Spot Spring 2014

H O U S T O N

C E N T E R

F O R

P H O T O G R A P H Y

Spring 2014

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Spot Magazine, published by Houston Center for Photography.

Check out thirty years in the online archive at hcponline.org.

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Spring 2014

Editor Bevin Bering Dubrowski Managing Editor Susie Kalil Production Editors Alexandra Irvine, Caroline Docwra Copy Editor Tanita Gumney Founding Editor Emeritus David Crossley HCP Publications Committee Chuy Benitez, Chair, Jonathan Beitler, Peter Brown, Caroline Docwra, Bevin Bering Dubrowski, Tanita Gumney, Alex Irvine, Susie Kalil, Jean Karotkin, Mavis Kelsey, Antonio Manega, Raj Mankad, Mary Virginia Swanson Design Antonio Manega, Gazer Design Printing Masterpiece Litho spot Web Design SINAPPS spot is published twice yearly, in conjunction with the fiscal year of Houston Center for Photography.

Subscriptions are $13 per year (two issues).

Subscriptions are free to HCP members.

Spot is a journal of independent opinions published

by Houston Center for Photography as one of its many services to the photographic community. The ideas expressed do not represent positions of Houston Center for Photography’s administration or membership and are solely the opinions of the writers and contributors.

Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved.

No portion of Spot may be reproduced without the permission of Houston Center for Photography.

Captions are based upon known information of the photograph. In cases where print type and medium are not listed, the image provider has noted these as variable.

Houston Center for Photography’s mission is to increase society’s understanding and appreciation of photography and its evolving role in contemporary culture. Houston Center for Photography strives to encourage artists, build audiences, stimulate dialogue and promote inquiry about photography and related media through education, exhibitions, publications, fellowship programs and community collaboration.

For details about membership or advertising, contact Houston Center for Photography: Houston Center for Photography 1441 West Alabama, Houston, Texas 77006 Telephone: 713.529.4755 Fax: 713.529.9248 E-mail: info@hcponline.org Visit us online: www.hcponline.org Executive Director Bevin Bering Dubrowski Director of Education Juliana Forero, Ph.D. Curator Libbie J. Masterson Programs Coordinator Caroline Docwra Executive Assistant Alexandra Irvine Membership Coordinator Sinai Tirado Finance Administrator Sean Yarborough Outreach Associate Felisa Prieto Auction Associate Emilee Cooney Facilities Associate Brandon Dimit Interns Emilee Cooney, Ashley Dehoyos, Myari Ware

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HCP’s 2013 – 2014 Supporters

contents

Joel Lederer The GE Foundation Rubi Lebovitch Thomas Damsgaard HCP Benefactors Cara and Jorge Barer Houston Endowment Keliy Anderson-Staley City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance Krista and Mike Dumas The Brown Foundation Meet HCP’s Instructors Sherry and James Kempner The Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation Mark Chen James R. Fisher Meyer Levy Charitable Foundation Aker Imaging Teresa Munisteri September 1, 2012 Kevin E.31, Bassler to August 2013 HCP Underwriters Total number of photographs exhibited Cameron International Corporation 413 Simmons Foundation Houston Camera Exchange Julie and Drew Alexander Jerry Reed Patricia J. Eifel and Jim Belli Robertson-Finley Foundation 208 Number of exhibiting artists Artists’ Framing Resource Number of classes and lectures organized by HCP Jeremy Underwood Larson-Juhl Estimated attendance at special exhibitions organized QUE Imaging Antonio Manega, Gazer Design

by HCP at off-site locations Number of exhibitions organized and HCP by the numbers Frank Sherwood White such as City Hall and JBD Foundation 14 curated

by HCP and presented at HCP’s Number of individuals who participated in HCP’s outreach programs the Houston Food Bank galleries and off-site venues John C. Lewis Joe Aker Mike Stude Deborah Bay and Edgar Browning of applicants for the Bevin and Dan Dubrowski 270 Number 2013 Annual Membership Exhibition Center classes Vadim Gushchin 1,325 Total enrollment in HCP Learning HCP Platinum Sponsors Every photographer I come Dodie Otey and Richard S. Jackson across—budding, professional, TheTheJohn M. O’Quinn Foundation HCP Fellowship amateur and otherwise—has a Number of individuals who attended competition had so many Bob Gulley connection to HCP. I have no Sterling-Turner 70 the 2012 Halloween Capture Crawl good entries that Foundation it was doubt about your impact on difficult for me to decide….

Number of students enrolled the local scene.”

Azita Panahpour Poppi Massey Too many choices! I was in the recently re-launched impressed by the high — Olivia Flores Alvarez, Night + Day Editor, Certificate of Completion program Bryan Schutmaat Houston Press* standard of entries and Howard Greenberg Gallery their diversity.”

Number of HCP onsite tours offered to Paul Smead Cemo Family Foundation — Elisabeth Biondi, curator, writer 20 student groups On the Road.

Again. and juror, 2014 Juried Fellowship Exhibitions Number of students who have completed the two-year John D. Chaney course of study necessary to earn the Certificate Sara Macel with Marvin Heiferman HCP Green Circle Barbara and Geoffrey Koslov 25000 Eddie Allen and Chinhui Juhn Art Colony Association Gay Block Frazier King 20000 Sanford L. Dow Gardere, Wynne, Sewell LLP 15000 I love the way all these Martin Elkort Celia and Jay Munisteri great young photographers converge on and are Income generated by HCP’s LearningSchmeler Center Kathleen 10000 Joan and Stanford Alexander nourished by HCP.” (highest in HCP’s history) — Peter T. Brown after a portfolio review Susan and Steve Solcher growth in Charles Butt with HCP’s Collaborations group 5000 Learning Center income Scott R. Sparvero Joan Morgenstern for workshops alone Tamara Staples 0 Burt Nelson Singular Pursuit: Navigating The Beth Block Foundation Jereann Chaney A Digitized Art World Louis Vest James E. Maloney William Winkler Bryan Schutmaat with Peter Brown Sue and Bob Schwartz Eric Faust Bob Gomel Keith Carter Libbie J. Masterson HCP Silver Donors ExxonMobil Foundation Mid America Arts Alliance Christopher Ashby The Joan Hohlt and Roger Wich Foundation Janet and Roger Durand The Wortham Foundation, Inc. Kelly and Norman Bering Texas Commission on the Arts Julie Brook Alexander Laura and Tom Bacon Dornith Doherty with Bevin Bering Dubrowski Donna J. Wan Jessica Todd Harper Corey Arnold Kathryn and Tim Lee Carolyn Brown Whole Foods Market Caleb Charland Susan and Patrick Cook Wyatt Gallery Elizabeth and David Anders Judy Haberl Howard Hilliard and Betty Pecore Henry Horenstein Renate Aller Manjari Sharma Ballard Exploration Company, Inc. Caleb Charland’s Priscilla A. Kanady Lillian H. & C.W. Duncan Foundation Marisa Cigarroa Heymach Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc. Handmade Universe John H. Duncan, Jr. Wendy and Mavis Kelsey, Jr. with Caroline Docwra Wallace Wilson Stuart C. Nelson FS Anne Tucker Amegy Bank Marcia Patrick Catherine Couturier Gallery Shelley Calton Andy Freeberg Randy and Laurie Allen Mariquita Masterson Susan Burnstein Muffy and Alexander K. McLanahan Michael Crouser Dixie Messner spotlight Joe Levit Family Foundation Rocky Schenck Robert L. Gerry, III Mickey and Mike Marvins Robin Myers Molly Hipp and Ford Hubbard, III Nena D. Marsh Keliy Anderson-Staley Leslie and Mark Hull Tatiana and Craig Massey Fan and Peter Morris Brad Temkin J. Andrew Nairn Lauren Marsolier Dee Ann Pederson Rebecca Roof Betsy and Charles Powell Jim Dow Del Zogg Natan Dvir Sally and John Hopper

