MAGIC AND REALISM
Need a fresh perspective on things? Join me in my alternative (processes) reality, as my exhibition Magic and Realism opens at the Lancaster Museum of Art & History on Saturday, January 25, 2-4pm (thru April 13). My second solo show at the museum presents a broad selection of pinhole and infrared work including recent multispectral exposures that combine visual spectrum and infrared light in-camera to evoke parallel realities just beyond human perception. MOAH is publishing a monograph of work from my two museum shows.
A Thousand Words for Ice – Multispectral Exposure – Svalbard – 2022
Much appreciation to Corporación Cultural SACO for my 5-week summer residency in Chile's Atacama Desert. The resulting photographs and video will be included in Antofagasta's Semana de Arte Contemporáneo biannale curated by Dagmara Wyskiel next June. I'm also grateful to ART1307 for my just-completed, 6-week artist residency in Naples, Italy, with new work to be featured in Occhi sulla città (Eyes Over the City) curated by Cynthia Penna next November. Behold the stunning view I enjoyed from just outside the ART1307 residence:
Bay of Naples and Mt Vesuvius – Multispectral Exposure – Italy – 2024
It's also been a productive year for High & Dry with three glorious, new dispatches syndicated as always on PBS SoCal. Writer Jack Eidt and I are at work on a story comparing lithium extraction plans at California's Salton Sea with large-scale operations already underway in the Atacama Desert.
Finally, the new, never seen pinhole series Persistent Cowboy is now available as unique (1 of 1) prints on metallic fine art paper. A continuation of the nearly sold out Persistence of Being series, the self-portrait was captured at MOAH, just steps from the site of the upcoming show. Love a full circle moment!
Persistent Cowboy #1 (Blood Orange)– Kinematic Pinhole Exposure – Lancaster, California – 2025
STAY CONNECTED, MY FRIENDS ✨
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WE ARE ALL CONNECTED
Antofagasta is a remote industrial town in Northern Chile, capital of a vast territory that includes the driest desert on Earth. What an adventure to be invited by the Fundacion SACO for a 5-week artist residency to create new, site-specific work informed by the region's distinctive culture, history, and geology for exhibition in the Semana de Arte Contemporáneo biennial!
Moon & Vulture – Las Ruinas de Huanchaca – Antofagasta, Chile – 2024
Amongst many things, the Atacama Desert is home to some of the planet's oldest organisms. These complex ecosystems have survived for over three billion years in the intense heat and salinity of salt lakes on the Atacama Plateau. Offering great promise for developing climate resilient technologies, these remarkable life forms now face a human-caused existential threat.
Laguna Miscanti (Salt Lake) – Multispectral Exposure – Atacama Desert, Chile – 2024
You see, the Antofagasta region is also deeply impacted by centuries of intensive mining – first silver, then guano, saltpeter, copper, and now a massive rush to expand lithium production. Each boom and bust cycle has marked the landscape with countless abandoned towns and mines – each a time capsule of lives lived and choices made.
Oficina Salitrera Iberia (Mining Town Ruins) – Antofagasta Region, Chile – 2024
I shared the epic journey with my friend Jack Eidt, journalist and executive producer/co-host of the nationally syndicated EcoJustice Radio. Jack and I are already working on a multi-part series exploring lithium extraction at California's Salton Sea, soon to be syndicated on PBS SoCal.
We will contrast the nascent lithium boom in the United States with large and growing operations already underway on the Atacama Plateau – plans that place enormous strain on both regions' Indigenous communities and ecosystems. The story is fascinating and well worth considering as we determine our own environmental future and legacy. Stay tuned.
Selfie with writer Jack Eidt and eminent scientist/environmental advocate Dr. Cristina Dorador – University of Antofagasta, Chile – 2024
Meanwhile, two fantastic shows closing soon in the LA area: the 52nd Annual Exhibition of Works on Paper juried by Shana Nys Dambrot at the Brand Library and Art Center (closing reception: Friday, August 9, 5-7pm), and Feeling Blue at Von Lintel Gallery (thru August 3). Both exhibits also feature my talented friend Miles Regis, and by alphabetical serendipity, our work appears on adjacent pages of the Brand exhibition catalog.
Refetoff / Regis – The Brand 52nd Annual Exhibition of Works on Paper Catelog – 2024
MORE ON THE COSMOS TO FOLLOW SHORTLY ✨
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C H R O M A T O P I A
The new series Chromatopia will be exhibited at Melissa Morgan Fine Art in Palms Desert, California, my first solo show with the gallery. Opening Friday, February 2, 4-7pm, these large-scale, multispectral exposures blend infrared and visual spectrum light in camera to create color that is both unchanged and extraordinary, realistic and magical (thru March 11).
Owners and Guests – Multispectral Exposure – Palm Springs, CA – 2023
Next up, Osceola Refetofff: Repairing the Future, a solo exhibition at the LA Art Show February 14-18. Curated by Andi Campognone of the Lancaster Museum of Art & History, one of seven international museums presenting huge, immersive installations in DIVERSEartLA's annual public programming. Yes, that's my image on the website banner. Check out the incredibly cool, just issued press release! 🔥
Marks Center – Multispectral Exposure – Palm Desert, California – 2023
Repairing the Future features new work from my Arctic Circle residency in Svalbard, and a reimagined variant of the short film Sea of Change, created during my artist residency at Building Bridges, curated by Marisa Caichiolo in collaboration with Dr. Eric Larour, scientist and Manager of NASA's Earth Sciences Division at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Sun Kissed – Multispectral Exposure – Palm Springs, California – 2022
MORE ON ALL THAT TO FOLLOW !
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EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME
What a year that was! If you missed Zen Psychosis: Anatomy of a Dream at Cal State LA, there's a lovely review by Genie Davis and a delightful video by LA Art Documents. Spectrum News broadcast a great feature on the Shifting Landscapes show at Building Bridges. Must See TV.
For those lucky enough to live in Southern California, Problematic Palms curated by Shana Nys Dambrot is on view at the Marks Art Center in Palm Desert thru Dec 15. The large-scale, intensely saturated, infrared prints from my new Chromatopia series will then move across town to Melissa Morgan Fine Art.
Zen Psychosis: Anatomy of a Dream at California State University LA
This month's Los Angeles Press Club Awards were especially sweet as my dad, sister, and niece were in town and saw them announced at the celebrity-packed gala. Winning Best Photo Essay and Photojournalist of the Year, the judges' comment: "Refetoff’s wonderful black & white landscape photos — reminiscent of Ansel Adams — coupled with outstanding color landscape and portrait photos to illustrate articles earns him the Photojournalist of the Year award.”
And 2024 is shaping up nicely, with a giant solo show at the LA Art Show, Feb 14-18, representing the Museum of Art & History at DIVERSEartLA. Next summer: a month-long artist residency in Chile's Atacama desert!
Los Angeles Press Club awards gala at the Biltmore Hotel – Dec 202
For those in search of a unique gift, there's a limited number of framed 8.5x11" prints available at Chungking Studio. Looking for something a bit more substantial? Check out the just-opened Gems of the Past 30 Years at Von Lintel Gallery. One could easily check off their entire holiday list at Bergamot Station, with art that will bring happiness year round.
A Tree for All Seasons – Rosamond, California – 2012 (First printed 2023)
WISHING Y'ALL A HAPPY NEW YEAR
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THREE IS A MAGIC NUMBER
The stars align next month with three exhibitions open simultaneously in the L.A. area. Zen Psychosis: Anatomy of a Dream opens at California State University Los Angeles, Saturday, Nov 4, 4-6pm. Curated by Mika Cho, the show expands on the book's exploration of dream phenomena to create a participatory, multi-sensory experience. On view for two weeks only (thru Nov 16), with a closing reception and book signing Tuesday, Nov 14, 6-8pm.
Zen Psychosis: Anatomy of a Dream at the Silverman Fine Arts Gallery
Problematic Palms opens Nov 7 at the Marks Art Center in Palm Desert, with a reception Wednesday, Nov 15, 4-6pm. Curated by Shana Nys Dambrot and featuring work by Francesca Bifulco & Andrew K. Thompson, the exhibit debuts the series Chromatopia – multispectral exposures that combine infrared and visual spectrum light to create impossibly rich colors at epic scale. This new work is presented courtesy of Melissa Morgan Fine Art (thru Dec 15).
Thunderbird – Multispectral Exposure – Palm Springs, CA – 2023
And don't miss Shifting Landscapes: Sea Level Rise in Los Angeles and Beyond at Building Bridges Art Exchange, curated by Marisa Caichiolo with artist Guillermo Vezzosi in collaboration and Dr. Eric Larour, Manager: Earth Sciences NASA/JPL. A discussion moderated by art critic Shana Nys Dambrot is scheduled for Saturday, Oct 28 at 11am. The exhibition's extended run ends Nov 7, including a closing walkthrough on Saturday, Nov 4 at 11am.
Plan B (sculpture) and Sea of Change (8 min video) at Building Bridges
The Building Bridges residency is supported by The Getty Marrow Program, The Broad Diversity Apprenticeship, and the City of Santa Monica.
HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE! 🌴
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UNCHARTED WATERS
Shifting Landscapes: Sea Level Rise in Los Angeles and Beyond is the culmination of my artist residency at Building Bridges Art Exchange with artist Guillermo Anselmo Vezzosi in collaboration and Dr. Eric Larour, supervisor of NASA's Sea Level and Ice Group.
The opening reception is this Saturday, September 9, 5-9pm, with an artists/scientist walkthrough at 4pm (on view through October 13). Doors open at 1pm, coinciding with Bergamot Station's Fall Open House. Come early and visit my L.A. home at Von Lintel Gallery, open until 6pm, perhaps a bit later.
Building Bridges’ summer residency fosters connections between science, technology, and contemporary arts through direct engagement with scientific data provided by NASA. Artists are encouraged to explore unfamiliar materials and techniques, propelling their practices in new creative directions. To wit, I’m presenting my first drone photograph, a large-scale video installation, and a sculpture. Oh, and I've also been experimenting with AI. Come see how that all turned out! 💥
The Building Bridges residency is supported by The Getty Marrow Program, The Broad Diversity Apprenticeship, and the City of Santa Monica
🛰 EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED 🌖
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TO INFINITY, AND BEYOND 🚀
I'm excited to announce my summer artist residency at Building Bridges Art Exchange. I'll be collaborating with Argentinian visual artist and architect Guillermo Vezzosi and Dr. Eric Larour, supervisor of NASA’s Sea Level and Ice Group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. An exhibition opening September 9 will focus on global sea level change and feature recent work from Svalbard near the North Pole. Details to follow.
Adventfjorden – Multispectral Exposure – Longyearbyen, Svalbard – 2022
Multispectral exposures combine infrared and visual spectrum light using filters in front of the lens to control the wavelengths recorded.
For those blissfully absent from social media, here's a moment from the Los Angeles Press Club banquet announcing my award for Best Feature Photo. It's my second 1st place trophy in this category, but then who's counting? This High & Dry story on PBS SoCal placed 2nd for Photo Essay.
Mount Whitney – Infrared Exposure – Alabama Hills, California – 2022
Best Feature Photo – Jury: "A photograph that exposes the soul and spirit of a majestic place. Done to perfection."
Finally, I have a piece in California Now & Then at bG Gallery in Santa Monica, California opening Saturday, July 15, 5-8pm (thru August 15). Curated by Juri Koll, the lineup includes a bunch of fancy-pants artists from 'then' mixing it up with some contemporary upstarts. Come early and visit my L.A. home at Von Lintel Gallery next door, open until 6pm. Hope to see you there!
Tiny Island – Kinematic Pinhole Exposure – Antarctica – 2020
Y'all know I like to keep things short and sweet! The rest will have to wait.
🛰 STAY TUNED! 🛸
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IT'S ALL ABOUT THE PROCESS
I'm excited to have new work from my series Flirting with Disaster in After Glow at Melissa Morgan Fine Art. A modern take on the iconic road photo, these infrared exposures are all captured from a moving perspective. The exhibition opens this Friday, April 7, 4-7pm in Palm Desert, California.
Castles Made of Sand – Infrared Exposure – Searles Valley, CA – 2019
The following weekend, Kinematic pinhole exposures from Antarctica are in By Degrees: Art and Our Changing Ecologycurated by Luciana Abait and Lawrence Gipe at the Huntington Beach Art Center. The show opens Saturday, April 15, 6:30-9pm. Prints from the series can also be viewed at Von Lintel Gallery in Santa Monica.
Wandering Sphinx – Kinematic Pinhole Exposure – Antarctica – 2020
Speaking of anachronistic processes, I'm developing a new series of multispectral exposures. Also known as "false-color" infrared, the surreal hues are produced in-camera, using vintage filters to combine infrared radiation with specific segments of the visual spectrum. Originally developed for aerial espionage during WWII, I'm currently using the process to survey the extraordinary foliage and modernist architecture that exists in and around Palm Springs, California.
Duplexity – Multispectral Exposure – Palm Springs, California – 2023
IT'S A WILD, WILD WORLD OUT THERE
COME OUT AND SEE FOR YOURSELF!
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ARLES, ARCTIC, ARTBOUND!
A wonderful week in Arles for Les Rencontres de la Photographie festival – basically Cannes for photography, but lasting all summer. My exhibition It's a Mess Without You, winner of The British Journal of Photography's OpenWalls Arles award, continues at Galerie Huit thru Sept 26. Check out this lovely BJP feature published opening week. 🇫🇷
Brief power outage during the opening caused by a nearby wildfire. Photo: Yann Tessier
Next up: The Arctic Circle, a 15-day Artist and Scientist Residency aboard a Barkentine (square-rigged) tall ship. Originally scheduled for 2020, the Antigua sails from Svalbard October 2!
