© Julius Shulman
Apr 26, 2010
I Heart Architectural Photography, a Lecture at CUNY Graduate School for Journalism
Today I had the pleasure of giving a guest lecture to the photo club at CUNY's Graduate School of Journalism on 41st street. It was really fun, and the students were smart and excited about learning the work of such masters as Walker Evans, Julius Shulman, Robert Polidori, Alec Soth, Andrew Moore, Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, and my own project. It was a very positive experience, especially as it caused me to re-appreciate these amazing artists' work all over again for myself. Inspiration is always a beautiful thing.
© Julius Shulman
© Julius Shulman
Apr 15, 2010
RIP my beloved companion
I spend a lot of hours working in my studio, and pretty much all of them I spent with my beloved tabby cat, Elijah. Unfortunately it turned out Elijah had a brain tumor, and this past week he had a violent fit of seizures. Today, we had to put him to sleep. I am incredibly, incredibly sad, and will always miss my little friend. At 16 he lived a good and long life (the human equivalent of 84!), filled with terrorizing guests, trying to steal our Chinese food, and lots of love. This is a portrait by my husband.
Apr 14, 2010
Apr 10, 2010
First Museum Show!
Things keep flowing and flowing along....I am going to be included in a conceptual photo exhibition, One Hour Photo. First thing exciting about this show is that will be held at the American University Museum at the Katzen Art Center in Washington DC---my first museum exposure! Secondly, I am proud to have my work in the show with some of my esteemed colleagues and some straight-up fabulous artists, including Penelope Umbrico, Ruben Natal-San Miguel, Clayton Cotterell, Brian Ulrich, Megan Cump, Tim Davis, and many others. The concept of the show is:
The premise of One Hour Photo is simple: project a photograph for one hour, then ensure that it will never be seen again.
The experience of One Hour Photo is also, on the surface, simple, almost programmatic: project one work per hour, each by a different artist, for the duration of the exhibition; provide a simple, meditative space for viewers; finally, document the exhibition on this web site with release forms signed by the artists.
From this simple concept, a range of themes emerge, some of which we present below, many of which we leave to the viewer to discover and experience.
In One Hour Photo, photography’s original impulse to capture a moment, to freeze and frame it, is turned outward, to the experience of viewing itself. The hour is the exposure, the moment that is captured in the frame of a temporary, provisional observation. Each work ceases to be a photograph: it erases its medium, its status as art object, as it becomes a pure moment of perception to be experienced, framed, and captured by the viewer. In this sense, the viewer becomes the camera, recording the moment on the unreliable format of memory. The viewer also becomes photography itself, as it feels its familiar constructs slip away: permanence, reproduction, ownership, control.
One Hour Photo is also a collective exercise in giving up control, of letting go. The release forms signed by the artists and curators serve as literal testament to this release.
One Hour Photo also raises an updated version of a popular paradox: if a photograph shows for one hour in an empty room, and no one sees it, can it be said to exist at all? The role of the viewer is critical—without her, the work does not exist at all. As the viewer becomes the camera, the task of seeing, of framing, of honoring the perception and the image shifts to her.
Ultimately, we hope that the show both reflects and problematizes our experience of the present conditions, which are marked both by dizzying increase (more, faster, and smaller bits of information swarming by in constant streams) and also by seemingly irreparable loss (of time and attention, of community, of the natural world).
The premise of One Hour Photo is simple: project a photograph for one hour, then ensure that it will never be seen again.
The experience of One Hour Photo is also, on the surface, simple, almost programmatic: project one work per hour, each by a different artist, for the duration of the exhibition; provide a simple, meditative space for viewers; finally, document the exhibition on this web site with release forms signed by the artists.
From this simple concept, a range of themes emerge, some of which we present below, many of which we leave to the viewer to discover and experience.
In One Hour Photo, photography’s original impulse to capture a moment, to freeze and frame it, is turned outward, to the experience of viewing itself. The hour is the exposure, the moment that is captured in the frame of a temporary, provisional observation. Each work ceases to be a photograph: it erases its medium, its status as art object, as it becomes a pure moment of perception to be experienced, framed, and captured by the viewer. In this sense, the viewer becomes the camera, recording the moment on the unreliable format of memory. The viewer also becomes photography itself, as it feels its familiar constructs slip away: permanence, reproduction, ownership, control.
One Hour Photo is also a collective exercise in giving up control, of letting go. The release forms signed by the artists and curators serve as literal testament to this release.
One Hour Photo also raises an updated version of a popular paradox: if a photograph shows for one hour in an empty room, and no one sees it, can it be said to exist at all? The role of the viewer is critical—without her, the work does not exist at all. As the viewer becomes the camera, the task of seeing, of framing, of honoring the perception and the image shifts to her.
Ultimately, we hope that the show both reflects and problematizes our experience of the present conditions, which are marked both by dizzying increase (more, faster, and smaller bits of information swarming by in constant streams) and also by seemingly irreparable loss (of time and attention, of community, of the natural world).
Apr 6, 2010
Better luck next time!
This year I applied for several huge grants to get my world's fair project rolling along, including the Guggenheim Fellowship, the most prestigious of the bunch, which awards $47000 to make work and do research. Today I received the sad news that this year, I did not receive it. I knew that you have to be a bit more established with your career than I currently am---but still, I had a glimmer of hope that they would love my project and see the enormous potential in it. What have I learned? Keep making work, and try again next year!
© 2009 Jade Doskow
© 2009 Jade DoskowApr 4, 2010
Happy Easter!
Happy Easter and Passover to my readers. In celebration of the egg festivities, I bring you this photograph I shot in my building: a pigeon nest! Contrary to popular belief that pigeons are always big, nasty vermin-birds on the sidewalk, they do actually begin as cute little eggs.
Apr 2, 2010
From Blogger to Professor! Join me at my class at ICP
One of the things I have been busiest with is designing a course for the International Center of Photography on...blogging! It's going to be a really fun course, where we will create blogs, submit to online photography competitions, and work on all other aspects of entering the contemporary new media photography world. Please join me for this exciting class! You can enroll here.
Hope to see you in the digital lab!
Hope to see you in the digital lab!
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