Fausta Facciponte: Reliable Now Open at Cambridge Galleries in Cambridge

Fausta Facciponte: Reliable
January 16-March 14, 2010

Reliable marks Fausta Facciponte’s second solo exhibition of large format photographic close-ups of doll’s faces. The artist uses digital photography as a means of reclaiming these common childhood playthings, many of which have been found second-hand or purchased on eBay. Each image has been constructed out of dozens of individual photos that have been digitally stitched together to capture the fine detail of each doll's expression, their individual quirks and personalities. At first glance these images appear cheerful and bright, but they also call to mind historical mourning and memorial photographs, which often focused on children as their subject. If these luminous images suggest an aspect of childhood innocence, then they also seize upon the haunting quality of innocence lost.

Fausta Facciponte is a photographer based in Mississauga, Ontario, who uses both traditional film-based and modern digital processes in her work. Her photography has been exhibited in Canada, the United States and Japan. She received her Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto in 1990, and has been the recipient of various awards including: the Toronto Image Works Award, the Talens Bursary Award, and the D.L. Stevenson & Sons Artists Award. In 2008, she was the recipient of an Ontario Arts Council grant. Her work is in the permanent collections of the McMaster Museum of Art, Art Gallery of Peel, Sheridan College Collection, and in various private collections. Fausta Facciponte is represented by the Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto.

Fausta Facciponte, Peter, 2009, Digital photograph, archival pigment ink face mounted on plexiglas. Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery.

www.cambridgegalleries.ca

Canadian Artist Eamon Mac Mahon at Eye Buy Art in Toronto

New Images By Canadian Artist Eamon Mac Mahon

Welcome art collectors into this new decade brimming with optimism. The air is a-sparkle with goodness and to celebrate we bring you our next artist Canadian Eamon Mac Mahon, whose work is the visual counterpart to this optimistic new decade and a perfect way to breathe light into your January.

Dare we say, these images remind us of one of the most famous living artists of all time, Gerhard Richter, who paints from the photographs he has taken. We think Eamon does the reverse, painting these images using his camera. They are universal and hard to place in any particular period of time, somehow capturing a gesture of nature that is both quiet and powerful. Such is the mystery of this wonderful world we live in.

News
We launched one month ago and since then have shipped art by emerging photographers across Canada, to the US, Belgium, the UK and Mexico. Thank you to our first collectors. Our enormous gratitude also to Seth Godin for the wonderful endorsement “thanking us for what we do” and to the team at Daily Candy, Fashion Magazine, Vitamin Daily and Design Edge for your great coverage. Also, make sure to check out EYE BUY ARTist Mark Kasumovic's solo exhibition at Toronto Image Works Gallery until January 30th. What NOW Magazine lists as "a must-see show" for 2010!

EYE BUY ART is the sister organization to the Toronto-based Flash Forward, an annual competition that showcases the future of photography and is considered to be one of the most important emerging art incubators in the world. 10% of the proceeds from each sale will go towards funding for the recently announced Flash Forward Festival.

About US
EYE BUY ART is a carefully curated online art gallery that represents an exciting new generation of emerging photographers from Canada, the UK and the US, and offers limited edition photographs at prices that start at $25 each. EYE BUY ART is the sister organization to the Toronto-based Flash Forward, an annual competition that showcases the future of photography and is considered to be one of the most important emerging art incubators in the world. 10% of the proceeds from each sale will go towards funding for the recently announced Flash Forward Festival.

www.eyebuyart.com

Guido Mocafico at Hamiltons Gallery in London

Beautiful Fictions - International Symposium in Toronto

Beautiful Fictions
International Symposium

Saturday, January 23, 2010, 10 AM – 4 PM
Baillie Court, Art Gallery of Ontario

Dan Adler I Geneviève Cadieux I Axel Hütte I Karen Irvine I Nicolaus Schafhausen I Lorna Simpson I Michael Snow

Engage with some of the world’s most influential artists working with photography today. Explore how the transition from darkroom to digital has changed both the nature and status of photography and our relationship to the physical world.

Artists will discuss their work in dialogue with leading curators and theorists.

This is the first in a series of three photography events at the AGO. Watch for dates in February for talks by Jeff Wall and Thomas Ruff.

AGO Members $40
General Public $50 | Students $25

www.ago.net/symposium

Christopher Thomas: New York Sleeps at Fifty One Fine Art Photography in Belguim

January 22 – March 6, 2010
Christopher Thomas: New York Sleeps

Fifty One Fine Art Photography is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition of the German photographer Christopher Thomas.

The desolateness which is so profoundly present in Christopher Thomas’ images of New York has a surprising impact. These pictures are quite opposed to our expectations of this turbulent metropolis. The urban landscape may be familiar, but this is not the city that most of us know and experience. For example the image ‘Grand Central Terminal II’, once the largest train station in the world when completed in 1913, now appears totally abandoned. Thomas erases the profane and quotidian in favor of the “eternal” or timeless. This transformation of lively urban zones is particularly evident in Christopher Thomas’ photographs of Times Square, one of the icons of urban turbulence. The long exposure times erase the constantly changing lights of the advertisments, and reduces this mecca of commerce to it’s essence. The city seems to hold its breath; hectic activity is transformed into methaphysical emptiness. The lack of passers-by who usually populate the city means that our perception is no longer distracted but concentrated instead on the city’s “casing”: its architecture and streets. The city is reduced to its essential and bare architectural form. As if, at this moment when night borders day, Thomas could uncover its essence.

Born in Munich in 1961, Thomas has received many international awards for commercial photography. He has worked for magazines as Geo, Stern, Merian, and the Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin and produced numerous photo essays. As an alternative to such commissioned works, which usually have to satisfy the guidelines and expectations of his clients, the photographer begant to shoot views of cities on his own initiative in order to – as he puts it – “get back to the roots”. He started to capture the architecture in his native city, Munich. This work resulted in the series ‘Münchner Elegien’ (Munich Elegies), exhibited in 2005 at the Fotomuseum München (with publication by Schirmer/Mosel, Munich, with which he became known as an artist. Travelling back and forth between Munich and New York, Christopher Thomas began photographing this series in 2001, but made most of his images over the past two years.

