Aimless Wanderings, Merji

For a very long time, with my series Diary of the Bled and then with Aimless Wanderings, I created photographic illusions by transforming reality with my camera and my retouching without ever really understanding why, as if the world bored me, as if it was not enough for itself. And then later, I understood in pain that it was linked to a visceral fear of the outside world, which I was trying to avoid by ‘building imaginary worlds for myself, by tending to be elsewhere, to dream’

May 25 (Reuters) – When Eric Gaillard first went to photograph the Cannes Film Festival in 1981, it was a smaller, more intimate affair – the kind of place where you could see the greats from Hollywood’s Golden Age like Lauren Bacall or Ava Gardner wandering alone on the esplanade or having fun on the beach without bodyguards.

Returning for his 40th time, Gaillard finds a different beast – larger, more multicultural, with more restrictions on where photographers can stand to try and get that viral snap or capture that moment when a movie star gets caught off-guard sharing an intimate smile, striking a goofy pose, or having a bad hair day.

The 76th edition of the festival, taking place from May 16 to May 27, has seen Cannes’ usual population triple to 230,000 people to watch films, rub shoulders with celebrities and – in some cases – compete for the coveted Palme D’Or.

Gaillard, who is retiring after this festival, was there for Reuters, snapping Michael Douglas pointing at the camera with a cheeky grin and a besuited Harrison Ford receiving an Honorary Palme D’Or.

He was there in 1997 when Michael Jackson was in attendance, in 2008 when Diego Maradona showed off soccer tricks, and in 2018 when Kristen Stewart kicked off her heels on the red carpet.

A shot from the 48th edition of the festival in 1995 shows a disarmingly young Johnny Depp, while a black-and-white photo from 1987 depicts a tanned, bejeweled Liz Taylor with one-time flame George Hamilton.

More recent photos show cinemagoers wearing masks (the festival was canceled in 2020 because of the COVID pandemic but came back the following year with restrictions), increasing numbers of women among the phalanxes of photographers, and attendees using phones to create their own social media posts.

But the essential glamour and fascination of the occasion has not changed – for the stars, or for the journalists. Cannes is, says Gaillard, “an incredible experience.”

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There is so much power and exhilaration in movement – even the smallest steps require careful intention. And the experience of that movement, the journey from one place to another, can be just as important as the destination.

It was the exploration and meaning of movement that inspired Spoleto Festival USA’s 2023 season poster, which features commissioned photography by Elizabeth Bick, assistant professor of photography at the College of Charleston. An internationally renowned arts festival, Spoleto takes place in Charleston annually over 17 days and features a variety of visual and performing arts at venues across the city, including at the College. The festival kicks off this year on Friday, May 26, 2023.

“I was imagining what people would look like walking from place to place and I really wanted to use the backdrop of the area where most of the festival is being held,” says Bick. “I really wanted to use that kind of space in between the performances that people will be looking at and have them kind of empathically imagine then that this could be them walking past this Palmetto shadow.”

Bick, who joined the faculty in 2021, worked with her College of Charleston colleagues to cast 12 students from the Department of Theatre and Dance in the School of the Arts to move through the space for a series of images. The final poster includes nine frames of 10 students.

“I was drawn to Elizabeth’s work through an exhibit at the (College’s) Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art,” says Spoleto Festival USA General Director and CEO Mena Mark Hanna. “This work represents the vibrancy of Charleston and of the festival; it captures beauty and art in everyday expression.”

For the Spoleto piece, Bick, whose work has been exhibited internationally, says she was inspired by the joy the festival brings to the region – “a joy of being, of moving, and living. I wanted the work to echo that energy.”

Bick credits School of the Arts Dean Edward Hart ’88 for making a small gesture that led to this big opportunity.

“This commission would have never happened if Edward hadn’t invited me to a dinner at College of Charleston President Andrew Hsu‘s house where I met the artistic director of Spoleto,” she says, adding “it’s genuinely an honor to work with the students and the School of the Arts on this project.”

The College’s relationship with Spoleto goes back to the festival’s inception in 1977, but Hart says having a faculty member from the Department of Studio Art chosen to create the festival’s poster, and include students in the imagery, is a particularly special milestone and another example of “our School of the Arts being the Artistic Heartbeat of Charleston.”

“Elizabeth is the quintessential artist/teacher and has energized our photography program not only by her teaching, but in her amazing professional work,” says Hart. “While the College’s connections with Spoleto Festival USA are innumerable, it is a particular honor to have Elizabeth chosen to join the ranks of Jasper Johns and David Hockney as a Spoleto poster creator.”

Westside Studio has announced the signing of Angie Bird to their photography roster.

Angie Bird, an award-winning film and commercial director, has spent the last few years developing her craft through a different lens. “Being a photographer has always been a dream of mine,” she says. “I’m thrilled to now be represented by Westside Studio for photography as well as directing.” 

Her love of telling human stories in her motion work translates seamlessly into her approach to photography. Capturing people in an authentic and celebratory way is a big part of what drives Angie in her creative work. Even when she leans into a more stylised approach in her portraits and lifestyle shots, she’s always looking for the emotion in the image and the vibrant power that emanates from that. 