HCP by the Numbers

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EXHIBITIONS

Learning Center

250,000

310

10

240

22

12

(*for identification purposes only)

10

8.5%

$237,464

$218,000

20

30

36

42

COVER: Bryan Schutmaat (Austin, TX), Railroad Bridge, Clark's Fork, Idaho, 2011 Courtesy of the artist

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Picture This!

by Juliana Forero, Ph.D.

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FROM THE EDITOR Dear Reader, During its 33 year history, HCP has had—and maintains—a national and international reputation as an important place to exhibit. We’ve shown the work of hundreds of photographers, given some their first solo exhibit, or first opportunity to show in a group, and many have gone on to exhibit in major museums, have their work published as a book, and continue to create captivating new projects. And this publication, Spot, has been continually published during that 33 year history as well, providing an outlet for photographers to share portfolios, and for authors to compose in-depth criticism and original interviews.

In this issue, Peter Brown, a member of HCP’s publications committee for much of that history, interviews Bryan Schutmaat. The two photographers discuss in a very concise way the ongoing debate of the pros and cons of publishing photography on the web versus in print. As Schutmaat points out, each form/application/approach serves a different purpose.

With this issue, Spot aims to make it’s first small step towards utilizing the best of both worlds. The print version is meticulously crafted with close attention to color and print quality, and it is accompanied by a focused interview. An extended interview can be found on the HCP website, and I hope you will visit to read more from the writers and photographers who have contributed to this installation of Spot. In addition to

ABOVE: Caleb Charland (Bangor, ME) Ground Work (Summer #2), 2013 Courtesy of the artist

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the interviews and artist spotlights, you will also find information resources and programs that HCP provides to the community. This year we’re planning to teach over 300 workshops, for photographers and artists of all levels and interests—from summer camps, to our high school program, Collaborations, to classes for adults who are interested in learning a new skill, creating a body of work or are interested in the history of photography. The student body is incredibly diverse— people come from different professional backgrounds, industries, and neighborhoods throughout Houston.

Friendship and community is often built within our classroom and gallery walls.

Additionally, HCP is becoming known as a leader in bringing together arts and medicine. You can read more about this in Juliana Forero’s piece on the PictureThis! program at Texas Children’s Hospital. HCP creates meaningful photography experiences!

Thank you for your interest in Spot magazine and Houston Center for Photography. Spot is a survivor— it’s been changed, transformed (and nearly scrapped altogether) many times over the years, and it’s always a joy to see a PDF transform into a beautiful, glossy magazine. Thank you for your support, and please do check out the extended text online.

All my best, Bevin

contributors Sara Macel is an artist and photographer based in Brooklyn, NY. Sara currently teaches photography at SUNY Rockland and is a Wassaic Project artist-in-residence. Her first monograph, May the Road Rise to Meet You, was published by Daylight Books in 2013.

Marvin Heiferman is an independent curator and writer who organizes projects about photography and visual culture. A contributing editor to Art in America, Heiferman has written for numerous publications, catalogs, monographs, and magazines.

Caroline Docwra is the Programs Coordinator at Houston Center for Photography.

Caleb Charland is a photographer who currently lives and works in Maine. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is in several major collections.

Peter Brown is a photographer and author and is one of the founding members of Houston Center for Photography and Spot.

Bryan Schutmaat is a photographer from the Clear Lake area south of Houston. He was the 2011 Carol Crow Memorial Fellowship recipient from HCP where he first exhibited his series Grays the Mountain Sends. His first monograph of the series was published in December.

Julie Brook Alexander Julie Brook Alexander is an educator and photographer who lives and works in Houston, TX. She serves as a freelance instructor with the FotoFest Literacy Through Photography program. Alexander is a member of HCP’s Board of Directors and serves as the chair of the Exhibitions Commitee.

Bevin Bering Dubrowski is the Executive Director at Houston Center for Photography and Editor-in-Chief of Spot magazine.

Juliana Forero, Ph.D. is the Director of Education for Houston Center for Photography. She oversees HCP’s Learning Center and related programs.

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MEET HCP’S INSTRUCTORS! HCP offers over 300 workshops which are taught by a dynamic range of instructors. Each instructor is a practicing photographer and has a passion for photography that inspires their students to get out there and make work.

MARK CHEN Mark Chen is a sociallyconscientious person, which is reflected in his work. While he found his voice in the medium of photography, he has also found joy in teaching photography.

He has been a photography educator for over twelve years and a book author of four titles covering different facets of photographic techniques.

Mark is currently in his second year of UH’s MFA program in photography. His series on energy and its output is a developing project focusing on Texas, California and Taiwan.

At HCP, Mark teaches workshops on technical and aesthetical

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aspects of photography as well as hands-on classes working with post production. His years of experience allow him to teach a wide range of topics including: Photography I: Learning the Basics; Composition I: From Good to Great; Photoshop I: Getting Started; Architectural Photography: Shooting Space, and High Dynamic Range Photography.

Mark Chen (Houston, TX) Migration/Megawatts, 2014 Inkjet print on aluminum, 40 x 50 inches, 1/20 edition Courtesy of the artist

TERESA MUNISTERI Teresa Munisteri grew up in the southern United States and spent her youth in The Netherlands and Italy. Munisteri currently resides in Houston, Texas where she works as an artist, educator, and installation specialist. She holds an MFA in photography from the University of North Texas and a BA cum laude from Rice University.

Landscape, performance and the figure play important roles in her work, which encompasses photography and video.

Munisteri’s work has been exhibited at several locations locally and nationally and her photographs are included in permanent and private collections such as The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. At HCP,

Munisteri specializes in teaching students how to use Lightroom and even going beyond that to sharing pictures with the world via the Internet, making a book, or printing your photographs.

Teresa covers these topics in Lightroom I: Beginning Your Workflow; Lightroom II: Sharing Your Images, and Printing Your Photographs I: The Basics.

