REVIEW SANTA FE

CENTER is seeking submissions for the juried portfolio review event, Review Santa Fe, happening JUNE 11-14, 2015.

Considered one of the most important events for photographers who seek career advancement, Review Santa Fe is designed to facilitate relationships between photographers and leading industry professionals looking for new work.

Nestled in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain, up to 100 photographers meet with up to 45 of today's most relevant and esteemed reviewers comprised of curators, editors, publishers, gallerists and others who can offer professional development advice and opportunities.

Review Santa Fe is the premier international juried portfolio event designed to maximize outcomes. Full Scholarships Available.

http://www.visitcenter.org

http://www.visitcenter.org/call-for-entries/

https://submit.visitcenter.org/

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PROJECT LAUNCH GRANT

CENTER has an open international photographic Call for Submissions for the Project Launch, a prestigious award that supports photographic projects.

The Project Launch is granted to an outstanding photographer working in fine art series or documentary project. The grant includes a cash award to help complete or disseminate the works, as well as providing a platform for exposure and professional development opportunities.

This grant is awarded to complete or nearly completed projects that would benefit from the grant award package.

Jurors:

Anne M. Lyden, International Photography Curator, National Galleries of Scotland

Bernadette Tuazon, Senior Photo Editor, CNN Digital

John Woody, Publisher, Twin Palms Publishers

 Award includes: 

$5,000

Two Exhibitions

Professional Development package  ...and more

http://www.visitcenter.org

http://www.visitcenter.org/call-for-entries/

https://submit.visitcenter.org/

There's a new PhotoNOLA App to help you navigate your festival experience.

Free downloads are available now.

iPhone

Android

Web App

The Web App version can be used on any device with a browser, 

i.e. Windows Phone, BlackBerry, laptops.

© Chris Bennett

Plates to Pixels announces an open call for Landscapes of many kinds. The juror is Christopher Bennett is a photographer, curator, and photo educator living in Portland Oregon.  His work experience includes the George Eastman House, the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops and Photo-eye Books & Gallery.   Chris founded and was the Executive Director of Newspace Center for Photography from 2002 to 2014.

Eligibility
All photographers are welcome to submit. Mr. Bennett is seeking work that falls into the sublime-mysterious landscape category.

Entry Guidelines
Submit up to 10 images. Please submit JPEG image only – minimum size 1000 pixels on the longest side, 72 ppi, RGB.
Submission Fee:
$1 per image.
Deadline: 
December 12th (midnight PST)
Show runs through the end of January 2015 at platestopixels.com.

Awards
Best of Show: $50, print catalog (and a surprise). Juror’s Awards, Founder’s Awards and Honorable Mentions all receive complimentary print catalogs (and a surprise).

For complete instructions and to enter follow this link: Plates to Pixels: LANDscape

Congratulations to NOPA member Tina Freeman on the launch of her new book, Artist Spaces. You can catch her to get a signed copy at one or more of the following events:

Garden District Books - November 11th (6-7:30pm)
New Orleans Book Festival - November 15th (2:30-4-30pm)
Maple Street Books - November 19th (6pm)
Faulkner House Words and Music Festival – November 20th (10:30am)
NOAC - November 20th (6pm)
PhotoNOLA at Old U.S. Mint - December 7th (5:30-6:30pm)
HNOC – December 20th (2-4pm)

The Volunteer Photographer Program is a community outreach project of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation’s Archive. The mission of the program is to provide documentation of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival presented by Shell for the Foundation Archive. This documentation goes beyond the stages and music to include the “internal culture” of Jazz Fest- the food, art, culture and people who attend the festival. These other aspects are crucial in making Jazz Fest an annual success.
The program joins photographers, from a variety of backgrounds, with the Festival and Archive to provide the unique experience of photographing the world renowned New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

Volunteer Photographers must be at least 18 years of age. 
Festival Dates: April 24-26 and April 30, May 1-3, 2015

Applicant categories:

-Student
-Amateur
-Professional

Position Description & Requirements

• Volunteer Photographers must be able to manage and edit hundreds or even thousands of digital images and understand that the work of photographing the Jazz Fest is physically demanding.
• Photographers often walk many miles a day around the Fair Grounds Race Course and are responsible for their own photography gear. 
• There can often be a variety of weather conditions - rain (lots of mud) or shine (lots of dust) and in potentially *very* hot weather.

