News

BFA Photography Professor Graham MacIndoe and Journalism + Design Professor Susan Stellin Curate Reframing Recovery at Aronson Galleries

Curated by Graham MacIndoe & Susan Stellin

April 6-21, 2019

Gallery hours: Open daily 12:00–6:00 p.m. and Thurs. until 8:00 p.m.

 Tuesday, April 9th: Opening reception : 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. Panel discussion: 6:30 – 8:00 p.m.

Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries, Parsons School of Design, The New School

66 Fifth Ave. @ 13th St., New York City

 

There are about 23 million people in the United States who have successfully resolved a problem with drugs or alcohol, but we rarely see or hear their stories compared to depictions of addiction in media, art, music, and film. Although not everyone identifies as being “in recovery” and many people can’t publicly acknowledge their past because of stigma or the consequences of admitting illegal drug use, a growing movement is working to offer examples of success and hope to those still struggling with addiction.

The goal of this exhibit is not just to show that recovery is possible, but also to highlight some of the ways people have rebuilt their lives: reconnecting with their families, finding rewarding work, developing meaningful relationships with partners, peers, and others who offer support. We also wanted to feature some of the treatment providers and harm reduction services that many people rely on, often at times when they feel isolated and overwhelmed. Recovery is rarely a solo journey and it usually involves setbacks and hurdles, but the more we talk about it, share ideas, and embrace different paths, the more people will find their way.

Following the opening reception on April 9th at 6:30 PM, will be a compelling panel discussion, called Art, Media, Research, and Advocacy: What Shapes Public Opinion and Drug Policy? The panel features Graham Macindoe, Tracie Gardner, the
vice president of policy advocacy, Legal Action Center, and Pedro Mateu-Gelabert, principal Investigator and deputy director, Institute of Infectious Disease Research National Development Research Institutes, Inc.  The program is part of the Open Society Foundation’s Dialogue on Drug Policy series at The New School and will be moderated by Susan Stellin . Panelists will discuss how art, media, research, and advocacy can influence how we respond to problematic drug use—through treatment, harm reduction, and other services—and help people rebuild their lives after addiction.

Contributing Artists: Nina Berman, Allan Clear, John Donadeo, Yannick Fornacciari, Tony Fouhse, Paul Gorman, John Linder, Luceo, Graham MacIndoe, Josh Meltzer, Jackie Neal, Neil Sneddon, and Susan Stellin.

Student Projects, supervised by Graham MacIndoe and Julia Gorton, assistant professor of communications at The New School: Sara Akiki, Carly Bayroff, Scouts Palframan, Ellie Plass, Josie Stevenson, and Lucy Xin.

Curator bios:

Graham MacIndoe is a photographer and assistant professor at Parsons and Susan Stellin is a reporter and adjunct professor in the Journalism + Design department at The New School who recently completed a master’s in public health at Columbia University. They have collaborated on various projects combining interviews and photography, including exhibitions, talks, and a memoir documenting Graham’s addiction, incarceration, and recovery.

Many of the contributing artists in this exhibition have personal experience with addiction and recovery, while others have worked closely with the people whose stories they documented through long-term collaborative projects.

Graham MacIndoe & Susan Stellin: Re-Entry & Recovery

Portraits and interviews with people navigating life after addiction and incarceration, from a larger series documenting stories of recovery.

Nina Berman: An autobiography of Miss Wish

A multi-dimensional collaborative work focusing on the story of one woman and the intersection of sexual trauma, mental illness, addiction, and recovery.

Allan Clear: Lower East Side Needle Exchange

Photos of people, events, activism, and art from this community center at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the early 1990s.

John Donadeo: Family Ties

Portraits of John’s extended family and friends exploring the socioeconomic and familial factors that impact addiction and recovery.

Yannick Fornacciari: Heroin Days

Images and text juxtaposing Yannick’s first day on methadone with how he felt after a year of treatment.

Tony Fouhse: Live Through This

Photos of a young woman Tony met who asked for help getting into a rehab program, which enabled her to escape life on the street.

Paul Gorman: Rip and Run

Spoken word pieces and images commenting on Paul’s past drug use and his life now in recovery.

John Linder: Art Therapy

Artwork John created in a program that helps participants use art as part of a therapeutic process to address drug and alcohol problems.

Luceo: Harm Reductionists

Photos of supporters of the harm reduction movement paired with handwritten responses to question prompts.

Graham MacIndoe: Thank You for Sharing

Instagram and Facebook posts reflecting on Graham’s addiction, incarceration, and recovery, which have inspired others to share their experiences as well.

Josh MeltzerDopesick—Agents of Change

Portraits of treatment providers, healthcare workers, activists, and counselors shot for Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America, by Beth Macy.

Jackie Neale: Common Ground Tacony

A cyanotype portrait banner of Richard, who tends to a garden in the Tacony neighborhood of North Philadelphia as part of his recovery from addiction.

Neil Sneddon: Developing Recovery

Photos taken by clients Neil asked to document the people, places, and things they identified as meaningful for their recovery.

Student Projects

Lucy Xin & Josie Stevenson: Responding to Recovery

An interactive experience inviting visitors to respond to open-ended questions about what recovery means to them by writing their thoughts on wall panels and postcards.

Carly Bayroff & Scoutt Palframan: Not Just a Label

An animated projection that replaces derogatory terms associated with people who use drugs with positive identities, to show that no one should be defined by negative labels.

Ellie Plass: Harm Reduction at The New School

An interview addressing student substance use, addiction, harm reduction services, and rehabilitation based on insight from those who have direct experience with this issue.

  Sara Akiki: Recovery in Perspective

A project that uses stenciling to reframe our notion of recovery by allowing viewers to re-evaluate the world from a different perspective.

Thanks to: Luke Hayman and Elyanna Blaser-Gould at Pentagram Design, Hashem Eaddy, The National, and everyone who worked with the artists and shared their stories.

MFA Photography 2014 Alumni Gabriel Sanchez Selected as a Juror in 2019 Daylight Photo Awards

MFA Photography 2014 Alumni Gabriel Sanchez has been selected as a Juror for the 2019 Daylight Photo Awards!

We encourage Parsons students and alumni to submit to the 2019 Daylight Photo Awards. The winner will receive $1000a digital feature and a chance to have their project considered for publication. Previous Daylight Photo Award winners include Zhang Kechun, Bryan Schutmaat, Aaron Vincent Elkaim,Tamas Dezso and Katrin Koenning.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE MAY 1, 2019

Healthy Materials Lab is Hiring!

 

Are you looking to join a team of passionate and creative people working to make the world a healthier place for all people? Healthy Materials Lab is looking for a Research Assistant with videography (both recording and video editing), graphic design, systems mapping, and/or data visualization skills to join our team.

