We’re delighted that David Bram has featured the work of PhotoNOLA review participant Lori Vrba in the January issue of Fraction Magazine. Check out Issue 22 to view Vrba’s “Piano Farm” portfolio.

Also featured in this issue is Ailsa McWhinnie’s book review of Gita Lenz, a monograph recently published by Gordon Stettinius. (Gordon is a PhotoNOLA veteran who has attended every review, since we started in 2007!). Gita Lenz was a New York photographer, active from the 1940’s through the 1960’s, whom Gordon was introduced to in 2002 by their mutual friend, Timothy Bartling. As Timothy was helping then 92 year-old Gita move into an assisted living situation, he asked Gordon for advice about what to do with Gita’s images and equipment. Gordon offered to store the many boxes of prints and contact sheets and negatives at his home in Virginia.

As he lived with her archive, Gordon gained an increasing appreciation for the quality and depth of Gita’s photography. In the spring of 2006, with the help of friends and interns from Virginia Commonwealth University, he began the task of organizing and preserving her work, and putting together a timeline of Gita’s life. He founded Candela Books in order to publish a monograph of her work, in fall of 2010. Concurrent with the book’s release, Gitterman Gallery, in New York City, mounted a solo show of her work in September-October of 2010 which was warmly received and widely reviewed.

Gita Lenz passed away on January 20, 2011, at the age of 100. Thanks to the admirable efforts of Mr. Stettinius her photography and legacy will live on. An exhibition of her work is planned in Richmond, Virginia at Candela Books in the late spring of this year.