Eve Arnold Memorial Exhibition

anthony_quinn_anna_karina_eve_arnold
Anthony Quinn and Anna Karina on the set of Guy Green's "The Magus," in Mallorca, Spain. 1976

Pioneering photographer, Eve Arnold, who died last month, age 99, is the subject of a memorial exhibition of her work, mounted in London, her adoptive home. Art Sensus will present over 100 unique photographs and a new book of the work of American photographer Eve Arnold (1912-2012). Curated by Brigitte Lardinois, All About Eve will offer a spectrum of incredible works, both vintage and modern, all drawn from Arnold’s personal archive. The only solo exhibition to feature Arnold’s work in the UK this year thus far All About Eve has been selected from a private collection, which also loaned some of the prints for the book. Of the works in the book, almost half have been little exhibited and rarely published, if at all. The book, published by Thames & Hudson, entitled Eve Arnold's People,  includes texts by Angelica Huston and Isabella Rossellini, but is currently completely sold out and not available for purchase. All About Eve will be on view at Art Sensus March 2 through April 27, 2012, 7 Howick Place, London.

Flesh & Film

A new book, entitled Francesca Woodman: The Roman Years Between Skin and Film (Contrasto), takes a new look at the life and work of Francesca Woodman through a fresh analysis of the photographs and writings from her Roman sojourn. A precocious artist and a figure caught between two cultures –American and Italian– Francesca Woodman reached the acme of her artistic parable in Rome, where she fully defined her aesthetic and stylistic sensibilities. The book is available here.

Julian Gilbert's Public Displays of Affection

Julian Gilbert's photographs of random couples kissing, in a series entitled PDA, are voyeuristic, but could also be images taken by some kind of secret-agent alien to prove to a distant planet how strange the human species and mankind truly is. In fact almost all his photographs have that feeling – like you've unlocked some kind of private file. Julian Gilbert, a 24 year old New York native, photographs other aliens too – artists, musicians, actors – and they look more at home on camera and less like some kind of endangered species caught in the cross hairs of Gilbert's viewfinder.  All and all, his photographs are undeniably full of fervent and vibrant life. Gilbert is now offering his photography outside the gallery: just send him a self addressed stamped envelope and five bucks and you get one random, unique 4X6 or 4X5 print. A pretty sweet deal.

Juergen Teller in New York

juergen_teller_lehman_maupin

Presented in three parts, an upcoming exhibition at Lehman Maupin Gallery in New York, highlights three recent series, demonstrating Teller’s dynamic and diverse oeuvre. Featuring the controversial photographs of Kristen McMenamy and seductive portraits of Vivienne Westwood, juxtaposed with intimate portraits of his family and close friends, this exhibition displays an amalgam of subjects and personalities. The exhibition starts with Teller’s controversial series of photographs featuring Kristen McMenamy, shot in the home of Carlos Mollino. Drawing inspiration from the eccentric architect, Teller recalls Mollino’s fascination with the erotic, capturing McMenamy in provocative poses. Although the series garnered controversy for its alleged “pornographic” nature, it demonstrates Teller’s skilled storytelling and fearless approach to his medium. On view from February 10 to March 17, 2012 at the Lehman Maupin Gallery, 201 Chrystie Street, New York.

The Shamanistic Photography of ALMAGUL MENLIBAYEVA

In the Steppes of her native Kazakhstan, Almagul Menlibayeva stages complex mythological narratives, rooted in the Zoroastrian ideology of former Persia, an ideology that is to this today spreading widely across Eurasia and influencing Western politicians and philosophers and the Tengriism (sky religion) of the Turkic tribes, and with reference to her own nomadic heritage and the Shamanistic traditions of the cultures of Central Asia. "I use specific ways of expression in modern and contemporary art as a vehicle to investigate my personal archaic atavism as a certain mystical anthropomorphism. In other words, I explore the nature of a specific Egregore, a shared cultural psychic experience, which manifests itself as a specific thought-form among the people(s) of the ancient, arid and dusty Steppes between the Caspian Sea, Baikonur and Altai in today’s Kazakhstan," says Menlibayeva. Menlibayeva will be exhibiting in a number of group shows during 2012, from The Mediterranean Biennale of Contemporary Art in Israel this Fall to the 18th Biennale of Sydney.  Her works are currently on view until February at the  LASALLE College of Arts in Singapore for a show entitled East is West: Three Women Artists.

