Friday Round Up - 16th September, 2016

This week on Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up a retrospective of Gordon Parks' work is on in Berlin, plus Steven Kasher Gallery in New York acknowledges the 50th Anniversary of the formation of the Black Panther Party with the launch of a new book and exhibition featuring the work of Stephen Shames. Also Ruddy Roye's first solo exhibition opens in New York.

Exhibition: Berlin
Gordon Parks - I Am You: Selected Works 1942-1978

“A camera doesn’t simply take pictures. It can be a powerful tool against inequality, racism oppression, and violence. A chronicler of the fight for equal rights for African Americans, self-taught Gordon Parks incisively used photography as his choice of weapons, exposing the bifurcation of the American way of life and seeking to mediate between the various groups in a deeply divided society.” 

Untitled, Watts, California, 1967

Gordon Parks diverse oeuvre is considered a visual social history of 20th Century America. 

Parks' works include portraits of leaders of the civil rights movement including Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Muhammad Ali as well as luminaries of the arts, such as Duke Ellington, Ingrid Bergman, and Alberto Giacometti. 

Throughout his career Parks also produced various socio-critical documentary films and was also a noted composer of music and writer of fiction.

‘I Am You: Selected Works 1942 to 1978’ is presented in partnership with The Gordon Parks Foundation, and features 180 works from the Foundation’s collection including vintage prints, contact sheets, magazines, and films. Steidl has published the companion catalogue.

Untitled, Washington, D.C., 1963


Untitled, Harlem, New York, 1948


American Gothic, Washington, D.C., 1942

Homeless Couple, Harlem, New York, 1948


Untitled, Harlem, New York, 1947


Husband and Wife, Sunday Morning, Detroit, Michigan, 1950All images The Gordon Parks Foundation

Until 4th December, 2016 

C/O Berlin
Amerika Haus
Hardenbergstraße 22-24
10623 Berlin

Exhibition: New York

Power to the People: The Black Panthers in Photographs by Stephen Shames and Graphics by Emory Douglas    

“Admired, reviled, emulated, misunderstood, the Black Panther Party was one of the most creative and influential responses to racism and economic inequality in American history. Founded in October 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the Panthers preached the right of black people to self-determination, which included the right to self defense. They advocated armed self defense to counter police brutality, and initiated a program of patrolling the police with shotguns — and law books."


Stephen Shames, Steven Kasher Gallery
Kathleen Cleaver, communications secretary and the first female member of the Party’s decision-making Central Committee, talks with Black Panthers from Los Angeles, in West Oakland, California, USA, July 28, 1968

"The Black Panther Party sought to build a community through service to the people. The Panthers initiated more than 50 community survival programs including Free Breakfast for School Children, Free Medical Clinics, Free Food, Clothing, and Legal Aid programs, sickle cell screening, an award winning charter school. The Panthers electrified a generation of black youth and would become emblematic of the Black Power and anti-imperialist movements that shaped the tumultuous years of the late 1960s and early ’70s. The Panthers embraced the ideals of gender equality and gay liberation and sought to forge alliances with women’s rights and gay rights organizations.”

The exhibition features over 100 black and white images of the Party, many on show for the first time and provides an in-depth chronicle presented at a time when the US is once again grappling with issues of racial injustice. 'Power to the People' also includes 50 vintage copies of The Black Panther, the official Party newspaper with front and back cover graphics by Emory Douglas. The exhibition coincides with the launch of the book, ‘Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers’ by Stephen Shames and Bobby Seale.

Stephen Shames, Steven Kasher Gallery
Sand bags line the walls of the New Haven Panther office to protect against a suspected police raid during the Bobby Seal trial, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, May 1, 1970

Stephen Shames, Steven Kasher Gallery
Memorial mural for Jonathan Jackson, who was killed on August 7, 1970, during an attempt to kidnap California Superior Court judge Harold Haley and three others to exchange for the freedom of his brother, George Jackson, Roxbury, Massachusetts, 1970

Stephen Shames, Steven Kasher Gallery
Brooklyn, New York, USA: Writing on wall: “We the Blacks must rise.” , 1970 

