Center Quarterly Volume 1 No.2

Neil Trager,

INTRODUCTION

Greetings. This issue of CENTER Quarterly brings us into the summer season, a time when Woodstock comes alive and stretches its seams. At CCFP, it's the time for high activity and shared energies. Photo*Flow IV, last summer, gave us all a taste of the enormous possibilities existing here for an intensive photographic program. This summer, Photo*Flow has expanded to full week-end workshops, as well as presentations and exhibitions. The workshops will take place at the Viletta in Byrdcliffe, the original artists' colony in Woodstock, a place where the tradition of learning and sharing by art/craft students and teachers goes back more than seventy-five years. If advance registration is an indication, Photo*Flow V will even survive the fuel crisis. We're all looking forward to a great summer for photography and photographers and we do hope you enjoy the second issue of CENTER Quarterly.

Howard Greenberg, Executive Director

Cynthia Copple, 1979 View Camera Workshop

0 1979 by The Catskill Center For Photography, Inc. All rights reserved. Photographs may not be reproduced without the written permission of the artist.

Produced by Center Publications. Co-Editors: Michael Feinberg, Howard Greenberg, Sarah Morthland. Layout and Design: Sydna Spancake.

The Catskill Center For Photography has received public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. CCFP is a non-profit, tax-exampt organization.

CCFPSTAFF

Neil Trager, whose Coney Island photograph is on the cover of this issue of CENTER Quarterly has recently joined CCFP's permanent staff. Neil will be producing and presenting photographic slide shows for high school students and youth groups in the area and manning the gallery's reception desk one day a week. An instructor at La Guardia Community College in Long Island City, he also teaches the Center's intermediate photo class. Exhibitions include O.K. Harris Gallery in New York City and, in the fall of this year, The Brooklyn Museum:

Jill Lynne, who founded the Photo*Flow program under the auspices of the Women's International Center in New York City five years ago, will once again be welcomed to the Center's staff as Director of the festival for its second season in Woodstock. A free-lance photographer and commercial illustrator (High Society, Harcourt Brace, and World International News, to name a few), Lynne is also a dynamic artist, well known for her innovative "Machine Art" images which employ color and black and white copiers. Series in progress, including Kodachrome shots of "party people," and large, multi-media color prints based on poems by e.e. cummings, reflect her interest in color and shifting concerns between process work and straight photography. She is currently represented by the Witkin Gallery in New York City.

Assisting Ms. Lynne, as "on sight" manager, will be Kathleen Kenyon. Kenyon, an instructor (drawing/photo-screen printing) at the University of Southern California, views the program as an "exciting alternative learning experience for the student/artist, giving the working artist the opportunity to teach a specialized subject on a short term basis." She has recently completed "Shopping Around," a screen print series and is currently involved in an on-going body of work (Type C color prints) entitled "Sacred Children." Publications include Alternative Photographic Processes.

Kathleen Kenyon Sacred Children, 1979

Jill Lynne Spacescape #1 Visionary After Giotto

BOOK REVIEWS

Parallels: A Look at Twins, by Harvey Stein and Ted Wolner, E.P. Dutton, 1978, 148 pages, $17.95 hb.

Parallels takes a straight forward look at the complex world of identical twins. In text (Ted Wolner) and image (Harvey Stein) an overriding premise, that being an identical twin implies psychological as well as physical sameness, pervades. Stein's subjects are often posed in identical garb, in symmetrical arrangements, and in extremely close physical proximity. Statements, which were made during interviews with his subjects and printed alongside the photographs, echo the implication that identical twins may indeed be the same person, their identities helplessly intertwined.

On the whole, Parallels provides sociological insight to a fascinating subject. Its singular point of view and graphic repetition, however, are disappointing. One gets the feeling that there is much more to the experience of being an identical twin than we are given.

Marie Cosindas Color Photographs, essay by Tom Wolfe

New York Graphic Society, 1978, 143 pages, $45.00 hb.

A most lavish book in a modest package is the best way to describe Marie Cosindas Color Photographs. This description holds for her photographs as well. Soft and saturated colors are the mode through which a subtle confrontation with the subject is revealed. Quiet, removed and evocative, Cosindas' polacolor gems make portraits into still life, still life into other life.

