Gaslamp’s first Native-owned business

Oct 6, 2023 By Admin in Native

For the first time in Gaslamp history, a small business is owned and operated by a Native American. Ruth-Ann Thorn, a member of the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians, celebrated the opening of Exclusive Collections gallery on Sept. 15. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by several council members, from tribes and the city alike.

ribbon cutting — Ruth-Ann Thorn (center) cheers after the ribbon is cut with Council member Stephen Whitburn to the left. (Photos by Drew Sitton)

“It’s my great honor and privilege to be here opening a gallery in the historic Gaslamp, in a place where at one time we were not allowed to step foot into this region— and we’ve come a long way,” Thorn told a crowd of supporters.

Sycuan acquired the U.S. Grant Hotel in 2003 but since it is operated by the Marriott, Thorn is the first Native operator for a small business in the area.

“This is not a win just for me or for this gallery. It’s a win for all Native people,” Thorn said.

Thorn has operated many art galleries across the region since her first gallery opened in La Jolla in 1998. At one point, she was operating multiple locations at once before choosing to downsize so she could focus on moving to the reservation to serve her people and care for her dad. Her one remaining gallery was in Solana Beach, but for the last five years she has looked for places in the Gaslamp where she believes exposure will help sell the eclectic art from world-renowned artists that fill her collection. It was this spring that she found an available location and moved in.

“Gaslamp is the hub of San Diego,” Thorn explained in an interview. “It just felt like that would be a really great place to be able to interact with people from all over San Diego and then all over the world.”

City councilman Stephen Whitburn thanked Thorn for seeing the potential of the neighborhood.

“I really appreciate your investing in the Gaslamp,” Whitburn said. “I think you’re gonna find this to be a very successful business as we continue to have more and more people patronize in this area. So on behalf of the City of San Diego, it’s taken too long, but welcome to Downtown San Diego.”

Thorn shared the history of Indigenous people not being allowed in Downtown public spaces for many years. “There were signs posted saying, ‘Indians: $25 a head. Dead or Alive.’”

California’s 1850 Act for the Governance and Protection of Indians allowed for any Native person deemed a ‘vagrant’ to be pressed into indentured servitude and sold at a public auction as well as the sanctioned kidnapping of Native children.

Reservations were created around this time that Jamul Indian Village Chairwoman Erica Pinto described as unbuildable without economic opportunities.

“Welcome back to your land,” Pinto declared.

The Native people who remained near Downtown for jobs largely resided in a village led by Florida Canyon Kumeyaay Band until the village was demolished to make way for the creation of Balboa Park ahead of the 1915 California-Panama Exposition. It was still many years before Native Americans were allowed to open businesses.

“I’m standing here with a tribal member who is opening her own business. Who thought I’d live to see that? Many wonders of the world that I have witnessed. I have seen women empowered. Seen my people empowered. That’s the biggest goal of all,” said Rincon Council woman Laurie Gonzalez.

The gallery is located in one of the oldest structures in the Gaslamp. The one-story brick building at 621 Fifth Ave. in Victorian commercial style architecture was built around 1880 as the Combination Store, according to Gaslamp historian Sandee Wilhoit.

“The building I’m in right now was the very first mercantile in the Gaslamp… the very first store in San Diego ever created,” Thorn said. “I think it’s kind of funny that I’m in that store now doing business as a Native.”

The gallery is host to a variety of artists from Thorn’s own mother Gloria Lee, who is a top seller, to rock n’ roll artist Stickman, who will appear live at the gallery on Oct. 6th and 7th to showcase his music-based visual art.

“I’m Native American, but I think my personal philosophy on art and just on living is that everybody is invited,” Thorn said. “We we were trading with people from all over the world for 23,000 years. So my feeling is if you go into the gallery, you’ll notice there is such a vast variety of art. And I do that purposely.”

