papergallery

[papergallery]

I found myself at eye level with a pair of red-rimmed aviator shades concealing the eyes of a female soldier brandishing three gold stars and a wooden club. This was the bold-faced cover of Camillo Pasquarelli’s debut photobook, “Monsoons Never Cross The Mountains.” When approached by such a stimulating imagine, one can only help but raise an eyebrow a quarter-inch to the left in speculative curiosity. This was a mere introduction. I fell quickly into the subject matter in waves of poetic symbolism and stunning visual metaphors. The images are reactive and compulsive, visceral with the intention of descriptive projection. The paperback pages guide the viewer through the artist’s exquisite curation into a place beyond the realm of comprehension. It’s a story of political unrest among an area submerged in violent history as told through the eyes of Kashmir children and the insightful vision of Camillo Pasquarelli....SEE MORE ^

[papergallery]

“We generally think of the LGBT community as more liberal I wanted to investigate this minority of gay people who are gun owners and why they were arming themselves. I am curious about what guns, a symbol of power and violence, mean to those who are disenfranchised in my community and in our culture. “

-Blake Little on “Concealed”

[papergallery]

A Nostalgic Documentary of Teenage Youth Wrapped In An Open Diary.Life is hard. It’s even more challenging as a teenager. You think you know everything, you fight with your parents about the things you don’t know anything about, and every moment is the end of the world. Escaping into music, parties, concerts, drugs, alcohol, bad relationships, bad decisions, first times, last times, and “never again”s. It’s all so goddamn complicated at that age. Deanna Templeton’s latest book, “What She Said,” examines those early years with an open book diary wrapped in memoir aesthetics. She unabashedly displays these sentiments in previous books with a masterful delivery, but never has anything so personal and vulnerable been seen of the artist in this breadth, until now.

[papergallery]

“Last month I Formatted my phone by mistake.

I have deleted the last 3 years of my life.”

-Marco Marzocchi//HTDE

[papergallery]

"These photographs look at race and class in the American South and how objects and interiors play such an important role in the identity of my subjects."-Jennifer Brommer

It's funny how you can be in a place for one thing but discover something completely different in the journey of it all. For me, this was the case with Jennifer Brommer's series "Memphis." I was at Blue Sky Gallery one Saturday morning admiring their latest exhibition when I spotted a 6"x6" framed photograph of an elderly woman at the corner of my eye. It was respectfully displayed in an adjoining room resting on a filing cabinet of prints. The woman in the picture sits sombrely on beige carpeting; she has her legs to the side in a polite sort of way, surrounded by an ocean of soft pastel-pink walls and matching art deco furniture. It's the kind of color you see splashed across Savanna, GA. The room is immaculately staged and loaded with detail. I immediately felt a deep connection to the image. You see, I grew up in Alabama with this kind of southern cultural sophistication - or at least around it. "I know this room!" I thought to myself. My mother referred to our particular brand of untouchable rooms as "The Great Room." At the time, I thought it was just as "Great" as any other room in the house. This room was made for coffee, sweet tea, and conversation between guests and relatives. And like Jennifer Brommer's "Memphis," it was an introduction to understanding the social hubris of the South. The artist was kind enough to fuel my exploration and curiosity with some insight into this profound documentary photography series.

[See Full Article In Link Above}

#photodocumentary #memphis #article #fillmphotography #NYC #Portlandphotographer #Race #SocialIssues #Gentrification #Privilege #Highsociety #news #photography #series #JenniferBrommer

[papergallery]

“As I started photographing my mother and grandmother, this catalyst began to occur and I found myself questioning everything I thought I knew to be true about femininity, sexuality, and my own representation of gender.”-Kaitlin Maxwell

For photographer Kaitlin Maxwell, one grandmother's portrait would soon begin a five-year photo-documentary narrating the lives of three generations of women. The conception seemed simple enough. She set out with her camera to capture images of her grandma Candy-a South Florida tall blonde who unabashedly poses for the camera. Only to realize her mother would need to exist within the story for the work to be complete, and that's when Kaitlin says, "everything shifted ."

[See Full Article w/ More Images HERE]

[papergallery]

"I make these images with the light of the afternoon sun in the grassy yards of Maine on the banks of the St. George River."-Brenton Hamilton

Brenton Hamilton, an internationally collected artist and well-known teacher on Maine Media Workshops' campus, has released a magnificently exhibited book of prints and images through Schilt Publishing. These images use antiquated processes employing gum bichromated forms, platinum, collodion on black glass, and embellished cyanotype. He has shown a particular devotion to the rich blues of cyanotype, and it could even be interpreted as the same "Blue Idyll" on the cover-a figure veiled in mystery and surrounded in a sea of Persian Blue. The book is a deep well of symbolic gestures in that way, where everything and anything can have its meaning.

