Klea McKenna

Klea McKenna was recently selected by Aperture's Lesley A. Martin, for the 3rd Curator's Choice Award of Jen Bekman's Hey, Hot Shot! competition. McKenna describes her recent project Slow Burn as "an ongoing series of experiments" which in my opinion results in some really beautiful work (that I had not seen before today). Instead of writing about it myself, take a look at what Ms. Martin writes here and take a look at more of Klea's work here (and be sure to read her excellent statement).






Photos © Klea McKenna

InOrbit NY

Some of my Queens images are featured on InOrbit New York today. It is a great new site edited by James Turnley and Bryan Formhals featuring photography and other things about NYC. Be sure to check it out.

This Thursday

Will Steacy's show, Down These Mean Streets opens this Thursday at Michael Mazzeo Gallery. I have been a fan of his work, especially this project for a while now. This should be a great show - not to be missed.

Also, be sure to check out Summer Staged over at Foley Gallery (at their brand new location at 548 W. 28th, 2nd floor), which is also opening. Artists in the show include Tribble & Mancenido, Steven B. Smith, Amy Stein, and several others.

The 6th Boro

New York-based photographers, Lou Peralta and Joe Howansky are curating an exhibition which will feature nine photographers' take on New York City. I don't know much about this, but it seems really interesting, especially since my most recent project is based on Queens.

From their website:

The 6th Boro is an upcoming exhibition showcasing 9 photographer’s contrasting views of New York City. Despite its solid façade, the city is an amorphously perceived environment. It’s natives, it’s transplants, and those who simply come to visit as tourists have disparagingly different perceptions of it. They therefore experience what could conceptually be considered entirely different cities: the spectacle, the ideal, and the “truth”. The 6th Boro presents artists who, through their photography, convey alternate perceptions of the city which the viewer might be unfamiliar with.

Submissions are being accepted (for free!) until June 14th.

See more info on their website.

NYPH 2010

© Marcel Gahler

New York Photo Festival starts on Thursday! My schedule has been quite busy as of late, but I am hoping to make it to a lot of the events.

While browsing the participating artists, Marcel Gahler's work caught my eye. His work is part of the Use Me, Abuse Me exhibition curated by Erik Kessels, at Smack Mellon. Overall the festival looks like it will prove to be better than the last.

Also up during the festival is Full Frame, a group exhibition of work by Pratt Institute's graduating photography seniors. This year's class is much larger than mine was and the show includes a lot of great work. So be sure to stop by!

Full Frame: An Exhibition of Photographs by the Pratt Senior Class
111 Front Street, Suite 461
DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY

through May 15th

Gallery Hours:

Wednesday - Friday: 2pm - 6pm
Saturday-Sunday: 12 - 6pm


© Natasha Otrakji

Hey, Hot Shot!

Have A Nice Day, 85th St., Hollis, Queens, 2008

I have been shooting Queens for almost three years now and since my most recent project is finally at a stage where I feel comfortable showing it to people and more tightly edited than it was in the past - I decided it was time try to make it a little more visible. While there are signs it is getting better, the current economy sometimes dissuades me from submitting work to competitions - that and the fact that I don't exactly have a lot of cash anyway, to spend on this sort of thing. However, since I really like what they are doing over there at Jen Bekman Gallery with 20x200 and other means of helping emerging photographers reach more people, I chose to enter this round of Hey, Hot Shot! And much to my surprise, there was a nice little write up of my work on their blog today!

Take a look at their post here

The iPad was finally released this past Saturday (April 3) and I can gladly say my website is in fact fully functional on the newest Apple product. My images actually look pretty darn good on the thing too - but I still have to ask myself, is an iPad really necessary? I know that I will not be getting one any time soon, nor feel the need to own one. However, after being bombarded with posts from several different websites asking, "Is your website iPad ready?", I had to check it out...Not that I would have put making my site operational on it at the top of my to-do list.

Off Topic

I am very excited to hear that one of my favorite hometown bands, The Ponys, who seemed to have disappeared after their 2007 album, "Turn The Lights Out", are releasing some new material. Their new EP "Deathbed + 4" will be out later this month in digital format and May 25th on vinyl. They will even be playing some shows!

More info, tour dates, and a listen here.

Article on their disappearance here.

Glad to be back in the darkroom today! The negatives should be scanned shortly for real online viewing...

Updated

College Point, Queens, 2009

My website is now updated with more Queens images and a side project based in Floral Park. More to come soon! Check it out!

NJ Numbers

Tonnelle Ave, North Bergen, NJ, 2006

Another one from the archives.

Woodside, Queens, 2009

The good ole website should be updated with some new(ish) Queens images in the next week or so. I will also be adding location titles, so they are not literally just "somewhere in Queens"... and maybe some work from new projects if I am not too nervous to share.

From the Archives

Oh, Illinois

Main Street, Chadwick, Illinois 2006 © Dave Jordano

When I checked my email today, I was greeted with my subscription from Culturehall. The current feature, Inside Out, curated by Tema Stauffer includes Juliana Beasley, Wayne Liu, Heather Musto, and Dave Jordano. While I have seen his photos before, I was struck by Jordano’s work this morning. I am pretty sure it has to do with the fact that I am originally from Chicago and his project, Prarieland, focuses on rural Illinois. While I lived in the city itself, I have traveled the roads and highways of rural Illinois quite a bit – as a child with my parents, road trips with friends, and photographing as an adult. Not that upstate New York can’t provide me with nature and give me a break from the always hectic city - Jordano’s images made me a bit homesick. Rural America often tends to have a similar feel, but there is just something about the Midwest that cannot be replicated, for me at least.

This also sparked a lot of thought about photography and things I have been reading over the past couple of weeks. Recently there has been a lot of discussion (on blogs and in person) on similar photographs/projects, etc. A good read on this topic is over on Conscientious, Jorg Colberg’s blog. I actually have no problem what-so-ever with similar work (within reason). There is obviously a line that should not be crossed, which to me is common sense – but I don’t really want to talk about copyright infringement and people copying other people’s work and so on. Instead, I have been thinking about various artists doing projects on similar, if not the same places, in similar styles, etc. I have heard people say, “Does the world really need another Stephen Shore?” or so and so place has already been covered by so and so photographer. But does this really matter? In my opinion, a different artist usually brings something new to the work and it is not the same as Shore’s or Sternfeld’s or whoever, because it is shot today, not in 1970 - whatever. Heck, I have been shooting Queens since I moved to New York a number of years ago only to find out a year and a half into shooting, that Queens College commissioned photography greats, Joel Sternfeld and Frank Gohlke to shoot the borough. Does this bother me? No. Did I ever think I would be the only one to shoot Queens? No. However, I feel the work is different enough, because I am seeing the landscape in a totally different way, as a newcomer, resident – culture shock from moving here from Chicago, etc. etc. At any rate, I think that it is somewhat selfish to limit the things/places we photograph (not that people do... and again, within reason) because there is a greater audience out there other than the photo/art world (that sees things completely differently and has way more exposure to different artists and work than the average person). What is overkill to one person is loved by another. But we already knew this.

Anyway, I don't usually write this much and I am rambling at this point, so I will stop. I hope all that makes sense. Until next time...