Her experience as a practicing photographer encourages students to take their images from the camera to the walls of a gallery.

Teresa Munisteri (Houston, TX) Cherry Thief, 2013, Archival pigment print, 14 x 14 inches Courtesy of the artist

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PHOTOGRAPHY

•

COMMUNITY

•

EXHIBITING

•

LEARNING

WE ENRICH LIVES THROUGH MEANINGFUL PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCES JOIN THE EXPERIENCE, BECOME A MEMBER !

WE ARE PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERTS. YOU CAN BE TOO! visit www.hcponline.org or email sinai@hcponline.org for more information on membership benefits 8

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The Learning Center at HCP

Certificate of Completion

T

he Learning Center at HCP offers a Certificate of Completion based on workflow and creative process in

photography. Following the coursework, students learn how to capture, edit, process and

Introductory Photography I: Learning the Basics Composition I: From Good to Great Lightroom I: Beginning Your Workflow Printing Your Photographs I: The Basics

present their photographs while learning how to enhance their photographic skills, creative processes, and presentation.

The Certificate of Completion includes completing a set 19 courses, taking 2 electives (from our regular educational calendar), passing a written test between levels, and submitting a final portfolio for review. In addition, students have the option to customize their certificate

Intermediate Photography II: Beyond the Basics Composition II: Finding Your Vision Photoshop I: Getting Started Lighting in Photography Natural Light Portraiture History of Photography: 19th Century History of Photography: 20th and 21st Centuries Lightroom II: Sharing Your Photographs Photoshop II: Working with Layers Printing Your Photographs II: Getting the Color Right

by taking 4 additional classes in specialized fields such as Alternative Processes, Fine Art, Landscape, Portraiture, and Business Practices.

To find out more and to register, contact

Advanced Photography III: Experimenting with Your Camera Presenting Your Work: Creating a Body of Work Printing Your Photographs III: Print like a Pro Presenting Your Work: Building Your Portfolio Independent Study [Mentorship and Portfolio Review preparation]

Juliana Forero, Director of Education, at juliana@hcponline.org

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HCP by the Numbers

September 1, 2012 to August 31, 2013

Learning Center

310

Number of classes and lectures organized by HCP

240

Number of individuals who participated in HCP’s outreach programs

1,325 The HCP Fellowship competition had so many good entries that it was difficult for me to decide….

Too many choices! I was impressed by the high standard of entries and their diversity.”

— Elisabeth Biondi, curator, writer and juror, 2014 Juried Fellowship Exhibitions

% 8.5 growth in Learning Center income

Total enrollment in HCP Learning Center classes

22 10

Number of students enrolled in the recently re-launched Certificate of Completion program

Number of students who have completed the two-year course of study necessary to earn the Certificate

$237,464

Income generated by HCP’s Learning Center (highest in HCP’s history)

$218,000 for workshops alone

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413

Total number of photographs exhibited

208 14

Number of exhibiting artists

Number of exhibitions organized and curated by HCP and presented at HCP’s galleries and off-site venues

270

EXHIBITIONS

250,000 Estimated attendance at special exhibitions organized

by HCP at off-site locations such as City Hall and the Houston Food Bank

Number of applicants for the 2013 Annual Membership Exhibition

70

Number of individuals who attended the 2012 Halloween Capture Crawl

Every photographer I come across—budding, professional, amateur and otherwise—has a connection to HCP. I have no doubt about your impact on the local scene.”

— Olivia Flores Alvarez, Night + Day Editor, Houston Press* (*for identification purposes only)

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Number of HCP onsite tours offered to student groups

25000

20000

I love the way all these great young photographers converge on and are nourished by HCP.” — Peter T. Brown after a portfolio review with HCP’s Collaborations group

15000

10000

5000

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ON THE ROAD.

A G A I N. SAR A MAC E L WITH

MARV I N H E I F E R MAN May the Road Rise to Meet You, Sara Macel’s recent book sort of tracks, but ultimately reimagines her father’s experiences as a traveling salesman of telephone poles. Part-documentary and partperformance piece, the project explores, among many things, the ways some men move through life, how daughters watch them as they do, what work means to both, and what photographs will and won’t reveal. Having been lucky enough to watch this project evolve and now that it’s begun to be widely seen, I was glad to have the chance to sit down and talk with Macel about the nature of photographic and personal journeys.

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Sara Macel, Profile of a Salesman, Hitchcock, Texas 2010 Courtesy of the artist

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Sara Macel, In the Driver’s Seat, Cut and Shoot, Texas 2009 Courtesy of the artist

M

Marvin Heiferman: Photobooks about fathers and photobooks about road trips seem to be guy terrain.

What got you interested in both of these genres?

Sara Macel: I grew up in a house full of women, so the male psyche has always been a bit like an exotic bird to me. It was in college that I got interested in early ’70s color photography and was drawn to Stephen Shore and Joel Sternfeld because of the road trip thing, which subconsciously probably was related to my dad, but I didn’t really make that connection until years later.

MH: Were you looking at Robert Frank too?

SM: Definitely. For me, there’s a straight line from Walker Evans to Robert Frank to Alec Soth. I remember thinking, when Soth’s Sleeping by the Mississippi came out: What’s the deal with all these guys doing this? Why don’t more women go on the road? And why aren’t more women photographing their fathers? My dad’s story just seemed the most personal way to do both.

MH: When I page through your book, it feels like a movie, and with the blow-ins you’ve included, an interactive one, too.

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SM: I was looking at movies like Salesman, the Maysles brothers’ documentary about Bible salesmen, and the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men (Funny to think that both those movies were made by brothers.) Some of my photos can look like movie stills or read like a sentence taken out of a short story. The sequencing of the book takes you from place to place and leads you through time with my father, a traveling telephone pole salesman, over the course of one business trip that’s meant to represent his whole career.

MH: We’ve talked a lot about fact and fiction in terms of the book, so I thought of you when I read an article that mentioned John Grierson, the first person to use the word documentary to describe films early in the 20th century. He said documentary meant “the creative treatment of actuality.” Where does your project fall on the fact/fiction continuum?

SM: I’ve always shied away from calling this project documentary because it’s so subjective, so much a creation of something my dad and I constructed. Certain shots really were carefully pieced together and others were more off the cuff and in the moment.

MH: Did you review the photographs with your father as you worked on the project?

SM: Not until I made a little mockup of the book about a year in. As much as I wanted him to have a voice and some

Sara Macel, Stairwell, Bushwick Motel, Brooklyn, New York 2009 Courtesy of the artist

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“

As much as I wanted him to have a voice and some control over his own image, I don’t think he understood my intentions until he saw the final book.

”

control over his own image, I don’t think he understood my intentions until he saw the final book. He was expecting it to be a more straightforward document of a salesman. For me, it was just as much about the distance between us and my fantasies of where he went and what that life might’ve looked like.

