Spot Spring 2015

spot | SPRING 2015 1

H O U S T O N C E N T E R F O R P H O T O G R A P H Y

Spring 2015

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spot Magazine, published by

Houston Center for Photography.

Check out thirty years in the online archive

at hcponline.org.

HCP by the NumbersSeptember 1, 2013 to August 31, 2014

EXHIBITIONS

Mounted at HCP: 12Artists Exhibited: 252

1,515

Total attendance: 22,673

O�-site exhibitions:mounted at Wells Fargo Plaza: 2mounted at Galveston Arts Center: 2

CALLS FOR ENTRY

Juried Fellowships 270 applicants

• Juried by Elisabeth Biondi, New York• Keliy Anderson-Staley, Carol Crow Memorial Fellowship recipient• Robin Myers, HCP Fellowship recipient

32nd Annual Membership Exhibition 284 applicants

• Juried by Malcolm Daniel, Curator in Charge, Department of Photography, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston• Anne Berry, Geo�rey Ellis, Jeanine Michna-Bales, Beth Block Award recipients

LEARNING CENTER

Enrollment and Classes• Total Enrollment (seats taken): 1,668• Number of Classes O�ered: 299• Certificate of Completion Students: 30• Summer Photo Camps O�ered: 8• Summer Camp Students: 75

Outreach• Collaborations Students: 30• PictureThis! Outreach at Texas Childrens’ Hospital’s Cancer & Hematology Center and Renal/Dialysis Center, children and families served: 250

Master Classes• Digital Transfer Printing with Rachel Phillips• Travel Photography with a Point of View lead by Bob Gomel• Zen and the Art of Photography with Doug Beasley• Artistic Development Retreat lead by Sally Gall

Total Members:

Capture Crawl Events: 8 (SculptureWorxx Studios, Olivewood Cemetery, Lights in the Heights, National Museum of Funeral History,Downtown Architecture, Hermann Park,The Orange Show, White Linen Night in the Heights)

Learning Center Tuition

Goal: $211,599Actual: $231,371

2014 Print Auction

Goal: $190,000Actual: $230,320

Grants & Foundations

Goal: $233,000Actual: $241,152

2014 Annual Fund

Goal: $72,000Actual: $77,614

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Earned Income

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contents

Dario Robletowith Kerry Inman

HCP by the numbers

20

29

36

44

Art Schools and Collective SpaceInterview with Leonora Hamill by Allen Frame

Visions Ryan Bush In conversation with Kathryn Dunlevie

Nurturing TimeBevin Bering Dubrowski with David Wolf

spotlightGeoffrey EllisAnne BerryJeanine Michna-Bales


Editor Bevin Bering DubrowskiProduction Editor Caroline DocwraCopy Editor Alexandra IrvineFounding Editor Emeritus David CrossleyHCP Publications Committee Jean Karotkin, Chair, Jonathan Beitler, Peter Brown, Caroline Docwra, Madeline Yale Preston, Bevin Bering Dubrowski, Alexandra Irvine, Susie Kalil, Jean Karotkin,Antonio Manega, Mary Virginia SwansonDesign Antonio Manega, Gazer DesignPrinting Masterpiece Lithospot Web Design Bandwidth Productions

spot is published twice yearly, in conjunction with the fiscal year of Houston Center for Photography. Subscriptions are $13 per year (two issues).Subscriptions are free to HCP members.

spot is a journal of independent opinions published by Houston Center for Photography as one of its many services to the photographic community. The ideas expressed do not represent positions of Houston Center for Photography’s administration or membership and are solely the opinions of the writers and contributors.

Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved.No portion of spot may be reproduced without the permission of Houston Center for Photography.

Captions are based upon known information of the photograph. In cases where print type and medium are not listed, the image provider has noted these as variable.

Houston Center for Photography’s mission is to increase society’s understanding and appreciation of photography and its evolving role in contemporary culture. Houston Center for Photography strives to encourage artists, build audiences, stimulate dialogue and promote inquiry about photography and related media through education, exhibitions, publications, fellowship programs and community collaboration.

For details about membership or advertising, contact:

Houston Center for Photography1441 West Alabama, Houston, Texas 77006Telephone: 713.529.4755 Fax: 713.529.9248E-mail: [email protected]

Visit us online: www.hcponline.org

Executive Director Sarah SudhoffCreative Director Bevin Bering Dubrowski Director of Education Juliana Forero, Ph.D. Administrative Director, Alexandra IrvineCurator Libbie J. Masterson Programs Coordinator Caroline Docwra Exhibitions Assistant Jessi BowmanMembership Coordinator Sinai TiradoAuction Assistant Emilee CooneyDirector of Finance Sean Yarborough Outreach Coordinator Jamie Robertson Digital Darkroom Manager Daniela GalindoGallery Associate Michael O'BrienOutreach Instructors Rebecca Hopp, Kelly WebeckFall 2014 Interns Alyssa Brown, Victoria Gonzalez, Mayra Mares

Spring 2015


cover, detail:Dario Robleto, Survival Does Not Lie In The Heavens, 2012, Digital inkjet print mounted on Sintra, a collection of stage lights taken from the album covers of live performances of now-deceased Gospel, Blues and Jazz musicians, photo courtesy New Orleans Museum of Art

HCP’s 2014—2015 Supporters

HCP BenefactorsHouston EndowmentCity of Houston through Houston Arts AllianceThe Brown FoundationThe Eleanor and Frank Freed FoundationMeyer Levy Charitable Foundation

HCP UnderwritersSimmons FoundationJulie and Drew AlexanderPatricia J. Eifel and Jim BelliArtists’ Framing ResourceLarson-JuhlAntonio Manega, Gazer DesignJBD FoundationJoe AkerDeborah Bay and Edgar Browning

HCP Platinum SponsorsThe John M. O’Quinn FoundationSterling-Turner FoundationPoppi MasseyHoward Greenberg GalleryCemo Family FoundationJohn D. ChaneyBarbara and Geoffrey KoslovArt Colony AssociationFrazier KingGardere, Wynne, Sewell LLPCelia and Jay MunisteriJoan and Stanford AlexanderCharles ButtJoan MorgensternBurt NelsonJereann ChaneyJames E. MaloneySue and Bob SchwartzBob Gomel