The book ‘New York Sleeps’ published by Prestel Publishing, recently won the Deutschen Fotobuchpreis in Silber 2010.

FIFTY ONE FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY

www.gallery51.com

Sammy Baloji - Vues de Likasi now open at Contact Gallery in Toronto

Sammy Baloji - Vues de Likasi
January 14 - March 14, 2010

CONTACT launches the new year with Vues de Likasi, a solo exhibition by Congolese photographer Sammy Baloji in the CONTACT GALLERY.

Baloji’s photographic and sound installation analyzes contemporary African identity through the ethnography, architecture, and urban landscape of Likasi. The photographs of the reconstructed streetscape, with its obvious signs of a civilization built before, during, and after the Belgian colonial period, reveal the artist’s interest in the daily life of Congolese people. As a result of the strict government ban on photographing public buildings, Vues de Likasi is a rare depiction of the city’s cultural and industrial legacies, Encircling the gallery, Baloji’s 55 meter long assembled panorama of images documents the city’s past within the day-to-day activity of the present, revealing a complex portrait of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

>p> Sammy Baloji was born in 1978 and lives in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo. His work has been exhibited extensively in Africa and in Europe, including the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris and the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium. Baloji was recently featured in CAPE07, Cape Town, Le Tarmac de la Villette, Paris, Rencontres africaines de la photographie, Mali and le Mois de la Photo, Montreal. A traveling exhibition of his work is currently in preparation by the Museum for African Art, New York. He was a finalist for the Prix Pictet in 2009, a recipient of the Prince Claus Award in 2008 and received two awards at the 2007 African Photography Biennial in Bamako, Mali. Baloji is represented by Axis Gallery, New York.

CONTACT would like to thank Gaëlle Morel and Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal for their assistance in making this exhibition possible and gratefully acknowledges the support of Scotiabank, the Government of Canada's Economic Action Plan and Celebrate Ontario.

CONTACT fosters and celebrates the art and profession of photography with an annual month-long festival in May and newly initiated year-round programming in the gallery.

www.contactphoto.com

O Canada Now Showing at Stephen Bulger Gallery and Free Saturday Afternoon Screenings at Camera in Toronto

O CANADA
A Group Exhibition

January 23 - February 27, 2010

Made by famous photographers, as well as photographers unknown, these vintage photographs cover a wide range of topics and offer a visual history of Canada spanning nearly 150 years.

Coming at a time when modes of recording have drastically changed, this exhibition offers a trove of analogue representations of the land, the people and the events that have shaped Canada’s history.

Photographer Unknown, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, circa 1911

3:00PM - Free Saturday Afternoon Screenings at Camera

January 23
GOIN' DOWN THE ROAD

Dir. Donald Shebib (CA, 1970) 90 mins

January 30
C.R.A.Z.Y.

Dir. Jean-Marc Vallée (CA, 2005) 127 mins

February 6
I'VE HEARD THE MERMAIDS SINGING

Dir. Patricia Rozema (CA, 1987) 81 mins

February 13
THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD

Dir. Guy Maddin (CA, 2003) 100 mins

February 20
THE SWEET HEREAFTER

Dir. Atom Egoyan (CA, 1997) 112 mins

February 27
ONE WEEK

Dir. Michael McGowan (CA, 2008) 94 mins

Jeff Harris: Constructions of Identity 11 Years, One Photograph A Day

Jeff Harris: Constructions of Identity
11 Years, One Photograph A Day

Jeff Harris is an artist living and working in Toronto, Canada.

Harris is a 36-year-old, average guy living, like some of us, a relatively ordinary life. When he is not making art Harris works as a commercial photographer, following the entertainment, culture, and fashion beat.

He is an active outdoorsman: swimming, snowboarding, canoeing and kayaking are just some of the sports and leisure activities that he enjoys. Harris has on occasion been known to cut a hole through the ice just to take a cold dip. His interests go well beyond sports; he is an avid fan of pop culture and music. Harris was once a drummer in a band. He also likes to garden and spends a lot of time communing with nature.

Harris has an abundance of friends and is part of a close-knit family. Every summer he volunteers at a kid’s cancer camp and has done so for seventeen years.

He is smart, savvy, and keenly aware of everything around him. Harris also has a great sense of humour and sports a positive outlook on life.

In November 2008 Harris was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. He has spent much of 2009 undergoing radiation, surgery and is still in rehabilitation in the hopes of walking again. His life has changed tremendously. Yet when you look back on his life he is not a quitter nor would he ever want someone to pity him. He takes this setback in stride and manages to still maintain his humour.

Harris lives life to its fullest, at least until recently. He has created an extraordinary body of work spanning eleven years with no concrete plans to discontinue it. On the last day of 2009 Harris amassed 4,018 images of himself. Every day Harris has either taken a few photographs or depending on his situation, asked a family member, friend, or colleague, or when the need or opportunity arises, a stranger or a celebrity. Roughly one quarter of the images are by others. That’s a mere 1,000 compared to the rest of the images. From a few photographs taken on any given day Harris selects one for his series.

Harris is committed to using 35mm film; he uses a simple point and shoot camera. He has already spent a considerable sum on film and processing, scanning and uploading of images, and maintaining his website—roughly figured at $20,000 for the past eleven years. This figure does not include the huge sum of $30,000 he paid with the aid of sponsors to have large-scale panels printed, rental of display stands, and a galleria rental for an exhibition during the 2009 Contact Toronto Photography Festival.

