Great to see a series of photographs from strobe-master Harold Edgerton this morning at the preview for the High Museum’s new “Art of Golf” exhibition. Also included are a series of photos from aerial photographer Patricia Macdonald, and panoramas from John Yang.

Cathy Fox of ArtsCriticAtl assesses Vivian Maier, whose vintage, black-and-white street work is now viewable at Jackson Fine Art, Lumiere Gallery, and soon, at Serenbe Photography Center. Creative Loafing takes a look, too.

“On the face of it, Vivian Maier led an ordinary, if solitary, existence. A single woman, she worked as a nanny in New York and Chicago and kept to herself. But Maier, who died in 2009 at the age of 83, had a secret passion: photography. A Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex, her constant companion, was the vehicle through which she participated in the multifarious experiences of the two great cities in which she spent most of her life.

And she was good. Damn good.”

Local filmmaker Neal Broffman has been shooting a documentary about Martin Parr. Mr. Parr has been commissioned by the High Museum of Art for its “Picturing the South” series (pdf link), and Mr. Broffman has been traveling with Mr. Parr while shooting.

“It is my hope that this documentary will be an accurate, objective guidepost for this and future generations of young photographers interested in studying the profession in which they have chosen to work. I would like the film to find a venue, in the short term, in film festivals and broadcast (in the US and overseas). And, back in Atlanta, Georgia Public Broadcasting will air the piece in early June.”

Check out the trailer above, and support the project’s completion if you can!

The February 12th deadline for the Open Call for Proposals for ACP’s 2012 Public Art Project is rapidly approaching.

Each year, Atlanta Celebrates Photography commissions a temporary public art project as part of its annual, October photography festival. Our public art program has been featured in the Public Art Review and artists have gone on to show their past ACP projects in international galleries, art fairs, and publications. We are looking for your great idea to expand the way audiences consider, perceive and experience photography and lens-based or light-based media this October. The budget is $9000.

It’s FREE to apply and all applicants must apply through Call For Entry (free to register).

“The Blue Ridge Mountain Photographers would like to invite each of your members to enter our 2012 National Juried Nature and Fine Art Photography Exhibit. Last year more than 150 photographs were selected for display in The Art Center, an historic courthouse in Blue Ridge, Georgia. Our judge this year will be Professor Paul Dunlap of North Georgia College and State University. A total of $2000 in prize money will be awarded. Early deadline is June 1, 2010. Final deadline is July 2, 2012. Detailed information and entry form can be found at www.blueridgemountainphotographers.com or blueridgearts.net.”

The
Atlanta Photography Group has the following exhibits and events coming up:

Current – Feb 18 – The Airport Show Gallery Exhibition
Feb 15 – 7:30PM – Monthly “Speaking of Photography” discussion
Feb 18 – 6:30PM-8PM – The Airport Show Silent Auction Fund Raiser (flyer attached)

All events are held at the APG Gallery – Tula Art Center – 75 Bennett Street, NW, Space B-1, Atlanta, GA, 30309 404-605-0605

Question Bridge: Black Males – Project Trailer from Question Bridge on Vimeo.

“Question Bridge: Black Males is an innovative transmedia art project that facilitates a dialogue between a critical mass of Black men from diverse and contending backgrounds; and creates a platform for them to represent and redefine Black male identity in America.”

From Debbie Michaud’s article in Creative Loafing:

“Directed by artists Chris Johnson and Hank Willis Thomas, in collaboration with Bayeté Ross Smith and Atlanta-based artist and producer Kamal Sinclair, Question Bridge was filmed across America, including Oakland, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Birmingham, Atlanta, New Orleans, and Philadelphia, over the last four years. Beginning Jan. 27, the Chastain Arts Center will host a video installation to exhibit the work. “

RSVP on Facebook

The Working Artist

Congrats to Karen Schacham, whose “Couples” project (which has been exhibited during ACP) has been reimagined and recently won a Fall 2011 grant from Idea Capital. Congrats, Karen!