This student will assist with recording and editing videos, including interviews and events; diagramming and mapping systems; visualizing complex information into accessible formats, and creating assets for events and general HML use.

Requirements: Undergraduate or Graduate student at The New School with strong representation abilities. Must be a team player, hard-working, and ready to dive into new material.

Apply Here to be considered for Spring Semester work!

 

Convergence Exhibition Opening Reception November 29th, 2018

Can works of art create social space through the communities they implicate?
Convergence explores this possibility through art works that address race, gender, class and nationality, and are composed in dialogue, unison and dissonance within the exhibition space. Inspired by Homi Bhabha’s description of social processes where “things come from different places, through different media, different histories, and converge in a place, idea, or image” (Artforum/2017), this show brings together an assemblage that disobeys the conventional boundaries of individual works, blurring the lines of authorship and allowing new forms of collective expression to emerge from these interactions.
The exhibition features work from current students from the MFA (Adrian White, Zeshan Ahmed ) and BFA (Luis Diaz) Photography programs.

Photofeast Pin Up Fall 2018

Photofeast Pin Up Fall 2018
Photofeast is a collective of photographs and other creatives from The New School. Our bi-annual pin-up show is your opportunity to display your work, and network with other artists and make new friends!

Date and Time
Friday, November 9th, 2018
5:00 – 6:30PM – Pin Up
7:00 – 9:00PM – Show

Where
66 Fifth Avenue, 3rd Floor

BFA Photography Alumni Kambui Olujimi Presents SKYWRITERS & CONSTELLATIONS at the Newark Museum

BFA Photography alumni Kambui Olujimi presents SKYWRITERS & CONSTELLATIONSa solo exhibition at the Newark Museum. SKYWRITERS will premiere in the museum’s Dreyfuss Planetarium along with CONSTELLATIONS, a series of lithographs, debuting in the Garden Passage. Both works build on the narratives of Olujimi’s 2012 novella, Wayward North. Kambui Olujimi is a Brooklyn native whose multi-disciplinary practice calls attention to the assumptions that underlie our understanding of the world at large. The Opening Reception will be held on Saturday, November 3rd from 5pm – 7pm. RSVP ahead of time by emailing rsvp@newarkmuseum.org with the Subject “Skywriters”. 

Geste Paris Open Call Exhibition Submission Binary / Non-Binary October 19th Deadline

GESTE Paris is committed to experimental processes and invites photo-based artworks from outside the normal bounds of photography. GESTE Paris is an annual underground exhibition of experimental photography organised Shiva Lynn Burgos. GESTE brings together vintage and contemporary works by both established and emerging artists. Like a secret speakeasy GESTE is presented in the convivial setting of a classic Parisian apartment that provides a space for reflection and dialogue. GESTE is the nexus of a private collection, artwork from leading galleries, and a selection by invited curators.

GESTE Invites submissions from artists and photographers for the open call.

Black or white, on or off, male or female, digital or analog, zero or one. A binary viewpoint divides the world cleanly and everything is in one category or the other, as two alternatives existing in opposition. The non-binary viewpoint opens the world up to a multiplicity of categories, rejecting the simplification and contrasting nature of the binary position and yet must include both the single and the infinite. How do artists exemplify these concepts today and how do they co-exist?

The world is not black and white but full of greyscale and colour and even ultra- and infra- colours beyond the range of our human eyes.  Where does the spectrum lie in terms of scientifically definable code, digital geometry, astrometrics, consciousness, sexuality, spirituality, artificial intelligence and the technological singularity?

Open Call submission deadline – 19 October

Public jury selection announcement – 26 October

Exhibition opens – 5 November 2018                    

Further details of the Open Call are on our website     

OPEN CALL

Curators for Binary / Non-Binary are Shiva Lynn Burgos(US/France), Georg Bak(Switzerland) and Alisa Phommaxahay(France/Laos). The International Jury includes Raina Lampkins-Fielder (museum curator and multimedia artist), Marc Lenot (mathematician, economist and art critic), Brandei Estes(Head of Photographs at Sotheby’s London), Robin Hanson (author professor and researcher: The Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University, A.I. programmer NASA), Dominic Palfreyman (financier, art philanthropist and collector), Jason Bailey (blockchain, provenance, and digital art expert, creator of artnome.com) and ORLAN (artist) as honorable artist counselor to the jury.

The exhibition will include such notable artists as Constantin Brancusi, Frederick Sommer, Pierre Molinier, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Ned & Shiva Productions, Francis Ruyter, Olaf Nicolai, Ghost of a Dream, Zean Cabangis, CJ Heyliger, Susan Morris, Nicolas Schöffer, Hannibal Volkoff, Samra Habib, Quentin Houdas, Gianfranco Caravaggi, Martin Déselets, Elger Esser

Part Time Faculty Sarah Hasted Interviews with German artist Manuel Knapp

Part Time Faculty Member Sarah Hasted has recently published her interview with Manuel Knapp titled: “STRINGING THE ART WORLD ALONG: Art Dealer SARAH HASTED Interviews German Artist MANUEL KNAPP”. You can read the introduction to the interview below and watch a video of audio excerpts.

“When I first experienced the work of young, German artist, MANUEL KNAPP, it was last summer in July. I was on a whirlwind art tour of Swabia, Germany, a passenger in a 911 Porsche, visiting private museums, meeting art collectors, and enjoying the most spectacular meal I have ever eaten in my life. Situated in the heart of the small village of Grossglattbach, in the attic above a small restaurant called the Lamm, owned by a husband and wife team, is their son, Manuel Knapp’s unique atelier. After eating, not one but two dinners (no joke), I climbed up the steep steps in my high heels and full belly, to the studio. On the top floor of this traditional German, half timber house, is a thoughtful showcase of sophisticated, complicated and truly obsessive, 3 dimensional works made entirely of string.
Knapp’s art works have been acquired by private and public art collectors, and the permanent collections of some of the most prestigious private museums in the world, Kunstwerk: Sammlung Klein and theMuseum Ritter:Sammlung Marli Hoppe Ritter, and the Collection Pforzheim, additionally, he has been commissioned to do site specific works, and his art career is just beginning.
Perhaps I am attracted to Manuel’s intricate and meticulously hand woven works because they remind me of the American Indian textiles that I grew up with in New Mexico, or simply because they are a perfect combination of what happens when organic materials meet an obsessive mind. Whatever the reason for the attraction, the works are undeniably magnetic.
I encourage a studio visit with Manuel, go with an empty stomach, savor every delicious bite, then go upstairs and feast your eyes on Manuel’s remarkable art works, the whole experience will not only leave you wanting more, but will be one of the most authentic and genuine experiences you will ever have….you can thank me later.”