Selected volunteer photographers are responsible for providing the Archive with the images taken at the festival. Without all submissions there will be an historical gap in the documentation of the 2015 festival. Any photographer who does not submit their images will not be in good standing with the Foundation. 

Juried Process
A three-person jury of photographers will select photographers based on the following criteria:
Artistic Merit (60%)
Experience photographing live cultural events and/or professional reliability (40%)

How to Apply
Set up a profile at http://www.callforentry.org
The application can be found in the Call For Entry listings under “New Orleans Jazz Fest Volunteer Photographers” beginning Monday, November 3, 2014 and the deadline to apply is Sunday, November 30, 2014. 
Direct all questions to archive@jazzandheritage.org

No more than 150 applications can be accepted.

A huge thanks to Aline Smithson and Lenscratch for this wonderful (and thorough) article on this exhibition at Slow exposures.

just a tease...
One of the highlights of the SlowExposures Festival was the Posse’s exhibition, Time, Place, and Eternity: Flannery O’Connor and the Craft of Photography. The exhibition was constructed in Christine Curry’s horse barn as part of the Friday night soiree held at her home to celebrate the ShowExposures Festival. We arrived just as the sun was setting and in the distance was a stately home surrounded by big trees filled with strings of light. After picking up a cocktail, we made our way to the horse barn where the remarkable collective, The Posse, consisting of some of the most innovative and creative Southern photographers: Anne Berry, Ann George, Bryce Lankard, Lori Vrba, and S. Gayle Stevens, had crafted one of the most interesting and innovative exhibitions I’ve seen in a long while.
...click the link to read more and visit Lenscratch.

The Consulate of Mexico in New Orleans is pleased to partner with the satellite program P.3+ of the biennial Prospect New Orleans  presenting an Artist Talk reception by Michael Alford.

Michael Alford is a multidisciplinary Conceptual artist. His work ranges from documentary photography, large scale public sculpture to Land Art. “My work often explores and challenges the conventional ideas of Art and what can be used to create it.” Michael spent the first half of his life as a member of the U.S. Armed Forces Special Operations. He earned his B.F.A. from Baylor University while on active duty and recently an M.F.A from Louisiana State University. The artwork of artist Michael Alford has been exhibited and found in several corporate, private, national and international collections.

The Artist will be talking about his experience photographing Mexico City and surrounding areas while concealing his camera in a bag pack. Michael has more than 20 years traveling to Mexico and capturing its beauty and wonderful people.

Artist's Talk:

Friday, October 24th at 6:00pm

Art Gallery of the Consulate

 901 Convention Center Blvd. Suite 118

 New Orleans, LA 70130

Judith Bernstein © Judy Cooper

Join NOPA member Judy Cooper as she presents a show of recent portraits of the women who in 1972 founded A.I.R. Gallery in New York City, the first gallery of, by, and for women artists in the US.

The founders and early members of A.I.R. include many well known and influential artists. Cooper’s large photographs reveal the strength and individuality of the women, as well as the collective spirit of the enterprise they began. A small catalogue which includes a brief history of the founding of A.I.R. and bios of each of the Pioneers, written in their own words, accompanies the exhibition.

Opening Reception

Thursday, October 23, 5:00-7:30pm

In the Seltzer-Gerard Reading room

Caroline Richardson Hall next to the Newcomb Art building

Tulane University, Uptown Campus

The exhibition will be up from October 23 to December 31, 2014. It is part of Prospect 3 as a P3+ site.

SCREENING: Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photography and the Emergence of A People

The New Orleans Photo Alliance is  sponsoring a screening of Thomas Allen Harris's: Through the Lens Darkly, which explores the history of black photography and representation, and how contemporary artists use this material as inspiration in their visual storytelling. 

