Students at Champlin Park High School have been studying the work of Jonathan Thunder, an artist and member of the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe, as a part of the English 11 curriculum.
The IB curriculum at CPHS fulfills the state requirements of celebrating the works and voices of the Anishinabe people, where students study both non-literary bodies of work and literary works concerning common themes. Thunder’s work is rich with symbolism and allusions to tribal and Western pop culture.
The dates of Alphamarine Photography’s spring 2024 Red Sea photography workshop have been announced.
The event will be held from March 12 through March 19, 2024, and will be hosted at the Red Sea Diving Safari’s Marsa Shagra Village.
During the event, there will be eight classroom presentations hosted by acclaimed underwater photographers Phil and Anne Medcalf. Between them, they have over 50 years of diving experience and have been taking underwater images for over 30 years.
The classroom sessions will cover different aspects and technical knowledge of underwater photography, including:
Aside from the 45-minute talks, both Phil and Anne will be on hand for the eight days to field questions. In addition, they will give every workshop attendee at least one hour of one-on-one time.
You can find out more information about Alphamarine Photography here and Red Sea Diving Safari here.
Instant film photography has existed as a medium for over 80 years and is as revered today as it was upon its inception. Edwin Land founded Polaroid in 1937, originally creating ski goggles and 3D glasses for the United States military. A simple question from his daughter about why she couldn’t see a photograph of herself immediately sparked an idea within Land. In 1947, Polaroid released the first instant camera, and changed film photography as we know it with the release of the Polaroid SX-70 camera in 1972.
Polaroid was an essential tool and inspiration for numerous artists such as Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Keith Haring. These artists took Polaroid and instant film to new heights, cementing its cultural impact throughout the 1970s and well into the new millennium. In the words of Edwin Land, “An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.” The rise of digital photography may have weakened Polaroid’s grip on the industry, but not on the hearts and minds of the photographic community.
Instant film continues to provide tangible evidence of fleeting moments, creating time capsules for our most treasured memories. It combines artistry and chemistry, to produce striking imagery that develops right in front of our eyes. Even though we know how the trick is done, we’re still delighted by its magic.
The photographers we’ve selected showcase the full spectrum of possibilities that instant film provides. While some have advanced degrees in photography or decades of experience in the field, others have only recently discovered (or rediscovered) the wonders of instant film. Their work ranges from traditional portraits and landscapes to experimental techniques and alternative processes. These trailblazing artists are continuing a long history of innovation and creativity that is synonymous with instant film.
The Instant Film Society would not exist without a deep-rooted love and reverence for instant film, but more importantly, it would not exist without the instant film community. Our goal is to continue to highlight not just the 20 photographers we’ve selected, but the instant film community as a whole. Whether you’ve attended PolaCon in person, or follow us online, the Instant Film Society is open to all instant film enthusiasts across the globe. And with that, please enjoy our list of 20 Instant Film Photographers You Need To Know In 2024.
-John Munoz of Instant Film Society
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“People are still afraid of how to navigate India. They think we are still going around on elephants,” says Aparajita Jain, co-owner and director of the country’s leading contemporary gallery, Nature Morte. The petite and punchy gallerist is on a mission to communicate the value of India’s contemporary culture to the rest of the world, as well as to the country’s sceptical public.
The opportunity is pertinent now that the country is going through an economic boom which spills on to its art market. At auction, India’s 20th-century artists, including FN Souza and MF Husain, are reaching new heights, while the contemporary art scene is expanding beyond Delhi, including to the aspirational upper-middle classes in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai. The renewed appetite for art comes as analysts forecast India’s economy will grow fastest in the world in 2024 and take Japan’s spot as the second largest in Asia after China by 2030.
Jain is in the thick of the activity. When we meet, it is during February’s buzzy 15th edition of the India Art Fair, at which Nature Morte sold the bulk of its booth, including a sculpture by Delhi-based international hero Subodh Gupta for €250,000. Down the road, in South Delhi’s hip Dhan Mill shopping area, the gallery opened an exhibition of new work by Polish-German rising star Alicja Kwade (until March 3). The previous month, Jain opened a Nature Morte outpost in Mumbai, in the Colaba gallery district, with a Gupta show (until March 9).
The gallerist is conscious that there are plenty of people who feel left behind — economically and culturally — while the good times roll for some under a populist government. “Artists here can start out extremely poor — I know of one who needed to sell their laptop in order to eat. So they are forced out of opportunities and need to be particularly strong-minded to get noticed and to succeed,” she says.
This was part of the thinking behind the Saat Saath Arts Foundation, a non-profit that she founded in 2010 to help educate the rest of the world about India’s art scene. Among its initiatives is a grant for international — mostly North American — museum curators to come to the country on an open-ended research trip.
Jain recognises too that barriers to contemporary art extend to India’s public. “People here know in their bones India’s traditional decorative objects but today’s art can make them feel belittled, which you never want,” she says. “In India, every day can be quite hard, so when people have time to pause, you don’t want to make it more difficult for them.”
