Diffraction Phenomenon

Kamil Vojnar

2010-05-24T17:14:00.000-07:00

Born in Moravia of Czechoslovakia in 1962, Kamil Vojnar studied at School of Graphic Arts in Prague (1976-1981) and left in 85 to study at Philadelphia Art Institute. Vojnar moved to New York City in 1989 where he worked for different image studios and then as a freelancer, majoring in producing images for books and CD covers, while filling photo stock agencies with more personal images. Vojnar later moved to Paris and subsequently to St. Remy de Provence in France, where he is now living and working.

Driven by pressures within, Kamil's work explores often hidden corners of the soul, where human emotions reside. He works with images to deliver his particular vision, his reaction to the contradictory world which surrounds him. To the world filled with so much beauty and so much suffering, often happening at the very same moments, within only minutes, hours, inches or miles apart. These feelings are honestly reflected in Kamil's images in intensely personal and enigmatic ways.

Angel standing all wet in the bath tub, falling man with wide-spread arms and girl lying on the grass facing the sky. Perhaps we can trace some sources from the artist's words, "we all start our lives in pure whiteness and innocence, but during the course we are being torn and crashed again and again, in small or big ways". A kind of escapism has long been embedded in Kamil Vojnar's images - and truly, beautiful as they are, the images tend to end up on the darker side of things.

"What drives my work is the contradictory world surrounding us. So much beauty and so much suffering meet and go hand in hand. But also it is the world of "elsewhere". The world from where inspiration and intuition, leading my hand, arrives.
From that space between the earth, the sky and our minds and hearts, where things happen, we don't fully understand, but without which the world would be much grayer place. I am trying to explore corners of our souls, where emotions reside. Emotions as reactions to the world outside and conflicting emotions of our most private worlds within. Because don't we cry from immense sadness, but from happiness as well? My working methods are pretty much "flying blind", because as a photographer and painter am basically self taught. Mostly oblivious to proper techniques and processes, I mix elements the way we reconstruct our last night dreams. From bits and pieces. I let intuition and materials, I am working with, to lead me to conclusions, I never really see as fully finished and I revisit my images over and over again to place them in different logic and contexts. My pictures are mostly images, digitally layered from many different photographs and textures, printed after in small editions, as a ink-jet prints on fine art paper. Or they are layered images, printed on semitransparent Thai and Japanese papers, mounted to canvas, varnished with oil and wax, sometimes painted on further with oil paints. I don't know where I am going, but I will get there." - Kamil Vojnar

Thomas Barbey

2010-05-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

This week I would like to feature an artistic photographer whom I discovered at the Beverly Hills Affaire in the Gardens (art festival). His name is Thomas Barbey and he is from Las Vegas. I don't know much about Thomas so I will let his photographic art speak for itself.

Enjoy!

Jerry N. Uelsmann

2010-05-11T03:17:00.000-07:00

Using multiple negatives to produce his surreal, dreamlike photographs, Jerry Uelsmann has developed a singular artistic vision which has carried him through a nearly 50 year artistic career.

Firmly entrenched in his traditional darkroom practices, Uelsmann continues to produce magical and thought-provoking imagery without the help of modern computer-base techniques. Uelsmann says, “There’s an element of alchemy that I sense in the darkroom that I would never ever sense in front of a computer. There’s a technological well that is behind the screen that is beyond any comprehension for me. It’s not particularly mystical – it’s just technical. In the darkroom it feels much more spiritual.”

Uelsmann’s works are featured in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, the Victoria an Albert Museum in London, the Bibliotheque National in Paris, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, among many others.

Brett Townshend

2010-05-06T03:06:00.000-07:00

Looking up, captures some of the graphic forms created by the sky when framed by man-made structures. Most of these were created by stitching several fish-eye views together and then creating a new projection from the result. Unlike most uses of stitching to create panoramas, these are centered on the sky with the normal subject relegated to the role of constructing surroundings. When Townsend first started taking these he was surprised by the shapes that were formed - shapes which he had never noticed before, perhaps because we so seldom look straight up and recognize what is there - squares were expected, ovals anticipated, but never triangles, arrowheads, eyes, or even a dove.

Paul Thulin

2010-05-02T02:54:00.000-07:00

In light of contemporary society becoming more environmentally conscious, the mere forms of the inherited machines of industrialism stir one to consider the hidden threats continuing to pose harm to the earth’s delicate ecosystems. Our future rests in the hands of a re-imagined eco-industry that will redefine our personal relationships and expectations of the machines we engage and/or rely on a daily basis. Paul Thulin captures his version if this new reality.

