L E N S C R A T C H

Lenscratch Exhibition Opportunities

2012-05-27T03:00:00.000-07:00

LENSCRATCH is creating exposure opportunities for photographers with group on-line exhibitions. Photographers will be allowed ONE entry per exhibition and ALL photographs will be published. I firmly believe in having occasional unjurored opportunities that allow for community and conversation.

Submission Guidelines:

Image size: 72dpi at 1000px on the long side, save as a jpg.

Send name, title, location (where you captured the image), and link to your work (website or other)

Example:

Aline Smithson, The Red Rose, Los Angeles, CA (http://www.alinesmithson.com)

In the subject of your e-mail, type the name of the exhibition (example:FATHER) and e-mail to:

alinesmithson@gmail.com

If your images are sized incorrectly or the submission is incomplete, they will not be posted.

Submission Categories and Due Dates:

Image by Aline Smithson

Due Date: June 10th

FATHER Exhibition to run on Father's Day, June 17th.

Photographs can be old family photos-all interpretations open...use this to create a wonderful Father's Day tribute! Feel free to add up to 3 sentences about your father, grandfather or whoever you are showcasing.

Image by Aline Smithson

Due Date: June 29th

AMERICANA Exhibition to run on July 4th.

All things American...

Check back for new opportunities....

Jan Møller Hansen

2012-05-26T03:00:00.001-07:00

Sexuality in cultures around the world can be complex. Several years ago, I featured the work of Ann Summa and the cultural phenomenon of Muxes in Oaxaca, Mexico. Danish PhotographerJan Møller Hansen has been documenting the transgender culture of Hijras in Bangladesh and other parts of South Asia. He has captured numerous other projects in Bangladesh including Acid Survivors, Sex Workers, and portraits of children and women.

Jan is a diplomat and development practitioner working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. From 2007 to 2012, he served as the Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of Denmark in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is also a passionate photographer with a focus on social photography

Neither Man nor Woman - Transgenders in Bangladesh:In the West, they are known as hermaphrodites or eunuchs. The hijras have been part of the South Asian landscape for thousands of years - they are born male but grow up feeling like and dressing as women. Marked out because of their sexual difference, they are a despised and oppressed minority.

It is not that easy to define a hijra. There are differences between the cultural definition and the variety of individual lives and experiences. Hijras are culturally defined in terms of their traditional occupation as performers on auspicious occasions, but not all hijras perform. Some hijras see them themselves as neither man nor woman, but there are also many who very feel and behave like women. There is also the definition that relates to physical sexuality. Many think that most hijras are hermaphrodites, but that is not true. Most hijras are probably "made" rather than "born that way". Becoming a real hijra often means going through the emasculation ritual by removal of the penis and testicles. Ideally, the emasculation operation is performed by a hijra called a dai ma (midwife), a clear and strong symbolic statement of the emasculation as rebirth. The emasculation ritual transforms an impotent man into a potentially powerful person, The emasculation operation is done together with various rituals and blessings, which is not described here in detail.

The hijras can praise the good qualities of families, but they also can insult them; they can bless one’s house with prosperity and fertility, but they also can curse it with infertility and other kinds of misfortunes. The hijras are treated with a combination of mockery and fear. The hijras often engage in homosexual prostitution. Many hijras are both performers and prostitutes.

The hijras are fighting for their rights, and they want to be treated equally among other people. They want others to know that they are also normal human beings. They want to be allowed to lead a normal life like others. The hijras claim that others do not understand their life, gender and sexuality. They want the society and the government to recognise them with equally rights as other human beings. No public institutions, private companies or individuals want to employ hijras, and they do not get admitted to schools or colleges. They have limited access to legal and health services. It is nearly impossible for hijras to vote or to get a passport.

Although the hijras often provoke horror or ridicule, they have traditionally had a role to play on the margins of society as entertainers and as bestowers of curses and blessings. They are often surrounded by fear and superstition, and sometimes they are hired to remove bad luck for new buildings under construction, to bring good luck for new-born babies or to entertain at weddings.

