In Print: Multi-Artist Photo Book Panel & Signing
Sunday, Dec 10, 2017
3:30-5:00pm

PhotoNOLA and The Stacks present a special photo book focused panel and book signing. Authors of recent photography publications will discuss how book making fits into their photographic practice, and share insights into their varied publication processes, from concept to print.The artists will be available to sign books immediately following the presentation.

Featuring: Thom Bennett, L. Kasimu Harris, Kerry Mansfield, Richard McCabe, Tammy Mercure, Arthur Meyerson, Nathan Pearce, Jenny Sampson, Brandon Thibodeaux, Polo Silk

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Thom Bennett – Signposts in a Strange Land (Pack/Peel/Pour)
/Pack/Peel/Pour/ is a micro-publisher focused on promoting the work of artists who use “instant” photographic materials in the creation of their work. Through our online magazine, chapbooks, books and artists portfolios we celebrate those whose works are as much about the object as they are about the image.

For PhotoNOLA 2017, we are proud to present chapbooks by Thom Bennett, Tim Best and our first artist portfolio from Richard McCabe. Thom Bennett will be on hand to sign copies of his chapbook, Signposts in a Strange Land.

L. Kasimu Harris – featured in Dandy Lion: The Black Dandy and Street Style By Shantrelle P. Lewis (Aperture) $35
Suits that pop with loud colors and dazzling patterns, complete with a nearly ubiquitous bowtie, define the style of the new “dandy.” Described as “high-styled rebels” by author Shantrelle P. Lewis, black men with a penchant for color and refined fashion, both new and vintage, have gained popular attention in recent years, influencing mainstream fashion. But black dandyism itself is not new; originating in Enlightenment England’s slave culture, it has continued for generations in black cultures around the world. Now, set against the backdrop of hip-hop culture, this iteration of dandies is redefining what it means to be black, masculine, and fashionable. Lewis’s carefully curated selection of contemporary photographs surveys the movement across the globe in spectacular form, with all of the vibrant patterns, electrifying colors, and fanciful poses of this brilliant style subculture. L. Kasimu Harris is one of the photographers featured in the book.

Kerry Mansfield – Expired (Modernbook) $65
After culling through thousands of books each one was chosen for specific characteristics that best display the love poured into library books over their years on the stacks. Currently over 180 ex-library books have been individually photographed.Every one was assessed, lovingly documented and alphabetically archived. The series is comprised of 175 photographs.

Richard McCabe – Land Star (Ain’t Bad) $45
LAND STAR completes a four-year exploration of roads less traveled throughout the American South. In 2014, McCabe set out with a Polaroid Land Camera and a road map to make instant souvenirs of the place where he grew up. LAND STAR captures the vanishing vernacular signage and architecture of the region. Part journey, sojourn or road trip, and part exercise in time travel, LAND STAR offers up forty images – fleeting glimpses that weave a non-linear visual narrative. This is a Southern Gothic tale of loss, isolation, and desolation – the side effects of modernity. The work represents an escape to an alternate realm, a fantastical locale, a tactile memory of a perfect world saturated in color – a place that still exists within a parallel universe far from the complicated, hyper-digitized, and gentrified world of today.

Richard McCabe is a photographer and curator based in New Orleans. He was born in England and grew up in the American South. In 1998, he received an MFA in Studio Art from Florida State University.

Tammy Mercure – Saints (Antenna) $35
Saints is a photographic series by Tammy Mercure, printed and published through the New Orleans-based non-profit Antenna. Mercure’s photographs are highly descriptive portraits of New Orleans’ citizens, visitors, and paradigmatic atmosphere. The humidity is palpable; subjects of Mercure’s shots visibly perspire under their fantastical makeup palettes, yet most of them grin wildly and continue in the vain of celebration and excess that has become a historical trademark of New Orleans culture. There are sophisticated juxtapositions of color and composition in Mercure’s curation that emphasize each photograph’s individual character and visual hierarchy. The product of this precision is not only an optically satisfying photography book, but also an unyielding communication of empathy, as the subjects’ gazes reach around or right for the reader’s line of sight.

Arthur Meyerson – The Journey (A.M. Editions) $85
The Journey is a book that follows one photographer’s career and the destinations he has encountered along the way. In The Journey, Arthur Meyerson traces his photographic life, reveal ing his approach to photography, and presenting images from his commercial work as well as the stories behind many of his iconic images. The book begins with an interview conducted by curator Anne Wilkes Tucker. In the final section, “Journeys”, Meyerson – who has continuously travelled the world – discusses projects from his personal archive as well as some notable assignments and their relevance to his forty plus year career.

Nathan Pearce – Midwest Dirt (Halfmoon Projects) $29
This new iteration of Nathan Pearce’s long running project Midwest Dirt, the third publication from the series, features a new edit by Pearce and Jake Reinhart and book design by Elana Schlenker.
Through a deeply personal examination of the people and geography of Nathan Pearce’s home in rural Illinois, Midwest Dirt explores the tensions familiar to anyone who has ever felt the restless drive to leave a home they still love, yearning to be both there and gone at the same time.

Jenny Sampson – Skaters: Tintype Portraits of West Coast Skateboarders (Daylight) $45
The portraits in Skaters compel the subject, the photographer, and the viewer to slow down. These images, created with wet plate collodion, offer an honest glimpse into the skateboarders’ core being: pensive, tough, playful, anxious, distracted, and innocent. Even the plates of seemingly empty skate parks are in fact teeming with immense energy and motion, yet the skaters are moving too quickly to be captured with long exposures.

Jenny Sampson earned a BA in Psychobiology at Pitzer College and has since dedicated her time to her photographic endeavors: wet plate collodion, traditional black and white photography, and commissioned portraits.

Brandon Thibodeaux – In That Land of Perfect Day (Red Hook Editions) $60
Photographer Brandon Thibodeaux’s first monograph, In That Land of Perfect Day, presents tales of strength against struggle, humility amidst pride, and promise for deliverance in the lives he has come to know. For over eight years, he roamed through a forty-square mile area in the Mississippi Delta, learning about the region’s history and the contemporary experience of its residents. His photographs depict the rural African American experience in a universal quest for faith, perseverance, and solace through community.

Polo Silk – Pop That Thang (Antenna) $35
Polo Silk presents Pop That Thang!!! chronicles the bounce scene in New Orleans. Hundreds of color photographs spanning three decades show the rappers and p-poppers that make up the vibrant scene.

Polo Silk has been photographing in New Orleans for over 30 years. A regular at nightclubs, second lines, block parties, and everything in between, he has photographed tens of thousands of people (often multiple times throughout the years) dressed in their finest.