Surreal Fine Art Photgography by Toshiko Okanoue

Respected for her mastery of collage art, Toshiko Okanoue was also embraced as a photographer, included in 2003's The History of Japanese Photography. Active in the 1950's, Okanoue clipped photographs from magazines like Life and Vogue and meticulously arranged them to create surreal representations of the way she personally viewed Western life(style).

I just discovering her collages for the first time ever today - thanks to a feature in the June 2008 issue of Foam International Fine Art Photography magazine published quarterly in Amsterdam.

Often I find that color photo collage with both natural and artificial light sources just feels unorganized and noisy. Yet collage with black and white photography seems more cohesive and expressive of an overarching concept.

SPEAK OUT: Would you consider collage artists to be photographers or are they just appropriating the work of others?

Traditional Black & White Film Photography Contest

Silversalts invites college students to submit their best five prints for their 2008 Black and White Photography Contest. They will publish a 9″ x 12″ coffee-table book of the 100 best college-student black-and-white photographs submitted to them. This annual book is designed to preserve and promote traditional wet-process photography as the digital age begins to dominate the landscape. Visit Silversalts for more information.

DEADLINE: August 15th

NOTE: This contest is only accepting work done with traditional film, no digital.

I wish I was in college again!

Collection of Images from Central Africa 1885-1960

Many of the images like those in this collection ignited the damaging stereotypes and myths of racial inferiority about Africans propagated worldwide through the medium of photography.

This photography archive from the Smithsonian Museum of African Art contains "Hundreds of thousands of photographs from central Africa circulated as postcards, stereographs and illustrations between 1885, when the region came under the colonial domination of the Belgian crown, France and Portugal, and 1960, when central African countries gained their independence."

The "In and Out of Focus" collection of images from Central Africa also documents a time in the 2nd half of the 19th century, when Africans took up photography themselves and being photographed became popular amongst elite African societies.

PHOTO: Traveling in a hammock, Belgian Congo
Photograph taken or provided by Émile Gorlia (1887-1966)
c. 1912, silver gelatin print
Gift of Sanford M. and Nancy H. Harris
Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives
National Museum of African Art
Smithsonian Institution
1977-0001-171

Andres Serrano's New Photography Subject: Sh*t

Apologies in advance for the crude nature of this post, but I must admit I have a fascination for controversial photographers. Perhaps it's because they take risks and don't care what people think, as long as the people are thinking...

Curiously, Serrano was raised a strict Roman Catholic in a half Honduran, half Afro-Cuban household. Infamous for his "Piss Christ", Andres Serrano has covered non-conventional subjects ranging from sex and death to the Klu Klux Klan. For his latest work, Serrano aims his lens at "SHIT"... yes, that's right, feces.

From the this.heart's.on.fire blog:
"Although the theme is considered taboo, excrement has a discernable documentation in the history of art. In 1961 Piero Manzoni's unveiled his Merda d'Artista metal cans that supposedly contained the artist's stool, priced according to weight. Karen Finley smeared herself with symbolic feces and even Andy Warhol was quoted in the National Review saying that he would like to market his own excrement as jewelry (he felt it was merely a matter of tasteful packaging)."

Well, ummmm... I can't tell if it's animal or human crap or what, but somehow the photos are kinda pretty as closeups of the dung are set amongst candy-colored, blurred backgrounds.

SPEAK OUT: What do you think? Is Andres Serrano's latest work just another notch on his belt for shock value?

PHOTO: Portrait of the artist, Copyright Irina Movmyga

New Shanghai Living: Hu Yang Solo Exhibition

July 26 – August 31, 2008
ShanghART H-Space
Wu Jiao Chang 800 Art Space, 800 Guoshun East Rd., #310-314, Shanghai, 200433, China
T: +86 21 55065989
F: +86 21 55066997
info@shanghartgallery.com
Opening hours: 1pm – 6 pm (Closed on Sunday/Mondays)

A photography exhibition documenting the modern family homes of Shanghai different classes: from billionaires to the dirt poor.

The photographs offer a glimpse of urban China in the post-Open Door policy era.