Some may see his project as only a classic case of pure narcissism and self-conceit but it is not wholly that; Harris’s work also embodies the universal. Every day he constructs his identity in a new configuration. In turn, viewers are invested in constructing their own version of Harris’s identity. It sounds easy but with more than 4,000 images to look at and depending on the time one invests, it will soon be apparent that one is looking at a huge jigsaw puzzle. Every few images raise more questions, underscoring the complexities of the artist.

Harris also invites us into his life by moving the personal to the public arena. This is not that far removed from today’s public sphere of camera phones and recorders, and security cameras on streets and in public buildings. In putting aside our own bias towards those that focus exclusively on themselves, we can readily identify with most of the images. Beware though; Harris is so highly selective of the images he chooses to display that it almost seems one-sided. Other than a few photographs prior to his having cancer viewers will see only a few photographs that show signs of what is often perceived as negative emotions. Viewers are not privy to his anger or frustration that he may sometimes feel, and there is only one image in which we see obvious emotional pain on his face. Despite this viewers can, through his eyes, remember their own journey through aging, the births and deaths they have witnessed, and the years spent watching someone grow up, including themselves. Or they will remember something as simple as their own cuts, bruises and sprains that they have experienced. Viewers know what it is like to be lost in their own thoughts, to be alone versus being together with a loved one, family or friends. At its worst his work will remind viewers of the things or people they lack in their lives or further still those who do not have the power to make changes in their lives.

Many viewers will wonder if the work is staged. Definitely. Many other artists whose primary style is documentary have also staged their work. For example, Walker Evans documentary work was often labeled as “staged documents” because of its closely cropped framing and straight-on views. It is inconceivable that a premeditated self-portrait can be shot without the artist first setting up the camera and tripod. Harris has expressed that he wants every image to be unique and makes every attempt to not seem repetitive. This then raises the question as to how far he will go out of his way to take a photograph. In one image Harris is on an icy lake adjacent to open water. Will he put himself in danger for the sake of a photograph? In the end only viewers can truly decide whether some images seem plausible from one day to the next and others set-up for the desire to keep images unique.

Harris makes ample use of photography techniques. He occupies space in and out of the frame, fills the frame completely or disappears in something far greater than he. He explores the relationship between figure and ground. Harris also makes good use of unusual camera angles. He frequently poses himself within rich, colourful environments and uses hard and soft light to create an ambiance to each image. Harris also relies on a lot of available light rather than using a flash. Whether he is in the private realm of his bedroom, a large arena or vast outdoor panorama, he creates a visual dialogue between the space he inhabits and the space he frequents or chances upon.

Harris considers all of his images as self-portraits; even the images taken by and attributed to others. Other than a few images Harris directs the cameraperson to frame it a certain way. Harris has become a master at self-portraiture. The images shot by others and those taken by Harris are difficult to identify. At the beginning of the series Harris had a lot of difficulty with framing, light exposure, and focusing the camera. During the first two years some of the images of himself are more banal then others and convey a sense of not taking the project seriously enough or having little direction. Things began to change significantly in 2001 and by 2002 his perseverance paid off. His work became sophisticated, mature and incredibly seductive.

It is not difficult to figure out the artists that Harris most admires: Martin Parr, William Eggelston and Lee Friedlander. Both Eggelston and Parr are masters of colour photography. Parr looks to the people inhabiting local areas around him to photograph, always managing to catch a glimpse of something funny. Eggelston’s lyrical photographs sizzle with colour and are unusual in subject matter. He takes the banal flotsam and jetsam of life to a level in which most people rarely consider looking at. Friedlander is well known for his self-portraits as shadows or reflected in mirrors and storefronts.

As mentioned previously Harris organized a large exhibition of his work for the May 2009 Contact Toronto Photography Festival. The exhibition 3,653 Self-portraits was visited by hundreds of people. Situated in a large galleria at Brookfield Place in Toronto it spanned well over 400 running feet. Each image was 4” X 6” and displayed chronologically in grids.

There are times when an artist could use the advice of others or distance himself enough to consider more than one way to display the work and in this case the artist could have also selected single images and enlarged them, then displayed them as either single images or in groups. In the future and due to the amount of photographs, Harris needs to consider other options such as: decreasing the size of the images in the grids, selectively displaying some of the work in a given year rather than showing every single photograph or not show the photographs chronologically. It is not really necessary to show the images in this way as most images do not have continuity from one day to the next. Harris also needs to break away partially from the grid format and display some of the work into groups or as single images. Another possibility is to display images in conjunction with some of the observations made in this essay. As well it would be desirable to set-up a computer to look at images more intimately online.

Thousands have visited Harris’s website. It is easy to browse through singular images or by year or month. It is a large archive and depending on the time you spend looking at each photograph it takes anywhere between six and ten hours to look at all of the images. Harris has also included a journal, a place where browsers can write about a day that was important to them. In turn Harris posts their stories with matching photographs that he took on those days, providing that those days are not already taken. A part of the website seems unusual and unnecessary. Harris provides links to other Jeff Harris’ around the world.

Harris has created a unique body of work. He has invited us to share his world, albeit superficially. He purposely avoids including the darker side of himself. As well not all photographs are equal to each other; some do require text whereas others speak for themselves. Other than an excellent photo essay of his journey with cancer there is very little continuity between images. This sends a lot of mixed messages and may cause some viewers to barely look at his site. Another thing that Harris needs to strongly consider is the length of the project. By extending the project it will either become more solid as he ages or the project will become stale and more superficial in his attempt to make each image unique.

To view his work visit www.jeffharris.org. To see more of Harris' work please visit the post for July 25, 2010.

If you have comments or questions or would like me to forward any feedback to Jeff Harris please email pikeart@gmail.com. Please remember to include ‘Me and My Mamiya’ in the subject heading so that it does not end up in my spam box. Return soon as I have several more posts about the work of Jeff Harris.