Alongside my photographic projects, I'll be highlighting the environmental threat of industrial-scale overfishing to produce fish oil dietary supplements, and letting folks know that plant-derived Omega-3 products offer consumers a readily available alternative. "Don't kill the krill!"
The Antigua – Photo: D. Heyman
Finally, for my most literate friends, High & Dry presents our latest dispatch on KCET's Artbound. The story chronicles the formation of the Alabama Hills National Scenic Area and associated challenges to balance diverse land use interests with indigenous management traditions.
A Work in Progress – Infrared Exposure – Alabama Hills, California – 2022
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes. – Marcel Proust
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OPEN WALLS, PART DEUX
My exhibition It's a Mess Without You opens July 4 at Galerie Huit Arles. The show is presented by The British Journal of Photography in conjunction with the OpenWalls Arles Outstanding Series Award.
It all coincides with Les Recontres d'Arles, one of the world’s largest photography forums. I’m excited to attend the festival for the first time July 4-9. Gallery hours are 11h-13h + 14h-18h30, with an opening reception July 7, 12h-15h. Très cool! 🇫🇷
Charred House on Trinity Street – Sunset – Mojave, California – 2016
One of ten It's a Mess Without You images showing in France
Perhaps you may be thinking, "Huh? That sounds familiar!" I won the OpenWalls Arles Award in 2020, but the festival was cancelled amidst the first wave of Covid lockdowns. At the time, Galerie Huit and the BJP generously proposed to reinstall the show when conditions permitted. And so it has come to pass! 🙏
My work will be presented 'in situ' in the gallery's 17th-century 'rock room.' Both exhibit and festival continue thru September 25.
Day Tripping – Kinematic Pinhole Exposure – Los Angeles, California – 2010
Permanent collection: Museum of Art & History (MOAH) – Lancaster, California
Finally, as promised in the last newsletter, voici le photo just acquired by the Museum of Art & History, and currently on view in Human Natures: Selections from the Permanent Collection thru August 21. Prints are available at Von Lintel Gallery in Santa Monica, CA.
With love and patience, nothing is impossible
–Daisaku Ikeda
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At the boss’ desk – Melissa Morgan Fine Art, Palm Desert, California
Kinematic™ pinhole exposures, yours truly, painting, Kimberly Brooks, photo: M. Nizdil
Speaking of the Museum of Art & History, no institution has done more to support Los Angeles-area artists. The museum has acquired another of my photos, the third to be included in their permanent collection. The Kinematic pinhole exposure will be on view in Human Natures: Selections from the Permanent Collection, May 14-Aug 21, debuting at MOAH’s 10th Anniversary Gala this Friday, May 13. Hope you can join us! Tickets available here.
Blue Hopper – Pinhole Exposure – Mojave, CA – 2010
Cottonwood Charcoal Kilns – Infrared Exposure – Owens Lake, CA – 2013
Both in MOAH's permanent collection – Lancaster, CA
For those unable to visit the museum, I just dropped off a framed print at Von Lintel Gallery in Santa Monica, CA. The image also appears on pages 30-31 of Zen Psychosis, Shana Nys Dambrot’s dream novella. Copies of the book are available at Von Lintel Gallery, Porch Gallery - Ojai, the MOAH gift shop, and of course, MMFA’s Bookstore and Sculpture Garden.
The Long Shadows perform at the MMFA Sculpture Garden – Palm Desert, CA
(Yes, I have a drone now!) The band plays again Saturday, May 21 at 7pm
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! 🙏
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The show has received some lovely press, including reviews in Musée Magazine and The Argonaut.
Exhibition Review by Jan Alex – July 2021
I am also thrilled to share that it's finally time for a new High & Dry dispatch. "Mystery and Drama in the Desert Sky" will be live on KCET's Artbound later this month, but here's a full preview for my loyal newsletter subscribers
Fire in the Sky – Infrared Exposure – Near Lake Havasu, Arizona – 2021
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
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How Green Was My Desert – Buckhorn, California – 2019
“At once dreamlike and hyper-realistic, fragile and formidable... the project finds new meaning in the age of isolation, when the window has been rendered our foremost way of experiencing the world”
– Flossie Skelton in The British Journal of Photography
You Are My Dirty Needle – Amboy, California – 2021
If you haven't already heard, Bergamot Station is having a bit of a Renaissance this summer, with several note-worthy shows, and plenty of convenient parking. #mydayinla 🚗
HOPE TO SEE YOUR SMILING FACES!
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MOAH COLLECTS MY WORK...
...and so can you! Happy to announce a second acquisition by the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster, California. Much appreciation to Andi Campognone, Robert Benitez, and the entire MOAH staff for their outstanding tradition of championing Los Angeles-area artists.
Blue Hopper – Pinhole Exposure – Mojave, California – 2010
MOAH's current exhibit Golden Hour features photography-based work from their permanent collection with work on loan from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Huge honor to have my pinhole photograph featured alongside iconic images by California's preeminent photographers.
The exhibition cycle runs thru May 9, so I'm optimistic that there'll be an opportunity to see the show in person. I feel that we all need a bit more art IRL! In the meantime, an excellent virtual tour is available here.
Also in MOAH's Permanent Collection:
Cottonwood Charcoal Kilns – Infrared Exposure – Owens Lake, CA – 2013
AND I'm a finalist for Los Angeles Press Club Awards for Best Feature Photo, Best Photographic Essay, and Photojournalist of the Year. Fourth time in a row I've been nominated in all three categories (earning five 1st Place awards including Photojournalist of the Year 2019).
But then who's counting? 😉
New image: You Are My Dirty Needle – Amboy, California – 2021
SO, is there a place for my work in your permanent collection? Von Lintel Gallery is happy assist you in picking an image that's just right for you!
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November was a busy month for motion pictures. Director Eric Minh Swenson's 7-minute documentary Osceola Refetoff: Kinematic Exposures unpacks my recent exhibition at Von Lintel Gallery, shedding new light on the essential question: "What's a Kinematic exposure anyway?"
Zen Psychosis, also directed by EMS, features author Shana Nys Dambrot reading from her eponymous dream novella, and a discussion about our collaboration combining text and image. Signed editions of Zen Psychosis are available for shipment from A.G. Geiger Fine Art Books.
Osceola Refetoff : Kinematic Exposures (7-minute video)
Photo: The Persistence of Being #4 (after Giacometti)
Two current shows can be viewed online, Exploring Humanity at the LACP and the International Juried Exhibition at the Center for Photographic Art. The Los Angeles Art Association's Open Show will be on view IRL December 12 (by appointment thru Jan 15). And I'm happy to have a few images in the just-released book California Love: A Visual Mixtape curated by Michael Rababy.
Recent press includes: Von Lintel Gallery : Osceola Refetoff : Kinematic Exposures in L'Oeil de la Photographie, Landscapes of the Soul: Kinematic Exposures by Genie Davis in Diversions LA, and "Kinematic Exposures" at Von Lintel Gallery by Billy Bennight for The Los Angeles Beat.
Zen Psychosis (5-minute video)
Photo: Turn Signals – Pinhole Exposure – Los Angeles, California
Photographically, it's been quite a year: an Antarctic adventure with my Dad, the OpenWalls Arles Outstanding Series Award and an in situ installation at Galerie Huit in France, two 1st place awards from the LA Press Club and one from the LA Center of Photography, gallery representation plus my first solo show at Von Lintel Gallery (yay!), and work featured in The British Journal of Photography, The Guardian, and The New Republic.
2020 was... a lot. Wishing you all a safe holiday season. We will get though this, together. Now more than ever, "It's a Mess Without You!" ❤️
It's a Mess Without You! – Cinco, California as seen in The Guardian
THAT'S A WRAP! 🍿
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Saturday, October 31 – Halloween – is your last chance to see Kinematic Exposures at Von Lintel Gallery in Los Angeles. The gallery is open Wed-Sat, 12-6pm, and I'll be there Saturday. Mimosas will be served.
The closing is spread out from 12-6pm to allow walk-in, socially distanced attendance. And while costumes are welcome, masks are of course required. 😉
Wandering Sphinx – Antarctica – 2020
The Kinematic pinhole photographs can also be viewed on the Von Lintel website, but for those who can, I encourage you to see this show in person. The Bendix Building offers underground parking (entrance on 12th St), with direct access to the 2nd floor by elevator or stairway.
The exhibition has been exceptionally well attended, with many visitors saying it was their first venture back into the art world. Much appreciation for your support!
The Persistence of Being #1 and #2 (after Giacometti) – 2020
#2 (Sky/Lime) has already SOLD OUT
Oh, and with uncanny timing, L'OEIL DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE just published a piece on the show today. Boo yah!
Drifting Mesa – Antarctica – 2020
📫 VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! 🗳
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So what's a Kinematic Pinhole Exposure™? I coined the term to describe the handheld exposures I make while moving about with a pinhole camera – in this case, all new work including images from my recent voyage to Antarctica.
Proteus Rising – Antarctica – 2020
Of course the photographs will also be featured on the Von Lintel website, but for those who can, I encourage you to see this show in person. Several artworks (like the ones below) extend well beyond the internet color space and are rendered on an iridescent material that defies online reproduction. They are also unique editions, so if there's one you fancy in particular... well, you get the idea.
Kinematic Exposures runs thru Oct 31.
The Persistence of Being #1 and #4 (after Giacometti) – 2020
One last thing! The Los Angeles Press Club's SoCal Journalism Awards were presented (online) this weekend. While not the usual, star-studded affair at the Millennium Biltmore (next year!), I won 1st place Best Photo Essay for the third time in a row. You can see the award-winning KCET Earth Focus story here. 🔍
AND HOPE TO SEE YOU SEPTEMBER 12TH!
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ON REPRESENTATION
I'm delighted to announce new representation by Von Lintel Gallery in Los Angeles, California. A longtime admirer of the gallery's exceptional programming, I could not be happier.
For 25 years, Tarrah Von Lintel has demonstrated a fierce commitment to showcasing nuanced and distinctive work, particularly art that demands thoughtful, in-person contemplation. Her gallery will manage my entire artistic output, and our first collaboration will be the solo exhibition Kinematic Exposures, opening September 12, 2020.
Osceola Refetoff + Von Lintel Gallery (Crossroads of the World)
Meanwhile, my site-specific exhibit It's a Mess Without You at Galerie Huit Arles has received international attention from The Guardian, La Libération, L'Oeil de la Photographie, and this wonderful, long-form feature in The British Journal of Photography.
It has been a remarkable, sometimes magical year.
Entrance to Galerie Huit Arles' in situ installation on view thru Sept 27
NONE OF THIS WOULD BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT YOUR SUPPORT
🙏 THANK YOU 🙏
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OPEN WALLS, OPEN MINDS
Excited to announce that Its a Mess Without You is an OpenWalls Arles Outstanding Series Winner. The international award is presented by Galerie Huit Arles and the British Journal of Photography, opening the walls of the gallery – and the pages of BJP – to reach new audiences.
The full series will be spotlighted in an OpenWalls Arles exhibition at Galerie Huit Arles, a late 17th-century mansion in Arles' historic town center. Tres Fancy!
One of ten It's a mess Without You images in OpenWalls Arles 2020
The exhibit was originally scheduled to run simultaneously with Les Recontres d'Arles – perhaps the world's largest and most esteemed photography festival – alas canceled this year because of Covid-19. Arles will present special summer programing, but not on the scale of the 145,000 participants hosted last year.
It’s A Mess Without You also figures prominently in a online exhibition, and in an upcoming spread in the British Journal of Photography. Founded in 1854, BJP is the world’s oldest photography title.
With 570,000 facebook and 125,000 instagram followers, @bpj1854 will definitely reach a new online audience.
That's my photo, yo!
OpenWalls is necessarily more virtual this year, as all artists and exhibitors adapt to a new world. Last month, I posted a journal entry exploring these challenges, leading to TODAY's ZoomCast Experiencing Art: Under Lockdown & Beyond, hosted by the Venice Institute of Contemporary Art. Join us "here" Thursday, June 11 at 1:00pm PST/20:00 GMT.
Our "PHOTO OF THE MONTH" is any of the 10 classic images in the OpenWalls-winning portfolio, available directly from Chungking Studio at 15% off thru June 31. Check-out the new, improved website, which now includes detailed size/pricing info and installation views. So OpenWalls, open wallets? 😉
Window with Creosote Bush – Dunmovin, California
THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT, NOW MORE THAN EVER! 🙏
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I hope so.
Valentino Suite – Alexandria Hotel – Los Angeles, California
One of seven images in my L.A. Press Club Life in the Times of the Coronavirus 1st prize-winning photo essay
Last week, I won 1st place in the Los Angeles Press Club's Life in the Time of the Coronavirus photo essay competition, and 1st place in the Los Angeles Center of Photography's Creative Portrait exhibition, juried by Paul Kopeikin. (insert witty humble-brag re: winning prize money from both the LAPC & LACP)
I'm also proud to have work in my 8th consecutive Gallery 825 Out There exhibition, juried by Bert Green in association with West Hollywood Pride Month (June 12-30). And two of my images will be exhibited in-real-life at the Praxis Photographic Arts Center's Liquid~Sky (June 18-July 14), my eight show at the Minneapolis, Minnesota venue.
Julie & Mita – Arena Blanca, Bioko, Equatorial Guinea – 1st place winner: LACP's Creative Portrait exhibition
All this feels a bit insignificant against a painful legacy of social injustice, and a tad bittersweet with both the LAPC and Gallery 825 shows converted to online "exhibitions" due to health concerns. In no small irony, I'd just published an excerpt from my photography journal exploring the post-pandemic art world; specifically if virtual art is the future we want. Of course, online exhibits are what we have for now, so I guess I'm embracing that. (insert wink emoji)
Not coincidentally, I'll be a panelist on the ZoomCast Experiencing Art: Under Lockdown & Beyond, hosted by Juri Koll (Venice Institute of Contemporary Art), and featuring art luminaries Tarrah von Lintel (Von Lintel Gallery) and Claudia James Bartlett (Director, Photo LA). Please join us "here" on Thursday, June 11 at 1:00pm PST (20:00 GMT). There will be plenty to discuss during our 40-minute program.
