With his current retrospective, Paul Pfeiffer: Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom, at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles–he exposes the manipulation behind popular imagery to poke holes in our systems of veneration and objectification.
Jim Reed moved to Caledonia for a year — that was eight years ago now.
Reed was working with another director, Jon Amiel, who has directed movie hits like “Sommersby” with Jodie Foster and Richard Gere. But then as had happened several times before, life intervened. “April 19 — an event called Columbine happened. In short, it shut us down and the director put it on hold. The producer, Norman Jewison, who has done Moonstruck and Fiddler on the Roof (and who passed away in January of 2024) said we got caught in development hell.”
Photographer Jim Reed with his golden retriever Sawyer in front of his storm chaser vehicle.
Cover of extreme weather photographer Jim Reed’s book, “Storm Chaser: A Photographer’s Journey” (Paperback, Harry N Abrams, May 2009). Video frame grab by Robin Lorenson.
Photography can be a great way to capture special memories and show off artistic creations. However, whether you’re a professional photographer or an amateur, you need to be aware of legal and safety considerations when choosing the perfect location for your photos.
In New York, there is a spot where a lot of people love to snap photos, particularly during graduation season, but taking photos there is actually illegal and can very serious consequences.
Railroad tracks, whether abandoned or in use, are considered private property owned by the railroad companies. It is illegal to take photos on railroad tracks without proper permission or authorization.
Trespassing on these tracks poses a significant legal risk, as it violates both federal and state laws. Being unaware of this law or assuming that abandoned tracks are fair game does not excuse photographers from the potential legal ramifications.
Aside from possible legal consequences, taking photos on railroad tracks also poses serious safety hazards. Trains often travel at high speeds and require a considerable distance to come to a stop. Even if a photographer can hear an approaching train or observe gates coming down, the speed and weight of a train make it difficult to avoid a tragedy in case of an emergency. Trains can come from either direction, as railcars can push the locomotive instead of the other way around.
Choosing to take photos on railroad tracks not only puts your life and the lives of others in danger but it can put the lives of people operating the tracks at risk. Potential accidents on the tracks can also disrupt train schedules, cause derailments, or lead to chemical spills with consequences that are far-reaching.
These are 29 of the most common birds found in New York.
Gallery Credit: Traci Taylor
While there is always room for “favorite foods”, new additions, and change-ups, the following food items are a good representative sample of what you can expect at the typical gradation party.
Gallery Credit: Steve Tanko
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At the age of 27, Ghanaian collector Joseph Awuah-Darko already has many strings to his bow. He is also a practicing artist, musician, writer, curator and entrepreneur, and his self-described “precocious attitude” has helped him pushed the envelope of what it means to be a patron of the arts in the nascent and decidedly grassroots art scene of Accra. Among the new generation of African collectors on the continent, he is a leading figure that bridges disciplines and demographics.
“I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t come from a family that collects art,” Awuah-Darko said. “I was something of an outsider.” Born in London in 1996, to an influential family of Ghanaian financiers, he relocated to Africa with his parents when he was a child and now lives and works in Accra, while also maintaining a home in the British capital.
A defining moment that set him on his path to joining the art world happened while he was studying at Ashesi University, in Accra, in 2016. The award-winning Belgian-Beninese photographer Fabrice Monteiro paid a visit to the school, seeking volunteers to assist in one of his elaborate photoshoots at Agbogbloshie—once the largest e-waste dump in Africa—where he repurposed discarded electronics into high fashion concepts. “I was very, very keen to be involved,” Awuah-Darko said. “That was the start of my journey into creating work in the art world.”
A detail of the tapestry Chief Justice (2018) by Zimbabwean artist Moffat Takadiwa, made from discarded computer keys, from Joseph Awuah-Darko’s private collection. Courtesy of the Institute Museum of Ghana.
The experience led him to set up the Agbogblo.Shine Initiative a year later. This enterprise turns discarded electronics into high-end furniture, while offering training to scrapyard workers to promote safety and new forms of craftsmanship. Awuah-Darko also created a series of sculptures born from the dump’s detritus, which were shown at Gallery 1957’s space in Accra in 2019. It is no wonder he is drawn to the work of artists who show a similar dedication to circular economy and social change, including Attukwei Clottey, Ibrahim Mahama, and Moffat Takadiwa.
In fact, Awuah-Darko’s position as a reigning tastemaker within Accra’s art ecosystem has grown organically through his friendships with other artists. This has also led him to build a collection rich in the works of Ghanaian art stars, such as Serge Attukwei Clottey and Gideon Appah. His influence has also garnered attention on the wider world stage, including a name-check in Forbes Africa’s “30 Under 30” list in 2019, where he was celebrated both as an artist and the managing director of the African Modern Art Fund.