[SEE FULL ARTICLE WITH MORE IMAGES IN LINK ABOVE]

[papergallery]

"For the past three years, I have been making work about white American masculinity. I am scarred but exceptionally privileged by it, and thus responsible to address it."

Before diving into the many conceptual facets within the pages, I have to address the book's construction. The borders of the pages themselves have the quality of a Gideon's Bible- gilded in gold with a clothbound royal purple cover- an indication of privilege. A slender gold text narrows the book's center as it introduces the work through a reverent but possible duality of meaning in verse from the book of Genesis:

"And God blessed them and told them, "Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; you are masters of the fish and birds and all the animals."

The verse serves as a central theme: Man/Woman as a dominant force over the earth. The images connect the viewer to this visual narrative from the genesis itself. Images of planetary objects in a dark void introduce the book to open the ambitious perspective with an expansive view. A view that's followed by montages of tangled limbs and landscapes, the limbs of hands connecting a pathway of veins that seemingly represent a connection to man and the earth. Among the natural landscapes and tangled wires of computer servers people make their place known in interspersing moments.

Rocheleau presents his characters with an unavoidable cinematic quality. He lights each frame with care, and meticulously conducts his spaces. Some of the characters look as though carrying heavy contemplation burdens; others capture a machismo and air of testosterone. A man in one image holds an axe over his shoulder, a symbolic gesture to masculinity's weight. A woman in a bathrobe sits at the edge of a bed with only the presence of an empty room to keep her company. In another image, shadows hide a pair of eyes that pierce through the darkness; the reoccurring absence of light finds its way in the book.

Visit www.ThePPRGallery.com for Full Article and More images.

[papergallery]

"Descending over the gauzy lace veil of concrete and asphalt laid over earth, a tangle of boxes and wire, a flaky grey keratosis flaring up on the crust that no amount of wind or rain can ameliorate."

"Contemporary Suburbium" is the culmination of two paths that lead to the same destination, Huntington Beach, California, home of the infamous creation station pumping out the hits at light speeds since the early 1990s. Ed and Deanna Templeton prove their ability to complement each others' work while remaining artists in their own right.

Published in December of 2017 by Nazraeli Press, the book anchors itself as a masterpiece of the modern-day photobook. The book's structure alone shines through its ability to convey two works of art through an accordion-style flipbook- there is no beginning or end. It's an infinity sign of complimentary captivation mirroring life in American suburbia. The complexity of the book remains in the juxtaposition of the two parts:

Within Ed Templeton's half, he takes a pause, beginning with a free flow perspective essay where he states, "Descending over the gauzy lace veil of concrete and asphalt laid over earth, a tangle of boxes and wire, a flaky grey keratosis flaring up on the crust that no amount of wind or rain can ameliorate." Through the text, he proves to be as much of an intuitive linguist as a photographer. His notorious street photography style captures the visual humor of everyday life by commenting through passive abstractions. The images form a compelling body of work in a nostalgic visual poem that communicates his observations and allows the viewer to choose their own perspective of the SoCal suburbia.

Deanna Templeton's portion begins with honest prose of, "Plot:14 Cathy, age14, was running away from home since she was always being grounded for one thing or another."

A story of youthful rebellion in an age of innocence leads the viewer into her trademark subdued and intimate storytelling imagery. She sympathetically recognizes her subjects in a way that gives them the defining ability to be identified in her work. She closes in tight on her frames at times, and the surfaces of her images become present and full of life. There's a humanity to her pictures that tells a story of adolescence, motherhood, and community. These themes complete a narrative in Contemporary Suburbium through the black and white pages that make you feel at home in Huntington Beach, California.

The Book is available for purchase HERE

ARTIST:

Ed Templeton- Website//Instagram

Deanna Templeton-Instagram

Publisher:

Nazraeli Press- Website//Instagram

[papergallery]

"'Places of Passage' examines opposed subjects such as stillness and movement, the inside and outside, and the domestic space as opposed to the wild and open environment. It is a poetic reflection on solitude, the rhythms of nature, and the passage of time."-Silvia De Giorgi

Silvia De Giorgi's digital and analog approach to light and shadow captures a world beyond an invisible boundary- a place between reality and conceptualized landscapes in a time of self-isolation.

The award-winning photographer has made headlines in almost every significant art and photography publication. She has recently been recognized as one of Artpil's 30 Under 30 Women Photographers, a recipient of GUP Magazines Emerging Talent Award and Gilchrist Fisher Award. Now, I'd like to bring attention to this distinguished artist's most recent work in a collection titled: "Places of Passage(isolation diary).

