Feminist Art Project - Access: A Feminist Perspective

 

By 28 Contemporary Artists: Aphrodite Desiree Navab, Tasja Keetman, Doree Albritton, Francine LeClercq, Jada Schumacher, Carlos Masis, Angela Ellsworth, Jacqueline Jrolf, Mare Vaccaro, Nanette Wylde, Cynthia Eardleyn, Susan Antonez-Edens, Betzer Pharis, Maya Freelon, Amelia M. Falk, Karen Maru , Susan C. Dessel, Andrea Zemel, Michi Colacicco, Allison Artis, Monique Ford, Daniela Samovolska-Ovtcharov, Yoon Soo Lee, Donna Pattee-Ballard, Ana Maria Delgado, Elise Vazelakis, Janis Purcell, Cristina Biaggi.

 

© Aphrodite Desiree Navab
Super East-West Woman, 21x25
Courtesy Rhonda Schaller Studio, NYC

 

The Rhonda Schaller Studio presents Access: A Feminist Perspective curated by Rhonda Schaller and Dave Jaquish. On display in word and image are contemporary artists who pay homage to and take inspiration from women past, present and future. Access: A Feminist Perspective will try to add to the dialogue recognizing women as the great cultural influence they are. This exhibition is part of TheFeministArtProject, a US national initiative, coordinated by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

This exhibition explores feminist critique, beginning with work by artists inspired by women or feminist analysis as pertains to the word "access" and extending to its impact on subject matter as in the use of territory and place; role models and identity; body parts and self image; and spiritual commentary and re-gendering.

Using non traditional entries into our sense of place and home, artist Tasja Keetman’s “shutters+blinds” is an old window shutter, with a second skin of handmade paper and flowers covering and revealing the writings of Emma Goldman and other feminists, emblematizing a love letter, while quite literally blocking or opening the view to the inside and outside.

Aphrodite Desiree Navab uses humor in her photographs Super East-West Woman, and Take Off using her Chador (Farsi for Islamic covering) and turning it into a cape of freedom, poking fun at herself and her two cultures, and the ludicrous situations in which her life between East and West has placed her.

Doree Albritton’s biomorphic and transcendental painting “Vision” created in mixed media on linen, offers us a powerful utopian view of an evolutionary thread, giving birth to a cosmic passage into a possible future that provides unlimited access for everyone.

Francine LeClercq tells us access to a public restroom is definitely a feminist issue, and takes the question “is access a feminist issue” to the “potty parity” debate with her inclusion of a common brown plastic “Women Restroom Sign”, the first appearance of which, in a male dominated work place, brings a sign of access and accomplishment. Appreciating landmark women in design such as Anni Albers and Charlotte Perriand, artist + designer Jada Schumacher also sites Emily Post and Julia Morgan, Helen Frankenthaler and Hella Jongerius as role models for the avenues of access they have forged. Her design hybrid “Orange and Dart Molding” in resin with oranges, challenges normal roles of décor and utility of objects found in a typical interior.

Carlos Masis uses the female form as a role model of power, depicting actual scenes of his life, his lost loves, romances, and weakness for a love he never conquered as a source of inspiration. In “Ferocious Beast at Rest” oil on canvas he wrestles with strong desire and love lost, and the power and importance women have over him. Angela Ellsworth, an interdisciplinary artist with work intersecting drawing, installation and performance, presents us with Stitch Portraits from a series “I came here because I love you”. Her delicate and fragile black thread on napkins, often made while on airplanes or road trips, are a tribute to and a memory of someone missed. Jacqueline Jrolf looks at access to role models in her series of works inspired by Hildegard von Bingen. “Reliquary to H von. Bingen” is terra cotta, reclaimed mink-lined interior, and glass vial. Made in a stream of consciousness technique that allows the images to be created without conscious editing, she finds strength in the enigmatic figure sequestered in the beauty and limits of the cloistered life she chose.

Mare Vaccaro’s elegant “Viper Locket” looks at identity and societal standards of femininity, what is real or not and the use of adornment. Her striking photographs are captivating and enigmatic. The object and subject merge as she explores persona creation, masking techniques and their use by women to garner recognition and empower their voices. Nanette Wylde uses freedom from the constraints of identity as the backdrop for her electronic flipbook “About So Many Things”. White letters on a black background feature random displays of activities titled “He and She” without bias to gender. The activities are drawn from the same pool of possibilities, creating a minimalist soap opera, challenging the mindset the viewer brings to the text.

Cynthia Eardley celebrates the beauty of the ordinary with her hand modeled wall mounted portrait of a middle aged woman “Untitled”. An intimate archetype of a contemporary woman, the sculpture is beautiful and pensive, obliquely observing the viewer with a strength of character and a gentle sadness. Susan Antonez-Edens’ oil on canvas portrait “The Woman of the Moors”, shows a woman who walks alone in a stark world, confident and unafraid, prepared to go it alone and build a new life. Cindy Betzer Pharis’ portrait of a young teen, comments on social subtleties inherent in our societal structures. “Redefining Beauty: Savanna, A Mathematical Teen”, created in oil pastel and ink, links gifted and genius to a redefinition of beauty for teenage girls. Maya Freelon embraces the transient passage of time while grappling with identity and authenticity in her abstract wall sculpture in tissue paper and tape: “Historical Significance”.

Photographer Amelia M. Falk challenges us to accept the aging process and define access as permission to communicate beauty without the influence of the media’s youthful male gaze. She invites us to playfully and soberly revel in the naked body of a middle aged woman who celebrates life in her joyful nude portrait “I’m told the older I get, I should wear a bra”. Fiber artist Karen Maru also raises the issue of who has access to the sight of a woman’s naked body in her “Body Parts”, where the nude woman is drawn over and over again on the same fabric and then cut up and sewed back together in a quilt format. Though her choice to work in the quilt format comes out of sheer orneriness and a jolt of feminist rage, she successfully raises the issues of what is real art combined with the politics of the gaze.

Installation sculptor Susan C. Dessel states that working with ones hands often provides access to the American way of life, enabling subsequent generations to pursue education and achieve dreams. In her conceptual piece “Untitled (Honor)” she speaks of the value and dignity of handwork, pays homage to the invisible immigrant, the house-based work of women, backbreaking labor of the uneducated, and women’s handwork disdained as craft. The piece housed in a case, is reminiscent of valuable museum exhibits combining ruggedness of cement with gauzy femininity of cheesecloth. Andrea Zemel’s beautiful hand colored etching “In The Game” is part of a series of works about the character Herculina, who Zemel created to rise up from the dust of personal history as a chronicle of woman’s struggle. With a sense of poise and equanimity, Andrea Zemel transforms mundane existence to an Olympian arena; a staging platform for the transformation of soul.

Michi Colacicco builds her work on intuition and completes it with conscious specific imagery of what her experiences in the world as a woman have taught her. Her “Untitled”, created with horsehair, pigment, book pages, and mounted on paper, is a poetic and enigmatic portrait of a young woman in the world. In “Freedom Fighter”  Allison Artis takes us on a journey through the subconscious into inspiration from her life experiences, using permanent marker, pigment and various oils to create an almost 3-dimensinal quality to her canvas. Monique Ford’s images are deeply rooted in her own feminine identity, but asks shouldn’t the paintings stand alone as images? Her painting “Jessica” is an oil on canvas, a chromatic portrait of intersecting shapes, beautifully composed on the rectangle.

Daniela Samovolska-Ovtcharov uses her independent spirit to create and live in her own world. Based on an original oil painting, her fantasy world “Tower of Life” is a limited edition of 30 prints on canvas, where she creates something beautiful and valuable for us to ponder. Yoon Soo Lee creates paintings that are in spirit like the Buddhist Mandalas dedicated to meditation. She finds the middle ground between stillness and movement in her mixed media “practice love #12 ‘ghosts”.

Donna Pattee-Ballard states that the imagery of the church is deeply embedded in her psyche. She looks at faith, religion, and cultural myths in her “Shame #2”. A powerful and moving four panel photo landscape that looks at spirituality and devotion in a woman’s search for access to her spiritual power. In her body of work, photographer Ana Maria Delgado uses the imagery of Catholicism in “Untitled, Sagrada Biblia”, to comment on an environment in which guilt and unattainable standards of purity combined with devotion and ritualistic customs, create a psychosexual attachment to the objects normally used in worship. Elise Vazelakis uses the imagery of crucifixion to represent many of the labels used to describe women in today’s culture and explores their effects on self-image in her mixed media painting “Crucified”.