HCP Silver DonorsMid-America Arts AllianceThe Joan Hohlt and Roger Wich FoundationThe Wortham Foundation, Inc.Texas Commission on the ArtsDornith DohertyJessica Todd HarperKathryn and Tim LeeWhole Foods MarketSusan and Patrick CookElizabeth and David AndersHoward Hilliard and Betty PecoreRenate AllerBallard Exploration Company, Inc.Lillian H. & C.W. Duncan FoundationPaul M. Hertzmann, Inc.Wendy and Mavis Kelsey, Jr.Stuart C. Nelson FSAmegy BankCatherine Couturier GalleryAndy FreebergMariquita MastersonMuffy and Alexander K. McLanahanDixie MessnerRocky SchenckMickey and Mike MarvinsNena D. MarshTatiana and Craig MasseyBrad TemkinLauren MarsolierRebecca Roof Jim DowNatan Dvir

Sally and John HopperJoel LedererThe GE FoundationRubi LebovitchThomas DamsgaardCara and Jorge BarerKeliy Anderson-StaleyKrista and Mike DumasSherry and James KempnerJames R. FisherAker ImagingKevin E. BasslerCameron International CorporationHouston Camera ExchangeJerry ReedRobertson-Finley FoundationJeremy UnderwoodQUE ImagingFrank Sherwood WhiteJohn C. LewisMike StudeBevin and Dan DubrowskiVadim GushchinDodie Otey and Richard S. JacksonBob GulleyAzita PanahpourBryan SchutmaatPaul Smead

HCP Green CircleEddie Allen and Chinhui JuhnGay BlockSanford L. DowMartin ElkortKathleen SchmelerSusan and Steve SolcherScott R. SparveroTamara StaplesThe Beth Block FoundationLouis VestWilliam WinklerEric FaustKeith CarterLibbie J. MastersonExxonMobil FoundationChristopher AshbyJanet and Roger DurandKelly and Norman BeringLaura and Tom BaconDonna J. WanCorey ArnoldCarolyn BrownCaleb CharlandWyatt GalleryJudy HaberlHenry HorensteinManjari SharmaPriscilla A. KanadyMarisa Cigarroa HeymachJohn H. Duncan, Jr.Wallace WilsonAnne TuckerMarcia PatrickShelley CaltonRandy and Laurie AllenSusan BurnsteinMichael CrouserJoe Levit Family FoundationRobert L. Gerry, IIIMolly Hipp and Ford Hubbard, IIILeslie and Mark HullFan and Peter MorrisJ. Andrew NairnDee Ann PedersonBetsy and Charles PowellDel Zogg

HOUSTON CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY www.hcponline.org

(below) The Flash Drive gets its first exterior wrap (right) Making its premier at the Global Alliance for Arts

and Health Conference at Hotel ZaZa in April 2014

(left) The Flash Drive is officially “christened “before its maiden voyage

(right) The intrepid HCP

pit crew

(above) The Flash Drive in the 2014 Art Car Parade (left) Artist’s rendering of night-time activities

Introducing FlashDrive,HCP’s Photographic Education Unit.

For more information visitwww.hcponline.org/

community/flashdrive

Connecting people with photography


a look back at 2014

SAVE THE DATE!


W e d n e s d ayF e b r u a ry 1 8 , 2 0 1 5

Event begins at 6 pm

SAVE THE DATE!

P R I N TA U C T I O N

2 0 1 5

Junior League OF Houston

Join HCP for a magical evening of dinner,drinks, and a fine print auction

AUCTIONEER, RICK WESTER


contributors

Allen Frame

Dario Robleto

Kathryn Dunlevie

Kerry Inman

Ryan Bush

Leonora Hamill

David Wolf

Bevin Bering Dubrowski

Kerry Inman is the owner and co-director of Inman

Gallery, Houston, TX.

Dario Robleto is an artist who lives and works in

Houston TX.

Bevin Bering Dubrowski is the Creative Director at

HCP and Editor-in-Chief of spot magazine.

David Wolf is a devoted film photographer, a

Boston native and Brown University graduate. David

now calls San Francisco home, where his work is

represented by Corden|Potts Gallery.

Allen Frame currently serves as the President of the

Board of the Camera Club of New York, and he is an

Executive Producer of Joshua Sanchez’s feature film

Four, released in 2013. He graduated from Harvard

University in 1974.

Leonora Hamill is an artist based in New York and

London who works primarily in moving image and

photography. She studied at the International Center

of Photography in New York and the Royal College of

Art in London.

Kathryn Dunlevie is a photographer who has

exhibited throughout the US and Europe and has

had solo shows in conjunction with FotoFest since

2004 at Hooks-Epstein Galleries. She has recently

been featured as a finalist in Saatchi Art’s “The Body

Electric”, in Saatchi Art’s 100 Curators 100 Days and

in the US Art in Embassies program.

Ryan Bush is a fine-art photographer based in Los

Gatos, California. He earned a Ph.D. in Linguistics

from U.C. Santa Cruz in 2000. His work has been

exhibited nationally and internationally and he

is represented by galleries in Houston and San

Francisco.


Help HCP’s Future Develop $75,000

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HCP is a non-profit organization and is solely responsible for its own funding. Your donation enables us to connect people through photography and create meaningful photography experiences. Thank you for your support!



EXHIBITIONS


1,515



CALLS FOR ENTRY





LEARNING CENTER




Total Members:



Goal: $211,599Actual: $231,371

2014 Print Auction

Goal: $190,000Actual: $230,320


Goal: $233,000Actual: $241,152

2014 Annual Fund

Goal: $72,000Actual: $77,614

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25000

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11,2

30

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95

22,6

73


06-07 07-08 08-09 09-10 10-11 11-12 12-13 13-14

Earned Income


Dario Robleto, The Dismantled Sun, 2012, Cyanotypes of various astronomers’ historical drawings of solar eclipses, watercolor paper, curly maple, gold-mirrored Plexiglas, linseed oil, brass, 67.75 x 29.25 x 29.25 inches

(overall dimension with pedestal and vitrine), photo by Dario Robleto, courtesy ACME., Los Angeles

11spot | SPRING 2015

Kerry Inman: How is installation going?