Photography Journal Entry – Chungking Studio – May 9, 2020 – Click photo to read transcript
"As a collector as well as a photographer, I'm supremely conscious of the value of living with artwork, particularly so during this time of self-isolation.”
STAY SAFE, MY FRIENDS. AND VOTE
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IS VIRTUAL ART THE FUTURE WE WANT?
I'm publishing this recent excerpt from my photography journal to initiate a conversation about online "galleries" and art sales during these rapidly evolving times. Your thoughts and ideas are welcome, either below or in the social media posts linked to this page.
NOTE: The panel discussion Experiencing Art: Under Lockdown & Beyond was inspired by this journal entry, hosted by Juri Koll (Venice Institute of Contemporary Art) and featuring Tarrah von Lintel (Von Lintel Gallery), Claudia James Bartlett (Director: Photo LA), and myself. A recording of the engaging, one hour ZoomCast is available here.
Journal Entry – Chungking Studio – May 9, 2020
Something on most artists' minds these days is how this world pandemic will affect our lives, our work, and the exhibition/sale of artwork in the near, intermediate, and long-term future. While complete answers to these questions are unknowable, this feels like a good time to explore what the post-pandemic art world might look like, and consider strategies to meet the new challenges and opportunities.
I do not like change, not as a general rule. A day doesn't pass without some pang of nostalgia, particularly with regards to how technology has devalued the things I hold dear. So what might this brave new world look like? How best to prepare for an uncertain future? And what evolutionary path is in store for photography?
Today, people and businesses are scrambling to move their existence online. Personally, I can't stand the idea. It's the opposite direction I want for myself and the world I inhabit. But the forces pushing our interactions into the ether are irresistible. I can only hope that we also experience a growing appreciation for things in the real world, and not all just tunnel deeper into our burrows.
It seems clear that many businesses I love will not survive. This despite remarkable optimism on Wall Street and fanciful pronouncements ("cheerleading") from the White House. Some of these lost businesses will be galleries, many already struggling to hold on pre-COVID-19. This makes me enormously sad, as I hold deeply to the archaic notion that art is best appreciated in real life.
Galleries closing is sad, but is it bad? Yes, if course it is – having spaces to show and see art is absolutely essential. But might there be certain benefits to some galleries closing? Is it possible that there are too many exhibition spaces in Los Angeles?
Art Collection – Chungking Studio – 2020
I've seen a great deal of art in the last few years, some of it not very compelling. Could a reduction in exhibition opportunities increase the overall quality of work? And with many artists taking advantage of this time to reflect on their process, might the pandemic inspire enduring new creations? I wonder if our collective experience might even stimulate a cohesive art movement or two, the likes of which we have not seen since the very idea of art movements was seemingly discarded towards the end of the last century.
Damn, I am so old fashioned, I'm scaring myself. But, back to the future...
Galleries will close and art “experiences" will migrate online in an accelerating manner. While this is neither all good nor all bad, I fear the worst. Art requires context, and that's something the Internet does not provide to a meaningful extent. A quick Google search of an artist gives little insight into their life, their work, and the ideas that underpin their career. Often, a bunch of images just flicker past in random-ish order, giving us a false sense of knowledge and understanding.
Luckily, we have books and museums and art writers to help us explore deeper meaning, but we've also become increasingly satisfied with cursory perusals. As far as contemporary artists are concerned, how will we truly come to know and experience their work as it migrates increasingly online, no matter how "immersive" the virtual experience?
Regardless of my passionate entreaties, to the Internet art will inevitably go. And of course, for the time being, online exhibitions are what we have. Clearly, some art forms will fare better than others. Video is a natural fit, but any type of subtle, non-graphic work is probably doomed. Photography may do okay with some caveats.
Pre-COVID-19 opening – Paradox California: Chelsea Dean & Osceola Refetoff – Launch LA – 2019
What your next gallery visit may look like...
The Internet "democratizes" photography in two problematic ways. When we gaze upon our small, backlit screens, great photographs do indeed look good. But so do good and even mediocre images, better in fact then they would look printed. Contrarily, truly outstanding photographs require in-person viewing to fully appreciate their luminance and subtle detail. Ideally this viewing is in a well-lit space devoid of excessive distraction. Add a measure of context by placing the work in well-curated conversation with other images, and you have the makings of a transformative experience.
Online viewing tends to be the opposite of all that. Rather than a thoughtfully selected presentation, we often experience a random onslaught of disjointed images. Welcome to your Instagram feed. So while photography is ever-present in our lives, its pervasiveness actually diminishes it as an art form. I call this the marginalization of ubiquity. And these same forces also erode salability.
Many galleries have addressed these issues by championing the photo that is not a photo. What's hot today are unique editions of non-camera-based exposures or various mixed-media interventions specifically intended to make the finished piece something "more" than a photograph. To be clear, I am a fan of much of this work, and cognizant of the collector appeal of one-of-a-kind artworks. But I do hope this time in isolation will renew interest in photography's primary function: the representation of real things in the world.
Of course, there are ways to improve the online viewing experience. Without question, every artist and gallery requires a well-designed and regularly updated website. But during the course of this entry, I've come to believe that a rush to show artwork on the web may actually be counterproductive. To me, viewing new work online before an exhibition decreases the pleasure of discovering it in person.
Does Not Reproduce – 2019 "The exhibition will display works of art that suffer significantly from their translation to a 1080 x 1080 pixelated square." (photo/quote courtesy Von Lintel Gallery)
In the end, isn't that the very experience we're trying to sell? Are we not specifically asking collectors to value the opportunity to experience well-crafted images in their homes, on their walls, in their real and actual daily lives? As a collector as well as a photographer, I'm supremely conscious of the value of living with artwork, particularly so during this time of self-isolation.
I well understand that galleries are having a tough time. I get that collectors are increasingly fickle, at least partially because their noses are buried in their phones. It has become increasingly evident that many galleries will need to go out of business, perhaps via the intermediate step of moving their operations entirely online. The reduced number of physical galleries that remain may best be served by re-embracing their traditional role of connecting artists and collectors by establishing context, value, and the desirability of ownership for the carefully selected work they represent.
So fewer galleries presenting more relevant artwork, serving a relatively constant pool of genuinely informed and engaged art patrons. People who continue to value interacting with art in real life, first in galleries, and later in the comfort and safety of their well-curated homes.
I believe the fool's race to chasing online eyeballs will result in the same fate of our great journalistic institutions, increasingly absent from our daily lives in this time of greatest need. As a photojournalist, I know firsthand how that story turns out. Actually, what do I know? I still get the L.A. Times delivered to my home, a place where I'm constantly scheming about how to fill every square inch with artwork.
So sure, we'll be looking at art exclusively online for the foreseeable future. But it's my hope that this time of self-isolation will rekindle an appreciation for real things in the real world. When the doors finally re-open for social-distance-appropriate viewing, let's reflect on the blank wall space we've all stared at for months, and enrich our own lives by supporting local artists and galleries. As I recall reading in the L.A. Weekly, one good thing about physical galleries, you're not allowed to touch anything anyway.
Art Collection – Chungking Studio – 2020 – I see empty wall space!
Journal excerpt lightly edited for clarity and length. I welcome your thoughts and comments.
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]]>ON JOURNALING
Few of you know that I've been keeping a photography journal since 2009 – in longhand no less! I'm also reading photographer Edward Weston's famous "Daybooks" from the 1920's and 30's. I believe many of us today – particularly artists – could benefit from keeping a journal, so I've decided to transcribe my entry from last night for those who might be interested in how I use journaling to explore my own artistic output and to plot future direction. With so many of us having a few extra hours on hand these days, this could be a good time to grab a pen and push it across some paper. Warning: by its very nature, this entry does involve quite a few words. 😉
Journal Entry – Chungking Studio – May 4, 2020
I spent most of today re-organizing jpgs of my art installation photos. I previously kept this documentation of my exhibitions in a folder that contained copies of press I've received. A submission I was working on would benefit from the right installation examples, and an exhaustive search led me to assemble (and keyword!) all the images I could find. I often ponder how essential it is to keyword images meant for sharing on the web, but at least they need to be labeled with where, when, and what in addition to photo credit.
Week eight of the novel coronavirus quarantine makes the undertaking of these longform projects possible, even when they are not particularly urgent. I often marvel that the huge percentage of the time I spend on my art career is administrative work of this nature. Essential? Perhaps not, but documentation of exhibitions seems valuable, and photos that are not organized and labeled are unlikely to have much, if any value in the future.
Clearly any artist serious about their career needs to collect documentation like this for current use and towards any potential legacy. Many of us have the aspiration for our work to be remembered. And that raises interesting questions about our own self-awareness about the import of what we create. I choose not to delve too deeply into this existential quandary, rather to just accept that documentation of exhibitions, awards, and accomplishments generally clearly represents best practice despite the significant time commitment.
For every Edward Weston, who was clearly aware and concerned about establishing a legacy of his life's work, there must be many, many others who made similar efforts only to be completely forgotten. And of course, there are a couple of important photographers like Vivian Maier who appears to have had little interest in exhibiting or preserving her work, in her case only rediscovered because of extremely fortunate events after her death (much to our own collective good fortune).
At heart lies the necessity that any successful artist must have some degree of self-confidence in their work, enough at least to continue their creative process.
With regards to self-confidence, perhaps the more the better to confront the great challenges required to make good work and find recognition for these efforts. That surely leaves a very large contingency of artists who overestimate the value of what they create. Since much of this is unknowable during the course of things, perhaps it makes the most sense to just carry on and hope for the best.
recently read E. Weston's journal entry from 8/14/1930 which addresses "public applause" and fame. More interesting, he writes about the true essence of art: "These painters, and the photographers who imitate them, are 'expressing themselves': Art is considered as a 'self-expression.'" What follows is his basic rejection of "pictorialist" photography and his championing of capturing the true nature of things – their essence – absent of personal interpretation. Basically, the Group f64 rejection of the type of photographic approach they felt was trying to emulate painting. This dogma led to the concerted effort to trivialize and reject photographers like William Mortensen – someone I've come to admire a great deal.
Group f64 compliant:
Abandoned Whaleboat – Infrared Exposure – Half Moon Island, Antarctic Peninsula – 2020
I believe Weston's argument is dated – fueled by the desire/need to establish photography as an appreciated art form at the same level as painting. Striving to be like painting was seen to undermine photography's unique and valuable differences and attributes. While I appreciate the important work Weston, Ansel Adams, and others did to establish photography as artistically viable, I don't share their penchant for deep focus and "unsentimentality." As I happen to be reviewing my own work from Antarctica, it seems I feel comfortable working within f64 ideals with my black and white infrared photography, and completely rejecting Weston's assertions about pictorialism with my pinhole work. Weston writes: "I am no longer trying to 'express myself,' to impose my own personality on nature, but without prejudice, without falsification, to become identified with nature itself, to see and know things as they are, their very essence… Art is weakened in degree, according to the amount of personality expressed."
I am a fan of Weston's work and his writing, but here I categorically disagree with the entire premise. Firstly, I believe Weston's best work is an expression of himself – his "vision" is inexorably tied to who he is, his experiences, and what he feels. Further, I believe that most of the work I value and respond to most deeply is personal and informed by emotional response on the part of the artist. My goal is to channel more of my feelings into my work. Cerebral output is necessarily distant and cold. Such work has value, but not as much to me as more emotionally-based self-expression. Even the most abstract paintings move me most when they are imbued with tangible, visceral emotion.
I absolutely embrace my own pictorialist work. And I am determined to push myself towards more emotional engagement with my photography. I have no doubt that following my emotional instincts will produce the best images. Easier said than done. But being acutely aware of my quest to create more emotional work is the best path to ultimately achieving the goal.
It seems that right now the emotion I most easily channel is melancholy. It is a bit embarrassing as that seems amongst the cheaper, least noble of feelings. And yet it has a powerful pull for me, even more so as I grow older. Clearly, melancholy is an essential element of most of my pinhole photography. And the goal of this work is specifically to be self-expressive – to imbue each image with my own reaction to the person, place, or thing that I photograph. The purpose of predominantly capturing images of Antarctica with my pinhole rig was to try to interpret something unlike ALL the other photographs I have seen.
Edward Weston would be so disappointed, but then he did not live in a world so oversaturated with photographs. In his time, there were innumerable subjects worthy of exploration – the world was a "blank canvas" with so many low-hanging fruit to make your own. Which is not to say the challenges he faced were any less than today – only different. And despite the significant work he did towards establishing photography as a legitimate art form, current trends – the ubiquity and ease of capturing photos today – seem to have re-enlivened all the old (and tedious) arguments. We live in a world of breathtaking imaging potential, but now more than ever, establishing a deep emotional connection to the viewer is the most effective way to cut through the clutter and create something enduring.
Modern Pictorialism:
Maximum Twilight – Pinhole Exposure – Antarctica – 2020
Transcribed word for word from last night's entry. I welcome your thoughts and comments below.
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*Live streaming at Instagram @shananys or Facebook Chungking Studio.
Man with (not so) Empty Billboard – Pinhole Exposure – Los Angeles
I'm on lockdown like all y'all, but there is work on view at two online exhibitions: the Los Angeles Art Association's Seclusion art sale ENDING April 17, and a virtual incarnation of the Center for Photographic Arts Juried Members Exhibition (Carmel, California).
Stay tuned regarding several postponed exhibits/events in limbo.