"Places of Passage (isolation diary)" is no exception to the artists' ability to transcend the medium of photography to a place of philosophical and existential heightened awareness.

In a statement, she openly describes the series:

"'Places of Passage' examines opposed subjects such as stillness and movement, the inside and outside, and the domestic space as opposed to the wild and open environment. It is a poetic reflection on solitude, the rhythms of nature, and the passage of time."

The series conception began in the Spring of 2020 while self-isolating between Norway, Sweden, and Italy. In March of that year, the world was faced with the most challenging crisis since World War II. A viral pandemic swept across Italy like wildfire as it became the first of many countries to surpass China's death toll, and the "new normal" was a reality.

A Darwinian moment of resurgence would ask the artist to adapt to the darkness and find the light in quiet solitude. The aftermath of her poetic introspection would result in a collection of natural surroundings in an ever-changing entity.

The thematic structure of sequences in her series is powerful and moving. They convey emotional intelligence without words. Ocean scenes dance on the backs of wild animals and play a role in her connection to the environment-mythic creatures from an imaginary place, living unsuspectingly in constant motion.

Waves play a central role as well, building on shorelines with a view from a place of social solitude. Passageways and windows open to shorelines in a hopeful interpretation of escapism. Her story is always best served in black and white, cutting through the distraction of color and finding the core of her poem- a visual isolation diary.

The conception of these multifaceted images began where it ends, in the Italian Alps, she calls home. She references these aspects in symbolic gestures: geological textures, the almost imaginary formations, the pure white of snow, bodies of water in motion.

There's a history she has built-in an archive of memory. These complimentary moments of solidarity seep into the viewer's subconsciousness, a place where the images live and swell in a world she's continuously constructing. A world we find comfort in, knowing that we're not alone.

Silvia De Giorgi:

Website

//

Instagram

[papergallery]

It's been almost two decades since the first release of Alec Soth's "Sleeping By The Mississippi," a book that skyrocketed photographer Alec Soth to fame and breathed new life into the idea of the photobook as an art form. The recent MACK Books release has us looking back at this defining publication. What is it about this book that still has us captivated after all these years?

 The year is 2002, George W. Bush is President, the first Spiderman movie is released, the dot com bubble, Star Wars: Episode II, and somewhere along the Mississippi River is a young Alec Soth. A modestly known photographer living in the middle of the country is driving through savage territory with a list of keywords taped to his steering wheel- unknowingly documenting what would become one of the most iconic books in photobook history. The process itself could be considered a form of art: the mental marathon involved in a project of this magnitude, the involvement of so many strangers, not to mention the acrobatics of setting up an 8x10 camera at each location.

The open road has been the canvas of captivation and curiosity to the creative since the Eisenhower Administration. Still, our fascination with the Americana bandstand of gypsies among the fringes of society is unchanged. We’re curious creatures looking beyond the fence through our neighbor's window. We want to see how they live, what life is like for them, and its relation to our own story. This book finds a way to communicate their story to create a deep connection to our own. We sympathize with these characters in an unexpected way. The notations toward the foot of the book are as heartfelt as the images themselves: "Kym, is a 32-year old divorced mother of baby twins. She owns a daycare center, lives with her boyfriend, dreams of being on television, and has a brother in prison." Others state, "Lenny is a construction worker. During the long Minnesota winters, he moonlights as an erotic masseur." The stories continue, each with a powerful gut-wrenching tension that completes the body of work. The body of work should be the most critically celebrated element of the book, and I believe it should only be shown in galleries in the complete 46 images or at least the larger part of the series. How can you say you've read Moby Dick if you've removed half the book?

Sleeping By The Mississippi's importance lies within the body of work as a whole: a clear beginning, middle, and end. Memoirist Patricia Hampl, a native of Minnesota, introduces the book through an elegant prologue of the Mississippi River's history- a narrative that dims the lights in preparation for the show. The introduction is as necessary to the story as the "46 ruthlessly edited pictures"-as Anne Wilkes Tucker has stated in the original text. The images accompany captions," Charles, Vasa, Minnesota," "Reverend Cecil and Felicia, Saint Louis, Missouri," "Crystal, Easter, New Orleans, Louisiana," the captions are our road map from Peter's houseboat in Winona, Minnesota to Venice, Louisiana. The transition of climate indicates an environmental chronology. Anne Wiles Tucker wraps the story in a beautiful red bow with an essay of the work, followed by a poem by famed writer John Berryman, who on the morning of January 7, 1972, took his own life jumping from the Washington Avenue Bridge in Minneapolis onto the west banks of the same Mississippi River.