Ryan Van Der Hout - Light and Objecthood Opens at Ryerson Gallery on January 7, 2010 in Toronto

Ryan Van Der Hout: Light and Objecthood

January 6 - February 6, 2010
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 7, 5-8 pm

Gallery Hours: Wednesday to Saturday, 12 to 5 pm

Light and Objecthood, an installation by artist Ryan Van Der Hout, distills photography to its most essential elements: light, photographic paper, and the action of the artist. Van der Hout creates gestural lines and forms through the direct reaction of light on photographic paper, establishing the photograph as pure surface, rather than a window into a new world. Through his elemental use of the medium, Van Der Hout reveals to the viewer the nature of the medium itself. Light & Objecthood was shown recently at Art Mûr Gallery during Montreal's Mois de la Photo in September 2009.

Ryan Van Der Hout is a graduate of Ryerson University's Photography program, and has exhibited in Toronto, Montreal and New York. His works have been featured in major Toronto events, including Scotia Bank Nuit Blanche, Toronto International Art Fair, and CONTACT Photography Festival, and he was chosen several times for Artscape's Emerging Artist Showcase of the 15 best Toronto-based artists under 25. His works can be seen in public and in private collections in Canada and the United States. For more information, please visit www.ryanvanderhout.com.

http://www.ryersongallery.ca/home.html

Curators and Artists: It's Time To Start Thinking About Submissions to Gallery 44s 2010-2011 Calendar - Deadline March 1, 2010

Call for Submissions from Artists - Deadline March 1, 2010

Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography is a non-profit artist-run centre committed to the advancement of photographic art. We encourage the submission of exhibition proposals from emerging, mid-career and established artists who are innovative in their use of materials and approach to subject matter.

Gallery 44 views photography within the larger context of contemporary artistic practices and relevant cultural issues in Canadian society. Please submit:

1. A maximum of twenty slides or digital images (CD must be readable on MAC OSX) representing a recent body of work or a specific project. Digital images should be: RGB, jpeg format no larger than 1024 x 768 pixels at 300 dpi. They should be numbered 01 to 20 (01_tree, 02_house, 03_car etc.) Slides must be: numbered and marked with the artist's name and a red dot in the lower left corner. GALLERY 44 DOES NOT ACCEPT ORIGINAL ARTWORK.
2. A slide or CD list indicating title, year, medium and dimensions.

3. An artist's statement or other written description.

4. A physical description of the proposed exhibition, including the number of works, the space required and any unusual installation requirements.

5. A curriculum vitae, resume or biography.

6. A self-addressed envelope (SASE) with sufficient return postage. Without an SASE we will not return submission packages and will dispose of submission materials appropriately.

Artists are paid in accordance with the CARFAC Fee Schedule.

______________________________________________________________

Vitrine Exhibition Cases - Deadline March 1, 2010

Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography has gained an additional venue with its three new vitrines. Located in the 401 Richmond Building, just outside the glass-walled entrance of Gallery 44 in a large corridor,two of the three 4' square cases have a viewing distance of 6 feet. The first of these cases opens onto a corner space opposite the gallery with approximately 7 feet of viewing distance. Between each is a space of approximately 1 metre. The walls of the hallway are exposed brick, painted white; the floor is varnished wood. These vitrines can also be used as light boxes, illuminating images from behind. Gallery 44 is seeking works executed for, or adapted to, a space such as this, with its contained character, sequential layout, and shallow (8”) depth. With electical outlets available, works containing elements such as sound may also be considered.

Please submit:

1. A maximum of twenty slides or digital images (CD must be readable on MAC OSX) representing a recent body of work or a specific project. Digital images should be: RGB, jpeg format no larger than 1024 x 768 pixels at 300 dpi. They should be numbered 01 to 20 (01_tree, 02_house, 03_car etc.) Slides must be: numbered and marked with the artist's name and a red dot in the lower left corner. GALLERY 44 DOES NOT ACCEPT ORIGINAL ARTWORK.

2. A slide or CD list indicating title, year, medium, dimensions.

3. An artist statement.

4. A description of the proposed site specific project for the vitrines, including the number of works and how they will be installed in each vitrine.

5. A recent curriculum vitae.

6. A self-addressed envelope (SASE) with sufficient return postage. Without an SASE we will not return submission packages and will dispose of submission materials appropriately.

Artists will be paid a fee.

______________________________________________________________

Call for Submissions from Curators - Deadline March 1, 2010

Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography is a non-profit artist-run centre committed to the advancement of photographic art. We encourage the submission of exhibition proposals from emerging, mid-career and established curators for exhibitions of photographic work which is innovative in the application of photographic materials and in the examination of subject matter. Gallery 44 views photography within the larger context of contemporary artistic practices and relevant cultural issues in Canadian society.

Please submit:

1. A maximum of twenty slides or digital images (CD must be readable on MAC OSX) representing a recent body of work or a specific project. Digital images should be: RGB, jpeg format no larger than 1024 x 768 pixels at 300 dpi. They should be numbered 01 to 20 (01_tree, 02_house, 03_car etc.) Slides must be: numbered and marked with the artist's name and a red dot in the lower left corner. GALLERY 44 DOES NOT ACCEPT ORIGINAL ARTWORK.
2. A slide or CD list indicating title, year, medium and dimensions.

3. A curatorial statement.

4. A physical description of the proposed exhibition, including the number of works, the space required and any unusual installation requirements.

5. Curricula vitae, resumes or biographies of the artist(s) and curator.

6. A self-addressed envelope (SASE) with sufficient return postage. Without an SASE we will not return submission packages and will dispose of submission materials appropriately.

Gallery 44 welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with other arts and community organizations. Please contact us to discuss your project.

Artists are paid in accordance with the CARFAC Fee Schedule.

Gallery 44 will take reasonable care with submission materials; however, we cannot accept responsibility for damage or loss to original photographic prints.

