I am on blog hiatus

I will be back soon with tales of the hudson valley life.

an unexpected gift

Image by Brian Ulrich

I am madly in love with photography and it does not take much for me to fall head-over-heals for an image.  I can be a harsh critic but at the end of the day all I need is the right amount of light and I am melting away. Lets just say, I am an easy photo-date. 

That being said, every once in a while a body of photographic work goes beyond and ignites something so hypnotic and wonderful within me that I cant even explain it in words.  Sounds intense, doesn't it?  It is. 

In his past work, Brian Ulrich never really tapped into that place for me.  I appreciated his work and understood its importance, but the images themselves were not that jaw dropping and did not resonate for me. He always existed in my intellectual plain but never struck me as the most interesting visual experience. Until now.  

 Image by Brian Ulrich

I got a glimpse of this particular work when he presented for Aperture at New York Photo Festival a few years ago.  He was still traveling and shooting on his glorious Guggenheim (jealous!).  But, it was not until today that I was reminded of the work and taken back at its beauty.  Fraction Magazine published a short review of the project Dark Stores, Ghost Boxes and Dead Malls and I was mesmerized.  

This work is so touching to me because in some ways it represents the fall of capitalism.  I have been desperate to see this country transition away from big box stores and return to its roots of a locally made and self sustaining culture.  That is clearly the anarchist within me coming to the surface (thank Ulrich).  I know I am supposed to look at these and be sad for all the people who lost their jobs - which I really am to some degree - but I am also struck by the beauty of its decay.  Not just the disintegration of a physical structure, but the dismantling of a way of life.  As much as I am happy that we, a society, may be evolving - it equally scares me to death.  The uncertainty and the insecurity of it all gives me the shivers.   

Image by Brian Ulrich

That is why I have so madly fallen for these images...because they terrify me and make me uncomfortable.  That is what I need.  I need to be taken out of my comfort zone and be challenged.  I want a picture to do that sometimes.  Ulrich has done just that, but with the grace of beauty to ease my transition. 

let the gardening begin...

Happy Spring Everyone!  I am happy that the weather is warmer and the sun is occasionally shining!  It was a long winter for many, and the fresh air and lovely spring smells are a warmly welcomed.  

For those of you who read this blog or for those of you who are new to it - I would like to welcome you back to Carbon Copy: Life as an Artist in Woodstock.  This blog allows me to share and reflect on some of my life experiences in the art world, inside my head, in my kitchen, and in the world at large.  I thank you for coming back and reading my crazy words!!  Please feel free to comment or email me at any time. 

So, I started a garden this year.  It has been the most wonderful addition to my crazy life.  I have loved that so much of my creative energy can be translated into this process.

Starting all these plants from seed has been a great learning experience.  

I am so devoted to nurturing each one and tending to all its needs. 

In return, the plant blossoms and comes to life before my eyes.  It is a complete collaboration. 

The seed and I, working collectively with light and water to create new life.  

It melts my heart.

Then there is the smell.

I had no idea how nice this was going to smell.

Leaves forming and soil moistening is the most rejuvenating scent in the world. 

Everything is from seed.

The seedlings are taking over and I could not be happier.  They respond to my devoted attention with beautiful growth.

We built four raised beds.  Salvaged the wood and had soil delivered.

J helped with the construction.

This garden is an incredible amount of work but it actually brings calm into my life.

The still lifes surrounding the garden and garden tools are constantly grabbing my attention.

After the beds were finished, we put up a large net-like fence to keep the animals out.

If only we had a better guard dog.  This one would show the deer in the front door if he had the chance.

First harvest.  Mom and Grandma were visiting for a birthday celebration and we got to pick lettuces and basil for a salad and chives for biscuits. 

I will update the garden pictures as it grows.  I look forward to documenting this adventure!

Devorah Sperber at SUNY this week

 Mona Lisa by Devorah Sperber

DEVORAH SPERBER
Devorah Sperber has been selected as the Visiting Artist at SUNY Ulster for the 2011 spring semester.