“We’ve had the pleasure of representing Angie as a director, says Caitlin Jeffery, director of sales and marketing at Westside, “and we’re really excited about her development into photography. She brings a lot to the table, not only with her agency art director background but as a director too. She has a sensibility to her work that we feel will give her an edge. Angie’s photography work is playful, shot with intention and style. We can’t wait to see where it takes her.”

Angie has taken on many subjects as a filmmaker – some difficult, some tender, some joyful – and she loves how photography is opening her up to a different kind of storytelling. “There’s something very intimate about this medium. Very powerful. I’m inspired to capture people in their best light. And the creative freedom with art direction and styling is so creatively inspiring.”

Artist Christina Fernandez explores migration, gender and Mexican-American identity in her photography. Fernandez’s exhibition at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, titled “Multiple Exposures,” showcases a collection of her best works over the last 30 years.

“It’s one of the few times you’re going to be able to see the entire series as a whole, because all of this work has been exhibited in other museums and different shows, but not the entire series,” she said. “So you’ll get a sense of who I am as an artist, as a photographer, and the concerns that I’ve addressed and photographic approaches that I’ve taken to subject matter over time.”

Fernandez said her work over the last several years has tackled a variety of different subjects, but generally, they have a unifying spirit.

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“The overall themes of my work are the lives of women, especially Chicana, Latinx women, their family life and historical figures,” she said.

Making art was instrumental in Fernandez’s understanding and exploring her sense of identity. She’s hopeful viewers are able to do the same upon experiencing her work.

“The work that seems to really resonate with a lot of people sort of across the board is my series ‘Maria’s Great Expedition,’ which is about my great-grandmother and her immigration story,” she said. “I hope they’re inspired by the stories that I tell through my photographs and inspired to do some creative work of their own, about perhaps their family or their immigration story.”

Much of the work featured in “Multiple Exposures” has been available to audiences for some time, but Fernandez said the exhibition is an opportunity to get to experience her photography in a rare and more meaningful way.

Seeing photography in person is really important, Fernandez said. “Online, you don’t get the sense of the scale nor the detail of the work. So I always advocate for seeing photography in person.”

“Multiple Exposures” is on view on the second floor of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth until July 9.

Arts Access is an arts journalism collaboration powered by The Dallas Morning News and KERA.

This community-funded journalism initiative is funded by the Better Together Fund, Carol & Don Glendenning, City of Dallas OAC, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Eugene McDermott Foundation, James & Gayle Halperin Foundation, Jennifer & Peter Altabef and The Meadows Foundation. The News and KERA retain full editorial control of Arts Access’ journalism.

Using simple but evocative portraiture, Coco captured her subjects in their natural environments. The classroom, the park, the city streets and other quotidian settings form the backdrop for photographs that subtly hint at the thoughts, feelings and passions of the teenagers. Holding their instruments, jumping on their skateboards and posing in their respective uniforms; each subject allows the viewer into their world for a brief moment.

Compositionally, the images are straightforward and neutral, and Coco says this simplicity was key to allowing the audience to compare and contrast each group or individual. “I think the series more or less follows only one rule, which is having someone in the middle of the frame,” she explains. “So you can look at the monk, you can look at the maiko, you can look at the skater kid, and you can see how they are all teenagers of similar age, but their context is so different within the same city.”

Of the many photographs in Ookini, Coco singles out a shot of two girls playing by the river as one her favourites from the series. Their candidness, she tells us, embodies one of the most crucial qualities of adolescence: optimism. “The girls in the picture were unaware of me and my camera and they seemed completely absorbed by their games and fantasy worlds… [This image] evokes in me a feeling the Japanese call ‘seishun’, or ‘spring’ in English. It refers to the ‘springtime of life’ and those years in which everything is new and full of vitality, and the potential that remains present in many aspects of life.”

Since 2015, the Act On Your Future Foundation’s Human Rights Photography Award has been rewarding projects by emerging artists from the contemporary photography scene on themes that are topical in the world of politics and society. A reflection on our society driven by photography not to be missed.

Created in 2014 in Switzerland, the Act On Your Future Foundation, which is recognised as a public utility, aims in its words to promote human rights in an innovative way. According to Keyvan Ghavami, director and co-founder of the Foundation, photography very quickly became the medium that allowed us to highlight in an impactful way the current major issues of our society in terms of human rights.

“We have always been keen to talk about the major political, economic, social and environmental issues through images, with the idea that to mobilise the younger generation, images are a universal language, understandable by all, which allows us to go beyond stereotypes and to be much more tangible and concrete.

The creation of the AOYF Prize has enabled the Foundation to reward and support the work of photographers in the process of studying or recently graduated, while drawing attention to human rights issues. An educational challenge to raise awareness is thus perceived through all the themes addressed by the Prize, notably freedom of expression in 2015, the representation of the migration crisis in 2016, the rise of populism in 2017, gender equality in 2018, ecology and the climate emergency in 2020 and our relationship with new technologies this year. This desire is expressed in particular by the organisation of a series of round tables, practical workshops and school visits throughout the competition exhibition to raise awareness and make the major challenges of our time more tangible by crossing the views of the artists exhibited.

