Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up - 3 November, 2017

This week on Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up a group show opens in New York, Gabriela Herman launches her book The Kids: The Children of LGBTQ Parents in the USA and Australian  Leila Jeffreys at Olsen Gruin. Next week Photojournalism Now comes from Washington and the 2017 World Press Photo exhibition.

Exhibitions: New York

The Photocloser - Group Show

On Wednesday night Frank Meo, aka the Photocloser, launched his inaugural exhibition with a group NYC show featuring the works of Donna Ferrato, Ron Haviv, Salem Krieger, Ken Hamm, Robert Ripps, Mara Catalan, Doug Winter, Maddi Ring, Patricia Gilman, Danielle Kelly, Shravya Kag, Bruce Byers, Ethel Wolvovitz and Bob Zahn. I popped in for a few minutes to see the work and say hi to Frank. Then it was off to the next opening. New York is awash with photography exhibitions.... 

(C) Ken Hamm

(C) Ethel Wolvovitz

(C) Bruce Byers

(C) Salem Krieger

Until 4 December
Paulaner 265 Bowery NYC

Leila Jeffreys - ORNITHURAE VOLUME 1

(C) All images Leila Jeffreys

I reviewed Leila Jeffreys' Conversation with a Cockatoo a couple of years ago and absolutely loved the way she captured the personalities of these iconic Australian birds. In her collection - ORNITHURAE VOLUME 1 - Jeffreys once again creates portraits that sing with individuality and vibrancy. It was fantastic to discover the Olsen Gruin gallery, which is the New York iteration of Sydney's Olsen Gallery, in New York and to view this work in an extraordinary space. The works are also presented beautifully and at a large size, are extremely impressive. 

 

Until 12 November
Olsen Gruin
30 Orchard St
New York, NY 10002
T: + 1 (646) 613-7011

Book Launch: New York

The Kids - The Children of LGBTQ Parents in the USA

Gabriela Herman

Brooklyn photographer, Gabriela Herman, whose parents split up after her mother came out, has created a book The Kids: The Children of LGBTQ Parents in the USA featuring the stories and portraits of 75 children who were raised in LGBTQI families. Over seven years Herman worked on this project traversing the US taking portraits and gathering anecdotes from her subjects. Last night she held a signing at Aperture and there were a number of those pictured in the book in attendance, along with an enthusiastic and rowdy crowd!

(C) Gabriela Herman

Savanna raised by her mom and step mom: "My high school was an art school in Tempe, Phoenix, which is a good half-hour drive from where my town is. I would carpool with a good friend of mine, and her mother, surprisingly enough, is very conservative. It’s very strange to me that I love these people so much, and yet their mind-set can be very different from mine. She knows my parents. She loves my parents. We’ve been friends since second grade. So we were driving to school and we were listening to the radio, and I think it was the beginning of gay marriage becoming legal. They were read- ing this email that this woman had sent to somebody on the radio station, saying, “Who we need to worry about are the children of these gay people.” That was her email, and it was like, “We need to make that a priority. We just can’t let them be raised by these people.” And I got so angry, and they said, “If you have any comments, please call in—we want to hear you.” And I kept calling and calling, and my friend and her mom were like, “Keep doing it! Keep calling!” I finally got through, and I just went off. I couldn’t even tell you what I said. I was like, “I am a child with gay parents, and I am truly appalled at this email. No one needs to feel sorry for me. My parents are amazing.”

(C) Gabriela Herman

Zach was raised by his two adoptive moms: I was born in New Orleans. My mother was sixteen. Patricia— she’s Vietnamese. My father, Charles, was seventeen. He was black and Spanish. I was adopted by Barbara and Kim, so I have two moms. As Americans, we’re pretty quick to put people in a box or judge them, whether it’s about having two moms or what your race or ethnicity is. I had less trouble with having two moms and more issues with finding myself in terms of race and ethnicity. People said stuff about my moms, but I made it clear that if you want to talk smack . . . I called people out the first couple times. The first time that I had a real issue with having two moms was in third grade, because prior to that, everyone was like, “Oh, my God, Zach is so lucky. He has two moms. I’m so jealous.” I think for little children, that whole concept of being lesbian or gay, it’s like, “Whatever.” Honestly, I feel like sometimes parents worry about that too much for their children. They’re so afraid of what the world has in store for them. At that age, I remember people used to ask, “Why are you black and they’re white?” or “Why are you Asian?” I remember saying, “I’m adopted.” For a lot of kids, for what they understood of adoption, that was good enough for a long time.