BFA Photography Adjunct Professor Graham MacIndoe Announces Upcoming Exhibition at Contemporary Arts Center

BFA Photography Adjunct Professor Graham MacIndoe has recently announced that he will have an upcoming exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center located in Cincinnati Ohio. The Exhibition centers on MacIndoe’s photographs of the band The National and their evolving career from 2002 onward. You can read the announcement from the Contemporary Arts Center here.

The exhibition will run April 27 through May 27, 2018.

Cover for Sleep Well Beast

Contact Sheet, 2003

Irving Plaza, NYC 1/28/18

Sleep Well Beat Album Launch – Bowery Ballroom 9/28/17

 

Photo Faculty Member Thomas Werner Speaking on Fashion and Culture at Bloomsbury Publishing, London

Photography Program faculty member Thomas Werner was invited to give a presentation on Fashion and Culture to the editors and staff at Bloomsbury Publishing in London during spring break. Bloomsbury released Thomas’ first book The Fashion Image in January of this year.

This was one of a series of book talks Thomas has given since the early February launch at Parsons. Additional talks have been given in New York, Boston, and San Diego over the past month, with upcoming talks in Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Paris, and Philadelphia scheduled.

Aperture: ‘Picturing Addiction’ Featuring Part Time BFA Faculty Member Graham MacIndoe

Picturing Addiction

Thursday, April 19

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

The New School, Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, Arnhold Hall

55 West 13th Street, 2nd Floor, Room I-202, New York, NY

FREE

“Picturing Addiction” is a part of the Confounding Expectations lecture series, which is presented by Aperture Foundation, and the Photography Program of Parsons School of Design at The New School.

As the current opioid crisis continues to make national headlines, this panel brings together three photographers who are finding new ways of depicting addiction: Nina Berman‘s decades-long project looking at the trauma of addiction and the healing potential of collaborative art; Edwin J. Torres’s photographs that show the effects of synthetic marijuana in his own community; and Graham MacIndoe‘s nuanced yet powerful series of self-portraits and environments taken during the years he was addicted to heroin and crack. At a moment when 21 million Americans struggle with addiction, photography now plays a key role in shaping our understanding of this crisis. Moderated by Paul Moakley, deputy photo editor of Time, this panel offers ways in which we can further the conversation beyond what we already know—that America is dealing with its worst addiction epidemic yet.

Participating panelists include Nina BermanGraham MacIndoe, and Edwin J. Torres.

This program is supported in part, by the Grace Jones Richardson Trust and William Talbott Hillman Foundation, and by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State legislature, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and with additional support from generous individuals, including the Board of Trustees and Members of Aperture Foundation.

BFA Photography Faculty Graham MacIndoe Featured in Artsy

BFA Photography Faculty Graham MacIndoe is featured in the new article on Artsy As Opioid Epidemic Worsens, Photographers Are Finding New Ways to Capture Addiction. The article discusses opioid addiction and how photography documents addiction. MacIndoe is featured amongst photographers such as Larry Clark and Nan Goldin, you can read the article here.

Special Events for Alumni/Students of Color: 10/21 Community Brunch, 10/26 Portfolio Review, 10/27 Exhibition Closing Reception

(under)REPRESENT(ed) Community Brunch
Saturday, October 21 from 11am-2pm
6 East 16th Street, Wolff Conference Room 1103

Alumni of color and Students of color are invited to break bread, reflect and strategize around experiences of race and identity at Parsons and within creative industries.

Please RSVP: tinyurl.com/underrepresentedbrunch

 
Fb event:
 
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(under)REPRESENT(ed) Portfolio Reviews
Thursday, October 26 from 6-8pm
Starr Foundation Hall- 63 Fifth Ave (UC), Lower level
Students of color are invited to receive critical feedback on work that addresses race and identity from alumni of color.
 
 ……………………………..
(under)REPRESENT(ed) Closing
Friday, October 27 at 6 PM – 8 PM
66 Fifth Avenue, Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries
Exhibiting alumni reflect on their work. Open to the public.
 
For more information, visit: underrepresented.parsons.edu or email us at underrepresented@newschool.edu

(under)REPRESENT(ed) to Open at Sheila C. Design Center

October 17, 6-8 PM

Sheila C. Design Center, Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries

66 5th Ave, Ground Floor

New York, NY 10003

Closing reception with artist talk: October 27th, 6-8pm

(under)REPRESENT(ed) is an exhibition that features Parsons School of Design alumni of color whose creative practices explore the lived experience of race and aim to dismantle systems of racism.  Initiated and organized by a collective of alumni of color, this exhibition features a range of disciplines which simultaneously address and resist the systemic exclusion that prevails in educational and professional institutions and practices.

A video from a digital and physical archive that affirms the future of people of African descent; a design research project lessens the impact of hurricane season on one alum’s hometown in the Dominican Republic; a children’s book fable reveals an allegory of the dangerous journey migrants often face to enter the United States; an online syllabus resource explores the intersections of fashion and race; photographs reflect on the historic status symbol and power of hair in Korean culture, which resonates in communities across the globe; and a multimedia project promotes citizen journalism and challenges the normalization of police violence.

“We are moved by an urgency to foreground the power generated by creative practices,” said the curators of the exhibition.  “Our own experience as students, practicing artists, designers, educators and cultural organizers tells us that this work isn’t always given its due criticism or celebration in the classroom and other institutional spaces.”

People of color have been pioneers in fields of art and design, although they  continue to be significantly underrepresented in positions of power and compensation.  Despite the rich foundational contributions by Black, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous communities to these industries,  they are often rendered invisible.  The curators of this exhibition stake a claim for the centrality of those most deeply impacted by these oppressive frameworks in an era which challenges our existing tools of resistance.

