Young Me/Now Me
It’s all about the photograph…
Internet adventurer (and Nippertown native) Ze Frank’s Young Me Now Me, in which people re-create a photo from their youth.
Sharon Montrose’s The Dog Photo Booth because, well, we like dogs and photo booths
Black & WTF, an offbeat, oddball collection of vintage black & white photographs
Dona Ann McAdams: Pro Choice Rally, New York City, 1994
Documentary photographer Dona Ann McAdams’ exhibit “Some Women” opened at the Opalka Gallery in Albany on November 1, but since the local papers have abdicated pretty much all responsibility for reviewing local art, it’s gone practically unnoticed. This is a shame, if not something more, because McAdams is a tenacious soul, and her pictures have an acute and mordant mystery.
Widely known as the chief photographic witness of New York’s downtown performance scene in the 1980s (her work chronicled artists from John Cage to Karen Findley), McAdams has, for this exhibit, put that work aside in favor of an eclectic range of other projects, from AIDS activism and nuclear energy to Appalachian farm women and Roman nuns.
She’s a traditionalist, technically (working with a manual Leica and black and white film) and philosophically. There’s not a single staged tableau or rephotographed miniature landscape among these images, but rather instances of dignity, struggle and fantastic weirdness drawn from life itself.
Nippertown reader Mary Paley takes a look back at another of Albany’s historical moments – George Wallace’s presidential campaign rally in Albany’s Capital Park on October 10, 1968:
“Forty-one years ago this Saturday, segregationist candidate and Governor of Alabama, George Wallace held a presidential campaign rally on the steps of the New York State Capitol in Albany, NY. My father, Bob Paley, a Knickerbocker News photographer, covered the event. The primary themes of the rally – race relations, war and dissent – remain relevant today.
In 2004, while looking through a collection of my father’s photographs, I decided to bring his work to light and share it with a new audience over the Internet. I worked with the interactive design firm Tubehead to create a website that included an interactive piece about the Wallace Rally. For the 41st anniversary of the event, we adapted the interactive Wallace Rally to video.”
To see more of Bob Paley’s wonderful photography – including a great section on the 1969 Woodstock Festival – please visit the website “Close to This Moment: The Photography of Bob Paley.”
Photographer and Union College professor Martin Benjamin has an eye for composition. He’s been one of Nippertown’s very finest lensmen for years.
Now he’s finally gathered together a large collection of more than 100 of his photographs into a long-overdue book, “Atomic Age.”
Benjamin is celebrating the publication of “Atomic Age” with a solo exhibition of the same title, that’s currently on view in Atlanta, Georgia at Pace Academy Fine Arts Center. The exhibit is being held in conjunction with Atlanta Celebrates Photography month.
With the help of Nina Witschonke, a visiting international student from Germany at Union College, Benjamin sequenced the photographs, selected text and completed the final layout of the book. The photographs included in the book were shot over a span of 30 years, featuring pictures from such locations as Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Alamagordo, Three Mile Island, White Sands Missile Range, Hiroshima, Cuba, China and Vietnam. Also included are many personal images made near home in Albany and Schenectady.
The book is published by Atomic Age/Digital Press and will debut at 7pm tonight (Monday, October 5) at the reception for Benjamin’s exhibition at Atlanta Celebrates Photography. It’s not available in the Albany area just yet, but will soon be on sale through a variety of other local outlets including the Union College bookstore and Benjamin’s website.
Stay tuned to Nippertown.com, and we’ll alert you to upcoming book signings by Martin Benjamin.
Portia Munson: Cut Dafodils (billboard) at The Fields Sculpture Park, Art Omi
Catskill artist Portia Munson is conducting the two-day workshop, “The Scanner as Camera,” at the Center for Photography at Woodstock on Saturday and Sunday, September 5-6. Learn how to use a flat-bed scanner as a camera to capture images and ideas. No previous experience is required to register for the workshop.
Munson works in a variety of artistic media, including painting, installation, photography and sculpture. Since 2002, she has created an ongoing series of flower mandala prints utilizing the flat-bed scanner.
In addition to the workshop, Munson will also be conducting a lecture on scanner photography at 8pm on Saturday, September 5. Admission is free, and the lecture is open to the public.
Other workshops offered at the Center for Photography this month include:
Melinda McDaniel: Spurt
David Brickman: Oriental Frieze
But just in case you aren’t familiar with his work, you’ve got a golden opportunity in downtown Troy this month. Brickman is represented in not one, not two, but three simultaneous art exhibitions all within walking distance of each other around town.
His work is on exhibit as part of the Fence Select ‘09 show at the Arts Center of the Capital Region through Sunday, September 13.