Stephen Shames, Steven Kasher Gallery 

Oakland, California, USA: Black Panthers carry George Jackson's coffin into St. Augustine’s Church for his funeral service as a huge crowd watches., August 28, 1971

Until 29th October
Steven Kasher Gallery
515 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001

Exhibition: New York

Ruddy Roye - When Living Is A Protest 

This is the first solo exhibition for Radcliffe “Ruddy” Roye and features 20 large scale photographs, many taken in Roye’s neighbourhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn. “Roye’s images give visibility to the usually invisible members of his community. His portraits are infused with dignity and integrity. Each photograph is accompanied by a text written by the artist, often quoting the subjects. Roye spends significant time with each person he approaches, listening to their stories. For Roye, narrating the stories of his “collaborators” is as important as the images they produce together. Roye’s is a unique voice in street photography, one full of anger, resistance and compassion.”








All images: Ruddy Roye Steven Kasher Gallery

Until 29th October

Steven Kasher Gallery New York

Friday Round Up - 3 April, 2015

This week on Friday Round Up it's all about books. Book Review Part One features an in depth interview with Ken Schles (Invisible City & Night Walk), DDR: Remembering East Germany, Photo Compendium Australia II, The Best of Doisneau: Paris, and Architecture, Photography and the Contemporary Past.


    

    

Interview:
Ken Schles – Invisible City & Night Walk

American photographer Ken Schles’ seminal work, Invisible City, was re-released in 2014 by Steidl, 26 years after its first edition. There is also a new companion book, Night Walk.

The work in both books was shot in the eighties when Schles was living in the East Village in New York City. At that time New York City was in a state of decay and facing bankruptcy. On the Lower East Side. crime rates were out of control and law enforcement had abandoned the streets. In the late seventies Schles, then a student, moved into a rundown tenement on 12th Street in the heart of the East Village.


(C) Ken Schles Invisible City


(C) Ken Schles Invisible City


(C) Ken Schles Invisible City

(C) Ken Schles Invisible City

During his tenure the East Village was alive with musicians, artists, designers, writers and poets. The underground music scene was exploding and clubs were pulsating to the new wave punk sound, the most famous CBGB’s, a proving ground for acts like Patti Smith, The Ramones and Blondie.

Here rent was cheap, but life even cheaper and frequently the air rang with gunshots. Heroin was the drug of choice and dealers claimed the neighbourhood. Junkies took their last hit in putrid alleyways and apartments became extemporized shooting galleries. Buildings reeked of detritus, reefer, vomit and alcohol. Getting mugged was commonplace.


(C) Ken Schles Night Walk


(C) Ken Schles Night Walk

(C) Ken Schles Night Walk

Living the life of a struggling artist only carries cachet for those who haven’t walked the walk says Schles. “It was not fun, it was scary and dangerous. You felt like you were taking your life in your hands walking down the streets. It was a pretty nasty place....” (to read the full interview and see more images please click on the Feature Articles tab at the top of the blog)


DDR: Remembering East Germany
Augusto Bordato
Publisher: Contrasto 

For 28 years the Berlin Wall divided a city, a country and its people. On 9th November, 1989 the Wall ‘came down’. In the days that ensued tens of thousands of Berliners from both sides celebrated. Some climbed on top of the Wall, others clamboured through new openings. Less than three months later, on 10th March, 1990 Berlin celebrated its first day of unification.

Italian photographer Augusto Bordato worked in East Berlin for ten years as an interpreter at the Italian Embassy. In the years leading up to the fall of the wall, Bordato walked the streets with his Leica capturing moments of everyday life, amassing a collection that has become a unique contribution to this moment in history.

Bordato’s black and white images speak to the times, the deprivation, the oppression, the surveillance, the protests, the celebration of freedom and reunification – visual symbols we are familiar with. If his images stopped there then this book would be little more than a collection of news photographs. But in DDR: Remembering East Germany Bordato allows an insight into the lives of the East German people that gives a new perspective.

Here East Germans, young and old alike, those who have never known life outside the Wall, and those who lost their liberty, come together in simple acts that are quotidian - nude sunbathing on windswept beaches, art gallery gatherings, young punks out on the town, parades, fireworks, couples walking in the summer heat, friends drinking coffee at a street cafe. Bordato also takes us to the country with his hauntingly beautiful images of fishing villages and rural vistas where mist cloaks the landscape.