The Parsons alumni featured in the exhibition are (AMT Alums in bold):

Salome Asega, MFA Design and Technology ’14 
Rikki Byrd, MA Fashion Studies ’16
Raquel de Anda, MS Design and Urban Ecologies ’15
Nelson de Jesus Ubri, BFA Architectural Design ’15
Patricia Encarnación, BFA Communication Design ’14 
Noelle Flores Théard, MFA Photography ’14 
Scherezade Garcia, BFA Illustration ’90 
Alston Green, CGRD Illustration ’72 
Kim Jenkins, MA Fashion Studies ’13
Leslie Jimenez, BFA Fine Arts ’12 
Sara Jimenez, MFA Fine Arts ’13 
Yuni Kim Lang, BFA Communication Design ’09 
Jeana Lindo, BFA Photography ’17 
Joy McKinney, MFA Photography ’14 
Joiri Minaya, BFA Fine Arts ’13 
Ron Morrison, MS Design and Urban Ecologies ’15
Inyegumena Nosegbe, BFA Communication Design ’16 
Ayodamola Okunseinde, MFA Design and Technology ’15 
Isaac Paris, BFA Communication Design ’78 
Kaitlynn Redell, MFA Fine Arts ’13 
Jeff Staple, Illustration 
Ken Tanabe, MFA Design and Technology ’04 
James Terrell, MFA Painting ’02 
Duncan Tonatiuh, BFA Integrated Design Curriculum ’08, BA Liberal Arts ’08
Robert Liu-Trujillo, BFA Illustration ’10 
Christopher Udemezue, BFA Integrated Design Curriculum ’08

Organized by a collective of Parsons Alumni of Color

Havanna Fisher, BFA Fashion Design ’14, BA The Arts ’14 
Scherezade García, BFA Illustration ’90 
Joelle Riffle, BFA Communication Design ’13 
Yelaine Rodríguez, BFA Fashion Design ’13
Sable Elyse Smith, MFA Design and Technology ’13 
Nadia Williams, BFA Fashion Design ’01 
(under)REPRESENT(ed) equity + social justice advisor: Gail Drakes
(under)REPRESENT(ed) research assistant: Claudine Brantley, BFA Candidate of Photography ’18
(under)REPRESENT(ed) research assistant: Barbara Byrd, BFA Fine Arts ’17

Contact us at underrepresented@newschool.edu

The exhibition will run from October 14, when an opening reception for Parsons alumni will be held, until October 29.

More info here.

Parsons Photography Alumni Jeana Lindo (BFA), Noelle Flores Theard (MFA), and Joy Mckinney (MFA) Exhibiting Work in (under)REPRESENT(ed) Exhibition

Parsons Photography Alumni Jeana Lindo (BFA), Noelle Flores Theard (MFA), and Joy Mckinney (MFA) will be exhibiting work in the upcoming (under)REPRESENT(ed) Exhibition which is an exhibition that features Parsons alumni of color whose creative practices explore the lived experience of race and aim to dismantle systems of racism. The exhibition opens to the public on October 17, 2017 from 5:30pm to 7:30pm. You can read more on the exhibition and RSVP here.

Sheila C. Johnson Design Center
Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries
66 Fifth Ave
Parsons School of Design

Photography Faculty Thomas Werner and Parsons Alumni in “The Threads That Bind”

Parsons School for Design Photography Program alumni Fan Chen, Therese Ohrvall, Jessica Richmond, Media Studies alumni Diana Khong, and Communication Design student Whitney Badge comprise the exhibition The Threads That Bind, on view through October 22nd in the State Museum of the History of St Petersburg Poterna Exhibition Hall. The exhibition was curated by Photography faculty member Thomas Werner.

 

The work for the exhibition was created during a 10 day grant funded visit to Saint Petersburg to create work focusing on seven local museums.

 

“Fact & Fiction” 2017 Team America BFA Photo and Media Studies Alumni with Thomas Werner

Photography Faculty Thomas Werner with BFA Photo Alumni Fan Chen, Therese Ohrvall, Jessica Richmond, and MFA Media Studies alumni Diana Khong.

On the celebratory boat ride after wrapping up 10 days of work with 7 museums in Saint Petersburg, Russia for “Fact & Fiction”, the 2017 Contemporary Art in Traditional Museums exhibition. The team from America is Fan Chen, Diana Khong, Tessi Öhrvall,  Jess Richmond and Thomas Werner. Also pictured is our indispensable colleague and guide Anastasia Rozhkova. Travel and production were grant funded in their entirety by BFA Photography  faculty member Thomas Werner. The exhibition will open in late September at the State Museum of the History of St Petersburg, Peter and Paul Fortress, Poterna Exhibition Hall.

 

Lizzy Oppenheimer and Mark Lim Launching Print of Nicotine Magazine

BFA Alumni Lizzy Oppenheimer and Mark Lim are launching the print version of their fashion magazine Nicotine. You can read the press release below.

Daisy Korpics (BFA Photography 2016) Featured in Musee Magazine

BFA Photography Alumni (’16) Daisy Korpics has recently been featured in Musee Magazine to discuss her both series “Disquiet’ and “568”.

You can read the interview here.

 

Andy Egelhoff (BFA Photo 17) Featured in GUP Magazine

Andy Egelhoff (BFA Photo 17) was recently featured in GUP (Guide to Unique Photography) Magazine.

You can read the feature here.

Parsons BFA Photo Students featured in Vice

Sam Lichtenstein, Andrew Egelhoff and Mika Orotea have all recently been featured in the recent Vice article “This Is the Next Generation of Great Young New York Photographers”.

To read the article please visit here

Sam Lichtenstein

Andrew Egelhoff

Mika Orotea

BFA Photo Alumna Chuck Grant Featured in NYT

BFA Photo Alumna Chuck Grant (’12) was recently featured on The New York Times website, under the Fashion & Style section

You can read the feature here

For Chuck’s work you can visit her website here

Enter the Spring Photography Contest!

37th ANNUAL SPRING PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST

1st PLACE :: $2,000 cash award plus…
• Sigma 24-35mm F2 DG HSM | Art lens ($999)*

2nd PLACE ::  $1,500 cash award plus…
• Sigma 24mm 1.4 DG HSM | ART lens ($849)*

3rd PLACE ::  $1,000 cash award

4th PLACE AWARDS (x5) ::  Five $125 awards

100 HONORABLE MENTIONS
All Honorable Mentions will be listed in the November 2017 issue of Photographer’s Forum magazine and will receive a certificate of outstanding merit.

* Lens award for US residents only. First and Second Place winners in all other countries will receive additional award of $500 in lieu of lens.


The top 8 winning photos will be published in the November 2017 issue of Photographer’s Forum. All contest finalists will be published in the hardcover book Best of Photography 2017 (December 2017).

    • Final entry fee is $5.95 per photo uploaded or postmarked on or before May 19, 2017
    • Rights remain with photographer.
    • Subject matter is open.

APPLY HERE 

BFA Photo Faculty Kate Wolkoff Featured in Seeing Science Project

Current BFA Photo Faculty Kate Wolkoff ‘s bird silhouette series “Found” has been included as a mini exhibition in curator Marvin Heiferman’s Seeing Science Project at the University of Maryland.

You can view the mini series here.

Part Time BFA Photo Professor Graham MacIndoe Upcoming Ted X Talk and Exhibition

Graham MacIndoe, an adjunct professor of photography at Parsons, will open his upcoming exhibition “Coming Clean” The Scottish National Portrait Gallery on April 8th and will run through November 4th 2017.  “His series of self-portraits entitled Coming Clean, confronts his addiction to heroin in a group of photographs that are graphic, unflinching and
powerful.”