She is one of the few gallerists in the world allowed to sell Dr. Seuss art. Tom Everhart’s Snoopy art is also in the collection. Thorn highlights a few native artists, Lee, Jason Salazar and Votan Henriquez among them, with central placement.

Not all items are limited to flat canvases. Steve Barton’s wavy frames with ocean scenes, Nic McGuire’s glass art, and Paul Lotz’ fantasy sculptures are also included.

“Art is for everyone,” Thorn declared, inviting people to walk through the gallery or attend special events.

Exclusive Collections is open from 1 to 9 p.m. each day. Call (619) 756-8996 for more information or visit ecgallery.com.

Should You Join a Photography Club?

Oct 6, 2023 By Admin in Photography

As a photographer, you are probably a participant in a number of online groups or forums that discuss photography. But have you considered joining your local photography club? Let’s look at the value of joining one!

Online communities are a great way to talk about photography on your schedule. Communities like Fstoppers bring current news, events, and photography-related releases with the speed we are used to with the internet while providing a place to share images and engage in discussion within article comments. However, local photography clubs also bring tremendous value to photographers of all types and skill levels.

This article is in the context of my local photography club, but my local group does several things very well and are things you can look for in your own local club. Or, even use the ideas here to start your own local photography club in your area!

Local Opportunities

While it is fun to share our images online, there is something even better about sharing your work in print for display in public. Photography clubs can be an excellent way to learn about local opportunities to display your work. Sometimes, it is an open call for a juried show in a local gallery, and other times, the club will put together a proposal to share the club’s work at a community gallery.

Being a photography club member has helped me be more aware of local galleries, open calls, and participating in group showings than I would have otherwise. In addition, this has helped me learn more about what work people select for open calls to help me tailor what I present for consideration, even for opportunities outside the group.

Image Critique

My local photography club has an image critique section of the meeting. Members of the club are invited to share up to three images that are presented and open to critique from the other members. Often, there is a monthly theme – for example, dappled light, reflections, or some different theme – a challenge of sorts.

The level of critique varies depending on the person presenting their work, as a wide range of skill levels are at the meeting. Some simply want to share images, some want a softer critique, and others request critical analyses – all reviews are welcome.

Beyond having my own images critiqued, I also appreciate the moment to view other photos and think about what works in the image or doesn’t work and then immediately hear other people’s thoughts on images in real-time during the meeting.

Looking at other photographic works and participating in the critique helps strengthen my images over time.

Share Your Knowledge

The skill levels vary at my local photography club, from beginner to advanced. But small sections of each meeting are dedicated to “Through the Lens” talks, short 15-minute introductions to various topics from other members in the club. This could be lighting, tripod selection, basic editing processes, and more.

This often shows a different way to do things or think about things that a photographer might not have considered. Even though I consider myself well-versed in editing in Lightroom and Photoshop, seeing how someone else does it sometimes reveals a new technique I can adopt in my own work.

These “Through the Lens” talks also offer the opportunity for members of the club to practice their speaking and instruction skills. Preparing to talk about a topic often helps you learn even more about the subject to present it well.

I have presented several topics to the club over the years and have appreciated the experience it has given me.

Join Your Local Photography Club

These are just a few of the things my local photography club offers that I find valuable. Online communities are great, but meeting local people who participate in the same hobby and activity you do helps make even stronger connections in your community.

Are you a member of a local photography club? How has your experience been?

Modernity Finds Shelter Within Tadao Ando’s The Shinmonzen

Oct 6, 2023 By Admin in Design

Kyoto is not lacking for serene inns within the city’s historical neighborhoods, in sum emphasizing the city’s eminence as a crafts, arts, and design capital. Walking around Kyoto’s historic Shinmonzen Street in the Gion arts district, it’s easy to believe time passes with a more leisurely gait here along the area’s beautifully preserved buildings. The Shinmonzen distinguishes itself from the numerous traditionally designed machiya townhouses and ryokan inns lining the gentle flow of the Shirakawa River. Not openly so, as the hotel’s front facing architecture of dark latticed timber and kawara tile roofline presents a distinguished weathered simplicity. But inside is harbored the architectural imprint of architect Tadao Ando and interior designer Rémi Tessier, sure to delight the design-minded in its contrast.

