HIROSHI WATANABE : Comedy of Double Meanings

What Fades, What Stays ?

I remember meeting Hiroshi Watanabe at Fotofest in 2000.He was in one of my first portfolio review sessions ever. I was already a fan because of a single photograph. The juxtaposition of these images are about me a spiritual collage that I could not do if he had not created these photographs.

Santa Monica Pier 2000

Marco Andreatta as Pulcinella 2011

Marta Marchi as Strega (Silhouette) 2011

Viviana Ceppa with Bauta Mask (Silhouette) 2011

Sara Galiza as Morte 2011

The other day was looking at photographs of bubbles on the www and remembered an image by Hiroshi Wantanabe taken in 2000 so when I visited his site I found myself enthrall with the amount of images there and the range.I would consider Hiroshi to be a classic photographer and a master printer.small,quiet images that do not date themselves as you are lured into them while viewing.I was planning on writing a few word about the Lenten season and cravings of the invisible clock that must mark  time by ritual.

Carnival, Mardi Gras is just such a marking, winter's last celebration as shadows slip back into the dark. the sleep,the dream as we wait for spring and light

All of this is transitory a poetic moment  we try to define yet like bubbles,feelings and shadows it floats away.

View more Hiroshi Watanabe photographs at http://www.hiroshiwatanabe.com 


all images Copyright (c) 2011 Hiroshi Watanabe All Rights Reserved

MARIE CONSINDAS : ARRANGEMENTS

GO + SEE
ARRANGEMENTS : Marie Considas
BRUCE SILVERSTEIN
535 W 24th Street
New York, NY10011

Galleries publish catalogs in support of the exhibition they create. Bruce Silverstein open his first show of the year with a jewel display of Marie Considas.

Mask Boston 1966

Ranunculus Los Angeles ca.1960

Princess with Doves 1966

Andy Warhol  NYC 1966

Sailors Key West 1966

The image of an arrangement of masks by Marie Consindas has always been one of my favorite color photographs it reminds me of Ensor. Imagine my delight at being able to see it once again at the Bruce Silverstein Gallery in New York

Arrangements is Cosindas' term for her richly layered assemblages created primarily in her Boston studio, and in later years, around the world, from found or borrowed objects—fabrics, flowers, figurines, jewelry, perfume bottles, tarot cards and other such treasures which came to define her signature style. Often pyramidal in structure, the artist's baroque compositions are filled with an old world style of excess delightfully bordering on kitsch. Cosindas prefers the term Arrangement to “still life” for this body of work, as she wishes to highlight the very active role she played in the construction of these images as well as the intense engagement required from the viewer in order to absorb their varied textures, patterns, colors and minute details. For Cosindas, the resulting image and viewing experience is anything but still.

Encouraged by Ansel Adams to pursue color photography, Marie Cosindas developed an unique style and perspective that could only have emerged through the use of color film. Her masterful still lifes and studio portraits draw attention to the artist's interest and background in painting and textile design, and reveal her marked attention to visual detail.

Cosindas was one of the first photographers to experiment with Polacolor film, and her work served to futher develop and advance this technology. Working with 4 x 5, 8 x 10, 20 x 24 and even 40 x 80 inch Polacolor film, Cosindas varied exposure and development conditions to achieve the desired tonality and saturation for her images.

The gallery published a catalog ARRANGEMENTS BY Marie Consindas with an essay by Lisa Hostetler which was originally published in the Winter 2013 issue of Aperture magazine.
The exhibition close March 8th.

ELIOT DUDIK : ROAD ENDS IN WATER

some books/some books/some books/some books/some books/some books/some books/some books

This summer as I was leaving Georgia I was give a package by Eliot Dudik inside was a copy of the book Road Ends In Water an essay about the changing south.An essay that I was familiar with because a few of Eliot's images have been used over time in different exhibitions that were created for Slowexposure. 

I like images of the land and feel that it takes bold vision to produce meaningful landscapes that move beyond romanticism.There is a great tradition of landscape art, some  would put landscape photography at the lower level,but landscape photography also speak of great metaphysical ideas and have been used to explain this vast land.

The south is still struggling with change and the modern world, these images show that encroachment and a wistfulness for other times, the bigger vision is that nature constantly takes back everything.

Bud, Russell Creek Road

Sacred Space, Muckenfus Road

Snuffy in Salkehatchie Swamp, Broxton Bridge Road

Confederate Breastworks, Broxton Bridge Road

Carew Rice Painting, Back of Old Drive-in Screen, Highway 63

418, Ivenia Brown Road

The Word, Ivenia Brown Road                                                         

Camels and Coke, Sea Island Yacht Club Road

I have admired Eliot's work for over three years now and I am really excited by two others themes he is working on Broken Land and Still Lives and I hope they will be published also.Photographic art books are the real statement about what a photographer is trying to show us a single image can be like a strong sentence in search of a paragraph.

© copyright 2014 Eliot Dudik

http://eliotdudik.com

  



  

SANDI FELLMAN : THE JAPANESE TATTOO

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All of this cold snow has me contemplating warm skin. I like neo classical nudes heighten flesh rendered near flawless by light and printing techniques, an unstated theme in my collection is flesh that look like stone/stone that appears as flesh.Yet my wild side loves tattoos prison tattoos that cover the body, the 21st century hip that turn their body into art ( will there be regrets in the future? ).

I find this fascinating so today while scanning my bookshelf I picked up my over used copy of the Japanese Tattoo by Sandi Felli publish  by Abbeville Press Inc.This may be out of print but well worth the search.

I became aware of this book when I was doing an all things Japanese books film food
art clothing theater histories so these images and D.M.Thomas essay were helpful when 
I was reading some Japanese literature that spoke of the yakuza.

http://sandifellman.com/gallery/

JO LYNN STILL : $10/Ten Bucks

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sometime artists send me books,I would like to thank them,because at long last due to the ever present snow their gifts are saving me from cabin fever.

The first book is called day four\Ten The book is self-funded by Fiona Hayes, editor of DayFour Magazine.  Ten is her 10th international call for personal work including writing from photographers.  Ten was printed in a limited edition of 100. The book may be viewed on-line at http://www.dayfour.info/D4910Ten.html#d49top.

Jo Lynn Still an artist from Georgia whose work I admire sent me a copy,with a little note to tell me she was encouraged to continue her work on this project 

because I include some of them in the Southern Memories exhibitions for Slowexposures.

Book of Buck is an on-going personal project inspired by a man called Buck.

Together we search for moments of peace, love, laughter and learning far from modern chaos. 

Genius

Seeker

Samaritan

Fisherman

Anomaly

Rarity

Buck Logo

This is kinda of personal because I have met Buck and he is really a sweet guy,Jo Lynn Still is collaborating in this project in a way that respects  Buck and her photographic vision.My intentions is not to create a list but to share what I have seen and to inform, please use the link to see the other artists  four\Ten.
http://www.dayfour.info/D4910Ten.html#d49top.