We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views.

TL;DR: The AIR NEO AI-Powered Autofly™ Camera Drone can take incredible high-definition photos and videos in the sky. Thanks to the AI-powered autofly technology, it can even fly itself! It’ll use motion tracking to get the best shots and is now on sale for only $149.99.

Anyone who’s ever used a drone knows they’re incredibly fun. But one of the most valuable aspects of a drone is the incredible imagery they can capture from heights we can only dream of reaching, as The New York Times has noted. From so far up in the sky, you can’t exactly position a drone to get the perfect shot, especially of yourself — but that’s all changed with this AI-powered drone.

The AIR NEO AI-Powered Autofly™ Camera Drone flies itself when it’s in AI-powered Autofly Mode, and uses top AI programming and motion tracking to follow your movements for the perfect photo or video capture. No smartphone or remote needed! And while it may sound high-tech, you can get it for an incredible price at only $149.99 with no coupon necessary.

It’s not just the fact this drone basically flies itself that sets it apart from other competitors. The high-definition 12MP photos and HD videos are absolutely gorgeous and literally give you a bird’s-eye view of the activity you captured. Plus, you can instantly share your amazing new photos and videos on social media with the AIR NEO app. 

Some drones can be bulky to travel with, but not this one. The AIR NEO drone was designed to be portable. It’s so small and lightweight you can just put it in your pocket and bring it wherever you go. This drone is built to be on the go and help you capture stunning images wherever you are.

Other cool features include its quick-charging feature, meaning you won’t have to stress about the drone not having enough time to charge before your red-eye flight or days-long road trip. And with 16 gigabytes of memory, you’ll have plenty of room to store every memory you make with this drone.

Change the way you take photos and videos forever with this unique AI-powered tool.

Grab the AIR NEO AI-Powered Autofly™ Camera Drone now for just $149.99.

Prices subject to change.

RUSTON La. – Wednesday, six Northside Elementary Photography Club students got some exposure that could put their career path into focus.

They visited Louisiana Tech’s F. Jay Taylor Visual Arts Center, which houses classrooms and the School of Design’s art gallery. There, the students explored the next level of photography.

“When they walked in they brought their camera, they just started taking pictures looking at pictures on the wall. Some of the things that they see in the moment. I mean it’s just blowing their minds, so I think this is a great experience.” Said Bennie Dotie, MLK Neighborhood Association’s projects manager.

The students learned about the history of photography and how a camera works. They also made bandanas to teach how to manipulate darkness and light in the printing process — learning new information and creating a memory they won’t forget.

Free exhibit runs through November 2023

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum will unveil a new photography exhibition highlighting CMA Fest’s half-century history on Tuesday, June 6th. The exhibit, titled In the Hands of the Fans: Fifty Years of CMA Fest, will feature photographs conveying the celebratory spirit of the festival and capturing memorable moments over the years. The exhibit is free and will be open to the public through November 2023 in the museum’s first-floor Community Corridor.

Celebrating its 50th year in 2023, the annual CMA Fest — four days of live music, autograph signings, photo opportunities, fan club parties and family activities held in June in Nashville — has been uniting country music fans and artists since 1972, when it was called Fan Fair.

Launched by the Country Music Association in partnership with radio station WSM, Fan Fair was intended to relieve over-crowding from the annual DJ Convention, a gathering of country music industry professionals and entertainers that attracted zealous fans to Nashville in hopes of catching a glimpse of their favorite stars. The first Fan Fair, held at Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium in April 1972, was attended by 5,000 fans and more than 120 artists, including luminaries such as Roy Acuff, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Bill Monroe, Dolly Parton, Marty Robbins, Ernest Tubb and Tammy Wynette.

As country music’s popularity exploded, Fan Fair attendance soared, averaging 25,000 by the 1990s. In 2004, CMA assumed full sponsorship and changed the name of the event to CMA Music Festival. Last year, what is now known as CMA Fest, drew more than 80,000 daily attendees from all 50 states and 39 foreign countries. It featured performances by 260 acts, ranging from emerging artists to the biggest names in country music.