A black noren curtain adorned with a calligraphic white ‘S’ on the right side The Shinmonzen’s entrance welcomes guests into what at first seems like an old traditional Japanese ryokan.

The luxury boutique hotel takes its name from ‘Shinmonzen-dori,’ or The Street of the Artists, Fine Arts and Antique shops, situated in a picturesque section of Gion Shirakawa and Shinmonzen Street where weeping willows and cherry trees draw sakura aficionados every spring to admire the blooms against the backdrop of traditional narrow fronted merchant houses.

Despite its aged outer appearance, The Shinmonzen is a contemporary creation inside and out. The passion project of Paddy McKillen, the Irish hotelier was able to convince Ando to reintepret the ryokan, or traditional Japanese inn, into a harmonious balance between yesterday and today, Japanese and European, austerity and comfort. Thus, Ando’s exterior blends into the surrounding architectural landscape with convincing detail, with its contemporary nature only revealed on closer inspection, and more visibly noticeable upon entry.

A long narrow concrete corridor lined in light and wood paneling, ending in a framed piece of artwork.

A rotating collection of contemporary artworks are displayed with dramatic placement within corridors and also embellishing guest rooms, reflecting The Shinmonzen’s owner “Paddy-san’s” love of contemporary and architecture.

The hotel’s nine suites are each unique, each accented by a different material endemic to Japan, and furnished with an amalgamation of items sourced from the local vernacular paired with contemporary European designs.

Tatami floors underfoot and capacious cypress soaking tubs reference traditional Japanese interiors, contrasted by spans of marble counters and handwoven carpets of European styling.

Side view of a king sized mattress with narrow horizontal running about 2/3s up from a carpet covered floor. A medium sized framed artwork hangs above the window on white walls.

Tranquility is further enhanced by the integration of “toko-no-ma” – literally “empty space,” a defining architectural trait of traditional Japanese sitting rooms.

Rooms range in size from the 430-square-foot WASHI suite with king-sized bed to the 860-square-foot KINU furnished with side-by-side twin size futons, marble double vanity bathroom, and an enormous walk-in closet.

A serene simplicity runs through each of the suite’s organically expressed interiors, all quietly occupied by Toan Nguyen’s curving armchairs and softened by Japanese textile maker Kawashima Selkon’s hand-woven carpets.

Two seat table situated on a balcony overlooking the Shirakawa River in Kyoto. Traditional Japanese townhomes are visible in the background alongside a small auto bridge over the river.

Balconies overlooking the Shirakawa River afford guests an intimate, yet semi-private place of their own to take in the sights and sounds of Gionʼs buzzing alleys and cobbled streets.

French, American, and Asian farm-to-table dining is served daily within the hotel’s restaurant, Jean Georges at the Shinmonzen, including a Japanese-style breakfast punctuated by Kyoto-sourced heirloom vegetables, a vegetarian menu, alongside an omnivore’s delightful 8-course meal.

“During our design process, the goal was to create a space that accommodates the desires of the modern traveler while respecting the tradition and legacy of Kyoto,” says Tadao Ando. “This hotel represents a nuanced fusion of the past, the present, and the future. I believe that it will embody the essence of Kyoto while still appealing to cosmopolitan sensibilities. I hope that everyone who visits will discover the new charm of an age-old city.”

What: The Shinmonzen
Where: 235 Nishino-cho, Shinmonzen-dori, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto 605 0088
How much: Starting from US $1,916/night
Highlights: Tadao Ando’s light hand allows the architecture to quietly complement what the architect describes as “the most beautiful body of water in all of Kyoto.” And with each room assigned its own private balcony, guests are welcome to watch the flow of water and foot traffic in equal comfort.
Design draw: The Shinmonzen’s art collection includes ceramic vessels by Takayuki Watanabe, contemporary artworks by the likes of Damian Hirst, Gerhard Richter, and Louise Bourgeois, with rooms curated by interior designer Rémi Tessier. A 19-minute walk will take you to the Kyoto Museum of Crafts and Design, KYOCERA Museum of Art, and the The National Museum of Modern Art.
Book it: The Shinmonzen

Go virtually on vacation with more design destinations right here.

