice video on Estevan Oriol.

If you aren't familiar with his work, you should be.

Estevan Oriol — "Run Up" Profile from Stas on Vimeo.

Quote of the Week - Yeats

"The World is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper."

- W.B. Yeats