You can find more info on the exhibition here 


Graham MacIndoe will also be doing a TED X Talk at Stanford on April 23rd with his Partner Susan Stellin about their memoir which was published last year by Random House about Addiction and Recovery.

For more information on the Ted X Talk visit here

Parsons and Photography Communities Remember George Pitts

Photo by Ryan Pfluger

Time | LightBox Memorializes Beloved Parsons Faculty George Pitts, who passed away this past weekend.

Members of the Parsons community contributed their stories and photos of George: including Elizabeth Renstrom (BFA Photo ’13), Eric Madigan Heck (MFA Photo ’09), Alex Thebez (BFA Photo ’11), and BFA Photo Director, Colin Stearns.

Read the full article here.

A memorial service will be held at Parsons in the coming weeks. Once plans are finalized, details will be circulated to the Parsons community.

 

Freshman BFA Photo Student, Myles Loftin, Wins VFILES Runway Season 8

Freshmen BFA photo student, Myles Loftin, wins VFILES Runway Season 8 as a photographer.

You can read the winners announcement here

For more of Myles’ work you can visit his website 

#RESIST Art Club Postcard Write-in! Friday, Feb 17th 10 AM – 3 PM

#RESIST

February Postcard Write-in

Friday, Feb 17th 

Women’s March : Black History : Immigrant Ban

2 w. 13th, lobby corner / 5th Ave. 

10am – 3pm

Image by: Dotun Abeshinbioke, Parsons First Year

We are inviting the Parsons/New School community of students, faculty, staff & alumni to drop in and write a postcard! What’s on your mind?

Please invite your friends & BE HEARD!

Featuring works designed by Parsons students. We have mailing labels, addresses and postage ready.

Contributions by:

Dotun Abeshinbioke

Lizette Ayala

Shreya Chopra

Zachary Collopy

Luke Davis

Priscilla Gaona

Veronica Lawlor

Alec Lesser

Alexandra Oates

Colette Oberman

Hardnik Puri

Shivam Sinha

Christina Wong

——> or make your own. #creatives #resist

#RESIST Art Club is supported by the School of Design Strategies, School of Art, Media & Technology and the First Year program. We meet every week (except 2/23) from 2:45-3:45pm in 6 e. 16th #1209. Open door, snacks, ideas etc. Join our Facebook Group! 

Photo Faculty Colin Stearns’ Meridian Named One of the Best Photobooks of 2016 by photo-eye

BFA Photo Director Colin Stearns’ photobook Meridian named by photo-eye as one of the Best Photo Books of 2016.

Sarah Bradley writes:

Meridian is quiet and understated, straightforward in layout and small in scale but makes good use of those modest assets. It’s smartly designed. Intimately sized images appear and occasionally repeat, scenes are sometimes viewed from slightly different angles, sometimes printed lightly, making one unsure if the image is really there or if one is seeing the ghost of the photo on the reverse bleeding through. Images fade in and out. A figure appears on one page and then again on the following, but loosing distinction. Suddenly one becomes aware of the shadow of the image through the paper. The photographs move from coastal spaces to verdant ones to concrete and back again, but for me this book isn’t so much about that visual content. Images seem correlated with thought and feeling, the book unwrapping stream of consciousness style to reveal a solitary and heady place. I know this space well; I am often here – but never actually here. Stearns’ voice is well articulated and his Meridian is his own, co-existing as both familiar and foreign terrain.

Jeana Lindo (BFA Photo) Exhibits in Group Show “Antique Black”

022019Thursday, September 29th

7 Bond St, New York, NY

7:00 PM – 12:00 PM

Thomas Werner (BFA Photo Faculty) Named Editor at Large for IRK Magazine

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“IRK Magazine Is an Independent Paris Based Art, Photography and Fashion Printed Magazine and Digital Platform. ”

IRK Magazine

Katherine Wolkoff (New BFA Photo Faculty) Launches Book “Vita Nova” at Spaces Corners at ICP Museum

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ROMAN NVMERALS is a publishing collaboration started by artists David La Spina and Michael Vahrenwald. The imprint consists of a series of simple, single-signature books, consisting of a concise body of work. ROMAN NVMERALS books are affordable and printed in the US at Meridian Printing in East Greenwich, Rhode Island on an Indigo Press. The artist-funded books are printed in batches of 20–40 in order to have no backstock or overhead, serving as a streamlined vehicle to make self-publishing affordable for artists.

ROMAN NVMERALS’s new releases include the following titles:

Vol. IX: Nine by Ted Partin
Vol. X: Little Discrepancies by Linda Gallagher and Brian Bauman
Vol. XI: El Camino Real by John Lehr
Vol. XII: Island Ponds by Orianna Riley
Vol. XIV: Woven Nº 4 by Tanya Marcuse
Vol. XV: Woven Nº 9 by Tanya Marcuse
Vol. XVII: Drafts: Letters Unsent by Ann Daly
Vol. XVIII: Vita Nova by Katherine Wolkoff
Vol. XIX: Garden Study by Marion Belanger
Vol. XX: Ranch House by Marion Belanger
Vol. XXI: Outside Edge by Marion Belanger
Vol. XXII: Oasis by Kristine Potter
Vol. XXIII: A Different Kind of Tension by Darin Mickey
Vol. LVII: Box of Fiction by Ann Daly

Book Launch: ROMAN NVMERALS

Alumna Elena Montemurro (BFA Photo ’13) Featured in i-D magazine

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BFA Photography graduate Elena Montemurro was recently featured by i-D magazine for her coming-of-age photo series. You can see her feature here and visit her website here.

Megan Paetzhold (BFA Photo ’16) Exhibits at The Aperture Foundation in “Photography is Magic”

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Aperture Summer Open is an annual open-submission exhibition at Aperture Foundation’s gallery that features a wide variety of work drawn from members of our photographic community. Selected annually by a prominent curator or editor, the exhibition seeks to reveal and report on critical themes and trends driving international contemporary photographic practice. The exhibition opens the doors of the Foundation to all photographers, both well- and lesser-known, as it fosters and promotes new ideas and talent.