Gregory Han is a Senior Editor at Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.

Lisa Le Feuvre selects Ayşe Erkmen’s ‘Moss Column’ from Frieze Sculpture 2023

Oct 6, 2023 By Admin in Sculpture

The inaugural Executive Director of Holt/Smithson Foundation pens a poetic response to the artist’s ‘living sculpture’

This Canon lens will level-up your macro photography and it’s at its lowest-ever price

Oct 6, 2023 By Admin in Photography

Canon went all-in when it launched the first macro lens for its RF-mount mirrorless cameras; the Canon RF 100mm F2.8 Macro L IS USM.

This was no mere update of the Canon EF 100mm F2.8 L Macro IS USM lens for Canon’s DSLR cameras. Instead, it realized the true potential of Canon’s mirrorless mount for macro photography, with holistic improvements and a headline feature – it was the world’s first autofocus lens with 1.4x magnification.

Most true macro lenses offer a 1x magnification (or 1:1), which means subjects appear life-size on the camera’s image sensor. The increased magnification in the RF 100mm macro lens can record tiny subjects another 40% larger.

That headline feature is backed up by a radical improvement that Canon’s mirrorless RF system brings to macro photography over its DSLR equivalent; in-body image stabilization, which works with lens stabilization to offer significantly better results.

In-body image stabilization is the difference between being able to ditch the tripod and shoot handheld more freely with moving macro subjects and still get sharp shots, especially when working at such high magnifications. Put simply, a DSLR camera couldn’t easily handle a 1.4x magnification.

Paired with a high-resolution mirrorless camera such as the Canon EOS R5 – which is also at discounted prices in the build up to the Prime Day deals landing next week (see Amazon deal above) – and macro photographers have a winning combination; more detail, sharp detail and closer detail.

The RF 100mm F2.8 Macro is pricier than the old EF-mount equivalent, but it will level-up your macro photography and is now at its lowest-ever price, under $1,000 for the first time in the US, and currently at £1,149 for shoppers in the UK.

Prime Day early deal (US)

Prime Day early deal (UK)

The 100mm focal length is favored by macro photographers because it provides a reasonable working distance from your subjects – important for skittish subjects like insects and butterflies – and gives you a nicely compressed perspective and background, as opposed to a ballooning effect that you get with a wide-angle lens.

This is also a lens that can double up wonderfully for portrait photography, especially given it has another first for Canon; spherical aberration control. This new features allows photographers to further throw the focus and softness of the background or foreground to make subjects stand out even further.

There’s no doubt that the Canon RF 100mm F2.8 Macro IS USM is one of the best Canon RF lenses around and the Canon choice for macro. It’s a dream combination with one of Canon’s full-frame mirrorless cameras that offers fast and near silent autofocus, and is now at its most tempting price ever.

Mind the (shrinking) gap: Paris gains on leading London

Oct 6, 2023 By Admin in Art World News

The international art fair circus is on the move again, testing the relative strengths and weaknesses of the world’s premier cities as places to see, buy and sell serious contemporary art. After Frieze Seoul in September, October’s major stops are the 20th anniversary edition of Frieze London, followed the next week by the second iteration of Paris+ par Art Basel.

For decades, London has been the undisputed capital of Europe’s art market. A year ago, opinions were split on whether the city’s momentum was flagging. But now, seven years on from Britain’s momentous vote to leave the European Union, art market momentum is fixated on Paris, even as international wealth still largely favours London.

