Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

i felt a loss in the photographic force tonight

April 20, 2011

Tim Hetherington, Chris Hondros are killed documenting Libya fighting

MISURATA, Libya — On Saturday evening, Tim Hetherington, the director of the Oscar-nominated documentary “Restrepo,” and Chris Hondros, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated photographer, hitched a ride to this besieged city on the Ionian Spirit, where they prepared sandwiches for refugees and talked about their plans back home. On Wednesday evening, the ship ferried the bodies of the two renowned journalists back to Benghazi.

 Washingtonpost.com for full story

when i first encountered Tim Hetherington work ‘Restrepo‘ at NYPhoto Festival i was stunned standing there watching the events before me. hearing the sounds of combat, seeing grown men cry, hearing bullets flying around, how could i not be affected and glad i wasn’t there, yet there is something communal about men in combat if you’ve ever know that. i felt a loss of humanity on hearing this sad news of their deaths tonight.

NY Photo Festival had prints of the portraits of the troop Hetherington served with. he told the story that he no longer took pictures while on patrol, had lost interest in covering the war as it wears one down but came upon a bunker that had wonderful light.

he asked a member of the platoon to sit for him not making much of it, but slowly people would come to him asking for him to take their portrait. that body of work shows the horrors of war in their faces. very powerful.

i would have linked Tim Hetherington web site but tonight the connections are broken.

reading Minor White books instead of making photos

April 5, 2011

i’ve been buying photography books and reading them lately. i’ve an old time relationship with books, walking into a used book store smelling paper just overcomes any hesitation i have to spend money. i usually walk out of the store with an arm full of books. yes one could say all the books on my shelves are useless until one picks them up and opens them.

i get dizzy remembering them, my copy of the ‘Rainbow book’, put out by the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco explaining everything you wanted to know about rainbows is just so cool sitting on top of Hollywood Glamor Portraits , next to Barbara Morgan’s dance photography, see the list goes on. be still my heart.

one of my favorite teachers whom i never had the chance to meet is Minor White. his name has been spoken reverently around me by photographers i’ve known and liked so that has created in me a hunger to learn about him.

my first purchase was Minor White’s ‘Rites & Passages’ an  Apeture foundation book, which i found very interesting, because in included his photographs and excerpts from his diaries and letters and biographic essays by John Baker Hill.

minor white 'rites & passages'

i don’t think by reading a book one can get close to the teacher but maybe some word or phrase might make a wheel or clog move and mesh causing a connection. looking at pictures stimulates my imagination because i am sort of seeing through the photographers eyes. not always do i get it but it’s like sex, the fun is in the doing, not the final outcome.

for anyone interested in Minor White’s work and opinions this is a worth while sit down. i really enjoyed this book

the second Minor White book is ‘The Moment of Seeing’, Minor White at the California of fine arts, by Stephine Comer & Debroah Klochko with an essay by Jeff Gunderson is printed on lovely paper but most of the book was a disappointment for me. i really don’t care who attended California Fine arts school when. i am sure by now a lot of them are dead and gone as i soon will be.

the moment of seeing.great cover  photo reminds me of cartier bresson’s work

there is a twenty page pedagogy of some Whites teachings but just getting to page 79 was a chore. maybe i should have sped through the beginning chapters  but i didn’t.  i did like reading minor white’s ‘seeing a photograph’ in the pedagogy but getting there was a big boring chore as i was looking for information about minor’s teaching’s, not who he taught. what he thought and taught was what interested me. the portfolios of the students and teachers are nice, not cluttered with words just pictures and who was there is history in itself.

what happened in the school started by Ansel Adams who then went off doing his Zone system landscape work and left to minor white and other great names in photography is pretty cool but i wanted to hear from the various creatives their views on working.

oh well not everyone likes everything. spring is here time to explore the world around us again lovely flowers poke their fragrant bodies in the air.

