David LaChapelle Photos Exhibition at Kestner, Hanover

Photo Exhibition: David LaChapelle 

Earth laughs in flowers 

Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover 

Through May 8, 2011

In the first institutional solo exhibition in Germany of work by the famous American photographer DAVID LACHAPELLE (b 1964), the Kestnergesellschaft presents a series of new photographs. The series Earth Laughs in Flowers, which was created this year, refers to art-historical visual traditions but never loses sight of LaChapelle’s own artistic language. 

David LaChapelle 

Decadence: the insufficiency of all things attainable 

2008 

Edition 5/7 

Digital C-Print on Corrugated Cardboard 

266.9 x 914.4 x 134.3 cm 

© David LaChapelle 

Courtesy Fred Torres Collaborations; Galerie Rafael Jablonka, Köln 

The large-format still lifes in this series, with titles such as The Lovers, Concerning the Soul, Risk, or  America, seamlessly take up the principle of exaggeration that characterized the portraits of celebrities like Madonna, Pamela Anderson, Michael Jackson, Björk or David Bowie through which David LaChapelle himself has become famous since the 1990s. The portraits always contained art-historical references, along with a fear of emptiness, a love of bad taste, an ugly beauty, but David LaChapelle’s recent works now show an explicit compositional affinity to Baroque floral still lifes (as we can see with the work Early Fall). Plants, fruits and objects, in place of human bodies, now bear witness to human pride, to the finiteness of life with its obsessions and compulsions, to pleasure and suffering. 

David LaChapelle 

Early Fall 

2008-2011 

Chromogenic print 

190,5 x 127 cm 

© David LaChapelle 

Courtesy Fred Torres Collaborations; Galerie Rafael Jablonka, Köln 

The title of the exhibition can also be read in the sense of the vanitas portrayals of impermanence and futility: the quotation ‘Earth laughs in flowers’ comes from the poem ‘Hamatreya’ by Ralph Waldo Emerson in which flowers are the earth’s laughter at the arrogant attitude of human beings who believe they can own the earth, although they themselves are transient and must return to it. But the title also speaks of an affirmative and allencompassing attitude, as LaChapelle himself puts it and seeks to translate into his pop visual language. His works are intended to be inclusive and easy to understand, and they address a wide audience. 

This is achieved through strategies of heightened media staging – as in the portraits – but also through universal motifs that are culturally rooted – as in Jesus is My Homeboy (2003), which is also shown in the exhibition. In this series LaChapelle worked with people from the street to stage scenes from the life of Jesus that are astonishing in their true-to-life, contemporary realization. This series is complemented by two paintings from the State Gallery of the Lower Saxony State Museum. These two works, Christuskopf [Head of Christ] (1904) by Erich Brunkal and The Entombment of Christ, a copy after Raffael by Casabene, enable the new works by David LaChapelle to be compared with and referred to traditional Christian iconography. 

 David LaChapelle 

Intervention (from the series Jesus is My Homeboy) 

2008

182.9 x 279.4 cm

© David LaChapelle

Courtesy Fred Torres Collaborations; Galerie Rafael Jablonka, Köln 

DAVID LACHAPELLE studied visual art at the North Carolina School of the Arts before moving to New York. There he studied at the Art Students League and the School of Visual Arts, and while still a student was invited by Andy Warhol to work for the magazine Interview. David LaChapelle has had solo exhibitions at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Kunst Haus Wien, the Fotografiska Museet Stockholm and elsewhere. His work has appeared in numerous group shows, for example at the Brooklyn Museum and the Helmut Newton Foundation.

Curator: Kristin Schrader

DAVID LACHAPELLE EARTH LAUGHS IN FLOWERS 

A catalogue in German and English was published in cooperation with DISTANZ-Verlag with  an introduction by Dr. Veit Görner and texts by Dr. Thomas Andratschke and Kristin Schrader. 38 Euros.

Kestnergesellschaft 

30159 Hanover 

Germany

www.kestner.org

Photographs from the 1910s at the Metropolitan Museum, NYC

"Our Future Is In The Air": Photographs from the 1910s The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
November 9, 2010 - April 10, 2011

The 1910s—a period remembered for "The Great War," technological innovation, social ferment, the influenza epidemic, and the birth of Hollywood—was a dynamic and tumultuous decade that ushered in the modern era. The new age of the automobile, the airplane, and the industrial factory—as it was captured by the quintessentially modern art of photography—will be the subject of the exhibition "Our Future Is In The Air": Photographs from the 1910s, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

An eclectic centennial exhibition devoted to photography of the 1910s, "Our Future Is In The Air" provides a fascinating look at the birth of modern life through 44 photographs by some 25 artists, including Eugène Atget, E. J. Bellocq, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Eugène Druet, Lewis Hine, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Adolph de Meyer, Christian Schad, Morton Schamberg, Charles Sheeler, and Stanislaw Witkiewicz, among others. Drawn exclusively from the Museum's collection, the exhibition also features anonymous snapshots, séance photographs, and a family album made by Russian nobility on the eve of revolution.