Gallery 44 does not accept submissions by fax or email.

www.gallery44.org

Winter 2010 Upcoming Workshops at Gallery 44 in Toronto

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS AT GALLERY 44

To Register or for more information contact sojin@gallery44.org or visit our website at www.gallery44.org

Digital Printing
Bob Carnie of Elevator Photographic Lab

Saturday January 30 and Sunday January 31, 10am - 5pm

Cost: $280/ $260 (members)

In this two-day workshop, Bob Carnie from Elevator Lab covers the essential steps to produce quality digital photographs. This workshop is geared towards photographers at beginner to intermediate Photoshop level. Participants will work on laptops (set up to external monitors) to achieve a photographic image with the best possible quality. During the course of the workshop, the instructor will cover calibration and paper profiles; how to set up a workstation to maximize workflow; colour neutralization, and colour theory; contrast and density; effective sharpening tools; dodging and burning; as well as adjusting final colour and contrast. After the first session, participants will send their files to be printed at Elevator Lab. The second session will be focused on evaluating the prints retouching them to make further improvements. Participants might also work on a new image on the second day. Students will leave with TWO 20x30 Lambda Fuji Crystal Archival print courtesy of Fuji and Elevator Lab.

Van Dyke
Sally Ayre

Saturday, February 6, 10am to 5pm

Cost: $180/ $160 (members)

Go back in time with this workshop and experience one of the earliest photographic printing processes. Van Dyke is a non-silver process that can be combined or used independently to create distinctive brown toned imagery on materials such as silk or art papers. This hands-on workshop with Sally Ayre will teach proper coating, exposing, and developing techniques for Van Dyke.

Self-promotion for the artist/curator
Bridget Indelicato

Tuesday, February 9, 6pm to 9pm 6pm to 9pm

Cost: $70/ $60 (members)

This workshop is geared towards artists and curators in all stages of their careers that want to learn professional and creative ways to promote upcoming exhibitions and events. Participants will learn effective press release writing for the general public, the art community and the media. Tips on how to maximize the Internet for marketing and promotions will also be covered. At the end of the workshop, you will walk away with a helpful resource list that includes online and print marketing services.

Portraiture, Narrative, and Intimacy
Meera Margaret Singh

Saturday, February 20 and Saturday, February 27, 12pm to 3pm

Cost: $140/ $130

Instructor and artist, Meera Margaret Singh’s work often deals with the idea of Intimacy through portraiture. This two-day workshop will examine the process of making conceptual work from the original idea to its conception. During the first session, participants will engage in a discourse around ‘intimacy’: What does it mean? How have other artists used this notion to create work? What are the challenges of working with such a layered concept? How can one transform a concept into a work of art?

Based on the discussion during the first session, participants will be asked to photograph and create work, which will be reviewed the following week. The sharing of individual’s work will create an atmosphere that would parallel the concept of the workshop creating an intimate form of discussion and critique on the idea of intimacy.

Intermediate Black and White
Ruth Kaplan

Sunday, February 21 and Sunday, February 28, 10am to 4pm

Cost: $320/$300 (members)

The Intermediate Black and White Workshop is designed for those with some basic darkroom experience looking to learn more advanced and archival techniques in the darkroom. It is also ideal for photographers who need a refresher on archival printing. Participants must provide their own fiber-based paper, up to 16” x 20” in size. They also have to option to print with R.C. paper. Instructor, Ruth Kaplan will cover techniques and challenges of printing, from enlarger and tray processing to the final wash and print flattening. The Basic Black and White workshop is recommended prior to taking this workshop but not mandatory based on participants’ experience.

Curation 101
Jennifer Long

Wednesday, February 24, 6pm to 9pm

Cost: $70/ $60 (members)

This workshop will provide learners with the essential steps necessary to envision and coordinate a curatorial project. Instructor, Jennifer Long will guide the participants with the research tools, roles, responsibilities and time lines required to initiate a curated exhibition. Through examples of her own curatorial projects, Long will present how to put together a strong conceptual base for a project as well as the organizational tools necessary to curate a successful exhibition.

Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography
401 Richmond Street West, Suite 120

info@gallery44.org
www.gallery44.org

Gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday 11 AM – 5 PM

Visit Gallery 44's Online Database of Artists and Exhibitions

www.gallery44database.org

Natural Artifice: Elinor Whidden and 12 Point Buck Opens at Gallery 44 on January 8, 2010 in Toronto

Natural Artifice
Elinor Whidden and 12 Point Buck

January 8 – February 13, 2010
Opening reception: Friday, January 8, 6 - 9 pm

Artists’ talk: Friday, January 8, 6 pm

Gallery 44 begins the year 2010 with a distinctly Canadian exhibition called Natural Artifice, featuring photography and installation by Toronto artist Elinor Whidden, paired with video projection and print-based landscape dioramas by 12 Point Buck, a collaborative duo from Lethbridge, Alberta. These artists construct wry imagery to emphasize the disconnections between our representation of nature, our experience of nature, and nature itself.

Elinor Whidden considers the notion of progress by likening the promises of today’s off-road automobile advertising to those of the Canada’s Western Frontier when the fur trade first blazed its trails into the wilderness. Her photo series Ford EXPLORER captures Whidden’s car-carrying performances in which she endeavours to use car parts as survival tools in the wilds of Northern Ontario.

12 Point Buck comprises artists Leila Armstrong and Chai Duncan, who play with pop depictions of wildlife in their art to highlight the artifice of such representations, which make wild animals look cute and cuddly, and essential ecosystems appear trivial. This incongruity is portrayed in their video projection Deer Me, which follows a creature in a deer mask and wolf skin coat as it carries itself awkwardly through the coulees of an Albertan terrain.

Dayna McLeod in her essay on the exhibitions writes, “We have boiled down the natural world into simplified terms that permit the exploitation of the land and mediate our experience of what is nature.” For Danya McLeod’s full essay from the exhibition’s accompanying catalog, please visit www.gallery44.org

Elinor Whidden received a BA in Canadian/Environmental Studies from Trent University, a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and a MFA from the State University of New York in Buffalo. She has exhibited throughout North America, recently showing work in Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Buffalo, NY.