Janis Purcell finds her references in Marisol’s “Self Portrait Looking at the Last Supper”. She uses clay and mixed media to sculpt her tribal stick “Goddess-Inaccessible” and states her personal iconography was greatly influenced by the great women artists she studied, such as Sylvia Stone, Lee Bontecou, and Anne Arnold. “Aidan - Son of the Goddess” a bronze sculpture by Cristina Biaggi was inspired from her studies in women’s spirituality, of the Great Goddess and the interconnection of all living beings. Cristina Biaggi is the author of three books, her latest “The Rule of Mars: Readings on The Origins, History and Impact of Patriarchy”.

 

Feminist Art Project
Access: A Feminist Perspective
Group Exhibition

Rhonda Schaller Studio
January 18 – February 10, 2007

Rhonda Schaller Studio - 547 West 27th Street, Suite 529, between 10th and 11th Avenues in Chelsea, New York City - Tuesday - Saturday, 12pm - 5pm.

Sagem Communications - AgfaPhoto

Sagem Communications a reçu en 2006 la licence exclusive de la marque AgfaPhoto pour ses imprimantes photo personnelles et ses cadres numériques.

James Koskinas & Julie Schumer, Farrell Fischoff Gallery, Santa Fe - Without Hesitation

James Koskinas & Julie Schumer: Without Hesitation

Farrell Fischoff Gallery, Santa Fe

June 23 - July 24 2006

Farrell Fischoff Gallery presents an exhibition of new paintings by New Mexico artists James Koskinas and Julie Schumer. 

This is the second two-person show Farrell Fischoff has given James Koskinas and Julie Schumer, and their work has grown stronger and more compositionally sophisticated in the intervening two years.

James Koskinas describes himself as an Expressionist painter: "I do not own my talent. The paintings come from somewhere. All I have to do is hold on to the brush."

In his current series of paintings, Portraits of Women, James Koskinas explores his subconscious archetypes of woman and femininity with boldly colored studies of women's faces. These striking paintings portray a wide range of expression and emotion, demonstrating James Koskinas' skill with the brush, and his fascination with the human form.

Julie Schumer’s geometric abstractions are drawn from her acute observation and sensitivity to the world around her. They distill the southwestern landscape using color, light and form. Painted over time, layer by layer, each canvas or work on paper has developed a compelling depth and warmth.

Originally from Arizona and California, respectively, James Koskinas and Julie Schumer now reside in Lamy, New Mexico where they have lived and worked together for the past 6 years.

FARREL FISCHOFF GALLERY

1807 Second Street, #29, Santa Fe, NM 87505-3801

www.farrellfischoff.com

Océ introduces the Océ TDS700, a flexible wide format printer

The new Océ TDS700 is a robust, configurable printer designed to fit a wide range of business environments, from engineering workgroups to central repro departments. The system's flexibility allows it to integrate seamlessly with existing networks and its intuitive user interface saves time and reduces mistake. Best-in-class productivity means the Océ TDS700 meets the tightest deadlines highest quality documents. 

 Océ TDS700 wide format printer features:

- Modular design keeps pace as business evolves

- A choice of two scanners, a folder and different media sizes

- Up to six rolls for complete media flexibility

- A full range of software options, from entry level to a fully loaded configuration   

  

Océ TDS700

The printer Océ TDS700 offers 600 x 1200 dpi pico printing for high quality output and the optional scanner is ready for future capabilities like color scan to archive. The Océ service organization will keep the system running at peak efficiency for years, so company managers can count on a long product life span.

The Océ TDS700 keeps workgroups, CAD teams, engineering departments and central repro rooms productive. It has the fastest print out time from cold start in the industry, just 43 seconds. And with a print speed of 6 m per minute, the Océ TDS700 reaches a true productivity of 4.7 A0/minute. The intuitive user interface guides people through the system so they get their documents when they want them. Océ Image Logic® produces right-first-time copies and prints. The result is faster turnaround times, less wasted materials and more productive staff.  

The Océ TDS700 will not keep users waiting when time is short either. They can submit jobs without leaving their desks but if they do have go the printer, the Océ Power Logic Controller processes print, copy and scan jobs quickly and concurrently. As well as this, Océ Job Management allows operators to schedule and reorganize jobs as priorities change. With the Océ TDS700, companies can meet the tightest deadlines.  

With a full range of software available, the Océ TDS700 can be configured to the specific ways departments and companies work. The Océ Print Exec suite optimizes technical document workflow whilst Océ Repro Desk offers online print processing that boosts the profitability of central repro departments and commercial reprographers. To improve profits even further, Océ Account Center allocates document costs to departments, projects and customers, turning expenditure into chargeable income. Other software options can be added to the Océ TDS700 as and when they are needed.  

Océ website: www.oce.com

Saul Bass: The Hollywood Connection

 

Source: Skirball Cultural Center - Left: Saul Bass in his studio, circa 1974; courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. - Right: Saul Bass–designed poster for Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo; © Paramount Pictures.

 

Saul Bass: The Hollywood Connection, an exhibition focusing on the graphic designer’s acclaimed work for the American film industry, was presented at the Skirball Cultural Center from January 4 through April 1, 2007. The exhibition included more than 20 movie posters and six soundtrack-album covers designed by Saul Bass for such films as Vertigo (1958), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Exodus (1960) and In Harm’s Way (1965). It also featured, on continuous loop, a rare 22-minute montage —edited by Saul Bass and his wife, Elaine— of many of Bass’s motion-picture title sequences, from The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) to The Age of Innocence (1993). These are recognized as among the most innovative title sequences ever produced in Hollywood. Alternately screened with the montage were Why Man Creates (1968), the Oscar-winning short documentary Saul Bass produced and co-directed with Elaine Bass.

SAUL BASS (1920–1996) attended the Art Students League in Manhattan in his native New York. He then studied at Brooklyn College under the painter, designer and educator Gyorgy Kepes, a Hungarian émigré who had collaborated with Bauhaus artist and professor László Moholy-Nagy in 1930s Berlin. Gyorgy Kepes introduced his student to the Bauhaus movement and to Russian Constructivism, the styles of which influenced Saul Bass’s art.

Following his schooling, Saul Bass began working as a commercial artist in New York, but he felt constrained by the creative limitations of the city’s advertising agencies. Saul Bass moved to Los Angeles in 1946 and opened his own studio, Saul Bass & Associates, in 1952. During his distinguished career, Saul Bass became a graphic-design legend for conceiving the corporate identity packages of such companies as AT&T, Warner Communications and United Airlines. The logos he created for these business giants are considered among the most instantly recognized in 20th-century American popular culture.

Award-winning filmmaker Otto Preminger was the first to offer Saul Bass the opportunity to design a title sequence, for the film Carmen Jones (1954). Saul Bass approached the formerly unremarkable moments before the film began as an opportunity to set audience mood and enhance entertainment value, not just list credits. The following year, for the opening sequence to Otto Preminger’s The Man with the Golden Arm, Saul Bass used an animated paper cut-out of a disjointed arm, which helped draw the audience into the film’s tale of drug addiction from the very first frames. On view will be the now-famous and often-imitated title sequence for The Man with the Golden Arm along with the poster and soundtrack-album cover, both of which repeated the disjointed-arm motif. Taken together, these works reveal the visual identity Saul Bass created for the film as a whole.

From this groundbreaking early work, Saul Bass would eventually work with illustrious filmmakers Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, John Frankenheimer, Billy Wilder and many more. These directors valued Saul Bass’s innovative use of animation, live action and dynamic typography. Saul Bass —who, beginning with Spartacus (1960), worked in collaboration with his wife, Elaine— created more than 50 title sequences and fully integrated advertising campaigns for such celebrated films as North by Northwest (1959) West Side Story (1961), Vertigo, Exodus and Grand Prix (1966). The title sequences for these films were featured in the exhibition’s montage. For Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), Saul Bass not only contributed the title sequence but helped to storyboard the film. A reproduction of Bass’s storyboard for the film’s classic shower scene were also displayed in the exhibition.

After winning, in 1969, the Academy Award for Best Documentary, Short Subjects, for Why Man Creates, an animated film exploring the nature of creativity, Saul Bass took a nearly decade-long hiatus from film work and focused on his landmark graphic-design campaigns for companies worldwide.

The Basses returned to the movies in the 1980s, producing the title sequences, among many others, for Danny De Vitos’s War of the Roses (1989), Billy Crystal’s Mr. Saturday Night (1992) and Martin Scorcese’s GoodFellas (1990) and Cape Fear (1991). The montage in the exhibition includes these later works. In 1991 and 1993–1996, Saul Bass designed the official posters for the Academy Awards, all of which were displayed in the exhibition. Saul Bass had served as a member of the Academy’s Board of Governors for nine years.

