harlan erskine — photography/blog

harlan erskine, The Invaders, 20 x 37 inches, 2009

Last year I had the honor of being included in the Photographic Resource Center’s (PRC) annual Juried Exhibition. The deadline to enter this year’s competition is fast approaching (April 22nd). I encourage everyone to consider entering. More information below.

exposure: the annual PRC juried exhibition

Are you ready for some exposure? Then line up a selection of your best photographs and get ready to enter EXPOSURE 2011, the PRC’s 16th annual juried exhibition of work by its members.

Awards

• The juror will choose up to ten photographers for the exhibition at the PRC in July and August.
• The juror will select one of these artists for the Juror’s Award of $500.
• The PRC’s Executive Director Glenn Ruga and Curator George Slade will also select awards for publication in the PRC magazine Loupe and for inclusion in NEO, our monthly on-line showcase of work by regional members.
• Each of the three winners will also receive a free one year Pro account with Viewbook.com, a leading online portfolio and image sharing website, valued at $190. Viewbook.com is a sponsor of this year’s juried exhibition.

Submissions
All submissions will be electronically uploaded through a 90-day trial account with Viewbook.com. Application fee for the juried exhibition is $35. Applicants must have a valid membership through August 31, 2011. If you have questions about your membership status, please contact the PRC at info@prcboston.org

STEP 1: Click here to download submission guidelines

STEP 2: Click here to pay application fee and to join/renew your membership.

Whitney Johnson, EXPOSURE 2011 Juror

The juror for EXPOSURE 2011 will be Whitney Johnson, picture editor at The New Yorker. See below for more information on Ms. Johnson.

Whitney Johnson is the picture editor at The New Yorker where she produces and researches photographs for political and cultural stories, including award-winning portfolios on the United States military and world leaders. She also writes for the magazine’s photography blog, Photo Booth. Prior to joining the magazine, Whitney worked at the Open Society Foundations, where she coordinated the documentary photography exhibition Moving Walls and an international grant competition for documentary photographers. Whitney also works with the Magnum Foundation, which supports independent documentary photographers in the field through its Emergency Fund.

Timeline
Tuesday, March 1 – Submissions Open
Friday, April 22, 11:59 pm – Deadline for Submissions
Monday, May 23 – Announcement of Accepted Photographers
Thursday, July 21 – Opening Reception for EXPOSURE 2011
Sunday, August 21 – Exhibit Closes
Friday, September 2 – Deadline For Removal of Work

Updates will be posted in the PRC eNewsletter, including specifications for preparing submissions.

When the submissions open, the application form will be available on the PRC web site.

Sponsor

I’m super excited, The World Park, a project I worked on last Summer was recently recognized in Communication Arts – 2011 Interactive Annual. It was a blast to work on read all about it below.

From CA:

Miles Mendenhall, Good and Lonely Luminous Structure no. 2, 2010. Silkscreen on cotton rag, ed. of 3. 42 x 54 inches

Tonight the Half Gallery co-owner and “Work of Art” judge Bill Powers is showing “Work of Art” second runner-up Miles Mendenhall in a solo show at his Lower East Side gallery space. Mendenhall’s solo show runs August 24—September 14, and the Opening reception is tonight Tuesday, August 24, 6-8 p.m. Half Gallery is located at 208 Forsyth St., New York, NY.

When I first started watching Work of Art I wasn’t so sure about how well time art challenges would work out. I still think the show has serious problems. One of those problems is the show doesn’t teach enough people from outside the art community why some of the art is successful and other’s art is not. This is a teachable moment. Where is the teaching about the references and art history? I am worried this show leaves the general public in the same state of cluelessness about contemporary art as before the show. England is much better about educating through TV and Bravo could learn something from them.

That being said I think the show came through in the end and the finalists were all strong artists. I’m looking forward to tonight’s opening as well as seeing the “Work of Art” winner, Abdi Farah at his prize solo show at the “world famous” Brooklyn Museum. Farah’s show runs August 14–October 17, in their Projects Gallery, 5th Floor.