Dario Robleto: Great, but it’s always a bit stressful when there are so many people around. This is the culmination of three years of work and it’s exciting to see it coming together.

KI: We’re here to talk about the use of photography in your work. I thought it was a great question, because although you are not a photographer, you use photographs in your work, both as raw material, and as reference points.

DR: Yes, and I’m also very interested in the history of photography and more conceptual issues around photography. I’ve long had an interest in the use of

dario robletoAs we prepare to chat about the use of photography in his

practice, Robleto returns from the third day of installation for his solo exhibition, The Boundary of Life Is Quietly Crossed at the Menil Collection, Houston (on view August 16, 2014–January 4, 2015).

spirit photography as mourning art for instance. Over the past couple of years, I’ve been researching the history of capturing an image along with the history of capturing sound. Those studies get to the deep philosophical issue I’m most interested in right now, which is how the capturing and preserving of ephemeral sensory experiences like light and sound have dramatically altered our conceptions of life and death and time. The radical nature of both photography and sound recording are somewhat lost on us today when absolutely everything can be recorded without limitation, but their power to challenge mortality itself, especially as grappled with at the birth of the technologies, still sends ripples out all around us.

KI: Tell us about the series Will The Sun Remember At All.

DR: Well, first, as you know, I’ve been working with record albums and album cover art since the beginning of my career as an artist. As a boy I was a music fanatic, and I’ve found a way to continue my fascination through my artwork. For these prints in particular, I scanned the images of album covers from the live albums of various now-deceased musicians, all posed—as is customary for live albums—on-stage and under lights. I re-worked the images, digitally removing the musician, the text, and any other information, leaving only the lights. As a young boy I remember so vividly having my albums laid out on the floor, many of them live albums, and either catching on TV or in a science magazine the latest planetary or solar

imagery coming back from those first-generation probes we sent out and I was so struck by the similarity between them and the stage lights on the covers. My young mind got hardwired to associate the mystery and potential of deep space imagery with the mystery and potential I already deeply felt when discovering new bands and singers.

I worked more directly with space photographs for two other recent projects, one called Survival Does Not Lie in the Heavens, and the other called Candles Un-burn, Suns Un-shine, Death Un-dies. In those two prints, I was trying to make the image look like photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope—but I constructed them from individual stage lights sampled from hundreds of different live album covers. It occurred to me that we are always actively looking for “ancient” light headed our way over millions of years, but we don’t usually reflect on the idea that we are generators of light that is also headed on its way somewhere else. When we look at this ancient light, we fully understand that the star that produced it is long gone because of the time it took the light to reach us, but we are dealing with the light in the present and so it is, in a sense, still fully alive for us. Are not the stage lights that once illuminated Jimi Hendrix or Patsy Cline, for example, still on their way somewhere? And if something or someone were to turn their telescope in our direction, then every singer who has ever died is still “alive” in the sense that their moment on stage is preserved as light radiating out into space and still visible.

Dario Robleto, an artist with a layered,multivalent practice, is not known as a photographer, so it was a bit of a surprise that spot asked us to do this interview.

interview by kerry inman


KI: And then there are the “Polaroid” prints…

DR: Well in those works, I wanted the prints to look like Polaroids because of the immediate reference to amateur photography that a Polaroid brings up… In that series, I searched through thousands of found photographs to find the images I wanted to use as source material… I was looking for amateur fan photos from particular live concerts—you know, where someone was trying to capture the musician on stage, but just missed, and got mostly just the stage lights or their neighbor’s elbow, more than likely because they got bumped in the crowd. In this way, the photos are also documents of the bodily movements of the fan in a tight area, giving us a sense of the live experience that is a big interest of mine.

KI: Where do you get all those photos?

DR: You’d be amazed. Everywhere. Ebay, other online marketplaces, some specialty sellers, but lots are just boxes of photographs that no one wants anymore, and they are happy to give them to me or sell them for a small fee. But it takes a lot of searching to find the images I am looking for. After doing this for a while, I have a sense of what to look for…

“I was looking for amateur fan photos from particular live concerts—you know, where someone was trying to capture the musician on stage, but just missed...”

previous spread:Dario Robleto, Survival Does Not Lie In The Heavens, 2012, Digital inkjet print mounted on Sintra, a collection of stage lights taken from the album covers of live performances of now-deceased Gospel, Blues and Jazz musicians, photo courtesy New Orleans Museum of Art

right:Dario Robleto, Will The Sun Remember At All, 2011, Suite of 9 archival digital prints on Epson Somerset Velvet 255gsm paper,The Mamas and the Papas, Monterey International Pop FestivalJohn Coltrane/Archie Shepp, New Thing at NewportJohnny Cash, Live at San QuentinJimi Hendrix, In ConcertElvis Presley, Elvis In HollywoodFrank Sinatra, Frank Sinatra & Antonio Carlos JobimRick Nelson, In ConcertDizzy Gillespie, In ConcertT. Rex, Light of Lovephoto courtesy of Inman Gallery, Houston


Dario Robleto, Untitled (Shadows Evade the Sun II), 2012, Suite of 9 archival digital and lithographic prints on Hahnemuhle Pearl paper mounted on mat board; a collection of stage lights taken from fan-shot concert photographs (Sun Ra, Whitney Houston, Serge Gainsbourg, Nina Simone, Jimi Hendrix, Mahalia Jackson, Memphis Slim, Muddy Waters, Frank Sinatra), photo courtesy Inman Gallery, Houston


Dario Robleto, Untitled (Shadows Evade the Sun I), 2012, Suite of 9 archival digital and lithographic prints on Hahnemuhle Pearl paper mounted on mat board; a collection of stage lights taken from fan-shot

concert photographs (Johnny Cash, Dizzy Gillespie, Sam Cooke, Lena Horne, Charlie Parker, Janis Joplin, Ella Fitzgerald, The Doors, Elvis Presley), photo courtesy Inman Gallery, Houston


Dario Robleto, The Pulse Armed With a Pen (An Unknown History of the Human Heartbeat), 20147 custom cut 5-inch vinyl records, clothbound box, digital prints (record sleeves, liner notes, labels), heliogravure, headphones, media player, ed 15, variable dimensions, depends on presentation(includes headphones and an iPod on which are the 7 heartbeat/pulse recordings)


KI: And you’ve recently made a number of photographs yourself, using the old cyanotype process.