Saul Bass: The Hollywood Connection was on view in the Skirball’s Ruby Gallery and Hurd Gallery. The exhibition was presented as part of the Skirball’s Our California series, exploring the changing cultural, social and civic forces that have shaped California.

Related film screenings: During the run of Saul Bass: The Hollywood Connection, the Skirball presented free Tuesday afternoon screenings of the following films for which Saul Bass created the title sequences and advertising campaigns: Psycho (January 9) Vertigo (January 23), Anatomy of a Murder (February 6) and Bonjour Tristesse (February 27). The Skirball also showing Phase IV, a rarely screened science-fiction film directed by Saul Bass (February 22).

 

The Exhibition was developed with the curatorial guidance of the FILM ARCHIVE OF THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES.

 

SAUL BASS: THE HOLLYWOOD CONNECTION
January 4–April 1, 2007

SKIRBALL CULTURAL CENTER
2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90049

Updated

Jeff Elrod at Texas Gallery, Houston - Fingers Never Stop

Jeff Elrod: Fingers Never Stop
Texas Gallery, Houston
December 8, 2006 - January 6, 2007

Texas Gallery presents an exhibition of new paintings by JEFF ELROD. A former Glassell Core artist, Jeff Elrod was born in Texas and works in both New York and Marfa. This will be his third show one person at the gallery. Titled Fingers Never Stop, the show consists of a series of new works on canvas utilizing silkscreen, latex and airbrushed acrylic paint. Known for use of graffiti like gestures made originally as drawings on a computer which were then embedded in monochromatic fields of color, Jeff Elrod in the new work balances expressive color and gestures, strong positive and negative spaces, with a background grid that still retains references to the computer origins of his drawings. Like Brice Marden or even earlier abstract artists such as Adolph Gottlieb, Jeff Elrod balances the elements applied to the painting surface in a tension that resists any direct reference to content or illusion and re introduces the idea of the shallow space of the picture plane. The work brings to mind the work of the color field painters of the 1960s and 1970s in the use of large areas of color but given a different kick through the use of spray paint as the colors glow rather than recede. Casual marks which are a serendipitous result of the working process are sprinkled throughout the paintings. The resulting paintings are exuberant abstractions of color and light following in the best tradition of modern American painting.

In the past few years, Jeff Elrod has exhibited in Berlin, Milan, New York and Marfa, Tx. Most recently he had a solo exhibition at Fredericks & Freiser Gallery, New York.

TEXAS GALLERY
2012 Peden, Houston, TX 77019
www.texgal.com

Dynamic Range for Scanners Brought to Peak Level

LaserSoft Imaging's SilverFast scanning software, has now taken a quantum leap in the evolution of genuine High Dynamic Range Imaging. This new function in SilverFast version 6.5 utilizes varying exposures of the scan. This dramatically increases the dynamic range allowing even the most subtle nuances in both shadow and highlight areas to be recognized and enhanced. The SilverFast Multi-Exposure function is based on the principle of the distinguished Multi-Sampling Feature (multiple scan) with auto-alignment®. With Multi-Sampling the picture is scanned several times using the same settings, in order to identify and minimize noise. With Multi-Exposure the dynamic range of the scanners is utilized by repeating the scan, but with different exposure intensities. This creates a dynamic range comparable to that of a drum scanner. The patented auto-alignment secures the precision of the scan allowing for optimal sharpness and clarity. Using established film scanners, precise measurements were taken at LaserSoft Imaging's lab where dynamic increases and qualitative improvements of 25% using Multi-Exposure were documented. With this dynamic increase, the new SilverFast 6.5 can dramatically improve the results of image capture for both reflective and transparent originals. Finally, Multi-Exposure offers another advantage over Multi-Sampling: Multi-Exposure achieves the same quality in substantially less time.

Another novelty and an impressive highlight of the new SilverFast 6.5 is called the SilverFast ColorServer. New possibilities of automation and flexibility completely redefine the process of digital imaging, allowing a substantial increase in productivity. In addition to the new functions such as Multi-Exposure and the ColorServer, SilverFast's new Basic mode offers beginners an easy entry into the world of digital imaging with SilverFast.

The AutoFrame detection, an extended NegaFix dialogue, the proven selective color correction SCC with new presets, as well as the Ai-HDR auto-gamma optimization complete the spectrum of SilverFast 6.5.

Founded by the physicist Karl-Heinz Zahorsky in 1986, LaserSoft Imaging AG, SilverFast is now established as the world-wide standard for scan software, while SilverFastHDR and SilverFastDCPro have become well-known software applications to work with RAW data of scanners and digital cameras. SilverFast is bundled by many well known hardware manufacturers such as Canon, Epson, HP, Microtek, Pentacon, Plustek, Quatographic, Reflecta, Samsung, Umax and many others. Currently, there are more than 1,5 million installations of SilverFast world wide. After 20 years of successful development, Silverfast 6.5 is sure to be another milestone of convincing quality and productivity.

Grand Prix Critique BD 2007

 

 

Le Grand Prix de la Critique Bandes Dessinées 2007 couronne l’ouvrage de Pascal Rabaté « Les petits ruisseaux »  aux éditions Futuropolis

Avec ce prix, l’ACBD (Association des Critiques et journalistes de Bande Dessinée), consacre, pour la deuxième fois, un auteur exigeant, spécialiste de la chronique villageoise. Pascal Rabaté avait été honoré en 1998 pour son album Un ver dans le fruit.

“Les petits ruisseaux aborde, avec beaucoup d’humour et de tendresse, les amours du grand âge, l’un des derniers sujets tabous de la société française, sans jamais tomber dans la vulgarité et la paillardise. Outre la finesse de la narration, la saveur des dialogues et l’originalité du sujet, il faut aussi insister sur la vitalité du graphisme ! Enfin, ce petit joyau de simplicité nous montre la vie telle qu’elle est, nous rappelant, avec une infinie délicatesse, que faire l’amour n’est pas réservé uniquement à ceux qui sont jeunes et beaux !” -- ACBD

 

L’ACBD compte 77 journalistes et critiques qui parlent régulièrement de bande dessinée dans la presse écrite, audiovisuelle, nationale et régionale, et dans les nouvelles technologies. Cette année, le « Grand Prix de la Critique Bandes Dessinées » de l’ACBD a été choisi parmi quelque 3000 nouveautés publiées dans l’espace francophone européen (France, Belgique, Suisse), entre novembre 2005 et fin octobre 2006 : une production en augmentation constante depuis onze ans maintenant.

3 exhibitions about Robert Moses in NYC

Robert Moses and the Modern City

New York’s master builder, Robert Moses (1888-1981), will be the subject of concurrent exhibitions on view at the Museum of the City of New York (1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street), the Queens Museum of Art (New York City Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park), and the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University (8th floor, Schermerhorn Hall). Collectively titled Robert Moses and the Modern City, the exhibitions will document the ambitious projects that Robert Moses spearheaded and examine his legacy within the context of contemporary New York. Never-before-exhibited models (or many seen for the first time in decades), historic objects, plans, and vintage and new photography will be on view at the three venues to shed light on Moses’s vision and achievements.  More detailed information about each of the exhibitions can be found in the pages following, as well as information about the funders and supporters who made the exhibitions possible.

A highlight of Robert Moses and the Modern City, on view at all three venues, will be never-before-exhibited, large-scale color photographs (some especially commissioned for the exhibitions) by acclaimed photographer Andrew Moore, artist-in-residence at Dartmouth College. These monumental photographs will show how Moses projects have been absorbed into the fabric of the city.

A publication, Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Transformation of New York (W.W. Norton), accompanies the exhibitions and will be available in the shops at each venue.  It is co-edited by the exhibitions’ curator, Hilary Ballon, an architectural historian and professor of art history and archaeology at Columbia University, and Kenneth T. Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor in History and the Social Sciences at Columbia University.

Robert Moses and the Modern City at Each of the Three Venues

The exhibitions at each venue will focus on different aspects of Moses’s legendary career and achievements.  A brief description of each follows.

Robert Moses and the Modern City: Remaking the Metropolis, opening on February 1, 2007 at the Museum of the City of New York, will explore three main areas of the Moses administration:
- Making New York City accessible by equipping it with modern roads to and from the city center and throughout the region, including the Henry Hudson Parkway and the Cross Bronx Expressway
- Making New York City monumental—a world capital—by developing magnetic institutions, including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the United Nations
- Making New York City livable and desirable—a hometown—by improving parks, including the expansion of Riverside Park, East River Park, and the transformation of Central Park.