(more…)

Tonight, my friend Rachel Barrett has a cool opening just north of Chelsea at the The Camera Club of New York. I’m heading there now to check it out and then down to the Lower East Side for the many openings for Lush Life Curated by Franklin Evans and Omar Lopez-Chahoud.

First Place Winners: Rachel Barrett Artist Info	Erin O‘Keefe Artist Info
Second Place Winners: Juliane Eirich Artist Info	Selena Salfen Artist Info

for more info go to: The Camera Club of New York at http://www.cameraclubny.org/competition.html

The Photography Prize Shortlist is always one to watch. Each year they call attention to the best of photography. Many times I know the photography but just as often the work is new to me. So, I get to learn about new and exciting image makers working on thought provoking art. This year is no exception and interestingly dominated by strong woman photographers. A welcome change. Take a look -

Anna Fox (b.1961, UK) is nominated for her exhibition, Cockroach Diary & Other Stories at Ffotogallery, Cardiff (28 July – 10 October 09), initiated by Impressions Gallery, Bradford.

Gallery site: ffoto gallery: Anna Fox – Cockroach Diary and Other Stories

Zoe Leonard (b.1961, USA) is nominated for her retrospective exhibition, ZOE LEONARD: Photographs, at the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (1 April – 5 July 09), initiated by Fotomuseum Winterthur.

Watch Zoe Leonard. Photographs / Retrospective at Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich | VernissageTV art tv

Sophie Ristelhueber (b.1949, France) is nominated for her retrospective, Sophie Ristelhueber at the Jeu de Paume, Paris (20 January – 22 March 2009).

slide show: Sophie Ristelhueber photographs at the Jeu de Paume | World news | guardian.co.uk

Donovan Wylie (b.1971, UK) is nominated for his exhibition MAZE 2007/8 at Belfast Exposed (27 March – 1 May 2009).

Check out more info on this work here: Belfast Exposed: Exhibitions

The annual award of £30,000 rewards a living photographer, of any nationality, who has made the most significant contribution, in exhibition or publication format, to the medium of photography in Europe between 1 October 2008 and 30 September 2009.

This year’s Jury is: Olivia Maria Rubio (Director of Exhibitions, La Fabrica, Spain); Gilane Tawadros (Chief Executive, Design Artists Copyright Society, curator and writer); James Welling (artist, USA); and Anne-Marie Beckmann (Curator, Art Collection Deutsche Borse, Germany). Brett Rogers, Director of The Photographers’ Gallery, is the non-voting Chair.

This years press Grand Prix was won by FFL Paris for its Wrangler campaign shot by the photographer many seem to love to hate, Ryan McGinley. I have to admit when I first saw Ryan’s work I wasn’t so sure about it. But Ryan has won me over with work like this. Sure not everything he makes is a winner in my book but it seems like he works really hard and consistently and eventually pulls through some gems.

See the rest of the campaign here:
http://work.canneslions.com/press/

and some more images here with some jealous comments.:
http://www.creativereview.co.uk/back-issues/creative-review/2008/october-2008/wrangler-print-ads

to see the full camping check out the FRED & FARID, PARIS website.

via aphotoeditor.com

I am happy to say I have been included it the large list of Nominations for the 2009 New York Photo Awards. I have been accepted into two categories, Advertising Series for my Microsoft I’m a PC work and Student Fine Art Series for a series of images on Beijing I made this past August. I’ll update this page with an image from that series soon.

Last year I had fun going through the list of nominations and linking to their portfolio pages. This year I think there are way too many with almost 300 nominations! So, until I get an intern I’ll let you google them this time.

If you going to be around this weekend let me know I would love to run into people at the festival. I am not sure how much of it I can make since I have a very busy weekend with Graduation on Friday! but you should check out the festival’s schedule here.

from the Press Release:

NYPHA’09 Nominations
The Jury of the New York Photo Awards 2009 (NYPHA’09) is pleased to announce the following Nominees.