The film assembles a community of photographers and artists—including Carrie Mae Weems, Lorna Simpson, and Glenn Ligon, to name a few—who together shake up the familiar foundations of the images that have shaped the popular culture’s view of what “blackness” is and who “black people” are. The film was inspired by photo-historian Deborah Willis’ ground-breaking publication, Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present.

Director Thomas Allen Harris will be on hand for a brief Q&A after the screening.

Saturday, October 18, 2014, 5:00 p.m.

Contemporary Arts Center

900 Camp St, New Orleans, LA

Click here for tickets

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Photo courtesy: Frances Dixon

The companion transmedia project to  Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People, Digital Diaspora Family Reunion and World1Family social media campaign, engages audiences to discover connections between their own family archives and the film’s historical narrative, thus creating new communal linkages that underlie our common humanity.

This free family-friendly event features live interactions with the audience, where people share their stories and family photographs, on cellphones or as actual photos, projected on a large screen. Participants are encouraged to critically rethink how they read and interpret the welter of images they encounter, while also highlighting the significance of their own family photographs as historical artifacts in the making.

Participants are strongly encouraged to bring their family photographs.
Sponsored by New Orleans Photo Alliance
In partnership with the New Orleans Public Library African American Resource Center, Junebug Productions, and the Community Book Center

Sunday, October 19 | 1:30PM - 3:30PM
Contemporary Arts Center
900 Camp St, New Orleans, LA

Tulane University Presents:

Angola and Guantánamo: Art and Incarceration

Moderated by Edie Wolfe, Tulane University,
this event brings together Edmund Clark, a British photographer whose work documents spaces of confinement in the detention camps at GTMO and Katrina Andry and Deborah Luster, two New Orleans-based artists whose work addresses incarceration in Louisiana.  Esther Whitfield will discuss Cuban artistic representations of GTMO.

We hope the Guantanamo Public Memory Project will provide a complex portrait of GTMO's history and will raise questions about US-Cuban relations, human rights, national security, refugee policy, and the rule of law in today's society

Light Leaked: Highlights from: Slow Exposures: Install Image by Ann George Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the photography event Slow Exposures in Pike County, Georgia...

There is a lot of photography happening this Fall in New Orleans. Following is just a small portion of what our Members and Partner oranizations are up to in October.

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The Consulate of Mexico in New Orleans presents:

Michael Alford, Shooting From The Hip: Mexico

October 2nd to October 30th, 2014 

Michael Alford

The Consulate of Mexico in New Orleans is pleased to partner with the satellite  program P.3+ of the biennial Prospect New Orleans presenting the photographic exhibition of artist Michael Alford.

Opening Reception, October 2, 2014, 6pm

 Art Gallery of the Mexican Consulate

901 Convention Center Blvd. Suite 118

 New Orleans, LA 

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The Ogden Museum of Southern Art presents:

Self-Processing – Instant Photography

October 4, 2014 - January 4, 2015 

 David McCarty, Biloxi Hotel 2, 2008

Before the instantaneous gratification of digital photography there was instant film. Instant and Polaroid film made photography quick and accessible to all without having to rely on a darkroom or lab for film processing and printing. Self Processing – Instant Photography features a large and varied array of photographs shot with instant film. The exhibition will include photographs by Pinky Bass, Blake Boyd, Linda Burgess, Michael McCraw, Anna Tomczak and more.

Opening Reception: Saturday October 4, 6PM - 9PM

(Art for Arts’ Sake) 

Self Processing Gallery Talk with curator Richard McCabe

October 4, 2014

Special Event

4:00 pm - 5:30 pm 

Photo Gallery, 3rd Floor 

The Ogden Museum of Southern Art's Curator of Photography will lead a Gallery talk and walkthrough of the Self Processing: Instant Photography exhibition. He will cover subjects ranging from the history of Polaroid and instant film, instant film processes and the photographers included in the exhibition. A question and answer session will follow the gallery talk. 

