Michael Grecco Talk: Naked Ambition

Saturday, Dec 10, 4pm

Martine Chaisson Gallery
727 Camp Street
New Orleans, LA 70130

Free and open to the public

The Naked Ambition: An R Rated Look at an X Rated Industry project contains over 200 photographs of actors, filmmakers and personalities in the world of adult entertainment. Grecco photographed his subjects during the 2006 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas, the convention which surrounds the annual AVN Awards. The accompanying book’s forewords, written by rock musician Dave Navarro and Hustler magazine editor Larry Flynt, discuss modern culture’s acceptance of pornography into the mainstream, which allows an overtly sexual work like this to be considered a coffee table book. Uncommon in pornography-related works, the photographs have not been altered with any significant image editing or photo manipulation, thus avoiding the layer of fantasy usually applied to actors in this field.

Michael will speak on the interesting aspects of bridging the porn industry and the art world and the various challenges that each arena poses for the artist and the viewer. He will also touch on many of the topics he travels the world speaking about to photographers, such as creativity and The Environmental Portrait.

A selection of images from the series will be on display at Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club during PhotoNOLA 2011. Naked Ambition has been shown everywhere from Art Basel Miami to the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University to the Museum of Sex in New York City.

Bio
After a defining stint in photojournalism at the Boston Herald, Michael realized that, while he loved documenting his real-life, and 80?s music subjects on the fly, he wanted to explore his interest in directing people in a more controlled environment. Of course, the prospect of warmer climes and, a proximity to an industry that had a lot of interesting subjects, proved to be a more than attractive impetus for moving West.

Michael has spent years perfecting his signature lighting technique, and in addition to his work for clients, and as an authority on studio and location lighting, he began teaching his process to photographers all over the world, as well as publishing a book on the subject. He has won awards for his advertising and editorial portraiture for a large and impressive diverse group of clients. Recently, Michael has moved into publishing books and creating films around his photography projects, beginning with his publication of “Naked Ambition”, his coffee-table book on the porn industry, and “Naked Ambition: An R-Rated Look at an X-Rated Industry, the movie.”

Loli Kantor : Gurewitz Couple

There Was a Forest: Jewish life in eastern Europe today
From personal biography to subjective documentary

Artist Talk
Saturday, Dec 10, 3pm

Martine Chaisson Gallery
727 Camp Street
New Orleans, LA 70130

Free and open to the public

Over six years Loli Kantor traveled to Poland and Ukraine to photograph Jewish life and cultural renaissance there. In this presentation, she will show a collection of images from this work, and talk about her process as a photographer and a visual artist. She will demonstrate how documentary photography and fine art photography come together, and talk about how the project has developed over time. She will give a brief introduction about her background and why she dedicated these past years to this work.

There Was a Forest earned Kantor third place recognition in the 2010 PhotoNOLA Review Prize. A selection of images from the series will be on display at Antenna Gallery during PhotoNOLA 2011.

Bio
Born in Paris and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel, Loli Kantor has been living in the US since 1984. Kantor’s work has been exhibited widely in the United States and internationally in China, Ukraine, Poland, and Czech Republic. It is included in the collections of the Museum of Fine Art Houston, Lviv National Museum in Ukraine, the Drohobych Museum in Ukraine, Lishui Photography Museum in China the Center for Fine Art Photography in Colorado, the City Center Library in Fort Worth, Texas, and numerous private collections in the US and abroad.

Matthew D. White: South Pass, Port Eads, Louisiana

Matthew D. White: The Louisiana Coast

December 2011 – January 2012
Lecture/Presentation: Tuesday, December 13, 2011, 6:30 pm

The Hubbell Library, Algiers
New Orleans Public Library
225 Morgan St., in the Carriage House
New Orleans, LA 70114
504-366-0657
Hours: Mon – Thur 10am – 7pm, Sat 10am -5pm, closed Fri & Sun

The Hubbell Library is located in the carriage house at 225 Morgan Street, behind the Algiers Courthouse.

Matthew White began photography as a teenager in upstate New York, and taught himself traditional printing and technique using Ansel Adams’ three-part series of instructional books. He resides in New Orleans and has been photographing Louisiana and the entire Gulf Coast since 2000.

Laura D'Alessandro: How Could She?! With all This Poking and Pawing, How Can a Girl Stay Good?!

Laura D’Alessandro: Faded/Fated Fairytales

December 6, 2011 – January 7, 2012
Opening: Saturday, Dec 10, 5-8pm
Artists Talk: Wednesday, Dec 7, 6pm

Du Mois Gallery
4921 Freret
New Orleans, LA 70115
504-818-6032
Hours: Thurs-Sat 12-6 & by appt

Faded/Fated Fairytales is Laura D’Alessandro’s further exploration of the fairytale motif as embodied in her own self-reflective and intimately photographed dioramas.

She will present an artists talk at the gallery on Wednesday, Dec. 7, starting at 6:00pm.