On view will be Andrew Moore photographs of Riverside Park and the Cross Bronx Expressway, among others. A large-scale model (269” x 86”) designed by the I. M. Pei-based firm of Webb & Knapp, not seen since the 1950s, showing Moses’s proposal for the entire Midtown Expressway (presenting the route and surrounding area in remarkable detail) and never-before-exhibited archival materials related to Lincoln Center (drawn from its own archives, the Rockefeller Archives, and Columbia University) are among the highlights on view at the Museum of the City of New York.  The exhibition will also address Moses’s defeats in the face of public protests and the rise of a new approach to urbanism based on neighborhood values and community control. The defeat of Moses’s projects to extend Fifth Avenue through Washington Square Park and to build the Lower Manhattan Expressway marked the end of the Moses era.  Proposals for the Expressway will be on view.

Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Road to Recreation, on view at the Queens Museum of Art from January 28 through May 27, 2007, will document Moses’s massive 1930s expansion of the public realm and its connection to a matchless network of parkways in anticipation of the new automobility. Moses envisioned, planned, and built Flushing Meadow Park (where the Queens Museum of Art is located), as well as the surrounding highways.  Envisioning New York as a “water city,” Moses reclaimed the shorefront for recreation—Orchard Beach and Jacob Riis Park are crowning examples—built monumental, outdoor swimming pools that remain pinnacles of public architecture, and built parkways conceived as “ribbon parks” with extensive landscaping, stone-arched bridges, playgrounds, and bike paths. On view will be Andrew Moore photographs of Astoria Pool, Sunset Park Pool, and Orchard Beach, among others; a large-scale model (made by Moses and not exhibited since the 1960s) of the proposed bridge across Long Island Sound; vintage (1930s) films made by the Department of Parks showing huge crowds and integrated swimming at McCarren and Highbridge Pools; and more.  A highlight of the exhibition at the Queens Museum of Art will be the reopening of the Panorama of the City of New York, the world’s largest architectural scale model, made by Moses for the 1964-65 World’s Fair. The historic piece, measuring almost 10,000 sq. ft. and depicting the city’s 895,000 structures, was closed during the fall and winter of 2006 while undergoing a complete multimedia and lighting upgrade.

Robert Moses and the Modern City: Slum Clearance and the Superblock Solution, opening on January 30, 2007 at Columbia University’s Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery will present for the first time the full scope of Moses’s 1950s urban renewal program, which became a national model. His strategy involved recapturing the middle class by building affordable housing and enhancing the city's brainpower by providing land to universities for campus expansion (New York University, Fordham, the Juilliard School, Long Island University, and Pratt Institute).  His program featured the biggest expansion of union-backed cooperatives in the city’s history—eight in all—including the East River Houses at Corlears Hook, Chatham Green, Chatham Towers, Penn Station South, and Morningside Gardens. Here, the exhibition will also spotlight I. M. Pei’s and William Zeckendorf’s roles in the urban renewal process; Pei designed Kips Bay Plaza and the NYU Silver Towers, and Zeckendorf built Kips Bay Plaza as well as Park West Village and Lincoln Towers.  On view will be brochures from the Slum Clearance Committee that illustrated the redevelopment proposal, made the case for clearing a neighborhood, and explained how relocation would be handled; renderings of I.M. Pei’s renewal work in the early 1960s; and historic photographs and documents that show the process of site clearance and community protests against renewal.

Funding Credits

The exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York is made possible by Susan and Roger Hertog, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Mr. Steven Roth, Studley Inc., The Durst Organization, Deban and Tom Flexner, Mr. David Rockefeller, the General Contractors Association of New York Inc., the Richard Ravitch Foundation, the New York Building Congress, and the New York Council for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in the exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

At the Queens Museum of Art, funding is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund, and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

Updated 07-2010

Raymond Hains d’une rive à l’autre

Art Contemporain > Evénement > Hommage à Raymond Hains (1926 – 2005)


  Bertrand Lavier, « Merci Raymond »   Courtesy AARH

Vendredi 25 octobre 2005, l’artiste Raymond Hains (né en 1926) s’absentait définitivement.

A l’initiative de l’Association des Amis de Raymond Hains (A.A.R.H.), douze galeries dont il était proche, le Passage de Retz et l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA) font vivre Raymond Hains le long d’un parcours parisien.

Le mercredi 29 novembre, à partir de 13 h, de Montmartre à Saint-Germain en passant par le Marais :

« Merci Raymond ! » 

Programme du parcours du 29 novembre 2006
13h00 : Brunch à la Galerie W
44, rue Lepic - 75018 Paris
www.galeriew.com
Pinault à volonté pour Raymond Hains
15h00 : Café au Passage de Retz
9, rue Charlot - 75003 Paris
www.passagederetz.com
Café au Passage de Retz
15h30 : Galerie Martine et Thibault de la Châtre
4, rue de Saintonge - 75003 Paris
www.lachatregalerie.com
Paris - La Châtre
16h00 : Galerie Véronique Smagghe
10, rue de Saintonge - 75003 Paris
décollage en Italie
16h30 : Galerie Denise René - espace marais
22, rue Charlot - 75003 Paris
www.deniserene.com
Les cadres du jeu
17h00 : Galerie Daniel Templon
30, rue Beaubourg - 75003 Paris
www.danieltemplon.com
De la mère Mac Miche au macintoshage
17h30 : Galerie du jour agnès b.
44, rue Quincampoix - 75004 Paris
www.galeriedujour.com
Et vive Raymond !
18h00 : Tea time chez Patricia Dorfmann
61, rue de la Verrerie - 75004 Paris
www.patriciadorfmann.com
Tea time et biscuits LU
18h30 : Galerie Denise René - rive gauche
196, boulevard Saint-Germain - 75007 Paris
www.deniserene.com
Les cadres du jeu
19h00 : Galerie Lara Vincy
47, rue de Seine - 75006 Paris
www.lara-vincy.com
Un Campari pour Raymond
19h30 : Galerie G.-P. & N. Vallois
36, rue de Seine - 75006 Paris
www.galerie-vallois.com
Hains Tomato Ketchup
20h00 : Galerie Serge Aboukrat
7, place Furstemberg - 75006 Paris
Entre huile et moi
20h30 : Galerie Marion Meyer
15, rue Guénégaud - 75006 Paris
www.galerie-marion-meyer.com
La palissade et la cornemuse
21h00 : Jousse entreprise
18, rue de Seine - 75006 Paris
www.jousse-entreprise.com
Patrimoine joussien
21h30 : Cocktail/buffet à l’ENSBA
14, rue Bonaparte - 75006 Paris
Crêpes bretonnes, punch. Apportez votre Tokay

AARH – ASSOCIATION DES AMIS DE RAYMOND HAINS

Créée en novembre 2005, L’Association des Amis de Raymond Hains est un lien moral entre ses amis et admirateurs de tous pays. Elle favorise la diffusion, le rayonnement et la pérennité de l’oeuvre de Raymond Hains, au travers d’expositions et d’événements « hainsiens ».
Président d’honneur : Jacques Villeglé.
Présidente : Leïla Voight. Vice-président : Bernard Blistène.
Trésorier : François Trèves. Secrétaire : Patrick Alton. Secrétaire adjoint : Yves Jammet.
Administrateurs : Marc Dachy, Michele Favali, Eric Fabre, Cyrille Putman.

AARH
7, rue de la Chaise
75007 Paris

Imprimantes couleur A3 OKI Serie C8600

OKI Printing Solutions, filiale du groupe Oki Electric dédiée aux solutions d’impression, annonce aujourd’hui une nouvelle imprimante couleur A3, unique sur son segment de produits.

Avec un encombrement réduit de moitié comparativement aux autres imprimantes A3 couleur du marché, la C8600 est par ailleurs disponible à un coût extrêmement compétitif. Cette nouvelle série (3 modèles sont disponibles : C8600n, C8600dn et C8600cdtn), permet à toute entreprise d’aborder le A3 couleur, jusque-là réservé à une minorité et pour des volumes d’impression importants.

« Gain d’espace, niveau sonore réduit, des possibilités très larges dans les typse de documents à imprimer, la C8600 réunit l’ensemble des demandes actuelles des entreprises », commente Gérard Bouhanna, Directeur Commercial & Marketing France. « Elle constitue ainsi une solution idéale pour les entreprises souhaitant se doter d’une solution A3 couleur, qui plus est à moindre coût ».

Issue des travaux de R&D de OKI, la C8600 intègre l’ensemble des technologies conçues et développées par le groupe afin d’optimiser la qualité de ses solutions :

• la technologie LED, permettant de proposer une qualité unique des couleurs – intensité, profondeur, …
• la technologie monopasse, qui grâce à un seul passage du papier, délivre une vitesse d’impression accrue,
• les toners microfins, offrant une impression de qualité Haute Définition, même sur du papier ordinaire,
• enfin, le système de gestion d’impression, permettant de gérer les impressions de plusieurs utilisateurs en même temps.