have a good day

jene

http://www.jeneyoutt.com

Martha Graham meet Robert Wilson in snow on the mesa

March 23, 2011

last weekend mary and i had the opportunity to see the Martha Graham Dance Company perform at the Rose theater at Lincoln Center. mary wrote about Martha Graham performance on her blog and also about our weekend atthe Architectural Digest Design Show at Pier 94 along with The Artists Project at Pier 92.

i have never been involved with martha graham’s work nor seen the company perform before, yes i had performances of martha on film and tape but never the company live. i do know there have been all kinds of legal hassles about who owned the performance rights etc. always a dasterdly thing for any artist especially a performance artist, which dance is. who will remember your work if they never see it?

we were both excited and dressed for the occasion, mary in a black dress with black wraparound frock and shoes with zippers on them, i don’t remember what i wore but i wasn’t naked.

this evening the company was performing ‘Snow on the Mesa’ (portrait of martha) ‘a personal portrait of Martha Graham’ not seen since 1996 by Robert Wilson, it evokes the creative journey of the artist—“the path that chose her,” as Graham has said.

Maple Leaf Rag by Martha Graham her last complete ballet as the program notes ‘takes a sly look at the foibles of a contemporary choreographer and gently mocks the plight of the artist in the throes of creation.’ i wish i had the chance to see more of the companies repertory but life is so busy at times or is it that i am so slow.

i’ve always been amazed by Wilsons work ever since working on ‘einstein on the beach’ at the metropolitan opera house and thinking this is weird but haunting. what i did learn about wilson is that he participates in an interdisciplinary laboratory for the arts and humanities at the Watermill center on long island,  NY. this is so cool giving back to the young artistic community your experience and guidance, something i’ve always thought the great broadway musical composers should have done in order to help young composers achieve good quality american musicals.

we both liked the evenings performances but wilson is wilson and his hand was everywhere in ‘snow’ which i enjoyed. very dramatic for sure and in the style of graham with big black costumes and exceptional use of color or the lack of.

see a review of sorts in Art Fag City

the musical score which at times was nothing more than wind howling added or subtracted depending on your point of view. some of the lighting was breathtaking while at other times just functional, lots of use of follow spots, three i think at one point with some inspired use of color, as shown here

but none the less i sat there enjoying the tribute to graham’s lifes work. i do know one of the featured dancers with the company

Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch

who danced the Navaho Rug section with contractions and expansions galore and a few others who have traversed the graham world. if one wants to know more about Martha Graham’s life and artistic direction try to see Ovation TV show Martha Graham: The Dance Revealed

what for me was a distraction were the bouncing boobies, yes the nude top costumes are a distraction. don’t get me wrong i like exposed boobies but there are times and places for everything. bare boobies are a draw that’s for sure but i don’t think they help the dance.

as for nude dancers Martha Clarke’s dance Garden of Earthly Delights used full nude body tights which didn’t take anything away for the piece except the distraction of  private parts swinging in the breeze. everyone has their own take on this for sure.  right this way to see the egress. what ever gets them in the door.

but knowing how hard it is to keep a company running from my experience with the Jose Limon company and what Carla Maxwell has struggled with adding new choreographers and pieces to the companies repertory just to keep it interesting and current, now i love all of Jose’s work but i also tire of seeing the same thing over and over. what ever brings new people exposed to the work is positive.

so it is that dance has strange bedfellows at times. it’s an art form i love dearly and the world would be a harsher place without it.what i did do on our way out because i know some dance companies receive a fair amount of income from memorabilia was to buy the book ‘Acts of light’ by John Deane & Nan Cano. i’ve started to read it as is my habit before falling asleep. that’s not to say it’s a slow book it’s just my habit of reading.

see the nytimes review for the professional opinion, i am just a fan of dance as i don’t get paid for my opinions, oh well

jene

www.jeneyoutt.com

Studio St. Petersburg by Deborah Turbeville

March 16, 2011

recently i bought three photography books at amazon and have been asked to review my purchases, so i might as well do it here as well. this will be the first one i write about.

since i am a self-taught photographer i don’t have much organized photography education so what ever i pick up it’s from here and there. i came to Deborah Turbeville’s photography in an oblique way which was through a wonderful man and teacher, well actually Milton was a salesman at B&H when i met him, who worked in the darkroom developing area.