 

Paetzhold will be exhibiting work from her series Studies in: Ambylopia

Show Opening:

Thursday July 14th, 6-8pm at the Aperture Foundation

Facebook Event

Megan Paetzhold

Ryan James Caruthers (BFA Photo ’16) Featured in Huffington Post Arts

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“Photographer Ryan James Caruthers’ self-portrait of himself in a wrestling uniform is a stark departure from that norm. His shape is long and skinny, pale and delicate. His eyes are shut, his arms raised, his face resting somewhere between exhaustion and ecstasy. Blood drips from his nostril like a violent omen. In this striking photograph, Caruthers’ expression resembles that of St. Theresa more than the traditional classical Greek sculptures used to embody athletic masculinity. ”

Queer Photographer Revisits Traumatic High School Sports Tryouts In Stunning Series

Jess Richmond (BFA Photo ’16) Wins Grand Prize in PDN 2016 Edition of The Curator

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The Curator

“The Madness of Many” is a self-portrait series by Jess Richmond depicting her and her imagined twin sister, Connie. Each image is an illusion that is constructed in-camera, toying with spatial relationships, familial relationships and the picture plane.

BFA Photography Sophomore Pin-Up Exhibition

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Join us on Friday, May 6th for our BFA Photography Sophomore Pin-Up Exhibition.

66 5th Ave, 3rd floor. 7-9pm

 

Facebook event page:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1784678878427589/

 

Adrian Lam, BFA Photo Alumni, Helps Launch New High End Lifestyle Site, RealClearLife

RealClearLife is a guide to a life well lived. As the men’s lifestyle affiliate of RealClearPolitics, RealClearLife curates and creates the world’s most striking images and ideas, commissions top new content, and keeps our audience connected to the best of the world around them.

Visit RealClearLife for more information.Screen Shot 2016-04-28 at 9.53.42 AM

Photo Faculty Matthew Jensen Named Guggenheim Fellow

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Matthew Jensen, Part-Time Lecturer at Parsons, has been named as Guggenheim Fellow in Photography for 2016. Jensen has taught in the Photography program at Parsons since 2012.

The Guggenheim Foundation’s announcement gives a comprehensive history of Jensen’s work and background:

Artist Matthew Jensen’s multi-disciplinary practice combines walking, collecting and rigorous site-specific explorations of landscapes. His projects strive to connect people to places by expanding the traditions of landscape photography to include a range of mediums and actions. Each body of work develops from time spent in publicly accessible landscapes or by examining the way different technologies transform this experience.

Walking and participation have been central to a number of Jensen’s recent projects. Walking Flatbush, is an artist-map and poster created and distributed in conjunction with Crossing Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Museum (2014). A Walker’s Guide to Chadds Ford, also an artist-map and poster, was the centerpiece of Jensen’s solo exhibition at the Brandywine River Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania (2014). Both maps combine found objects, native plants, historical research, and anecdotes with logistical information. Jensen combined community participation, walking, history, and collecting in his exhibition The Wilmington Center for the Study of Local Landscape at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts (2013). The final installation provided an outlet for the work created by participants and also featured discoveries made by Jensen throughout the Wilmington park system. One series of photographs titled, Tree Love, documented the tree carvings and arborglyphs found in abundance along the Brandywine River. The age-old tradition was revealed to be a century-old subculture with thousands of carvings hiding off-trail on nearly every beech tree; a marriage proposal, poems, vulgarities, insults, countless hearts, and portraits dating as far back as 1903. Jensen designed and led artist walks in conjunction with the aforementioned exhibitions as well as for Storm King Art Center, the Municipal Arts Society, City as Living Laboratory, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Third Streaming and Elastic City.

New York City landscapes have been the subject of many of Jensen’s photographic and collection-based projects. The ongoing project Park Artifactshas been presented in various iterations in solo exhibitions on Governors Island (2010), at Wave Hill (2012), at the Queens Museum during his ArtBuilt Mobile Studio residency (2015), and in Brooklyn Bridge Park (2016). The collection contains over 6,000 artifacts found in plain sight during walks through parks. Historical objects like a Spanish Real from 1746, flint arrowheads, clay pipes, and trading beads mix together with objects as familiar as fishing lures and plastic toys. Ian Frazier, writing for the New Yorker, described the wandering process in an article titled Lost and Found (23 July 2012).

Light and landscape combine as metaphor in numerous works by Jensen. In 2009 the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired his photographic seriesThe 49 States and exhibited it in After Photoshop: Manipulated Photography in the Digital Age (2012). The photographs were derived from months of exploring small towns in the early days of Google Streetview. The series is also in the collection of the National Gallery of Art where it was also exhibited (2016). Other works like The Sun Returning, 14 Hour Sunset and Rainbow Around the Sun were exhibited together at Yancey Richardson Gallery as part of Jensen’s solo show Feels Like Real (2015).

Matthew Jensen received his B.A. in political science and fine arts from Rice University in 2002. He worked on a number of national, state, and city grassroots political campaigns prior to receiving his M.F.A from the University of Connecticut in photography and sculpture in 2008. He is a MacDowell Fellow and has participated in residencies at the Queens Museum, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Wave Hill and Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. Jensen has been a part-time lecturer of photography and studio art at Parsons/The New School since 2012. He has also taught at SUNY Purchase, George Washington University and the University of Connecticut.

Parsons Alumni and Faculty to Exhibit in Queens International Exhibition

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Sylvia Hardy (MFA Photography ’12), Magali Duzant (MFA Photography ’14) and Shadi Harouni (Faculty in Fine Arts) Exhibiting in Queens International 2016, the Queens Museum’s biannual exhibition of artists living or working in Queens, NY. The show highlights and contextualizes the artistic vibrancy of the borough through cultural productions in all media. The seventh iteration looks to the idea of thresholds and the way spaces for transition, contact, and exchange operate. These notions of borders and acts of border-crossing are also characterized by collaborations with Trans-Pecos, an alternative music venue, and Ayham Ghraowi, designer and creative director for the exhibition’s multi-outlet publishing platform.

The Opening Reception is taking place on April 10, 4PM – 8PM

Queens International 2016 is organized by guest curator Lindsey Berfond and Queens Museum Director of Exhibitions Hitomi Iwasaki.

Participants
Manal Abu-Shaheen
Vahap Avşar
Jesus Benavente and Felipe Castelblanco
Brian Caverly
Kerry Downey
Magali Duzant
Golnaz Esmaili
Mohammed Fayaz
Kate Gilmore
Jonah Groeneboer
Bang Geul Han and Minna Pöllänen
Dave Hardy
Sylvia Hardy
Shadi Harouni
Janks Archive
Robin Kang
Kristin Lucas
Carl Marin
Eileen Maxson
Melanie McLain
Shane Mecklenburger
Lawrence Mesich
Freya Powell
Xiaoshi Vivian Vivian Qin
Alan Ruiz
Samita Sinha and Brian Chase
Barb Smith
Monika Sziladi
Alina Tenser
Trans-Pecos (with 8 Ball Community, ESP TV, and Chillin Island)
Mark Tribe
Sam Vernon
Max Warsh
Jennifer Williams

Kambui Olujimi (BFA Photo ’02) Exhibits Solastalgia at CUE Art Foundation

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SOLASTALGIA
Curated by Hank Willis Thomas
CUE Art Foundation
137 W 25th St, New York, NY 10001
Opening: April 7, 2016, 6-8 PM
On view from April 7-May 12

Kambui Olujimi presents the opening of Solastalgia at the CUE Art Foundation. The exhibition includes large-scale sculptures, silkscreens, and paintings. The works in the show reside at the intersection of numerous issues of current concern to me: the condition of New York City and the nation including gentrification, police killings (both by and of the police), as well as the challenges of commemoration and loss.