Exhibition on view:
March 17- April 15
Muroff Kotler Visual Arts Gallery
Vanderlyn Hall, Stone Ridge Campus

Opening Reception and Slide Lecture
Thursday, March 17, 2011
7:00 p.m., Vanderlyn Hall, Student Lounge

From SUNY website:

Devorah Sperber was born in 1961 and raised in Detroit, Michigan and Denver, Colorado. From 1979 to 1981, she attended the Art Institute of Colorado, Denver, and in 1987, she received her BA from Regis University, Colorado. She has had numerous exhibitions including Mass MoCA, (2008), and a one-person exhibition,The Eye of the Artist: The Work of Devorah Sperber, at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York (2007).



Artist’s Statement
"My current body of work consists of sculptures assembled from thousands of ordinary objects - spools of thread, marker and pen caps, flower-power stickers, map tacks, chenille stems (a.k.a. pipe cleaners), faceted beads, and Swarovski crystals. The imagery is derived from digital photographs that I manipulate and translate into "low-tech" pixels.

While many contemporary artists employ digital technology to create high-tech works, I strive to "dumb-down" technology by using mundane materials and low-tech, labor-intensive assembly processes. I place equal importance on the recognizable image as a whole and on how individual parts function as abstract elements. Therefore, I select materials based on their aesthetic and functional characteristics as well as their capacity for an interesting and often contrasting relationship with the subject matter.

The thread-spool works are often installed so that viewers first perceive the spools of thread as a random arrangement of colorful cylinders. It is only after the spools are viewed through an optical device, such as a clear acrylic sphere or convex mirror that the recognizable image emerges. The viewing spheres (or convex mirrors) shrink or condense the thread spool "pixels" into recognizable images while also rotating the representation 180 degrees. This shift in perception functions as a mechanism to present the idea that there is no one truth or reality, thus emphasizing subjective reality over an absolute truth." - from the Museum of Arts and Design website.


Learn more about her work here.

Free lecture this Sunday!

Lecture by Jamie Davis & Rachel Papo
This Sunday, Feb. 27 at 11am
The Center for Photography at Woodstock
59 Tinker Street, Woodstock
845.679.9957
free!!!

 image by Rachel Papo

This is a great opportunity to hear two regional and successful photographers speak about their work and experiences. I highly recommend attending!  I will be there and hope to see a number of you there too!!



more info available here.

new year, old perspective

Happy New Year everyone! 

It is so nice to feel like I have a fresh start to life--and isn't that the illusion of the new year?  It is as if we can put everything in the past year behind us and focus on the future.  Making endless promises to ourselves to create a better year than the last.  It is such a wonderful gift-- to feel dedicated to self-renewal--but I wish I awoke with such enthusiasm every day of the year.  Instead of January 1st being the start to a fresh beginning, I want every single day to be approached as such. And this has to apply to creativity as well.  When I was a photography student, and my camera never left my hands, every ounce of the world was a spectacle that was waiting to be recorded.  Every odd reflection in a mirror, store sign that was missing letters, quiet moment in a park, shadow on the human skin, still life of my dinner, beautiful friends and family--everything was worthy of the space on a negative. Me and my Pentax K1000 took on the world and it was not always fun and games but it was always real and from the heart. 

As I got older, my head got a lot bigger than my heart -  and my photography followed.  I had to have such an involved intellectual conversation with myself before any picture was allowed the honor of my negative.  This was an important time for my art--it aught me about poetry, responsibility, philosophy-- but it was out of balance.

Now it is time for me to merge these two parts of my past and create a new chapter in my work.  Follow the light, but analyze its meaning.  Trust the instinct and think later. 

I shoot with a 4x5 studio camera which has major limitations on how and when i can photograph. It is a wonderful tool--don't get me wrong--but it just too big and time consuming to be used all of the time.  So, my iphone has been used to snap the quick and easy pics that I need to take in everyday life.  This has been an amazing reminder of my days as a college student--when everything sparked my curiosity enough to explore it with my camera.

Even though the quality of the iphone camera is not good enough for me to really use -- it has ignited a desire to go back to something light, easy to hold, and fun.  We shall see....


Images above:
I spend a lot of time in doctor's offices...waiting...and waiting...and more waiting.  I play with my phone, I read a magazine, I daydream...until recently I started taking still lifes with my phone's camera.  These are a few of those...

Commercial Photography: Now Available!!

I have such a deep understanding of how essential it is to capture important life moments with photography.  It is through our photographs that we share our memories for years to come.  It is also the way many of us communicate about our products, activities, or business with the world.

 

This is why I have decided to become available to the public for commercial photography ventures.  