Exemplar: Photographs of Joy Division

The world was intolerable and mean to Ian Curtis, lead singer of Joy Division, and he spit back with cruel, introspectively haunting lyrics in the hopes to close and heal the wounds that he so desperately tried and failed to lick clean.   In the end, love indeed tore him apart. On view now at the Manchester Photographic Gallery are 45 iconic images of life behind the legendary band Joy Division by photographer Kevin Cummings from their first gig in 1977 to Ian Curtis' suicide in 1980. Exemplar: Joy Division by Kevin Cummins, Manchester Photographic  6 January - 26 February, Manchester Photographic Gallery is at Tariff Street, Northern Quarter, City, 0161 236 2446.

Lovesody

Photographer, Motoyuki Daifu, has established himself as one of Japan’s brightest young talents. His chaotic diaristic style continues to evolve in his first monograph Lovesody a short print run of only 300 copies from new publisher Little Big Man. We see him in his twenties now having left home and seemingly over-his-head in a relationship with a young single mother of two.  To mark the release of the book, today Dashwood Books (33 Bond St  New York, NY) will be hosting a book signing and tomorrow will  be the opening of Motoyuki Daifu’s solo show of the same series at Lombard Freid Projects (518 West 19th Street, New York, NY) on view until March 3, 2012.

The Total Look

moca_the-rudi-gernreich-book-by-peggy-moffitt-and-william-claxton

The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles presents The Total Look: The Creative Collaboration Between Rudi Gernreich, Peggy Moffitt, and William Claxton, on view from February 26 through May 20, 2012, at MOCA Pacific Design Center. The exhibition will celebrate the remarkable collaboration between the great fashion designer Rudi Gernreich, his model and muse Peggy Moffitt, and Moffitt’s late husband, the photographer William Claxton, who created the distinctive images of Moffitt activating Gernreich’s designs. The exhibition will feature selected looks from Moffitt’s definitive collection, with films and photographs by Claxton of Moffitt modeling the clothes.

LES AMIES DE PLACE BLANCHE

Originally published in 1983, Les Amies de Place Blanche, rereleased by Dewi Lewis Publishing, focuses on the transsexual community living around the Place Blanche district of Paris in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The book established Christer Strömholm’s reputation as one of the leading photographers of the twentieth century. ‘This is a book about insecurity. A portrayal of those living a different life in that big city of Paris, of people who endured the roughness of the streets. This is a book about humiliation, about the smell of whores and night life in cafés. This is a book about the quest for self-identity, about the right to live, about the right to own and control one’s own body. This is also a book about friendship, an account of the life we lived in the place Blanche and place Pigalle neighbourhood. Its market, its boulevard and the small hotels we resided in. These are pictures from another time. A time when de Gaulle was president and France was at war against Algeria. These are pictures of people whose lives I shared and whom I think I understood. These are pictures of women – biologically born as men – that we call ‘transsexuals’. As for me, I call them ‘my friends of place Blanche’. This friendship started here, in the early 60s and it has been going on for 22 years.’ – Christer Strömholm, 1983. The book includes the original essays by Strömholm and publisher Johan Ehrenberg as well as newly commissioned texts by Jackie and Nana, two of the women who feature in many photographs in the book. The introduction is by Hélène Hazera, a leading French journalist, actress, director, and television producer who is also a transsexual. Available now in the UK and in the US next month.