Contemplating Rothko – Pinhole Exposure – Los Angeles, California
Finally, GREAT NEWS! I've been awarded a spot in The Arctic Circle artist and scientist residency program. The 3-week expedition aboard the tall ship Antigua was pushed back a year to October 2021.
I'm currently working on a series of photographs like none-other ever exposed in our polar deserts. Here's a sneak peek at one such image that connects my window view and pinhole photography practices. You may notice a Rothko thing happening here. Pretty dope, right?
Maximum Twilight – Pinhole Exposure – Antarctica – 2020
STAY SAFE & HAPPY 420!
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]]>Check out this thoughtful and hilarious Tales of the LA Art Underworld podcast about the whole endeavor, and Shana's interview in Flaunt Magazine. Heartfelt thanks to all for your support!
Shana Nys Dambrot – Multispectral Pinhole Exposure – The Getty Villa, Los Angeles, California – 2018
(author portrait from Zen Psychosis)
I recently shared what may be the world's first pinhole images of humpback whales captured during last month's adventure in Antarctica with my dad. And Pictures at an Exhibition, my ongoing "pinhole documentation" of the LA art scene continues on social media (@ospix), with exhibitions of both projects planned for next year.
Meanwhile, my "in focus" photographic career continues with two events this week. Words, Words, Words opens February 21 at Praxis Photographic Arts Center in Minneapolis (thru March 17), and Penumbra, an exceptionally strong show at Gallery 825 in West Hollywood opens THIS SATURDAY, February 22, 6-9pm (thru March 20). Next month, I'll have several photos in California Love curated by Michael Rababy at The Hive Gallery in Los Angeles opening Saturday, March 7, 8-11pm (thru March 28).
Humpback Whales – Pinhole Exposures – Antarctic Peninsula – 2020
Speaking of flow, the PHOTO OF THE MONTH is one of my favorites from the book, a 32-second Kinematic™ pinhole exposure from my series City of Night, with 22x17" and 30x24" limited edition prints available from Chungking Studio at 20% off thru February 29. Kinda dreamy, right?
Urban Flow – 32-Second Kinematic™ Pinhole Exposure – Hollywood, California – 2010
🤸♀️ HAPPY LEAP YEAR! 🏃🏼♂️
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For our many friends outside Los Angeles, California, Zen Psychosis can be mail ordered directly from Griffith Moon Publishing at this LINK.
🚀 HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE! 💥
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]]>Festivities begin with a reading at A.G.Geiger Fine Art Books in L.A. Chinatown at 6pm. Then we'll mosey down the block to Chungking Studio for a blowout party and book signing. 🧨
Entrance - Good Evening – Pinhole Exposure – Muskegon, Michigan – 2010
If that's not enough, I have a cool mixed media piece in Floating Worlds, curated by my friend Juri Koll at Gallery 825. I personally won't be able to attend the opening Saturday, January 18, 6-9pm – because I'm leaving for ANTARCTICA with my dad! More about that when we get back.
Meanwhile, check out my first story for KCET's Earth Focus, a collaboration with Shawnté Salabert surveying Trona, California's ongoing recovery from this summer's two massive earthquakes. I'm also excited to announce that my work is now in the PERMANENT COLLECTIONS of the Los Angeles Public Library, the Lone Pine Film History Museum, and the Museum of Art & History, in Lancaster, California.
Cottonwood Charcoal Kilns – Infrared Exposure – Owens Lake, California
Recently acquired for MOAH's permanent collection
Speaking of collections, rather than the usual PHOTO OF THE MONTH, all of my images will be on sale at 15% off for ONE DAY ONLY, at the book signing January 25. This includes new, never seen pinhole images from Zen Psychosis on exhibit at Chungking Studio for your viewing pleasure.
Gold Diggers – Pinhole Exposure – Hollywood, California, California
🚀 HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE! 💥
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Artist Talk: Creativity and the Documentary Impulse - Wednesday, October 16, 12:15pm
Central Library – 630 West 5th St, Meeting Room A (Ground Floor), Los Angeles
The Pacific Northwest seems omnipresent in my life right now. I'm just back from a photography workshop with Stu Levy and Don Kirby on the Oregon coast. And I have work coming out in Anacortes, Washington-based LensWork Publishing's Seeing in Sixes, a terrific book featuring (you guessed it) six photographs from my It's a Mess Without You series. Finally, Portland's Photolucida announces its Critical Mass winners in mid-October (fingers crossed, I'm a finalist).
Chandelier on La Cienega Boulevard - at Merchant Gallery
Further south, Electric Kool-Aid Banana curated by Marischa Slusarski CLOSES THIS SATURDAY, September 28 at Merchant Gallery in Santa Monica. Coy, juried by Phyllis Hofberg, is on view at Gallery 825 in West Hollywood thru October 18. Complete info on these and other upcoming events is available here.
Something a bit mysterious for the PHOTO OF THE MONTH, available directly from Chungking Studio at a 20% discount for 17x22” limited edition prints thru Halloween, October 31:
Rob K. & Tony C. - Infrared Exposure with Movie Lights - Hollywood, CA
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]]>Highlights included a Lifetime Achievement Award for legendary sports journalist Jim Hill (introduced by Magic Johnson), and an incisive speech by Public Service Award honoree Henry Winkler on journalism's essential role in our "already great" country.
61st Annual SoCal Journalism Awards at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles
Shana Nys Dambrot won for her LA Weekly Profile on Viggo Mortensen
The busy weekend also included the Blind Courier opening, curated by Hilary Baker and Lauren Kasmer at the Brand Library in Glendale, California. The stunning show features eleven of my pinhole images on view thru August 23. Fancy art critic Shana Nys Dambrot leads an artist walk-thru on August 11, 2-4pm.
Blind Courier at The Brand Library & Art Center - Photo: Genie Davis
The same evening, The Vision Board opened with great fanfare at Kopeikin Gallery in Culver City, California. My first mixed-media piece is on view thru August 24 alongside outstanding works by an impressive line-up of L.A. art luminaries. A "champagne and cookies" walk thru with curator Elizabeth Valdez is planned for August 10, 12-2pm. 🍪🍾
The Vision Board Show / The Dream of Sustainability - thru August 24
What's next? I'll be exhibiting new work at three venues in Estonia! Curated by Juri Koll, Edge to Edge will travel to the Tartu Graphic Festival, the Pärnu IN Graphics Festival, and Fahle Gallery in Tallinn between July 22-August 30 (see link for details). And Electric Kool-Aid Banana, curated by Britt Ehringer and Marischa Slusarski, brings a psychedelic blast to Merchant Gallery in Santa Monica, CA, opening August 30, 6-9pm. 💥
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALREADY GREAT AMERICA!
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]]>Summer is off to a colorful start this Saturday with the Los Angeles Art Association’s always-entertaining Out There exhibition celebrating West Hollywood Pride Month at Gallery 825. Juried by Cliff Benjamin of Western Project, the show opens June 22, 6-9pm (thru June 28).
Then the following weekend, things really heat up… 🔥
Dead Tree, Nests & Thermal Plants – Infrared Exposure - Salton Sea, CA - on view in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Mono-Kromatik, juried by Sandrine Hermand-Grisel, opens Friday, June 28 at the Praxis Photographic Arts Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota (thru July 22).
On Saturday, June 29, two fantastic openings. Blind Courier, curated by Hilary Baker and Lauren Kasmer, features twelve of my pinhole images at the Brand Library & Art Center in Glendale, California (thru August 23). And I’m debuting a mixed media piece (wait, what!?) in The Vision Board curated by Elizabeth Valdez at Kopeikin Gallery in Culver City. With both shows opening Saturday 6-9pm, I’ll be at the Brand from 6-7pm, then jet over to Kopeikin 8-9pm. How crazy is that?
Evidently, not crazy enough, because the following night is the Los Angeles Press Club's 61st Annual Southern California Journalism Awards gala at the Biltmore Hotel in Downtown LA. I’m a finalist for four awards, including Photojournalist of the Year. Shana Nys Dambrot is nominated three times as well. Should be a helluva night! 💥
Crossroads of the World - 32 Second Pinhole Exposure – Hollywood, California - debuting at the Brand in Glendale, California
If you have not yet seen Does Not Reproduce, Von Lintel Gallery’s inaugural show at their beautiful new space in the Bendix Building, that is something you absolutely must see in person (thru July 20).
And last but not least, I'm delighted to announce that my work is now available at Truth & Beauty Gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia. As a Canadian, that makes me very happy. Go Canada! 🇨🇦
I know. My head is spinning too. So I’ll leave it at that. Complete info on all my exhibitions/events is always available here.
BEWARE MY FRIENDS: SUMMER IS COMING!
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]]>I am also up for SoCal Photojournalist of the Year. Yes, I’m currently the LA Press Club’s National Arts & Entertainment Awards Photojournalist of the Year, so… is that even legal?
Boarded-Up Farmhouse with Watchful Horse – Searles, California – LA Press Club SoCal Journalism Award Finalist: Feature Photo in KCET's story nominated for Photo Essay (Culture/Entertainment)
So many openings to announce! Does Not Reproduce, Von Lintel Gallery’s inaugural show at their new digs in Downtown LA, opens Saturday, May 25, 6-9pm (thru July 20). Life of Water opens Wednesday, June 5, 6-9pm at the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, Colorado (thru July 1). And my seventh “straight” appearance in Gallery 825’s yearly Out There exhibition celebrating Pride Month in West Hollywood opens Saturday, June 22, 6-9pm (thru June 28).
But that’s not all! I have two openings on Saturday, June 29: The Vision Board at Kopeikin Gallery in Culver City, California, and Blind Courier at the Brand Library & Art Center in Glendale, California. More details on the Blind/Vision shows will be in the next newsletter. Meanwhile, complete info on all this exhibition madness is available here.
Room with Crib – Whittaker-Bermite Site – Santa Clarita, California – from KCET’s award-nominated story for Photo Essay (News/Feature)
In honor of Shana Nys Dambrot's novella Zen Psychosis – coming soon from Griffith Moon Publishing and featuring 25 of my pinhole exposures – May's PHOTO OF THE MONTH is available directly from Chungking Studio at 20% off for 17x22” limited edition prints thru May 31. Yes, the image will be in the book and for sale at upcoming signing events – but not at this "early entry" price. 😉
"Entrance - Good Evening" – Pinhole Exposure – Drive In - Muskegon, Michigan
STAY TUNED. THERE'S MORE TO COME!
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Charred House on Trinity Street – Sunset – Mojave, California – 2016
Next up: Photoplay curated by Michael Rababy opens THIS SATURDAY, March 9, 8-11pm at The Hive Gallery in Downtown Los Angeles. The show features alternative photographic processes, so I'll be exhibiting both infrared and pinhole work, including a SNEAK PEEK at a couple of images from Shana Nys Dambrot's upcoming novella Zen Psychosis. Hope to see you there!
Contemplating Rothko - Pinhole Exposure - Los Angeles, California - 2011
So today's PHOTO OF THE MONTH is from The Hives' 4th Annual Photo Exhibit: Analog vs. Digital. The classic pinhole image is available directly from Chungking Studio at 20% off the list price thru March 31. Also for a limited time, a framed, open edition of selected photographs is available at Launch LA at a price point even my artist friends should be able to afford. Get them while you still can!
Blue Hopper - Pinhole Exposure - Mojave, California - 2010
ALTERNATIVE PROCESSES RULE!
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Top: Osceola Refetoff, Remains of the Fruitland Fire - Dawn - Thermal, California, archival pigment print, 2016
Below: Chelsea Dean, Within the Present III, hand-cut photograph, 24k gold leaf, washi tape, and found objects, 2019
Also excited to present work from my After the Fight portfolio at Art Palm Springs in the Venice Institute of Contemporary Art exhibit Out in the Street on view at the Palm Springs Convention Center, February 14-18.
Late Weigh-In - Plaza de Toros Monumental de Tijuana, Mexico - 1998
archival pigment print from full-frame, medium format film exposure
HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!
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]]>With a name like mine, you gotta love it when the awards MC has to pause for a moment before announcing the winner. I had the honor to hear my name mispronounced not once, but twice at the Los Angeles Press Club Awards, for Best Photo Series and Photojournalist of the Year.
The commendations follow this summer’s Writer of the Year and Best Photo Series awards from the Outdoor Writers Association of California. What a great way to close out the year!
LA Press Club National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel - December 2018
Coming up for 2019, I’m excited to announce a two-person exhibition with Chelsea Dean at Launch LA opening Saturday, February 23.
Shana Nys Dambrot's upcoming novella Zen Psychosis will be out soon from Griffith Moon Publishing. My pinhole photographs will complement the beautiful, hardcover first edition.
Shana Nys Dambrot & Osceola Refetoff sequencing images for Zen Psychosis at Chungking Studio - 2019
And so, today's PHOTO OF THE MONTH is a classic pinhole image available directly from Chungking Studio at 20% off the list price through January 31.
Sixth Street Viaduct - Pinhole Exposure - Los Angeles, California - 2011
WISHING YOU AN ARTFUL NEW YEAR!
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Greg Escalante - Chung King Road - Los Angeles, California - 2016
LA Press Club Nat'l Journalism Award Finalist for Portrait Photo
Awards Gala: December 2, 2018
Los Angeles is blessed to have so many fine arts writers and publications. I'm thankful to Artillery Magazine for this full page Code Orange spread in the current print issue. The same photograph was recently featured in the LA Weekly.
Much appreciation to Genie Davis for her Art and Cake review of Between Two Seas / LA International. The beautiful show is extended through December 2 at Arena 1 Gallery in Santa Monica, California.