Milton Spieel was his name who has passed through my life and so many other countless photographers. RIP. he always had a story or joke to tell and if you asked a question an answer. one day i guess we were talking about picture styles and i brought up my dance series of fuzzypictures and he told me about one of his customers, Deborah Turbeville who he knew from Willoughby’s photo which was the place to go in the 70’s 80’s for photography, then located on 32nd street.

Deborah would tell Milton to not tell her assistants how to operate the photo equipment she would send them in for. one day she was in the store buying some gear and had her portfolio with her and asked Milton if he wanted to see it? ‘Sure’ he said,  well he wasn’t impressed because of her style, he said he would have thrown it in the garbage. Milton did mention she did a book on Newport RI Remembered that made her friends, so i’ve kept my eyes open for it and have ordered it today.

well Deborah got the last laugh on Milton, she has many photography books in print while Milton is feeding the worms. Studio St Petersburg  is the first book i have of hers. Mary and i were lucky to have seem one of her photography exhibits at the Staley-Wise gallery down in soho, heres a link to my short review. she is a unique photographer to say the least.

deborah turbeville

Deborah Tuberville

my guess on taste would be like caviar as it needs to be acquired before one can really appreciate it. Mary and i both enjoyed the Past Imperfect exhibit and seeing her work as large prints is amazing. Deborah Tubeville was born 1938 in new england and moved to new york when she was twenty. See her profile in Professional Photographer as she really is a legend.

but i love her work because it’s not so much about photography but more about feelings. When Jackie Onassis commissioned her to photograph the unseen Versailles, the late president’s wife urged the photographer to ‘evoke the feeling that there were ghosts and memories.’ Turbeville began by researching the palace’s ‘mistresses and discarded mistresses’, then photographed not just the palace’s grand chambers and vistas but its store rooms and attics.

well that’s what Studio St. Petersburg is about for me the feelings of the past guess that’s why her exhibit called past imperfect. our memories of the past events place and people are clouded over by so many uncontrollable things. so to see photographs that take this cloudiness into consideration and make the viewer work to see and understand what might be the story presented is pretty cool.

deborah tubeville

although there is no need for back story in this picture. i think it’s pretty understandable.

deborah tubeville

one might wonder what ever happened here in this old house? what history

might have walked these halls, looked from these windows?

but what first attracted me to Tubeville was her sensuality that came through to me in her fashion work.

deborah turbeville

tubeville 2

she like so many other fashion photographic icons had her own style that didn’t conform to the norm which is why it’s so refreshing to see anytime. timeless comes to mind. Studio St Petersburg just makes me want to go see that city even more. do i think i’ll find what she did? no i am no fool.

today is so different from yesterday, but today in Japan we have another atomic power problem. to think of all those brave russian souls who perished fighting the Chernobyl disaster or crippled with its aftermath makes me sad.

of course it wasn’t too many months or weeks ago that atomic energy power plants were in the news as an attractive alternative for the united states energy follies, as there isn’t any real energy policy put forth by our government. oh well

sorry about all this rambling on about one thing or another that might not have been relevant to photography. well maybe x-ray photography  but that’s not what i was discussing here.

i hope i might have opened up another creative connection for you, books by Deborah Tubeville for my readers. sorry no new naked women today but as the masthead says opinions, and i’ve got plenty.

jene youtt

www.jeneyoutt.com

discount tickets, travel zoo

March 13, 2011

here’s a link for discount tickets to local & national events that i thought i’d pass on to you, my readers. it’s something a dancer made me aware of. there is no cost to set up an account just your email address and a new password. save big time on some broadway shows or dance concerts. if you’re like us saving money in these hard times is always worth the effort.

they also have lots of other discounts although i haven’t tried their other services.

www.travelzoo.com

jene youtt

www.jeneyoutt.com

 