Photographs on display will include: Jimmie Allen interacting with fans at Chevy Riverfront Stage, CMA Fest, June 6, 2019; Garth Brooks signing autographs and interacting with fans for 23 hours without a break at Fan Fair, June 11, 1996; Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum staff member Peter Cooper interviewing Country Music Hall of Fame member Ray Stevens at Xfinity Fan Fair X at Music City Center during CMA Fest, June 6, 2019; Singer-songwriter Carolyn Dawn Johnson performing at her first fan club party, held at Douglas Corner Café during Fan Fair, June 13, 2002; Fans thronging to meet Loretta Lynn at her fan club booth in the exhibit hall at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds, Fan Fair, 1983; Barbara Mandrell, catcher and leader of women’s softball team the Do-Rites, making a dramatic catch during a game with Men’s Division team the Nashville Pickers at the Fan Fair Softball Tournament at Two Rivers Park, June 5, 1978; Paul and Linda McCartney — in Nashville to rehearse and record with their band, Wings — chatting with Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner backstage during the Third Annual Grand Masters Fiddling Championship, held at Opryland, June 16, 1974; Charley Pride signing autographs in the exhibit area at Municipal Auditorium during Fan Fair, 1977. That year, Pride hosted Fan Fair’s first annual International Country Music Show, which included acts from Australia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, England, Germany, Holland and Japan.

Other items on display in the Community Corridor exhibit will include posters, promotional items and a Guess stone-washed denim jacket, decorated with rhinestones and plastic stars, signed by 102 country music performers and personalities during super-fan Martha Allums’ visits to Fan Fair from 1991 to 2000.

If you are looking for amazing tips of posing models and how to use natural light, this video has it all. In this video, Michael Sasser travels to Bali, Indonesia and shares behind-the-scenes footage along with lots of tips and tricks that will help you in boudoir and portrait photography.

Watching Michael Sasser at work is always a pleasure. His behind-the-scenes videos are very informative, and in this video, we see Michael in Bali, photographing Kirsten in a variety of scenes at a villa.

For anyone looking to learn new poses, understanding light and location, this video has it all. Michael is very good at understanding the scenes around him and looking for any complications. In one scene, Michael has noticed cables in the background and ensures he moves them out of the way. Some of these tips may seem very simple, but can often be overlooked when on location. It is very important to look at your surroundings and interpret what may be distracting in the final image. This can also save you some time in the editing suite. 

On top of interpreting your surroundings, Michael uses those skills to look for the best light and plays with reflections to give his images an extra dimension. For any portrait work, I always work off three simple rules: LLP (light, location and pose). 

Every month, hundreds of galleries add newly available works by thousands of artists to the Artnet Gallery Network—and every week, we shine a spotlight on one artist or exhibition you should know. Check out what we have in store, and inquire for more with one simple click.

About the Artist: American artist Richard Sandler (b. 1946) has a practice centered on street photography and documentary filmmaking. He is perhaps most recognized for his street photography taken around New York City—particularly from the 1980s. Many images, such as of Grand Central Terminal and of the city’s Metro, have become synonymous with 1980s city nostalgia, as they capture an intimate vision of a bygone era. Originally from Forest Hills, Queens, he initially began photographing urban scenes while working in Boston in 1977. Following his return to New York a few years later, he continued to expand his street photography practice, capturing some of the most illustrative and evocative images of the city from the decade. After 2001, Sandler ultimately pivoted to focus on documentary filmmaking and directed and produced several films including The Gods of Times Square (1999), Brave New York (2004), and Radioactive City (2011).