The Paris gallery scene is clearly gathering strength. Since Brexit, David Zwirner, Gagosian and White Cube have all opened branches in the City of Light, boosting its primary market. Hauser & Wirth is next; it will debut an imposing four-floor, 400 sq. m gallery there in October. Even cutting-edge British dealer Stuart Shave will expand his gallery, Modern Art, to Paris this month, although the new space will stage only three shows a year and operate by appointment for now.

“I see Paris as the capital of the European art market, or at least its primary market,” says the respected Paris-based dealer Jocelyn Wolff, who is also celebrating his business’s 20th anniversary this year. “We have a bigger local clientele here, and bigger institutions that buy art,” he adds, alluding to the purchasing power of museums like François Pinault’s Bourse de Commerce and the large pool of collectors who spend at least €10,000 a year on art in Paris.

But leading London dealers Pilar Corrias, Stephen Friedman and Alison Jacques are all opening prestigious new spaces in Mayfair during Frieze. Corrias, who represents several international women artists with lengthy waiting lists, says that “the discrepancy in business between London and Paris is still huge”. For her, London is a more “outward-looking” city whose dealerships and institutions attract a “proper international audience”. As for Brexit, she adds: “I don’t see it as a problem at all.”

Shave is sensitive to the nuances in the debate over Europe’s art capital. He agrees with Wolff’s view of the Parisian market, saying: “I love the city and its energy. It has some of the most ambitious private collectors today.” But, like Corrias, he also contends that Brexit “has not discernibly affected sales in London”; it has only disheartened him personally and made his registrars’ jobs more difficult.

Not every sector of the British art trade concurs. In a July filing with Companies House, Sotheby’s blamed the resulting welter of extra taxes, administrative costs and other red tape incurred in Brexit’s aftermath for having “a negative impact on the appeal of selling property in the UK”. The auction house’s profits in Britain fell a bracing 24% in 2022, according to the filing. Sotheby’s plans to inaugurate a new flagship salesroom in Paris in 2024.

Sotheby’s results probably surprise readers of the most recent Art Basel and UBS Art Market report, which ranked the British trade second in the world in 2022. The report found the UK amassed an 18% share of all sales by value, dwarfing the 7% accrued by fourth-place France. Reliable data on private dealer sales remains elusive, making meaningful comparisons between the nations’ art trading difficult. However, these figures reflect the continuing strength of London’s high-end auctions, even during a significant down year for one of the two most consequential sellers.

Energy versus power

So, is London’s auction market losing steam, or is it still the most lucrative in Europe by a comfortable margin? Is Paris’s gallery scene the most energetic around, or is a substantial charge still needed before it becomes the consensus choice for the region’s most powerful? Has Brexit meaningfully diminished returns even for some of London’s top art sellers, or do outside observers tend to overestimate its real costs to the British market overall?

What makes it so difficult to sort London and Paris in the art market hierarchy is that it is possible to answer yes to both sides of every question above without contradicting oneself.

The cities have been moving in opposite directions in the art-fair sector lately. In January, the Swiss-based MCH Group, owner of Art Basel, the organiser of Paris+, announced that it was scrapping London’s upscale Masterpiece fair in June, citing “escalating costs and a decline in the number of international exhibitors”. The Art & Antiques Fair Olympia, held annually since 1972, axed its summer edition later the same month.

Meanwhile, last October’s inaugural edition of Paris+, replacing the long-in-the-tooth FIAC as France’s flagship fair, created positive mood music. Former FIAC stalwart Galerie 1900-2000 sold 10 works priced between €3,000 and €100,000 within the first two hours of the fair. Mega-gallerist David Zwirner, who had previously told the media that Paris had been an underperforming fair venue for him, found a buyer for a Joan Mitchell painting priced at $4.5m en route to $11m in opening-day sales, adding that these were “certainly numbers that we weren’t able to achieve here in Paris in the past”.