His photos are also featured in the Photo Center’s third annual members’ exhibit, on view through Monday, September 7.
And he’s one of the eight area artists featured in “Group Show, Part I” which is on exhibit at the Clement Frame Shop and Art Gallery through Wednesday, August 26.
St. Agnes Cemetery is sponsoring a free photography contest. Amateur photographers are invited to take photographs of sculptures, art work, nature, and views within Saint Agnes Cemetery anytime between July 4 and October 16, 2009. Submitted photos must be 8×10 and can be color or black and white.
Sponsored by Trustco Bank, cash prizes ranging from $50 to $400 will be awarded in adult and student categories
Registration forms are available online (MS Word format) and at the St. Agnes Cemetery office.
Down in Hudson, Carrie Haddad Photographs presents a stunning new exhibition, “Afterglow: Four Photographers & the Hand-Held Light.” Curated by Melissa Stafford, the exhibit features the arresting work of David Lebe, Robert Flynt, Gary Schneider and Warren Neidich.
David Lebe: Angelo On The Roof, 1979
Stafford describes “Afterglow” as “an exhibit of photographers creating and documenting light performances seen only by the eye of their camera. Using long exposures and small hand held lights – often just a cheap flashlight – these images have been noting ideas, emotions and sensations that traditional photographs cannot.”
Think of it like photography as performance art.
Robert Flynt: Untitled, 2009
“Afterglow” opens on Thursday, July 16 and remains on exhibit through Sunday, August 30. The gallery will host an opening reception from 6-8pm Saturday, July 18.
Albany Rural Cemetery is an impressive and intriguing destination anytime, but especially in the summer if you’re looking for a quiet, shady spot away from the crowds. With 500 acres of park-like grounds, it’s perfect for hiking, bicycling or just sitting and reading. They even have inexpensive tours on a variety of historical subjects. Pack a picnic and be sure to bring your camera.
In response to our River Street Arts Festival post, Nippertown regular AndyG commented about Julian Beaver’s famous 3D anomorphic pavement works, specially distorted drawings that create an impression of 3 dimensions when seen from one particular viewpoint.
This photograph of urban camouflage works in reverse – seen from the right viewpoint, the object tends to disappear.
I was going to do an urban camouflage link roundup, but Web Urbanist has already beaten me to it, and I don’t think I could top their amazing collection. Have a look: Web Urbanist: The Uninvisible Art of Amazing Urban Camouflage
Everybody’s been hit hard by the current economic climate, none more so than the arts community. So it takes a special kind of courage to open a new art venue in the midst of this ongoing financial downturn.
But that’s exactly what Troy photographer Debra Lockrow is doing today, as she celebrates the grand opening of her new exhibit space/store Artcentric Gift Gallery, located at 95 4th St. in downtown Troy.
The opening reception takes place 5-9pm today (Friday, June 26) in conjunction with the monthly Troy Night Out arts walk. Acoustic roots-music band the Hopeless Mountain Playboys entertain beginning at 6pm.
NIPPERTOWN: How exactly would you describe a “gift gallery”?
ARTCENTRIC: The store is a mix of fine arts and unique crafts made by local artists. The prices are reasonable and allow people the opportunity to shop local and support the community. I added “gift” to gallery in the name in the hope that people would venture in and not be afraid that a “gallery” was out of the realm of their financial reality. As far as prices go, I’m selling magnets for $1 and paintings for $300.
NIPPERTOWN: You’re just getting started, but what are your plans for the future?
ARTCENTRIC: I am planning on having individual artists exhibit in the future. I would also like to make space available if an instructor wanted to teach a class at Artcentric. I think that I’ll be hosting some special events, too – mural painting for small children and a dog-friendly event. Things like that.
NIPPERTOWN: You also have another business?
ARTCENTRIC: Yes, the store also serves as the business office for ART Photography, which is my wedding photography business. One of the storefront windows is all weddings all the time, while the other window represents the store and the gallery.
NIPPERTOWN: Do you have regular days/hours that the shop is open?
ARTCENTRIC: I am still working that out, because weddings make some Saturdays and Friday evenings out of the question for me. But in general, it looks like Wednesday (11-5), Thursday (11-4), Friday (11-6 or as late as people come in), Saturday (11-6) and Sunday (11-3 or later). I’m leaving the weekly hours on the answering machine (272-4ART), so people can call to check.
NIPPERTOWN: Well, thanks for chatting with us and good luck to you in your new venue. It’s great to have a new art space in Nippertown.
ARTCENTRIC: Thanks. I want this to be a living artist space, with new work and active artists always keeping things interesting.
ARTCENTRIC GIFT GALLERY
95 4th St., Troy, NY
info@artcentricgiftgallery.com
518.272.4ART
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