NOPA members Elizabeth Kleinveld and Epaul Julien, working under the name e2, currently have work showing as part of the 246th Summer Exhibition of World Leading Artists & Architects at London's Royal Academy of Arts.

The e2 work "Ode to Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Marriage" (at left) was among 1,200 entries chosen for the prestigious event. The final selections were chosen from more than 12,000 entries.

The exhibit, which began June 9, will run through August 17, 2014.

The selected work was taken from a larger series, one created to spark discussion on the consequences of stereotypes, and based on iconic images from paintings, photography and film, as well as literature.

New Orleans Photo Alliance members are invited to submit work for consideration in CURRENTS 2014: NOPA Members Showcase. The exhibit will open in December at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, in connection with the 2014 PhotoNOLA festival.

This annual exhibition was created to showcase contemporary photographic work created by NOPA members. The 2014 show will include work by as many as fifteen Alliance members, featuring several images by each selected photographer.

CURRENTS 2014 will open on December 4 and run through January 5, 2015. The opening reception will be held on Friday, December 5.


Juror: Roy Flukinger, Senior Research Curator of Photography
Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

Entry Deadline: Sept 15, 2014 

Eligibility: Submission is open to all current members of the New Orleans Photo Alliance. Applicants may join at time of entry.

Submission Fee: $25 Submission Fee + NOPA
Membership: $60

Enter online here.

About the Juror:

ROY FLUKINGER is the Senior Research Curator of Photography at the Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin, where he has served as a curator since 1977. He publishes, lectures, produces exhibitions, and serves as a chief resource individual for the Photography Department, which holds some five million images. He also teaches, serves on numerous boards, and serves as a juror, consultant and reviewer for many art and photography organizations and institutions.

Mr. Flukinger holds degrees from Tulane University and The University of Texas at Austin. He has taught as an Adjunct Lecturer and Assistant Professor at UT and other institutions of higher learning. He has published and lectured extensively in the fields of regional, cultural, and contemporary photography and the history of art and photography, and has produced or participated in nearly eighty exhibitions. His recent publications include: The Gernsheim Collection, Windows of Light, and Photography: The First 150 Years.

Image: Gordon Stettinius' jurors talk during CURRENTS 2013 opening, Samuel Portera, all rights reserved.

The Clarence John Laughlin Award was created by the New Orleans Photo Alliance (NOPA) to support the work of photographers who use the medium as a means of creative expression. It honors the life and work of Clarence John Laughlin (1905-1985), a New Orleans photographer best known for his surrealist images of the American South. The Clarence John Laughlin Award grants one $5000 prize annually to a photographer whose work exhibits sustained artistic excellence and creative vision.

2014 Juror

Del Zogg is the Manager of the Works on Paper & Photography Collections and Study Center at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston TX.

Eligibility:

Both emerging and established photographers residing in the U.S. may apply.


Deadline: August 25, 2014

Application fee is $25.

Application fee + NOPA membership: $60.

For more information and to apply cluck here: CJL Grant

Is it just me or are low-budget Horror films getting lazier and lazier? Are film studios even trying anymore?  I mean, what is the point of going through all the work of setting a shooting schedule, hiring actors, not to mention all the work that goes into designing the DVD cover and marketing the film on Netflix, if you’re not even going to put in any effort?  Let’s use the film I’m reviewing today, “Darkroom” as the case-in-point.          

“Darkroom” was released in 2013 and is the story of a young girl named Michelle (played by actress Kaylee DeFer) as she works towards her ultimate goal of leaving the rehab facility where she was sent to after she was involved in a drunk driving accident that killed her boyfriend and her two friends.  Upon being released from the facility Michelle get’s a small modeling gig in town (yeah, apparently she was a model before she went to rehab, but I digress).  So Michelle goes to the modeling job at his huge mansion that turns out to be an elaborate cover for a trio of siblings (led by the director the rehab center where Michelle was staying) to re-enact scenes from the film “Hostel” in order to “purge” the bad sinners of the world.                      

She doesnt look very invested in this role

   The first problem, I have with the film is this:  The plot is so freaking inconsistent!  I swear the person editing this film must have been a 7-year-old boy with severe ADHD and the attention span the size of a gnat because the plot is all over the place.  When every other scene is a flashback, you are not telling a good story, you are a just confusing your audience!  One flash back in your film is fine, two is okay, three is pushing it.  Don’t do it every other scene!  It really makes it difficult to establish things like plot in character when you have no idea what the hell is going on in the film.  I’m really not a fan of telling a story in a film like this, because it is so easy for the audience to get confused.           

   Let’s look at the motivation of our films villains.  They were horrifically abused by their psychotic mother...that’s it.  At some point while trying to escape through the mansion Michelle comes across a video tape of her three captors as young children being beaten, burned, maimed, and abused by their mother.  In the video the mother claims she is doing this because her children are “sinners”, but she is over-the-top with her abuse that it’s just not believable.  This lady makes the mom from “Carrie” look June Cleaver, she is that cruel.  Besides that, who the hell keeps a videotape of them self abusing their children?  What if the police got a hold of that tape, huh?  That’s evidence you dumb b!tch!.  I would have much preferred one of her captors telling the story of the abuse rather then something stupid like Michelle stumbling across a videotape.          

Foreshadowing!

