HOUSTON CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY | VOLUME 28, NO. 1 SPRING 2010 Looking at Ourselves SPRING 2010 1 Contributors 1. Igor George Alexander is a journalist, book editor and collector who has had a lifelong interest in photography. 1 He took his first photograph with a Kodak Brownie 620 box camera. He wonders what ever happened to his personal Kodak Brownie Starmite that replaced it. 2. Deborah Bay is a Houston photographer whose Spring 2010 work has been shown at Dallas Contemporary, the Galveston Arts Center and the Center for Photography at Woodstock. Her work is in the collection of the Museum 4 What’s Happening at HCP! of Fine Arts, Houston. She is an HCP board member. Bevin Bering Dubrowski 2 3. Peter Brown is a Houston photographer whose recent book West of Last Chance, a collaboration with 6 Re-imagining Personal History: the novelist Kent Haruf, won the Lange-Taylor Prize. His Anthony Goicolea’s Related other books are Seasons of Light and On the Plains. A recipient of many awards, he teaches at the Glasscock Madeline Yale School of Continuing Studies at Rice University and is a founding member of HCP. EXHIBITION REVIEW 3 4. Jim Casper is the founder, editor and publisher 14 Visual Memoirs: of Lens Culture, an international online magazine The Alchemy of Keith Carter (www.lensculture.com) and organization celebrating contemporary photography, art, media, and world Edward Osowski cultures. In 2009, Casper launched the annual Lens Culture International Exposure Awards for global photography, and is currently organizing Lens Culture 19 An Interview with Photography Collector FotoFest Paris 2010, an important forum for international 4 W.M. Hunt, RE: groups portfolio reviews. Dr. Jörg M. Colberg 5. Dr. Jörg M. Colberg was born in Germany in 1968. After studying physics/astrophysics, he moved to the U.S. Portfolio in early 2000. He is the editor of the blog ‘Conscientious’, 28 Strange Rituals, Photographs by one of the most widely read and popular blogs dedicated to contemporary fine-art photography. Bill McCullough 5 Tracy Xavia Karner 6. Bevin Bering Dubrowski is the Executive Director of HCP. Bevin received her B.A. from Emory University in Art History and Studio Arts with an emphasis on photography. EXHIBITION REVIEW Previously Bevin served as the director of Bering and 32 Ruptures and Continuities: Photography James gallery in Houston, TX. Bevin is a photographer and continues to create and exhibit work. made after 1960 from the MFAH Collection 6 Igor George Alexander 7. W.M. Hunt - Bill Hunt - is a New York-based collector, curator and consultant, a champion of photography. He is partnered with Sarah Hasted and Joseph Kraeutler Portfolio in their gallery, HASTED HUNT KRAEUTLER 36 My Fellow Americans, Photographs by www.hastedhuntkraeutler.com. The “RE: groups” selection has been gathered over the past ten years Dennis Yermoshin but never been exhibited before opening at HCP in 7 March 2010. Mr. Hunt speaks frequently about photog- raphy and collecting and serves on the boards of the W. 40 Houston Photography Community: Eugene Smith Memorial Fund, AIPAD (The Association of Galleries Photography Art Dealers), and The Center for Photography Deborah Bay at Woodstock. His photography collection Dancing Bear with magical heart stopping images of people in which the eyes cannot be seen has been exhibited in Arles, BOOK REVIEWS 8 Lausanne, and Amsterdam is the basis for his upcoming 45 Looking at the U.S. 1957-1986: book, The Unseen Eye, with Thames & Hudson. Photographs by Frederick Baldwin 8. Tracy Xavia Karner, PhD, is an author, curator, visual and Wendy Watriss artist and sociologist. At the University of Houston, she serves as the Director of Visual Studies and is an Jim Casper Associate Professor in Sociology. 9 9. Amanda Maddox (not pictured) is the assistant 47 Hard Knocks: Rolling with the Derby Girls curator of photography and media arts at the Corcoran by Shelley Calton Gallery of Art. She received an A.B. in English Literature Amanda Maddox from Brown University and an MPhil in the History of Photography from the University of St Andrews. 48 spotlight: Sharon Joines 10. Edward Osowski, a former president of HCP, is a Peter Brown retired public librarian. He received his Ph.D. in English 10 literature from Rice University where he studied under her Books, his Books (detail), 2010 J.A.Ward, author of “American Silences: The Realism of James Agee, Walker Evans, and Edward Hopper.” cover: 11. Madeline Yale serves as an adjunct curator at HCP MANUAL on books Bill McCullough (Austin, Texas) in addition to being an Advisory Council Member. After february 27, 2009 stepping down from her role as executive director, suzanne bloom / ed hill Chromogenic print 22x15 inches Madeline now resides in Dubai and London and is MAR 12 - APR 17, 2010 Courtesy of the artist 11 working on photography-based research projects. 