DR: As you know I have had a long interest in alchemy and it’s evolution into the hard science of chemistry. The tradition of cyanotypes satisfies both sides of that equation for me: the sun’s power can be used in a more metaphorical/symbolic, even mystical way, while relying on hard science to actually get the chemical process started. In the piece The Dismantled Sun for instance, I asked myself, was it possible for the sun to reflect on its own youth? I often like to ask myself unusual questions to get a project started and this one seemed like quite a challenge! It occurred to me that humans have been trying to document the sun, through studying eclipses, for centuries. Before photography, this meant having to find elaborate ways to draw an eclipse as it was happening, which created this amazing situation where a small human with nothing but some graphite and paper, had to draw something occurring millions of miles away and which dwarfed them in power and age. Oh, and you have to do it in just the few minutes or seconds the eclipse actually lasted! Anyway, there are wonderful historical drawings that we can reference that document the sun through the centuries, all that lead up to the very first attempt to apply photography to this quest in 1845. So I wanted to use the current day energy of the sun to let it burn an image of itself from centuries ago into paper. In this way, both the past and present are in the images.

KI: Back to the Menil show. You’ve used photography and photographs in every aspect of this show, haven’t you?

DR: Yes, there are Van Dyke prints, daguerreotypes, imagery taken by probes and lots of historical photography. The show is about the unknown history of the quest to record the human heartbeat and it would not seem immediately obvious how photography played any role in this, but it did. The early history is a story of how to visualize, not audibly record, the hidden movements of the pulse and heart. These movements were long thought to be ephemeral, mystical and forever beyond our reach but the invention of photography opened the conceptual door to the possibility of actually capturing images of those ephemeral things. In 1853 when the first attempts to visually record the pulse were carried out, photography was less than two decades old and still quite a revolutionary idea. It is no coincidence that the early attempts with the pulse were called “pulse pictures” as the scientist who did it was clearly thinking in this new way. Once the technology of imaging the heart moved into registering the electrical signature of the heartbeat—giving rise to the birth of the EKG machine, arguably the most important medical tool of the 20th century and beyond, but certainly in cardiology—it was photography the scientists turned to for documenting such tiny signal changes.

KI: Thanks Dario. I know there is a lot more to talk about, but this gets us started…

Kerry Inman is owner and co-director of Inman Gallery, Houston. Inman Gallery was founded in 1990 as a project space dedicated to showcasing the work of younger artists who were under-recognized by the contemporary gallery scene in Houston of the late ’80s. Since that time, Inman Gallery has steadily grown into a nationally-recognized venue that encourages innovative, thoughtful visual presentations and nurtures talent. Emphasizing visual exploration and conceptual thinking over purely formal solutions have been cornerstones of the gallery programming since its inception. With director Patrick Reynolds, she has organized a number of thematic group exhibitions at the gallery, including Paper Space (2012, drawings by sculptors), Related Clues (2011, contemporary sculptural practice), do i know you (2010, contemporary portraiture), among many others. She has served on the advisory boards of the Glassell School of Art, and the Art League of Houston. Additionally, she has served as juror for numerous regional exhibitions, as well as several national panels, including Creative Capital and Altoids Collection.

Houston-based artist Dario Robleto has had over 30 solo exhibitions since 1997 at institution including the New Orleans Museum of Art (2012), Des Moines Art Center (2011), Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver (2011). In 2008, the Frances Yong Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Spring, NY, mounted a 10-year survey exhibition of his work titled Alloy of Love, which was accompanied by a major monograph and traveled to the Frye Art Museum in Seattle. Robleto has participated in a number of notable group exhibitions, including The Record/Contemporary Art and Vinyl, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC (2011); Old, Weird, America, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2008); Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Planet, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2008);and the 2004 Whitney Biennial. The Boundary of Life is Quietly Crossed, a site-specific project realized by Robleto, is on view at The Menil Collection August 16, 2014–January 4, 2015.


Allen Frame: Is the reference to “progress” in your title Art in Progress ironic? By showing these artists’ studios in contemporary art schools, it’s almost as though you’re saying that with art education, “time stood still.”

Leonora Hamill: One of the reasons I started this series was because I had a very romantic notion of art school. I first trained as an art historian, and by the time I got to proper art school, in my case, the Royal College of Art in London, it was a very mysterious environment for me, which I became part of, but always with this complex of being more of an art historian than an artist.

When I decided to use “progress” in the title, I was not being ironic. I was

Art Schools and Collective SpaceInterview with Leonora Hamill

by Allen Frame

referring to the work of art which was in a state of creation and which had not been finished per se—the work was still in the studio, and was still within the context of the academic institution where the students are trying to work out their ideas. So the idea of progress was referring to the object in itself as well as the process of the creator.

AF: As a media artist yourself whose work is mostly not studio work, it’s odd that you would have this fascination with the art studio.

LH: I am very interested in the idea of collective space, in the collective energy that exists in a context like art school. The flow of ideas and the discussion with a peer group in an educational setting is so stimulating.


above:Leonora Hamill

Painting I Bangkok, 2010C-type analogue printCourtesy of the artist

AF: How did you gain access?