Martha Graham 2011 New York season

March 11, 2011

Rose Theater
Broadway at 60th Street
Columbus Circle
New York, NY  10023
Tel: (212) 258-9800
Visit Web Site

$48-$133

Dates

Wed, March 16, 2011 – Sun, March 20, 2011

Hours

Wed: 7:30 pm
Thurs, Fri: 8 pm
Sat: 2 pm, 8 pm
Sun: 3 pm

Program A: Wilson/Graham
Fri, March 18, 8 pm
Director Robert Wilson calls his Snow on the Mesa “a personal portrait of Martha Graham.” Not seen since 1996, it evokes the creative journey of the artist—“the path that chose her,” as Graham said. Maple Leaf Rag, Graham’s last ballet, is a humorous spoof of her work.

Program B: New Revival/ New Work;
Wed, March 16, 7:30 pm
Sat, March 19, 8 pm
Explore Graham’s 1943 Deaths and Entrances, inspired by the Brönte sisters. This program pairs the new production with an exciting world premiere by Taiwanese choreographer Bulareyaung Pagarlava that references the Graham ballet and its themes.

Program C: The Noguchi/Graham Connection;
Thurs, March 17, 8 pm
The company celebrates the collaboration between sculptor Isamu Noguchi and Martha Graham. The program features audience-favorite Appalachian Spring, Cave of the Heart, a 20th century retelling of the Medea story, and Embattled Garden, an erotic Adam-and-Eve tale of contemporary marriage.

Program D: Political Dance Project
Sat, March 19, 2 pm
Those who missed it last year will want to catch the reprise of Dance is a Weapon, a dance and multimedia montage including work by Graham, Isadora Duncan, Jane Dudley and others. Thirty New York City high school students take the stage in the 1935 Panorama, Graham’s great call to social action.

Program E: Wilson/Graham/Noguchi;
Sun, March 20, 3 pm
An official event of Carnegie Hall’s Japan/NYC Festival. Combining the Robert Wilson and JapanNYC programs, this matinee offers Snow on the Mesa and Embattled Garden during the popular Sunday afternoon time slot.

  • Directions: Subway: Trains to Columbus Circle

About this Organization

Martha Graham Dance Company
The Martha Graham Dance Center is the repository of 181 dances choreographed by Martha Graham, many of them astonishing works of great beauty. Since its inception in 1926, the company has performed in over 50 countries throughout the world.

impression of the Armory show 2011

March 8, 2011

Just walking through pier 92 & 94 is a day in itself but then writing about can be overwhelming. i am not really an art critic nor do i know any of them. i am just a guy with a camera, i took my 20d, 1.8 50 mm, which is really an 85mm lens figuring the 1.6 sensor factor just to add a degree of difficulty. the 5d m II  with the 2.8  28-70mm is too heavy to drag around all day. but Jay Maisel drags around a huge Nikon all day and he’s 80. Jays work really inspires me and i’ve told him so. it’s seeing as he does, through his pics that has opened my eyes to another world around me.

hey this isn’t brain surgery here or is it, just some meaningless pictures and comments.

vip club where i wasn't invited

this is a real new york art event, what with all these art shows around town, PBS a BBC station affiliate shilling for money showing doo wop and other silly programs and Scarface playing on AMC channel new yorkers are in for a real treat. we must be working our way up the Riverdance, woo hoo.

I’ve been struggling with my ISP Photoshelter and learning or forgetting, not sure which, SEO. if you don’t know what that is then you’re lucky. seems everything is a business these days, art being one of the biggest, maybe not as big as a new fighter jet for the air force, but pretty big.

patrons armory show

silver haired male & woman in red dress

these must be power people all though he doesn’t have a red tie, maybe at the cleaners. i think i might be out of sequence here but who cares?  the first thing that caught my attention was Springer & Wincklere Galerie car wreck pictures.