PHOTO: Copyright Hu Yang

Dodge & Burn Film: MOMA's Premiere Brazil, 2008

A collaboration between MoMA and the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, this film series is in its sixth year and features work by both new and established filmmakers documenting the different aspects and societies of Latin America's largest country.

Of interest to me is the film, The Xavante Strategy, a story about the Xavante tribe in the Mato Grosso State of Brazil. Here's the synopsis:

Estratégia Xavante (The Xavante Strategy). 2007. Brazil. Directed by Belisario Franca. The film portrays the attempts by the indigenous Xavante nation to preserve their territory and traditions, following the touching personal stories of young men sent to study the customs of urban Brazilian society in order to become spokespersons for their people. In Portuguese; English subtitles. 86 min.

PHOTO: Tatiana Cardeal © 2005

Dodge & Burn Video: "From Russia With Hate"

What's it like to be an African or Asian person in Russia? As the immigrant population rises in Russia, so does the number of violent youth who join the ranks of it's neo-Nazi movement. This Current TV documentary reports on the frightening reality of misguided anger transformed to racism, spawned by an economic boom in the former Soviet Union.

WARNING: This video contains graphic imagery.

Renee Cox Is My Photography Hero

Photographer and mixed media artist Renne Cox is infamous for her photographic panel titled "Yo Mama's Last Supper" depicting herself (a naked black woman) as Christ in a recreation of the iconic Last Supper scene, exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 2001.

At the time, NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani called the panel "disgusting, outrageous and anti-Catholic." Ironically, the same photographic panel was shown at a church in Venice in 1999 with no backlash... what's up Rudy? Is the powerful image of a black, female, god-like figure that intimidating to you?

Cox defended the work by stating that "...Christianity is big in the African-American community, but there are no presentations of us," she said. "I took it upon myself to include people of color in these classic scenarios."

Renee Cox is a badass who takes visual risks, takes the heat for it and counters HIStory's tendency to represent only one side.

Renee Cox challenges and urges society to WAKE UP!

Renee Cox's work needs a more public, less elitist type of venue than museums/galleries so that the world can see and hear her message.

An Art:Jamaica blog post from last year mentions new work from Renee Cox, "inspired by [TV show] 'Desperate Housewives' and the St. Andrew upperclass housewife set. The driving influence being the need to create images where black women are given the space to 'luxuriate in depression'."

Perhaps her next work could be projected onto the Hollywood sign in LA...

SPEAK OUT: Do you consider the imagery in Renee Cox's "Yo Mama's Last Supper" to be blasphemy or disrespectful of the Christian religion?

PHOTO: Renee Cox and her photographic panel, "Yo Mama's Last Supper".

Stock Photography: PhotoShelter

PhotoShelter is a unique online community where photographers from 130 countries worldwide contribute images daily. The site also offers services like The PhotoShelter Collection, a marketplace where photographers can earn 70% of every sale versus the standard 35%.

At PhotoShelter you'll find photographers specializing in weddings, editorial, sports, photojournalism and more. The site is worth a visit where you're interested in buying royalty-free and/or rights-managed images or if you just want to be inspired by great imagery.

BTW, if you haven't seen it already, go see the historical epic movie Mongol. It gracefully illustrates the early life of infamous Mongol leader Genghis Khan.

Unlike the many horrid accounts of the conqueror, this movie portrays Genghis as a fearless young man determined to bring order and security to the Mongol empire.

Black Models Continue to Rule

Ever since Italian Vogue decided to due it's all "black girl" issue, I've been seeing black models used in fashion spreads and ads.

Here's my latest sighting from fashion e-zine JC Report featuring a model named Georgie.

I love her natural beauty, especially the hair. After seeing Tyra and Naomi sporting down-to-there weaves all these years, it's refreshing to see...

PHOTO: Alex Freund for Gravure magazine, stylist: Anna Levak, hair: Tuan Anh Tran, makeup: Tracy Murphy, model: Georgie at Muse

CNET Photo Gallery: 'Green' graffiti makes paint-free protests

This post is a little off-topic today but I just wanted to highlight how creative minds worldwide are taking graffiti and protest art to whole new level.