Frieze London and Paris+ are of course the centrepieces of much bigger weeks offering high-quality satellite fairs, dealer exhibitions, auctions and museum shows. But more and more market players are behaving as if Paris itself, not just “Paris+ Week”, is a worthier competitor to London than ever.

Heather Flow, a New York-based adviser who specialises in emerging artists, will be visiting Paris with clients in October—but not London. “Paris is a convenient city for the rest of Europe, and it’s more affordable. I’m there not so much for the galleries but for pop-up spaces doing weird stuff,” she says. But what about London? “There are so many barriers that make it difficult to transact,” she adds. “I know more artists who have moved to Paris than London.”

“Sadly, Paris will probably take the place of London,” says Cyril Moumen, the French founder of Gallery Nosco. “It’s easier to deal with the rest of the world in Paris. There are more up-and-coming galleries. It’s a hot spot,” he adds.

Before relocating to Marseille in 2019, Gallery Nosco, which is now based in Brussels, showed international contemporary artists in London for 23 years. “Things became very complicated with shipping and temporary importing,” says Moumen, who will at least return to London for Frieze Week to exhibit at the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair and hold a pop-up show in Great Titchfield Street, Fitzrovia. At last year’s edition of 1-54, Gallery Nosco sold out its stand of impastoed paintings by the French Algerian artist Isabelle.D, priced from £4,000 to £15,000. For a smaller gallerist like Moumen, who says that 70% to 80% of his sales come from art fairs, London still has its occasional uses.

It also has a firm lead among the well-heeled. A huge amount of international money still pauses or resides in London, directly or indirectly underpinning businesses that sell high-value art. According to Statista.com, London currently has 87 billionaire residents, the fifth highest concentration of any global city; Paris has just 49. So it was little surprise that London was the venue for Gustav Klimt’s 1918 portrait Dame mit Fächer (lady with a fan) to set the record for the priciest work of art ever auctioned in Europe, when it sold for £85.3m at Sotheby’s in June.

Europe in flux

Apart from the Klimt record, however, London’s auction dominance has been tempered by signs of a Europe in flux. Eyebrows were raised around Britain when Sotheby’s announced its forthcoming sale of 300 works of contemporary art and design owned by the Manchester-born collector Pauline Karpidas would be held in its Paris auction rooms. A renowned supporter of young artists, Karpidas bought the works for her idyllic home on the Greek island of Hydra, where she entertained names like Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas and Damien Hirst. The material will be offered in an evening and day sale on 30 and 31 October and is expected to raise at least €11m.

A Sotheby’s spokesperson insists red tape and taxes have nothing to do with the house’s choice of sales venue for the Karpidas collection. “Though there are some great British names in that group, the bulk of the value lies in Pauline’s extraordinary collection of Lalanne,” they say, referring to Karpidas’s holdings of the quirky creations of the French designers Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne, whose market pivots on Paris.

Nonetheless, the sight of so much Young British Art being auctioned in the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, opposite the Élysée Palace, will leave many thinking that this is yet another example of Paris’s ongoing Brexit dividend, whose value continues to climb.

Atlanta Celebrates Photography rebrands as Atlanta Center for Photography

Oct 6, 2023 By Admin in Photography

The name Atlanta Celebrates Photography is dead. Long live the Atlanta Center for Photography.

Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, the photography and lens-based media festival is re-inventing itself again.

The nonprofit is smartly rebranding itself as Atlanta Center for Photography without losing any letters of its acronym ACP, becoming officially a “center” for photography. For the first time in its history, the organization will host exhibitions and live events in its own space, a 500 square-foot, street-level “jewel box space,” as its new director, Lindsey O’Connor, describes it. In the past, the nonprofit has ingeniously partnered with art galleries and venues to host its events.

O’Connor was named the organization’s new executive director in July. (Photo by Diwang Valdez)

The new space, named the Atlanta Center for Photography Project Lab, will open October 26 with a solo installation by photography-based artist Kalee Appleton. The Fort Worth, Texas-based artist uses photography, sculpture and drawing to create immersive, digitally manipulated landscapes. The work, according to O’Connor, is representative of the new direction the center wants to embrace — giving lens-based artists a space where they can “take risks, experiment with creative approaches and push the boundaries of the medium’s impact.”