MH: In this project were you looking at your father as a parent, a man, a peer, or as a guy who landed a curious job and led a certain kind of life? It’s complicated to acknowledge and respect all of that.

SM: At first, we were very much in our father/daughter dynamic and introducing my camera into that felt foreign.

I had never photographed him beyond family snapshots.

Part of getting in the car with him was to find out who he was when he wasn’t being my dad, to relate to him as a fellow traveler. Some of the images are very much from my point of view, some are me looking at him. Some images are about me pretending I'm him.

MH: Two themes in the photographs are silence and aloneness.

SM: As much as the book is a story about a man on the road, I think on a very fundamental level we both understood the tone of the project, that it was about loneliness.

MH: The project seems both celebratory and a little bit sad. Is that something anticipated or something that revealed itself as the project went along?

SM: I’ve been told my photos are sad in general. I tend to be nostalgic for a moment as I’m photographing it.

For me the very nature of photography is melancholic, as Roland Barthes wrote in Camera Lucida. On some level all photographs are like a little death because the second you take the photo of something, it doesn’t exist anymore.

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Sara Macel, The Towering Figure, Huntsville, Texas 2011 Courtesy of the artist

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right: Sara Macel, In the Company Car in 1981, Spring, Texas 2009 Courtesy of the artist below: Sara Macel, Dennis Anthony Macel, Hitchcock, Texas, 2011 Courtesy of the artist

MH: Looking at one of the final pictures in the book, I’m struck by the picture of your dad sitting on the bed in a Holiday Inn, or what I assume is one because he’s holding a Holiday Inn glass. That image, of an aging man sitting on a bed, seems to get made again and again. Eggleston did it. Larry Sultan made another version of it. Now you have, too. What do you think was going through your father’s mind when you shot that?

SM: He was probably thinking, “Hurry up and take the photo already.” By that point in the project, he was so used to the camera that he was in character, you know? In the sense of, “I’m supposed to be in my traveling salesman persona now.” That particular photo is really much more about me than it is about him.

I asked him to sit on the bed and gave him the glass to hold and said, “Just look out the window.” I bought the glass on eBay because of its old Holiday Inn logo, which isn’t used anymore since they’ve rebranded. I wanted the old logo because that is what I remember from when I was a kid and he always stayed at Holiday Inns. My intention was to photograph him sitting on the edge of a bed with a glass of scotch, missing us; that’s the image I had in my head since I was a kid of what he looks like when he’s traveling. To have that opportunity to work with him to make that memory that doesn’t exist anywhere but in my head was a great experience for me.

MH: What do you think about now when you see or pass by telephone poles?

SM: That I should probably give my dad a call.

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Marvin Heiferman, an independent curator and

Sara Macel is an artist and photographer

received the Individual Photographer’s Fellowship

writer, organizes projects about photography

based in Brooklyn, NY. She received her MFA in

Grant from the Aaron Siskind Foundation. Her

and visual culture for institutions that include The

Photography, Video & Related Media at the School

first monograph, May the Road Rise to Meet You,

Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian Institution,

of Visual Arts in 2011 and her BFA in Photography

was published by Daylight Books in 2013. Sara

International Center of Photography, Whitney

+ Imaging from New York University’s Tisch School

currently teaches photography at SUNY Rockland

Museum of American Art, and the New Museum.

of the Arts in 2003. Her work has been widely

and is a Wassaic Project artist-in-residence.

A contributing editor to Art in America, Heiferman

exhibited and is in various collections, including the

has written for numerous publications, catalogs,

Cleveland Museum of Art, Harry Ransom Center,

monographs, and magazines including The New

and the Center of Photography at Woodstock.

York Times, Artforum, Bookforum, Aperture, and

Recently, she was named a winner in Magenta

BOMB. His most recent book is Photography

Foundation’s Flash Forward, Top 50 Photographer

Changes Everything (Aperture, 2012). New entries

in Photolucida’s Critical Mass Award, winner in the

to Heiferman’s Twitter-based project, WHY WE

New York Photo Festival Invitational, and finalist

LOOK (@whywelook) are posted daily.

in FotoVisura Spotlight Awards. In 2012, Sara

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Bryan Schutmaat’s photographic work on the American West has exploded on the photographic scene this past year.

Bryan is from the Clear Lake area south of Houston and has had a connection with HCP for some time. His work has been widely exhibited and published here and abroad and has won a variety of awards: this year’s Aperture Portfolio Prize; the Daylight Photo Award; Santa Fe Center’s Gallerist Choice Award; and the 2011 Carol Crow Memorial Fellowship from HCP. In 2013, Dazed Magazine named him one of Paris Photo’s “breakout stars.” His first monograph, Grays the Mountain Sends, was published in December by The Silas Finch Foundation and The Washington Post named it one of the top five photo books of 2013. It was also shortlisted for the Aperture Paris Photo First Book Award, and was selected by a variety of publications as a year-end “Best Book.”

Peter BROWN: Bryan, we’ve known each other now for five years and over that time a lot has changed for you. When we first met, you hadn’t had a lot of formal photographic training, yet you had put together an impressive record of exhibitions not only in this country but abroad. And your work to me, seemed remarkably of a piece. Now, five years later you have become one of the most celebrated photographers of your generation.

In this interview I’d like to do two things—first, in the magazine here, explore the way that you’ve moved from relative obscurity to someone well known in our photographic world. And second in a new move for SPOT, to go to our website www.hcponline.org where I’d like to talk about your new book, Grays The Mountain Sends. It’s being assembled as we speak and remarkably, its first edition is already sold out. A link to all the images in the book is available here, if readers want to follow: www.bryanschutmaat.com/book/ So congratulations on your achievements and I’m happy that HCP has been able to have a hand in your success. Among other things, you were our Carol Crow memorial Fellowship recipient in 2011.

So how did all this happen? I think it would be helpful to younger photographers for you to trace your journey over the past few years. How have you gotten your work out into the world? You seem to have created your own path and that path I think also describes an aspect of a digitized art world that continues to evolve.

Bryan Schuutmat: First, I want to say what a joy it is to be interviewed by you, Peter. You’re one of my favorite photographers, so this is an honor for me, and I’m thankful for it.

We first met because I sent you an email out of the blue asking if you’d give me advice on how to be a photographer—more specifically, an art photographer. I wanted to become one, but I didn’t understand how it worked, how to earn a living, how to stay sane, and so on. You invited me to your home, looked at my work, and offered me more kindness than anyone deserves, yet I left without answers to the questions I had, not because you withheld anything, but because there are no answers, at least no

Bryan SchutmaAt

Singular Pursuit: Navigating A Digitized Art World

by Peter Brown

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ABOVE: Bryan Schutmaat (Austin, TX) Jesse, Murray, Idaho, 2011 Courtesy of the artist

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straight ones. I guess it works differently for anyone brave or stubborn enough to choose this path in life. You just told me that I’d be all right and that I should basically take the leap of faith—which I did. But it wasn’t until 2010, when I applied to grad school, that I really began to claim myself a photographer without a self-conscious lump in my throat. I had been taking photos regularly for a number of years before then, but it was more of an intense hobby than any kind of career, and my mind and ambitions were all over the place. I had a degree in liberal arts and I was playing music. I was really interested in cinema (mostly watching and critiquing it). I was working in education. Photography, it turned out, was the best way to consolidate my creative energies into a singular pursuit, so I began to give it more time, commitment, and passion. I decided to make photography my life. Not surprisingly, I think making that decision, taking that plunge, accounts for the good things happening with me these days. It’s hard to make waves if you’re just dipping your toes in the water. You gotta go all in.