12 POINT BUCK has been working collaboratively for two years. They have shown their work at the Toronto Urban Film Festival, Parlour in Lethbridge and worked in situ at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery. Chai Duncan holds an MFA from the University of Saskatchewan and is currently on staff at the University of Lethbridge. Leila Armstrong acquired an MA in Media Studies from Concordia University and went on to do doctoral studies in communications at Simon Fraser University.

Elinor Whidden’s, Georgian Bay from the series Ford EXPLORER, c-print 76 x 114 cm, 2009
12 POINT BUCK, Deer Me (production still), 2008

Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography is a non-profit artist-run centre committed to the advancement of photographic art. Founded in 1979, the centre consists of a gallery, resource centre, and production facilities. Gallery 44 is supported by its members and patrons, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council.

401 Richmond Street West, Suite 120

www.gallery44.org

Flash Forward 2010 Deadline Extended to January 17, 2010

As has sometimes happened in previous years, so many people tried to submit all at once on the day of the deadline that some of them could not get through, or experienced random errors. Additionally, the submission system apparently started putting up the message that submissions were closed a few hours early, due to an error in the time zone settings on the server.

In order to ease the crunch and allow everyone who has been trying to submit to get their work in, the deadline has been extended to January 17, 2010. This should allow the remaining submissions to be spread over a longer time and ease the load on the server, but if you still encounter any sort of trouble, please e-mail support@magentafoundation.org and let us know.

Those of you considering submitting now have a little over two more weeks in which to do it. But we very strongly recommend not waiting until the 17th to submit - having so many people wait until the last day was largely what caused the problems people were experiencing!

Mark Kasumovic: I Can Hear You Humming Opens on January 7 at Toronto Image Works

January 7 - 30, 2010
Mark Kasumovic: I Can Hear You Humming

Opening January 7, 5-7PM

I Can Hear You Humming, is a very stunning series of colour photographs that follows a network of power lines dispersed throughout our cities and countryside, offering both an interruption to the natural landscape and a view of these giant towers often invisible to us.

Please join us at the Opening Event and meet the artist. For further information please contact Bernice Lyons at gallery@torontoimageworks.com

Every Day Heroes Film Competition

Earth Day Canada - Every Day Heroes Film Competition

All filmmakers, young and old, established and aspiring, are invited to submit 90-second silent videos to the Every Day Heroes Film Competition.

Enthusiastic. Remarkable. Inspiring. These are just a few words that describe the individuals and groups across Canada that are doing amazing things to reduce their impact on the environment in large and small ways. They’ve taken the three R’s and made it a way of life. They’re every day heroes whose stories need to be told.

Finalists will have their videos screened in Ivanhoe Cambridge Shopping Malls across Canada, on the Onestop Network of 270 monitors on the subway platforms of the Toronto Transit Commission, as well as hosted on Earth Day Canada’s website and YouTube channel.

Prizes will be awarded in three categories:
Best of ‘Under 18’ years of age—13 inch MacBook Pro

Best of ‘18 and Over’—13 inch MacBook Pro

Best of Competition—Two economy airline tickets to any destination in North America with two nights hotel accommodation and two tickets to the Earth Day Canada Gala, including travel to Toronto and hotel accommodation for the nights of June 8th and 9th, 2010.

Inspire Canada this Earth Day. Tell the story of your every day environmental hero and their dedication to supporting a healthier environment.

The deadline for submissions is March 1, 2010.

Visit www.earthday.ca/film for more details and submission form.

Co-produced by Earth Day Canada, Onestop Media Group and Art for Commuters

Call for Submissions - Singapore International Photography Festival

In 2008, Singapore International Photography Festival attracted a whopping 6,600 public submissions of photographic work from photographers around the world. 12% of the total submissions were the most outstanding prints, which were shortlisted and exhibited across Singapore. The submissions were not restricted to any fixed subject or theme but selected works were grouped according to various themes by the Festival’s four curators.

Now, the 2nd SIPF 2010 commences with two categories for open call. The open-ended theme category continues with the purpose of unearthing new works and talents. This year’s festival incorporates a brand new themed category titled, ‘HUMAN: NATURE’ to address universal concerns faced by the world. The duality in the theme can be freely interpreted either as ‘Human Nature’ or ‘Human & Nature’. The ‘colon’ represents a relationship and a balanced ratio between Human and Nature. Thematically, this category is an ambitious call for creative interpretation on HUMAN: NATURE.

SIPF 2010 prides itself to be the platform for Southeast Asian photographers to showcase their photography works alongside their international counterparts. For the first time, a solo exhibition will be dedicated to a prominent Southeast Asian (SEA) photographer and audience can expect a showcase highlight of a prominent SEA photographer each biennale.

SIPF programmes and exhibitions will stretch over 30 days from 10th Oct 2010 onwards. Besides the crucial SEA Emerging Artist series for professionals, SIPF continues to broaden the public appreciation for photography with free public talks, seminar, forum and more.

Please be reminded that the deadline for open call submission is 31 March 2010.

Hurry! Closes December 7, 2009! Call for Entries - Crisis and Opportunity: Documenting The Global Recession

Deadline for entries: December 7, 2009

In the spirit of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the New Deal in the 1930s, when photographers documented the hardship and proposed solutions, SocialDocumentary.net (SDN) is issuing a Call for Entries. We are looking for photo essays that provide insight into how ordinary citizens around the world are coping during these new “hard times” and how individuals, companies, industries, family businesses, communities, and governments are responding to the crisis.

We encourage a broad definition of the global recession. Suggested stories include those of people losing their jobs, homes, and health benefits; or the effects on vulnerable communities in conflict zones, global climate change; or how the UN’s millennium goals in economic development and health improvement have been stalled by lack of resources. We are also interested in how people and governments are working to overcome these challenges in creative ways such as agricultural development; wind, solar and other alternative energies; public health programs to stop the spread of disease; or technological innovations to reduce greenhouse gases and dependence on oil. These are just examples. We welcome new stories and approaches to documenting this important topic. If photographers are not sure if their stories fit into our definition of the global recession, they are encouraged to inquire at info@socialdocumentary.net.