Intimate Stranger

Karlheinz_Weinberger_intimate_stranger

Intimate Stranger, an exhibition on view now Kunstmuseum Basel, presenting the body of work of photographer Karlheinz Weinberger, is rarely on public display. Shown together with magazines and a selection of vintage fashion, these pictures document a bygone youth culture in Zurich. The movement emerged after World War II, driven by the desire to undermine prevailing notions of "Swiss propriety." For most of his life, Weinberger worked in a warehouse at Siemens-Albis, Zurich. A self-taught photographer, he dedicated his free time to this art, portraying his lovers and other people he met in the street. Starting in the late 1940s, he frequently published his pictures in Der Kreis, a homosexual magazine that garnered international attention, signing his work with the pseudonym "Jim." In 1958, he launched a major project, for which he would follow a gang of "Halbstarke" (half strong) for an extended period of time. Intimate Stranger is on view until April 15, 2012 at the Kunstmuseum, Basel – Sankt Alban-Graben 16 4051 Basle, Switzerland.

Paris, Portrait of a City

Photography by Helmut Newton

Paris, Portrait of a City is Taschen publishers new, vivid history of the capital of love and photography. A city built on two millennia of history, Paris is entering the third century of its love story with photography. It was on the banks of the Seine that Niépce and Daguerre officially gave birth to this new art that has flourished ever since, developing a distinctive language and becoming a vital tool of knowledge. Paris: Portrait of a Cityleads us through what Goethe described as a “universal city where every step upon a bridge or a square recalls a great past, where a fragment of history is unrolled at the corner of every street”. The history of Paris is recounted in photographs ranging from Daguerre’s early incunabula to the most recent images – an almost complete record of over a century and a half of transformations and a vast panorama spanning more than 600 pages and 500 photographs. This book brings together the past and the present, the monumental and the everyday, objects and people. Images captured by the most illustrious photographers – Daguerre, Marville, Atget, Lartigue, Brassaï, Kertész, Ronis, Doisneau, Cartier-Bresson and many more – but also by many unknown photographers, attempt to bottle just a little of that “Parisian air”, something of that particular poetry given out by the stones and inhabitants of a constantly changing city that has inspired untold numbers of writers and artists over the ages. Available March 1st here. 

Billy Monk's Nightclub Photography

A new book is available of Billy Monk's nightclub photography. Billy Monk worked as a bouncer in the notorious Catacombs club in the dock area of Cape Town, South Africa, during the 1960s. He originally began taking pictures in the club with the intention of selling the photographs to the customers – the people he was photographing. His aim was not to make a social statement, but his money-making scheme quickly turned into something else as he increasingly captured the raw energy of the club, its decadence and tragedy, its humanity and joy. As someone who shared the experiences of those club-goers he was trusted by them and was able to convey their world and their experience with great energy and honesty. As photographer David Goldblatt has written in the forward: “These are photographs by an insider of insiders for insiders. If inhibitions were lowered by the seemingly vast quantities of brandy and Coke that were imbibed, trust, nevertheless, is powerfully evident. Not simply in the raucous tweaking of bared breasts, or the more guarded but evident ‘togetherness’ of two bearded men, as well as the open flouting of peculiarly South African sanctions such as prohibitions on interracial sex. It is also present in the quiet composure of many of the portraits. People seemed to welcome and even bask in Monk’s attentions.” Monk stopped photographing at the club in 1969. Ten years later his contact sheets and negatives were discovered and in 1982 the work was exhibited at the Market Gallery in Johannesburg. Monk could not make the opening and two weeks later, en route to seeing the show, he became involved in an argument. A fight broke out, Monk was fatally shot in the chest and never saw his work exhibited. The book, Billy Monk: Nightclub Photographs, is now available.

Joseph Sterling: 30 Years of Photographs

Portland, OR—Charles A. Hartman Fine Art presents Joseph Sterling: 30 Years of Photographs. This exhibition of more than 25 images reveals the artist's range and embraces both the famed series, The Age Of Adolescence - a documentary masterwork exposing the life and milieu of the pre-Vietnam War era American teenager - and a variety of other imagery, including important photographs from the Pictus Twistus and Bird’s Eye View series. Joseph Sterling: 30 Years of Photographs will be on view at the Charles A Hartman gallery from January 18 to February 25, 134 NW 8th Ave Portland, OR.