The term solastalgia was coined by Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht in 2003. Essentially it is the feeling of homesickness when one is still home. “Solastalgia is when your endemic sense of place is being violated,” Albrecht describes. Though the term originally references the psychological displacement of farmers due to climate change, I use it as a lens to examine the psychological dynamics tied to the rapidly changing five boroughs.

BFA Photo Faculty and Program Director Colin Stearns’ Book “Meridian” Reviewed in Photo Eye

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“If all photographs are afterimages — traces and disclosures of an ever-changing world — what is gained by foregrounding this fact? Always previous and elsewhere, images reveal people we’ve known, know or may never meet, as well as places we’ve been or may never visit. They linger, reinforce or displace memories, and come back in unexpected ways. A personal reflection on the vagaries of photographic vision, Colin Stearns’ self-described photo-novel Meridian gathers three years of peripatetic images taken in France and New York City. Modest and unassuming, the images follow the life of a young man on the move with a camera. Alone and restless, he gazes at the world from a distance and moves through a landscape of foreign cities, parks and wilderness, and the confines of anonymous hotel rooms and flats. Less romantic autobiography and more philosophical missive, Meridian points to a past that is slipping away and yet held still in mute images. ” – Adam Bell

 

Visit Photo Eye to read the full review

Gallery 3 Student Exhibition: “EMPOWER”

Gallery 3 presents “Empower”

66 5th Avenue, 3rd Floor

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(Image by Hallie Turner)

This exhibition is a representation of what different artists, whose gender is marginalized in some way, find empowering for them. This exhibition takes place during Women’s History Month and collects works which demonstrate the importance of intersectionality in feminism.

 

Featuring work by current BFA and MFA students Alison Viana, Azzah Sultan, Cassie Basford, Elizabeth Hernarine, Gabby Pignanelli, Hallie Turner, Jeana Lindo, Megan Tepper, Nicole Vega, Roberto Rischmaui, Victoria Rickson, Vix Walker.

Organized by Vix Walker, Hallie Turner and Victoria Rickson.

 

BFA Photo Alumni Mark Fitton featured on Fotografia Magazine

Mark Fitton’s Intimate Photos of His Parents Explore New Paths for the Parent-Child Relationship

Read the full interview and see his work here: http://fotografiamagazine.com/close-mark-fitton/

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Kambui Olujimi (BFA Photo ’02) Exhibits At CUE Art Foundation and the NADA Art Fair

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Opening April 7, 2016, Kambui Olujimi presents, Solastalgia, a solo show with the CUE Art Foundation. The exhibition includes large-scale sculptures, silkscreens, and paintings. The works in the show reside at the intersection of numerous issues of current concern to me: the condition of New York City and the nation including gentrification, police killings (both by and of the police), as well as the challenges of commemoration and loss.

The term solastalgia was coined by Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht in 2003. Essentially it is the feeling of homesickness when one is still home. “Solastalgia is when your endemic sense of place is being violated,” Albrecht describes. Though the term originally references the psychological displacement of farmers due to climate change, I use it as a lens to examine the psychological dynamics tied to the rapidly changing five boroughs.

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Olujimi will also exhibit with collaborator Camilo Alvarex and Samson Projects for the NADA Art Fair in May and September at the Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco.

Take A Break From Midterms: Spring Breakers Bash! Wednesday, March 9

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Peer Mentors / Spring Breakers Bash!

Who: Parsons First Years, AMT Undergrad Sophs and Juniors!

Join us for

Tacos + Treats 

Button Making + Tie Dye

Wednesday – March 9th 3 – 4pm

University Center, 63 Fifth Ave. 

Star Foundation Room

UL 102

Mark Woodward & Megan Paetzhold (BFA Photo) Discuss Transgender Transition and Gender Fluidity In “Lia” Photo Series

On Friday, March 4, 2016 BFA Photography seniors Mark Woodward (MW) and Megan Paetzhold (MP) will debut “Lia” at the No.4 Studio in Brooklyn, NY. The series depicts the transgender transition of Antonio Romero to Angelita, who goes by Lia for short. The exhibit, which was curated by Paetzhold and photographed by Woodward over a four-year period, will feature 30 prints documenting Lia’s journey through addressing the topics of transgender transitions and gender fluidity. The exhibit will show from March 4-6th.

By Terricka Johnson (TJ)

Mark Woodward and Megan Paetzhold, Photo by Nick Bridges

Mark Woodward and Megan Paetzhold, Photo by Nick Bridges

TJ: So, what made you want to do this project? How did you meet Lia?

MW: We were both freshmen at the New School. I knew Lia as Antonio for the first 3 months of our friendship and over the winter break when she publicly started her transition, I was captivated by that primarily from a photography standpoint. Those first few images were a really complex duality between really vulnerable and scared but also having this sort of confidence suddenly emerge.

It really interested me on a personal level and I think throughout the whole four years that’s been my ethos. It’s not so much a transgender transition. This story is more of just Lia becoming herself.

TJ: What was her reaction? Did you approach her or was it a mutual thing?

MW: She knew me as a portraiture photographer back then and I approached her wanting to shoot in the studio. Those first few images were really… I couldn’t put my finger on it – what was happening, but I knew something was happening. I was going to slowly work up the courage to ask,  but she actually asked me. I think for a lot of people transitioning, they almost don’t want these moments of difficulty remembered, but what’s amazing about Lia is she’s seeing her story as very honest and wants it to be almost educational.

TJ: The first day you all shot, after you walked away from it, what was your initial thought from that day?

MW: It’s tricky because I wish I did, like I do now: sit down in a coffee shop with my Moleskin journal and document my emotions, but I was like 18 or 19 then, so I didn’t think it would be a big project. I simply thought it might have been a couple of shoots. I just remember feeling very intrigued. Those first few images were quite androgynous.

I think when you start shooting with someone the first time, at least for me, I think I always second guess “Oh, how is our dynamic? What’s our friendship like? Do those picture show that? Do they show attention?” So I think I was thinking more after those shoot “Oh, I hope I made her feel comfortable” as opposed to “Let’s critique the images”.

TJ: You’ve been shooting Lia for how many years now?