The hijras live in small closed groups led by a guru (teacher). Few are born hermaphrodites and some undergo ritual emasculation at puberty or as adult. The hijras have a very strong sense of identity and belonging to the group. The hijras are usually excluded and abandoned by their own families and relatives. Many people do not like transgenders - they feel uncomfortable in their company, and their traditional perceptions on traditional gender roles are often seriously questioned.

Goseong Choi

2012-05-25T03:00:00.000-07:00

Goseong Choi submitted this powerful image to the Mother's Day post and I wanted to know more:

Goseong looks at intimate domestic situations that focus on subtleties hidden in the daily routines of life. He seeks the emotion of everyday life, and "sometimes the appearance of simplicity in truth hides enormous depths". Being a participant observer, Goseong is able to access the relationship between things in space. His series, Umma, looks at the sense of loss that his mother felt when her mother passed away.

Born in Sungnam, South Korea, Goseong recieved his MFA from Pratt Institute. He currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. He has two upcoming exhibitions: one opening in September at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin, and another opening in December at the Korean Cultural Service in New York.

Umma, Korean for "Mom: is a recent series of photographs witnessing a dramatic family event, my grandmother's passing. When I was in Korea photographing in January 2011, I was taking intimate domestic pictures of my family in their daily lives. Then I went to a small village where my father was from and was photographing the rural life there when I got world that my grandmother had had a stroke.

She was in a coma for three weeks, and at the end of the third week, she died. She is my mother's mother, and during the funeral and its anticipation and aftermath, I was particularly aware of my mother's grief and emotion. I felt her deep sorrow and fear. And I photographed the sense of loss. The work that I had already been doing about her daily routine prepared us both for my role as a photographer during this momentous time.

Dr. Eran Gilat

2012-05-24T02:00:00.000-07:00

Israeli photographer and Doctor, Eran Gilat, has combined his work as a scientist (Neurobiology and Imaging) with his love of photography in his series of still lifes, Life Science.

Eran has exhibited in Israel and the US, garnering a solo exhibition last year in the New York Photography Festival. Eran brings the study of life sciences into a aesthetic world, creating environments and scenarios that make the viewer re-examine the unfamiliar and sometimes, the unappealing. But there is also beauty in reality of life, and these still lifes capture the quiet essence of existence. As a side note, the source of all specimens are meat markets or natural history facilities.

LIFE SCIENCE:
This is an attempt of mine to present a personal document of my individual experience in Medical Science research. The project is inspired by long lasting scientific confrontation with various biological specimens, while engage in Physiological and Medical studies and my devotion to imaging. It is my personal expression and thoughts on the incredible complexity of the organism and its highly accomplished organs and aesthetics in general.

In Life Science, I wish to offer an artistic expression that brings together observation on scientific research with an emphasis on preparation hierarchy and aesthetics. Many life scientists experience during their career a hierarchical preparatory process, confronting simple systems as well as more complicated ones to simplify extrapolation to human being applications.

Tabitha Soren

2012-05-23T03:00:00.001-07:00

Sometimes it's simply looking at a particular behavior in a new way that evokes a range of emotions. Photographer Tabitha Soren has created a series of photographs, Running, that stir up feelings of panic, tension, curiosity, and concern. Tabitha's photographs have power in their simplicity, and it's as if one edge of her photograph is the past and one is the future, creating an in-between narrative that captures a story in flux. As viewers, we are caught in a pivotal moment of cinematic tension, requiring us to imagine what came before and what comes after each image. The photographs become a series of short stories that seem to shout "get me the hell out of here."

On June 1st, Tabitha opens a solo exhibition, The Natural World, at the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art which continues through July 21st. Curator Shauta Marsh states: "Her series of people running struck me. The pieces were theatrical and sincere all at once. There's genuine anxiety in the subject in many of the photos, and that's what makes them beautiful."

Born in Texas, and raised across the country as part of a military family, Tabith now lives in Berkeley, CA. She recieved her BA in Journalism and Politics from NYU, and studied photography at Stanford University and the California College of the Arts. After a career in journalism and television, she now exhibits across the country and her work is held in numerous public collections.

I am exploring panic, mortality, resilience and favoc in the project. These images speak to the twists of fate in life that can unhinge us. I am constantly amazed at what people can survive - and what they can't.