"Our Future Is In The Air" complements the Museum's concurrent presentation of groundbreaking photographs by Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, and Paul Strand, in the exhibition Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand.

"Our Future Is In The Air" was a popular French slogan in the early 1910s and the title of a brochure promoting military aviation ("Notre Avenir est dans l'Air"). Pablo Picasso, who was very interested in the recent invention of the airplane, included the sentence in one of his 1912 Cubist compositions. Now, the double meaning of the phrase suggests the feelings of excitement and anxiety that characterized the period.

Jacques-Henri Lartigue, a painter who considered photography a hobby, was another artist fascinated by the soaring flight of the airplane, as well as the look and speed of the automobile. The exhibition features a rare early print of one of  show, Lartigue's most memorable photographs, Le Grand Prix A.C.F. (1913). Swinging his camera in a movement that follows a racing car, Lartigue barely managed to catch the speeding machine in his frame.

The camera afforded access to the previously invisible, whether capturing a broken leg bone, revealed in an X-ray from 1916; the swift movements of a smoker lighting a cigarette, in a 1911 motion study by the Futurist artist Anton Giulio Bragaglia; or the hidden life of New Orleans, seen in an extremely rare vintage print of a Storyville prostitute, photographed by E. J. Bellocq around 1912.

At the same time, photography became an agent of democratic communication, and documentary photographers used its growing influence to expose degrading conditions of workers, the injustice of child labor, and the devastation of war. Beginning in 1908, Lewis Hine made 5,000 photographs of children working in mills, sweatshops, factories, and street trades; six of his photographs will be featured in this exhibition, including Newsies at Skeeter Branch, St. Louis, Missouri, 11:00 A.M., May 9, 1910. Hine's reports and slide lectures were meant to trigger a profound, empathetic response in the viewer.

During World War I, photography was utilized to document the mass casualties of mechanized warfare; in the exhibition, an affecting image from 1916, by an unknown artist, shows wounded French soldiers performing drills in the nave of the Grand Palais in Paris as part of their rehabilitation.

Also in the exhibition is an evocative 1918 photograph, again by an unknown artist, of Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks entertaining a huge crowd at a war bonds rally on Wall Street.

In addition, the exhibition includes photographs by several friends and compatriots of Alfred Stieglitz, including Alvin Langdon Coburn, Adolph de Meyer, Charles Sheeler, and Karl Struss, who reacted against the prevalence of snapshot photography by emphasizing the medium's possibilities for artistic expression.

"Our Future Is In The Air": Photographs from the 1910s is organized by Douglas Eklund, Associate Curator in the Metropolitan Museum's Department of Photographs.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art 
1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028

Related Posts in this blog
The Metropolitan Museum's Department of Photographs
Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand

Fazal Sheikh, Beloved Daughters, Photos Exhibition at the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego

Beloved Daughters unites two projects by photographer and activist Fazal Sheikh. Both projects were created over a span of two decades, and focus on women from two specific communities in India. The first project, Moksha (Heaven), portrays the northern Indian city of Vrindavan, where dispossessed widows go to devote themselves to Krishna and seek moksha: final release from the cycle of death and rebirth. Sheikh's next project, Ladli (Beloved Daughter) portrays the lives of girls and young women in a society where, despite progressive laws, their human, civil, and economic rights are routinely suppressed. The two projects combined in this powerful exhibition provide intimate and revealing portraits of the faces and words of the old and young -- widows of great age, mothers and their children -- that paint an eloquent picture of women's prospects in modern India, a nation of 1.1 billion people. Sheikh pairs intense camera portraits with testimony from his subjects, offering a voice to those who would otherwise remain anonymous, conveying stories that are both eye-opening and thought-provoking. "Beloved Daughters is in keeping with Fazal Sheikh's other photographic projects," states Carol McCusker, MoPA's Curator of Photography. "With this body of work, however, he takes us deeper into his commitment to under-represented communities. His calm, empathetic vision enhances our understanding, also given depth by the women's voices through writing." 