What You Need to Know: This month, Avant Gallery will present the exhibition “Richard Sandler: The Eyes of the City” at the gallery’s Hudson Yards location in New York. Opening on May 18, 2023, the show includes more than 40 traditional gelatin silver prints of photographs taken around the city by Sandler—many of which are not only iconic of the artist’s oeuvre but of the city as well. The title of the show is drawn from the 2016 publication of the same name, which features his work from 1977 through 2001. The exhibition is in many ways a homecoming for the works, as many of Sandler’s photographs are part of permanent New York collections, including the New York Public Library, New York Historical Society, Museum of the City of New York, and the Brooklyn Museum.

Why We Like It: As a global center of culture, finance, and industry, the city of New York is codified within the collective imagination. Each decade evokes a signature atmosphere and aesthetic, and images such as those taken by Sandler allow viewers to take a step back into a previous era of life in the city—finding beauty in otherwise overlooked vignettes of everyday life. As Sandler once said, “You could say, ‘Look how fucked up New York was in the ’80s, look at all this graffiti,’ but also it was very beautiful. The layering of randomness, of one person’s tagging over another, and it would go on for months and years, and it started to look like Jackson Pollock.” It was an era when artists such as Keith Haring commonly worked in the subways and the street art scene was burgeoning/ Sandler’s photographs capture the indefinable air of the time. Employing the inimitable gelatin silver print process, the images have a distinct clarity and sense of depth, lending a distinct artistic facet to the photographer’s documentary style.

See featured works below.

Richard Sandler, Subway Noir, NYC (1986). Courtesy of Avant Gallery.

Richard Sandler, Hasid and Hipster, NYC (2001). Courtesy of Avant Gallery.

Richard Sandler, Subway Swoon, NYC (ca. 1986). Courtesy of Avant Gallery.

Richard Sandler, Subway Kiss, NYC (1987). Courtesy of Avant Gallery.

Richard Sandler, CC Train, NYC (1985). Courtesy of Avant Gallery.

“Richard Sandler: The Eyes of the City” is on view May 18–July 16, 2023, at Avant Gallery, New York City.

Follow Artnet News on Facebook:
Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward.

Being surrounded by art is one of the best parts of being in New York City, and come summer, outdoor art is at its peak. 

Photoville, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit sharing artistic photography free of charge, will be returning for its 12th year in the city. 

Photoville NYC 2023 will start on Saturday, June 3 and run through Sunday, June 18, with over 80 exhibits across the five boroughs. Originally in Brooklyn Bridge Park, the festival expanded in 2020, to allow New Yorkers in various neighborhoods enjoy public art during a time of isolation. 

RECOMMENDED: How to see free concerts at Hudson Yards all summer

This year’s Photoville will have an HQ in Brooklyn Bridge Park, with free open-air exhibitions and shipping container galleries in Photoville Village at the recently opened Emily Warren Roebling Plaza. 

“Photoville has fanned out in the past few years from its original Brooklyn Bridge Park location and become a city-wide event,” said Photoville Co-Founder Sam Barzilay. “This year, we’re thrilled to present a version of the festival that unites its past and present: bringing the storage containers back to Brooklyn Bridge Park and turning them, once again, into temporary sites of urgent, lively, and inspiring photography, as well as featuring exhibitions in all five boroughs.”

To celebrate the festival’s 12th annual opening, a Community Weekend on June 3 and 4 will include free public events with artists appearances, workshops by Leica Camera, Adobe, International Center of Photography, Penumbra, and Creatively Wild, plus food and beverage vendors from Smorgasburg. On Saturday Night, a big screen under the Brooklyn Bridge will feature projected photos from Contact High, National Geographic, the Washington Post, TIME Magazine, Magnum Foundation and many more award-winning photo publishers. 

Throughout the weeks of the festival, additional Photoville exhibitions can be found at Brookfield Place in Manhattan, Astoria Park in Queens, South Beach Promenade in Staten Island, and Van Cortlandt Park in The Bronx, plus many more locations in all boroughs. For a full list of locations and presenting photographers, visit photoville.nyc.

“Firemouth” (1992), from the series “Domestic Terror”

“I work on the borderlands where photography edges into things you don’t expect.”

