WIF minutes 031208
7:00 PM-9:00 PM
12 March 2008
Board Members present: Gittel Price, Cindy Sheffield Michaels, Denise Savage
Members present: Debra Booth, Sheri Garza-Pope, Joanne Green, Valerie Gruner, Kitty
Henderson, Toni James, Jan Kapoor, Dana S Kemp, Jane Kerr, Leigh Kirkland,
Turner Krueger, Sara Lindkrantz, Kate Lynch, Mary Anne Mitchell, Becky
Ollinger, Lesley Ann Price, Virginia T. Scott, Ekatarine Shapatova, Nafisa
Sheriff, Lorikay Stone , Karen Styes, Roberta “Bobbie”
Williamson
Business
Gittel introduced new
members Kate Lynch and Toni James.
The Library Reception on
6 March went well. Anyone wishing to bring a dish for the First Thursday
reception in April should email Leigh Kirkland at leighkirkland@bellsouth.net.
Dues for 2008 are due
tonight. Cindy will send emails to those members NOT listed as paid in her
records. Dues are $25/year. Mail dues to WIF,
Future Shows
We need a committee to
find a space for the Fall (ACP) show in October. Gittel will send an email to
that effect. Digital Arts Studio is again hosting the Artist’s Choice show.
Judy Kuniansky is looking for a free space to hold a
summer show; she hasn’t yet reported back to Gittel.
April speaker is
representative of
Program: Susan Todd-Raque.
[NB: The websites
included are those LK found while searching for spelling of names, mostly.
They’re not intended to be definitive.]
The journal Photograph
is a listing of galleries; it’s a bible for fine-art photography, a means
of keeping up with trends. See www.photograph.com.
Nancy Floyd’s
show She’s Got a Gun opens this
weekend (through April 12) at Solomon Projects,
STR is holding a salon, two Saturday mornings (April 19th
and 26th, $100 for both days), at Thomas Dean Fine Arts’ new space
in Buckhead. She will cover trends, photographers, and more. Register at her
website, www.susantoddraque.com.
Names we should know and that she’ll be discussing: Marco Breuer [German abstract
photographer who scratches into color emulsions]. Hilla and Bernd Becher, German couple, photographers, who
influenced Thomas Ruff (http://www.popphoto.com/photographynewswire/5182/a-conversation-with-thomas-ruff.html),
Thomas Demand, Gerhard Richter, Andreas
Gursky, and many more.
The growing appreciation for color photography as color,
exemplified by the revived interest in the work of William Eggleston.
Susan’s thoughts about
what jurying is about:
Juried shows are really
important. Artists’ choice shows will not get press coverage.
After that, aim for shows with three or four other
people, so more images by each artist are selected.
WIF should reach for jurors, i.e., anyone coming to
Our show at the
She appreciated that most people followed submission
guidelines, too. This is VERY important: SEND
EVERYTHING ASKED FOR, IN THE FORM REQUESTED—number of images, in the
correct format, artist’s bio, etc. This applies to the presentation of the
final product once you’re selected. Otherwise, most jurors will just eliminate
the submissions from the selection process.
If you have difficulties with the technical aspects, take responsibility
for it and have someone else check your submission package.
Most jurors should be willing to talk about why they
chose or didn’t choose particular images.
Right now Julian Cox at the High is an exception, because he’s currently
overwhelmed with other projects.
Google
the juror before submitting, to see what they are interested in.
What does ‘body of work’ mean? Generally, a juror looks
for a strong consistent idea or concept that runs through the work.
‘Conceptual’ currently seems to mean on the surface being ADHD and all over the
place, per STR, although the meaning should be deeper.
An artist’s statement comes in handy for this: although
jurors want to SEE it themselves, TELLING them what they should be seeing
probably helps. Don’t be too academic or polysyllabic.
Sometimes work might be rejected if the juror doesn’t see
what they’re expecting to see. It could be a good idea to know how many ‘bodies
of work’ they’ll look at; don’t show stuff that isn’t organized.
STR is not a photographer; the idea is what speaks to
her.
CRITIQUE (what follows
gives the photographer’s name, brief description of work, summary of STR’s
comments, so that others can use the general advice. Photographers and artists
mentioned are in bold)
Jane
Kerr—pictures from ongoing
STR:
the direction should be the same, either vertical or horizontal. Images would
be stronger if larger, to bring out the abstract qualities. Be sure that the
images seem to be consistent in subject matter and form.
Virginia
Twinam Smith—scans of dried plant matter (pitcher plants, milkweed, other seed pods).
STR:
The forms remind her of paintings by Wassily
Kandinsky (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/kandinsky/);
has VTS taken these to Soho Myriad? More than botanical,
like science fiction. There are enough pretty flowers on a black background;
these are more than that. Work on the sci-fi aspect. The milkweed might be too
busy.
Lesley
Ann Price—series on the culture of cruising (cruise ships).