To be named a nominee of the New York Photo Awards 2009 means that one has been selected for the final round of judging, during which time only three finalists will be chosen (Winner and two Honorable Mentions). Considering the number of rounds that the Jury has already been through, being nominated is truly an award in and of itself. We are very proud of this year’s Nominees. It is clear that they represent the Future of Contemporary Photography, and we wish them continued success.

The Winners and Honorable Mentions will be announced (and their work presented) at the Gala Ceremony for the New York Photo Awards 2009 on Friday, May 15th at 8pm in the St. Ann’s Warehouse Auditorium. This is a special ticketed event, there are only 415 seats, and they are selling out fast. Last year, we packed the place to the gills, and still had another 200+ people flowing out to the streets. So, if you want a seat, you have to have a ticket. Festival passes and tickets can be purchased here.

Without much further ado, the Nominees for the New York Photo Awards 2009 are:

NEW YORK PHOTO AWARDS 2009

NOMINEES

©2008-2009 Harlan Erskine. From the series “Imaginary Wars,” The Phantom Brigade 20 x 37 inches.

I am happy to announce that my School of Visual Arts thesis project has been awarded 3rd place in the Linhof Young Photographer Award ’09. The above image is a sample of what will be shown at the June thesis show for the at the School of Visual Arts Gallery on 26th Street in New York. I will be posting more images in the next few weeks and I’ll post the upcoming School of Visual Arts thesis website so you can browse the rest of the class of 2009. Take a look at the Linhof Award’s Press Release below.

LINHOF YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHER AWARD 09

On April 24, 2009 the jury met in in the headquarters of Linhof Präzisions-Systemtechnik / Munich for selecting the winners. 468 participants from 39 countries had sent more than 3.500 images. The ratio of female to male photographers was almost exactly 1 : 2.

The Linhof company and the jury were surprized by the big number of international participants of the competiton despite of tough restrictions relating to the age and the theme. The theme was “HUMAN CITYSCAPES” and the photographic realization should comprise the urban environment “City” showing contrasts or unity of citizens and architecture.

The jury had a hard job. Quite often excellent images were submitted but missing the conceptional work. Some photographers submitted individual images but did not follow the concept for their whole series whereas the judging always referred to the total entry.

The entries from 39 countries also revealed rational preferences for contents and aesthetics. Most of the entries originated from Germany. These 169 participants often referred to the theme fairly strictly combined with conceptional architectural photography – at high quality standard. Entries from China (81) can be described as more formal experimental. Many-sided but also individually were the works of the English (31) and American (21) participants.

The jury has evaluated the image series for a position reflecting the changing impression of human beings in relation to his environment.

Members of the jury were:

Thomas Weski (Associate Director, Haus der Kunst Munich, Curator of photography)

Professor Peter Bialobrzeski (High School for Arts/Bremen, Photographer)

Brigitte Nusser (Collectioner of photographs)

Anna Wondrak (Historian for Arts)

Barbara Wolff (Photographer). All three living in Munich.

The first prize, a Linhof Camera equipment to the value of 10.000 Euro goes to the 28 years old Russian photographer Alexander Gronsky (link 1, link 2) living in Talin/Estonia. His series “The Edges” is about exploring the boundaries of Moscow city. In almost surrealistic scenes he shows people and animals disintegrated from the city and put in the abstract plane of the snow.

The second prize, a Linhof Camera equipment to the value of 3000 Euro goes to the team Philipp Diettrich and Matthias Keller (High School for Design/Karlsruhe and High School for Arts/Bremen) for their work “Kolonia Megawatt” dealing with the Polish border city Bogatynia. The series shows the transformation of the town and the people. Destruction, re-building and the strongly dominant power plant create a peculiar cosmos visible in the series of images.

The third prize, Linhof Camera accessories to the value of 1000 Euro goes to Harlan Erskine, New York (School of Visual Arts/New York). His series “Imaginary Wars” show games of his childhood in New York with imaginary foes lurking around the corners. Children play games in which they imagine themselves in adult roles that they may not fully grasp. In the images the photographer stretches his memories into an apocalyptic world.