This book brings to us the work of a photographer who has unobtrusively, over some fifteen to twenty years, attained a distinction in photography which seems to transcend the bounds of contemporary style. Cosindas may also come to be recognized as being in the vanguard of "serious" work in color photography. Certainly she has extended the perimeters of Polaroid materials.

With a typically wry Thomas Wolfe introduction, very tasteful design, and truly exquisite color reproduction, Marie Cosindas Color Photographs stands as one of the more important monographs of the past year.

**

Darkroom Photography, Edited by Susan

R. Keller

Paul M. Sheptow (PMS) Publishing Company, Inc., 8 issues per year, $1.50

Alas, another mass market magazine has arrived. Darkroom Photography purports to fill the gap that exists in current photo magazines around making (i.e. developing and printing) the photograph. Its premier issue is a potpourri of information and appeal. Plenty of how-to, special effects, secrets and hints, questions and answers. The many small bits of information are occasionally illuminating. Unfortunately, design, type, paper, and murky reproduction give Darkroom Photography a cheapened feel. Being a commercial publication, the magazine also attempts to cover too much in too little space. A glance through the table of contents will reveal twenty-six separate topics, from Photo-Pops (written by former CCFP instructor, Shelly Farkas) to Color Corner, to a six-step recipe for posterization and so on. Darkroom Photography will probably be around, at least marginally, for some time. Its publisher is right about the void it fills: that a market exists is obvious. H.G.

MEMBERS' COLUMN

On June 30th, summer will officially begin at CCFP with the first of many wonderful Photo*Flow workshops. If you haven't already signed up for one, we urge you to do so quickly members receive a 10% discount on all workshops. We look forward to seeing you at many of the evening presentations ... a great way to meet one of your favorite photographers or learn a little more about your special interests!

A few notes about the Associates' Wall. The wall, an integral part of our gallery space, is located next to the library and is available to Associate Members for two week, one-person exhibitions. We will be glad to supply glass for standard sizes up to 20 x 24 and a feedback session with one of our curatorial staff is available. Contact me to schedule a show while slots are still open for the Fall! We also can assist Associates by connecting you with other exhibition possibilities (photography galleries have recently requested to see work from us) and free-lance jobs.

We would like to re-schedule the Lilo Raymond Critique Workshop which was postponed last month. If you are interested in participating, let me know and we will arrange another date.

In addition to our ever expanding library, our bookshop has grown tremendously and now includes an assortment of exquisite photographic posters from MOMA, Witkin Gallery, and many more. We also have a wide variety of photographic books (historical, contemporary, and technical), a great selection of postcards, special sales, and fantastic Photo*Flow T-Shirts. We can special order for you and many bookshop items are available at some discount.

People who would like to re-new their memberships or current members who have questions about the new membership program, please drop in to see us or give a call, we are glad to be of assistance.

Anne Albaugh, Membership Coorinator

REFERENCE LIBRARY

During renovations this past winter, a most important addition was a new home for the reference library. Housed in a beautiful and substantial natural wood unit built by Ralph Gabriner, are more than 500 books and periodicals concerning photography. Many of these are rare and out of print. We also maintain subscriptions to more than a dozen photography related periodicals that can often be found on the reading table in the gallery. We are committed to continued expansion of the library, thereby continuing to provide and maintain an important and unique resource for photographers in this region

"OFF THE WALL" CATALOG

June 1979, 32 pages, $2.00

Center Publications is pleased to announce the publication of a catalog featuring a selection of images from "Off The Wall," CCFP's June 1979 national exhibition of off-beat and humorous photography. Produced in conjunction with the show's juror, Charles Gatewood, it will take the form of a special edition of Mr. Gatewood's magazine, THE FLASH. Copies are available at the Center.

The Gallery, Bookshop. Reference library

EXHIBITIONS

The summer of 1979 will bring the work of seven eminent and widely exhibited photographers to the Center's gallery. The season begins June 30-July 18 with BEN FERNANDEZ and TOM MA ROTT A in Gallery I and WALTER CHAPPELL in Gallery II. Fernandez, whose work is documentary in nature, is currently Chairman of the Photography Department at the New School. He has received NEA and Guggenheim fellowships and one-man exhibits include the Museum of the City of New York. Marotta is a photojournalist whose work appears in such publications as Time, Newsweek, Look, Camera, NY Times, and the Village Voice. He also teaches at the New School and has published a monograph entitled For They Are My Friends.