“Avec cette première imprimante compacte A3 couleur sur le marché, nous ouvrons de nouveaux horizons aux entreprises, et leur permettons de ne plus se soucier de leurs contraintes de budget ou d’espace. Ils doivent à présent uniquement se préoccuper de leurs besoins : A4 et/ou A3, monochrome et/ou couleur, … Ce nouvel élargissement de notre gamme leur offre davantage de liberté et de possibilités dans leur choix, et nous comptons continuer sur cette lancée, avec notamment de nouvelles solutions prévues dès 2007”, conclut Gérard Bouhanna.

Principales caractéristiques de la C8600

• Modèles disponibles : C8600n, C8600dn et C8600cdtn.
• Gain de place : l’imprimante couleur A3 la plus compacte du marché.
• Coût réduit : moitié moins chère que les imprimantes A3 couleur du marché, peu onéreuse au coût à la page - le toner et les tambours étant séparés, les coûts d’impression sont plus compétitifs.
• Supports d’impression : un large éventail de supports d’impression A3-A6 et jusqu’à de 200 g/m², une capacité papier jusqu’à 930 feuilles, avec possibilité de bacs complémentaires en option.
• Productivité accrue : 26 pages/minute en impression couleur, 32 pages/minute en monochrome ; moins de 10 secondes pour la sortie de la 1ère page.
• Qualité d’impression : la Technologie multi-niveaux ProQ2400 et le toner Haute Définition offrant une qualité d’impression optimale : une qualité du détail, une plus grande intensité de la couleur, un grain réduit et un effet satiné.
• Flexibilité : intervention humaine réduite, grâce à la technologie monopasse simplifiant le circuit du papier, …
• Gestion et contrôle : sécurisation de la machine par des systèmes bloquant l’accès à l’intérieur de la machine par tout le monde - idéal pour les écoles et les bibliothèques par exemple.
• Facilités d’utilisation : Template Manager 2006 aide les utilisateurs à concevoir et imprimer facilement des documents de formats standards ou atypiques ; le panneau de commande intuitif.
• La gamme C8600 est disponible à partir de 1999 € HT.

www.oki.fr

Oki Printing Solutions - Communiqué de presse - 22.11.2006

Imageworks Showcased by ACS Siggraph

Top names in digital production shared the insiders' perspective during "The Four Pipelines of Sony Pictures Imageworks," a special presentation by Los Angeles Professional Chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH. The November 14 event included sneak peaks at the latest amazing examples from all four of Imageworks' areas of expertise along with other clips illustrating points covered by the far-ranging discussion. Tim Sarnoff, President of Sony Pictures Imageworks, kicked off the event, welcoming SIGGRAPH members and other guests with an overview of Sony Pictures Imageworks. He then introduced senior creative director Ken Ralston to moderate the proceedings. Senior visual effects supervisors Rich Hoover and Kevin Mack were on hand to explain their unique creative approach to live action VFX. Rich spoke about his work on SUPERMAN RETURNS, in particular the multifaceted decisions behind the spectacular shuttle disaster scene. Kevin gave a breakdown of how Nicolas Cage was transformed into GHOST RIDER, the skeletal urban warrior shrouded in hellfire. Software architect Parag Havaldar used MONSTER HOUSE examples to show how he bases his work on scientific studies of the physical manifestations of human emotion, which he then translates into precise data manipulation. Rob Engle, Digital Effects Supervisor, discussed the process of producing 3D stereo versions of films and how that work integrates with some of the complexities that the performance capture group and other teams face every day. Visual effects supervisor Doug Ikeler addressed the unique perspective Sony Pictures Animation brings to its animation pipeline. Doug used OPEN SEASON to illustrate the required intricate attention to detail, particularly when it comes to water, fur and recent advances in background animation. Rob Bredow, digital effects supervisor, took a break from working on SURF'S UP to screen a teaser that demonstrated his discussion of the imaginative techniques being used on that upcoming feature film. The event was hosted by Sony Pictures Imageworks. Participants enjoyed a casual barbeque on the facilities' lawn before strolling to the nearby Pacific Theater to enjoy the presentation.

Nathan Carter, Casey Kaplan Gallery, NYC - ALL CITY

Nathan Carter: ALL CITY 

Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York

November 16 – December 22, 2006

NATHAN CARTER presents sculpture, photographs, mobiles, wall relief sculptures, videos, drawings and collages in “ALL CITY,” his third solo show at Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York.

These works attempt to visualize the chaotic intersection of communications, overlapping networks of transportation, and unfolding geopolitical events.

High-density color patterns, lines, letters, and graphic diagrams represent modes of communication such as faxes, Morse code, cell phone signals, pirate radio, ship-to-shore frequencies, air traffic control transmissions, and text messages written on the go. These symbols are intermingled with representations of airplanes, dirigibles, helicopters, subways, large- and small-scale vehicles, communication towers, train diagrams, signage, contrails, and flight patterns. Irreverent texts and menacing abstract shapes add to the sense of disorder, leading to the question: What happens when lines of communication break down?

A partial list of works described in the artist’s own words:

One giant traveling blue and Bavarian cream language machine that uses its alphabet set-up and selection of antennae to send out heavy musical broadcasts, propaganda, and urgent text messages about foul weather and geopolitical schisms.

A loosely affiliated menacing armada of eighteen black and blue dirigibles covered with threatening insignia flying through bad weather in an aggressive formation trying to find a place to land. They're hot under the collar, low on patience, behaving erratically, and looking for trouble.

Six green weather balloon stations sponsored by well-meaning humanitarian/scientific research groups perched on a red landing platform. Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior R.I.P. in Davy Jones’s Locker.

One 747 "Heavy Big Bird" stacked to the rafters with American Youth of university age drinking and self-medicating to dramatic excess while weathering air pockets on a bumpy trans-Atlantic flight piloted by an astronaut and a well-known and much missed literary figure.

A triptych of Harry Beck inspired way-finding subway map diagrams representing New York, London, and Paris.

Three photographs of object collections that tell stories illustrating the answers to the questions: "Hey buster, what's in your pocket?" "How are we going to get the message through to the front if all we have is this old transistor radio?" and "Where did you learn the protocol for Moscow Rules, on the Farm?"

A magnified handy hanging Morse code educational/learning instrument.

Two strange amorphous floating shapes with high visibility symbols and incident recording sensors.

A full set of blue and red text messages warning wandering malcontents, merchant marine types, wayfarers, and information merchants to STAN BAC -- adjust attitude -- fLaP yoUr fLaiR fLApS -- and STAN KLR.

Nathan Carter has recently been featured in group exhibitions including "Level 5: The View from Here: Acquisitions since 2000," Tate Modern, London, UK and “Greater New York 2005,” PS1, Long Island City, NY. The artist had a solo exhibition at Galerie Esther Schipper, Berlin, Germany in 2006 and organized “Fearless Vampire Killers,” Casey Kaplan, New York, 2005. In 2007, Nathan Carter will have a solo exhibition at Da2 Center for Contemporary Art, Salamanca, Spain and at Pilar Parra, Madrid, Spain where he will simultaneously organize a group exhibition. The Final Runnings' “Hella Mega,” will tour Paris, San Antonio and one other location TBA. The artist has recently been short listed for the 2006 International Painting Prize of the of the Castellón County Council, Spain and will show at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Castellón, Castellón, Spain next year.

CASEY KAPLAN GALLERY

525 West 21th Street, New York, NY 10011

www.caseykaplangallery.com

Agfa Graphics at Graph Expo 2006

vf

Agfa Graphics announced today that its “New Experience” exhibit at Graph Expo 2006, highlighted by a series of informative and practical demonstrations, consultation sessions and other exclusive in-booth events, was very popular with show attendees who preferred Agfa’s alternative approach to trade shows. By focusing the efforts on learning opportunities, visitors to Agfa’s booth were able to benefit from informational seminars, executive briefings and user panels tailored to their specific needs.

The events, which featured Agfa customers and technology experts, focused on a variety of topics such as Demystifying JDF and Workflow Tips & Tricks, Workflow Automation and Collaboration. Winthrop Graphic Solutions of Boston, MA, made a presentation to attendees of the “:Delano Customer Panel.” For almost a year, Winthrop has been using :Delano, Agfa’s web-based production management solution, after purchasing the system at Print in 2005.

“Using :Delano we can solidify our relationship with our customers, bringing new levels of automation in the workflow, both for us and them. It’s what differentiates us in a very competitive marketplace,” said John Orrall, principal, Winthrop Graphic Solutions. “Agfa's concept for the sessions at Graph Expo matches Agfa's business model. Agfa understands their customers and their issues and works very closely with them in order to help them be successful," said Kevin Kervick, owner, Bassette Company, a commercial printer based in Springfield, MA.