Statement:
“Vision is, to me, a complicated phenomenon composed of multiple layers, altered under varied states. I incorporate layering in my images to evoke the layers of my internal and external experiences. The artist’s life, recorded through my journals and portraits, is essential to my work and includes much of what I incorporate to create my photographic constructions. I use these fragments, elements of collage, and found objects to create a miniature stage set, a movie still from a fictitious moment in time. By controlling lighting and perspective when I ultimately re-photograph my constructions, I can create a mood and direct the viewer’s gaze.

I have been exploring women’s issues with a partly lyrical, partly satirical approach. I have investigated the many influences, both positive and negative, which act to shape women’s beliefs, choices and appearance. My photographic constructions also reflect elements from my life and journals that are personal, and yet I hope that the viewer can also bring in some of his or her own experience.”

Meg Turner: Market Steet Power Station 2

NO TRESPASSING – industrial photographs by Meg Turner

December 9, 2011 – January 4, 2012
Opening: Sunday, Dec 11, 2011, 3:30-5:30pm

New Orleans Public Library – Alvar Branch
913 Alvar Street
New Orleans, LA 70117
504-596-2667
Hours: Mon-Fri 10am-7pm, Sat 10am-5pm.

NO TRESPASSING features local photographer and printer Meg Turner’s on-going series of industrial ruins. Shooting with a large-format camera and operating under, over, and through the radar, Turner explores the landscape of American industry that has been left behind by globalization and industrial out-sourcing. All prints shown are gravure -both copper and polymer- prints made by the artist.

NO TRESPASSING – Artist’s talk
Meg Turner will be talking about her work, the centuries-old relationship between printmaking and architectural ruins, the changing industrial landscape of America, and the processes of photogravure and polymer gravure.
Sunday Dec. 11th 4:15 pm (part of opening reception)

Kirsten Hoving: Cygnus, The Swan

Illusions: KK DePaul, Kirsten Hoving, Lisa McCarty

December 1 – 31, 2011
Opening: Saturday, December 10th, 2011, 6-9pm

Sibley Gallery
3427 Magazine Street
New Orleans, LA 70115
504-899-8182
Hours: Tue – Sat 11- 5

Group show – Alternative Photography
Talks by the artists starting at 10am on Saturday, December 10th.

KK DePaul, “Between the Lines”

KK DePaul: Like His Grandfather

“After the death of my grandmother, I discovered a box that contained clues to a horrific 80 year-old family secret. Using the objects in the box, combined with childhood memories, I was able to re-construct the story.”

Kirsten Hoving, “Night Wanderers”
“Night Wanderers is a series of photographs envisioning the cosmos. I photograph objects and nineteenth-century photographs frozen in or placed under disks of ice to create the feeling of galactic swirls of stars, galaxies and spiral nebulae.

For this series, I have been influenced not by the work of other photographers, but by the collage and assemblage art of the American artist Joseph Cornell. In the course of writing an art historical book on the artist, Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars (Princeton University Press, 2009), I became aware of the artist’s deep and abiding interest in astronomy. I also came to understand his creative process, which involved juxtaposing objects in often unexpected ways. His working method encouraged me to take risks, to experiment, and to be willing to destroy one object to create another. He also taught me to appreciate the stars.

Using ice as a still life object is always a challenging process. I partially thaw the ice to create transparent and translucent areas, then work quickly to photograph it. While I choose objects and photographs that recall earlier times (an outdated globe, old cartes-de-visite) to help remind us that star light is old light, the ice that encases them underscores the elegance and fragility of our place in the universe.”

Lisa McCarty, “Florid Interiors”
“From 2009-2010 I photographed my grandparents’ home in Arlington, Virginia, with a Polaroid Colorpack camera. Once a pristine environment characterized by its museum like composition of stately furniture, antiques, knick-knacks, and glassware their home of thirty years has gone into a state of disorder as they have aged. Everything is still in its same place, but has gone uncared for, conflicting greatly with my former vision of my grandparents and their home. In order to recreate and fully experience this sense of cognitive dissonance, I dismantle and collapse the images I have taken there via a process called emulsion lifting.

Emulsion lifts are achieved by immersing Polaroid prints in hot water, which causes the emulsion to separate from the paper backing. Once the emulsion is released, the image is reduced to a fragile translucent membrane that is malleable and skin-like. I then transfer the emulsion to watercolor paper, layering and altering multiple lifts. During this process the emulsion breaks apart, warps, and wrinkles, obscuring the image. Once combined, the organic shapes created from the remains of the images appear to be both withering and thriving.”

Josephine Sacabo: Las Estrellas

The Historic New Orleans Collection

Williams Research Center
410 Chartres St
New Orleans, LA 70130

Joséphine Sacabo Lecture
Friday, December 9, 2011
7-9pm
Free and open to the public :: Limited seating, first come first served.