Actress Kaylee DeFer isn’t terrible in this film, but the character she’s playing is.  There is nothing likeable about Michelle.  She’s not a strong character; she’s not a likeable character.  In fact, the only character in this film who is more detestable then her is the youngest of the three villains, Daniel.  Daniel is loud, he’s whiny, he’s pathetic, and I can’t tell if actor Tobias Segal was trying to portray him as being—shall we say—a little slow, or if he’s really just that bad of an actor.                                                   

    If I were to classify “Darkroom” in a genre of films, I would put it under the “Skip Entirely” section.  It’s a garbage film, and is simply too bad a film to be watched by human eyes.  Don’t even bother wasting your time with it folks.  You have much better things you can do with your life then watch “Darkroom”.

Dallas-based photographer Brandon Thibodeaux is the recipient of the NOPA-associated, 2014 Michael P. Smith Fund for Documentary Photography (MPS Fund) Grant, in support of his long-term documentary photo project, "When Morning Comes," which focuses on rural African-American communities in North Mississippi.

The MPS Fund, established by NOPA to honor the life of legendary New Orleans photographer Michael P. Smith, annually grants $5,000 to a Gulf Coast photographer who is working on a long-term cultural documentary project.

Aperture magazine editor Michael Famighetti, who juried the 2014 grant, said of Thibodeaux’s work, “[It] relies on a strong sense of atmosphere, suggestion, and sometimes elliptical narrative. There is a quietness to the work from which it derives its strength.”

Thibodeaux has worked on his project for five years. He initially traveled to the Mississippi Delta region on a soul-searching journey. He writes, “I needed to breathe after my own troubled times. I was in search of something stronger than myself and attended its churches not to photograph but to cry and be redeemed and to just be a part of the place. I was there to listen as I prayed for a revelation.”

Michael Famighetti also selected five photographers to be honored as the 2014 finalists. They are Dominic Bracco II, Katty Hoover, Liz Moskowitz, Bryan Schutmaat and William Widmer.

Thibodeaux (b. 1981), raised in Beaumont, Texas, began his photo career at a small daily newspaper in southeast Texas while studying photography at the city's Lamar University. He now resides in Dallas, where he freelances for clients like Shell Oil, MSNBC.com, Time.com, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, among others.  He is a member of the photography collective MJR, based in New York City.

In 2009 he joined the ranks of the Getty Reportage Emerging Talent.  In 2012 he participated in Review Santa Fe, was awarded second place in the PhotoNOLA Review Awards, was a US winner for the Magenta Foundation’s Flash Forward 2012 and The Oxford American listed him in the 100 Under 100, New Superstars of Southern Art 2012.  His work in the Mississippi Delta won second place in Center's Gallerist Choice Awards, and was selected for the Critical Mass Top 50 Solo Show Award.

To see more images from the grant recipient as well as the finalists, please see the MPS Fund page at the NOPA website.

Images: From Thibodeaux's "When Morning Comes" project.

Deadline for submissions: Sunday, August 3, 2014, 12:00 midnight

The New Orleans Photo Alliance is pleased to announce the second “Four by Five” show juried by Steve Simmons, publisher of VIEW CAMERA MAGAZINE and author of USING THE VIEW CAMERA.

NOPA is seeking work from photographers using large format cameras with film or plates that are larger than roll film formats. While antiquarian processes are accepted, lensless based work (pinhole, etc) will not be considered.

Four images from five different photographers will be chosen. The five photographers chosen will exhibit at the New Orleans Photo Alliance Gallery in the Fall as well as be published in a future edition of View Camera Magazine.

For more information contact David Armentor Director of Programming (programming@neworleansphotoalliance.org), The New Orleans Photo Alliance.

ENTER HERE: Four by Five

Euphus Ruth

Deadline for submissions:
Sunday, August 3, 2014, 12:00 midnight

Notification of acceptance:
Sunday, August 10, 2014

Deadline for receiving accepted works:
Sunday, August 31, 2014

Opening reception:
Saturday September 6 | 6-9 pm

Exhibition dates:
September 6 - November 23, 2014

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, in association with four partner organizations, is seeking application for a new a initiative called the Catapult Fund, one created to provide business training education and access to funding for Louisiana arts-and-culture entrepreneurs.

The fund is currently seeking applications from businesses whose main areas of focus include one or more of the following: Dance, theater, music, film, visual art, digital media, design, culinary arts, literary arts and fashion.
The deadline for applications 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, July 15.

Startups, as well as established businesses, are eligible to apply, as are limited liability partnerships, sole proprietorships and incorporated businesses. Applicant businesses must have gross annual revenues of less than $500,000. A priority will be given to those applicants that provide products or services that do not duplicate those that already exist in the region. Moreover, the fund will prefer businesses whose products or services add to the sustainability of Louisiana's cultural economy.

Ineligible for the program are nonprofits, individuals (other than sole proprietorships), religious organizations, government entities and businesses with outstanding state or federal tax obligations.

Ultimately, nine to 12 applicants will be accepted into a "Catapult Boot Camp," an eight-week, nine-session program, including discussion and training on on topics ranging from credit and finance to social media and marketing.

The fund will award a total of $50,000 in grants to participants who, after this boot camp, create the best business plan.

Partners in the initiative include:

• The Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation, which will oversee the online application process
• Capital One Bank and the Louisiana Small Business Development Center, which together program and operate the boot camp workshops
• New Orleans' Ashé Cultural Arts Center, which will provide community outreach, as well as computer access and personal assistance with online applications.

For more information about the Catapult Fund, including the guidelines and application form, please visit the initiative website.