Atlanta is known as the “gay mecca of the South.” Although the city can be a bubble of acceptance, there are still many inequalities that persist for LGBTQ couples living in Georgia. Over the past two years, Shacham has taken portraits of LGBTQ couples in hopes of reflecting loving relationships within the community. Her goal is to show these portraits to a wider audience.

Shacham will place her photographs in outdoor spaces within neighborhoods surrounding Metro Atlanta. The portraits will be life size, not only to increase visibility, but also to ensure the viewer has the experience that they are sharing something with the couple in the photograph. LGBTQ youth will engage in determining which locations should feature the portraits and will join in putting up the photographs. Finally, this work will be temporary. After the photos are gone, it will remain in people’s minds. It will be up to the viewer to question society’s view of queer couples and wonder about their own role in changing perceptions.

Fall Line Press is opening a bookstore on Saturday, featuring photobooks from small and independent publishers. Swing by and see what’s happening at Fall Line!

Fall Line Press
5-8PM, January 21st
Bookstore Launch Party
1000 Marietta Street, Suite 112
falllinepress.com, phone (404) 885-1080

Join us from 5-8PM, to kick off the Fall Line Bookstore! For the launch party, we will be featuring books from four independent publishing companies of photobooks. Publisher Bill Boling intends to make Fall Line a resource and a community for artists. We hope you come by and see what we’re all about!

(Michael David Murphy, Program Manager of ACP, is also Editor of Fall Line Press.)

“Carr’s photographs and videos confront desire and sexuality as undercurrents in mother-child relations. There are many debates about the emergence of sexuality, but most agree that it is connected at some point with both the early satisfaction of drives (nourishment, elimination) and the infant’s relations with the primary caregiver.”

- Review: Photos and videos in Benita Carr’s “Morning Sun,” at Whitespace, shines light on complexities of motherhood

Photography as Propaganda
Street Talk – Upcoming Exhibition
January 21, 2012 – March 31, 2012
Opening January 21: 10 AM – 4 PM
Gallery Talk: Vivian Maier – 11 AM
Lumière – 425 Peachtree Hills Avenue, Building 5

This final exhibition in the trilogy illustrates photographers’ keen observation of streets, walls, windows and billboards to send messages using words and symbols. Other images, more in the tradition of “street photography”, are included for perspective on an artist’s work. Including the photography of: Wolf Suschitzky, Aaron Siskind, Peter Sekaer, Arnold Newman, Thomas Neff, John Gutmann, Walker Evans, Berenice Abbott and Jules Aaron. It features the newly discovered work of Vivian Maier. She will also be the topic of discussion for a gallery talk at 11 AM January 21st.

Jackson Fine Art has an opening reception for Chip Simone, Todd Murphy & Todd Maier on Friday, January 27th. Please see the embedded press release, below:

Simone Murphy Maier PR

Thanks to Murphy Townsend for sending-in snaps of Julian Cox giving his juror’s lecture at APG this past weekend!

The Portfolio Show at Atlanta Photography Group will be hosting a juror’s talk from Julian Cox, Founding Curator of Photography for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) and Chief Curator at the de Young Museum. The talk is on Saturday at 11am, with coffee and bagels at 10:30!

Drove(s)
Curated by Michael Ross
January 12-February 11, 2012
Opening Reception: January 11, 6-9p.m.
The Southeastern Railway Museum, Duluth, GA

The Southeastern Railway Museum is pleased to present Drove(s), an art exhibition that takes a look at the culture of automobiles, our dependence on them, and their environmental impact.

The culture of automobiles starts with America’s early love affair and the freedom that was promised. The ever-changing design and demands for improved technology in cars led to a relationship of disposability and a desire for the new. These desires and demands throughout the 20th century led to an over abundance of automobiles and a serious impact on the environment.

The automobile and the freedom it promised led to the construction and expansion of our urban centers. Unchecked suburban sprawl now stretches for many miles around every American city with the car being the only possible means of navigating these mazes. Public transportation has become meaningless in an environment designed and built with the automobile in mind. What was once freedom has now become massive traffic jams and a daily mind-numbing drudgery of commuting along parking-lot-highways.

