amanda rivkin, photographer

Two excellent exhibits, “The Family,” by Jocelyn Bain Hogg at the VII Gallery in New York and “Life Without Lights,” by Peter DiCampo at The Strand Gallery in London. Jocelyn Bain Hogg is represented by VII and Peter Di Campo is part of the VII Mentor program working with VII Member John Stanmeyer:

The Family by Jocelyn Bain Hogg
VII Gallery, Brooklyn, New York; February 2 – March 2, 2012.
Jocelyn’s been at it again. Quick as a whippet, take no prisoners, access all villains. Seedy-glam, his beloved London at its etiolated best – nobody does it better. Or dresses sharper. But this time he shows another side of London’s gang world, and the irony is in the details. Time has passed, they’re a bit over-shadowed by more powerful international syndicates. Their movements are so closely scrutinized their social gatherings have to double as sotto voce business meetings. What are they whispering about? We will never know, and that’s the genius of this collection. -Seamus Murphy

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Life Without Lights by Peter DiCampo
The Strand Gallery, London; February 6 – 12, 2012.
Ever thought about how much light you need to power your life? Award-winning American photographer Peter DiCampo visited Northern Ghana to find out just how hard it is to live without access to something we take for granted. His images give insight into the experience of the 1.4 billion people who currently live without electricity; people relying on candles, kerosene lanterns or torches to carry out daily activities.

World’s Largest Laundromat in Berwyn, Illinois on July 7, 2008.
Included in the exhibit, “Obamaland” at The Coop in Chicago, May/June 2009.

My very old and dear friend Kate Levant, whose work has been featured in New York Magazine and T: The New York Times Style Magazine, has an opening April 1 at the Zach Feuer Gallery in Gallery 2. In addition to being one of my oldest friends, she is an amazing talent with a deep and pensive soul, truly:

Kate Levant This is Laced

In Gallery 2, Zach Feuer will present This is Laced by Kate Levant. The installation consists of collages made from cut up drawings, photographs and plastic that are cross-stitched into construction paper and fabric to create a ricocheting network of aspects that reflect off and weave into other aspects. The images and information in each collage are coded or camouflaged due to the patterns and weaves. In some works, plastic shields portions of the collages and in others, parts are stitched inside brown paper bags completely hidden from view. In many, Levant is “dissecting photographs of old sculptures I’ve made and reconfiguring them with the camouflage, like they’re diagrams of weird sci-fi devices that actually work…or will work…to cross over some event-horizon.” Kate Levant was born in 1983 in Chicago, IL and received a MFA from Yale University in 2010. In 2009, Levant organized/compromised BLOOD DRIVE at Zach Feuer Gallery and her work was recently included in The Island, organized by LAND and OHWOW on Flagler Memorial Island (Miami Beach, FL). Levant lives and works in Detroit, MI.

Exhibition dates: April 1 – 30, 2011

Opening reception: Friday, April 1, 6-8PM

Zach Feuer Gallery
NEW ADDRESS: 548 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011

Interesting invite arrived by e-mail this morning for a show this Saturday in Chicago curated by the lovely Dee Clements:

The Paper Crane is pleased to announce The Artist Books Show. Opening Saturday March 12, 2011 from 5-8pm located at 2846 W. North Ave on the second floor. (Please enter through the side door on Francisco Street)
www.thepapercrane.com

The Artist Book Show is a project that was developed to encourage people to see the book as more than something to read but also as an art object. 26 artists from around the world participated in The Paper Crane’s first book project. Each person either made their own hand bound hardcover book at our studio or were mailed one made by The Paper Crane. Artists had 3 months to fill their book in any way they wanted and were encouraged to ‘test the boundaries’ of the book. For many this meant re-making the book entirely, for others it was allowing themselves to let their work spill out of the 6 x 9 measurement or challenging themselves with a new medium. Each and everyone of these books is a unique artifact of it’s maker. Produced entirely by hand, each artist invested countless hours and personal time to this project. The artists listed below are applauded for their enthusiasm, effort and dedication to this project.