Late Weigh-In - Plaza de Toros Monumental de Tijuana Mexico - 1998
This Thanksgiving, I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend of printing pinhole images for birthday girl Shana Nys Dambrot’s upcoming Zen Psychosis novella from Griffith Moon. With so many of you on the road this holiday, the PHOTO OF THE MONTH is selected from my Flirting with Disaster portfolio. It was captured at 70 mph and available directly from Chungking Studio at 20% off the list price.
Discount applies to either 17x22" or 24x30" limited edition prints thru November 15. Thank you for your support and have a great holiday!
Leaving Trona - Infrared Exposure - Poison Canyon, California - 2011
Y'ALL KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD!
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Currently on view: OUT and ABOUT and Out in the Streets
Up next: Between Two Seas/LA International curated by Luigia Martelloni at Arena 1 Gallery in Santa Monica, CA. Opening October 20, 6-9pm, the exhibit follows-up this summer's acclaimed Between Two Seas show at the Museo Area Archeologica Arte Contemporanea in Cisternino, Italy. If you missed High & Dry: Land Artifacts at the Museum of Art & History, here's an opportunity to see some of that new infrared work.
Touring Club Italiano coverage of the MAAAC exhibit. My photo bottom right.
Last but not least, there are two book projects in the works: an exhibition catalog for High & Dry’s MOAH exhibition, and Zen Psychosis, a novella by Shana Nys Dambrot for Griffith Moon. The later will include a new portfolio of dreamlike, urban pinhole images.
So something new for the PHOTO OF THE MONTH: be the very first to own this fresh-off-the-press, never exhibited photograph Chandelier on La Cienega from Zen Psychosis and available directly from Chungking Studio at 20% off the list price in either 17x22" or 24x30" limited edition prints (thru October 31).
Chandelier on La Cienega - Pinhole Exposure - Los Angeles, CA
HAVE AN ARTFUL (AND BOOKISH) SEASON!
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]]>But don't just read about it! See it IRL (thru July 15).
High & Dry: Land Artifacts at MOAH – Closing Sunday, July 15
Currently on view in the Los Angeles Art Association’s Apocrypha exhibit: an oversize print that represents something of a departure – like all the way to Africa (thru July 20).
And opening this month: Between Two Seas at the Museo Area Archeologica Arte Contemporanea in Cisternino, Italy (July 7 – Sept 1) and The Telling Image at the Praxis Photographic Arts Center in Minneapolis, MN (July 13 – August 8).
For those keeping score at home, that’s nine group exhibitions and two solo shows so far this year. Fireworks anyone?
Our Churches - Infrared Exposure - Trona CA - on view at Praxis July 13-Aug 8
Finally, here's something distinctly American for your PHOTO OF THE MONTH consideration. Get your ICE/AMMO directly from Chungking Studio at 20% off in either 17x22” or 24x30" limited edition prints (thru July 31).
Photo of the Month: ICE/AMMO - Mojave, CA
BECAUSE, AMERICA
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Liz Gordon, Miles Regis, and friends at the "High & Dry: Land Artifacts" opening
Museum of Art & History (MOAH) – Lancaster, CA – May 2018
Thank you to all the friends and family who made our MOAH opening such success! For those who couldn't make it, the show continues through July 15, Tuesday-Saturday 11am-6pm, with extended hours Thursdays, 11am-8pm.
An ARTIST TALK is scheduled for Sunday, June 3 at 1pm.
Don't forget to bring a small, personal item for the exhibit time capsule.
Land Artifacts has been generously reviewed including Los Angeles Times Datebook Coverage by Carolina A. Miranda and a wonderful piece by Genie Davis in Riot Material.
While the show is best experienced in person, for those unable to make it, KCET's Artbound has syndicated a video with the original Desert Dispatch on which the show is based.
Osceola Refetoff (left), Bob Semerau (Executive Director, Outdoor Writers Association of California) & Christopher Langley
High & Dry's multi-platform output has just garnered recognition from the Outdoor Writers Association of California, including Writer of the Year awards for both Langley and Refetoff, as well as Best Outdoor News Article (Langley), Best Outdoor Photographic Series (Refetoff), and Best Outdoor Medium (OWAC's highest award for work in any media).
Chris and Osceola's work on is also nominated for the Los Angeles Press Club's award for Activism Journalism.
NOW COME SEE FOR YOURSELF WHAT ALL THE BUZZ IS ABOUT!
665 West Lancaster Blvd, Lancaster, CA 93534
661.723.6250 • lancastermoah.org
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High & Dry is proud to announce our latest exhibition:
High & Dry: Land Artifacts
665 West Lancaster Blvd, Lancaster, CA 93534
661.723.6250 • lancastermoah.org
May 12 - July 15 • Opening: May 12, 4-6pm
Artist talk: Sunday, June 3, 1pm
The exhibit represents a full realization of High & Dry's long-term, multi-platform exploration of the California desert, encompassing Osceola Refetoff‘s black and white, infrared photographs, words by writer-historian Christopher Langley, and a video presentation created in collaboration with KCET’s Artbound. The photographs, text, and video can also be viewed on Artbound.
Water Tank - Lone Pine, CA - 2013 (First printed: 2018)
Land Artifacts is the first art exhibit to incorporate historical objects in MOAH’s permanent collection, from a First Nations metate to modern detritus collected at a desert lot just a few hundred feet from the museum.
All these elements come together to create an immersive survey of the things humans leave behind in the desert, and what these artifacts reveal about us as a society. Visitors are invited to bring a small item of personal significance to include in a time capsule as part of their legacy for future generations.
"High & Dry: Land Artifacts" installation detail - Museum of Art & History (MOAH) - Lancaster, CA - 2018
Speaking of legacies, MOAH is publishing a catalog for High & Dry: Land Artifacts that will include more infrared images, installation photos, and examples of time capsule contributions to be unearthed in 2050.
Land Artifacts is part of MOAH’s new cycle of exhibitions opening on May 12 with additional solo installations by artists Robert Dunahay, Sant Khalsa, Constance Mallinson, Greg Rose, and Timothy Robert Smith. An artist talk is scheduled for June 3, 1pm.
Abandoned PPG Plant - Infrared Exposure - Bartlett CA - 2012 (First printed: 2018)
In the meantime, check out the listings in Artillery and Fabrik, as well as an interview/preview by Billy Bennight for Cartwheel Art. Additional press information is available from Laura Grover: [email protected]
MAKE A VISIT TO MOAH A PART OF YOUR PERSONAL LEGACY!
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Just ended is The New Pictorialists, my month-long co-curation with art critic Shana Nys Dambrot at YourDailyPhotograph.com. Continuing on the curatorial bent, I’ll be jurying this year’s Prix de la Photographie, Paris (Px3) – entry deadline: March 31.
Serpentine Boxcars - Infrared Exposure - Searles, CA
There’s big news with my writer-photographer collaboration High & Dry, with two new dispatches on the ecologically rehabilitated Whittaker-Bermite site in Santa Clarita, California, formerly a fireworks and munitions plant. The stories will be syndicated as always on KCET’s Emmy-winning Artbound, but you can see them here first.
High & Dry is revving up for our first institutional exhibition opening at the Museum of Art & History (Lancaster, CA) just two months from today’s date – Saturday, May 12, 4-6pm. LAND ARTIFACTS will feature all black & white infrared photographs and is the first art exhibition to integrate historical objects from MOAH's permanent collection.
Cottonwood Charcoal Kilns - Infrared Exposure - Owens Lake, CA
Oh! And I’m on my way to Houston for FotoFest this week. If you follow me on Instagram, I’ll be reporting on my experience from deep in the heart of Texas.
In that spirit, here's your Photo of the Month, available for purchase directly from Chungking Studio at 20% off in either 17x22” or 24x34" limited edition prints (thru April 15).
PHOTO OF THE MONTH
Man with Upset Chair - Lone Pine, CA
THERE'S MUCH MORE TO COME. STAY TUNED!
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Merry-Go-Round Swing with Sunflare - Pinhole Exposure - Hollywood CA - 2011
For my part, I'm excited to announce Scapes curated by Hayley Marie Colston at Unità in El Segundo, opening this Saturday, January 13, 6-11pm (thru January 27). I'll be there until 8:30pm (because there are so many damn openings in this town!) Meanwhile, the epic Art in Place exhibition continues in Long Beach, with a closing reception Saturday, January 27, 3-6pm. You don't want to miss this one!
Finally, The New Pictorialists explores a classical, process-oriented aesthetic that continues photography's ongoing conversation with painting. Co-curated by fancy art critic Shana Nys Dambrot and yours truly, you'll need to subscribe here to see the work unfurl over the next month on Duncan Miller Gallery's YourDailyPhotograph.com.
Scapes: photography by Diane Cockerill, Ryan Meichtry & Osceola Refetoff
So what will you be exhibiting at your home? Perhaps January's Photo of the Month, available for purchase directly from Chungking Studio at 20% off in either 17x22” or 24x30" limited edition prints (thru January 31).
PHOTO OF THE MONTH
Boy on Trike - Niland, CA - 2012 (First printed: 2017)
WISHING YOU AN ARTFUL YEAR AHEAD!
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It's an all-city time, with work currently on view in three exhibitions across Los Angeles County: Personal Vacation at Gallery 825 in West Hollywood (thru December 1), Boulevard of Broken Dreams at The Six in Calabasas (thru November 15), and the epic, must see Art in Place at the Newberry Lofts in Long Beach (by appointment thru December 17).
Trailer at Hot Creek - Mammoth Lakes, California - 2012
And that's not all! This Saturday, LAUNCH LA, in partnership with Avenue 50 Studio, presents Seismic Shift - Confronting Catastrophe curated by MacKenzie Stevens of the Hammer Museum. The thought-provoking exhibit opens in Highland Park on November 11, 6-9pm (thru December 2).
ICE/AMMO - Mojave, California - 2016
So what will you be exhibiting at your place? Perhaps a dramatic vision of the Eastern Sierra directly below Mt. Whitney. Your Photo of the Month is available for purchase directly from Chungking Studio at 20% off in either 17x22” or 24x36" limited edition prints (thru November 30).
PHOTO OF THE MONTH
Mule Train Winds through the Alabama Hills outside Lone Pine, California - 2013
KEEP CALM AND LOVE ART
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For an artist, exhibiting work can be as nerve-wracking as it is inspiring. Will they come, will they collect... will they write about it? Well, I am pleased to report things are going well across the board, and not least because I am genuinely humbled and honored by the slate of positive coverage on my current solo show It’s a Mess Without You at Porch Gallery - Ojai. First, there was Betty Ann Brown's auspicious feature interview in Artillery Magazine, and now a huge thank you to Genie Davis for her excellent review in DiversionsLA.
Remains of the Fruitland Fire - Dawn - Thermal, CA - 2016
The show is covered locally in the Santa Barbara Independent, Ojai Valley News, and Ojai Quarterly, and recommended in the Western U.S. juggernauts Visual Art Source and ArtScene.
The exhibition runs thru MARCH 26, and we have a few special dates planned for those who'd like to visit. I’ll be hanging out on the porch in beautiful Ojai Sunday, March 19, 10:30am-2pm. There’s an Artist Talk on Saturday, March 25 at 4pm, followed by the Closing Reception 5-7pm, with one last porch hang the following morning, Sunday, March 26, 10am-2pm.
Badlands Literary Journal - Cover & Feature Article - 2017
In “black-and-white” news, Atlas just released a wide-ranging interview that includes the heart-warming story of how I got my first camera at age 5 and just “knew” I’d become a photographer… Okay, that’s not strictly speaking true – you’ll have to read it to find out the real story!
Also just out: Badlands Literary Journal’s epic 3-part High & Dry feature on the Salton Sea, published by the College of the Desert. Swing by Chungking Studio for a copy, first come first served.
PHOTO OF THE MONTH
Trailer off Schabbell Lane - Fort Independence, CA - July 4, 2011 ()
But don’t just read about it, own a piece of history! Here’s your photo for the month of March, available for purchase at 20% off directly from Chungking Studio in either large (24x36") or medium-size (17 x 22”) limited edition prints through March 31.
SEE YOU IN THE FUNNY PAPERS!
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February may be the shortest month, but here at Ospix, we are making the most of every moment!
My solo show at Porch Gallery - Ojai opens Saturday, February 18, 5-7pm. It’s a Mess Without You will feature new work from my Desert Windows series and runs February 16 - March 26. If you'd like to stay in town, please plan ahead (you can contact Porch for assistance with accommodations). The gallery also hosts weekly #seeyouontheporch gatherings on Sundays 10am-2pm. I’ll be hanging out there the Sunday after the opening, February 19.
Just printed: Window with Wire & Tiny Cloud - Cinco, CA - 2009
The solo show comes amidst a flurry of winter exhibitions – a total of eight events between January 12 - March 1 – with upcoming California openings in West Hollywood (Feb 11), Indio (Feb 24), Santa Barbara (March 1), and Palm Desert (March 12).
The Indio and Palm Desert shows are official parallel programming for the highly anticipated Desert X land art biennial. All the details are on my website’s freshly updated Exhibition Calendar. Perhaps I'll see you at one of the venues!
Man with Upset Chair - Lone Pine, CA - 2016
The image above was created for the GUNS show this fall. A new, large-size print will be featured at Gallery 825's Make America exhibit opening February 11. The Photo of the Month (below) reflects this wonderful merry-go-round of a photographer’s life, and is available to collectors for 20% off the list price directly from Chungking Studio in limited edition prints through February 28.
Merry-Go-Round - Pinhole Exposure - Henry Vilas Zoo - Madison, WI - 2010
The negative is comparable to the composer's score, and the print to its performance.
– Ansel Adams
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Try as we may to extend the holidays, our attention must finally shift to the new year ahead. Let’s greet the future with some art, shall we?