Walter Chappell, born in 1925 in Portland, Ore., studied architecture (with Frank Lloyd Wright) and music before becoming involved in photography in 1956. From 19571961, he served as curator of Print Collection & Exhibitions at the George Eastman House. His numerous exhibitions include the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the George Eastman House; publications include Under the Sun: An Abstract Art of Camera Vision, by Nathan Lyons, Syl Labrot, and himself. Chappell has resided in the San Francisco Bay area and Hawaii since 1963.

The work of JOAN LYONS and BARBARA BLONDEAU comes to the Center July 21-Aug. 8. Ms. Lyons is Director of the Print Shop at Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester and teaches printing, printmaking, and Visual Foundations. She was a CAPS grantee in 1975 and is presently on the photography panel of the New York State Council on the Arts. Her mixed media images have appeared in exhibitions at the School of Art Institute (Chicago), the San Francisco Museum, Vision Gallery (Boston), and most recently in Mirrors and Windows (the Museum of Modern Art). She has more than 16 self-authored, printed and published small edition books to her credit.

Born in Detroit in 1938, Barbara Blondeau received her BFA from the School of Art Institute and her MS in photography from the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology. She taught at Saint Mary's College in lrtdiana and at Moore College of Art. In 1970, she began teaching at the Philadelphia College of art where she became Chairman of the Department of Photography and Film. Blondeau was best known for her long strip pictures produced by a technique of continuous exposure of a roll of film, and the subsequent contacting of the roll as one photographic print. In the four years prior to her death of cancer in 1974, she made images which dealt directly with her reactions to her impending death.

From August 11-30, summer continues with exhibits from BENNO FRIEDMAN and CHARLES HARBUTT. Friedman's images are beautiful and evocative, the print surfaces manipulated with the use of selective toning and hand coloring. Widely published and a CAPS grantee for the second time in 1979, his work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, George Eastman House, and M.I.T. Recent exhibitions include Light.Gallery in N.Y.C.

Charles Harbutt is currently president of the photographic cooperative Magnum Photos, Inc. In 1974, MIT Press published a book of his personal work entitled Travelog, which won the Festival of Aries (France) Award as best photographic book of the year. His work is in several collections including the Museum of Modern Art and George Eastman House.

Our season closes with a group exhibition entitled "Color In Question." The artists invited to participate in the show, scheduled for Sept. 1-20, are nationally recognized photographers who are involved in altering the print surface, indicating a philosophical and aesthetic questioning of the photograph as given reality, as image, and as object. These photographers, with their skills in painting, drawing, collage, and printmaking, display an attitude towards the photograph which bridges all of these commonly segregated art forms. Guest curators for the exhibition are Colleen Kenyon and Sydna Spancake.

Sight & Sound

The Catskill Center For Photography

59A Tinker Street

Woodstock, New York 12498

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID

Woodstock, N. Y. Permit No. 33

RELATED AREA EVENTS

WOMEN'S STUDIO WORKSHOP: Photogravure Workshop w/Judy Natal (Visual Studies Workshop) August 6-10, $60 for 5 days. Info: WSW, PO Box V, Rosendale, NY 12472, 914-658-9133. Ms. Natal will give a talk on Photogravure at CCFP on Aug. 10, at 8 p.m.

KLEINART GALLERY: All-Media Exhibitions, juried, open invitation. Submission deadline: three weeks in advance of exhibit. Rhythm & Blues, June 30-July 31; Bathroom Art & Graffiti, Aug. 4-Sept. 11; Reflections, Sept. 15-Oct. 16. Info: Kleinart Gallery, 34B Tinker St., Woodstock, NY 12498, 914-679-2815.

ART AWARENESS GALLERY: THE LAND, July 21-Aug.12 (curated by Howard Greenberg, photographic visions of the land); Mixed Media Group Show, Aug. 18-Sept. 3. Classes in the arts begin Mid July-August, and include painting, drawing, and photography. Further info and full schedule: Art Awareness, Rt. 42, Lexington, NY, 518-989-6433.

CLASSES

CCFP's eight week session of summer classes begins the week of June 24th. Featured will be a slide and discussion course entitled "20th Century Photography and its Critics," taught by Sandra Phillips, as well as our regular schedule of B&W and Cibachrome classes.

Typesetting by Photo Graphics, Kingston, N.Y. Printing by Hamilton Reproductions, Poughkeepsie, N. Y.