In 2020, Awuah-Darko embarked on his biggest project yet: founding the Noldor Residency and Museum Institute of Ghana, housed in an old pharmaceutical factory in Accra’s seaside neighborhood of Labadi. This initiative supports emerging artists from the African continent and its diaspora with studio space and exhibitions, as well as inviting more established individuals on a range of fellowships.
“I really want African artists to be able to create work and build careers without ever having to travel abroad,” Awuah-Darko explained, which is no mean feat considering the complete lack of public funding for the visual arts in Ghana. “When we think of amazing artists such as Amoako Boafo and Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, there is a sense that they had to become diasporan to further their careers, before coming back.”
Installation view of “Think Pink, Go West” by Noldor alumnus Samuel Olayombo at the Institute Museum of Ghana (March 24–June 24, 2023). Courtesy of the Institute Museum of Ghana.
The residency was inspired in part by the legacy of Peggy Guggenheim, who Awuah-Darko said “supported artists in a very unique and meaningful way.” He sees this as being a conduit that connects artists with galleries and cultivates opportunities, to help further their careers. Among the success stories, he points to Noldor alumni such as Maku Azu, who has exhibited at Peres Projects in Berlin, and Youssra Raouchi, who has been shortlisted for the 2024 Norval Sovereign African Art Prize.
Today, Awuah-Darko is one of the most active members of a wider network of artists and innovators who are creating the change they want to see in the city. “Labadi has really become something of an arts district now,” he explained. “We have Serge Attukwei Clottey’s incredible studio, Ablade Glover’s Artists Alliance Gallery, Amoako Boafo’s dot.ateliers, the Dikan Center, which is one of the largest photography libraries in Africa—the list goes on!”
Despite the success of these artist-run initiatives, contemporary art collecting is still at an embryonic stage in Ghana, Awuah-Darko added. “On the continent, very few people collect African art on the scale that it is done in the west, with the unique exception of Nigeria, which has a very big collecting class along with art fairs such as Art X Lagos,” he explained. “I’d say I’m one of the only Ghanaians living in and collecting in Ghana—but that is starting to change.”
A fashion show by Ajabeng held at the pavilion courtyard of the Noldor Residency, founded by Awuah-Darko in 2020. Courtesy of the Institute Museum of Ghana.
A positive force when it comes to democratizing and demystifying the process of buying art is the proliferation of art marketplace apps, Awuah-Darko said, which “can be really transparent regarding price points and budget ranges.” He also praised the power of Instagram, which he said was invaluable when he was starting out. “Social media is a powerful tool when it comes to discovering artists. You can get a sense of a body of work, or a creative trajectory, very quickly.”
While the digital sphere has certainly aided his networking and research, Awuah-Darko professed that nothing beats an in-person studio visit. “It is one of the most enriching parts of being a collector,” he said. “I’ve been to studios in Paris, Dakar, Amsterdam and Lagos, and my dream would be to do some sort of roadshow, where I could conduct a series of visits and discussions which could be broadcast.”
On entering the new year, Awuah-Darko is taking time to reevaluate his collection and plans to focus on gender parity and more textile-based pieces, as well as works on paper. “A lot of glory is given to works on canvas, but drawing is really the genesis of any remarkable idea,” he said. In terms of his latest acquisitions, a favorite is a sculpture by Senegalese ceramicist Seyni Awa Camara, which features a siren. Her totemic terracotta pieces were show in dialogue with paintings by the Kenyan-born British artist Michael Armitage at White Cube in London in 2022.
Walk In Gardens (2023) by Youssra Raouchi, an alumna of the Noldor Residency who has been shortlisted for the 2024 Norval Sovereign African Art Prize. Courtesy of the Institute Museum of Ghana.
Awuah-Darko also predicts a move away from the dominance of figurative painting. “It has had a really explosive moment over the past few years and I think there will be something of a correction,” he said. “There have been a lot of artists playing the imitation game, which had led to a saturation of this kind of work. Collectors aren’t mindless. The work really needs to speak to more than just bodies on bodies, or a Black person painting another Black person. It has to move beyond that.”
With all this activity, Awuah-Darko sees his chosen home city as poised to become a bigger hub. “Accra is going through a period of awakening and resurgence,” he said. “The blossoming of residency programs and artist-led initiatives is creating an environment with the capacity for collecting to happen.”
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Michael Hurt, right, poses with photographer and performance artist @9minuite in an alley of downtown Seoul after an RAS Korea lecture, April 9. Courtesy of Bereket Alemayehu
What’s the connection between ethnographic photography and feminist discourse in Korea? Perhaps the best scholar to address that question is Michael W. Hurt, PhD, an ethnographic photographer and professor whose artistic journey intertwines academia, cultural exploration and what he calls “screen feminism.”