Instead of the organization’s familiar month-long, citywide festival, this year’s programming will be minimal, in part to give time for the new staff to consolidate its new direction. The Atlanta Center for Photography will continue to grow its core programs, including the emerging artist fellowship. Chelsea Mukenya is the 2023 recipient, and her exhibition is on view through October 29 at the Mint gallery.

Fans of the annual festival, portfolio reviews and public art installations will have to wait until next spring. Worth noting is the upcoming exhibition Ghosts of Segregation: Photographs of Rich Frishman, in collaboration with the David J. Sencer CDC Museum. The show opens on October 16 and will feature an artist talk on October 19.

ArtsATL talked recently with O’Connor to learn more about this new chapter and the work in progress.

ArtsATL: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you envision your new position as executive director?

Lindsey O’ Connor: I was previously at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York for six years, working as the biennial coordinator. My role was to coordinate the artists, curators and the museum staff to realize projects. I coordinated the exhibitions and film programs of three biennials in 2017, 2019 and 2022. In that time, the total number of artists from the American South that I worked with was three, maybe five. There were a lot of artists from Puerto Rico, but, from the mainland, the global South, there were very few.

In New York, there’s so much white noise, so much happening in the art world all the time. I felt [coming to Atlanta] was an interesting opportunity to have an impact somewhere else. Here there are a lot of incredible working artists, and interest in and potentially money for the arts; I think we can provide a platform and open up paths of exchange that ultimately will get more artists on a larger platform than just our region.

Atlanta Center for Photography — “Medgar Evers’ Home: Jackson, Mississippi” (2018) (Photo by Rich Frishman)

ArtsATL: This year marks a huge transition for the organization with the opening of a brick-and-mortar space on Edgewood Avenue. What motivated this transformation?

O’Connor: The transition to having a physical space had been discussed with the board and many community members before I was hired as executive director. A lot of interviews were done to take the temperature of different key stakeholders throughout the Atlanta arts community. Everybody agreed that this was the right next step. I think the community felt it was time for the organization to make a shift, make a bigger splash and have a more year-round presence.

ArtsATL: What are the benefits of having your own space?

O’Connor: Many people think of us as just an October festival. This new space will give us the flexibility to not only commission new works from artists living in the South, which is the thrust of our curatorial program, but also to curate public programs and to host lectures and screenings. This will give us a lot more flexibility to create programming on a year-round basis. Our inaugural exhibit is a good example of what we’re trying to do, which is to push the boundaries of the medium and consider the preconceived notions of what the limitations of photography might be. As people who love photography and lens-based media, we don’t want people to feel pigeonholed. So we’re working with artists who are interested in filling a space in a fresh way.

Atlanta Celebrates Photography — The nonprofit’s installation “The FENCE” was a popular attraction for many years on the Atlanta BeltLine.

ArtsATL: Atlanta Center for Photography has this unique DNA in the photo festival world, inviting everybody — artists but also non-professionals and amateurs — to find a venue and to exhibit work. Are we going to lose this democratic aspect of the festival?

O’Connor: We definitely want to keep the community-driven aspect. We plan to condense it into a tighter, more focused, multiday festival in 2024 with keynote speakers, workshops and artist presentations. There will definitely be community programming at organizations all over the city. We still want to do an open call for everybody to get their exhibition, their screening, their talk on a shared calendar. We will still have a rich feeling of collective work and a shared goal.

ArtsATL: Public art was a center point in the years past with “The FENCE,” the Phoenix installation and, last year, Jess T. Duncan’s large-scale photographs exhibited during the Atlanta Pride parade on the windows of the Hyatt Centric in Midtown. Do you have plans for public art this year or next?