Prizes

First Place: One photographer will be awarded:

• A $1,500 cash prize.
• Exhibition of their work in a group show with other winners at powerHouse Arena in Brooklyn, NY, from February 15 to March14, 2010. SDN to pay for all reproduction, and hanging fees.
• Invitation to participate on a panel discussion at the opening night reception at powerHouse Arena on February 16, 2010. (photographer will need to cover their travel expenses).
• Exhibit featured in exhibition catalog printed by Meridian Printing, the leading printer of photography books in North America.
• A featured exhibit on the SDN home page for two weeks and features in email spotlights.
• A LowePro Vertex 300 AW backpack.

Honorable Mention: Three photographers will be awarded:

• Exhibition of some of their winning work at powerHouse Arena in Brooklyn, NY in a group show from February 15-March 14, 2010. SDN to pay for all reproduction, and hanging fees.
• Exhibit included in exhibition catalog.
• Winning work featured on the website of SocialDocumentary.net and in email spotlights.
• A LowePro Fastpack 350 backpack.

First Place and Honorable Mention exhibits will be published in a catalog that will be available for sale at powerHouse books, launched at the opening reception on February 16, 2010. Competition winners will each receive five complimentary copies.

The People's Choice Awards
This award is based on total number of viewers to a competition entry. Photographers can promote their sites through their own websites, their Facebook page, Twitter, and other sources so that their total number of viewers is increased.

• First Place: People's Choice Award. Adobe Photoshop Extended, for Mac or Windows
• Second Place: People's Choice Award: Adobe Lightroom 2, for Mac or Windows

Entry Fees

$35 for one exhibit entry of 6 – 36 images.

A limited number of partial scholarships are available for residents of developing countries. To apply, photographer must first have or create a free membership with SocialDocumentary.net. Send request to scholarship@socialdocumentary.net with name, email address used for membership, your country of residence and your country of citizenship. All requests for discounts must be submitted by November 15, 2009, and exhibits must be submitted by November 22. Expatriates from developed countries living in a developing country are not eligible for scholarships.

All fees must be paid using a credit card on the SDN website. International credit cards are accepted. All entry submissions and fees are final and non-refundable.

All entries are automatically and simultaneously submitted for exhibition on the SocialDocumentary.net website and must follow all rules and regulations regarding exhibits on SDN. See SDN website for further information on fees. www.socialdocumentary.net

Exhibits on SocialDocumentary.net need to be approved before going live (click here for more information). In the event that an entry to the Call for Entries is not accepted for the SDN website, the photographer may make changes to their exhibit and re-submit, at no additional cost, up until the entry deadline.

Photographers can submit multiple contest entries but individual photographs may only be submitted for one entry.

All entries will be viewable to the public on the SDN site.

Entry Requirements

All entries must have between 6 and 36 photographs related to a specific story about the global recession, have an abstract to provide context (150 words maximum) and captions to accompany the photographs. Photographer may also submit additional text about the situation being documented, a bio, and information on organizations working with affected communities.

Only the first 9 images, captions, and abstract will be review by judges, but photographer can submit up to 36 images that will be part of their online exhibit.

Photographs must have been taken after January 1, 2008.

All work must be submitted via the SocialDocumentary.net website at http://www.socialdocumentary.net.

All contest entries must be accompanied by full name of the photographer and contact information, including email address and phone number. Minimum of six images is required with abstract and captions.

Winning entries must be able to provide within 7 days of award announcement digital files of at least 3000 pixels in one dimension. Exact specifications on providing digital files for exhibition will be provided at a later date.

All entries and communications from entrants must be in the English language.

Printing and Mounting of Exhibits

SocialDocumentary.net will cover all costs associated with printing and mounting of photographs for the exhibition at powerHouse Arena.

Traveling Exhibition

SocialDocumentary.net is making plans to bring the exhibit to the Gage Gallery at Roosevelt University in Chicago in the fall of 2010 and is negotiating other locations as well.

Judges

SDN reserves the right to use alternate judges if necessary. The decision of judges is final. Judges will give equal attention to the photographs and the text. Judges will review up to 9 images for any entry.

Lori Grinker
Lori Grinker began her photographic career in 1981 while a student at Parsons School of Design when Inside Sports published her photo-essay about a young boxer as its cover story. During that time she met another young boxer, 13 year-old Mike Tyson, who she documented for the following decade. Since then, in addition to her reportage of events such as the destruction of the World Trade Center, she has delved into several long-term projects, and published two books: The Invisible Thread: A Portrait of Jewish American Women (Jewish Publication Society, 1989, 6 editions), and Afterwar: Veterans from a World in Conflict (de.MO, 2004).

Published in major magazines, her work has earned international recognition, garnering a World Press Photo Foundation Prize, an Open Society Institute Distribution grant, a W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund fellowship, the Ernst Hass Grant, The Santa Fe Center for Photography Project Grant, and a Hasselblad Foundation Grant, among others. Her photographs have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions around the world and are in many private and museum collections including: The International Center of Photography (ICP), The Jewish Museum in New York City, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Between editorial assignments, commercial jobs (represented by MEO Represents), and personal projects, Grinker lectures, teaches workshops, and is on the faculty of the ICP in New York City. She is represented by the Nailya Alexander Gallery in New York and has been a member of Contact Press Images since 1988. Grinker is on the advisory committee of SocialDocumentary.net.
www.lorigrinker.com

Ed Kashi
Ed Kashi is a photojournalist, filmmaker and educator dedicated to documenting the social and political issues that define our times.

Kashi’s images have been published and exhibited worldwide. His innovative approach to photography and filmmaking produced the Iraqi Kurdistan Flipbook. Using stills in a moving image format, this creative and thought-provoking form of visual storytelling has been shown in many film festivals and as part of a series of exhibitions on the Iraq War at The George Eastman House.