For instance, in the photo shown here, artist Alexandre Orion draws skulls by scraping off the dirt on a wall of the Max Feffer Tunnel of Sao Paulo, Brazil... genius!

Move over Banksy and other notorious paint can sprayers! This photo gallery features the many ingenious ways in which artists today are making environmentally friendly statements like light projecting words onto the sides of buildings. It's not as permanent as tagging with spray paint but it's definitely memorable...

CNN Presents "Black in America"

CNN Presents: Black in America continues with "The Black Woman & Family." Soledad O'Brien explores the varied experiences of black women and families and investigates the disturbing statistics of single parenthood, racial disparities between students and the devastating toll of HIV/AIDS. O'Brien reports on the progress of black women in the workplace and the status of the black middle class.

Watch it tonight!

Galerie Livet in France Exhibits Prints from the Birth of Photography, Mid 19th Century

Most of us dabble in frivolous use of cell phone and digital cameras on the regular, but do we ever stop and think about the birth of photography?

A unique photographic exhibit features prints from the early years of photography, before 1910. People back then didn't have instant access to a camera the way we do. There was no flash technology so sitting still for a few minutes was required at times. Photography was even used to document eerie subjects like the dead so they could live on in their family's memories.

The exhibit is titled "Trois ou quatre choses que je sais d'elle, la photographie (Three or Four Things I Know about Photography)" and continues until August 2, 2008 at the Galerie Livet, a small museum located in the village of Saint-Germain-le-Vasson in Normandy, France.

For a sneak peak without having to step foot in France, you can view the Guardian Weekly's online slideshow of 11 prints from the photographic exhibit at Galerie Livet. I've used this portrait of a Tangier man to illustrate this post because it's a classic example of how the photographic medium was also used as a tool in the field of "ethnic" studies. The Guardian Weekly article grossly points out how the "sense of empathy is so strong [for the subject] that it quite surpasses conventional ethnic studies."

PHOTO: Man from Tangier, 1859, by Gustave de Beaucorps, Galerie Livet

AIM FOR FREEDOM! A 40 Year Photography & Art Retrospective of the American Indian Movement

SomArts Cultural Center
934 Brannan Street (between 8th & 9th Streets), in The Bay Gallery, San Francisco

Watch the Youtube Videos of the AIM for Freedom Reception

AIM-WEST, an affiliate of the American Indian Movement, and now officially based in San Francisco, is pleased to present in the Bay Area, AIM for Freedom. A 40 year Photography and Art Retrospective Exhibit.

The AIM ‘40 Year’s Retrospective’ begins Tuesday, July 8, through July 31, 2008.

At the core of the movement is Indian leadership under the direction of NeeGawNwayWeeDun (Clyde H. Bellecourt), Nowa-Cumig (Dennis Banks), and others. The women in the movement like Janet McCloud, Agnes Lamont, and Mary Jean Wilson have had a key role in AIM’s development from the beginning. Indian people were never intended to survive the settlement of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere, our Turtle Island. The liberation of Wounded Knee in 1973 was the catalyst raising the consciousness of the entire world that Indigenous peoples are still alive in the USA, and are willing to die for their right to the land and their way of life. Wounded Knee was the last military challenge by Native Americans with the U.S. Army to this day.

From Alcatraz Island to Washington D.C. future AIM members have left their mark! By asserting their right to self-determination American Indians today can hold their heads up and say they have a place at the table, to include economic independence with the creation of casino enterprises. With the strength of a spiritual base, AIM has been able to clearly articulate the claims of Native Nations and has had the will and intellect to put forth those claims. AIM develops partnerships with an array of allies to address the common needs of the Native Peoples. Its first mandate is to ensure the fulfillment of treaties made with the United States. This is the clear and unwavering vision of The American Indian Movement.

Artists and Photographers include:
Dick Bancroft: Documentary photographer who has chronicled AIM actions since 1971.
Ilka Hartmann: Internationally acclaimed Bay Area photographer.
Michelle Vignes: Long time photo-journalist will feature photographs from her book Indiens d’Amerique.
Dave Cordova: Photographer currently on Longest Walk II.