MW: 4 and a half years.

TJ: Over that, what kind of growth have you seen in her and the way that she sees herself now?

MW: Of course the physical changes were something, which is important to show but I think the images I wanted to show from her growth as a woman weren’t so much as purely glorifying and celebrating. I wanted to show the reality of it. Even when I knew her as Antonio, I remember Antonio being quite introverted, quite guarded whereas now I think there’s just this real inner confidence because she’s wearing her heart on her sleeve.

There are a lot of people who have transitioned or are transitioning or about to transition who I think really fight demons of “Do I go for it or do I continue this performance of someone I’m not?” It’s just so brave. I work with a lot of people in the military too and yes that’s brave and rightly so that gets the amount of media it does for people who’ve served in combat or any armed forces, but I don’t think people realize that bravery is not just a physical strength. That’s a huge point I’ve learned from this. How brave it is to be vulnerable.

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Lia, Photo by Mark Woodward

TJ: When you stepped into this journey what were your initial thoughts on joining everything?

MP: Well, I’ve known the project for a while. I knew Lia when she was Antonio. Mark asked me a couple of months ago.

MW: Probably January

MP: January. He brought the idea forward of me curating because we’ve worked together in the past. I was just very honored because I know how important the project is between the two of them. And I liked the challenge of presenting this story in a way that more interesting than just A to B and focusing on the physical.

It’s not about once the surgery is done: “You’re a woman”. I wanted to focus on that inner transition and go a little bit out of the linear idea of it and make it a more nuanced representation of what you expect the story to be: Beginning, Androgyny, Surgery. Making it more complex.

TJ: Did you ever reach a hard point or have to have any kind of breakthrough?

MP: You mean editing?

TJ: Throughout the whole process, between the both of you?

MP: I think last Saturday? We had a good, long 6-hour working session. Because there’s a lot of images. Which is good—

MW: It’s an archive!

MP: It’s quite the archive. When shooting for 4 and a half years you would expect that. So going from a couple of hundred images, getting it down to 30. Trying to pick the best images to tell that story is a process and it’s hard but, once you get to that point where it makes sense and there’s nothing you want to change, that’s a really good feeling.

MW: It was something for me. I was in the project too much. I think I easy to pretend with the idea that you can be emotionally removed from things, but I think that’s total BS. If you’re going to shoot intimate pictures, if you’re going to have someone drop their guard for you, you’re going to get emotionally attached and I think that’s a good thing. I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

Where she (Megan) curates, she gives you enough to understand but she makes it a much more personal reaction and I think that’s the mission objective with this show. We want people to have their own personal reaction to Lia’s transition. I don’t want people to see and just understand “Ok. This was January. This was February. This was March.”

MP: My goal whenever I’m sequencing and editing is to leave enough ambiguity for the viewer to sort of put themselves in it. And this was a really good project for that. And I think that cutting it down to it’s simplest bones to tell the story but giving you enough to grab on to makes it stronger.

MW: Yeah it was tough. This project’s been my darling.

MP: We had to kill a few photos.

MW: I think I’ve gone into from the start as it’s a friendship. Like it’s never been like “the project”. It’s always been that Lia’s a close friend of mine. We met when were at very key moments in both of our growth and development. I was 18 and she was 19. We’re both in New York City. She was studying theater at the time and I just came here to study photography.

I just think we started this whole thing at such a pinnacle moment of both of our lives and because she had such an unbelievable few years it’s always been more of a friendship. It’s been fun. It’s been really fun to just grow up with this person.

TJ: I think that’s very descriptive for a lot of people. Especially if you come to a city like New York when you can be a little bit more open about yourself. How do you think her background played into who she became and how do you think that shows in the pictures?

MP: You can see Lia’s progression in the series. You can see Marc’s progression as a photographer but you also see the progression of their friendship. And I think you have this mix of these very candid images and these studio portraits, it creates this… you don’t even need to know the background to get the story but it’s there. You can feel it.

TJ: How has your working relationship with each other kind of changed and grown through this process?

MP: We’ve worked together a lot this year. We have a good working relationship and a good friendship and I think that’s what makes it fun. I don’t work with projects I don’t like. If you’re not in it you’re not going to curate it well. This work is really strong. And giving me a pretty good amount of freedom has been helpful. It’s a collaborative effort but we have a very strict “share all of your opinions” policy and I think that’s been very beneficial.

MW: You collaborate with someone for their voice, for their style. You don’t do it for their skill set. I just trust Megan’s gut.

MP: If you like at my work and you look at Mark’s work it’s very different. But I think what’s the point of collaborating with someone who’s the same as you because you’re just going to make the same thing. When you work with someone who has a different mindset that you come up with something way more interesting than either of you could have come up with on your own.

TJ: So final question. If you had to describe the show in three words, the whole experience up to the exhibit.

MP: The show itself or the process or the series?

TJ: The whole process. Everything

MW: Layered. Honest, and Fun. It’s been really fun. And Lia’s going to be there. When I call her up I’m like “Are you sure you’re giving me all access to the images? I can show anything I want? I’m not holding anything back here”. She’s like “I want the story told”.  I know seeing her in that space… yes it’s symbolic, brave and beautiful, but what fun to watch someone have this moment and have their last 4 and a half years celebrated.

LIA

Facebook Event

BFA Photo Senior Mark Woodward Shows “LIA” at No.4 Studio in Brooklyn

LIA — Photographs by Mark Woodward

March 4th—6th, 2016
No.4 Studio 195 Morgan Ave, #204 Brooklyn, New York 11237

Opening reception from 6-9pm Friday, March 4th
Artist’s talk, 3.30pm Saturday, March 5th

Facebook Event

 

We are pleased to announce Lia, an exhibition of 30 prints by photographer Mark Woodward, documenting the four year transgender transition of Antonio Romero to Angelita, Lia for short. This series of photographs are a quiet, sensitive, portrayal of Lia’s complex journey from male to female. Through this collaboration the photographer and subject have developed a friendship that has allowed Woodward to honestly capture deeply personal moments of challenge, success, joy, and contemplation. In doing so he has avoided the more obvious images that are traditionally shown when addressing transgender transitions and gender fluidity. The exhibition is curated in collaboration with fellow Parsons student Megan Paetzhold, a curator, photographer and writer based in New York City. Mark Woodward, a British and American citizen, was born and raised in Hong Kong. He currently splits his time between New York City and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Mark’s website: markwoodwardphotography.com
Mark’s Twitter: @mwoodwardphoto

Aperture / Parsons Artist Talk: Dru Donovan

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Aperture Foundation, in collaboration with the Department of Photography at Parsons School of Design, is pleased to present an artist talk with Dru Donovan. (more…)