Can this dependence on the automobile and fossil fuels be sustained? How do we change our environments to become more pedestrian and mass-transit friendly while maintaining the freedom of mobility to which we have grown accustomed?

This restored train depot that once sheltered passengers waiting for their train, now functions as an exhibition space, a space that we have driven in our cars to be here to see art. The depot itself is as much a part of the exhibit as the art hanging on its walls.

Artists in the exhibition:
Tim Barnwell
Andrew Bush
Bill Daniel
Veronica de Jesus
Brian Dettmer
John Duckworth
Peter Essick
Walker Evans
John Gutmann
Brian Holcombe
Lauren Hughes
Michael Koehler
Joey Kotting
Christopher McNulty
Rondal Partridge
Ben Roosevelt
Brian St. Cyr
Chip Simone
Mark Steinmetz
Christian Tedeschi
Bruce Wrighton

Image: Brian Holcombe, Kudzu Camino
2006 – 2011
18 x 20 inches
Giclee print
Edition of 6 + 2 artist proofs
Courtesy of the artist and Saltworks Gallery

January 13 – February 18, 2012 – Opening reception: Friday, January 13 | 7 PM – 10 PM

Morning Sun is an evolution in Benita Carr’s work that explores the mother/child relationship and the meaning of self within the domestic social structure of home and family. Constructed as narrative tableaus, the photographs depict women and their children in scenes that evoke emotions of desire, doubt and anxiety.

Carr’s photographs and videos are informed by the ways in which womanhood and motherhood have been seen, understood and lived across time, especially their representation in art, religion, advertising and family pictures. These themes coupled with the style and symbolism of Mid-Victorian images of interiors and feminine subjects inspire her body of work. Moving into video and sound challenges the form of traditional portraiture and allows other layers of meaning and complexity to surface.

photo © Benita Carr, Untitled 1, Digital C-print, 30 x 40 inches

Our Open Call for Proposals for ACP 2012 Public Art is now accepting your creative ideas. We look forward to your proposals exploring the intersection of photography and public art in Atlanta for this year’s Festival!

Our 2012 Public Art Project has a $9,000 budget, and it’s free to apply. It is a requirement that your project involve lens-based or photographic media as an integral part of the piece (this includes images and/or video captured by a lens, or media in which light sensitivity is a primary element of the material, or reimagining the uses of photography, or possibilities of imagery made with light).

We encourage you to think widely and to explore this concept without restraint!

Take a look at ACP Public Art Projects from past years including work from Monica Cook, Karen Brummund, Beth Lilly, McCallum/Tarry, Jason Fulford, Matt Haffner, Amy Landesberg & Peter Bahouth.

This year, you can learn more and submit your proposal via callforentry.org. The application deadline is February 12th. We look forward to seeing your ideas for ACP Public Art!

ACP Public Art Project Call for Entries 2012

“MARY ANNE MITCHELL PHOTO EXHIBIT “POETIC TRANSLATION” OPENS AT ATLANTA’S MASON MURER FINE ART GALLERY FEBRUARY 17 THRU APRIL 1

Photographer Mary Anne Mitchell will exhibit her new series of photographs entitled “Poetic Translation” at the Mason Murer Fine Art gallery in Atlanta beginning Friday, February 17, with a reception for the artist from 7:00pm to 10:00pm. The exhibition, Mitchell’s third at the gallery, runs through Saturday, March 31.

With the “Poetic Translation” exhibition, Mitchell explores the artistic juxtaposition of visual and written expression. In this series, Mitchell was inspired by the writings of 19th and 20th Century poets and writers, including, Louisa May Alcott, Hans Christian Anderson, Samuel Beckett, Lewis Carroll, Emily Dickinson, T.S. Eliot and Edwin Muir, among others.”

Mary Anne Mitchell on Zenfolio
Mary Anne Mitchell on Burn Magazine