LH: Sometimes I would go through a student if I happened to know one, or I’d go straight to the faculty if I had access to someone there; other times I’d write with no contact whatsoever beforehand. I was usually quite lucky, but I had to be relatively persistent. The fact that I shoot with a large-format view camera has a lot of repercussions on anything to do with access or how I engage with people in these spaces. I was definitely entering a social space, and I’m quite curious by nature. I think my camera, a beautiful cherry wood Zone VI, really helped. Some were familiar with it, others less so, and sometimes I would quickly show them how it worked. The idea was to shoot my images during a lunch break or on the weekend when they weren’t

around as much so as not to disturb them. I was reliant on people’s kindness to help me navigate.

It became easier as I had more images. One of the images from the series was published in a book by Quentin Bajac, before he became the curator of photography at MOMA. Things like that helped me along the way to gain legitimacy. Also, I was still in grad school so I introduced myself as a fellow student rather than an independent artist making this series. There was that idea of being on the same level. I’m very attracted to the sense of kinship that exists among a lot of art students.


right:Leonora HamillPainting I New Haven, 2012C-type analogue printCourtesy of the artist

“One of the reasons I started this series was because I had a very romantic notion of art school.”


Leonora HamillSculpture I Tetouan, 2011

C-type analogue printCourtesy of the artist


left, top:Leonora Hamill

Sculpture I Bombay, 2011C-type analogue printCourtesy of the artist

left, bottom:Leonora Hamill

Sculpture I Baroda, 2011C-type analogue printCourtesy of the artist

opposite:Leonora Hamill

Photography I Poznan, 2009C-type analogue printCourtesy of the artist


“I’m very attracted to the sense of kinship

that exists among a lot of art students.”

AF: What was the decision behind not using any figures in the work, especially as someone who had come from a portrait project?

LH: One of the main aspects of my practice is my concern for “the other,” the actual notion of “the other.” But I think “the other” can come through a lot more vividly if he or she is not physically there. I felt their presence quite strongly in the objects, and at a certain stage there was a progression in the way my eye shifted from a concern with the objects to a concern with space per se. That was quite a big turning point for me. I think it probably happened in Hanoi—which is actually the cover of my book—in a drawing studio there, where I somehow managed to go beyond the objects and enter the realm of space. I’ve tried to photograph in this way ever since, and somehow convey the energy the space contains, which obviously comes from the people who have engaged with it.

Continue the conversation online at hcponline.org/spot.

Allen Frame is represented by Gitterman Gallery in New York where he has had solo exhibitions in 2005, 2009, and 2013. His 2013 exhibition Dialogue with Bolaño was presented in 2014 at the Museum of the Sonora in Hermosillo, Mexico. Detour, a compilation of his photographs over a decade, was published by Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg in 2001. He co-founded the contemporary art center Delta Axis in Memphis in 1992, and has curated exhibitions at Art in General, PS122 Gallery, and the Camera Club of New York, where he now serves as Board Co-President. He teaches photography at Pratt Institute, School of Visual Arts, and the International Center of Photography. He is an Executive Producer of Joshua Sanchez’s feature film Four, released in 2013. He graduated from Harvard University in 1974. www.allenframe.net

Leonora Hamill is an artist based in New York and London who works primarily in moving image and photography. Born in Paris in 1978, she studied History of Art at the Courtauld Institute in London and at the University of Oxford. She then turned to Fine-Art, graduating from the International Center of Photography in New York and the Royal College of Art in London. Her most recent exhibitions were shown at the American Academy (Rome), the Musée Géo-Charles (Grenoble), Somerset House (London), and Tristan Hoare Gallery (London). Hamill was the 2011 artist-in-residence at the Psychiatric Hospital of Rouffach in Alsace, France. In 2012, she was awarded the Prix HSBC pour la Photographie in Paris. Her monograph Art in Progress was published by Actes Sud in 2012. www.leonorahamill.com


VisionsRYAN BUSH

VisionsIn conversation with

KATHRYN DUNLEVIE

Ryan Bush’s series of 3-D multiple-exposure photographs,titled Visions: Photographs from Another World,

will be shown at HCP from February to April 2015.Kathryn Dunlevie sat down with Ryan

to find out more about the series.

(IMAGES ARE BEST VIEWED WITH RED/BLUE 3-D GLASSES INCLUDED)


KK athryn Dunlevie: Let’s start with the title, could you say more about what you mean by it?

Ryan Bush: These photographs are about the visionary experience—the awe, mystery, and beauty that we can feel in the world of visions, and dreams, and other altered states. For example, in a dream you might see an image that’s powerful, beautiful and numinous, but so complex that it feels like it’s always just a bit beyond your grasp. That’s the feeling I try to evoke with these photographs.

KD: How did you get the idea for this series?

RB: I had done multiple-exposure photographs of trees for a number of years, but after having a powerful dream of a tree one night, I realized that my photographs didn’t have that same mysterious, captivating feeling. You need to overwhelm the senses with so much richness that you get that sense of awe and mystery...

KD: You give up trying to control it intellectually.

RB: Yeah, like with James Joyce’s Ulysses, you let go and you’re immersed in the experience. I tried a number of ways to get a richer experience, before realizing that 3-D was a perfect fit. Not only does it add a lot more complexity, it also allows me to explore abstract themes like the physical world and the ‘subtle’ world, the mixing of the human and the divine.

KD: The glasses let you go back and forth when you take them off or put them on again, rediscovering the third dimension, with a recurring sense of wonder.

RB: Absolutely, I think of the glasses as a metaphor for consciousness. We’re often caught up in our thoughts or whatever, and don’t really see the beauty that’s right in front of us. But when we wake up to the here and now, everything is suddenly so much more vivid and alive.

KD: When I put on the glasses, it felt like the space of the photograph was expanding in all directions, and up and down is an illusion. It’s a magical experience to be in this space, because you’re simply at a point and you can look out in all directions infinitely.

RB: Yeah, I wanted the world of the photograph to feel almost familiar, but not quite. Space is curved, time stands still, and shadows are cast from below as well as above. If you try to touch the images when wearing 3-D glasses, everything but the surface of the paper is teasingly out of reach. I want the works to be very experiential, and viewed in many ways. Try looking at them upside down!

this page, above:Ryan Bush, Vision #31, 2014.