PHOTO: Columbus Day - a day of mourning. San Francisco, 1969 (© Michelle Vignes)

Submit Your Urban Portrait to Tate Modern's "Street Or Studio" Photo Book

Tate has partnered with Flickr and Blurb to invite you to contribute your own urban portrait to a unique photo book, Street & Studio: A History of Urban Photography. Contribute up to two of your street or studio portraits to the Street or Studio Flickr group. All photos will automatically be posted on Tate's website and will also be screened in the gallery.

When submissions close on 27 July, a panel of curators, artists and photographers (including Juergen Teller!) will select 100 photographs to feature in the Street or Studio book.

Submit a photo from your Flick or Blurb account today!

The Museum of Fine Arts Houston presents "The Black List Project"

From the Associated Press:
An exhibit opening at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston on Aug. 3 will look at the black experience in America.

"The Black List Project" is a collaboration between New York photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and film critic Elvis Mitchell, once a critic at the Free Press. The show features large-scale portraits of 25 prominent black Americans and some excerpts from videotaped interviews. Toni Morrison, Colin Powell, Al Sharpton, Russell Simmons, Vernon Jordan and Chris Rock are some of the subjects.

Also at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, check out the African American Battlefields of the Civil War: Contemporary Photography by William Earle Williams exhibit.

PHOTO: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Toni Morrison, 2007
Collection of the artist
© Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

Mexican Photographer Livia Corona and the "Little People" Bullfighters

For the past 8 years photographer Livia Corona has documented the Enanitos Toreros, troupes of little people performing as bullfighters. She toured and lived with them throughout Mexico and migrant farming communities in the US, often traveling 12 to 14 people to a van. The cars blared out a tailored audiotape advertisement: "This evening, in your town, the Enanitos Toreros have arrived with a show that will kill you. But kill you with laughter."

This Friday, July 18th, the powerHouse Arena in Brooklyn will host a launch party for the release of the Enanitos Toreros photography book by Livia Corona.

Black and White Photography by Hiroshi Watanabe

A legend in the making, Hiroshi Watanabe had a successful career in LA doing TV production before making the switch to full-time photographer.

Originally from Sapporo, Japan, with work in museums and the George Eastman House, Watanabe's photography career is admirable and inspiring.

Browse his work online at the official Hiroshi Watanabe website. Watanabe's black and white photography images of fascinating subjects like Kabuki players, brick workers in India, animals around us... I had a hard time choosing just one image to accompany this blog post.

PHOTO: Nataly Tabango, Ecuador, Copyright Hiroshi Watanabe

The African Experience In Mexico: From Yanga to the Present

African American Museum in Philadelphia
701 Arch Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
(215) 574-0380

Organized by the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, this groundbreaking exhibition highlights Mexico’s third root, and investigates the complex relationship between African-Americans and Mexicans in the United States, and the African legacy in Mexico and the Americas.

Exhibit runs through October 25, 2008

Read the Philadelphia Inquirer review, titled "Art: Africans in Mexico" by art critic Edward Sozanski.

Vintage Photo Depicts Barefoot Black Golf Caddy, Is it Racist?

After a 16-month renovation project, the Dubsdread Golf Course in Orlando, FL reopened today amidst controversy of this photo missing from its decor. For years the sepia-toned photograph sat on the walls of the golf course's restaurant, The Tap Room. Yet the Commissioner asked that it be removed stating that a city-owned property should not display material that could be offensive to African-Americans.

But should the "legend of Bagger Vance" be forgotten? Byron Brooks, the city's chief administrative officer, thinks that removing this photo from the walls of The Tap Room might be a way of dishonoring the black caddies and their historical role in the game of golf.

What do you think? Is this photograph racist or should it be a part of the new Dubsdread Golf Course?

Photo-Documenting the Origins of B-Boy and Hip-Hop Culture

18,000 Mexicans Get Naked for Spencer Tunick

Nude photography is always in hot debate, so it's interesting to see which photographers get away with "tastefully" using nudity in their "art".