Machines is a photographic series inspired to visually explore a futuristic vision of American studies scholar Leo Marx’s theory of the “machine in the garden”. The images reveal a "middle landscape"; nature existing in a seemingly contradictory state of lush untamed wilderness while under the dominion of a mechanized society. The driving narrative forces of the imagery are grand pastoral landscapes inhabited by mysterious machine "like" structures engaging a mix of characters intended to symbolize industry, the natural world, the primitive, and the cultivated.

Machines is created through a process of photographic digital assembly. Each image comprises of a fusing of multiple details from my extensive personal archive of analog and
digital photos representing the American landscape, thrift store trinkets, industrial forms, animals and people. The work is a unique photographic fiction that has gradually arisen from creatively engaging digital image editing technologies.

Maggie Taylor

2010-04-29T02:47:00.000-07:00

Using 19th century tin-types, photographs, and images, Maggie Taylor scanned them on a flatbed scanner. She then combines them with some other images that she photographed, acquired, or other objects that she scanned. These images are then composed, combined, and colorized by using Adobe Photoshop program. In a typical image composed by Taylor, there can be as many as 40-60+ layers.

Taylor received her BA degree in philosophy from Yale University and her MFA degree in photography from the University of Florida. In 1996 and 2001 she received State of Florida Individual Artist's Fellowships. In 2004 she won the Santa Fe Center for Photography's Project Competition. She lives in Gainesville, Florida with her husband, photographer Jerry Uelsmann.

Enjoy!

Claudia Kunin

2010-04-26T02:35:00.000-07:00

Today, I would like to introduce you to Claudia Kunin whom I found in the Modernbook Gallery. In the past, Claudia Kunin has photographed professionally for blue chip companies, but is now dedicating her time to her moody and ghostly dreamscapes. Her work offers a new mythology, with statements on earth, life, heaven, and hell. Her latest photography, "Ghost Stories" and "Holy Ghost Stories," rises out of an imagination sparked by an epiphany that led her to immerse herself in the art of such visionaries as Caravaggio and Bosch. Exceedingly accomplished in her lighting technique, as well as digital skills. Kunin shoots the models and backdrops and then assembles them in Photoshop. The final presention is an image that requires special 3-D spectacles that adds a new dimension to fine art photgraphy.

Claudia's work feels more like paintings and that is a very unique rising trend for the modern day photographer with digital manipulation skills available at their disposal. Just let these works of art speak for themselves.

Kyoshi Becker

2010-04-25T03:29:00.000-07:00

Kyoshi and I had booths at Fresh Fairs 2010 art fair exhibition hall. Like me, he photographs a great variety of concepts from macro to normal and beyond. I don't know much about Kyoshi except he lives in Palmdale, CA and knows how his art should be printed.

Jamie Baldridge

2010-04-24T02:14:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I was part of the Fresh Fairs art festival in Santa Monica and was introduced to whom I shall introduce you to this week. His name is Jamie Baldridge. Jamie was born to two hominids in 1975 in a very small town in the Deep South of the United States. Much of his childhood was spent in tedium. After spending years studying Theology and Creative Writing at Louisiana State University, Jamie somehow got a BFA in Photography. After which he went on to work a string of odd, very odd, photographic jobs before receiving his MFA in Photography from the same fine institution. He is currently a professor of photography at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. His work and writings can be found in many collections such as the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Rare Books collections of the Library of Congress, Cornell University, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, The University of Colorado at Boulder, the Rhode Island Institute of Technology, McNeese University’s Abercrombie Collection, as well as numerous private collections. The Everywhere Chronicles, his first book, has just been released by 21st Editions. Baldridge currently resides in Lafayette, LA where he divides his time between making art, teaching, traveling, and writing.

I find this work very amusing and entertaining as it shows like a scene out of a high budget, artsy European child's movie. Enjoy!

Cathy Immordino

2010-04-20T10:33:00.000-07:00

Since I just happen to be pregnant, I have had a mild obsession with rubber duckies. I am still building a collection of these plastic toys but for now I have finished 10 photos that I find quite amusing.

Let me know how you feel about them. Enjoy!

Minmyo

2010-04-12T10:25:00.000-07:00

When I was in Palm Springs a few weeks ago, I came across a quiet, Asian girl with a friendly personality and awesome haircut. This was, of course, at the photo festival and she was one of tens of us standing in line waiting to be seen and heard. Her photography is a study of herself, the universe and everything that exists. Questions of life and death and the meaning of life have been in her mind since a near death experience in her teen years. Every time she takes a photograph she searches for answers like the rest of us to "Why are we here?" and "What's the meaning of it all?"

