Human Nature
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HOUSTON CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY | FALL 2009 HOUSTON CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY | FALL Human Nature FALL 09 1 Contributors In this Issue 1. Maria Ciepiel is HCP’s Evening Gallery manager, a Fall 2009 “Human Nature,” the theme of this issue of spot and of a recent writer of fiction and non-fiction, and a photographer. Volume XXVI No. 2 exhibition at the Houston Center for Photography, is an interesting 1 Guest Editor term, full of potential muddle as to its meaning. As you will see, the David Crossley work portrayed is largely about nature, but only in rare instances is it 2. Dr. Jörg M. Colberg is the founder and sole editor Copy Editor not also about humans, and their nature. Fall 2009 of Conscientious, a weblog dedicated to contemporary Ebony Porter Many of us hold ourselves to be outside of nature, even above fine-art photography. Editorial Board nature. Still others maintain a vague view that we should be Jeff DeBevec, Chair eliminated from nature, in order for it to flourish. But the truth is Madeline Yale, Chief Editorial Advisor Peter Brown that the structure of the universe tells us it’s all one thing – nature 2 What’s Happening at HCP! 3. David Crossley is the Founder and President Maria Ciepiel David Crossley extending forever, and containing (among other things) us. Madeline Yale of Houston Tomorrow (formerly the Gulf Coast Jason Dibley We are ferocious with our Earth. We ravenously dig and cut 2 Patricia Eifel Institute), a non-profit organization founded in 1998 Paul Hester and haul and burn and slowly turn the planet’s resources into FEATURE to explore urban issues and to inform the discussion David Jacobs all the things we want. We produce waste emissions that poison Toby Kamps 4 Human Nature of growth in the Houston Gulf Coast Region. David is Mary Magsamen the soil and water and air and now begin to radically affect the Ebony Porter climate everywhere. Madeline Yale also a founding HCP member and the first editor of Paul Zeigler Enormous harm to our children and their children is coming fast, spot magazine. Design and it’s not clear that we’ll be willing to turn our attention to solutions FEATURE Antonio Manega, Gazer Design at a time when we have become so accustomed to having plenty and 11 The Last Polar Bear 3 Printing 4. Rachel Hewlett received her BFA from San Masterpiece Litho wanting more. David Crossley We humans are so caught up in thinking about the present that Francisco Art Institute in 2003 and currently resides in spot is published twice yearly, in conjunction we have a hard time thinking about the future. It’s well established Houston. She works as the Education Coordinator at with the fiscal year of Houston Center for FEATURE Photography. Subscriptions are free to HCP’s 2008 - 2009 Supporters that we require crisis – not imminent crisis but actual crisis – to shift HCP, programming workshops and outreach teaching. members. 18 Photographing Ike Benefactors into a defensive mode and cope with events. Right after the hurricane In addition to working in the non-profit world, Rachel spot is a journal of independent opinions Houston Endowment Inc. hits, we start looking for water and food and ice and power. Maria Ciepiel published by Houston Center for Photography City of Houston through is a practicing artist. Her work has been shown in as one of its many services to the photographic Houston Arts Alliance Here in the Houston area, we’re just pulling out of a stupefying, 4 community. The ideas expressed do not The Brown Foundation, Inc. record-setting drought, and large parts of Texas are going through galleries in Houston and San Francisco. represent positions of Houston Center for PORTFOLIO Photography’s administration or membership Sponsors it still. Scientists are telling us to get used to it. The Secretary of and are solely the opinions of the writers Lock, Lord, Bissell & Liddell 22 Brownfields themselves. Drs. Patricia Eifel and James Belli Energy, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu, warns that all Photographs by Jason Reed 5. Rachel Hooper is the Cynthia Woods Mitchell QUE Imaging agriculture in California could be undermined by global warming Copyright © 2009. All rights reserved. Anonymous Curatorial Fellow at Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of No portion of spot may be reproduced by the end of this century. And James Lovelock, the scientist who the University of Houston. She recently organized the without the permission of Houston Center Patrons created the Gaia theory, says it’s likely that the human race will be FEATURE for Photography. Texas Commission on the Arts Center for Land Use Interpretation’s exhibition Texas Cemo Family Foundation reduced to one billion people by then, largely because so many of 24 Human Nature: Collaborations VI Houston Center for Photography’s