Joséphine Sacabo is an internationally acclaimed photographer who divides her time between New Orleans and Mexico. Both locales influence the dreamlike, surreal, and romantic quality of her photographs.

For the PhotoNOLA 2011 keynote lecture Sacabo will present an overview of her work to date, and will discuss her technical and aesthetic approach to the photographic medium.

Joséphine Sacabo is a native of Laredo, Texas, and was educated at Bard College, New York. Previous to coming to New Orleans, she lived and worked extensively in France and England. Her earlier work was in the photo-journalisitic tradition, influenced by Robert Frank, Josef Koudelka, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. She now works in a very subjective, introspective style, using poetry as inspiration. The poets she lists as her most important influences include Rilke, Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Juan Rulfo and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.

Sacabo’s most recent series, “Óyeme Con Los Ojos” (Hear Me With Your Eyes) was featured as a Fotoseptiembre USA 2010 Signature Exhibit, in San Antonio TX. Her photographs are currently on display in a retrospective at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and a solo show at A Gallery for Fine Photography.

***

A PhotoNOLA Welcome Party at A Gallery for Fine Photography, where Joséphine Sacabo’s latest work is on display, precedes the lecture from 4:00-6:00pm that evening.

PhotoNOLA’s multiple artist book signing event, presented in partnership with Octavia Books, will directly precede Ms. Sacabo’s lecture at THNOC’s Williams Research Center, from 5:00-7:00pm. Several of Sacabo’s titles will be available for purchase then, which the artist will be available to sign following her presentation.

Photo 2.0 — Digital Media + Photography Online

Saturday, December 10, 2011
12-1pm
Free and open to the public.

Contemporary Arts Center
900 Camp St.
New Orleans, LA 70130

Despite its limitations, the Internet is changing the way we consider photography and the medium is undergoing remarkable transformations. No longer restricted to the gallery wall or the printed page — photoblogs, online magazines and digital galleries have exploded in recent years — photography now regularly (and sometimes exclusively) appears on computer screens. More significantly, Web 2.0 is influencing contemporary photo culture around the world: connecting international audiences to art experiences, enabling the discovery of new work and presenting never-before-seen channels of expression and participation.

FlakPhoto.com creator Andy Adams explores the intersection of online publishing, social media, and community collaboration in this lively discussion about photography in the Internet Era.

Bio
Andy Adams is an independent web producer + photo publisher whose work blends aspects of digital communication, online audience engagement, and web-based creative collaboration to explore contemporary ideas in photography. Recent projects include The Future of Photobooks, a cross-blog conversation that considered the impact of internet culture on photographic production, exhibition and distribution and 100 Portraits — 100 Photographers, a digital exhibition of contemporary portraiture that has shown at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Australian Centre for Photography and numerous festivals in the U.S. and abroad. In his spare time he publishes FlakPhoto.com, an online art space that promotes the discovery of artists, bookmakers and photo organizations from around the world. Andy lives with his wife in Madison, Wisconsin. You can read more about him on his website, AndyAdamsPhoto.com.

GONE: A Photographic Plea for Preservation pairs Nell Dickerson’s photographs of antebellum buildings in ruins with a short story by Shelby Foote. Robert Hicks wrote the introduction.

Photographer and architect Nell Dickerson began her exploration of antebellum homesteads with encouragement from her cousin-in-law—renowned Civil War historian and novelist Shelby Foote. Her passion for forgotten and neglected buildings became a plea for preservation.

Gone is a unique pairing of modern photographs and historical novella. Foote offers a heartbreaking look at one man’s loss as Union troops burn his home in the last days of the Civil War. Dickerson shares fascinating and haunting photographs, shining a poignant light on the buildings which survived Sherman’s burning rampage across the Confederacy, only to fall victim to neglect, apathy and poverty.

GONE is a powerfully moving volume that will change how you see the forgotten buildings that hide in obscurity across the Southern landscape. The book will be released in time to celebrate the sesquicentennial of the Civil War on April 12.

There will be an author’s talk and book signing at the Garden District Book Shop on Thursday, May 12 at 5:30 PM.

Garden District Bookshop
2727 Prytania St.
New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 895-2266

Nell has a schedule of additional upcoming signings here. You can also purchase a copy online through Indie Bound.

Pictures of the Year International

December 11, 2010 – February 13, 2011
Opening: Friday, Dec 10, 5:30-7pm

Louisiana ArtWorks
725 Howard Ave.
New Orleans, LA 70130
info@louisianaartworks.org
Hours: Wed – Fri 11am-5pm, closed Sat. – Tues

POYi brings its annual “Visions of Excellence” exhibition back to PhotoNOLA for the third consecutive year, featuring the world’s best documentary photography and photojournalism. Pictures of the Year International is the oldest and most prestigious photojournalism program in the world. The exhibition includes 35 photographs on topics ranging from sports, to feature, to news and social issues.

In conjunction with the exhibition, POYI Director Rick Shaw will give a presentation: “The Photojournalists: Behind the Lens”.