Artists include: Colin Palombi, Curtis Oliveira, Dennis Franklin, Eliza Fernand, Erika Miklovic-Clark, Esther Ramirez, Gabe McKinney, Hatti B. Figge, Jaime Ryan, John Philip Abbot, Josh Dumas, Josh Howard, Katy Groves, Kirk Bravender, Kreh Mellick, Margot Harrington, Matt Alicea, Melanie Parke, Nathan Vernau, Richard Kooyman, Robin Russo, Sarah Nesbit, Scott Reinhard, Susie Wilson, Tony Saunders, Trent Miller

After viewing “Bureaucratics” by Jan Banning at the HERE Arts Center in the West Village New York last night, I was determined to comb the archives for images of that ubiquitous figure on assignments – the bureaucrat – who only occasionally makes the cut of a final edit for publication or submitted for such. As Mr. Banning has gone to the trouble of forming clusters around nations and functions, my attempt to do the same with this selection of five from the archives.

First, from my own country taken from assignments for The New York Times and the non-profit investigative website ProPublica in Iowa, the Illinois statehouse, and the stagnating Indiana town of Elkhart.

Marriage license and vital records clerk Rebecca Badtram, Scott County Recorder’s Office in Davenport, Iowa on April 27, 2009, the first day same sex weddings are legal across Iowa.

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Assistant to beleaguered Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Mary Stewart cleaning out her workspace adjacent to Blagojevich’s during the conclusion of his impeachment trial at the state capitol in Springfield, Illinois on January 29, 2009.

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Elkhart, Indiana Mayor Dick Moore on April 8, 2009.

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CONCLUSIONS: In America, bureaucrats’ functions range from managing city budgets to delivering coffee to the governor and packing up his desk when he is ousted on corruption charges. They also issue marriage and death certificates. To each, his or her own respective desk, office and accoutrement. Mary Stewart has the American Flag and Elkhart Mayor Dick Moore has a portrait of the first family with the White House seal behind it.

In the Turkic world, from Turkey and Azerbaijan functionaries of a religious and the intersection of business and government make an appearance in the archives.

From Azerbaijan, I have this image in a Baku highrise along the Neftciler Prospekt (Oil Workers’ Boulevard) of Shahmar Movsumov, the Executive Director of the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan which is responsible for managing the foreign financial assets of the state’s oil wealth and operates independently of the the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), on July 20, 2010. A portrait of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev hangs over Movsumov’s desk.

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And in Turkey, the mosque attendant at the Lala Pasha Mosque in the conservative northeastern city of Erzurum on the first night of Ramadan, August 11, 2010.

Last night, I attended an awesome photography exhibit by Jan Banning, curated by Jamie Wellford, at HERE Arts Center 145 Sixth Avenue (Entrance on Dominick Street) in New York. The photographer, whose work has previously been displayed in the Moving Walls exhibit and on The New Yorker’s Photo Booth blog, was unfortunately not present. A conversation with Wellford afterward offered some interesting insights into his working methods (he tried to get them just as they are settling in), audience reaction (boredom), and how the photographer would react to knowing that (he would love that). It’s a pretty awesome show, that when accompanied with such data as the monthly salary of the bureaucrats photographed and an explanation of their wide-ranging responsibilities leaves much unspoken about the possibility of corruption. As one friend said, “When this man in Texas makes $5,600/month and a woman in India makes $12/month, you start to appreciate who can survive on that income.” Indeed, we are reminded of the bureaucrats primary function: legitimation. Here are some of my favorite prints that appeared in the show taken from the pdf catalogue of the book Bureaucratics, available on the photographer’s website:

The work has also inspired a forthcoming “From the Archive” where I will comb the archive for bureaucrats I have photographed in the past in their native habitat: the office.

Exhibition – GU Student Exhibition “Multiple Perspectives”

DATE: 11/6/2010 – 11/13/2010
WHEN: 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
WHERE: Georgetown University Art Afficianados
Walsh Building 2F, 36th & Prospect NW
Washington, DC 20057

Hours:
5:00pm-7:00pm

View Google Map >>

DESCRIPTION:

Our exhibition is a collection of thirty digital photographs submitted by undergraduate and graduate students at Georgetown University. The theme is “Multiple Perspectives.” Whose perspective are you representing? We are challenging photographers to interpret this theme either narratively or technically. The three photographs that will published in the Georgetown University Literary Magazine, The Anthem, will be announced at the reception.