Ogden Museum of Southern Art

925 Camp Street 

New Orleans, LA 

Contact: 504.539.9650 for more information for both events

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Scott Edwards Gallery presents:

Anna Tomczak, Borrowed Relics - The Last of the Large Polaroid Transfers

Front Gallery: October 11th through November 30th

Back Gallery: December 6th through February 1st

Anna Tomczak

Opening Reception: October 11th, 7pm-12am (Artist will not be in Present)

Artist’s Reception: November 8th, 7pm-12am

Scott Edwards Gallery

2109 Decatur, street

New Orleans, LA

Les pleurotes by Robert Dutruch

The New Orleans Photo Alliance (NOPA) is pleased to present “Four by Five”, an exhibit showcasing four photographs by five photographers, all made with traditional view cameras. 

The exhibit will be on display at the New Orleans Photo Alliance Gallery,  from September 6 , 2014 – November 23, 2014. 

An opening reception will be held on Saturday, October 4 from 6:00-9:00pm and a juror’s reception on Saturday, October 11 from 6:00 - 9:00pm.

The exhibit features works by Drew Bedo, a legally blind photographer from Houston, TX; Robert Dutruch, from Bush, LA, with his full plate collodion ambrotypes; Mark Dawson, from Camden, ME with intimate collodion-on-aluminum prints; Maria Levitsky, who recently completed her MFA at the University of New Orleans, showing 8x10 Palladium prints; and Nate Mathews from Bartlett, IL exhibiting modernist inkjet prints from 4x5 color negatives.

The juror, Steve Simmons, is publisher of View Camera Magazine, a bi-monthly publication that began in 1988, and is specifically aimed toward the large format photographer. Each issue provides in-depth interviews with portfolios by respected photographers, new and used equipment reviews, workshop listings, and articles providing technical information for the large format photographer that cannot be found in any other publication. Mr. Simmons is also the author of the book, Using the View Camera, A Creative Guide to Large Format Photography.

Four by Five

September 6 - November 23, 2014

Opening reception Saturday, October 4, 6 9pm

Juror’s reception Saturday, October 11, 6 - 9pm

Gallery open Thursday - Sunday, Noon - 4 or by appointment

1111 Saint Mary Street, New Orleans, LA

p: 504-264-1855 e: photoalliance@gmail.com www.neworleansphotoalliance.org 

    The New Orleans Photo Alliance is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2013 Clarence John Laughlin Award.

Keliy Anderson-Staley, Houston TX

Ducle

Anne Berry, Newnan, GA

Baboon in Window

 Susan Burnstine, Los Angeles, CA

East Broadway, 7:02AM

 Benjamin Dimmitt, Swannanoa, NC

Oaks, Paynes Prairie, FL

 William Guion, Austin, TX

Marsh House Oak, Avery Island

 Leslie Hall Brown, Ash Grove, MO

The Rock

 Jaime Johnson, Poplarville, MS

Water Snake

Meghann Riepenhoff, San Francisco, CA

Littoral Drift #01 (Diptych, Tower Beach, SC 05.26.13, Tidal Pools, Dipped)

 Euphus Ruth, Greenville, MS

Old Elks Club

Francis Schanberger, Dayton, OH

Rose Swimmer

J Michael Skaggs, Cincinnati, OH

Pain XXXVII

Cheryle St. Onge, Durham, NH

untitled

S. Gayle Stevens, Downers Grove, IL + Judy Sherrod, Wichita Falls, TX

Nocturnes 33

The Clarence John Laughlin Award was instituted by the New Orleans Photo Alliance in 2010 to support the  work of photographers who use photography 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. 

For 2014, NOPA invited Del Zogg, the manager of Works on Paper & Photography Collections at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston TX,  to  serve as juror.

 Past recipients of the award include: Walker Pickering (2013), Lee Deigaard (2012), Joni Sternbach (2011) and Charles Grogg (2010)

The winner will announced on November 1, 2014.