All images are from the series Visions: Photographs from Another World, and are best viewed with red/blue 3-D glasses.

Images courtesy of the artist and Catherine Couturier Gallery, TX.

this page, below: Ryan Bush, Vision #34, 2014.

previous spread:

Ryan Bush, Vision #25 (detail), 2014.


above: Ryan Bush, Vision #32, 2014.

“But when we wake up to the here and now, everything is suddenly so much more vivid and alive.”


above:Ryan Bush, Vision #30, 2014.


below:Ryan Bush, Vision #22, 2014.


above: Ryan Bush, Vision #33, 2014.

“For me it’s a very meditative experience, concentrating on one tiny point out of the whole tree...”


KD: I understand these are hand-held multiple-exposure photographs, done in-camera rather than just copying the image in Photoshop. Is doing it by hand an important part of your process?

RB: Definitely. For me it’s a very meditative experience, concentrating on one tiny point out of the whole tree, getting the technical things right, and staying in a relaxed, Zen-like state throughout all the exposures. Lots of little asymmetries creep in, from the trees swaying, or from me moving, or losing my concentration. Imperfections are such an important part of our human world.

KD: What draws you to trees, especially? You’ve worked with trees in some of your previous bodies of work.

RB: As a child, the woods next door were a magical, mysterious place, and have been in my dreams ever since. I love trees’ musical rhythm and grace, and their symbolism—like the world tree, and the tree of life. In winter, trees are pared down to their essence, but there’s so much life still in them, just waiting to burst forth. Similarly, as artists we may go through periods of creative blocks...

KD: Gestation!

RB: (Laughs) Yeah, that creative energy is still there, and will come out when the time is right.

KD: In terms of the influences on your work, I see that some of your pieces have a mandala-like, meditative quality.

RB: Absolutely. Buddhist mandalas were a big source of inspiration. Harry Callahan has always been a big influence on me, and there’s Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s Fourfold Vision series. Sculpture and architecture (like the work of Bernini) helped me to think in three dimensions. Besides art, there’s the music of John Adams and Zoe Keating, ideas from Jungian Psychology and from the 12th century mystic Ibn Arabi... Everything is related sooner or later!

KD: What are you working on next, or will it be ‘winter’ while you gestate?

RB: I’m working on two series. One series, Presence, involves themes of consciousness, the shadow, and the self (one of those images is in this issue’s List of Contributors, see page 6). I’m also working on a series called Satori, of color 3-D photographs of trees in summer. I love coming back to the same trees again and again, it’s like visiting old friends. Besides trees, the world of 3-D photography is wide open, and there are so many options. I’ll keep looking to my dreams to see where I get led next.

below:Ryan Bush, Vision #20, 2014.

Kathryn Dunlevie is a two-time recipient of Arts Council Silicon Valley’s Fellowship in Photography. Dunlevie has exhibited throughout the US and Europe, and has had solo shows in conjunction with FotoFest since 2004 at Hooks-Epstein Galleries. Her photo-based mixed media works address apparent inconsistencies in time and space, and hint at mysterious underlying structures and intangible extra dimensions. She has recently been featured as a finalist in Saatchi Art’s “The Body Electric”, in Saatchi Art’s 100 Curators 100 Days and in the US Art in Embassies program. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Camerawork – a Journal of Photographic Art, ArtLies, the San Jose Mercury News, and Artweek, as well as internationally in Spain’s La Fotografia Actual, Korea’s Photo+, England’s Saatchi Online Spotlight, Art of England Magazine, Germany’s Profifoto, and on Myartspace.com.

Ryan Bush is a fine-art photographer based in Los Gatos, California. His photographs use techniques such as multiple exposures and 3-D photography to explore themes of consciousness, the visionary experience, our connection with nature, and the mysteries hidden in everyday things. Bush earned a BA in Linguistics and Russian from Swarthmore College in 1995, and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from UC Santa Cruz in 2000. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and is in several collections including The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Stanford Medical Center, and the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. Bush’s “Visions” series will be shown at HCP in February-April 2015.


Bevin Bering Dubrowski: Hi David—it’s a pleasure to finally talk to you about your work with spot in mind! One of the first things I want to talk about within your series is your use of the box. It provides a unifying element in most of the images and also serves as a formal container and reference to minimalist form. Could you expand upon what the box is and your decision to utilize it here?

Bevin Bering Dubrowski and David Wolf first met during Photolucida’s Portfolio Reviews in Portland, Oregon, 2011. Dubrowski and Wolf have stayed in touch since.

Nurturing Time

David Wolf: It’s a cardboard box, the kind you can find at a paint store. I had purchased some house paints, and happened to have a couple of these boxes lying around. One morning I was working in the garden, doing some weeding, and I tossed some clover into one of them. In an instant, I saw the garden--and my relationship to it--differently. I thought, “Look at that, these weeds are suddenly separate from the garden, from the landscape around the box,” and it really intrigued me. I just moved on from there. The box needed to be simple, because I didn’t want to draw attention to it. I liked the fact that it was cardboard, made from natural fibers, to go along with the garden itself. That it’s a square, having straight lines, in contrast to the natural world is also important. As people, we make things with straight lines. Nature doesn’t do that very often. So, the box became the perfect construct for the project’s intent—a simple, neutral container that serves as a conceptual envelope, allowing me to explore how we shape and control nature even as we nurture it.

BBD: Did the project cause you to grow different plants? Did you start thinking of different forms and grow things because you thought they would be a good element in a photograph?

DW: Early on I decided there would be a couple of rules for how I would go about this. One was that everything I photographed had to come from the existing garden, or from neighboring trees easily within reach. Looking at the pictures, people have commented, “You must have a huge garden!” But actually it’s quite small; it just has a lot of plants! The other rule was to use only natural light. The relationship of shadow and light is essential to the project—to the idea of nurturing time within seasonal change, and to our emotional response to images from the garden.

