Project Updates

We have quite a bit planned for 2015 so here a quick update:

Elisa Markes-Young - The Original Place: Elisa is preparing a high-end, hand-made book of 'The Original Place' for 'Between the Sheets'. This will be on from 7 March – 2 April 2015 at Gallery Central (Central Institute of Technology). More information here: http://www.galleryeast.com.au/general/books15D.html

Elisa is also preparing a new suite of work from 'The Original Place' for various upcoming shows as well as the exhibition at Heathcote Museum and Gallery (together with Chris) from 2 October to 8 November 2015 March to April 2016.

Christopher Young - Six: the 'domestic' aspects of this project will be expanded in order to complete a large monograph. This blurb-produced book will include work from 'drei', 'five' and 'six' and will be exhibited at PhotoBook Independent in Los Angeles from 1-3 May 2015. More information here: http://photoindependent.com/photobooks/

A very small number of these 'might' be available around the time of the exhibition of 'Quiet Moments' depending on financial constraints.

A new suite of work for 'Six' is also being prepared. This includes various new active spaces and will be shot over a long period of time. This is more likely to be a book rather than an exhibition.

Christopher Young - Drei: six images from this series will be shown as part of 'Quiet Moments' at Fremantle Art Centre. This will be on from 5 June - 26 July 2015. 

Christopher Young - Small Town: a DCA grant for this project was unsuccessful so this has - again - severely hampered/delayed it's completion. That said, given the Ignite funding, there are only 10 or so images that are yet to be digitised; an essay to be written and editing to be done on the complete text. 

Three routes are possible: the first is to use 'Blurb'. Unfortunately the US dollar is relatively strong so this makes each book prohibitively expensive and any profit margins miniscule. The second route is to locally produce a much shorter run to get the book to 'dummy' level and approach various publishers with it. This is unlikely to prove fruitful but as I've tried just about everything to get this up I don't see what harm it could do! A locally produced version would be expensive but would have a few hand-made gimmicks in it. The third route is to produce a run offshore (Singapore) as was the original idea. The cost/print quality ratio is better on a unit level but I would need to produce at least 250 copies. That makes it a fairly heavy exercise financially.

There are various other things planned but more later!

Alexander Gardner vs Lewis Powell/Payne/Paine

More goodness from the Library of Congress. 

Most would be familiar with the first image made of Lewis Powell - then 21 - by Alexander Gardner. This iconic work is cited by many theorists as being emblematic of many photographic themes. 

Both Barthes and Sontag discuss the image at length. Lesser known are other images made - also by Alexander - of Powell and other conspirators. 

These images add an interesting twist and energy to the rather static, resigned-to-his-fate central image. The larrakin-like profile shot is particularly interesting.

There are also a series of fashion-like images in front of a tent. Some of these were then cropped and made into folk postcards.

 

Finally, the hanging itself was also photographed, including the aftermath.

Lewis Hine's Newspaper Work

I was showing someone Lewis Hine this morning and it prompted another dig. I tend to get lost in his work, especially reading the associated texts that he penned.

Here a small collection of just his 'Newspaper' work.

You can download large versions of over 5000 images and read their extended captions at the LOC. It's an ideal time to revisit some of this work given newspaper closures and growing social inequality. All are PD, available at print resolution and could be easily curated into a fantastic exhibition.