I am now booking appointments to photograph in the Hudson Valley and surrounding areas for a affordable rate.


This includes:

-special events  (weddings, holiday parties, birthday parties, bar/bat mitzvahs, anniversaries etc.)

-individual/family portraits
-head shots
-fashion

-products
-architecture
-other subjects also considered

Holiday portraits printed on cards are available at a special rate until December 10th!

Please contact me at ejunterman@yahoo.com for additional information.

SPE Northeast review

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope your holiday festivities were wonderful!

This post is a little late coming.  I meant to write about the conference...ummm...right after it took place.  Unfortunately, life does not always agree with what you plan on doing. 

The picture above was taken on one of my strolls around Providence, Rhode Island, which is where the conference took place.  Every time I get to visit this city I say that I could move there in a heartbeat.  It is just the right mix of New England and city life that meshes great with me.  

The conference events took place at RISD.  I had not been there since I curated at the Sol Koffler 4 years ago--which I think got a name change.  In any case, the school is a great place to host a stimulating discussion on "The Experimental in Photography".  Yes, broad subject indeed...but the panels, speakers, and presenters were very well curated to compliment this topic.  Lots of praises went to the Northeast's newest Chair Bruce Myren, for his amazing organization of this event.

I missed the keynote, Spencer Finch, because of traffic coming in from Woodstock.  But, I heard it was an energetic and enlightening talk--great way to start things off.  I am sad I was not able to see it.

A few highlights from the talks include:

Sharon Harper (Cambridge, MA), Moon Studies and Star Scratches, No. 9, June 4 – 30, 2005, Clearmont, Wyoming, 15, 30, 20, 8, 5, 1, 5, 2, 1 minute exposures; 15, 8, 10, 14 second exposures, Digital C-print from 4x5 transparency, 50 x 40 inches, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Roepke, Cologne

- Sharon Harper (Harvard University), "Photographing the Invisible"

A wonderful testament to the experimental is represented in Sharon's lengthy exposures exploring the night sky.  Often taken over a period of several months, her images challenge photography to capture process, time, and memory.

Meegan Gould (Brunswick, Maine), Image from the Blackboard series

- Meggan Gould (Bowdoin College), "Site-seeing"

I related to Meggan's work the most at this conference.  The image above is from the "blackboard series", which is on-going photographic studies of the spaces in which these boards reside.  Who does not have a secret love for blackboards?  She has recently started a series, which in a similar gaze, photographs personal computers....revealing what an individual's "screen" looks like.  Both series are full of personality.  She presented quite a few more projects--all with the same energy and excitement...please check out her website to see her complete works.  

Joe Deal, Sunset Beach, CA, 1978. Courtesy of Robert Mann Gallery. 

- Jan Howard (RISD Museum)," Joe Deal's West & West: Re-imagining the Great Plains"

Joe Deal's untimely death this past year has left many people to reflect back on his work and consider its importance to the history of landscape photography.  Jan Howard curated Joe's most recent work at RISD and spoke wonderfully about those particular projects.  Having taught at RISD, there was a great number of people in the audience who knew him personally.  It was quite a lovely experience to hear about their connection to him and how he influenced them in the most grandiose ways.  NY Times did a piece on him after his passing which you can read here.

Overall this was a well-run and interesting conference and I am so happy that I was able to attend.  The benefits of going to SPE events is enormous--for someone in academia or not.  The community that SPE supports is centered around the idea of loving and supporting the photographic arts and continuing its exploration through education.  That is a kind of mission I can relate to.

SPE Northeast Conference--Novemeber 5-7, 2010

Calling all my former students, photo friends and peers...The SPE Northeast Conference is a great opportunity to hear amazing discussions, lectures and panels about the thing you love most--Photography! If you have never been to an SPE conference this is the perfect one to start with! See you there this weekend?