David Wolf (San Francisco, CA) Roses and Redwood, 2009/2012 Chromogenic print, Courtesy of the artist and Corden|Potts Gallery, San Francisco


BBD: And then there’s the performance-based nature of the images. These construc-tions are made to be photographed. They’re fleeting. Do you think about yourself as performer?

DW: Creating the assemblages was so much fun because this marked a real turning point for me as a photographer. Up to that point my pictures had been all about photographing what I found in the world. Once I decided on a subject, my choices were defined by the specifics of taking a photograph. Here, I’m using materials, plants and flowers, to make something—stage something—for the camera. For me, this project became the difference between taking and making a photograph, and I found that so exciting!

BBD: I think that’s a big change for a lot of photographers when they start to find a project that really takes. Many photographers start out by photographing the world around them, and then there’s something that provokes your mind or your interest and work takes on a conceptual element. I love talking to photographers about their experience when this happens because I often hear that the concept becomes an obsession. Was this true for you?

DW: Yes, this project ruled my life! I worked on it everyday for the better part of three years, just the shooting—the months of darkroom work came later. It completely enveloped me. And I think I was fortunate, because it’s my back garden—I didn’t have to go anywhere. That’s really a lot of what my work is about, being where I am. Not going to the far ends of the world to find a subject. Connecting with where I am, working with what’s around me. So, yes, the whole process of creating this work became totally absorbing. There were times when I needed to work very much in the moment, combining elements to photograph before they wilted and died. Or working with light that was available only briefly. Other times I would dry or refrigerate cuttings, altering or preserving them as need be, to pursue an idea that would be played out in the garden later, when the time was right.

David Wolf (San Francisco, CA)Faded English Lavender Bouquet, 2009/2013Chromogenic printCourtesy of the artist and Corden|Potts Gallery, San Francisco


this page, top:David Wolf (San Francisco, CA)Clover Tangle, 2009/2012,Chromogenic printCourtesy of the artist and Corden|Potts Gallery, San Francisco

bottom:David Wolf (San Francisco, CA)Wild Morning Glories and Lavender with Shadows, 2009/2012Chromogenic printCourtesy of the artist and Corden|Potts Gallery, San Francisco


above:David Wolf (San Francisco, CA)

Oranges and Stones, 2010/2012Chromogenic print

Courtesy of the artist and Corden|Potts Gallery, San Francisco


BBD: Let’s look at “Roses and Redwood,” 2009.

DW: I had some gorgeous roses, and something prompted me to combine them with cuttings from our redwood tree. The light was filtered by the tree, dappling the ground, so there’s a lot of darkness, with streaks of light. I knew I would have just minutes to work with this light, and the darkness that surrounded it. Later, when I made the print, the image struck me as an intimation of death. This is one of those images in the series where the interplay of light and shadow has such importance. Thinking about this, the idea that memory and shadow are related visually came to mind, and that memory can be thought of as time’s shadow.

BBD: Looking at the “Oranges and Stones” image, I have to think about the fact that you grew these oranges, they didn’t come from a store—they are David’s oranges. When you let an orange, or anything that you grow yourself, kind of go past its prime without using it, isn’t there a greater sense of guilt or loss?

DW: Yes, something that’s past, and something that perhaps you didn’t have the chance to enjoy fully. That’s a really good point because it brings up something else about this work that I only understood when I was deep into the project.

That it’s also about loss, because I’m working with plants and flowers that are from all stages of their lifetime, including when they have died. I’m taking them out of the ground, and in the process of working with them they will die. So that connects with a sense of loss, and a desire to redeem that loss, or turn loss into beauty. I’ve had a couple of family members die too young, and I think this in an urge to transform loss into something that’s powerful and beautiful.

BBD: Well David, these are certainly powerful, beautiful images.

DW: Thank you, Bevin—thank you for taking the time to speak again.

To see more of David’s work, visit www.hcponline.org and www.davidwolfphotographs.com


opposite:David Wolf (San Francisco, CA)Dried Poppies on Bare Ground with Shadows, 2010/2013Chromogenic printCourtesy of the artist and Corden|Potts Gallery, San Francisco

above:David Wolf (San Francisco, CA)Orange Tree, Blossoms, Leaves and Fruit, 2008/2013Chromogenic printCourtesy of the artist and Corden|Potts Gallery, San Francisco

David Wolf is a devoted film photographer, making both color and black and white prints by hand in the traditional darkroom. His work has been exhibited internationally, and has been acquired by various public institutions and private collections. David’s series Nurturing Time, Life in a Backyard Garden won top honors in both the International Photography Awards and the Grand Prix de la Decouverte, International Fine Art Photography Competition. A Boston native and Brown University graduate, David now calls San Francisco home, where his work is represented by Corden|Potts Gallery.

Bevin Bering Dubrowski is the Creative Director at Houston Center for Photography and Editor-in-Chief of spot magazine.

spotlight

Valley of the Meadows is not a depiction of the real Las Vegas, but instead is inspired by a side of Las Vegas that existed in the tumultuous era of the mid-1970s and early-1980s. A time where the city was in a depressing downward spiral and the criminal entities running the city were slowly losing their grip to the corporations that could outspend them. The Las Vegas I imagine is one not too divorced from reality, where the extremes of luxury and vice are out in the open and the lure of promise draws one in. It is a place that is as seductive as it is repellent.

Geoffrey Elliswww.geoffreyellis.com


Geoffrey Ellis (San Francisco, CA)Smoking Sink, Las Vegas, 2013Chromogenic print, Edition 2 of 10 Courtesy of the artist

This summer, Malcolm Daniel, Curator in Charge of the Department of Photography at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, juried the work of 284 artists and selected Anne Berry of Newnan, GA; Geoffrey Ellis of San Francisco, CA; and Jeanine Michna-Bales of Dallas, TX to receive The Beth Block Juried Membership Honoraria, supported by The Beth Block Foundation. These three artists were granted $500 and were exhibited along with the 38 artists selected for the 32nd Annual Juried Membership Exhibition July 11–September 7, 2014.