“Our aim is also to bring together different sectors of society, companies, schools, museums, collectors, major donors and NGOs based in Geneva, the world capital of human rights. All these people would not necessarily tend to meet and exchange on these major current themes carried by the still and moving image.

In partnership with six European art schools, ECAL Lausanne, HEAD Geneva, ENSP Arles, Royal College of Art London, HGB Leipzig and Aalto University in Espoo, Finland, as well as five renowned institutions including the Centre de la Photographie Genève, Christie’s, Human Rights Watch, the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights and MAPS, the Prize selects via an interdisciplinary jury the work of five artists which is exhibited at the Centre de la Photographie Geneva for one month, before offering CHF 10,000 to the winning artist. CHF 7,000 goes towards the production of an exhibition related to the winning project, and CHF 3,000 to the artist’s discretion. According to Keyvan Ghavami, “the idea here is to keep a link with the artist, to give continuity to his or her project and to enhance the network of partners and professionals working around the Foundation and the Prize.

In order to keep track and reach the widest possible audience, a retrospective catalogue has also been created for the 5th edition of the Prize and distributed to a good number of municipal libraries, schools and art schools. It includes all the human rights themes addressed in previous editions, the projects of the photographic artists in dialogue with the reflections and comments of the members of the jury each year.

While Keyvan Ghavami reminds us that the Foundation acts independently and without bias, its commitment is to remain as neutral and inclusive as possible, and it is up to the artists and the public to take up the issue addressed and to draw a reflection on it.
“Today more than ever, art has the responsibility to question current events and enrich our understanding of the world, allowing us to face the great challenges of our time with more optimism.”

Marie Pellicier
17 May 2023

The 2023 AOYF Award Exhibition
Until 28 May 2023
Centre of Photography Geneva
Centre of Photography Geneva
Bac – Contemporary Art Building
28, rue des Bains,
CH – 1205 Geneva

Nominees: Rodrigo Alcocer de Garay (special mention of the jury), Yue Cheng, Thaddé Comar (winning project 2023), Luisa Tormenta and Yingying Zhang.
Winner: Thaddé Commar

More information

“La photographie du portefeuille” is the result of a photographic collection carried out by Anne Delrez at the Conserverie, un lieu d’archives (Metz) en 2013.

“It has the shape of slightly fleshy buttocks, blunt corners, bits of tobacco sometimes stuck in its center, large scratches, a particular smell, annotations that have become illegible, miles of walking and travelling. This is the photograph from the wallet.
The one that, one day, was given to you and which, by necessity, forgetfulness, “like that” never left you. It’s in your bag, in your pocket, on your phone’s wallpaper so you can look at it and show it off. This is the opportunity.”
Anne Delrez

La photographie du portefeuille – Anne Delrez
May 20 – July 16, 2023
L’Enfant Sauvage
Rue de l’Enseignement 23
1000 Bruxelles
www.enfantsauvagebxl.com
www.instagram.com/enfantsauvagebxl/
www.facebook.com/LEnfant-Sauvage-Bxl

Exhibition in collaboration with La Conserverie – a place of archives (Metz, France), Belgian photographer Vincen Beeckman will present the work “ANNEESSENS” at La Conserverie from May 27 to July 15, 2023.

La Conserverie, un lieu d’archives
8 Rue de la Petite Boucherie
57000 Metz, France
http://laconserverieunlieudarchives.fr/

MEEKER | Whether you consciously observe the peace, animal life, and operations of the White River Valley, or have become used to it offhandedly, it is unique. Kaysyn Chintala knows this, and works to highlight that through her photography.  

“I love sharing the western lifestyle, and the stories behind people.”

Offering lifestyle, wedding, business and her favorite, equine, photography, it’s safe to say Kaysyn has become one of the most influential photographers of the western lifestyle in Northwestern Colorado. And it all started with a little encouragement from mom. 

In 2019, Kaysyn, Becca Neilsen, and Alan Nielsen (Kaysyn’s mother and stepfather), purchased, and began to run Trappers Lake Lodge in 2019. It was this step that initially led Kaysyn to becoming the photographer she is today. Though she had little experience with any of it at the time, Kaysyn took charge of the marketing, social media management, and website for the lodge. And she found she excelled at this work. As for photography, she has always loved both appreciating and taking photos, and Trappers was an incredible landscape for her to begin experimenting with her talents behind the camera. For these reasons it was in 2021 that Kaysyn’s mother, Becca, encouraged her to invest in a camera. Only two days after getting her first camera, Kaysyn was asked to shoot engagement photos which then led to the same couple booking her for their wedding photos. The rest is the history of a whirlwind success.  

Kaysyn’s business “Kaysyn Krystal Photography,” took off and to this day her schedule is full.  But not only with photography sessions.  As mentioned before, Kaysyn is a part owner of Trappers Lake Lodge, but she is also the mother of two beautiful little girls, and a new member of the Northwest Auto sales and marketing team. 

BY ADRIENNE WIX | Special to the Herald Times