“We were able to optimize the time that new and potential customers spent at our booth while they gained insight on how to efficiently put their investments in Agfa products and technologies to work. With the sessions, we were also able to offer advice about the various ways they could advance their businesses,” said Agfa’s Susan Wittner, director of marketing, North America. “Our in-house experts and consultants made suggestions and solutions to help customers achieve short- and long-term goals and informed them about the various tools that could help them improve their entire Graphic Enterprise.”

The booth featured 30-minute demonstrations shown at computer stations throughout the booth covering business-oriented topics such as MIS connectivity and integrated proofing. In addition, there were special areas set up for Expert Services consultations, thermal, violet and chemistry-free technology demonstrations, and :ApogeeX/:Delano demonstrations. There were also demonstrations of Agfa’s patented ThermoFuse™ technology and CtP experts on hand answering questions, and inkjet technology experts reviewing Agfa’s various options including :Anapurna UV printers and :Dotrix digital presses.

Agfa Graphics - Press release - 17.11.2006

Nikon UK is pleased to announce the Speedlight SB-400

Nikon UK is pleased to announce the introduction of the Nikon SB-400, an external flash unit that boasts i-TTL flash operation in a compact, lightweight body at an affordable price.

The SB-400 gives photographers the opportunity to enjoy brighter and more natural lighting for images taken using a flash. It is designed to suit entry-level digital SLR users yet it is also suitable for more experienced users. Those who have a camera within the D2 series will also benefit from the convenient portable flash unit. The SB-400 offers a guide number of 30 (ISO 200, m), and effortless bounce flash function and is controlled in i-TTL and the D40’s M (manual) mode.

Its flash head can be tilted in 4 steps, horizontal, 60, 75 and 90 degrees, and has a flash shooting distance range from 0.6m to 20m (depending on the ISO setting). Slow Sync, Red-eye Reduction and other flash modes can also be set on the camera body.

Note: Specifications, design, product name, standard accessories and release schedule may differ by country or area.

Sales Release Date: January 2007

RRP: £149.99 / €229.99

Nikon UK - Press Release - 16.11.2006

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II lens

Nikon UK is pleased to announce the new AF-S DX Zoom Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II lens which has been specially developed to provide a compact DX lens equipped with Nikon's compact SWM (Silent Wave Motor).

This new edition is an ideal companion for Nikon's newest, smallest and most affordably-priced digital SLR, the D40. The 18-55mm Zoom-Nikkor lens will be included with D40 digital SLR kits. Incorporating cutting-edge Nikon optical technologies such as ED glass and aspherical lens elements, the lens will help customers enjoy superior image quality, when combined with the D40.

The lens offers users the popular 3x 18-55mm focal length range, enabling users to take everything from tight portraits to wide-angle landscapes. Due to the compact SWM, the AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II lens offers fast, quiet and smooth autofocus performance.

To ensure image quality, the AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II features an ED glass element which minimizes chromatic aberration, and a hybrid aspherical lens element which reduces astigmatism and other forms of distortion while ensuring high resolution and contrast. External lens design has also been improved for smoother zoom operability.

Sales release schedule: Nikon Corporation will launch the AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II worldwide from December 2006. RRP: £149.99 / €229.99

Note: This lens is designed exclusively for use with Nikon DX format digital SLR cameras and is not compatible with 35mm [135] or IX240 format film cameras.

Specifications, design, product name, standard accessories, and release schedule may differ by country or area.

Nikon UK - Press Release - 16.11.2006

Nikon Digital SLR Camera D40 Specifications

Type of Camera: Single-lens reflex digital camera

Effective Pixels: 6.1 million

Image Sensor: RGB CCD, 23.7 x 15.6 mm; total pixels: 6.24 million, Nikon DX format

Image Size (pixels): 3,008 x 2,000 [L], 2,256 x 1,496 [M], 1,504 x 1,000 [S]

ISO Sensitivity: 200 to 1,600 in steps of 1 EV with additional setting one step over 1600

Storage Media: SD memory card, SDHC compliant

Storage System: Compressed NEF (RAW): 12-bit compression, JPEG: JPEG baseline compliant

File System: Exif 2.21, Compliant DCF 2.0 and DPOF

White Balance: Auto (TTL white-balance with 420-pixel RGB sensor), six manual modes with fine-tuning and preset white balance

LCD Monitor: 2.5-in., 230,000-dot, low-temperature polysilicon TFT LCD with brightness adjustment

Playback Function: 1 frame; Thumbnail (4 or 9 segments); Magnifying playback; Slide show; Histogram indication; Highlight point display; Auto image rotation

Delete Function: Card format, All frames delete, Selected frames delete

Video Output: NTSC or PAL

Interface: USB 2.0 (High-speed): Mass Storage and PTP selectable

Text Input: Up to 36 characters of alphanumeric text input available with LCD monitor and multi selector; stored in Exif header

Compatible Lenses*1: Nikon F mount with AF coupling and AF contacts Type G or D AF Nikkor 1) AF-S, AF-I: All functions supported,

2) Other Type G or D AF Nikkor: All functions supported except autofocus,

3) PC Micro-Nikkor 85mm f/2.8D: Can only be used in mode M; all other functions supported except autofocus,

4) Other AF Nikkor*2/AI-P Nikkor: All functions supported except autofocus and 3D Colour Matrix Metering II,

5): Non-CPU: Can be used in mode M, but exposure meter does not function; electronic range finder can be used if maximum aperture is f/5.6 or faster

*1. IX Nikkor lenses can not be used

*2. Excluding lenses for F3AF

Picture Angle: Equivalent in 35mm [135] format is approx. 1.5 times lens focal length

Viewfinder: Fixed-eyelevel penta-Dach mirror type; built-in diopter adjustment (-1.7 to +0.5m-1)

Eyepoint: 18mm (-1.0 m-1)

Focusing Screen: Type B BriteView Clear Matte screen Mark V with superimposed focus brackets

Viewfinder Frame: Coverage Approx. 95% (vertical/horizontal)

Viewfinder Magnification: Approx. 0.8x with 50mm lens at infinity; -1.0 m-1

Viewfinder Information: Focus indications, AE/FV lock indicator, Shutter speed, Aperture value, Exposure/Exposure compensation indicator, Exposure mode, Flash output level compensation, Exposure compensation, Number of remaining exposures, Flash-ready indicator

Autofocus: TTL phase detection by Nikon Multi-CAM530 autofocus module with AF-assist (range approximately 0.5-3.0m/1ft. 8in.-9ft. 10in.); Detection range: -1 to +19 EV (ISO 100 at 20°C/68°F)

Lens Servo: 1) Autofocus (AF): Instant single-servo AF (AF-S); continuous servo AF (AF-C); auto AF-S/AF-C selection (AF-A); predictive focus tracking automatically activated according to subject status, 2) Manual focus (M)

Focus Area: Can be selected from 3 focus areas

AF Area: Modes 1) Single Area AF, 2) Dynamic Area AF, 3) Dynamic Area AF with Closest Subject Priority

Focus Lock Focus can be locked by pressing shutter-release button halfway (single-servo AF) or by pressing AE-L/AF-L button

Exposure Metering System TTL full-aperture exposure metering system 1) 3D Colour Matrix Metering II (type G and D lenses); Colour Matrix Metering II (other CPU lenses); metering performed by 420-segment RGB sensor 2) Centre-weighted: Weight of 75% given to 8mm circle in centre of frame 3) Spot: Meters 3.5mm circle (about 2.5% of frame) centred on active focus area

Exposure Metering Range 1) 0 to 20 EV (3D Colour Matrix or centre-weighted metering), 2) 2 to 20 EV (spot metering)

Exposure Modes Digital Vari-program (Auto, Auto [Flash Off], Portrait, Landscape, Child, Sports, Close Up, Night Portrait), Programmed Auto (P) with flexible program; Shutter-Priority Auto (S); Aperture Priority Auto (A); Manual (M) Exposure Compensation ±5 EV in increments of 1/3 EV

Exposure Lock Exposure locked at detected value with AE-L/AF-L button Shooting Modes 1) Single frame shooting mode, 2) Continuous shooting mode: approx. 2.5 frames per second*, 3) Self-timer mode, 4) Delayed remote mode: 2 s. delay, 5) Quick-response remote mode *Approx. 1.7 frames per second with Noise reduction turned on and approx. 1 frame per second with ISO HI 1

Shutter Combined mechanical and CCD electronic shutter, 30 to 1/4000 s. in steps of 1/3, bulb Sync Contact X-contact only; flash synchronization at up to 1/500 s.