With decades of experience capturing the essence of youth culture, street fashion and digital subcultures through the lens of ethnographic photography, he gave an interesting lecture to Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) Korea on the topic, titled “Jessi, Screen Feminism, and the Artistic Practice of Korean Instagram Models,” on April 9 at FastFive Tower near Seoul City Hall.
His passion for documentary photography in spending 23 years doing visual fieldwork merged with his academic interests, resulting in research on digital subcultures and the intersection of fashion and identity in Seoul, evolved into an ethnography study.
“I started doing pure street fashion, especially in Korea, in 2002. A lot of people call my street photography a waste of time. Technically that was true, because I was supposed to be doing my dissertation. And I wasn’t doing it. I didn’t finish my dissertation from 2002 when I was supposed to finish it the next year — I didn’t finish it until 2015. I began to take photography more seriously along the road to being an academic. And that photography influenced my methodology and direction. And what I realized later is that even my documentary street photography, back in 2002, was deeply ethnographic. But I realized it was just a piece of the longest possible period of fieldwork that any person does. So I spent 12 years doing visual fieldwork — I like to think of it that way,” he said.
“I’ve been interested in consumption, identity and consumption as identity. And this started by simply observing people in the streets of Seoul. So my interest in ethnographic photography, a kind of anthropological people photography, has remained, I think, a constant through my work.”
One of Hurt’s main inquiries lies in his focus on Korea’s street fashion hyperculture, a realm filled with artistic expression and social commentary. He has had an increasing interest in how women were busy being women and was documenting moments of what Judith Butler calls “gender performativity.”
Rather than taking pictures of random strangers in public, he started posing people for portraits and began using models later.
“So pretty soon both my photographic and ethnographic interaction techniques were getting better and started to gel,” he said.
Through his camera lens and academic research, he investigates emergent digital subcultures, shedding light on diverse topics such as the political economy of the “pay model” on Instagram, Seoul’s drag underground and the youth-centric LGBTQ movement in Korea.
“So by this time I’m doing what I now call photo sartorial elicitation; these photo sartorial techniques are popular in anthropology. Photo elicitation is a technique where you take a picture, show it to whoever your informant is and ask what does this picture make you feel when you look at yourself in the picture. And then you elicit social information; it’s sort of like an interview. However, I use photo sartorial elicitation to talk about eliciting social data by focusing our interaction around clothing. This is not different really from how an interview is used by social investigators,” he said.
In his exploration of Korea’s Instagram culture, Hurt revealed some stories of artistic production intertwined with feminist traces. He asserts the limitations of Western feminism that tend to manifest as overtly political, with its characteristics of public demonstrations, marches and political action, whereas Korean feminism advocates for more subtle shades of understanding of feminist expressions within deep digital spaces, by engaging in what he terms “screen feminism.” These individuals harness the power of digital platforms to challenge societal norms and redefine notions of femininity. As he highlighted, they must operate under semiotic cover, using the plausible deniability of the “bukae,” sub-character or alter ego, in the name of art to not be accused of being Western-style feminists.
“In terms of a Korean feminist movement, you might not necessarily see it manifest as, ‘We want our rights,’ and go out to the streets and do that in (a) Western feminism (way), but it may manifest in a different subtextual way. What I’d like to point out here is that my photography is a key to access. And it’s a reason to interact with these people. My Seoul Street Studios identity helps me interact with, honestly, a lot of other Instagram models. So I argue that this kind of identity diffraction across Korea, a lot of young people have not just one or two but several Instagram accounts,” he said. “One of the dominant features of mobile media is how it further fetishizes the analogue by way of its obsession with modes of realism. That kind of applies to this game. Camera phone practices, as an extension of photography and snapshots, are about performing normalcy. However, because of the distributive and network logic of mobile phones, one is now left to contextualize these renowned shots and render them newsworthy and relevant to the receiver. That all seems to be relevant and interesting at this point.”
Hurt received his doctorate from UC Berkeley’s Department of Comparative Ethnic Studies. He also started Korea’s first street fashion blog in 2006 and published the first English-language book about Korean fashion in 2009. He researches youth, street fashion and digital subcultures in Seoul while lecturing on cultural theory and art history at the Korea National University of Arts. He was the first researcher to focus on Korea’s street fashion hyperculture and has been shooting and publishing about it since 2007. He also does cultural consulting on Korea for companies from Google to Pinterest, from P&G to Meta, and continues such research that coheres around his ethnographic photography.
Bereket Alemayehu is an Ethiopian photo artist, social activist and writer based in Seoul. He’s also co-founder of Hanokers, a refugee-led social initiative, and freelance contributor for Pressenza Press Agency.
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Kolyn Cruz, a senior at Daviess County High School, got into photography as an eighth grader after being intrigued by the look of cameras.
“I got into photography because I thought cameras looked cool,” Cruz said.
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