This Thursday (January 12) is the opening night of Los Angeles’ premier photo fair, Photo LA. As a FOCUS Photo Award Finalist, I’ll be making fancy with photography lovers at the VIP benefit before rushing back to unlock the doors for Chungking Studio’s Focal Planes exhibition. We had an epic soft opening this weekend, but our official reception happens in conjunction with the LA Art Show’s Littletopia after-party on Chung King Road, 8:30-11pm. All the block’s galleries will be open, with a guest DJ set by Flavor Flav. Yeah Boyeeeeeee!
Focal Planes – Chungking Studio – Jan 7 - Feb 11
The shutterbuggery continues with the CONVERGE | Month of Photography LA-curated Group Show at Space 15 Twenty, opening January 19, 7-9pm, and on view in Hollywood for one week only (thru January 26). All of which makes this the perfect month to find a gorgeous interview in Artillery Magazine by writer and scholar Betty Ann Brown.
Artillery Magazine – Jan-Feb 2017
Chungking Studio’s 2016 Photo of the Year, “It’s a Mess Without You,” not only enlivens the Artillery spread, but is also the name of my fast-approaching solo exhibit at Porch Gallery - Ojai. The show opens Saturday, February 18, 5-7pm, with a next-day porch-hang Sunday, February 19, 10am-2pm. Accommodations in town that weekend are tight, so if you want to stay the night, please plan soon! (You can hit up the gallery for local intel.) #seeyouontheporch
Desert TV – Cinco, CA – 2011
Finally, with the emotional minefield that is the news these days, maybe it’s time to unplug the TV and stare at some new art! Our Photo of the Month is available for purchase at 20% off directly from Chungking Studio in either large (24x36") or medium-size (17 x 22”) limited edition prints through January 31.
WISHING YOU AN ARTFUL NEW YEAR!
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]]>CHUNGKING STUDIO’S “PHOTO OF THE YEAR”
December is upon us and it’s busier than Santa’s workshop here preparing prints for my hotly anticipated show It’s a Mess Without You, opening February 18 at Porch Gallery - Ojai. The solo exhibit will feature new work from my Desert Windows series, as well as the eponymous image that seems to have captured everyone’s imagination.
"It's a Mess Without You!" - Cinco, CA - 2011
The photo is currently on exhibit at The Main Museum. If you haven’t checked out Downtown LA’s newest cultural nexus, the inaugural art installation runs through December 18, highlighting work from the legendary neighborhood’s creative denizens.
It’s a Mess Without You! will also be on view at Photo LA (January 12-15) as one of 20 finalists for the FOCUS Award. Wish me luck! And speaking of Photo LA, starting this year they’ve aligned with Month of Photography LA to create CONVERGE. In the spirit of all that, I also have work in the MOPLA-curated group show happening at Space 15 Twenty in Hollywood January 19-30.
Finally, since UPS trucks are our modern-day sleighs, I’ve selected a semi as December’s Photo of the Month:
Passing the Truck with Lights All Around - Twentynine Palms Highway - Morongo Valley, CA - 2015
This festive image from my Flirting with Disaster series is available for purchase at 20% off directly from Chungking Studio in either large (24x36") or medium-size (17x22”) limited edition prints through December 31. Please contact us for details.
Happy holidays. And see you on the Porch!
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]]>WINDOWS AND GUNS AND FAIRS, OH MY!
Brace yourselves art lovers! Before we all get swept up in the tide of a shiny new art season, I'd like to share some highlights from my dry hot American summer. I'm happy to have finally exhibited my series Armchair in the Sky, first on the east side at Art Share LA, then on the west, in a 3-person show at FAB Gallery with Sabine Gebser and Tori White, curated by Delia Cabral.
I’ve been working on this project for over 20 years, but never considered how it connects to my Desert Windows and Flirting with Disaster series, all three examining the world through different windows – airplanes, buildings, and automobiles. The incomparable Betty Ann Brown explores these matters in a remarkable piece of writing published last week in the Coagula Art Journal. I do hope you’ll take a moment to read it:
Feature Story – Coagula Art Journal – Fall 2016
Speaking of the Ms. Brown, she's co-curating GUNS at The Loft at Liz’s, opening Saturday, Sept 24, 7-10pm. The exhibition, featuring the work of many talented artists, is intended to advance the cultural dialog on this all-too-relevant and timely issue. One of the images I created for the show is a bit um… cheeky, and quite a departure from anything of mine you may have seen to date.
GUNS: An Exhibition at The Loft at Liz's – Sept 24-Oct 28
I also currently have six images in The Art Classic: OASIS at the Millard Sheets Art Center in the Pomona Fairplex through Sept 25. The exhibition coincides with the LA County Fair, which draws over 3 million visitors. Last year, the vintage entrance turnstiles counted some 65,000 guests seeking out the artwork from amongst all the other attractions.
Finally, for my loyal collectors, and in deference to all the faithful willing to forego deep fried Twinkies in favor of art, I've drawn this Photo of the Month from Ms. Brown’s article:
Photo of the Month: St Madeleine Catholic Church - Trona, CA - 2010
The image is available for purchase at 20% off directly from Chungking Studio in either large (24x30") or medium-size (17x22”) limited edition prints through Sept 30. Please contact us for details.
Wishing you all a happy (and artful) September!
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]]>By Betty Ann Brown
(a reproduction of the article follows below)
To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.
~Elliott Erwitt
Coagula Art Journal – Fall 2016 – THIS WEB PAGE IS A REPRODUCTION OF THE STORY
A desert horizon shimmers below a cerulean sky.
The rotting innards of an abandoned building are seen through broken window above a dirty kitchen sink.
Blue mountains hover over a dusty desert garden.
Silvery creosote limbs punctuate a skyline that is glimpsed through a cracked turquoise wall (below).
Osceola Refetoff photographs the traces we humans leave on the surface of the planet. He captures remnants of our fleeting existence: the buildings, farms, gardens, and roadways that mark our passages through history. Originally trained as a filmmaker (he earned an MFA from NYU's prestigious Film School), Refetoff is very aware that the mythic narratives of cinema dominate many of our cultural perceptions. But instead of creating images that unfold over time (as film does), this artist has chosen to isolate pictorial moments that insist on quiet contemplation and reward viewers with the potential for shifted perception.
Window with Creosote Bush – Dunmovin, CA – 2010
Refetoff's photographs are often shot through windows, from the windows of long abandoned homes in the Mojave Desert or the windshield on his car as he drives the ubiquitous freeways of California or the tiny windows that punctuate the metal bodies of immense aircraft. With a nod to the Modernist prerogative of flattened space contained within concentric grids, he allows the photographed window to function as one structural device, with the edge of the photograph as another, and the wooden frame of the artwork as a third.
Indeed, Refetoff's photographs conflate two aesthetic paradigms. One is Modernism's abstracted model of artwork as rectangle or grid. The other is realistic, based on the Renaissance concept of artwork as a window into an ideal world that functions with the same physical laws as ours. The conflicts between the flattened abstraction of Modernist screen and the implied spatial depth of Renaissance realist imagery create rich, visual tensions that activate the otherwise mute surfaces of the photographs. Shuttling between two ways of "seeing" the image, we are propelled into multiple interpretive responses: Should we read this as a formal exercise in rectilinear geometry? Or is content the priority: Is it "straight" documentary photography? As Armenian author Michael Arlen (Dikron Kouyoumdijan) reminds us, "One of the most visible lessons taught by the twentieth century has been the existence, not so much of a number of different realities, but of a number of different lenses with which to see the same reality." Coming to artistic maturity in the late twentieth century, Refetoff reifies the resonant nature of multiple lenses in his single-lens work.
Landing – BUR to SJC (Burbank to San Jose) – 2014
There are several series that interrogate the window/lens allusions in Refetoff's oeuvre. The first, Desert Windows contains images seen through the often broken and always severely distressed windows of homes abandoned in the California desert. The austere landscapes of steaming sand, stones, and cacti are transformed by the distancing affect of their dehiscent windows into elegant biomorphic patterns. A second series, Flirting with Disaster, is comprised of photographs taken out car windows as the artist races along California highways. Blacktopped lanes unfold into an uncertain future crowned by the lace of white clouds. A third series, Armchair in the Sky, is taken out of airplane windows. In each case, the tip of an airplane wing cuts into the distant view of mountains and valleys and cityscapes, like a knife slicing the air that hangs near the surface of the planet.
Refetoff also photographs the architecture that punctuates desert horizons. In every case, there is a heightened sense of the layers of space as well as the way photography flattens and abstracts that space. Consider two examples from the artist's Dust to Dust series. One is a pristine white church with a small wooden cross at the point of its steeply pitched roof (below). It is a black and white photograph with one wall of the church bleached white by the harsh sun, the other fading into gray shadow. The two rectangles are turned into sloping quadrilaterals by the receding illusion of perspective. Behind the church is a deep black sky. White-gray-black: the photograph is a study in subtle tonal variation as it moves across minimal form.
St. Madeleine Catholic Church – Infrared Exposure – Trona, CA – 2010
A second church, from the same series, eschews diagonals in favor of a clear, flat rectangle parallel to the picture plane. A door and a large window pierce the pale facade. A tall wooden cross totters above the roofline, reaching heavenward like a diagram of existence, with the vertical line pointing heavenly, the horizontal remaining earth-bound. Particularly this second church recalls the Depression era photographs of Walker Evans, done for the Farm Security Administration.
Further, Refetoff photographs people. There is a familiarity and ease in his portraits that make viewers imagine that the artist has become a sincere friend of the subjects of his photographs. Tattoo-covered friends wrap their arms around each other and smile gently at the camera. Chinese children perform their face-painted and costumed characters. A little girl in a too-big cowboy hat holds her brown dog like an over-large baby doll. Two young women lean over a fence in Equatorial Guinea: One has bright red hair; the other glances knowingly at her friend, a sly grin on her happy face (below). Three hippie dudes leap into the air in Moro Bay. One has a walking stick, the other (presumably the youngest) twists a skateboard. All of them wear jeans and jackets and funky hats.
Julie & Mita – Arena Blanca, Bioko, Equatorial Guinea – 2011
In each case, we learn something about the human condition. Refetoff erects [photographic] screens for our viewing. He makes sure there is just the right balance between the comfortable to seduce us, and the unknown to fascinate and perhaps change us. As with all good artists, Refetoff pleases us aesthetically even as he challenges us conceptually.
American Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson reminds us that, "Other men are lenses though which we read our own minds." Osceola Refetoff's photographs embody multiple lenses for us to "read our own minds" in multiple ways.
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Betty Ann Brown is an art historian, critic, and curator. She has curated major exhibitions, including retrospectives for Hans Burkhardt, Roland Reiss, Susan Feldman, Linda Vallejo, June Wayne, and John White; and themed exhibitions addressing alternative families, gun violence, and environmental issues (Osceola's work will appear in GUNS at the The Loft at Liz's in Los Angeles, Sept 24-Oct 28th, 2016). Her books include Expanding Circles: Women, Art & Community (1996); Gradiva’s Mirror: Reflections on Women, Surrealism & Art History (2002); the online textbook Art & Mass Media (2005); Hero, Madman, Criminal, Victim: The Artist in Film & Fiction (2009); and Afternoons with June: Stories of June Wayne’s Art & Life (2012).
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]]>I'll be debuting work from a never-exhibited series, Armchair in the Sky, a twenty-year work-in-progress shot through the windows of commercial airliners. With exhibitions like this, it’s no wonder TimeOut just named Art Share to their 10 “Best Art Galleries in Los Angeles.”
In Transit - El Calafate to San Carlos de Bariloche (Patagonia) Argentina
I’m also very pleased to announce my new listing on Saatchi Art. One thing I love about the site is that they encourage artists to write a short paragraph about each artwork for sale. I think you’ll find the stories interesting and entertaining, and the innovative platform is definitely worth a look. I’ll be uploading an image or two each week, beginning with my Desert Windows series. Of course, my work is also for sale here on my website.
Takeoff - ORD to LAX (Chicago O'Hare)
Finally, a new section for my newsletter: Photo of the Month. With each new mailing, I’ll select an image that's available for purchase at 20% off the list price in either the large (24x36) or medium-size (17x22”) limited editions prints – starting with this classic image:
Photo of the Month: Desert Vista - Cinco, CA - 2009
This pricing is only available directly through Chungking Studio. So if you're on board, don’t delay. For while summer lasts well into September, this offer is good through July 31st or, as they say, “while supplies last.”
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“Best Outdoor Media Award"
“Best Outdoor Feature Photograph”
“Best Nature Photograph”
Editor’s Choice: “Best Overall Photograph”
“Best Outdoor Magazine Feature”
Los Angeles, CA (June 1, 2016) – The Outdoor Writers Association of California (OWAC) annual Craft Awards competition honored High & Dry: dispatches from the land of little rain with the “Best Outdoor Media Award” at their spring conference in Auburn, CA.
Considered one of OWAC’s most prestigious awards, “Best Outdoor Media” is the highest award encompassing any medium: print, online, or broadcast. It went this year to High & Dry collaborators Christopher Langley and Osceola Refetoff.
Osceola also received the First Place Award for “Best Outdoor Feature Photograph” for "Sky, Whitecaps, Earth, Halobacteria – Salton Sea, CA.” The image has appeared in the various media outlets, including KCET’s Artbound, The Huffington Post, Reuters, and Compass magazine.
Sky, Whitecaps, Earth, Halobacteria – Salton Sea, CA
Refetoff was also honored for “Donner Pass from Abandoned Train Sheds – Norden, CA.” The image received the First Place Award for “Best Nature Photograph” and the grand prize “Editors’ Choice” for “Best Overall Photograph.” This is the second year in a row that he received these three top awards.
In addition, Langley was honored in the category “Best Outdoor Magazine Feature” for his article Framing the Desert which appeared in the University of California publication, Boom: A Journal of California.