2815 Colquitt Houston, Texas 77098 713.526.9911 www.moodygallery.com 2 SPOT SPRING 2010 1 HCP’s 2008 - 2009 Supporters Benefactors Houston Endowment City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance In this Issue Spring 2010 The Brown Foundation Volume 28, No.1 Editor-in-chief Sponsors Looking at Ourselves Tracy Xavia Karner Anonymous Drs. Patricia J. Eifel and Jim Belli As the entire photography community gears up for the 2010 MARCH 12 – APRIL 25, 2010 Editorial Advisors The Eleanor and Frank Freed FotoFest Biennial, we are all thinking about this year’s theme: Madeline Yale Foundation Del Zogg Locke, Lord, Bissell & Liddell Contemporary U.S. Photography. With this in mind, the spot Houston, teXas National Endowment for the Arts Copy Editor QUE Imaging team began developing this current issue along similar lines. Maria Ciepiel Texas Commission on the Arts WWW.FOTOFEST.ORG/BIENNIAL2010 In Looking at Ourselves, we explore the variety of who we are SPOT Intern Patrons Rachel Ross Art Colony Association and what we share in contemporary U.S. society. Madeline Yale HCP Publications Committee Cemo Family Foundation explores the ambiguous sense of belonging and relatedness in EXHIBITIONS marcH 12–april 25, 2010 Jeff DeBevec, Chair City of Houston, Mayors Initiative Peter Brown through HAA the work of Anthony Goicolea. This theme is further illuminated Maria Ciepiel Clayton Dabney Foundation CONTEMPORARY U.S. PHOTOGRAPHY David Crossley Frazier King in the portfolio of Dennis Yermoshin as he documents his Antonio Manega, Gazer Design Jason Dibley family’s transition to the U.S. from Azerbaijan. Edward Whatever Was Splendid: New American Photographs Bevin Bering Dubrowski Muffy and Alexander K. McLanahan Paul Hester SINAPPS Osowski’s essay captures the alchemic southern imagination Aaron Schuman, curator | reception, marcH 12, 2010 David Jacobs Southern Union Toby Kamps of Keith Carter’s photographs while Bill McCullough’s portfolio Assembly: Eight Emerging Photographers from Southern California Ebony Porter Donors Paul Zeigler Amy and Christopher Ashby offers a humorous look at our strange rituals. In our spotlight, Wallis Annenberg Photography Department of the Los Angeles County Shelley Calton Design Marcia and Charlie Gerhardt where we showcase the work of one HCP member, Peter Museum of Art (LACMA), curatorial team | reception, marcH 17, 2010 Antonio Manega, Gazer Design Jo Ann Russell and Robert Gulley Betty Pecore and Howard Hilliard Brown introduces us to Sharon Joines and her images of rural The Road To Nowhere? Printing Geoffrey Curtis Koslov Masterpiece Litho Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen Texas culture. Tracing our photographic roots a bit, Dr. Jörg Natasha Egan, curator | reception, marcH 25, 2010 James E. Maloney Colberg interviews W.M. Hunt about his collection of vernacular SPOT is published twice yearly, in conjunction Celia and Jay Munisteri Performing for the Screen with the fiscal year of Houston Center for W. Burt Nelson images, RE: groups, and Igor Alexander explores ruptures and Medianation: Photography. Subscriptions are free to Don and Chris Sanders Gilbert Vicario, curator | reception, marcH 29, 2010 members. Texas Children’s Hospital continuities in photographic practice since 1960 with Yasufumi Lillian and Robert Warren SPOT is a journal of independent opinions Nakamori’s current exhibition at the MFAH. Looking forward e XHiBitions BY participating spaces published by Houston Center for Photography Supporters as well, in the first installment of our ongoing series about the Ninety-six Exhibitions Citywide. Photography, Installation, Video. as one of its many services to the photographic Bob Abbinanti community. The ideas expressed do not Julie and Drew Alexander Houston photography community, Deborah Bay provides an www.fotofest.org/biennial2010/spaces represent positions of Houston Center for Deborah Bay and Edgar Browning Photography’s administration or membership Charles Butt overview of all the Houston galleries who represent and support Discoveries of tHe meeting place and are solely the opinions of the writers Marty Carden themselves. Susan and Patrick Cook photographers. We also turn the lens (or pen) towards our- Ten contemporary artists selected from FotoFest’s 2008 Portfolio Reviews. Becky Roof and Robert Cutts reception, marcH 27, 2010 Greta Pratt, Alice Chatman, 2009 Copyright © 2010. All rights reserved. Sarah Balinskas and Jeff DeBevec HCP-selves with an overview of “What’s Happening at HCP” by No portion of SPOT may be reproduced From the exhibition The Road to Nowhere? Linnet F. Deily our new executive director Bevin Bering Dubrowski, and book without the permission of Houston Center for Bevin and Dan Dubrowski Photography. portfolio revieWs f ilm program JBD Foundation reviews of two recent publications by HCP members: Looking CURA TORIAL FORUMS John Cleary Gallery e venings WitH tHe artists april 2–18, 2010 Houston Center for Photography’s mission Wendy and Mavis Kelsey, Jr. at the U.S. 1957-1986 by Fred Baldwin and Wendy Watriss and is to increase society’s understanding and Sherry and James Kempner c uratorial Dialogues m arcH 12 –april 1, 2010 Screenings of VISUAL ACOUSTICS, about the life and appreciation of photography and its evolving role Mickey and Mike Marvins Hard Knocks by Shelley Calton.