Mumur 21, Nov. 26, 2006 (from “Murmur”)
© Richard Barnes

Richard Barnes has three interesting projects on his website. I absolutely love Murmur, which I originally came across on Mrs. Deane. It reminds me of Nicolai Howalt and Trine Søndergaard’s series Dying Birds, but I like how Barnes has captured the mysterious patterns that the birds make.

See more of his work here.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Laurel Ptak wrote to inform me of a call for entries for her latest I Heart Photograph curated exhibition, “Is it possible to make a photograph of New Jersey regardless of where you are in the world?” The deadline for submissions is February 22. The selected work will be on view at Pierro Gallery in New Jersey from April 6 – May 25, 2008.

More info here. Love the website.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Ethan Jones e-mailed me about a photography competition that he has started with David Wright called Pause, to Begin.

Pause, to Begin is a unique, new photography competition currently accepting applications now until April 1, 2008, and the selected finalists will be announced online April 15, 2008. Ethan Jones and David Wright, the founders of Pause, to Begin, will hit the road in May, 2008 to visit the selected finalists and record the time they experience together.

By traveling to meet the selected finalists in-person, Pause, to Begin becomes a publication that reflects not only the visited photographers and their process for creating, but also the journey of making the book.

The word “pause” implies a stop to see, feel, and understand what one is photographing. We believe that by pausing the true potential of a photograph can be realized, discovered, and expanded upon. This allows one to “begin” to explore one’s own photography.

The first year of Pause, to Begin culminates in November, 2008 with the release of a limited edition, hard-bound fine art book that is distributed to important creatives in the photographic industry and available online for purchase. The selected photographers will also be exhibited at a to-be announced gallery that will coincide with the book release celebration.

Find out more here and also check out their blog – it’s a good read.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Friend and photographer Brad Troemel (VYM) just announced another group show that he curated at his Chicago gallery, Satin Satan, which I believe is also his apartment. The show, titled “Fun Gun,” features a number of excellent photographers and if you’re in the Chicago area I’d say it’s worth stopping by for the opening on February 16th.

I’m guessing it’s at party o’clock?

Satin Satan is located at 1918 N. Wood, Chicago, IL.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Untitled, 2007 (from “Three Years Later”)
© Joseph Rynkiewicz

I got to Joseph Rynkiewicz’s website because he was kind enough to link me. Take a look at his series Three Years Later – a few of the images are very striking.

Popularity: 9% [?]

I’ve been meaning to post about this for a while. Over on Square America (a great archive of snapshots and vernacular photography), there is a collection titled What Was On (1957).

48 Photos of women on TV taken late at night by a lonely photographer in 1957. Encrusted with 50 year old dust and emulsion the photos of women from melodramas and late-night talk shows are not only a record of one person’s peculiar obsession but also a virtual catalog of the kind of roles women played in the popular entertainment of the era.

Constance Powling, 1957 (front)
© Unknown Photographer

Constance Powling, 1957 (back)
© Unknown Photographer

Very interesting and really sort of heart breaking. See more images here.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Untitled, 2007
© David LaSpina

Unlike the other MFA candidates at Yale, David LaSpina (previously mentioned here) is making good use of his student page, sharing some intriguing work from a few current projects.

A while ago David and I exchanged e-mails and he told me he was working on “images about aliens.” I think some of those are in the series titled Ancient and Foreign. I’m curious to see how these projects will come together.

Take a look at what he’s up to here.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Grant and Alana, Wells, ME, 2007
© Shane Lavalette

I’ve decided that I’d like to occasionally post images from my archive that haven’t been used as part of any particular “project” but that I like either for personal or aesthetic reasons. This one is just a nice memory.

While going through photographs from a little road trip that I took with Grant Willing, Alana Celii and Grady O’Connor, I came across this shot of Grant and Alana by the ocean in Wells, Maine – taken almost exactly a year ago.

Oh, how time flies…

Popularity: 11% [?]

Nine Polaroids, Champlain Valley Fair, Essex, VT, 2007
© Shane Lavalette

Last Spring I received a wonderful gift from Norman Beierle and Hester Keijser (also known as Mrs. Deane). The gift was a beautiful leporello from their private collection that included “12 different fifo quality photos” of Bad Homburg, a well known spa on the Taunus in Germany. See a few of those images here.

Along with the leporello, they also sent me a pack of Polaroid Polapan 100 Type 664 film. Brilliant! It was a while before I used it, but one day in August I took out the ol’ Hasselblad and shot the film at the fair that happens every summer in my home town in Vermont.

It was such a great feeling to make images that are one of a kind, to see them appear before my eyes and somehow very soothing to look at things in black and white. Shooting the Polaroids inspired me to also use some black and white film at the fair. Those images will be up on my website as a new series very soon.

To show my gratitude to Norman and Hester, I thought I’d share the Polaroids here. If you’re counting, you’ll notice there should be one more frame in the pack. I took the first shot of my little cousin standing in the morning sunlight on the front lawn of my mother’s house.

If you’d like, you can view the ones above a little bit larger.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Aveda, Brutus Magazine, “Yoga” Issue, 2007
© Zen Sekizawa

Some nice editorial work by Zen Sekizawa.

Popularity: 12% [?]