W

ith that outlook, I started grad school at University of Hartford in the fall of 2010 and soon began work on what would become Grays the Mountain Sends. In early 2011, I won HCP’s Carol Crow Memorial Fellowship, which really motivated me because I had to show the work a few months later as a part of the fellowship deal. Looking 22

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back, it was a hasty step forward that I probably wasn’t ready for, but it got me working really hard on the project due to the deadline and the audience who would see it. After the HCP show, I continued studying and shooting off and on for Grays the Mountain Sends through the remainder of grad school.

I received my degree in late 2012 with a finished project in the can, and I immediately moved to New York, where I did what I could to get it in front of people’s eyes. However, it was mainly the Internet, not my physical proximity to the art world, that opened most doors. This had been my strategy all along—just putting work online, hoping that it would be seen and opportunities would arise. A bunch of blogs and online publications started showing Grays, which led to features in print magazines, and the floodgates kind of opened from there.

I think recognition has a snowball effect, so it’s hard to say how everything has happened. During this time, I also started submitting my work to contests—Center’s Choice Awards, Aperture Portfolio Prize, Daylight Photo Awards, etc. To my surprise, I won many of them, and the exposure has lead to more press, print sales, exhibition offers, editorial assignments, and so on. They also emboldened me to send out more unsolicited emails, which, despite having emailed you, hasn’t really been my thing in years past. But I do it more often now, because—why not? That’s how I convinced Kevin Messina at the Silas Finch Foundation to publish my book.

OPPOSITE: Bryan Schutmaat (Austin, TX) Tonopah, Nevada, 2012 Courtesy of the artist

ABOVE: Bryan Schutmaat (Austin, TX) Ralph, Moorcroft, Wyoming, 2011 Courtesy of the artist

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ABOVE: Bryan Schutmaat (Austin, TX) Abandoned School, Wyoming, 2011 Courtesy of the artist

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OPPOSITE: Bryan Schutmaat (Austin, TX) Chuck, Butte, Montana, 2010 Courtesy of the artist

PB: Tell me a little more specifically about the ways that you put your work online. You created your own system in a way, pretty much independent of teachers, galleries, curators, critics and the like – and though what you did then may be superseded by newer technology now, if you could be clear about how you achieved this, I think it would be helpful. Your photographs did most of the heavy lifting of course, but I also think the way you’ve navigated the new digitized art world has been savvy and inventive.

BS: I should first say that I think computer screens and iPads are far from the best way to experience photography, as I’m sure you agree. Well-crafted prints and books are much better. But building exposure online can serve as a stepping stone that guides people to those optimal formats, so my hope is that people who like my pictures online will eventually see them on exhibition or buy books. Nevertheless, the Internet can’t be underestimated in terms of volume. For instance, on a good day, the number of people who visit my site might be greater than the entire print run of my book. I don’t really know if that’s a good or bad thing, but it’s a testament to the Internet’s power, so with that in mind, I think it’s a good idea to have a presence on the net and engage with what’s happening there.

I mean, the Internet is amazing in general. It’s right up there with fire or agriculture when it comes to human developments that have had the greatest impact on history. The ways that ideas and data are exchanged these days have become increasingly more democratic, more forward-thinking, and much better than yesterday’s outdated modes of hierarchical distribution. I say that with caution, but I believe it’s true in most cultural arenas.

T “ It was mainly the Internet, not my physical proximity to the art world, that opened most doors.

”

oday, if you have something to say or show to the world, you just put it on the Internet and see what happens. I did this from the very start. Like I said, I wasn’t so serious about photography when I began, but once I had a handful of photos I liked, I made a website to share them. I really don’t recommend doing this right away. Young photographers should probably spend a number of years learning how to photograph before promoting themselves. I didn’t know any better though.

I spread the link to my site (full of very bad photos) via emails, instant messages, social media, and so on. This led to people blogging my photos and featuring them on small, online publications. At some point, I began to use the photo sharing service, Flickr, which increased the exposure of my pictures pretty significantly. Flickr definitely had its drawbacks, but it was a good place to learn and I came to understand the value of online community. After a while, a lot more bloggers began to post my work, and people continued to learn about who I was and what I was doing.

It has been years since I’ve used Flickr. However, I’ve been active on a blogging site called tumblr since 2010. On tumblr, I mainly make announcements about my work and let people know what I’m up to, but also I use it to share the work of others, whether that’s photography, film trailers, novel excerpts or whatever. It’s as spot

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LEFT: Bryan Schutmaat (Austin, TX) Idle Truck, Montana, 2011 Courtesy of the artist

BELOW: Bryan Schutmaat (Austin, TX) Mining Road. Tonopah, Nevada, 2012 Courtesy of the artist

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RIGHT: Bryan Schutmaat (Austin, TX) Buckmaster, Rawlins, Wyoming, 2011 Courtesy of the artist

“ It’s amazing how all of the small parts of this community collectively promote work and give a voice to artists who might otherwise have none.

”

if I have my own mini gallery space online to show people what I like—all with links to the respective creators. Tons of other people are doing this on tumblr as well, and it’s amazing how all of the small parts of this community collectively promote work and give a voice to artists who might otherwise have none. Not necessarily with tumblr, but with this kind of model, I believe that to large extent the old, elitist methods of distribution can be circumvented, and artists can gain exposure and make names for themselves without pleading with magazine editors and gallerists to make their work known. The simple but beautiful idea inherent in this manner of online dissemination is the users’ freedom to see or share whatever they want. It’s not like an institution where what goes up is dictated by people whose job it is to make qualitative decisions about what content is worthy of being seen. We’re now dealing with a many-tomany model instead of a one-to-many model. As it might be suspected, the vast majority of content on tumblr is total garbage, but the good work tends to rise to the surface while everything else fades into the digital abyss.

But this isn’t always enough. Despite my love for the Internet and its community, I still think there are much-needed roles for curators, publishers, and gallerists, and I want to thrive in their world as well (but that’s not to say that they’re entirely apart from the net). I guess like all of the art-oriented photographers before me, I aspire to museum walls and esteemed collections, but if my place to excel is online, that’s cool with me too. It’s not a trivial platform at all, especially for those who are young and have no advocates.