Spencer Tunick is one of these photographers, though he was arrested back in 1994 after having a nude model for him during the daytime in Manhattan.

Although this story is from May 2008, I thought it was pretty remarkable that 18,000 Mexicans posed naked for him - breaking his previous record of 7,000 models set in Barcelona.

The photo shown here was actually taken by Reuters' photographer Daniel Aguilar, but you can see the final image at Spencer Tunick's website.

PHOTO: Spencer Tunick, Thousands of naked volunteers posed in Mexico City (Reuters: Daniel Aguilar)

National Gallery of Australia Exhibit: Picture Perfect

A survey exhibition of the history of photography in the Asia–Pacific region.

Asia–Pacific photography 1840s–1940s
11 July – 9 November 2008

The Gallery’s new Asia and Pacific collection will be showcased for the first time from 11 July to 9 November 2008 with The first century of Asia–Pacific photography. This exhibition will be the first survey of the history of photography from India and Sri Lanka through Southeast Asia, Australia and the Pacific to the west coast of North America, from the formative decades of the 1840s to 1860s to the early 1940s and advent of the Second World War.

Picture Paradise: the first century of Asia–Pacific photography 1840s–1940s is the National Gallery of Australia’s contribution to Vivid, the National Photography Festival on view in venues around Canberra from 11 July to 12 October 2008. With over 36 exhibitions hosted across 28 participating institutions in Canberra, ranging from national collecting institutions to many smaller community organisations and galleries, Vivid will highlight the city’s rich photographic collections through exhibitions and a wide range of events.

PHOTO: An 1847 daguerreotype of a south-east Australian Aboriginal and two younger companions. (NGA: Douglas T. Kilburn )

"Four Women" Group Show Features Photographers Jessica Ingram, Carrie Mae Weems and Deborah Willis

July 18 - August 30, 2008

Jackson Fine Art
3115 East Shadowlawn Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30305

In light of the recent Jackson Fine Art show celebrating the Civil Rights Movement with photographer Bruce Davidson and paying honor to the critically acclaimed exhibitions at The High Museum - Road to Freedom and After 1968 - Jackson Fine Art continues to consider race and relationships in the upcoming show Four Women curated by Charles Guice, owner and curator of Charles Guice Contemporary in Oakland, California.

Asking the question - how has the dialogue about ethnicity, family, class, gender and sexuality changed in the last 50 years, Four Women showcases the work of [installation artist] Kianga Ford, Jessica Ingram, Carrie Mae Weems and Deborah Willis as it investigates their perspectives on the complex relationship between family and race - specifically its ongoing evolution in the South.

Read the full press release at the Artlanta Blog.

PHOTO: Carrie Mae Weems, May Days
Copyright. Courtesy of the artist and Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta

AfroPunk Festival in Brooklyn, July 4 - 13th

I wish AfroPunk was around when I was a teenager... At 15 I wasn't a fan of "punk" music, but I was all about expressing creativity and discovering myself in anti-establishment ways that made me stand out from other Black and Latino kids. For me that meant having fun with FASHION! Black eyeliner & lipstick, torn clothing held together by safety pins, vintage digs, rockin' menswear, wearing my hair crazy curly like Slash from GNR, etc...

The ultimate compliment came one day from a fellow Emma classmate who exclaimed, "I'm always excited every morning to see what you'll be wearing!" Yes, that was exactly the affirmation that I needed to withstand being chided as the Latina version of Morticia Adamms.

Luckily the social outcasts of today can bond and celebrate their diversity through a host of activities at the AfroPunk festival in Brooklyn this month.

Get more info about the festival and schedule of events at the official AfroPunk website.

While you're there, browse through the members and Groups like the Mohawk-ian-ians where I found this photo of a stunning Ethiopian child rockin' a Mohawk!

Or see what you're missing - watch the NY Times Urbaneye Video coverage of the AfroPunk festival.

Then finish it off with a brilliant memoir-style All Hip-Hop article by Michaela angela Davis titled "With the Quickness: A Little Tale of Young, Black Love...Hardcore Style".