Flash Control 1) TTL: TTL flash control by 420-segment RGB sensor. i-TTL balanced fill-flash for digital SLR and standard i-TTL fill-flash for digital SLR available when CPU lens is used with built-in flash, SB-800, SB-600, and SB-400, 2) Auto aperture: Available with SB-800 with CPU lens, 3) Non-TTL Auto: Available with Speedlights such as SB-800, 80DX, 28DX, 28, 27, and 22s , 4) Range-priority manual available with SB-800

Flash Sync Modes AUTO, Portrait, Child, Close Up: Auto, auto with red-eye reduction; fill-flash and red-eye reduction available with optional Speedlight Night portrait mode: Auto, auto slow sync, auto slow sync with red-eye reduction; slow sync and slow sync with red-eye reduction available with optional Speedlight Landscape, Sport mode: Fill-flash and red-eye reduction available with optional Speedlight P, A: Fill flash, rear-curtain with slow sync, slow sync, slow sync with red-eye reduction, red-eye reduction S, M: Fill flash, rear-curtain sync, red-eye reduction

Built-in Flash AUTO, Portrait, Child, Close Up, Night Portrait mode: Auto flash with auto pop-up P/S/A/M: Manual pop-up with button release Guide number (ISO 200/ISO 100, m [ft.]): approx.17 [55]/12 [39] (manual full 18 [59]/13 [42])

Flash Compensation -3 to +1 EV in increments of 1/3 EV

Accessory Shoe Standard ISO hot-shoe contact with sync, signal, and ground contacts and safety lock

Self-timer Electronically controlled timer with duration of 2, 5, 10 or 20 s.

Remote Control Via Wireless Remote Control ML-L3 (optional)

Power Source One Rechargeable Li-ion Battery EN-EL9; charging voltage (MH-23 quick charger): 7.4V DC, AC Adapter EH-5 (available separately; requires optional AC Adapter Connector EP-5)

Tripod Socket 1/4 in. (ISO1222)

Body Colour Black (Silver version is also available depending on country or area.)

Dimensions (W x D x H) Approx. 126 x 64 x 94mm (5.0 x 2.5 x 3.7 in.)

Weight Approx. 475g (1lb. 1oz.) without battery, memory card or body cap

Supplied Accessories* Rechargeable Li-ion Battery EN-EL9, Quick Charger MH-23, USB Cable UC-E4, PictureProject, Rubber Eyecup DK-16, Camera Strap, Body Cap BF-1A, Eyepiece Cap DK-5, Accessory Shoe Cap BS-1

Optional Accessories Wireless Remote Control ML-L3, Capture NX, Camera Control Pro, AC Adapter Connector EP-5, AC Adapter EH-5, Video Cable EG-D100, Semi Soft-Case CF-DC1, Speedlight SB-800/600/Sb-400/R1C1

*Supplied accessories may differ depending on country or area.

Specifications and equipment are subject to change without any notice or obligation on the part of the manufacturer. November 2006 ©2006 Nikon Corporation

Nikon D40 Digital DSRL Camera

Designed to bring the picture performance, excitement and experience of Nikon's digital SLR cameras to more customers than ever before, the D40 is an ultra-compact, lightweight 6.1-effective megapixel D-SLR that offers simplified new features, exceptional speed and a redesigned, visually-intuitive menu system that brings consumers a whole new level of simplicity in a digital SLR. The D40 also incorporates handling and performance advantages that eliminate the frustrations often associated with compact digital cameras, making it ideal for anyone who wants to capture spectacular digital pictures without complication.

"Digital SLR cameras have gained substantial interest among consumers looking for higher-quality pictures and faster handling response," said Edward Fasano, general manager for marketing, SLR System Products at Nikon Inc. "But perceived complexity and bulkiness of some models has discouraged some customers. With the D40, Nikon addresses these challenges with incredible ease of use, compactness and a remarkable range of features and technologies. Consumers can enjoy the satisfaction of Nikon digital SLR quality by simply pressing the shutter button and getting beautiful pictures with vibrant colors, stunning sharpness and outstanding detail. With the D40, even first-time digital SLR camera users will be thrilled with their results."

Outstanding Image Quality

The D40 features a high-resolution 6.1-effective megapixel Nikon DX Format CCD image sensor and a highly advanced Nikon Image Processing Engine. Combined, these features produce exceptional image detail with vivid, true-to-life colors.

The D40 combines sophisticated exposure automation with options for complete user control to help make it the ideal camera for anyone ready to explore their creative potential with photography. Using Nikon's exclusive 3D Color Matrix Metering II, the D40 assures accurate exposure control, even in difficult lighting conditions. Its frame-wide 420-pixel sensor instantly and automatically assesses and compares each scene's brightness, contrast and color with a built-in database of information from over 30,000 real-world lighting scenarios, before setting the accurate exposure. For those who want more control over their shots, alternative metering options, such as spot metering, center-weighted metering and exposure compensation, are also available.

Precise, Quick Response

One of the hallmarks of Nikon's digital SLR cameras is how fast they operate, not only when capturing images, but also when recording them to the camera's SD memory card. The D40 proudly carries this tradition forward; the camera powers up and is ready to shoot in only 0.18 seconds.

With minimal shutter lag time and the ability to shoot 2.5 frames per second, up to 100 consecutive shots (in JPEG Normal mode), the D40 is ready to capture priceless expressions or special moments perfectly. Images are instantly processed and rapidly recorded to the SD memory card. Bright, clear preview images are also displayed in an instant on the D40's 2.5-inch color LCD monitor.

The D40's three-area auto-focus system also adds to the camera's overall speed, delivering fast and precise focus under varying shooting conditions. Incorporating Nikon's advanced Multi-CAM 530 AF Sensor Module, the three-area AF system, with central cross-type sensor operation, adds effective new focusing options and ensures greater ability to capture that perfect shot.

Designed for Life as it Happens

The D40 brings the superior image quality of Nikon digital SLR photography to everyone. Its compact size and ideal ergonomics make it the digital SLR solution for pictures anytime, anywhere. Its bright and sharp viewfinder, with 0.8x magnification, ensures precise composition.

After shooting, share your new images, or check sharpness, exposure and focus on the D40's large 2.5-inch, 230,000-dot high-resolution color LCD monitor, which provides the ability to enlarge your shot up to 19 times. The operating menus have been carefully designed with color schemes and large fonts for quick, easy navigation through the camera's options. Also, the newly introduced assist images help you select the appropriate settings for many camera features by showing illustrative end-result images typical of that setting.

The D40's innovative information display can be shown in Classic format or with the new Graphic and Wallpaper formats for Digital Vari-Program modes and Program Auto, Shutter-priority Auto, Aperture-priority Auto and Manual (P/S/A/M) exposure modes.

The camera boasts refined ergonomics and design, born from Nikon's extensive experience designing successful high performance SLR cameras for more than 50 years. The D40's size, layout and operation of all controls are designed for maximum ease-of-use. The result is a compact, light SLR camera that is comfortable to handle.

Creativity at Your Finger Tips

For anyone just beginning to enjoy the added performance and versatility of digital SLR photography, creative shooting is as simple as rotating the D40's Digital Vari-Program mode dial. The camera has eight preconfigured program modes that optimize the camera's performance for specific shooting conditions, allowing photographers to take great pictures in challenging conditions that might otherwise be confusing or time-consuming. In Portrait mode, for example, the camera automatically optimizes the color, hue, and saturation levels to capture the most flattering skin tones, softens the focus of the background images to emphasize the face and applies a milder form of in-camera sharpening. The D40 includes a new Flash Off mode that shuts off the camera's flash and boosts its ISO, so users can easily take pictures in places where flash photography is not allowed, inappropriate, or when they prefer the look of natural light. Users can also select from other Digital-Vari Program modes including Auto, Portrait, Landscape, Close-Up, Sports, Night Landscape or Night Portrait. As users gain experience with the camera, the D40 offers advanced controls that offer greater creative control over the look and feel of their pictures.

D40 photographers will enjoy the camera's Image Optimize menu options that closely tailor results to the scene at hand, the intended use of an image or to the photographer's custom preference. Sharpness, tone (contrast), color, saturation and hue optimization are controlled by the user-selected choice of Normal, Softer, Vivid, More Vivid, Portrait, Custom and Black-and-White.