STR:
be wary of too rigid a symmetry. Remind her of Robert Polidori, who draws viewer to details through use of color.
Stick with a consistent distance from the subjects.
Leigh Kirkland—photos taken from truck driving through south Georgia.
STR: might be something the state of
Sara
Lindkrantz—architectural/geometric composites [like Italian surrealist painter
Giorgio de Chirico].
STR: merging photography and painting. Might
print on canvas, and larger to bring out the shapes and pictorial elements.
Val Gruner—composites, ‘whimsies’ of
dolls and of architectural elements.
STR: like Jerry Uelsmann’s work. Couldn’t see relation of
sets of images other than process; sees two groups, one archectonic—the inset
triangles and images in the air; the second more about memory, the figurines.
Look at Clarissa Sligh (http://clarissasligh.com) who has created
around memories and small doll-like figures.
Karen Styes—portraits of dancers at
STR: Karen should always mention her Cherokee heritage
when submitting [the current term is ‘authentic positionality’]. Likes the close-in, more bizarre (make-up). Take more of the
same subject; subdivide by tribe. Get the names of the subjects.
Joanne Green—travel photos of the Galapagos “Odd (or
Strange) Creatures”, two of blue-footed booby, seals nursing, tortoise, iguana.
Didn’t use a tripod.
STR: Likes the close-up of blue feet best. Might donate,
matted, to elementary school. Try pairings of related animals.
Kate Lynch—impressions of
STR: Likes the dreamy azaleas and trees, very painterly. Should work on that, in spite of technical ‘lack of precision.’
The door pictures are nice, but something you see at every arts & crafts
fair.
Debra Booth—travel pictures, parades (some black &
white)
STR: do something different in taking travel pictures, so
they’re not just that. Harry Callahan:
It’s about looking. Garry Winogrand shot ten rolls of film
a day, to more clearly see what he was looking at. She usually sees either all
color or all black & white in a single exhibit; they speak differently. Thomas Struth [another German, student
of the Bechers] (http://www.popphoto.com/photographynewswire/4890/the-met-goes-contemporary.html)
mixes them in his book Strangers and
Friends (1994), in which the people are in color, landscape in black and
white. Snap pictures so that the people/subjects are unaware of the camera.
Dana Kemp—
STR: go back and take same houses, to see how, or if,
things have changed. Present as diptych, with explanation. More
likely to find venue with groups who deal with such situations, also
non-profits.
Kitty
STR: the more imperfect, less well-planned have more energy.
The interior scenes are ‘nice’ studies. But the others are an opening up to
possibilities. She seemed to really like these—imperfection seems a thread
throughout.
Ekatarine Shapatova—black and white,
soft-focus from use of Lensbaby.
STR: likes impulsiveness of three wider, non-portrait
images of train, house, industrial space; they’re the kind of image people used
to throw away but are currently gaining currency. Good close portrait of
homeless man at Five Points, better in series. See William Klein (http://masters-of-photography.com/K/klein/klein.html),
fifties fashion photographer, who took this sort of image on the side. Leaning
is toward the not-perfect view, the imperfect image.
Mary Anne Mitchell—black and white, square format, taken
with a Hulga, a plastic camera (Diana is another plastic camera with
interchangeable lenses). Part of a series, not quite defined, about women and
mirrors, maybe.
STR: the process unites the group. Those with some sharp
detail, other areas with loss of detail work best. The series—any series—needs
to pull together in some way. Don’t let the work become about the Holga or the
process. Could show square and rectangular prints
together, if the images connect.
Lorikay Stone—portraits, but wanting to go beyond
commercial portraiture.
STR: Get out of the studio. Children can sabotage good
photographers. See Martin Schoeller (http://acegallery.net/artistmenu.php?Artist=41 and http://www.popphoto.com/photographynewswire/5153/behind-the-lens-with-martin-schoeller.html) of the New
Yorker; who uses Chuck Close’s (http://www.chuckclose.coe.uh.edu/) method of getting very tight on the subject.
LS’s portraits seem to speak to the commercial. Try street photography with a
non-professional, unself-conscious model. Do something very different to alter
the style. Liked the Andy Warhol-like repeated dog images, but one can get
stuck (professionally) doing pet portraits. William Wegman (www.wegmanworld.com) very much
wants to be acknowledged as a painter, but is stuck making a great living with
his famous Weimaraners.
Nafisa Sheriff—images illustrating her family
history—African woman, cotton field, unpainted shack/house, fender of old
Dodge, roller coaster; the process is about time; from Africa to
STR: the images should be historically and geographically
accurate to (not to represent, but to actually show) the story she’s telling.
The photos can stand alone, but as a group, she should reshoot to touch more
specifically on the history she tells.
Autthenticity is key.
Gittel Price—trees, some color, some black and white, of
the same tunnel of trees in
STR: likes them, especially likes those with the
photographer’s shadow, which seems to echo the form of the trees.