John Berryman's "Dream Song I:"

I don't see how Henry, pried

open for all the world to see, survived.

What he has now to say is a long

Wonder the world can bear & be.

In a word, you could say, "Sleeping By The Mississippi" is timeless. The people and places living along the banks of the river are the same people that were there 100 years before. They may have different problems but the same basic needs. These are needs we all can relate to on a deeper level: the need for love and compassion, rage and understanding, a quiet moment of reflection that gives wonderment to life. There's a story to every character, much like our own; this book gives a home to these special people and places within the pages of an eternal capsule for decades to come.

The original release of "Sleeping By The Mississippi" was published by Steidl Press in 2004. Though some of the images were taken between the late 90s and 2004, we used 2002 as a reference guide as most of the pictures were photographed in that timeframe. The book would go on to propel Soth to international fame and notoriety that year, with showings in the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the Walker Art Center. Since then, he has published almost two dozen books, with his most recent works being "I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating" and his collaboration project with writer and prison inmate C. Fausto Cabrera in "The Parameters of our Cage." As if that's not enough, he finds time to run his publishing company Little Brown Mushroom.

More from Alec Soth at:

Alec Soth

Little Brown Mushroom

Instagram

Available at:

MACK Books

[papergallery]

Giannis Manoli comes to you from Thessaloniki, Greece. Manolis is an artist we’ll be hearing a lot from in the future. His work has been shown in galleries around the world from San Francisco to Seoul as well including group exhibitions at the 2018 Photo Festival and Pulp Gallery in Vancouver.His work has been featured in several magazines including: Float and Contributor and we’re glad to showcase his work in our new Emerging Artist Series.

.

I first ran across the work of Manolis through a recent Kickstarter campaign for “The Hunter, the Woman & The Hut”(link at bottom of page)a documentary style series shot with a Toyo 45 4x5 large format camera using primarily Portra 160 film. The visual narrative takes place on the outskirts of Thessaloniki, a city with deep cultural history and ideal scenery. Manolis highlights the vibrant colors beyond the the city, the cultural history, the moments of dilapidation through ramshackle buildings and mounds of beautifully placed debris, and uses elegant portraiture to bring the people of the area center stage. What I love most about his work  is his ability to showcase the intimate moments that could ordinarily be missed. I wanted to know more about this amazing artist and his work, so I contacted Manolis and here’s what he had to say about this fantastic series:

.

“This personal project was documentary ‘The Hunter the Woman & The Hut’ started in 2016 when I was changed my photographic medium and I bought a Large Format camera. It was a personal need to go away from the fast pace of the city and find a way to let things go slower. Since I remember myself as a child, I was curious about the unknown and this is were my personal engagement with photography finds its roots. I started wondering and exploring the greek suburban landscape, meeting people who lived there and introducing myself places that I have never seen before. After a first amount of images I realized that I was creating a story that documents a modern society out of the city limits. Signs of crisis, people that moved away to escape from urban centers and remains of religion and greek culture were the core of my research in my photographic road trips and these are the elements that take place in my story.’

If you’d like to help Giannis make this personal project into a photobook we’d all love to see, please visit his KickStarter Campaign at:

http://kck.st/2VGbP1r

More from Manolis at:

giannismanolis.com

Or Visit his Insta:

@giannis__manolis

[papergallery]

www.ThePPRGallery.com

The book’s photographic revelations have been compared to the more recent findings of Vivian Myers, and like her images we’re transported to another time and place where we experience the moments captured through the eyes of Lenardo. I don’t know anything about Lenardo other than through his images, but I love the obscurity. The idea that we’re getting to know a man through his eyes and precocious nature as we see images of a woman’s rear while riding the escalator, or the way he focuses in and out of her eyeglasses as to understand what she’s seeing. There are intimate moments of couples embracing and children playing, an image of Jimmy Carter references the era and you just want to be there with him. The forward introduction is beautifully well written by his granddaughter Carlotta di Lenardo, I won’t transcribe her words but I would like to quote one of my favorite parts as she states:

“These pictures, and the way he would get excited while sharing them with me, drawing on his incredibly detailed memory, made me fall in love with photography and conditioned my whole working life in this field. Photography was something just for us, something that he and I shared and jealously guarded for the two of us.”

 This is one of my favorites of 2020 and a great book for any collector.

Swiss-bound paperback with flaps Bilingual text (English, Italian) 21 x 14.8 cm, 232 pages

Published August 2020

______________________________ The book is available at Mack Books: Mackbooks.co.uk IGRM: @Mack_books Carlotta di Lenardo: IGRM:@carlottadl @Grandpa_journey