PB: And thrive you have in a more conventional world. At this point we’ll move our interview to SPOT’s website where we’ll discuss your new book, Grays the Mountain Sends. www.hcponline.org.

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LEFT: Bryan Schutmaat (Austin, TX) Derek, Big Timber, Montana, 2011 Courtesy of the artist

BELOW: Bryan Schutmaat (Austin, TX) Gunsmoke, Goldfield, Nevada, 2012 Courtesy of the artist

OPPOSITE: Bryan Schutmaat (Austin, TX) Railroad Bridge, Clark's Fork, Idaho, 2011 Courtesy of the artist

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Bryan Schutmaat holds a BA in history from the University of Houston and an MFA in photography from the University of Hartford Art School.

He currently lives in Austin, Texas and is represented by Sasha Wolf Gallery in New York City.

Peter Brown, has a BA and MFA from Stanford University and has taught in the Art Departments of Stanford and Rice University. His photographic awards include the Lange-Taylor Prize, the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award and the Imogen Cunningham Award—as well as fellowships from the Carnegie Foundation, the Graham Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Houston Arts Alliance. His photographs are in collections of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Menil Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the San

Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Getty Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Amon Carter Museum among others.

Brown is the author of the books West of Last Chance, Seasons of Light and On the Plains. His photos have been shown internationally and have been published in DoubleTake, The New Yorker, Texas Monthly, Aperture, LIFE, Harpers and other magazines. In 2008 he received the inaugural Glasscock School Teaching Award in recognition of his years of service at Rice University. He is a founding member of Houston Center for Photography where he is on the Advisory Council and is an Art Board member of Houston FotoFest and an Advisory Board member of the Glasscock School at Rice University where he has taught photography for many years. He is currently working collaboratively on a book on Texas with the writer Joe Holley titled Into The Heart. spot

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julie

balexander rook Stepping into Julie Brook Alexander’s studio, I realized that nearly everything has been altered from its original form. The drapes are hand painted, the sofa covered in collage and quilts. And on the walls and shelves are pieces of Julie’s personal history—paintings she’s made from her grandmother’s treasures, art books, theory books, dictionaries, and lots of collections—a grouping of fossils, rocks, kaleidoscopes, and a humorous quote pulled from her grandfather’s desk. During a morning visit to Julie’s studio, she revealed how her most recent body of work, Parables, Perspectives and Epiphanies was right there in front of her, a natural next step.

WITH BEVIN BERING DUBROWSKI

ABOVE: Julie Brook Alexander (Houston, TX) Zen, 2014 Courtesy of the artist and Hooks-Epstein Gallery (Houston, TX)

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B

evin Bering Dubrowski: What inspired you to look at your photographs in a different way?

Meaning, you used to use photography within collage and compilations, and now you are presenting straight images. How did this come about?

Julie Brook Alexander: I have spent years developing my technical abilities as a photographer. After years of tearing photos to use in composition, I felt like I wanted to preserve some of my favorite images. I thought I might have 50 or so that I wanted to preserve. Before I knew it, I was looking at hundreds of images. I created them for myself, but I had put so much of myself into them, I wanted to show them. But the individual images felt incomplete. I searched for a way to make them feel like what they are—a logical outgrowth of my earlier work.

I have always thought about photography in terms of composition and color, in much the same way a painter approaches a canvas.

In previous bodies of work, I expressed these thoughts by literally painting on photographs and composing new places through an arrangement of images.

BBD: Does collage and textile work continue to influence your photography?

JBA: My mother and grandmother taught me to needlepoint and sew when I was young. I learned to make quilts just after college. From quilting, I fell in love with cutting things up and rearranging the pieces. When I see a single piece of fabric or a photograph, I see an opportunity to transform by combining the elements in new ways. From fiber projects, I learned how to work through difficult design challenges, instead of starting over. This lesson has helped me in my studio and in life. I still keep a sewing machine in my studio along with an ample array of fabrics. I sew with some and collage with the rest. My fiber projects tend to be exuberant, decorative and personal.

BBD: Why do you think that photography became your medium of choice in recent years?

JBA: I am truly inspired and humbled by the natural world. With a camera in hand, I become more sensitive to my environment.

To me, natural elements make the simplest

place into a sanctuary of sorts. The turn of a leaf, the dance of sunlight, formations of rocks, the cascade of water—these things speak clearly to me about a divine presence.

BBD: And the new work is paired, they are diptychs—do you think that is part of the past series coming out? Pairing images has been important to you and your work.

JBA: I considered lots of ways to paint with my photographs (instead of on my photos) and settled on the clarity of the diptych format. With two images, I could create new worlds while preserving the integrity of each individual component. I found through trial and error that when I combined more than two photographs, the overall effect was to diminish the strength of each individual one. It created a single scene but overshadowed the power of each image. In the simplicity of two photos combined, I found clarity.

BBD: The titles are so interesting to me—these images hold a lot of meaning, and they seem to be representative of truths you hold dear. How did you arrive on the titles?

ABOVE: Julie Brook Alexander (Houston, TX) Eternity, 2013 Courtesy of the artist and Hooks-Epstein Gallery (Houston, TX)

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JBA: I read about words that describe water, which I am very drawn to. I also poured through art texts and spent hours with my favorite books—my thesaurus and dictionary. I still use the same dictionary from my bat mitzvah! I also talk about words with my son. He is fantastic with words, and like me, loves pairing the right word with the right meaning.

BBD: Do words come into your creative process in other ways?

JBA: My process is always evolving. I actively journal and this step of reflection is always the starting point. Through writing, I know what drives my creativity and what I need to do to express it.

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BBD: You’ve also been a long time arts educator and have helped write curriculum and programs for arts in medicine. Could you tell us a little more about that?

JBA: I discovered art in medicine the hard way. I was enrolled in a narrative drawing class at Rice University while pursuing a master’s degree in teaching with a concentration in art. Part way through the semester, my son was diagnosed with cancer. My instructor, Whitfield Lovell, encouraged me to express the emotions associated with this experience in a portfolio project. While my son was being treated at Texas Children’s Cancer Center, the hospital was investigating the possibility of starting an Art in Medicine program.

“

Helping people see the world through the lens of a camera translates into better problem-solving skills.

”

ABOVE: Julie Brook Alexander (Houston, TX) Purification, 2014 Courtesy of the artist and Hooks-Epstein Gallery (Houston, TX)

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Once I completed my degree and my son finished treatment, I worked with the hospital to define the role art could play in the Cancer Center. I spent several months researching programs around the country and worked as the first artist-in-residence.

creativity can be nurtured. Helping people see the world through the lens of a camera translates into better problem solving skills. They literally learn to see from multiple points of view and what information they need to include or to exclude to communicate clearly.

We decided that the guiding principal of the program would be that art makes people feel alive. We weren’t offering art therapy (a specialized discipline); we were offering the unique opportunities that the arts bring for personal satisfaction and healing.

