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You may have heard of this:
The Eye-Fi card:
a 2gig SD card with Wi-Fi and can upload from any hotspot, to, at last count, 20 different sharing and printing services as diverse as Wal-Mart, Facebook, and Shutterfly.
You shoot, it uploads automatically, without the card ever leaving the camera.
Very cool.
The thing we had an issue with was that you couldn’t pick and choose which images were uploaded. All or nothing at all. So if you were shooting an event and some photos were never meant to be shared, you know which pics I’m talking about, they would all be uploaded. There was protection though: you can have the images protected/closed/not published till you get to your computer and choose the ones to become public or get printed.

hmmmm..so you STILL had to get to your computer to select your images. Yes, you didn’t have to put your card into a reader. Not much of a time saver.

But now Continue Reading »

[photopress:01.jpg,full,centered] © Chris Killip / Helen with Hula-Hoop, Seacoal Beach, Lynemouth, Northumberland, 1983 Courtesy of the artist and RoseGallery

[photopress:LON29325.jpg,full,centered] © Martin Parr / Bristol Grammer School, 1988 Courtesy of the artist and RoseGallery

[photopress:44.jpg,full,centered]© Graham Smith / Bennetts Corner (Giro Corner), South Bank, Middlesbrough, 1982 Courtesy of the artist and RoseGallery

Last weekend a new exhibit opened at the Rose Gallery with
Three Photographers From Britain and the show is not only a diverse collection steeped in a collective portrait of the diverse social strata of the UK in the 70’s and 80’s, it is a reprise of a show that last exhibited at MOMA in 1990. Continue Reading »

[photopress:lipspartedwithlowerteeth.jpg,full,centered] © Myra Greene

En Foco is an organization of Latino, African, Asian ,Native American and Pacific Islander photographers based out of Bronx, N.Y. Founded in 1974, En Foco has offered a forum to a group that have been woefully underrepresented in the fine art photography community and have helped many artists to receive proper recognition and
Exposure. Such is the case of the exhibition that has just opened at the Umbrella Arts
Gallery in New York’s East Village., featuring the works of photographers Myra Greene and Sama Alshalbi.

[photopress:EN_FOCO_3308_003.jpg,full,centered] Photo of Sama Alshabi exhibit courtesy of Fred Bonilla
Upon entering the small exhibit space and finding a spot to observe in the opening night crowd, I found myself quietly stunned by the contrast of the 2 bodies of work; the soft focused self portrait and other works done with 4×5 film by Sama Alshalbi, expressing thru dress and body form her humanistic and subtlety political viewpoints of her Palestinian-Iraqi heritage. The work in her words “negotiates the shifts between personal and family history, creating a context to understand the impact of war and exile.” Her pieces in the exhibit shows this well .

And on the other side of the room, Myra Greene used small 3 by 4 inch wet plate ambrotypes on black glass of different parts of her facial features to counter her confrontation with personal and public bigotry. Her body of work, called “Character Recognition “was a visual reaction to the self imposed question “What do people see when they look at me?” The results are stunning and quite thought provoking.
The two bodies of work seamlessly worked together to bring together the exhibit’s theme of expression through skin and body.
While the exhibit is small, it is well worth the time to seek out, and the images will linger with you well after you leave. Continue Reading »

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I told that we picked something up for at the exhibit last night. Now, it’s Martin Shoellers book of celebrity photographs, called Close Up ,which is pretty cool in itself, as the Female Bodybuilders has yet to be published in book form.

But check these out:

[photopress:ChristopherWalken_1.jpg,full,centered]© Martin Schoeller – Christopher Walken

[photopress:MS_Blanchett_Cate_2006.jpg,full,centered] © Martin Shoeller – Cate Blanchett

This photographer has been jumping up fast in the art world as well as assignment world. Formerly an assistant for Annie Leibowitz, he has fashioned a niche in both.

[photopress:MS_Clooney_George_2007.jpg,full,centered] © Martin Shoeller – George Clooney

[photopress:MS_DeNiro_Robert_2006.jpg,full,centered] © Martin Shoeller – Robert DeNiro

What we particularly love about this book is that it is pure. One page per image. And each one fills the page. The print quality is outstanding. And he signed it.

This is how you can get one for free: Continue Reading »

At the Ace Gallery in Beverly Hills last night, Martin Schoeller, opened an exhibit of a massive collection collection of new work.
He is known for his close-up celebrity portraits that expose not only every pore but are lit to bring an animated life to each stars’ eyes, which have this amazing quality of following you around the room.

[photopress:martinbodyx.jpg,full,centered]Martin Schoeller and Female Bodybuilder
This new series of Female Bodybuilders, have brought a similar exposure of the physicality of the subject and backed off a bit to accentuate the obvious qualities of these athletes. The photographs loom high over the crowd surrounding the viewer with an unobstructed view.

Whether you were ever fascinated by the musculature of these body builders, you now get the opportunity to walk right up and examine it. And you will.

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Well, part of the festivities of opening night , was that 4 of the subjects came to the gallery and posed for the crowd with appropriate music as the soundtrack, such as Brick House. It was amazing. With 2 performances, the crowd went wild and loved seeing the real deal, surrounded by their photos.

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( the photos seemed to be watching the performance also.)
What we dig about this gallery, is the way these massive images can live there.
With a clean, stark, white backdrop, the key elements of the images get to live : extreme detail.

It was fun night of theater at the gallery. And we picked up a little something for you, which we’ll talk about in a future article.

Martin Shoeller -Female BodyBuilders :March 5th, 2008 through April, 2008
ACE GALLERY Institute Of Contemporary Art
@ The Wilshire Tower
5514 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
T: 323.935.4411

(all photos © 2008 Damon Webster)