The Experiential in Photography
November 5 - 7, 2010
Chace Center, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Hampton Inn & Suites Providence Downtown, Providence, RI

Here is a taste:

Keynote Speaker: Spencer Finch
Honored Educator: Deborah Bright

Additional speakers:
- Sharon Harper (Harvard University), "Photographing the Invisible"
- Meggan Gould (Bowdoin College), "Site-seeing"
- Angela Kelly (Rochester Institute of Technology), "Catharsis: Images of Post-Troubles Belfast"
- Janet Pritchard (University of Connecticut), "Seeing Yellowstone with New Eyes"
- Jan Howard (RISD Museum)," Joe Deal's West & West: Re-imagining the Great Plains"
- Monica McTighe (Tufts University), "Embodiment, Experience, and Photographic Images"
- Michelle Sheppard (Algonquin Regional High School), "Breaking the Bubbles and Rebuilding the Boxes: Re-Thinking Creativity After Standardization"
- Panel: "The Image, Written: Using Photography to Teach Writing" (academic practicum) - Rachel Somerstein and Lorraine Doran (New York University), Elizabeth Cornell (Fordham University), and Alden Jones (Emerson College)

The event is very affordable and well worth it!


More info can be found here.

oh martha...

oh martha stewart.  i cant tell if i love you or hate you!  i do LOVE this photo of pumpkins and squashes from marthastewart.com.  It is the perfect representation of the fall. 

HAPPY FALL EVERYONE!!!!

a trip to cape cod

Took a few days to relax in Cape Cod, Massachusetts last weekend to celebrate my 30th birthday.  It was a great way to spend my time--and was possibly my best birthday in years!  

The image above is a composite of the landscape that I was so struck by---the Cape Dunes.  They are amazing and J and I spent a bit of time hiking around and through them (sand is a great workout!)  

We also visited a wonderful exhibition at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) which was a few blocks away from our hotel.  Traces: Daniel Ranalli, Cape Work 1987-2007 was curated by Leslie K. Brown. The collection included several series of work all taken on the cape.  They were delightfully whimsical and deeply emotive at the same time. The image below is one that made me giggle-- and in the same breath-- I was awe struck.

Daniel Ranalli, Spiral Start #9, 1995/2009, From the series "Snail Drawings," Photographic diptych, Archival inkjet print, 20 x 28 inches, Courtesy of Gallery Kayafas

The exhibition is on view until mid-January.  Fall/Winter is a wonderful time to go visit this unique part of the Northeast seashore.  There are no people around!  They all left for the season!  You cant ask for better than that.

Reception in Amherst MA

I will be in Amherst for the reception on Saturday.  If you are in the area please join me!  I would love to see my good ole yankee friends!!!

Call for entries

My friend Lauren has organized this Call for Submissions.  A literary/arts mag is an essential need in the Hudson Valley and I am thrilled that Lauren has taken the initiative to make it happen.  I call to all my artist readers to send in work---this is a great opportunity!! 

See the website for more details here.

Video Art Invades Woodstock!!!!

Still from video "Newspeak" by Liz Unterman

Looking for something to do this Friday night?  What are you interested in?
a) good times
b) cool looking stuff
c) fun peeps
d) great food and beer

If you picked a, b, c or d -- the answer for you is: The Woodstock Video Art Festival!!!! 

Come hang out with me and the other amazing artists on Friday night for a party and video screening!  

Opening Reception:
October 1st - 5 to 9pm
 @
Image Factory
1534 Rt. 212
Saugerties, NY
(3.5 miles east of Woodstock)

See you there!

Hail to the Collector

Wonderful collection of found photographs by John Foster.  Nicely curated selection in this Newsweek article with comments from collector.

Read the Newsweek article here.

Whether they are beautifully disturbing, accidentally mesmerizing or breathtakingly simple--these images possess such an unmistakable charm.   

David Maisel in Woodstock--Sat. Sept. 25th

This weekend David Maisel will be giving the last lecture of the summer season at CPW on Saturday, September 25 at 8PM. His bio is as follows:

David Maisel is a photographer and multimedia artist based in the San Francisco area. Maisel’s first book, /The Lake Project/, was published by Nazraeli Press and selected as one of the Top 25 Photography Books of 2004 by the critic Vince Aletti. Nazraeli Press published Maisel’s second book, /Oblivion/, in 2006, and Cascade Effect in 2008. Chronicle Books published his monograph /Library of Dust/ in 2008, which the New York Times called "...this year's most haunting book of images." /Library of Dust/ was the subject of a symposium in 2009 at the New York Institute for the Humanities. Maisel is the recipient of a 2008 Artist Residency from the Headlands Center for the Arts and a 2007 Scholar/Artist Residency from the Getty Research Institute. He was nominated for the 2009 Alpert Award in the Visual Arts, and short-listed for the 2008 Prix Pictet Award. Maisel has also received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Opsis Foundation. His work is widely exhibited, and is represented in major public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others. To learn more about David, visit www.davidmaisel.com .