The Carroll Gallery at Tulane University will be presenting Data Shadows, a solo exhibition by AnnieLaurie Erickson. 

Erickson was a finalist for NOPA's 2013 The Clarence John Laughlin Award and is an Assistant Professor in the Newcomb Art Department at Tulane University.

Her work has been shown nationally and internationally including at the Boston Center for the Arts, and CentrePasquArt, Bienne, Switzerland. AnnieLaurie was on faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 2007-2010, where she developed a special topics course on the intersections of art and science in lens-based media. She has presented her artwork and teaching at both the College Art Association national conference and the Society for Photographic Education national conference.

Data Shadows

AnnieLaurie Erickson

exhibition dates:  August 23 – October 8, 2014

reception:  Thursday, August 28, 5:30 – 8:00 pm

gallery walkthrough with the artist:  6:00 pm

The Carroll Gallery is located on Tulane's Uptown Campus, in the Woldenberg Art Center. The entrance to campus which is nearest to the Carroll Gallery is at the intersection of Willow Street and Audubon Boulevard. Audubon Blvd. becomes Newcomb Place on campus, and the Woldenberg Art Center is the third building on the right along Newcomb Place, as one approaches from Willow Street. 

Please observe Tulane University parking regulations carefully. Two-hour parking is available on Audubon Boulevard near Willow Street, and is only a short walking distance from the Carroll Gallery.

Gallery hours:  M – F, 9 am – 4 pm

Gallery closed on official Tulane holidays.

image above: Apple Data Center, Solar Farm, Maiden, NC 2014

On Friday, September 26th, Slideluck is coming back to the beer garden at Photoville NYC for a night of food, fun, music and art on the Brooklyn Waterfront!

The theme for SLIDELUCK NYC XVIII is Secrets. Artists are invited to submit work that explores notions of deception, revelation, confessions and wishes. From underground societies to political scandals to family secrets, we want your photography, visual art, and multimedia pieces capturing those unshared bits of life.

Submit your work today! The show will be curated by Gideon Jacobs and Matthew Leifheit, and the submission deadline is Friday, August 29th.

Gideon Jacobs is the Creative Director of Magnum Photos and a writer who worked prieviously at ESPN Magazine and Badabing Records. Matthew Leifheit is the Photo Editor at VICE Magazine as well as an independent photographer, writer, and curator. His writing on art and photography has appeared in TIME LightBox, Art F City, the Camera Club of New York and Feature Shoot. 

Mark your calendars for an inspiring evening full of photographic wonders among the pop-up galleries of Photoville with stunning views of the Manhattan skyline.

SLIDELUCK NYC XVIII at Photoville

Part of the Narratively After Dark Series

Friday | September 26 | 2014

Pier 5 | Brooklyn Bridge Park | Brooklyn | 11201

7pm Potluck | 8:30pm Slideshow

Photoville is a pop-up village of freight containers transformed into temporary exhibition spaces and the largest annual photographic event in NYC. Occupying more than 74,000 sq ft in the heart of Brooklyn Bridge Park, Photoville 2014 will include lectures, exhibitions, screenings and workshops from September 18th-28th. This year Photoville is teaming up with Narratively to present Narratively After Dark in the Photoville Beer Garden run by Smorgasburg. Slideluck is excited to join Photoville and Narratively for an evening on the Brooklyn Waterfront! 

Bombay Artisan Submit

Award winning photographer and NOPA member Tyler Vance work is on view at the Hammond Art Center during the month of August. Vance  has worked with some of this century’s best-known photographers, including David Allen Harvey, Eugene Richards, Jim Nachtway and many others from both the Magnum Agency and National Geographic Magazine. 

For the past 13 years he has traveled with photographer Mary Ellen Mark in Oaxaca, Mexico, documenting lifestyle and customs in that area.

Recently, he was a featured merit award winner in the July issue of Black and White magazine, and his photo, “Procession” was chosen for the 8th Annual Louisiana Fine Arts Showcase.