Yet there is no romanticising of the subject matter. These photographs depict a country that is stuck in time. With the majority of images shot in the late 1980s it is evident in the fashions, décor and cityscapes that are still marred by bullet holes and crumbling structures, that modernisation has not been a focus of the Regime. This is also apparent in the patina of resignation, or exhaustion from the struggle to survive, seen on the faces of many East Germans, particularly those who knew a life before the Wall. But there is also beauty, joy and hope and Bordato has captured these symbols that signify the strength of the human spirit with dignity and compassion.

Photo Compendium, Australia II
Bob Kersey & Mary Meyer
Publisher: Black Mountain

I reviewed the first compendium of Australian Photography in 2011, which was a mix of artist portfolios and gallery listings. The new Photo Compendium II bypasses the galleries to focus on the artists with more than 50 featured and is a much more satisfying publication.

It is important to note that this book is not purporting to be an encyclopaedia, or an exhaustive collection. If it were then the pages would number in the thousands rather than hundreds. The artists featured are dedicated to their craft, many are established, others emerging. This is not a genre specific collection either. Here you will find representation across a number of disciplines from abstract and nudes, to documentary, portraiture, landscape and manipulated imagery. Black and white photographs sit side by side with colour – muted, vibrant, garish. There is work from those who consider themselves film purists. Others explore with equal devotion the depths of digital artistry.

Ultimately what this compendium showcases is the great diversity, and talent, that exists in Australian photography. As editor Bob Kersey says, artists need promotion, and audiences need to find new artists. If this book is used as intended then galleries, festivals and scribes like myself have a valuable resource through which to discover artists that are new to us. And the artists themselves have a wonderful opportunity to see what others are creating and to perhaps begin a dialogue that leads to exciting collaborations.

A final word: This book is beautifully produced. The image reproduction is superb, the stock befitting a fine art book and it is gratifying to see an Australian publisher actually printing in Australia. Bravo to all concerned on a really wonderful contribution to Australian photography.

The Best of Doisneau: Paris
Publisher: Flammarion

Born in 1912, photographer Robert Doisneau photographed the city of his birth throughout his life. This compact publication features his black and white photographs taken when he was in his early twenties right up until 1991, three years before his death at the age of 81. 

Along with Henri Cartier-Bresson, Doisneau is considered a father of street photography and photojournalism. This book is filled with wonderful images taken on the streets of Paris and in its classrooms, parlours, theatres and cafes. 

Doisneau wrote: “A glance in the rear-view mirror tells me that I’ve covered a lot of ground – first on the sidewalks, then on the road. There was nothing systematic in my wanderings: I would move along vacantly, banking on a stroke of luck, using equipment so cheap there was no risk of virtuosity. Thus drifting along, I discovered features of the city that are not to be found in guidebooks”. 

This is a glorious collection for those who love Paris, black and white photography, and the eye of a master. 

Architecture, Photography and the Contemporary Past
Edited by Claes Caldenby, Julia Tedroff, Andrej Slávik and Martin Farran-Lee
Publisher: Art and Theory

The modern city and photography have evolved together, the latter documenting our material culture, but also contributing to it through visual artefacts that give rise to the opportunity for insights into what has gone before, what exists now, and to theorise on what may come. 

The publication of Architecture, Photography and the Contemporary Past was inspired by the workshop of the same name held in 2013 at the Valand Academy, University of Gothenburg, in Sweden. This book approaches the topic of cultural heritage ‘at the intersection between research in humanities and the fine arts’ and features essays by both scholars and artists.

The premise of this book is to discuss ‘what contribution can architecture and photography make to the exploration…of what scholars call…the contemporary past – that is, to modernity considered as an open problem rather than a closed historical period…This anthology can be read as an answer to that question’.

Art and Theory is a new publishing house based in Sweden, dedicated to contemporary art, photography and aesthetics. This is an erudite volume that adds to the conversation of the photograph as evidence, its cultural significance and is a valuable addition to material cultures literature.