This is a unique opportunity to hear such an internationally renowned photographer so close to home.

The cost of the lecture is $5 for students, seniors, and CPW members, and $7 for the general public.

A day in Catskill...

J and I took a ride to Catskill this weekend to go on the Catskill Artist Studio Tour.  Some amazing talent were featured on the tour including Portia Munson, Jared Handelsman and Susan Wides.  Unfortunately, we did not make it to their studios-- instead we got caught up exploring the beautiful town. 

Within Catskill is Brik Gallery --- which I had never been to before but heard a lot about.  It is a lovely space and was hosting an exhibition Cowgirls 3. 

from website:
"Cowgirls 3" is curated by Rich Timperio, who owns the famous Sideshow Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Timperio calls the show "Good old fashioned fun, light-hearted and adventurous. It celebrates the collective creativity in our midst and showcases the diversity and style of art in the twenty-first century.”

This was a powerhouse of upstate artists.  Kiki Smith (who just moved to the area!), Joan Snyder, Tanya Marcuse, Fawn Potash, Charise Isis, and Mary Frank-- to name a few.  Great show--had a lot of fun looking through the diverse grouping.  It is up until September 19th.  

Mr. Toledano takes over Brooklyn

Image of Angel by Phillip Toledano

It is very exciting for me to see this work by one of my favorite artists, Phillip Toledano, at one of my favorite galleries in NYC, Klompching Gallery.

Almost all of Mr. Toledano's projects connect deeply to the psyche of the American culture in a unique and previously unexplored fashion.  This project in particular, A New Kind of Beauty, not only examines the current mood of our societal quirks, but it also steps into a future that is currently unfamiliar to most.  We see glimpses of this beauty all around the American media but it is not generally experienced in most of our daily lives.  Mr. Toledano brings this front and center in a profound and sophisticated way--by the poses and lighting he has chosen---which is opposite of the normal bright lights and exposed posing we see in the media. Instead of criticizing and judging this new beauty, he has left it as a blank slate--one for which there is no room for us to judge, but instead we can just simply experience.

In this experience, I see a world where the identifiers of self have greatly changed. In addition, the identifiers of sex have been magnified.  I see a new type of human being.

Phillip Toledano's exhibition is at Klompching in Dumbo, Brooklyn until October 29th.

Above: See some of Phil's other fascinating projects in books form.  (And by the way...Phil is a part-time upstate New Yorker.)

new semester, some regional goodies & rambles

As part of my Photography class at SUNY Ulster, I set up a blog to share student work, photo events in the region and other passing art-like thoughts. Check it out here if you have a chance and let us know your thoughts.

On to other things...

I am currently writing my first post from my brand new 27" iMac!!! What an adventure this computer already is turning out to be. Technology like this totally inspires me to be wreckless and crazy! Gotta love it.

For the regional photographers, I would like to share that the Center for Photography at Woodstock's annual fellowship award deadline is approaching. Sept. 20 kids. Free to submit, you just need to live in one of the included counties. See their website here for more info.

I would also like to share with you some amazing jewelry work I have encountered. This kind of design and detail is totally in my frequency. I dig it more than anything I have seen lately. The references in her cut-outs are very much part of the Hudson Valley visual language.


The necklace you see above is part of Myriad Art which is created by regional artist Samantha June. Her etsy shop, with lots of goodies, can be seen here. In addition to being such a talented metal worker, Samantha is also an incredible musician! She sings in the band Desolation Angels. If they play near you---Go see them! Great times!

For now, enter the CPW fellowship and go buy some jewelry for someone you love....
...like me : )

Blog Highlight: Lens

Long time no blog. I have been off my game is many ways, yet on to new games too. Looking at less photography lately as an attempt to clear the head and inspirational palette as to allow for my true instinctual creative impulses to shine through.

That is all getting a bit old and I am starting to miss the galleries, blogs, lectures, books and prints!!! So I have posted a link to a blog I have truly enjoyed over the years and am recently getting back into.

Lens is the photography blog of The New York Times, presenting photographs, videos and slide shows that examine the world of photojournalism. A showcase for Times photographers, it also seeks to highlight the best work of other newspapers, magazines and news and picture agencies; in print, in books, in galleries, in museums and on the Web.