What follows are her self portraits which I find very intriguing.

Enjoy!

George Row

2010-04-09T10:57:00.000-07:00

"I’ve been a computer programmer in the telecoms industry, a computer science academic, a producer (for online-community) in an internet start-up, but I have always been a Photographer – at present I am specialising in Panoramic Photography.

What I like about panoramic photography is that after almost a decade of composing panoramic images I am still learning about it!

Originally my 360° panoramas were only accessible as immersive virtual reality images on the computer. Over the last two years I have been experimenting with ways of making prints of those panoramas.
Having tried a few methods the “stereographic projection” has proved to be the most effective. It typically turns the immersive panorama into a “little planet” as if the horizon in a landscape was the edge of a globe.

I am based in Derry in Northern Ireland and many of my early panoramic images are of that town and the surrounding area. My website veryderry.com provides the visitor with a virtual tour of the city.
I have a huge collection of panoramic images from throughout Ireland that I have shot over the last few years. While my initial gallery here is of panoramas of Derry. I hope, that as I work through my backlog of photography I will be able to add to my collection here panoramic images from throughout Ireland in general."

-George Row

Ricardo Salamanca

2010-04-04T21:16:00.000-07:00

Ricardo Salamanca is from Santiago, Chile and runs a retouching studio there. I haven't found much info on his life story or artist history but his process is really fascinating. To make some of the puzzle piece images, Ricardo takes four or so photographs and combines them into this castrated masterpiece.

Maleonn Ma

2010-04-01T18:12:00.000-07:00

Maleonn Ma, born in 1972, is a Chinese photographer & creative director from Shanghai. He began a career as commercial director a little over 10 years ago and since has gone on to be known for photographing naked Chinese men in strange way.

The photos I feature here are some I find very different and unique in a circus sort of way. I really love how Maleonn stages all of these shots that really take me back to an alternate reality filled with artsy and beautiful things. Below is a quote from a Maleonn's website (a quote from Faust).

Mephisto said: you can only shape yourself by your own action. You must keep on creating. Only during the creation, the model of the mysterious beauty would recur. Everything has to start from nothing, from listening to the rhythmical sound in the darkness… You won’t be able to be God of endless spiritual experience. The attracting mind, the saddest appreciation, the obsessed abhorrence, the pleasant disgust, all won’t be able to change you. You'll finally find out: what you are will eventually be what you are...
----

If you fall in love with these images like I did, make sure to check out his website for many more of the same thing!

Robert Buelteman

2010-03-23T23:56:00.000-07:00

Tonight I was exploring the internet and discovered Robert Buelteman. This wasn't the first time I've seen these images, but for a while I had forgotten about them. All the images I'm about to post were taken without camera, lense or computer. That leads me to believe they were "photographed" the old fashioned way with a box and hole. If you know how he did these, please let me know! I really love this art concept and would like to explore it differently.

Enjoy!

Adam Balcerek

2010-03-21T17:45:00.000-07:00

I don't know anything about the person I am introducing you to today. I first saw his "HouseWives" series in the Lucie honorable mention for 2009. I do know he is from Poland and I like the way he thinks photographically.

Scott Nobles

2010-03-18T17:44:00.000-07:00

Today I'd like to introduce you to Scott Nobles. I accidentally stumbled across these images while surfing the world wide web. What I like most about his work is how we don't see images like this every day or even much at all anymore. He dives into pin up models of way yesterday and dabbles in Japanese World War art with a fresh take on it all.

Hope you enjoyed these!

Linda Morrow

2010-03-14T23:59:00.000-07:00

Although Linda Morrow always loved photography, it was not until 1994 in a workshop at Ghost Ranch down the road from Georgia O’Keefe’s former home in New Mexico that she became completely engrossed. From that point on, photography became a serious pursuit and a priority. In fact, Linda retired early from teaching college English in order to concentrate more fully on image-making. She is fortunate to have studied with remarkable teachers/mentors, over time, at Orange Coast College, University of California at Santa Cruz Extension, and, especially, the Santa Fe Workshops. In particular, Linda is grateful for the influence of Rick Steadry, Debbie Fleming Caffery, and Carlan Tapp.

Linda is interested in photographing a variety of subjects, ranging from portraits to night photography. In the process, Linda always hopes to be surprised by what she can see with the camera and by what she can make of a print in its final rendering. Once Linda resolved to make a self-portrait every day for 100 days, and she did it. Images presented here are part of that series titled "The Self-Reflective Lens".

