The Large Format Portrait - July 2013

I just finished my 5th annual large format portrait class at ICP last month and I am quite proud of the work and growth of this years class. Here is a little peek at what these view camera virgins were able to accomplish in just two short weeks.

The Large Format Portrait July 2013

Magela Crosignani

Juan Carlos Muñoz-Nájar

William Chan

Larry Kellogg

Isabel Magowan

Shalmon Bernstein

Mirko Viola

Andrea Camuto

Touching Strangers on CBS

The New Street Types of New York

I have a few pieces in a group show at the Alice Austen house in Staten Island opening this Saturday. 

Alice Austen’s groundbreaking portfolio “Street Types of New York” from 1894, marks her as one of the earliest female street photographers who captured the changing face of the city’s working class just before the turn of the century. Today a new generation of photographers continues her legacy of documenting the ever-changing city. This exhibition includes work by: Alice Austen,Chris Arnade  , Alice Attie, Dmitry Gudkov, Peter Funch, Andy Jones, Wayne Lawrence,Erica McDonald, Greg Miller, Christina Paige, Susannah Ray, Richard Renaldi, Ruddy Roye, Geordie Wood, and AnRong Xu.

The New Street Types draws connections from early street portraiture like that of Alice Austen (1866-1952) to contemporary image-makers. The artists selected for the exhibition work in a similar style to Austen, often employing large format photography to create portraits of New York City’s diverse communities and subcultures – including the outer fringes of the expanding city like the Rockaways and Orchard Beach. Some of the artists conceptualize themes in portrait typologies and use social media to communicate online, while artists like Peter Funch take the traditional street portrait a step further, creating digital tableaus to capture life on the streets and see it anew. Photographer Ruddy Roye utilizes Instagram to create his images - sharing them in a spontaneous and wide-reaching way Austen could have never imagined.

Plagiarism?

Touching Strangers in the Sunday NY Times

Read the article here.

Touching Strangers to be published by the Aperture Foundation!

Dear Readers & Subscribers,

Support and Pre-Sales available today through August 5 on Kickstarter.  Aperture will also be printing a limited special edition of the book available for purchase only through the Kickstarter platform. The limited edition will truly be limited in the sense that once the Kickstarter campaign ends it will no longer be available.

This is one of the most important bodies of work that I have ever created, and I would love for this campaign to succeed. I would be extremely grateful if you could support this project at whatever level of funding you can comfortably manage, and to spread the word through any social media forums in which you participate.

My sincere gratitude,

Richard 

Bryan Schutmaat

Congratulations to Bryan Schutmaat on winning the Aperture portfolio prize. Bryan is a former student of mine and he has been deservedly recognized for his beautiful project Grays the Mountains Sends. Needless to say I'm proud and really psyched for Bryan.

Colombia, May 2013

Jon Rafman

My friend Mary brought this collection of incredible Google street view captures to my attention by artist Jon Rafman. His discoveries are often haunting, funny, and beautiful. Definitely worth checking out.

Commencement Speeches, for the Ages...

Inspired by graduation season some very inspiring speeches. 

Hipstamatic Photographs and Portraits now in the archive at Renaldi.com

Portraits

Hipstamatic

Adrian Ghenie

Pace’s first exhibition of the young Romanian artist Adrian Ghenie, is amazing. He is known for his meticulously-crafted, often brutal paintings that build upon the darker moments of European history.
The show is up until May 4th.

These two paintings especially blew me away...

Holi

Take a look at this cool slideshow on TPM of Indians celebrating Holi, a festival which celebrates the arrival of spring. Color is a wonderful thing!

Charles Lane Press in Chicago

Portraits from "the West"

Nichelle, Bullhead City, Arizona, 2013

Steve, Bisbee, Arizona, 2013

Sally, Los Angeles, California, 2013

New work - Manhattan Sunday

See the web version here.

Gospel of Intolerance

Here is a great and disturbing multimedia piece on the influence of the American evangelical movement's influence on repressing gay people in Africa/Uganda. Please help fight this extremism by supporting the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. 

Caught in my eye...

© Fernando Moleres

 © Tobias Kruse

© George Dureau

© Aline Paley

© Damon Winter

© Ben Huff

© NASA

© Doug Dubois

Gay couples in Vietnam

There is a strong series of photographs on the New York Times Lens Blog of portraits of gay couples in Vietnam by photographer Maika Elan. Check them out here.

© Maika Elan

Gotta love this...