Current projects on display include photographs of the Cole Bros. Circus troupe and documentary coverage of life in the Mississippi Delta.

Vance is a 1972 graduate of West Texas A&M University with a degree in Journalism. He and his wife Kimberly live in Robert, La., and also work as documentary wedding photographers. 

Tyler Vance, Moments, A Retrospective is on view at the Hammond Regional Arts Center, August 1-30. 
Lunch Lecture, August 14 from 12-1 pm

• Gallery Hours: Tuesday through Friday 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
• Saturday 11:00 am - 3:00 pm
• Sunday and Monday Closed
• Gallery Address: 217 E. Thomas Street, Hammond, LA 70401
  
• Visit Hammond Arts.org for more information

A reception for a recently opened photography exhibit of New Orleans' Ogden Museum of Southern Art, "One Place: Paul Kwilecki and Four Decades of Photographs from Decatur County, Georgia," will be held in connection with Whitney White Linen Night on Saturday, Aug. 2.

The reception for the exhibit, which opened July 24, is set for 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday.

An Ogden gallery talk with Tom Rankin, the photographer and Duke University art professor who served as the editor of a recently-published book of the same name as the exhibit, is to follow on Sunday, Aug. 3 from 2 to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 3.

Kwilecki spent more than four decades photographing his native Decatur County, in Southwest Georgia. He also owned a hardware store in Bainbridge, the county seat. His photography and the compilation of the "One Place" book, edited by Rankin, were the subject of a feature at the New York Times website's "LENS" blog in August 2013.

Rankin, currently director of Duke's MFA program in experimental and documentary arts, will share insights into the work of the man, who he counted as a friend, on Sunday. After the talk, the photographer and professor will sign copies the "One Place" book, published by the University of North Carolina Press.

Rankin's books include "Sacred Space: Photographs from the Mississippi Delta" (1993), which received the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Photography, and he served as the editor for books including, "Deaf Maggie Lee Sayre': Photographs of a River Life" (1995).

Photolucida, an arts nonprofit based in Portland, Ore., is accepting entries now through noon Pacific Time on Wednesday, July 16 for its annual Critical Mass, an online portfolio competition.

Artists submitting work to Critical Mass are asked to submit a 10-image portfolio, for a $75 fee (or $90 for international submissions). All submitted portfolios are then screened by a committee of about 20 jurors, which selects 200 finalists. In turn, the finalists pay an additional $200 fee to have their work sent to a panel of 200 jurors.

Among the awards to be given in the competition are the following:

• Monograph Award: A hardbound book of the winner of this award will be published, distributed internationally, and shipped to all jurors and all entrants in Critical Mass 2014.
• Artist Residency Award: One photographer will be chosen for a four-week, 2015 residency at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation’s Captiva Island estate in Florida.
• Solo Show Award: One photographer will be chosen for an exhibition at Blue Sky Gallery in Portland during Portland Photo Month in April 2015.

To learn more about Critical Mass--and submit work, or see a list of jurors--please see the event page at the Photolucida website.

Diffusion magazine, a reader-supporter, independent annual that seeks to celebrate unconventional photographic processes and photo-related art, is seeking entries by July 15 for its 2014 competition, with the theme of, "The Matter of Light."

All photo-based artists may submit work. Artists who work with alternative processes and forms of presentation-- including, but not limited to, assemblage, historic processes, installation, mixed media, hand crafted processes--are especially encouraged to apply.

Serving as jurors for the competition are Katherine Ware, Curator of Photography at the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe, N.M. and Blue Mitchell, the founding editor of Diffusion and an independent publisher, curator, educator, and photographer from Portland, Ore.

Awards will include several that entail an invitation to Diffusion's next annual group exhibit, among them those for Best in Show, a Spotlight Award, First Place and Second Place awards and Exhibition Awards for select artists. Other awards will include Third Place, Honorable Mentions and Purchase Awards.

The fee for entry is $20 for up to 10 images. No more than three portfolios may be submitted.

For more information, please see the call for entry page at the Diffusion magazine website.