Behind Glass refers both to the glass or boundaries of an enclosure and to the glass of the camera lens. Often I find myself gazing into the eyes of a monkey, his hand touching the glass wall that separates our worlds. The window works not only as a framing device but also to add atmosphere and narrative, left for the viewer to interpret. My photographs are about the beauty of animals but, more importantly, about their plight. The pictorial quality of these images softens the shock, but the punch is there in the eyes and melancholy expressions of the animals.

Anne Berrywww.anneberrystudio.com

Jeanine Michna-Bales’ work belies its initial simplicity and seeks to tell a narrative that explores the relationships between what has occurred or is occurring in our society and how people have chosen to react to those events. Her photographs are intended to be viewed in a series – each serving as a vital component in helping to tell the story. She meticulously researches each topic – considering various viewpoints, causes and effects, political

Jeanine Michna-Baleswww.jmbalesphotography.com

Jeanine Michna-Bales (Dallas, TX)Decision to Leave, 2013

Inkjet print, Courtesy of the artist

Anne Berry (Newnan, GA)Monkey at the Door, 2011Gelatin silver print, Edition 2 of 15 Courtesy of the artist

climates, timelines and other relevant information – in order to build a solid framework from which to begin shooting. She feels the greatest complement her work could receive is that it sparks a discussion on the given topic. Whether rarely seen stations on the underground railroad or long-forgotten government fallout shelters, she hopes her images evoke a sense of curiosity and a desire for a deeper understanding of the subject.


ACADEMIC CALENDAR

Fall September, October, November and DecemberCalendar is announced in August

SpringJanuary, February, March, AprilCalendar is announced in November

SummerMay, June, July and AugustCalendar is announced in April

All LevelsCritique GroupBuying a Digital Camera

IntroductoryComposition I: From Good to GreatFlash PhotographyIntroduction to Photoshop ElementsPhoneography Lightroom I: Beginning Your WorkflowMacro PhotographyOut of the Box: Using your Digital Camera Photography I: Learning the Basics Printing Your Photographs I: The BasicsThe Seeing, Not the Taking

IntermediateAfter Dark: Photographing at Night Alternative Printing: TransferArchitecture Photography: Shooting SpaceBird and Wildlife PhotographyComposition II: Finding Your VisionCreating a StudioFinding Funding for ArtistsHistory of Photography 19th CenturyHistory of Photography 20th and 21st CenturiesLandscape PhotographyLenses and Focal LengthsLighting in Photography Lightmeters and the Lies They Tell YouLightroom II: Sharing Your PhotographsNatural Light Portraiture Photographing Families Photography II: Beyond the Basics Photoshop I: Getting Started Photoshop II: Working with Layers Playing with Toy Cameras Presenting Your Work: Building Your PortfolioPresenting Your Work: Framing and MattingPrinting Your Photographs II: Getting the Color RightStudio LightingTravel Photography: The World Through Your LensWilflower WorkshopWords and Images

AdvancedAlternative Printing: CallotypesAlternative Printing: CyanotypesAlternative Printing: Wet Plate CollodionPresenting Your Work: Getting Your Work Out There High Dynamic Range PhotographyPresenting Your Work: Creating a Body of Work Photography III: Experimenting with Your CameraPhotojournalismPhotoshop III: Retouching Your Photographs Printing Your Photographs III: Print like a ProSelf PortraitureSelf Publishing I: Design and LayoutSelf Publishing II: Printing and PublishingSelf Publishing III: Using Adobe InDesignThe Figure in PhotographyUsing Photoshop for Video

For questions visit our website www.hcponline.org, email us at [email protected], or give us a call at 713.529.4755

Through the Learning Center, HCP offers over 300 workshops to the general public each year. HCP’s Educational Calendar is published three times annually and presents workshops for both film and digital photographers of all levels. Photographers can choose topics they are interest-ed in or follow a curriculum guide to learn the basics of photography. Workshops and courses are held on-site at HCP in the critique room and digital darkroom as well as off-site in the field, at artist studios, or at the facility of one of our partner organizations. HCP members receive a discount to all classes and workshops. Members also enjoy the benefit of early registration each quarter. Registration is simple and easy through our website: www.hcponline.org


33RDANNUAL JURIED

MEMBERSHIPEXHIBITION

JUROR, Russell Lord, Curator of Photographs, Prints, and Drawings, New Orleans Museum of Art

JUROR,RUSSELL LORD,

CURATOR OF PHOTOGRAPHS, PRINTS,

AND DRAWINGS,NEW ORLEANS

MUSEUM OF ART

IMAGE, DETAIL: Geoffrey Ellis

(San Francisco, CA)Burning Bill, Las Vegas, 2013

Chromogenic printEdition 3 of 10

Courtesy of the artist

upcoming exhibitions athouston center for photography

2014–2015 SeasonNovember 7, 2014–January 4, 2015Science: Photography’s Influence On Science and MedicineFeaturing a large installation by french artists René Sultra and Marie BarthélémyCurated by Libbie J. Masterson

Picture This!An Exhibition of Work Created by Patients in PictureThis!, HCP’s Outreach Program at Texas Children’s Hospital’s Cancer and Hematology Centers.Curated by Juliana Forero, Ph.D.

January 16–February 16, 20152015 Print Auction Exhibition

February 27–April 26, 2015Bill Armstrong: Buddha & MandalaRyan Bush – Visions: Photographs From Another WorldLearning Curve 8

May 1–July 5, 20152015 Fellowship ExhibitionsJuried By Paul Kopeikin, Kopeikin Gallery (Los Angeles, Ca)

Collaborations

July 10–September 13, 201533rd Annual Juried Membership ExhibitionJuried by Russell Lord, curator of photographs, prints and drawings, New Orleans Museum of Art.


Featured HCP Member: Yorgos Efthymiadis (Somerville, MA) Net, 2013, Courtesy of the artist

Become a member of HCP!Showcase your work on HCP’s Featured Member page!

Email Sinai Tirado at [email protected]

for more information.

www.hcponline.org

Spot Spring 2015

Documents

Transcript of Spot Spring 2015