An eight-year personal project completed in 2003, Aging in America: The Years Ahead, created a traveling exhibition, an award-winning documentary film, a website and a book which was named one of the best photo books of 2003 by American Photo. Along with numerous awards, including honors from Pictures of the Year International, World Press Foundation, Communication Arts and American Photography, Kashi’s editorial assignments and personal projects have generated four books. In 2008, his latest books will be published, both by powerHouse Books; Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta and Three.

“Ed Kashi is intelligent, brave and compassionate. He always understands the nuances of his subjects. He fearlessly goes where few would venture. And he sympathetically captures the soul of each situation. Ed is one of the best of a new breed of photojournalistic artists.” David Griffin, Director of Photography, National Geographic

Kashi is on the advisory committee of SocialDocumentary.net.
www.edkashi.com

Lucian Perkins
Lucian Perkins, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in biology. He later studied photography with Garry Winogrand. In 1997, he received an internship at the Washington Post, where he worked as a staff photographer for 27 years. He received the “Newspaper Photographer of the Year” by the National Press Photographers Association in 1994 for a portfolio that includes projects in Russia and a behind-the-scenes look at the New York fashion shows. In 1995, with Post reporter Leon Dash, he won a Pulitzer Prize for their four-year study on the effects of poverty on three generations of a Washington, DC family through the eyes of their family’s matriarch Rosa Lee Cunningham.

In 1996 he was awarded the World Press Photo of the Year for his photograph of a young boy in war-torn Chechnya. In 2000, Perkins won another Pulitzer Prize along with two colleagues at the Post for their coverage of the Kosovo conflict. While at the Post, Perkins covered major international events, including Russia since 1988, the wars in the former Yugoslavia, the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has also chronicled local and national events throughout the US. In October 1998, Chronicle Books published his first book, Runway Madness.
www.lucianperkins.com

Shahidul Alam
Shahidul Alam was born in 1955 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He studied and taught chemistry in London where he obtained a PhD from the University of London.

He started photographing in 1980 and was awarded the Harvey Harris Trophy for being judged the best photographer of the year by the London Arts Council and became the President of the Bangladesh Photographic Society, where he served for three terms.

In 1989, he set up Drik picture library and Pathshala: South Asian Institute of Photography. He is also a director of Chobi Mela, the festival of photography in Asia. He was a jury member of numerous competitions including World Press Photo, where he has been a judge on four occasions and he was the first person of colour to chair the international jury in World Press Photo.

Awarded the Andrea Frank Foundation Award and the Howard Chapnick Award in 1998, he has also been awarded the Honorary Fellowships of the Bangladesh Photographic Society and later, the Royal Photographic Society in 2001, for his contribution to photography.

He is on the advisory board for the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund and the National Geographic Society. He is visiting professor of Sunderland University in the UK and Regent's Lecturer at UCLA in the US. Alam is the founder and chairman of Majority World, a global community interest initiative formed to provide a platform for indigenous photographers, photographic agencies, and image collections from the majority world to gain access to global image markets.
http://shahidul.wordpress.com/

Craig Cohen
Craig Cohen is Executive Publisher of powerHouse Books, NY.
www.powerhousebooks.com

Whitney Johnson
Photo Editor, The New Yorker Magazine

Eligibility

Contest is open to all professional and amateur US and international photographers. SDN staff, volunteer, advisory committee members, judges, and their families are not eligible to enter the competition.

Winner Notification

Winners will be contacted by phone and email by December 16, 2009.
Tax liability in connection with any Prize is the responsibility of the winners.

Important Dates

• Entries accepted on SDN website: September 15, 2009
• Entries deadline: December 7, 2009
• Judging: December 10-13, 2009
• Winners Announced: December 16, 2009
• Opening reception & panel discussion: Tuesday, February 16, 2010
• New York Exhibition: powerHouse Arena, February 15-March 14, 2010
• Chicago Exhibition: Gage Gallery at Roosevelt University, September - December, 2010. These dates may be subject to change.

Use Rights

All entrants and winners retain copyright of their work. By submission for jurying, photographers whose images are chosen grant SDN a royalty-free license to use their images for the purpose of subsequent display on the SDN site or in SDN promotional materials. Entries grant SDN the right to use their name for promotion in any medium including radio, newspapers, publications, television, videotape, and/or distribution over the internet. Samples of the winning work will be released to the press for promotional purposes. Photographers grant use of their images as stated without further contact or compensation from SDN other than the prizes listed above. Photographer’s credit will be provided with all use. Winners grant SDN the right to use the work in a related exhibition gallery book and in a possible traveling exhibition.

Print Sales

Winning photographers must provide a list of work and sale price. For the first exhibition at powerHouse Arena, February 15-March 14, 2009, sales of prints will be split 40% to photographer, 40% to powerHouse, 20% to SDN. Sales are arranged through powerHouse and the work sold will be the exact work on the wall. SDN will pay the photographers. Other sizes can be negotiated with buyer. SDN pays for the printing and mounting of the work for first exhibition. Arrange of sale of work at other exhibit locations to be determined.

Release

Entrant acknowledges that SDN may not be held liable for any loss, damages, or injury associated with this contest. Entrant agrees to indemnify SDN for all costs, damages and attorney fees resulting from any third party claims, including copyright infringement, arising from entrant’s participation.

SDN reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any entrant that fails to comply with contest rules and guidelines. This Contest is void where prohibited by law.

About SDN

SocialDocumentary.net (SDN) uses the power of photography to promote global awareness. SDN members include photographers, NGOs, journalists, editors, and students who create and explore documentary websites investigating critical issues facing the world today. Recent exhibits have explored oil workers in the Niger River Delta, male sex workers in India, Central American immigrant women during their journey north, and Iraqi and Afghan refugees in Greece.

Questions? Email us at info@socialdocumentary.net.