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.

The Center for Fine Art Photography of Fort Collins, Colo. is seeking entrants for its next juried competition, "Still Life." The deadline for entry, recently extended, is Tuesday, June 10.

All subject matter and photographic processes are welcome, as is work from any photographer anywhere in the world, whether amateur or professional. Entry fees are $20 for members and $35 for non-members for five images. Additional images may be submitted for $10 for members and non-members alike.

The juried exhibit will be held at the Center from September 5-27, 2014. 

Photographers whose work is selected for the exhibition will receive prizes including the following:

• Juror’s Selection: $500
• Director’s Selection: $250
• 2 liveBooks Website Awards: Valued at $399 from liveBooks.com
• Honorable Mention Awards: 2 year membership and an image submission for a Center competition.

Serving as juror for the competition is Rebecca Senf, the Norton Family Curator of Photography at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, in association with Phoenix Art Museum.

For more information, please see the Center website.

Puzzle 2 is now done! Puzzle 3 is a drawing (not text).

As we get to more complicated puzzles, it's clear that loading, rendering, and UI limitations will become a bigger and bigger issue. My colleague, Dan Maynes-Aminzade ("monzy" for short) is doing his best to figure out ways to handle that. There are a lot of not-ideal solutions.

It's also clear that more computer aided matching will be necessary to maintain progress. Here are zip files for the pieces of problem 4 and problem 5, if you want to try your hand at analyzing them directly.

Puzzle 4 pieces
Puzzle 5 pieces

If you come up with good ideas that work, post them in the comments.

Recently, I've been playing with these inexpensive Syma Remote Control Helicopters. At the time they were only $20 (but seemed have been price adjusted for the holidays). They're quite robust to crashes and pretty easy to fly. For $20, they're a blast. The other interesting thing about these copters is that the controller transmits commands using simple infrared LEDs rather than a proper radio. This simplicity makes it tauntingly appealing to try reverse engineering. So tonight, I decided to do a little procrastineering and see if I could get my helicopter to become computer controlled.

For hardware, I've been liking these Teensy USB boards because they are cheap, small, versatile, and have a push-button boot loader that makes iteration very quick. They can be easily configured to appear as a USB serial port and respond to commands. For the IR protocol, I started with this web page which got the helicopter responding. But, the behavior I was getting was very stuttery and would not be sufficient for reliable autonomous control. So, I decided to take a closer look with an oscilloscope to get accurate timing from the stock remote control. Some of my measured numbers were fairly different for the web tutorial I found. But, now the control is fairly solid. So, here is the nitty gritty:

IR Protocol:

- IR signal is modulated at 38KHz.
- Packet header is 2ms on then 2ms off
- Packet payload is 4 bytes in big-endian order:
1. yaw (0-127) default 63
2. pitch (0-127) default 63
3. throttle (0-127 for channel A, 128-255 for channel B) default 0
4. yaw correction (0-127) default 63
- Packet ends with a stop '1' bit

Format of a '1' is 320us on then 680us off (1000us total)
Format of a '0' is 320us on then 280us off (600us total)

Packets are sent from the stock controller every 120ms. You can try to send commands faster, but the helicopter may start to stutter as it misses messages.

Download Teensy AVR Code (updated 11/30/2011)

The code is available at the above link. It's expecting 5 byte packets over the serial port at 9600 baud. The first byte of each packet must be 255, followed by yaw, pitch, throttle, and yaw correction (each ranging from 0-127). It will return a 'k' if 5 bytes are properly read. If it doesn't receive any serial data for 300ms, it will stop transmitting the IR signal.

Unfortunately, I can't help you write a program to communicate over serial since that will depend on your OS (Windows, Mac, Linux) and varies by language as well. But, it is fairly easy with lots of web tutorials. The harder challenge will be figuring out how to update the 3 analog values to keep it from crashing. =o) The most likely candidate is to use a camera (probably with IR markers) to monitor the position of the helicopter. But, getting that to work well is definitely a project unto itself.

Good Luck!