During the Auburn conference, OWAC members were treated to Placer County’s wealth of phenomenal scenery and outstanding outdoor activities. Langley and Refetoff stayed at the newly restored Miner’s Camp in Foresthill, CA. Twenty minutes from Auburn, the ten rustic cabins provide an authentic Gold Country experience, but with wifi and creature comforts beyond the dreams of your average 49er.
Miner's Camp Sign, Exterior & Interior with Project Designer Wendy Lowery
Photos: Osceola Refetoff – 2016
The duo also explored the infamous Donner Pass, enjoying a pleasant vegetarian lunch without incident. It is there, during a hike through abandoned railroad Tunnel 6, that Osceola captured the “Shirley Miller Memorial Photo Contest” grand prize winner, for which images must be made during a single day of conference activities.
The team returned freshly obsessed with the history of the area, their hunger for knowledge sated in part by outdoor sport legend Norm Sayler, president of the must-see Donner Summit Historical Society museum. Norm's “why not? (just don't hurt yourself)” attitude facilitated the evolution of snowboarding, snowmobiling, and mountain biking into the extreme sports we know them as today. A High & Dry dispatch will follow, no doubt.
Donner Pass from Abandoned Train Sheds – Infrared Exposure – Norden, CA
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]]>First, I'm beyond pleased to announce a solo show in February 2017 at the Porch Gallery Ojai. Heather Stobo and Lisa Casoni have created a special community up there, and I'm delighted to work with them.
Window View of Fruitland Fire Remains - Dawn - Thermal, CA - 2016
I'm also developing a High & Dry installation at the Museum of Art & History in Lancaster, CA with my collaborator Christopher Langley for April 2018. The program also features the fearless multimedia artist Cristopher Cichocki and iconic Lita Albuquerque.
Speaking of MOAH, and of Cris Cichocki, this weekend I'll be racing across the desert from a high tea preview of the exceptional new shows in Lancaster (fancy!) to the Palm Springs Art Museum for Saturday's Open Desert multimedia extravaganza curated by Cichocki and featuring my photography, along with many other talented artists. #mividaloca
Cement Truck on Highway 395 South of Bishop, CA - Infrared Exposure - 2016
Along the way, I'll be exploring the wonders of "invisible" light. I just got my hands on a "hot sensor" rig that not only sees the visual spectrum, but deep into the infrareds and ultraviolets. It's hard to communicate my genuine excitement about the new direction my photographic practice is taking. I should note that this particular device is "available to US military and law-enforcement agencies only."
What could possibly go wrong?
Boarded-Up Farmhouse - Infrared Exposure - Bishop, CA - 2016
Finally, I'm experimenting with looping my photo adventures into mini clips and distributing them on Vine with the eventual plan to assemble them into a longer form, wide-format, Ultra HD movie. Take that, NYU Grad Film! But not to worry, you old school "squares," OSPIX is still on Instagram as well. ;)
Freight Train Passing Under Highway Overpass - Mojave, CA #myfirstvine
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Hot off the press, the Whole Life Times' feature story High & Dry: L.A.'s Tug-of-War with its Neighbors (beautifully written by Genie Davis) explores the city's historic relationship to the surrounding desert and the challenges we face in an era of increased water scarcity.
by Genie Davis, photos by Osceola Refetoff
Meanwhile, High & Dry's adventures on KCET's Artbound continue with Lancaster, California: From Alfalfa to 'Net Zero' City. Stay tuned! High & Dry is the featured project all week, with a brand new Dispatch rolling out each day.
We invite you to visit ChristopherLangley.org, a shiny new showcase for Chris' books, news, and upcoming events. Discover what lies behind the "shadowy" moniker he's chosen for his publication outfit.
Osceola's photography can be seen through this Saturday at Muzeumm. The intriguing, must see, exhibition Abstract Never Is closes April 9th, 1-6pm, with a panel discussion from 3-5pm that includes art luminary Peter Frank.
"Walk" - Downtown Los Angeles - 2015 - at Muzeumm thru April 9th
Be a part of history! Check out our new Sponsorship Page to find out more. And a big, high desert thanks to our newest contributors from the Lone Pine, California community where it all began.
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Woman in Doorway (Aja) - Union Station - LA - 2010 - at Photo LA #607
Nextly, Curate This at The Gabba Gallery opening Feb 6 (thru 28), followed by a mysterious and as yet unnamed show, curated by Peter Frank at the Palm Springs Fine Art Fair, Feb 11-14. In this madcap art world, it’s curate or be curated!
Meanwhile, back at Chungking Studio, an intriguing pairing of Paintings by Scott A. Trimble and Photography by yours truly, Curated with Shana Nys Dambrot thru Jan 29. Come by Thursday Jan 28, 8-11pm, when Chung King Road hosts a fabulous LA Art Show / Littletopia after party honoring pop surrealist Robert Williams.
Scott A Trimble - We always relished the nod of the greetsman - 2015
Osceola Refetoff - Twin Pinnacles - 32 Sec Moonlight Exp - Trona, CA - 2011
Nothing against 2015 – a banner year capped off by High & Dry's Artbound Best of 2015 Art + Environment honor – but its all about the future which is now.
Ciao 2015, it was nice to know ya. And an epic 2016 to all!
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100 DEGREES IN OCTOBER
It's been a long, hot, busy season. Having survived the blood supermoon eclipse, I'm looking forward to getting back to some more desert field work.
Just in time for Halloween, COMPASS MAGAZINE spotlights two haunting photographs of the Salton Sea on their cover and the last page "Martini Shot" (movie production lingo for final shot of the day). Osceola Refetoff: The Authentic Character of Things as They Are explores how my concurrent careers as a location scout and fine art photographer inform the way I translate the world into images that efficiently communicate a story of place.
Framing the Desert is featured in the current Boom: A Journal of California. LA Times book critic David L. Ulin says, "Boom is a long overdue addition to the conversation regarding the state and its cultural life." In the article, my High & Dry collaborator, Christopher Langley, explores how the "window" functions in my photography as not only a literal/architectural, but also as an optical/aesthetic and narrative/symbolic structure in framing the story of our desert landscapes.
Julie & Mita - Arena Blanca, Bioko, Equatorial Guinea
Saturday, October 3, Fashionistas Fight Back! opens at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art with this image shot on assignment in Equatorial Guinea. One of the world's most notorious pariah states, few images of the country are seen in the West, especially a candid image like this one, on exhibit for the first time in the U.S.
The Cloud that Followed Me Home - Garlock, CA - 2011
Then Saturday, October 10, my SOLO SHOW Chasing Pavement opens at the Inglewood Public Library in conjunction with their 75th Anniversary Art Day Celebration of Helen Lundeberg's epic WPA mural The History of Transportation. Festivities kick off at 1pm, ending with a free jazz concert on the front lawn at 3:45pm. The exhibition is on view October 3 – November 2.
So stay cool. There's plenty more good stuff coming up this fall...
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]]>Friends, collectors, seekers of thrills. It's scorching out there, and I sense unrest in the air. With the spirit of summer in mind, I've agreed to participate in some rather outlandish affairs.
First: the Venice Institute of Contemporary Art & Gypsy Trails Gallery’s 2015 Museum Tour is crashing the party at the Torrance Art Museum with a SOLO SHOW of my work – one day only – Saturday, August 29. It all sounds pretty brazen, but Museum Director Max Presneill has graciously acceded to our outlaw affront – um "out front" – addition to the museum's Studio System experimental residency. The exhibition has ensconced eleven prominent artists within the museum walls, producing new work during a month-long, onsite interaction with the public. The Gypsy Trailer will be on hand 4-10pm for the closing night festivities.
Lone Trailer Home - Sunrise - Cinco, CA - 2010
Next: Ode to the 6th Street Bridge - a group show commemorating the demise of my favorite LA landmark. Celebrate our city's cultural amnesia at Art Share LA Friday, Sept 11, 8-11pm (thru Sept 19).
The Following Night: WATERWORKS II opens Saturday, Sept 12 (thru Oct 1) at The Art Gallery at Glendale Community College. I have four photos in the new, “back to school” edition of this spring's smash hit from Ojai, and a seat on the panel discussion (2-3pm, preceding the 3-5pm reception). While the discourse was "civilized" at Ojai's Porch Gallery; in Glendale, water, like most things, is always contentious. #fisticuffs
Sixth Street Viaduct - Pinhole Exposure - Los Angeles, CA - 2011
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"Best Outdoor Media Website"
"Best Outdoor Feature Photograph"
"Best Nature Photograph"
"Best Overall Photograph"
Los Angeles, Calif. (June 23, 2015) - The Outdoor Writers Association of California (OWAC) honored High & Dry: dispatches from the land of little rain this week at their spring conference in Big Bear Lake in the "Best Outdoor Media Website" category of their annual Craft Awards competition.
In addition, High & Dry's work was honored with the First Place award for "Best Outdoor Feature Photograph" going to "Call of the Wild," by Osceola Refetoff. The photo appeared in the October 2014 Palm Springs Life Magazine, accompanying an article written by Christopher Langley. This follows last year's win at the 2014 OWAC conference, when Refetoff received the "Best Feature Photo Series" award for One Hundred Mules Walking the Los Angeles Aqueduct, a High & Dry collaboration with Langley on KCET's Artbound.
Refetoff was also honored for "Big Bear Lake Vista from Pacific Crest Trail" in the "Shirley Miller Memorial Photo Contest" (a one-day, on-site challenge). The photo took First Place "Best Nature Photograph" and the "Judges' Choice" Grand Prize for "Best Overall Photograph." He had previously won in these categories at the 2011 OWAC conference.
The website, desertdispatches.com, is an on-going collaboration between writer/historian Christopher Langley and photographer Osceola Refetoff, exploring the California deserts and the people who live there.
Dead Tree, Nests & Thermal Plants - Red Hill Marina (Salton Sea), CA - 2014
2015 OWAC 1st Place Award: Best Outdoor Feature Photo: Osceola Refetoff/High & Dry
MORE ABOUT HIGH & DRY:
The project investigates the issues facing the California desert, and how economic and environmental challenges affect residents and visitors of the desert today. Deserts have traditionally been viewed as a wasteland for mining, military exercises, and waste disposal, and are now attracting interest from energy corporations in search of "renewable" resources. High & Dry strives to create compelling stories that draw attention to the value of these arid lands, their communities, and their history. The website and its "dispatch" format are designed to be visually appealing and accessible to a diverse audience, in a busy world fragmented by social and political divisions.
Beginning in February of 2014, Langley and Refetoff's observations have been collected in the form of integrated essays and images and disseminated via the website desertdispatches.com. The content is re-syndicated through a variety of online and printed media, including a regular feature on KCET's Artbound, The Inyo Register, The Sun Runner; as well as social media, gallery exhibits, panel discussions, and other venues.
Some of the topics that Langley and Refetoff have investigated are a three-part series on the Salton Sea, dispatches on Trona, a struggling mining town on the southern edge of Death Valley, and pieces evaluating the merit of industrial-sized, Mojave-based, green energy projects.
Big Bear Lake Vista from Pacific Crest Trail - Infrared Exposure - 2015
MORE ABOUT THE HIGH & DRY COLLABORATORS:
Osceola Refetoff's interest is in documenting humanity's impact on the world - both the intersection of nature and industry, and the narratives of the people living at those crossroads. He holds an MFA from New York University's Graduate Film Program, where he earned the "Paulette Goddard" and "Warner Bros" Fellowships. His films have been broadcast in France (TV1), Spain (Canal+) and the United States (PBS), receiving numerous awards.
Refetoff's photography is featured in The Los Angeles Times, Hemispheres, and WhiteHot, amongst other publications. He has exhibited at Photo LA, the San Diego Art Institute, and numerous Month of Photography Los Angeles and Los Angeles Art Association/Gallery 825 solo and group exhibitions. In addition, he operates Chungking Studio, a portrait studio, commercial production and exhibition space on historic Chung King Road in Los Angeles' Chinatown.
Refetoff's directorial background informs his approach to photography in a variety of ways. His parallel careers as a location scout and as an editorial and fine art photographer are each characterized by an evocative, cinematic understanding of how scale, point of view, architecture, and motion can be expressed as both information about and experience of a given place. His current focus is an expansive set of portfolios surveying the human presence in the deserts of the American West. His fine art photography can be viewed at his website ospix.com.
Mule Train Winds through Alabama Hills outside Lone Pine, CA - 2013
2014 OWAC 1st Place Award - Best Outdoor Photographic Series
Christopher Langley, a life-long educator, has lived in and studied the Mojave Desert for over forty years. Achieving his BA in English-History at Dartmouth College, he first encountered the desert landscape teaching as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Khash, Iran. After teaching in the isolated New Idria, CA, mining camp's public school for 3 years, he went on to teach for 29 years in Lone Pine, CA.
A History-Geography Fellow at UCLA, teaching educators during summer sessions, Langley was appointed an American Memory Fellow at the Library Congress and worked as a Fulbright Fellow in Japan. This research and practicum focused on teaching history with primary sources, the suffrage movement, and women's rights, both in the U.S. and Japan. He is currently President of the Inyo Co. Board of Education and helps run an innovative program in "entrepreneurial education" at 24 L.A. Charter High Schools.
Langley works as a film historian, and is the founder of the Museum of Western Film in Lone Pine. He is also the Inyo County Film Commissioner, where he focuses on the desert's complex relationship with cinema and the story of our lives. Some of his publications include a history of Lone Pine, CA, a cultural history of Mount Whitney, and From Jayhawkers to Jawas: a Short History of Filming in Death Valley. As the founder of the Alabama Hills Stewardship Group, Langley's environmental advocacy won commendations, including a "National Conservation Cooperation Award" and a "Sierra Nevada Business Council 20/20 Vision Award."