4 X 14 Exhibition Announcement

2010-03-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

4 X 14: Uncommon Imagery

An Exhibition of New Work from

14 Southern California Photographers

March 20th- May 28th, 2010

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 20^th, 6-9 pm

The Julia Dean Gallery

801 Ocean Front Walk, Studio 8

Venice, California 90291

4 X 14: Uncommon Imagery is a group show featuring the work of Southern California photographers who have been developing their unique and personal visions in contemporary photography. Explorers, dreamers, perfectionists, voyeurs - photographers can be perceived in different ways, but passionate is perhaps the feature that characterizes them the best. Without passion their work could never see the light of success or have an unparalleled place in the contemporary art world.

Members of the group have exhibited nationwide and have had work published in JPG, File, Silvershotz, PDN, Communication Arts, Eyemazing, Black and White, Light Leaks, Shots, and other magazines. These emerging photographers bring their unique sensibilities to this exhibition, each showcasing four connected images that reflect the broad range of photography today.

Photographic mediums represented at 4 X 14: Uncommon Imagery range from digital color, Polaroid, photo illustration, color and black and white film. The diversity of styles and subject matter combine to create an exhibit that not only showcases the abilities of emerging artists, but also encourages audiences to interact with 56 new artistic visions.

Work from the following artists will be featured in the show:

Judy Ann Hoffman likes to paint abstract and conceptual pieces with her camera. Her photographic series, Notes, is a whimsical exploration of color and light, shapes and shadows, curls and swirls, created entirely from Post-It notes.

Todd Stern's photography often focuses on different cultures, offering a unique view of a particular place. His perspective of the world reveals the eye of an outsider, but the heart of a trusted friend. In this exhibit, he will showcase images from Nepal.

Nancy Baron's Vegas, I Do images give an intimate glimpse into the world of Las Vegas weddings.

Michael Kirchoff's new series entitled Incognito looks at the use of
umbrella not merely as an accessory, but as a means of concealing the identity of its user and transforming him/her into a universally known graphic shape. Better than sunglasses, the umbrella has a way of hiding its user and creating a distraction from the prying eyes of daily life.

Gerhard Clausing presents reflections and unexpected juxtapositions that invite the viewer to interpret what is shown and what is not.

Gray Malin uses nine expired Polaroids that he merges together to create landscapes of specific places from all over the world.

Laurie McCormick’s work is a visual presentation of her life growing up in Yonkers, NY. Her new series Chapters in Life features raw creations which she cooked up in her kitchen by mixing in her favorite ingredients: her miniatures.

Linda Morrow’s work is from a series called The Reflective Lens; it is comprised of self-portraits that explore aspects of personal history, memory, and the passage of time.

In the series My Life in Pictures, Liz Huston reaches into the private world of repairing deep emotional wounds, through the medium of photomontage. She seamlessly blends antique photographs with her own modern images, bravely exploring the universal feelings of exposure, isolation, loss and ultimately, healing.

Aline Smithson's work explores Michael Apted’s notion that a child is fully formed by the age of seven in her series, Spring Fever. Using whimsical floral hats from the mid century, these portraits give a glimpse into the past, present, and future of contemporary girls.

Cathy Immordino’s work navigates the world of Japanese artwork where Buddhas, bonsais and earthly objects are digitally manipulated together as one. Hand-gilded with 23-carat gold, each photograph represents the artist’s new cutting edge on photography.

Zoran Milosavljevic’s work is from his portrait series on Wilshire Boulevard. The idea was to photograph one person per intersection for length of Wilshire from Downtown Los Angeles to the ocean in Santa Monica.

Michael Butler has pointed his camera at the women of Rodeo Drive. His new series examines the private and surreal moments of some of our wealthiest people and the psychic spaces they inhabit.

Rebecca Gaal thinks it's easier to see the truth than hear it. Her work examines universal issues of health, religion, and family. It is her objective to seek out soul in everything she photographs.

Gray Malin

2010-03-07T23:50:00.000-08:00

With a name like Gray Malin it comes as no surprise that art is his passion. Growing up in Texas, Gray was fascinated by traveling and knew he one day had to get out. As he got older his passion for the arts grew and he knew that expressing his creative interests was something that later in life would hopefully become his career.