Exhibit open daily from 5:00 pm to 7 pm
Opening reception Saturday, November 6th from 5-7

COST: Free

fri nov 5, 2010, 8pm-11pm
Corcoran Gallery of Art
500 Seventeenth Street NW

space is limited
Admission is $45 and benefits FotoWeek DC,
a 501(c) (3) nonprofit.

FotoWeek DC is supported in part by the DC Commission
on the Arts and Humanities.

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From James Wellford, International Photo Editor at Newsweek:

PROJECTIONS OF REALITY FEATURED AT FOTOWEEK DC
Documentary work projected as part of the NightGallery program

On Saturday November 6th from 6-11pm, Projections of Reality showcases the work of nine photographers who challenge the conventions of visual narrative on the exterior of the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

Projections of Reality, launched earlier this year in Moscow, is a pioneering touring exhibition platform for the most provocative visual storytelling being produced today. The show introduces new work at each new venue.

For NightGallery DC, Projections of Reality presents an eclectic selection of work by artists who share an intensely creative instinct for compelling stories:

Jan Banning’s portraits of mid-level bureaucrats in eight different countries; Benjamin Lowy’s moving landscapes of torn, unstable places around the globe; issues of water scarcity by Balazs Gardi; blindness by Stefano de Luigi; interrogations in the Ukraine by Donald Weber; Thomas Dworzak’s images of found Taliban portraits; Tim Hetherington’s enigmatic visions of sleeping soldiers on Afghanistan’s front line; the disastrous BP oil spill by Christopher Morris; and finally the monumental work on separation walls in conflict challenged parts of the world by Kai Wiedenhoefer.

“Photographs are windows to our world and in profound ways allow us to cross emotional thresholds and enter and share the spaces, conditions, and lives of others. Each series is a world unto itself, each possessing its own urgency. We hope these images will provoke a vigorous dialogue among viewers as they engage with the issues reflected within” – says the show’s curator James Wellford.

More about the project: www.projectionsofreality.org

The Corcoran evening projection is open to the public.

In addition to the Corcoran, the Projections of Reality will be shown at Dupont Circle and Satellite Central (M Street – Georgetown). Check out the schedule at: www.fotoweekdc.org

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I will also have work from Azerbaijan and my work this summer covering the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, “Azerbaijan and the Second Oil Boom,” will be exhibited as part of the Georgetown University Second Annual Student Exhibit from November 6-13.

“Please come to our opening reception on Saturday, November 6th from 5-7″

Georgetown University Student Exhibit: Multiple Perspectives at FotoWeek DC, November 6-13, 2010
Georgetown University Walsh Building at 36th Street and Prospect Streets in Georgetown, Washington DC
featuring “Azerbaijan and the Second Oil Boom” by Amanda Rivkin

“Please come to our opening reception on Saturday, November 6th from 5-7″

“Azerbaijan and the Second Oil Boom” is part of a larger project on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline traversing Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey that is supported by a Young Explorers Grant from the National Geographic Society.

fotoweek dc
washington post going out guide

By campus e-mail:

Call for Digital Submissions for Fotoweek DC!
Sponsored by: GU Arts Aficionados
Details: Fotoweek DC is a city-wide festival of photography between November 6-13. Art Aficionados will host a Second Annual Student Exhibition in Walsh [located at 36th Street and Prospect in Georgetown]. There is not only the chance to be exhibited, but also to be published in The Anthem! Theme: “Multiple Perspectives” Whose perspective are you representing? We are challenging photographers to step out and not only represent their perspective. This is meant to be open-ended and interpretive. If you interpret it narratively or technically, all the better! We want a variety of submissions and are excited to see your creativity! Submissions must be digital and be the biggest possible pixel dimensions or in their original dimensions to make sure that they can be reproduced and printed. Email submissions to guartaficionados@gmail.com. Include in submission your name, school and graduation year, and title. Explanations about the work are optional. In the subject line, put your name and “Fotoweek DC Submission.”
For more info: guartaficionados@gmail.com
FotoWeek DC: www.fotoweekdc.org

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I just submitted 16 images, “Azerbaijan and the Second Oil Boom,” from my work over the summer photographing along the 1,100-mile Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline route in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey with the support of a Young Explorers Grant from the National Geographic Society. National Geographic is among the sponsors of FotoWeek DC.