European car wrecks

European car wrecks

there is a curious film by David Cronenberg called Crash which i liked, not sure why. some people just have to look at car crashes, so why not have them at home, saves gas and aggravation on the parkway.

the problem with me doing these types of blog reporting is i am not a photojournalist. i try my best but looking back through the pics i wouldn’t stand a chance working for Life. but then again no one is paying me for this either.

as i walked down the aisle looking this way then that way, being distracted by everything, this caught my eye. just a painting leaning against the wall with a shadow of a pacing guard or was he running away? hard to say.

chainsaw massacre at the armory

chainsaw massacre at the armory

so you see going anywhere with me can be challenging as i see things differently than most, it can be interesting just different. i contuined wandering around and found an interesting artist who worked in the 1950’s called Howard Town at Christopher Cutts gallery

howard town

artist howard town

but that’s not him sitting. here is a piece by Pascal Kern at the HackelBury Fine art. here i caught this woman biting her thumb no she’s not with the gallery.

pascal kern

personal hygiene

wonderful how people have a way of interacting with the art, i’ve no idea what this woman was doing but she was very busy at it.

woman

but there were lots of people going here and there

people

people

with some really paying attention and looking

art praton

art patron

then there was others watching other or were they?

porcelain

porcelain statue

and both at Gerald Peters gallery

porcelain statue

another porcelain statue

there were times when i tried to involve the patrons and the art as i did here at Vallarino/McCormick gallery

 

man

man through sculpture

yes more shadows everywhere

shadows

sepia shadows

i told Mary this place is full of beautiful people which seems like a great place to meet men or women, her reaction was if they weren’t so self involved with art. but difficult on the weekends with all the baby carriages and couples bumping around.  all in all a pretty good place to hang out, wear comfortable shoes.

concentration

concentration

And this one

asian woman concentrating
asian woman concentrating

what are they thinking? but here what catches my eye,

 shadows on painting

shadows on painting

notice the face? here we go moving on, i found a fluorescent lighting installation at Galerie Thomas against which i found these pictures, yea it’s my mind and i am too old to change now

fluorescent outline
fluorescent installation 2
another one

 

oh well, so much to see,  moving forward i passed by Bruce Silverstein gallery who’s celebrating 10 years showing one of Rosalind Solomon prints Blind Child, eerie huh?

Blind Child

but Silverstein had another photographer, Trine Sondergaard,  working in the style of  dutch painter Vermeer . that’s something i’ve always though of trying, a friend of mine Bill Megalos who  taught film lighting at rockport workshops used the painter masters as examples having the students recreate a artist style. oh well………… but i am not finished with my shadows.

trees with shadows

trees

fernando botero with shadows

fernando botero with shadows

at the Tasende gallery which was full of wonderful shadows, this is of the people passing through the sun light.

then we go to the contemporary show of living artists but first this prime example of

little man

discovered art

this little guy was scrawled on a support beam of the pier and i was lucky enough to see it, i wonder how many others passed it by? let us move on.

Henry Thoreau saying

Henry Thoreau

and more art with this neon installation from the Paul Kasmin gallery

neon fence

neon fence

and this skull at Other Criteria

skull

happy face

but as the day wore on, being on my feet i was beginning  to feel a bit overloaded as maybe this statue represented

statue

statue of man

at the Galeria Ron Mandos in the south american section of the pier. the show had mixed sections or was it me that was mixed up?

signs

signs

Japanese signs at the Galeria Daniel Templon. all i was looking for now was a place to sit, but the seating lounge bar area was smaller this year than last, only 25 seats come on guys give us a break, what was the cost of a glass of champagne? but i continued on until i found something fun, silver mylar

reflections in mylar

reflections in mylar

silly me

reflections in mylar

more reflections in mylar

reflections in mylar at armory show 2011

more more reflections in mylar

as the saying goes ‘we were burning daylight here’ which i’ve heard civilians say which is silly even on the set. me getting nowhere but hungry and  heading to the exit i found one more distraction at the Lisson gallery of these lit panels

panels

people passing in front

coming and going

panels

he's going

while all this art can be wonderful and effect on us let’s not forget the real beauty of this world……… life in all it’s aspects.