Mary Wessel

With degrees in philosophy, sociology and fine art, Mary Wessel approaches the medium of photography armed to the teeth. It should come as no surprise that, for most of her career, she has been less interested in what lies before the camera and more interested in the mysteries begging to be revealed in the darkroom. Bypassing more traditional photographic processes, Wessel stays rooted in the essence of the medium. Her images are neither happening in response to a momentarily pleasing arrangement of light and shadow nor are they carefully staged in the controlled space of a studio.

Known as “cameraless” photography, this technique references the earliest days of the medium, when light-sensitive paper first captured and retained an image. When objects or substances are placed on or near light-sensitive paper, compelling shadow figures appear. Working in the darkroom in almost total darkness, Wessel quietly experiments with a variety of different objects, chemicals and tools in a quest for reaction. Reflecting her patience and openness to possibility, much of her work is solitary, and outcomes are uncertain.

In early series like “Seismic Reflections” (1992), Wessel’s work is quite personal, recording the imprint of her own body. In the series “Blindnesses” (2001), she uses objects — blue, red, clear and white vinyl LPs, a color enlarger and a flashlight — to create colorful otherworldly images that seem to reference the cosmos and the great beyond. For “Worldscapes” (2008-2010), Wessel interacts closely with the surface of the photographic paper, wiping, blotting, eye-dropping or sponging various substances like water or acid across the surface. Chemical reactions seem to burst and roll across the page. As when seeking shapes in clouds, the mind immediately tries to make sense through connections — a deep underwater organism emerging from the depths or bright light from the aurora borealis.

Wessel does not completely ignore traditional camera-based photography, however. As a longtime professor, she is well versed in the nuances and idiosyncratic tendencies of the film-based (or digital) process. When approached with an eye toward abstraction, most of her series of straight images speak the same language as her cameraless ones. In the series “Water” (2019), a close focus on the surface of the water and elimination of any anchor-point leaves a swirling, twirling mass of amorphic shapes, at once connecting and breaking apart. In “Transfigurations: The Wall” (2019), Wessel steadies the camera on the outside of a trench box, used to protect workers during underground digging. The close-up on the exterior reveals scratches and gouges caused by rocks and tree roots far below the surface — as if the earth has left a written message.

Her recent series “May Light Perpetual Shine Upon Us” (ongoing) is a departure from earlier work. Here, Wessel photographs the after-effects of a storm — uprooted trees and downed branches. She manipulates the images in Photoshop, adding unexpected and arresting color. The viewer is at once drawn in by the beauty of nature and repelled by the unnatural palette.

Throughout her career, Wessel has challenged the preconceptions of photography as a representational and reproducible medium. Enigmatic and resistant to classification, her work offers a welcome space for imagination. Deeply thoughtful and tethered to experimentation, Wessel fully embraces possibilities and chance. In many ways, her work reflects her motto — “I’d rather wear a path by walking it than walk a well-worn path.” Spoken like a true philosopher. And photographer.

All photos courtesy of the artist

The San Francisco Chronicle won several top honors in this year’s National Headliner Awards, including for writing, photography and innovation in journalism.

The recognition comes as The Chronicle was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist for both investigative reporting and feature photography on Monday. 

The COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM in downtown NASHVILLE is set to unveil a new exhibit, “In The Hands of Fans: Fifty Years of CMA FEST,” on JUNE 6th. The exhibit will feature photographs capturing the spirit and memorable moments of CMA FEST’s first five decades. The exhibit is free, and will be on display until NOVEMBER of this year in the museum’s first-floor Community Corridor. 

Artists featured in the photographs include JIMMIE ALLEN, GARTH BROOKS, RAY STEVENS, LORETTA LYNN, BARBARA MANDRELL, PAUL and LINDA McCARTNEY, DOLLY PARTON, PORTER WAGONER, CHARLEY PRIDE, and others. Other items on display include posters and promotional items representing the 50 years.

« see more Net News