BBD: It seems that teaching really fuels you and your creativity.

I continue my work as an artist-in-residence with FotoFest in the Literacy Through Photography program. For me, art is a verb…

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JBA: Teaching inspires me. Each student I encounter helps me to see the world in a new way. If you can explain color theory to a kindergartener, you really know it. You have to bring things down to the basic, simple truth when you work with kids. You can see that here in this work—it’s drawn back, refined, simple.

Julie Brook Alexander’s work will be on view at Hooks-Epstein Galleries, Inc, from March 29 – April 26, 2014.

Julie Brook Alexander earned a BA from the University of Texas at Austin and two Master’s degrees from Rice University in Houston, Texas including a MA in Teaching with a concentration in Art. She serves as a freelance instructor with the Fotofest Literacy Through Photography program. Her work is in the collection of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Musée de Arte Moderne in Rio de Janeiro, the Children’s Museum of Houston, and numerous

private collections. Her current project, Painting with Photographs, was highlighted in the 2013 online portfolio showcase of KlompChing Gallery in New York. It was also included in a juried show at the Sylvia White Gallery in Ventura, CA.

ABOVE: Julie Brook Alexander (Houston, TX) Chiaroscuro, 2013 Courtesy of the artist and Hooks-Epstein Gallery (Houston, TX)

Bevin Bering Dubrowski is the Executive Director at Houston Center for Photography and Editor-in-Chief of Spot magazine.

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HANDMADE UNIVERSE CALEB CHARLAND IS A NEW FRIEND TO HCP AND RECENTLY OFFERED TO DONATE A PRINT TO HCP’S 2014 PRINT AUCTION. I BECAME ACQUAINTED WITH CALEB THROUGH THIS EMAIL EXCHANGE AND WANTED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT HOW HE MIXES PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCIENCE SO PLAYFULLY. CALEB IS A PHOTOGRAPHER WHO LIVES AND WORKS IN MAINE. HE UTILIZES FOUND MATERIALS AND HAND CRAFTS THEM TO CREATE OTHER WORLDLY IMAGERY. WE CHATTED ONE LAZY SATURDAY ABOUT THE UNIVERSE, CHILDREN’S EXPERIMENTS, AND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A GREAT PHOTOGRAPH AND A GREAT EXPERIMENT.

Caroline Docwra: Tell me how you got into photography. Has science always been connected to photography for you?

Caleb Charland: I think I incorporated science and photography even when I was taking my first courses in high school and through college. Photography is sort of a scientific medium, where you are in a laboratory and you have all of these variables to keep straight and you are working with chemistry and time and space. I think that it fundamentally lends itself to experimentation and science in a way.

CD: Do you make an effort to create products of experimentation and discovery? How do you find these new ideas to photograph?

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CC: A lot of it stems from when I was first doing research with the kid’s science experiment books and seeing how science was demonstrated as a vehicle for fascination or wonder.

This gave me an idea of how to construct images based around that, by using long exposures and different light sources and everyday phenomena. More and more I’m getting inspired through reading and research. Most recently, I was reading a few essays on Einstein’s idea of quantum theory and Macro/Micro, how the atom functions like the solar system. And some of the work figures itself out just by diving in and making work, one thing leads to another.

Like these star cubes I’m doing now. I’ve always had an interest in the stars. Years ago, I did a project in which I put black dots on my palms where the lines cross, then scanned my palms and inverted it to make the ink white. It created this constellation

OPPOSITE: Caleb Charland (Bangor, ME) Star Field #14, 2013 Courtesy of the artist

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BELOW: Caleb Charland (Bangor, ME) Detail-Cincinnati Constellation, 2012 Courtesy of the artist

OPPOSITE: left: Caleb Charland (Bangor, ME) Untitled Star Cube 1, 2014 Courtesy of the artist right: Caleb Charland (Bangor, ME) Untitled Star Cube 2, 2014 Courtesy of the artist

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in my hand. From that I ended up doing a public art project in Cincinnati, where we got about a thousand people around town to let us put dots on their hands. We scanned them and made this 8 x 300 foot mural in a public market. I had never done anything like that on a public scale. It was amazing to have that opportunity and to see how excited people were to literally lend their hand to an art project.

CD: So tell me about your star cubes. How do you create these? How did they come about?

CC: I was doing these big star fields where I was taking screenshots of images of deep space just off the computer.

They’re really low resolution screenshots and I would print those out small about 4 x 5 inches and actually manipulate the ink in the print by dissolving it using solvents and cleaners.

So, what is this interesting push and pull where you have the background is a very pixelated source image of stars. The ink that made up those stars is dissolving into nebulous-like, gaseous clouds and then put back into the computer and

“

I ALWAYS FELT LIKE THE GRAIN WAS A UNIVERSE, ALL OF THE LITTLE SPECS OF SILVER THAT ARE IN THIS CLOUD OF CHAOS MAKE UP YOUR IMAGE.

”

printed into a physical thing. It’s a little convoluted but to me it was a way to try and do something more tangible with digital media.

It’s interesting, Star Cubes is a logical place for me to be with my work because it combines what I started with the star field images using images from the Internet or working with the media. Appropriating and then printing them digitally, but this time actually creating a physical cube with them. What you’re seeing is a photograph of stars that are arranged into a six sided cube before the camera. They look much more complex than they really are. It does take quite a bit of precision to build each one. I’m still blown away that it works. There’s something about gravity and time and space that resonates through these images for me.

CD: You can lose yourself in these stars and forget where you are in regards to the sculptural aspect of the images.

CC: This idea of photography being a science and spending all of those years in the darkroom using a grain focuser. I always felt like the grain was a universe, all of the little specs of silver that are in this cloud of chaos make up your image. I’ve always thought about stars. It’s photons, light, interacting with heavy metals tracing light and silver. There’s something cosmic about photography on that level – light interacting with atoms.

CD: It’s funny how it all ties together…

CC: And even with the digital stuff, with the pixels, are the modern grain in a way. That’s why I really like using the screenshots and how the star might be 6 pixels and then when that dissolves it leads to this bizarre sense of depth. spot

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ABOVE: Caleb Charland (Bangor, ME) Potato Power, LaJoie Growers LLC, Van Buren, Maine, 2012, Courtesy of the artist

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ABOVE: Caleb Charland (Bangor, ME) Lime Light, 2008 Courtesy of the artist

Caroline Docwra is the Programs Coordinator at Houston Center for Photography.

Growing up in rural Maine, Caleb Charland spent much of his childhood helping his father remodel their family home. These experiences instilled an awareness of the potential for the creative use of materials, and the ability to fabricate his visions. Charland earned a BFA in photography with departmental honors from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2004, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as a Trustees Fellow in 2010, and was a participant at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2009. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is in several major collections including  the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Progressive Collection, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Charland currently lives and works in Maine. spot

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spot light HCP is pleased to introduce the winner's of the 2014 Juried Fellowship Exhibitions which will be on view May 9 – July 6, 2014. Robin Myers was awarded the HCP Fellowship, and Keliy AndersonStaley received the Carol Crow Memorial Fellowship. This year’s juror, Elisabeth Biondi, is a curator and writer who is based in New York.