At the young age of 23 Gray’s dreams have come true. Gray attended Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to studying photography and majoring in marketing, Gray was known around campus as having the “best internships”, which included stints at Bergdorf Goodman, Terry Hines & Associates, and Paramount Vantage. Upon graduation Gray moved to Los Angeles where he quickly found work at Paramount Pictures in the office of the president. After a few short months as an intern, Gray became the youngest assistant to the president of Paramount Vantage in the company’s history. As great as an experience as this was, Gray realized that he needed to follow his heart. In the fall of 2008 Gray launched Gray Malin photography. He devoted the next few months to honing his craft by traveling around the world adding to his already extensive portfolio. Later that same year, Gray opened his own photography studio.

The turning point in his career was when Gray was selected to become a vendor at the world famous Fairfax Flea Market in Los Angeles and caught the attention of interior designers, celebrities, gallery owners, tourists and every day Anglenos. Gray continues to create new and exciting photographic series by both traveling and capturing special moments that he finds in his everyday world.

Judy Ann Hoffman

2010-03-02T23:44:00.000-08:00

Judy Ann Hoffman grew up in Anaheim, CA and has fond memories of her camera-toting relatives from far away visiting on their way Disneyland. When she received her first camera, a Kodak Instamatic (with four full power flashes in one cool flash cube) as a gift from her parents for her eighth birthday, she began toting a camera, too. Without further ado she was out photographing the bunnies in the backyard, her brother’s snake and the neighbor’s tree house. Her first photo montage: San Juan Capistrano Mission was presented to her third grade class at Benito Juarez Elementary School on a Bell and Howell TeleSonic Slide Projector when bell bottoms and Nehru jackets were first in style.

Years later, while working as an elementary school teacher in Southern California, Ms. Hoffman discovered the power of images as a learning tool. This led to many photographic adventures across Southern California capturing photographs of weekly vocabulary words for her students. As her eye and skill developed, she was asked to manage and photograph the image galleries for her school website. This led to archival and documentary work for educational institutions including The Eugene Weiner Institute for Experiential Learning in Israel, Morocco, Greece and Turkey. Recent photographic projects include location work for Michael Saul Productions, Tone Quest Inc., and McGinnty Music. In addition, Ms. Hoffman leads digital photography workshops for children several afternoons a week in Los Angeles.

George Logan

2010-03-01T23:40:00.000-08:00

Gerhard Clausing

2010-02-24T23:44:00.000-08:00

It’s been a long journey, from GERHARD CLAUSING's childhood “Bilora Boy” camera to the world of high-quality rangefinders, SLRs, and digital capture. The fascination of “capturing the light” has remained. Along the way Gerhard was an educator and writer of college textbooks, and used images in his publications and in the courses he taught. Gerhard's images gradually found their audiences.

Gerhard studied photography at Otis Art Institute, Brooks Institute, and Julia Dean Photo Workshops, completing the certified course of studies. Now he is a fine arts and documentary photographer, creating images that show the viewer alternate realities that reflect inner states and global conditions. Gerhard has been particularly inspired and encouraged by Douglas Kirkland, Gerd Ludwig, Joel Sartore, Phil Borges, Mary Ellen Mark, and above all, by his mentors, Ken Merfeld

and Aline Smithson.

Marc Ward

2010-02-21T23:15:00.000-08:00

Marc Ward left his native Central Florida after the apparent invasion of a large, three-fingered, cartoon rodent named "Mickey". East Tennessee was the destination where he earned the much prized and always lucrative, Bachelor of Studio Art degree. During this time and between painting, printmaking, and pottery, Marc became the photographer for the college newspaper and the darkroom became a second home.

Chemical trays to digital files...film to computers. The "how" of photography has vastly changed over the decades for all of us, but the love of capturing the color, line, and beauty of the world around us hasn't. The water, waves, sky, and simple beauty of Florida still inspire Marc's view of the world wherever he might be.

I personally love to look at these images and being transported to a far away alternate Universe where live is full of art and passion and politicians are dead. These still photographs should be made into movies and inspire the creative minds of the entire sci-fi film Industry.

Enjoy!

Laurie McCormick

2010-02-14T03:49:00.000-08:00

This week's photos come from a very dear photographer friend of mine named Laurie McCormick. I might like to add a small note that work from her should be bought out fast because there are copycats trying to steal her concept and run. Just remember, the original artist who started this trend, of placing miniatures in front of a previously taken photograph and photographing that scene, was Laurie McCormick.

Laurie McCormick has a wide range of photography skills that accompany her love for building miniature arts & craft scenes. The work I would like to focus on here is based around this trend she has put in motion. Now I do realize this is not a new concept but I do find it to be perfected by Laurie herself.

Enjoy!