About Fazal Sheikh Fazal Sheikh uses photography to create sustained portraits of communities around the world, addressing people’s beliefs and traditions, as well as the political and economic problems of particular communities. Since the early 1990s, Fazal Sheikh has focused attention on the experiences of people displaced from their homelands by a variety of causes. After photographing refugees from conflicts in Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Mozambique and Rwanda, he traveled to northern Pakistan to encounter Afghans exiled by power struggles between the Taliban and the Mujahedeen. More recent projects have taken him to Brazil, Cuba and Mexico. When Moksha was published in 2005, Fazal Sheikh was awarded both a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant and the Henri Cartier-Bresson International Award. He immediately returned to India and undertook the work that became Ladli. The two projects were shown for the first time at the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation in Paris in the summer of 2007. Fazal Sheikh was born in New York City in 1965 and graduated from Princeton University in 1987. 

MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS 

1649 El Prado - San Diego, CA 92101 

 October 10, 2009 - January 31, 2010 

About The Museum of Photographic Arts

Bonny Lhotka - 3-D Photos Exhibition Natural Order

6Sight 2009 Future of Imaging Conference will focus on the emergence of 3-D imaging. Bonny Lhotka, founding member of the Digital Atelier, will exhibit, Natural Order, a selection of 3-D images with animation lenticular photos based on nature and natural forms. Water, land, and atmosphere as natural elements will dominate the exhibit. Tropical imagery included will be 3-D underwater scenes and tide waters. The exhibition, held in October and November, will cover the time of the 6Sight Conference being held in the Monterey Conference Center from November 10-12, 2009. In conjunction with the exhibit, Lhotka will deliver a lecture at 6Sight entitled, The Art of Time and Space.

Lhotka, a recipient of the Smithsonian/Computerworld Technology in the Arts Award, worked with a group of curators in 1997 to help them envision the potential of digital printmaking in “Media for a New Millennium.” Her work is shown internationally and appears in numerous books and articles featuring experimental media. Her artwork has been commissioned by or included in, hundreds of collections including then National Conference of State Legislators, United Airlines, Johns Space Center, Jones Intercable, Microtek Labs, US Department of State, Charles Schwab, MCI, and McDonnell Douglas. More information is available at www.lhotka.com.

“Artists throughout the ages have worked on the problem of representing three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional plane,” said Lhotka. “Several of the most effective attempts to capture realistic space rely on human stereoscopic vision; each eye sees a slightly different view. This approach applied to photography made stereograph viewers a common sight in U.S. parlors 100 years ago. This technology was a tightly guarded secret until the late 1990s when digital imaging reached the high resolution needed to produce one-of-a-kind large lenticular prints. At this same time a new lenticular lens was developed for use with inkjet prints. This set the stage for artists to begin to explore the manipulation of images in both time and space. Now with the release of Adobe® Photoshop® CS4 and its advanced professional capabilities as an art medium, it’s now available to any digital artist, but high priced software is no longer needed. Photography will no longer be flat.”

"The Alvarado Gallery provides a forum for the citizens and visitors of Monterey to celebrate the arts,” said Chalet Catlin, curator of the Alvarado Gallery. “Through a juried selection process, the Colton Hall Museum and Cultural Arts Commission of the City of Monterey, chose Bonny’s cutting-edge work. The intriguing images are topical to a major event, the 6Sight Future of Imaging Conference, taking place at the Monterey Conference Center."

“Artists are often at the leading edge of exploring the non-traditional communication opportunities brought about by new media and new media technologies,“ said Alexis Gerard, 6Sight co-founder and conference chair. “Bonny has for a decade been at the forefront of exploring how depth information transforms the expressive possibilities of still images. Her work and the insights she has derived will greatly enrich our attendees’ experience on both an entertainment and a business level.”

Additional information about the 6Sight conference program and speakers is available at www.6Sight.com

Korean Overseas Adoptees' Photo Exhibition

“Our Space: Six Perspectives” Photo Exhibition at the Seoul Olympic Parktel - August 1-2, 2008 - is part of the Global Overseas Adoptees’ Link (G.O.A.’L) 10th Anniversary Conference. The exhibition of photos taken by overseas adopted Koreans who returned to their land of birth reveals insights into the shared sense of the familiar and unfamiliar that all adoptees encounter upon returning to Korea. As a “space,” Korea is depicted through landscapes, buildings, bridges, and through the people that inhabit and share this space together.

Lia Hyun-joo Barrett (USA) is a graduate of Parsons School of Design, Bachelors of Fine Arts in Photography and Eugene Lang College, Bachelors of Arts in Social and Historical Inquiry in New York. During her most recent visit to Korea, she started an ongoing project of photographing birthmothers with their children. She leaves the images on record with the adoption agency so that adoptees and birthmothers may retrieve the priceless records at a later time.

Todd Heckert (USA) is from Minneapolis, Minnesota and studied at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. His photography series of bridges on the Han River represent both the river and the bridges that cross it as vital symbols of Seoul. Sand from the Han was used to make cement for buildings and other concrete structures – including the bridges in Heckert’s photos – during Korea's economic boom in the 1980s. What had been soil below the Han has become a vital part of what links the northern and southern parts of the city above.