The D40 also features an image Retouch menu, with exclusive in-camera editing functions that promise to keep D40 shooters engaged when they're not busy shooting. Options within the Retouch menu include:

• D-Lighting: Automatically balances underexposed portions of an image to enhance detail in these areas, without affecting the highlights of the picture.
• In-camera Red-eye Correction: Automatically removes the annoying red-eye effect sometimes caused by flash.
• Trim: Images can be trimmed to produce smaller cropped versions of any file on the SD card for greater creative freedom and greater efficiency.
• Image Overlay: Merges a pair of selected RAW files to create a composite image within the camera as a RAW or JPEG file. This feature is especially useful when trying to create a soft-focus effect with two similar images.
• Monochrome settings: Convert any color image in the camera into a pleasing monochromatic picture, either in black-and-white, sepia or cyanotype.
• Filter Effects: Emulate and apply the effects of a skylight or a warming filter to any image stored on the SD card. A Color Balance menu within filter effects can also be used to make subtle shifts in color.
• Small Picture: Create a smaller version of any image in the camera for easy sharing and faster download.

Access to wide range accessories

One of the key advantages Nikon digital SLR cameras offer is access to Nikon's extensive system of lenses, Speedlights and accessories.

The D40 is compatible with all Nikon AF-S and AF-I Nikkor lenses*, and comes packaged with a new 3X zoom 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor lens that incorporates cutting-edge Nikon optical technologies, such as ED glass and aspherical lens elements. This lens offers users a popular 3x zoom range, which conveniently covers picture angles that meet the needs of everything from tight portraits to wide-angle landscapes.

The D40 is also compatible with Nikon's range of i-TTL technology enabled Speedlights including the SB-800, the SB-600 and the new Speedlight SB-400. A perfect companion for the D40, the SB-400 is an ultra-compact, lightweight Speedlight which is ideal for photographing subjects at extended distances or illuminating subjects with a softer, more natural appearing lighting effect with its bounce flash capability. With a guide number of over 98 feet the SB-400 provides all of the power and coverage that a D40 customer may demand for shooting group shots and reducing harsh shadows. All of the SB-400's settings can be controlled automatically by the camera's metering system or manually from the camera's built-in menus. Keeping with the D40s remarkable ease-of-use, using the SB 400 Speedlight is as simple as sliding it on, turning it on and shooting.

The D40 comes with Nikon's PictureProject software that makes transferring, organizing and sharing images fun and easy. The camera also includes a 30-day trial version for Capture NX software (optional), Nikon's award-winning software that dramatically simplifies photo editing for JPEG, TIFF and Nikon RAW (NEF) format images. Designed specifically for photographers, Capture NX software provides a unique and easy-to-understand interface with tools that photographers need, but without the level of complexity and clutter of other image editing applications. Its patented new U Point™ technology simplifies picture editing by enabling photographers to enhance specific areas of a picture selectively, without the use of masks, selections, or layers. Capture NX also helps Nikon users realize the full potential of Nikon's RAW (NEF) file, with robust processing capabilities for the highest quality results from NEF files.

The D40 camera and the new 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor lens will be packaged together and made available beginning December 2006 for an estimated selling price of $599.95**.

*Autofocus is supported only with AF-S and AF-I CPU lenses, which are equipped with built-in motors. **Estimated selling prices listed are only an estimate. Actual prices are set by dealers and are subject to change at any time.

www.nikonusa.com

Image source: (c) 2006 - Nikon - All rights reserved

Agfa Graphics at Print World 2006

vf

Agfa Graphics Booth to Feature Latest Technology Innovations in Chemistry-free CtP, Enterprise Software and Workflow Software

Agfa Graphics announced today attendees at the Print World 2006 event in Toronto, Ontario (Canada) will be able to see interactive demonstrations of the latest in enterprise software, workflow software innovations and chemistry-free CtP at the company’s booth (#750). The popular chem-free :Azura plate--designed specifically for low- to medium-volume commercial printers--is being demonstrated alongside Agfa’s latest versions of its award-winning :ApogeeX 3.5 workflow and :Delano 2.6 project management software.

“We encourage printers across Canada, who have not been able to experience how easy ThermoFuse technology is, or how Agfa’s advanced enterprise and workflow solutions can bring more efficient automation and efficiency to their facility, to visit our booth at Print World,” said Jack Baraczek, director, Agfa Graphics Canada. With more than 1000 users worldwide, :Azura is a thermal, negative working plate. With Agfa’s patented ThermoFuse™ technology simplifying platemaking and removing all processing variables, :Azura provides reliable and stress-free CtP imaging without chemistry.

“Agfa’s :Azura has helped increase our production at an astounding rate of about 40 percent, and that has changed the way we do business, in a very positive way,” said on Ron Wood, general manager of Christian Press (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada). “In addition, being chemistry-free, it has much less of an impact on the environment, and that’s something that is very important to us.

”ThermoFuse is also available in Agfa’s low-chemistry thermal :Amigo plate. The patented ThermoFuse technology uses millions of individual, heat-sensitive thermoplastic pearls that are melted and fused together to form a firm bond to the substrate in its exposed areas.

:Delano 2.6 features greater softproofing capabilities, making it possible to build a full project management suite. With options such as :Delano StreamProof, users can proofread, mark-up and approve high-resolution production files in a standard web browser in real time. Additionally, :Delano 2.6 brings new features for extended JDF (Job Definition Format) connectivity.

:ApogeeX 3.5 offers new connectivity and automation enhancements and several new options, resulting in increased efficiencies in The Graphic Enterprise. :ApogeeX 3.5 also features more JDF and JMF (Job Messaging Format) functionality than previous versions. With these enhancements, prepress departments gain additional automation functionality and throughput across the entire system.

Print World is being held at the Direct Energy Centre (formerly known as National Trade Centre), Exhibition Place in downtown Toronto, November 18-20 2006

Agfa Graphics - Press release - 15.11.2006

ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm F4.0-5.6 Ultra-Compact Telephoto Zoom

ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm F4.0-5.6

ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm F4.0-5.6

Size compared to standard Business Card

(c) Olympus Imaging Corporation

ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm F4.0-5.6

mounted on Olympus E-330 digital SLR Body

(c) Olympus Imaging Corporation

ZUIKO DIGITAL interchangeable lenses are specifically designed to maximize the performance potential of the image sensors in “Four-Thirds System” digital SLR cameras. Newly announced ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm F4.0–5.6 lens is a lightweight, ultra-compact telephoto zoom lens that offers outstanding value.

ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm F4.0–5.6 is the lightest (220g) and smallest lens in its class*, and boasts the shortest minimum shooting distance (0.9m). Its wide zoom range is equivalent to 80–300mm on a 35mm camera, and its Four-Thirds System design assures outstanding portability that makes interchangeable lens photography easier. (*) as an interchangeable telephoto zoom lens covering telephoto ranges over 200mm: 35mm equivalent (as of November 13th, 2006, by Olympus study)

Main Features

･ Lightweight and Ultra-Compact Design

ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm F4.0-5.6 uses ED (Extra-low Dispersion) and high-performance glass elements and an optimized zoom range to ensure outstanding performance and portability. Packing the equivalent of 300mm telephoto power in a barrel only 72mm long, and weighing just 220g, it makes it easy to enjoy true telephoto shooting in the field. The lens’s 3.8x zoom covers a wide range of focal lengths, and offers performance equivalent to 80-300mm on a 35mm camera.

･ Excellent Close-Focusing Capability

An inner focusing system assures that lens length remains constant, and provides close focusing from 90cm at any focal length.

Other Features

･ Superior Imaging Characteristics

ED and high refractive index glass elements are used to minimize chromatic aberration, coma flare, and image curvature. Sharp, high-contrast imaging is achieved at the outer periphery of the lens at all focal lengths. Advanced technologies for high image quality include multi-coating to reduce ghosting and flaring in backlight, and the use of a circular iris to achieve smooth, soft, background defocusing.

･ Filter Support

A non-rotating mount ensures that filters do not rotate when the lens is focused, making it much easier to shoot when using polarizing filters.

The ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm F4.0-5.6 is scheduled to go on sale in Japan on November 23, 2006.

Specifications of the ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm F4.0-5.6

Focal Length: 40-150mm (35mm Equivalent: 80-300mm)

Lens Construction: 12 Elements in 9 Groups, including 1 ED Lens

Focusing System: Internal Focusing System

Angle of View: 30.0-8.2 Degree

Closest Focusing Distance: 0.90m~∞

Maximum Image Magnification: 0.14x (35mm Equivalent: 0.28x)

Minimum Field Size: 124 x 93 mm

Number of Blades: 7

Aperture: Maximum F4.0 (40mm) - F5.6 (150mm) - Minimum F22.0

Filter Size: Ø58 mm

Diameter: Ø65.5 mm

Total Length: 72.0 mm

Weight: 220g

Can be used with Tele Converter EC-14 and Extension Tube EX-25

Accessories: Lens Hood LH-61D, Lens Cap LC-58C