Photography New Works at Galleria Carla Sozzani

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Photography New Works is on view now at Galleria Carla Sozzani in Milan and  brings together some of the most prominent photographers in fine art and fashion, under a common theme, and provides visitors with an unprecedented opportunity to experience the very latest, cutting-edge photographic expressions. Photography New Works includes new works by William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Nan Goldin, Martin Parr, Terry Richardson and Ryan McGinley. Photography New Works will be on view until November 18, at Galleria Carla Sozzani, Corso Como, 10, 20154 Milan, Italy

The Protest Box by Martin Parr

Martin Parr’s collection of photobooks is one of the finest to have ever been assembled and The Protest Box, published by Steidl, is a box set which brings together five books from that collection as facsimile reprints. Parr has selected diverse books which each deal with the subject of protest in quite different ways. From the documentation of various protest movements to the actual book being a form of protest, all these reprints are gems within the history of photographic publishing. A few are known but many are new, even to the connoisseur of photography books. All these books are virtually impossible to locate, so these reprints will make a substantial contribution to our understanding of this sub-genre of the photobook. The box set is accompanied by a booklet which includes an introduction by Martin Parr, an essay discussing the wider context of these books by Gerry Badger, and English translations of all the texts in the books.

Martin Parr's Last Resort

"Leisure, consumption, and communication" is apt in describing the trifecta of themes in which Martin Parr explores through his saturated and gluttonous vistas of humanities seemingly inexorable appetite. Parr's seminal work, shot documentary style in rich hues on the beaches of New Brighton in the nineteen-eighties, captured an aura of man as beast in a dog-eat-dog false paradise; a notion propagated by the common belief that force feeding yourself to oblivion was good and fine for society. The book, entitled Last Resort, which has just been rereleased by Dewi Lewis Publishing–this time with an added forward–put Martin Parr on the map.

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www.martinparr.com

The Truth is Not in the Mirror

Michael Corridore, Untitled 13, from the Angry Black Snake series, Courtesy of a New York Collector

Photography as a medium has always been actively concerned with describing identity. While a portrait is typically an artistic representation of a person where verisimilitude is the goal, here the inquiry is questioned and expanded. Rather than employing a camera to create an objective document, the artists in this exhibition are often involved in constructing narrative sequences that pose questions with open-ended outcomes. As the title, The Truth is Not in the Mirror... suggests, photography has the power to imply, construct, and/or deny a narrative. Many of the photographers are contemporary storytellers and, in this sense, their work reflects facets of our ever-changing precepts about family, identity, truth and fiction.  Artists include, in summary,  Michael Corridore, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Andy Freeberg, Lee Friedlander, David Hockney, Graham Miller, Martin Parr, The Sartorialist, Larry Sultan and Mickalene Thomas. The Truth is Not in the Mirror, Photography and a Constructed Identity is on view at the Haggerty Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin until May 22, 2011. www.marquette.edu/haggerty