The Linhof Prazisions Systemtechnik being the organizer of this competition says many thanks again to all participants. The company plans to issue such a contest bi-annually with new topics thus establishing this competition as an important international photographer award.

The winning images will be posted soon on Linhof’s web site. For further information see: www.linhof.de

____

note: If you know of any better links for the first and second place artists please send them to me and I will update this post.

©Paul Graham, Untitled (Pittsburgh 1), From the series “a shimmer of possibility,” 2004, Pigment ink print

I think The Photographers’ Gallery made the right choice here. I like all the nominees this year but British/American Photographer Paul Graham’s “a shimmer of possibility” is just a bit more successful for me and a bit more current / new. A few nights ago Paul Graham was awarded the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize and the £30K that accompanies it.

From the press release (PDF):

Paul Graham (b. 1956, UK), has been awarded the 2009 Deutsche Borse Photography Prize.

The Award was presented at a special evening ceremony on Wednesday 25 March 2009. Jefferson Hack, co-founder of Dazed & Confused, presented the £30,000 award.

The Prize is presented by The Photographers’ Gallery and sponsored by Deutsche Borse group.

Paul Graham was selected by the Jury for his publication, a shimmer of possibility (steidlMACK, October 2007).

Now in its thirteenth year, this annual Prize of £30,000 rewards a living photographer, of any nationality, who has made the most significant contribution to photography in Europe, through either an exhibition or publication, over the past year.

The other shortlisted artists in this year’s Prize, each awarded £3,000, are:

Emily Jacir (b.1970, Palestine) nominated for her installation, Material for a Film, presented at the 2007 Venice Biennale (7 June – 21 November 2007).

Tod Papageorge (b.1940, USA) nominated for the exhibition Passing Through Eden – Photographs of Central Park at Michael Hoppen Gallery, London (7 March – 12 April 2008).

Taryn Simon (b.1975, USA) nominated for her exhibition An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar at The Photographers’ Gallery, London (13 September -11 November 2007).

The Jury this year: David Campany (writer/lecturer, University of Westminster, UK); David Goldblatt (photographer, South Africa); Chus Martinez (Chief Curator, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain); and Anne-Marie Beckmann (Curator, Art Collection Deutsche Borse, Germany). The Director of The Photographers’ Gallery, Brett Rogers is the non-voting Chair.

© Paul Graham, Untitled (New York/North Dakota), From the series “a shimmer of possibility,” 2005, Pigment ink prints, 15 pieces, Edition of 5 + 2 a.p.

© Paul Graham, “a shimmer of possibility,” 2005

I like how the book and the photography installation work with each other. Each is similar but changes to fit the ideal conditions for viewing. The 12 Book collection (photo-eye was too expensive for me but there is a compiled version on its way in April.

This is quite a year for Graham with solo shows at MoMA, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany Greenberg Van Doren Gallery and Salon94 currently up, and now this award.

Check out this interview with Paul Graham and PDN here. There is also an article in the Telegraph

Hans-Christian Schink, 2/23/2006 4:04 pm – 5:04 pm N: 34° 03.712′ W: 118° 20.979′, 2006, Silbergelatine-Abzug, Auflage 5+3

Amazing how the internet has brought work together that was made around the same time. Just ten years ago it would have been very hard to find other artists working with similar themes around the world. Maybe because of this there are also more artists working today? just a theory.

So, I was looking through Mrs Deane a blog about photography run by Beierle + Keijser and I came across this post: congratulations hans christian schink! Hans Christian Schink, represented by ACE gallery in America and GALERIE ROTHAMEL in Europe. He recently won the newly created “REAL Photography Award” brought to you by ING Real Estate. The award was announced in March of 2008 so the sustainability of this award is certainly in question considering the current state of financial markets and especially real estate. But all economic worries aside I am quite interested in Schink’s project and the parallels between it, Chris McCaw‘s Sunburn project and my Black Sun Project. I wonder how many from the Award show’s jury were aware of McCaw’s work which is quite similar? And, if they were what were their thoughts on them and why one is more worthy of the award that the other project.