Raphaël Bourgeois (Belgium) has been living in Korea since 2007. His photographs of peoples’ lives juxtapose common scenes within an uncommon context, revealing insight into the complexities of modern Korea. The familiarity of Namdaemun Gate, charred and burned, lies in the background with a homeless man sleeping in the foreground; a grandmother sits on the sidewalk surrounded by rows of young riot police, are some examples of Bourgeois’ ability to capture how individuals fit into shared experiences and spaces.

Eric Perriard (France) is a freelance professional photographer who has worked with UNESCO and had his work widely exhibited and published, including in Le Monde in France. He has traveled throughout the world documenting images. His work in Korea captures landscapes, beach sides, tombs, mountains, and the people who place themselves in everyday activities in those settings.

Kim Sperling (Germany) has created works consisting of photographs and interviews of fellow Korean adoptees that have returned from their adoptive countries to live in Korea. He started this project in order to better understand why so many adoptees have decided to return to their land of birth. His portraits show adoptees living in Korea in settings where they are “at home” – their apartments, places of work, and neighborhoods.

Aram Tanis (The Netherlands) has taken black and white photographs that create a portrait of Seoul, which through precise observation includes not only its topography but also reveals the structural elements of its society and economy. Tanis’ images of apartment blocks, expressways, and bridges embody the dynamism of a modern metropolis evoking the “New Seeing” and “New Objectivity” constructivist aesthetic. Tanis was adopted from Korea to the Netherlands and studied at De Ateliers in the Netherlands as well as at the Kaywon School of Art and Design in Korea.

G.O.A.'L is an adoptee-run registered non-governmental organization (NGO) and non-profit organization located in Seoul, Korea. Since 1998, G.O.A.’L has supported overseas adopted Koreans in accessing Korean by bridging barriers of language & culture and advocating for adoptee rights through lobbying the Korean government, providing adoptee-focused post-adoption services, organizing an annual conference addressing adoption issues, publishing a regular bi-lingual newsletter and coordinating public education, networking & social events. Website: http://www.goal.or.kr/

Paul Goldman Photographs of the Birth of Israel

Photography Exhibition Celebrates Israel 's 60th Anniversary - “To Return to the Land…” Paul Goldman’s Photographs of the Birth of Israel at the Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust.

Hungarian-born photojournalist Paul Goldman fled to the British Mandate of Palestine in 1940, where he chronicled the events leading up to the foundation of the State of Israel. Goldman’s photos of life before statehood, during the War of Independence, and the ingathering of dispersed Jews are complemented by rich memories of individuals who lived through those same events. Images and words together tell stories of the birth of Israel through the lenses of photographic and human memory. From Tel Aviv streetscapes to the bombing of the King David Hotel, from street vendors to Prime Ministers; both the extraordinary and everyday document this monumental story.

While Goldman was one of only a few photojournalists working in the British Mandate of Palestine in the 1940s, he remains largely unknown, mostly because of the practice at the time of not including photo credits in newspapers. His work was beautifully composed and restrained, as Jewish Week writes, “This supreme sensitivity makes Goldman’s photographs a small miracle in today’s world of extreme closeups and telephoto lenses, and they make for interesting, almost prosaic constructions, rich with tensions between public and private.”

“We could think of no better way to honor the birth of the State of Israel than by showing the powerful images of its struggle and its triumphs,” Museum director Dr. David G. Marwell said. “The title of this exhibition is taken from the words of the Israeli national anthem, Hatikva, and captures the fervent dream of the Jewish people to have their own state.”

Highlights of the exhibition include more than 35 images culled from a collection of negatives that lived in a shoebox until they were rediscovered in recent years. The photos are on loan to the Museum from the collection of Spencer M. Partrich. The exhibition will feature such inspiring images as the one of future Israelis toiling the land of a Kibbutz in 1943; and heartbreaking images such as one of Holocaust survivors arriving at a detention camp in 1945.

Goldman, born in 1900, fled Budapest in 1940 to escape the spreading threat of Nazism. He worked as a freelance photographer for local newspapers and international news services during the 1940s and 1950s. His role as a member of the British Army, and later as a confidant to important Israeli leaders, provided him with privileged access and a frontrow view to Israel’s growing pains. Unfortunately, Goldman’s eyesight failed him in the early 1960s — he died penniless at the age of 86 in Israel. Sadly, he never was able to see Israel’s physical beauty beyond her adolescence.

Museum of Jewish Heritage

36 Battery Place, New York, NY 10280 

http://www.mjhnyc.org/