ROBIN MYERS Robin finds inspiration wherever the eyes and mind take her. It can be a spark of light, a scientific discovery, or a touch of the hand. She absorbs and gradually, over a period of time, transforms her perceptions into photographs. She takes particular interest in science and outer space. They represent worlds of knowledge filled with wonders, beautiful and exciting.

Her aptitude for science and knowledge of photographic technology allows for creative interpretations. The path from perception to finished image often goes through a multitude of cycles—each moving the image further away from its initial reality. As a result, her images bridge the gap between abstract and figurative. She wants us to viscerally experience what she has distilled in the pictures by engaging our emotions.

Beyond words, she succeeds in pure visual communication.

Robin Myers (Jamaica Plain, MA) Fur (For Cooper), 2012, Inkjet print, Courtesy of the artist

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For Myers, the camera is the perfect tool to render visually her perception of reality. She says, “Photography has the ability to mimic a reality that shifts seamlessly between concrete and abstract.” As much as transformation guides her images, equally important is aesthetic judgment.

She transforms an understanding of the world into aesthetic statements. Myers creates alluring images that take us beyond reality.

– Elisabeth Biondi, Juror

Keliy Anderson-Staley (Houston, TX) Jameela, 2013 Wet-plate collodion tintype, Unique plate Courtesy of the artist

KELIY ANDERSON-STALEY Keliy Anderson-Staley’s photographs are beautiful. They are portraits of a wide range of Houstonians of diverse ages, gender, and backgrounds. Much like August Sander in Germany, she succeeds in creating photographs of a representative cross-section of people living in urban America.

She uses traditional view cameras, lenses, and makes her prints by using chemicals mixed in a 19th century manner.

Her dignified portraits take us back in time to ponder a collective history and at the same she arouses curiosity in the contemporary individuals she portrays.

Her portraits compare favorably with work of other artists who make images in this traditional manner. However, hers are unique and are set apart by being classical and contemporary at the same time. Magically her sitter’s eyes illuminate their

faces and make them come alive. She achieves this quality of vividness by using the collodion process and by making the portrait a collaborative effort. She encourages her sitters to stare back at her and to hold their gaze for up to thirty seconds.

The interaction gives sitters control of how they want to be seen and the persona they wish to convey.

Contemporary dress and hairstyle, combined with the 19th century photographic process, adds up to suspending images in a neutral space. However, the photographer also points out in her Artist Statement that Tintype photographs have been used as tools for “scientific” ethnographic studies of the past. She seeks to set the record straight.

– Elisabeth Biondi, Juror spot

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above: Believablistic, Giovon, Age 14, 2013 From the The Periwinkle Foundation’s Making a Mark exhibition, Inkjet print, Courtesy of the artist below: PictureThis! Patient at Texas Children’s Dialysis Center, 2013 Courtesy of the artist

above: PictureThis! Patient at Texas Children’s Dialysis Center, 2013 Courtesy of the artist

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O

by Juliana Forero, Ph.D.

picture this!

One of the first things I did when I became HCP’s Director of Education was to visit the PictureThis! program at Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers. I met with Carol Herron, the Arts in Medicine Coordinator, who gave me a tour of the facilities and talked to me about the program’s impact. I was impressed by the power of healing that the arts had on those patients! In graduate school, I shared classes with students pursuing their doctoral degrees in art therapy, and was familiar with the theories and positive results of these types of programs, but it was something else to see the smiles on the actual participants. It was wonderful to see the patients, parents, sisters, brothers, nurses and volunteers all engaged in the activity we were leading. For several months I worked directly with these patients, breaking language barriers with many of them. I remember one girl from Vietnam who travelled with her family to Houston for treatment. She added glitter, feathers, and shiny stars to a life-sized photo of her face.

With her family we communicated in simple English, but very little was needed to understand her joy when she put on her mask—her laughter was all around.

As we began to expand the program, we realized the curriculum needed to be revised and we envisioned a team of teaching artists that could take PictureThis! to other healthcare facilities. Since 2011, this outreach program has silently snowballed into a strong and meaningful part of what we do at HCP. To test our pilot curriculum, we got approval from Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers in early 2012 to increase our visits from bi-monthly to weekly meetings, including one-on-one sessions in the in-patient area. We focused more on the quality of the programs offered, rather than on the quantity of patients served. The outcome was so successful that we now visit the Cancer and Hematology Center’s outpatient area, the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, and inpatient rooms.

In March 2013, HCP hosted an exhibition of the work created by the children in the program. Some of the patients and their families attended the opening and were thrilled to see their work framed and displayed on the gallery walls. Last year, HCP was invited by Helen Currier, Director of Nursing and Frida Wilson, Quality of Life Coordinator of TCH’s Renal Center to work with children receiving dialysis treatment. On these visits we bring iPads, cameras and portable printers and have managed to engage with even the most indifferent teenagers.

PictureThis! Patient at Texas Children’s Dialysis Center, 2013, Courtesy of the artist

And the program keeps expanding! HCP is proud to be a partner of the Global Alliance for the Arts & Healthcare Conference taking place in Houston, April 9–12, 2014. During this time, HCP will unveil a mobile outreach classroom! Outfitted with photographic equipment, computers, and printers, this repurposed ambulance will serve as a portable extension of Picture This!, allowing HCP to increase its commitment to creating meaningful photography experiences. This photo studio on wheels will be offered to visit clinics, hospitals, and other events and community centers throughout Houston.

Please visit www.hcponline.org for an interview with outreach instructors Felisa Prieto and Kelly Webeck.

If you would like to get involved or support this program, please contact me at Juliana@hcponline.org spot

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Spot ad Spring 2014_1:Layout 1

2/11/14

1:58 PM

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http://johselnamkung.net

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PRACTICE BASED, LOW-RESIDENCY

MFA

Photography

at the New Hampshire Institute of Art–Sharon Arts Campus in Sharon & Peterborough, NH

Our low-residency MFA in Photography Program promotes students’ exploration of traditional and contemporary photographic methodologies and is designed to stimulate and encourage their individual creative concepts and vision.

For application and admission information, please contact: Jason Landry Director, MFA in Photography Program New Hampshire Institute of Art jasonlandry@nhia.edu 603-836-2522

www.nhiamfa.com/photography/ The48MFA was approved

by National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) and New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) in 2012.

HOUSTON CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTO: TIME KEEPER, 2010. COURTESY STEPHEN SHEFFIELD, NHIA MFA IN PHOTOGRAPHY VISITING ARTIST

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Tanya Habjouqa, Untitled, 2013, From the series Occupied Pleasures

1441 West Alabama Houston, Texas 77006 www.hcponline.org spot

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