She is open about her own relative wealth in India’s stratified society: “I was born to a privileged family and married into a privileged family.” Her father’s family are in the glassware industry (he is chair of Borosil, which they bought in 1988), and her husband, who used to run a chain of restaurants, now manages a family office. “I haven’t had to worry about the everyday,” she says. Such privilege means “I was brought up to believe in philanthropy and can take risks.”
One of these is the recently opened sculpture park in Jaipur’s 19th-century Madhavendra Palace within the 17th-century Nahargarh Fort. The indoor and outdoor showing, which runs for the best part of a year, opened its latest edition — its fourth since 2018 — at the end of January. The majority of this year’s 12 artists are from India, including Megha Joshi, who has made an installation out of incense sticks, and Nandan Ghiya, whose assemblage of recycled furniture and architecture refers to the wall paintings in the palace, exploring the impact of India’s booming property market on its architectural heritage. Kwade provides the centrepiece to the exhibition, with a steel-framed sculpture that mirrors its surroundings. Entry to the site is capped at the government’s fee of Rs50 (about 50p) for visitors from India.
The sculpture park is curated by Peter Nagy, Jain’s partner at Nature Morte. She bought a controlling interest in his gallery in 2012, having run her own platform for emerging artists before then, and of their working relationship says: “I’m instructive, he’s theoretical.”
Their Madhavendra Palace project — a collaboration between Jain’s foundation and the government of Rajasthan, with individual gallery support for their artists’ installations — encapsulates the reliance on the private sector that dominates India’s cultural scene, which has limited government support. Prominent collector-patrons in New Delhi include Kiran Nadar, whose private museum is set for a major expansion in 2026, and Shalini Passi, who runs her own foundation.
Jain is pragmatic about the dynamic. “Big change can happen from individuals with the force of their wealth. That’s not a bad thing,” she says. “The government needs to spend money on infrastructure, that’s the first need.” Being in New Delhi, where India’s government sits, means she too can be part of discussions around policy for the arts, Jain says.
She seems tireless in her activity though describes the art market as a “hamster wheel”. Events for the gallery after the India Art Fair this year include Art Dubai, the Armory and Frieze London, as well as the usual run of exhibition openings in both New Delhi and Mumbai. But now is not the time to stop. “Moments like this don’t wait,” Jain says. She recalls that India’s art market experienced a similar surge just before the global economic crash of 2007-08, which devastated the contemporary art scene. Lessons have been learnt along the way. “Buyers are more collectors and less speculators now,” she believes.
The market’s protagonists, including Jain, also seem more focused on the longer term than in the headier days of Bric economy optimism. Jain is clearly benefiting today but has a broader view of her role within the ecosystem: “There is a lift-off that happens when we expose the next generation to art — they start window shopping and then grow in confidence.”
I turned 37 this month, and I often look around at the world of photography while trying to reinforce that what we do is art. With the way that technology changes so quickly, most people associate photography with content instead of art. That’s because of our failing arts education system worldwide — which does a terrible job of showing people how it can be art. And one of the best ways to do it is to show off more prints. Prints aren’t necessarily treated like a random swipe through a portfolio on Instagram, they’re often looked at with more revereance. The book Jamel Shabazz: Albums, bring the dream to life.
This is a book of albums he carried around with him and showed to the people he’s photographed. It’s something that he’d show people as he went around taking portraits. “With all due respect, I’m a photographer. When I look at you and your crew, I see greatness. If you don’t mind, I’d like to take your photograph.” And then he’d whip out albums to show his prints like a portfolio.
Jamel Shabazz: Albums is, quite literally, scans of those albums.
“Shabazz may describe himself as an alchemist. But to that I’d add a dreamer.”
A line by Deborah Willis
The book also details how te would teach conflict resolution using a chessboard. And he’d get people to trust him with orange juice and some bananas. It’s all just a testament to how great the man is.
Within the book itself, photographers will find albums of photos of West Germany and Rikers Island. It’s fascinating to think that he was able to do work like this. The images are understated in that very few other people were able to do work like this. Artistically, the images don’t lend themselves to technical excellence – but instead to human excellence. And often, that’s the more difficult thing to do.
Page through the book, and you’ll realize that you often need to rotate it and interact with it the way you would with an actual photo album. I love this fact. Unlike actual photo albums, the images aren’t covered and sleeved. Instead, it’s made on real paper. The paper has a bit of sheen, but not enough to be annoying. The paper feels like a textbook — thought it’s actually worth the price of what it costs instead of being majorly inflated like textbooks often are.
You’re supposed to sit and look at the photographs. And I like that the book is so interactive. Very few photo books make me want to cry, but this one is holistically excellent. Images aren’t split down the middle, and instead you need to physically really interact with the book to make it feel more special.
Jamel Shabazz: Albums is a book that every portrait photographer should consider getting — and that every photographer should have on their shelf. There hasn’t been a book like this that really makes you interact with the medium to see the images for what they really are. And if anything, it should inspire you to make your own album of prints to bring around and show people when you can.
Jamel Shabazz: Albums receives five out of five stars from us, and an Editor’s Choice award as well. Pick up a hardcopy from Amazon.