O’Connor: We are definitely still interested in our public art activation. Photography lends itself well to public installation, We don’t have any activation planned immediately. I have some ideas, but we need to get the exhibition program up and running and make sure that our core programs are well-considered. Then we will start to fold in more public art activations.

Virginie Kippelen is a photographer, multimedia producer and writer specializing in editorial and documentary projects. She has contributed to ArtsATL’s Art+Design section since 2014, writing mostly about photography. And after living 25 years in the United States, she still has a French accent.

Hero Surfer Rescues Stranded Deer in Ocean

Oct 6, 2023 By Admin in Photography

Credit Adrienne Tully via News 12 NJ – fair use

Rough seas are no place for the uninitiated, and it couldn’t get more uninitiated than a pair of hooves.

From New Jersey comes the story of a Good Samaritan rescuing a deer that had somehow found itself battling the surf off the coast of Belmar.

Adrienne Tully was on the scene taking pictures with a nice camera which she had just picked up again. An amateur photographer, Tully had gone there to snap some shots of the sunset, but spotted the deer attempting to make its way onto a jetty.

At first, she told News 12, she thought it was a bird—and left it at that, but later she spotted a crowd of onlookers coalescing around the sea at 15th Avenue, pointing at the same jetty she had seen the bird on.

That’s when she realized it was a buck, not a bird.

“He was swimming through the ocean and then he decided a couple of times to climb on the jetty and then he went back in the water, and we were a little worried,” said Tully.

After taking a few pictures, the crowd cheered when it saw a friendly surfer pass by and coax the animal out of the confusing, eddying water and toward the shore.

JUST LIKE THIS BUT AUSTRALIA: Rookie Lifeguard Faced With Saving a Kangaroo From Rough Surf in Her First Ever Rescue

“There was a nice surfer, I don’t know his name, but he eventually tried to guide the deer out. The deer came out and then just ran north on the beach, you know, far away from any people and I’m sure he’s fine,” said Tully.

Other surfers said the water was pretty turbulent, and they doubted whether the buck could have made it alone, but unanimously admitted they didn’t know the surfer that rescued it.

News 12 New Jersey is still seeking the identity of the Good Samaritan.

WATCH the story below from News 12…

BUCK UP Your Down Friends With A Nice Story Of Kindness To Animals…

Post-Minimal Legend Lynda Benglis’s Gleaming, Flowing Sculptures Adorned Loewe’s Paris Runway and Were Translated into Accessories

Oct 6, 2023 By Admin in Sculpture

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Couple photograph each other in stunning spots around the world

Oct 6, 2023 By Admin in Photography

By Laura Sharman

Published: 11:24 EDT, 6 October 2023 | Updated: 12:28 EDT, 6 October 2023

They’re selfies, but not as you know them.

Zuzu Galova and Peter Sedlacik have a unique portfolio of photographs taken in stunning locations around the world from New York to Australia via London and Paris, with each shot featuring one half of the couple snapping the other half.

The pair have collated the mesmerising images into a series they call Lens Between Us, explaining: ‘Wherever we are, we face each other, frame up a great composition, and take a picture of each other. The resulting diptychs are creative, well-composed, and whimsical in the best way. The images are part travel photography, part portraiture, and challenging to boot since each shot requires that we figure out not one, but two compositions.’

Rather than posing for the perfect shot, the Slovakian couple, who live in Sydney, said they snap one another in the moment as ‘a tribute to how our focus is always on each other’. But the main benefit is they get to look back at two sides of each destination they visit.

Zuzu tells MailOnline Travel: ‘The idea came when we went on our first holiday together as a couple to Portugal. We were both passionate photographers, always taking pictures and somehow we ended up taking photos of each other at the same time.’

Since then, the couple has amassed dozens of photographs including Zuzu’s favourite in Ningaloo Reef, and Peter’s favourite in Lancelin Dune Sands, both taken during a campervan trip through Western Australia. We discovered the pair’s amazing work in 2017 – scroll down to see the latest spellbinding images in their collection…