mission Clayton Dabney Foundation us will not be able to find food. He is suggesting that several billion Oil: Landscape of an Industry and co-edited the book is to increase society’s understanding and Art Colony Association Rachel Hewlett with Linda Walsh 5 appreciation of photography and its evolving role Southern Union Company people will starve to death. On the Banks of Bayou City: The Center for Land in contemporary culture. Houston Center for James Edward Maloney This is probably still avoidable, of course. And to ignore the Photography strives to encourage artists, build Antonio Manega, Gazer Design INTERVIEW Use Interpretation in Houston. audiences, stimulate dialogue, and promote SINAPPS present reality of climate degradation or, worse, to understand what’s inquiry about photography and related media City of Houston, Mayors Initiative on our horizon and decide to turn our heads, or even to believe that 26 Joshua Lutz, Meadowlands through education, exhibitions, publications, through Houston Arts Alliance fellowship programs, and community feel-good but stopgap measures such as recycling cans and the like In conversation with Jörg M. Colberg 6. Jacinda Russell is an artist, writer and an Assistant collaboration. Donors is enough to fix it, is to court disaster. Professor of Photography at Ball State University, Rebecca and Michael Cemo For details about membership or advertising, Michael and Susan Plank So human nature, which is highly creative and generally desirous INTERVIEW Muncie, Indiana. Her essays are published in Orlo, contact Houston Center for Photography: Joan Morgenstern Don and Chris Sanders of good will and good fortune for all, seems inclined to enjoy life 29 The Wonders of Petroleum Geography spot, and Artlies. She is a contributing writer for the Houston Center for Photography as it is even if that indulgent stance tempts species collapse and 6 1441 West Alabama, Houston, Texas 77006 Supporters Matthew Coolidge in conversation book Learning to Love You More. Telephone: 713.529.4755 Robert Abbinanti diminishes the chances of continued human evolution. Fax: 713.529.9248 Leland Ackerly Fortunately, that creativity has been hard at work studying these with Rachel Hooper E-mail: [email protected] Julie Brook Alexander and Drew Alexander changes while proposing a vast system of strategies that might 7. Linda Walsh’s recently published book with writer Visit us online: www.hcponline.org Eddie Allen and Chinhui Juhn mitigate disaster. As it happens, the solutions seem likely to lead to PORTFOLIO Mr. Edgar “Tres” Basse, III Pamela Walker entitled Growing Good Things to Eat Interim Executive Director Deborah Bay and Edgar Browning a higher quality of life for humans – a relatively new goal. It might 32 Sites of Impact: Meteorite Craters Bevin Bering Charles Butt in Texas, Profiles of Organic Farmers and Ranchers prove useful for us to try to understand the difference between Around the World John Cleary Gallery Across the State was published by Texas A&M Press Executive Assistant Susan and Patrick Cook “standard of living” and “quality of life.” As the urban thinker Andrés Jeff DeBevec and Sarah Balinskas Photographs by Stan Gaz Sandy Moberg Duany says, “everyone in America has a higher standard of living this year. Marcia and Charlie Gerhardt 7 Education Coordinator Bob Gulley than any one in a Tuscan hill town, but everybody in that Tuscan hill Rachel Hewlett Wendy and Mavis Kelsey, Jr. INTERVIEW Frazier King town has a higher quality of life than any one in America.” A little 8. Madeline Yale is HCP’s Adjunct Curator and Resident Education Instructor Libbie Masterson over the top, perhaps, but an insight worth considering. 34 Focus on FOTOFEST 2010 Kristy Peet David McClain and Jane Schmitt The photographs in this issue of spot are, obviously, windows into Wendy Watriss in conversation member of the organization’s Advisory Council. Alexander K. and Muffy McLanahan Adjunct Curator W. Burt Nelson the nature of humans, and into the natural and built environment in Recently HCP’s Executive Director (2006-9), Madeline Madeline Yale Pia Puno with Madeline Yale Robertson-Finley Foundation which we go about our business. Surely our shared visual intelligence now resides in London and Dubai where she is Program Coordinator Thomas and Debrah Yale Jason Dibley Stephen and Lois Zamora and understanding is nurtured because so many people are so good 8 BOOK REVIEW working on research projects on photography. at using photography to study and express the world. The question Finance Administrator 35 Over: The American Landscape Sean Yarborough is whether these people, these images, and these ideas, along with others will help us come to grips with the looming catastrophe, and at the Tipping Point Evening Gallery Manager the hope is that they will point out the ways to avoid it and all of the by Jacinda Russell Maria Ciepiel genuine horror that it would bring.