orchid

orchid

jene

www.jeneyoutt.com

is spring around the corner

March 7, 2011

one would think so

yellow orchid

yellow orchid

remembered from the Isle of Ischia

jene

www.jeneyoutt.com

Late call for submissions to The Stoop Gallery

March 7, 2011
late breaking news:
The Stoop Gallery is currently accepting submissions for the upcoming show date and
theme: Evolution of Power Movements
April 17, 2011 

The United States civil war, which officially ended in April of 1865, was said to be fought to end
chattel slavery; although historical evidence shows that it was a war of economics.

Nearly a century later, in April of 1960 The Student non – violent coordinating Committee
(SNCC) was formed, which played a huge role in the March on Washington, student sit ins and
protests in the 1960’s and freedom rides. Several years later in the mid – 1960’s the term “Black
Power” was coined. Currently there is a lot of rhetoric about the society we live in being post
racial and color blind. The Stoop Gallery is asking artists to consider how power movements
have evolved, what do movements to eradicate injustice look and feel like now. And how is art
an integral part of these movements?

Deadlines for submissions: March 7, 2011
Notifications of acceptance: March 17, 2011
Deadline for receiving accepted works/ Drop off: April 7, 2011
Exhibition date: April 17, 2011 2pm – 6:30 pm

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Image Submission: • digital files in jpeg format at 72 dpi and 800 pixels • Up to 5 images per
submission • Video work should be under 10 minutes , Quicktime movie, vimeo and youtube are
accepted for video submission • Include an image list title, dimensions, media, and year.

ALSO INCLUDE: • Bio: 100-words or less • Artist statement: 250-words or less Artist
Statement explaining how your work relates to The Stoop Gallery theme.

 

Please send submissions to: TheStoopGallery@gmail.com

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!

The Stoop Gallery is a space where artists display works in public spaces throughout the
borough of Brooklyn. Some neighborhoods include, Fort Greene, East New York, Crown
Heights, Flatbush, Bedford Stuyvesant, and Brighton Beach. The Gallery will push the
boundaries of fine art in a public art space and encourage community engagement with fine art
in a neighborhood setting. The art shows will take place on stoops in Brooklyn where
homeowners will volunteer their stoops and host the shows. The Stoop Gallery shows, will take
place on Saturdays and/ or Sundays, once per month during the Summer and Fall and each show
will feature three visual artists. There will also be opportunities to feature one installation artist,
who will be able to transform an entire stoop with their installation piece.

jene
www.jeneyoutt.com

Armory week art madness

March 2, 2011

here is a listing and address of this weeks shows for more detailed information visit http://www.artcards.cc

2011 New York Art Fairs

The Armory Show – Modern
Pier 92, at W 54th street

The Armory Show – The International Fair of New Art
Pier 94, at W 46th street

Pulse New York
125 W 18 Street
March 3-6

The Art Show (ADAA)
Park avenue at E 67 street

March 2-6; Wed-Sat, noon-8pm; Sun noon-6pm Gala Benefit Preview, March 1, 5:30-9:30pm

Independent
548 W 22 street, March 3-6

The Dependent Art Fair
160 W 25 Street, March 4th, 4-9pm

VOLTA NY
7 W 34th Street

Thursday, March 5, 1-9pm Friday, March 6, 1-9pm Saturday, March 7, 1-9pm Sunday, March 8, 1-9pm $15

SCOPE New York
320 West Street
March 2-6

Fountain NY
Pier 66, 12th Ave at W 26 Street
March 3-6

PooL Art Fair New York
7 E 27th Street
March 4-6

Moving Image
269 11th Avenue, March 3-6

Red Dot
82 Mercer Street
March 3-6

Verge Art Brooklyn
81 Front Street, Brooklyn, NY;

Thursday-Saturday, 3 – 5 March, Noon to 10 pm; Sunday, 6 March, Noon to 6 pm