Benny Eldridge - Argus, CA – High & Dry Dispatch Sept 17, 2014
MORE ABOUT OWAC:
The Outdoor Writers Association of California (OWAC), is an association of media professionals who communicate the vast array of outdoor recreational opportunities and related issues in California and the surrounding western region. The membership includes newspaper and magazine staffers, freelance writers, radio broadcasters, video producers, editors, photographers, lecturers and information officers.
OWAC was founded in 1986 to expand public information on outdoor recreation and conservation, provide professional craft improvement, and increase recognition of outdoor media as a specialized field. The annual Craft Awards recognize and honor the finest work in outdoor communications.
High & Dry's dispatches are available for syndication. For details and inquiries, please email the contact info(at)desertdispatches.com.
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]]>AND ON THE SEVENTH SHOW...
This Friday the OUT THERE exhibition opens at Gallery 825, and while I can't guarantee you'll get lucky, the always-exuberant affair is an LA Weekly Art Party Pick of the Week. This is the 3rd year running I have work in the open, juried show celebrating the LGBT experience in partnership with West Hollywood's Pride Month. Here's an image from last year's show:
Opening: Friday, June 12th, 5-9pm
825 N. La Cienega Blvd, LA 90069
ONE WEEK ONLY thru June 19th
Sign of Our Time - Trona, CA - 2010
'Mt Shasta View' - Infrared Exposure - Heart Lake, Shasta-Trinity Nat'l Forest, CA - 2011
Featured on KCET's Artbound - Emerald City of Salts - Aug 8, 2014
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]]>TWO DAYS ONLY AT CHUNGKING STUDIO!
MAGIC AND REALISM
Bill Leigh Brewer & Osceola Refetoff
Curated by Shana Nys Dambrot
A Featured MOPLA Event (Month of Photography Los Angeles)
monthofphotography.com
TWO DAYS ONLY April 18-19 12-5pm
Opening Reception April 18 7-10pm
Directions
MAGIC AND REALISM
Magic, truth, objectivity, reality. What differentiates photography from other visual art forms is its indelible, inescapably direct relationship to the external world. This tether is both a semiotic and technological constriction, a challenge that has given rise to a seemingly endless debate about photography’s status as a “fine art” rather than say, an “applied art” -- and is ultimately also the source of its unique, evolving appeal.
The pairing of work by photographers Bill Leigh Brewer and Osceola Refetoff -- contemporaries working independently -- explores photography’s paradoxical capacity to simultaneously document and interpret the world around us, to elicit fresh details and construct new experiences and narratives from its raw materials. The interaction between their work is particularly well suited to exploring this dynamic, because Brewer and Refetoff are uncannily drawn to many of the same specific topographies of desert and industry, yet they return with vastly different works of art.
Some of these differences result from the intentionality of how they work. Brewer could be said to work somewhat loosely, guided more by cultivated serendipity than by an agenda -- his camera functioning as an extension of an intuitive attention, his series grouped by evocative formal or narrative suggestions in a subsequent process sorting the harvest of his wanderlust. Refetoff, for his part, sets out in a nearly cinematic quest for certain specific stories he feels require telling, set against and among the details and vistas of an archetypal set of lands -- speaking directly to how humans have historically manipulated these lands throughout the mythology of the American West.
By considering them together, it is our hope that not only will further facets of their individual practices be highlighted, but so will certain fundamental circumstances of their shared medium’s paradoxical ability to preserve evidence of actual events while sustaining personal interpretation, in so doing reconciling documentation and invention, experience and imagination -- and, by somehow showing more than can be seen, to reconcile magic and realism.
–Shana Nys Dambrot
billybrewer.com
ospix.com
Please RSVP on our Facebook event page
facebook.com/events/895589867150906/
Hope to see you!
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]]>SPRING EXHIBITION MANIA!
Rain on Windshield - North of Osdick, CA - 2010
As always, if it’s April, it’s Month of Photography LA. I have work in the REALITIES & CONCEPTS show opening April 9th, a submission-based exhibition curated by Meredith Marlay and organized by MOPLA and the Lucie Foundation (two great organizations that have been enormously supportive).
St. Los Angeles River Facing North Towards Fourth Street Bridge - Pinhole Exposure - 2011
May 9 - June 8 is WATER WORKS II, an international juried exhibition at Porch Gallery in Ojai. I’m honored to have four images selected by jurists Peter Frank, John Yau, Juri Koll, and Heather Stobo.
Okay, my printer is calling... Mark your calendars Exhibition Maniacs.
Hope to see you out there!
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]]>GIVING UP SLEEP FOR LENT
It’s difficult to complain about being crazy-busy when everything is so good – but may I just say, 2015 is already in contention for busiest year ever!
January’s showing at Photo LA was an enlivening, inspirational, and educational whirlwind of an experience – especially with two other simultaneous exhibitions presented at separate locations by the Arts District Alliance and LA Art Show.
St. Madeleine Catholic Church - Trona, CA - 2010
High & Dry, my collaboration with writer/historian Christopher Langley is in the midst of publishing a three-part series on the Salton Sea. High & Dry is a regular feature on KCET’s Artbound, where our work seems to be connecting with audiences far and wide (our Emerald City of Salts Dispatch has received over 2400 likes on Facebook!) Chris and I are currently working on a book based on our long-term investigation of Trona, CA, a company town struggling to survive on the southern fringe of Death Valley. Trust me, you’ll hear about that soon. Hint: crowd-funding.
Sky, Whitecaps, Earth, Halo Bacteria - Bombay Beach (Salton Sea), CA - 2014
Coming up this April, I’ll be exhibiting in a two-person show at Chungking Studio with Bill Leigh Brewer as part of the MOPLA (Month of Photography LA) juggernaut, curated by Shana Nys Dambrot. Then in June, I’ll have new work (possibly infrared exposures from September’s Africa trip) at Art Share LA in an exhibition titled Haunted Landscapes, alongside some very talented colleagues.
What else? I am so pleased to have work featured in Duncan Miller Gallery’s YourDailyPhotograph.com. They’re a curated collection service with a very fine range. If you have not checked them out, I encourage you to subscribe. It’s one of the few emails I look forward to every morning.
Wildebeests Running & Tree - Maasai Mara Nat'l Park, Kenya - 2014
Quick note to collectors: I've already instituted a new 2015 price list (modest, yet I’m told, important increases), but through the end of February, fine art prints purchased directly from Chungking Studio are available at 2014 prices. Big thanks to early collectors for your support!
So busy is good, right? As they say, it beats the alternative.
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]]>TWO GREAT SHOWS. ONE BUSY WEEK!
First off, I'm excited to be exhibiting work at photo LA this Thursday-Sunday, January 15-18 at the LA Mart Building in Downtown Los Angeles. Come visit me at booth #529 (how cool is that?)
I'm also one of four Los Angeles-based photographers selected to participate in the first annual Uniting the World though Art international cultural exchange organized by the Arts District Alliance. We'll be showing work alongside four Chinese landscape photographers in a series of openings and events co-sponsored by the LA Art Show (see schedule below).
UNITING THE WORLD THROUGH ART
Wednesday, January 21 – 7-10PM
Art Share L.A. Opening Reception (FREE AND OPEN TO PUBLIC)
Friday, January 23 – 7-10PM
Private Party at the Container Yard, an historic space transformed by local street artists. NOTE: Public must attend one of the gallery openings to be added to the guest list for this event. More info HERE.
The work at the LA Art Show openings includes new, never seen prints from my Dust to Dust and Desert Windows series.
And in a stroke of good timing, two of the images I'm exhibiting at photo LA are in the current issue of West Hollywood Lifestyle magazine.
2015 is off to fine a start!
Hope you can make it out to some of these cool events...
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]]>GOODBYE 2014, HELLO 2015!
WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?
As hard as it is to believe, it's already time for a look back at 2014 and a look ahead to a shiny, alarmingly imminent 2015. Where does all the time you go, you ask?
The year began earnest with my Solo Show at the Los Angeles Art Association / Gallery 825. The show was covered by the LA Times, LA Weekly, and the Huffington Post. Before long, all the prints were sold. (Don't worry though, photographs come in editions, so there may be a few more around the studio...)
Images of my adventure riding on Metabolic Studio's 100 Mules Walking the Los Angeles Aqueduct won the First Place Award for Best Outdoor Photographic Series from the Outdoor Writers Association of California. I love that all the photos were shot from mule back...
Mule Train Winds through Alabama Hills outside Lone Pine, CA - 2013
First image: A Tree for All Seasons No.1 - Rosamond, CA - 2012
High & Dry, my collaboration with writer Christopher Langley, was launched to document the legacy of human activity in deserts of the American West. Our project is a regular feature on KCET's Artbound.
I was involved in some terrific exhibitions including POP Über Alles, curated by Timothy Potts of the J.Paul Getty Museum at Gallery 825; the four-person MOPLA show Fact + Friction with photographers Aline Smithson, Clay Lipsky and Mark Indig; West Hollywood’s Out There: I Do at LAAA; and The Life of Things at SCA Project Gallery in Pomona, reviewed in Rogue Art Research & Writing.
One hundred small prints from my Desert Windows Series were the VIP gifts for the Los Angeles Art Association Annual Benefit Auction.
Window with Creosote Bush - Dunmovin, CA - 2010
Further adventures include a journey to Kenya's Maasai Mara on Spacetime artist Jay Mark Johnson's project to document the Great Wildebeest Migration. The work is still being processed and a book will be forthcoming. You can follow the progress on our Facebook group.
Opening January 10, 2015, Chungking Studio will host a one-week pop-up exhibition featuring new work by talented local artist Lilli Muller, curated by critics Shana Nys Dambrot and Peter Frank.
Looking ahead, I'll be exhibiting work at photo la, the annual international photographic exposition in Downtown LA January 15-18. I may be able to get my hands on some passes, so please contact me after January 7th if you want to check it out.
And just received notice this morning that my photographs will be included in an Arts District Alliance collaboration with photographers from China participating in the L.A. Art Show. The work will be displayed during a three-day program at the MAMA and Art Share-LA galleries this January.
I'm particularly excited about this opportunity, living and working in Los Angeles Chinatown.
Finally, a handsome set of 12 notecards featuring a selection of my images was licensed by Picky Print Production, Inc. I have a limited number of boxes available for sale at $25/box. Please contact us at [email protected]
So from all of us here at Ospix and Chungking Studio, we hope 2014 was brilliant, and wish you a happy holiday of your preference.
HERE'S TO A BRIGHT AND PHOTOGENIC NEW YEAR!
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]]>BACK IN THE GROOVE!
Back from seeing thousands of migrating wildebeest in Kenya's Maasai Mara National Park. Here's an image from a new portfolio which employs the same handheld, infrared technique I'm using to communicate a sense of moving though the California desert in Flirting with Disaster.
Above: Wildebeests on the Run - Infrared Exposure - Maasai Mara - 2014
SCA Project Gallery Exhibition
The exhibit in Pomona was a huge success.
The show got some amazing press, including this thoughtful excerpt by Victoria Banegas...
...and the brand new image printed especially for the show already has a new home at a collector's architecture and design office in Hermosa Beach (on left), part of a four-print acquisition that includes two more photographs from the Desert Windows series and a classic portrait from An Ocean of Humanity.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
A Tree for All Seasons - Halloween - Rosamond, CA - 2012
Like most of my images, this one was not composited. The plastic pumpkins were found in the tree as you see them.
The one on the right was captured in flight.
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I'm traveling to the SERENGETI this weekend to join 'Spacetime' photographer Jay Mark Johnson on a project to document the Great Migration across the Maasai Mara.
Seeing wildebeests, great cats and crocodiles will be breathtaking, no doubt, but I'm particularly intrigued to witness JMJ's 'collapsed timeline' process which creates space-time images unlike any you are likely to have seen. The fixed-position, slit-scan camera registers continuous vertical slivers of a scene, recording vast landscapes over a period of time. Collaborators include writer Shana Nys Dambrot and videographer Broatch Berry, with editor Beth Gallagher assembling our output back home. Check out the facebook page for daily posts, sneak peaks, and exotic updates on our progress.
TOP: In Transit - El Calafate to San Carlos de Bariloche (Patagonia) Argentina - 2006 - from ARMCHAIR IN THE SKY
ABOVE: Jay Mark Johnson - claudio, stella e farfalla - Cetona, Italy - 2007
I'll of course be documenting the people and landscapes we encounter along the way. If you're interested in what an editorial photographer might pack for a 10-day assignment to Africa, check out what I took to Equatorial Guinea in December 2011, along with some never-seen photos from the trip...
Complete two-body digital camera kit with Leica M8 & M9, four lenses & accessories - 2011
The photos below where intended for publication, but held back for reasons too complicated to explain here.
Writer David Page "catches up on some reading" aboard an abandoned aircraft outside Malabo International Airport.
Travel bags & accessories provided by Eagle Creek
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]]>SCA Project Gallery Exhibition
I'm showing a new, never seen photograph along with other images from the High & Dry Desert Windows Series in 'The Life of Things' exhibition at SCA Project Gallery.
August 9th - 30th
Closing Reception August 30th, 6-10pm
I'm excited to exhibit work alongside longtime friends Dave Lovejoy and Johnny Fox. The show focuses on the artists' interaction and appropriation/re-purposing of objects/imagery after the original 'life' of these things has expired.
Featured Artists: David Lovejoy, Jim Haag, Johnny Fox, Tammy Carlson Greenwood & Osceola Refetoff
Exhibition curated by Johnny Fox in association with the Downtown Pomona Artwalk
DJ's Apo, Esteban and Radiant Child will be spinning records
SCA PROJECT GALLERY
281 S. Thomas Street #104
Pomona, CA 91766
310.652.8272
Please contact the gallery for hours & viewing by appointment
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VIP guests at this year's Los Angeles Art Association Annual Benefit will receive an original, signed print from the Desert Window Series. Four different images are featured from my 2014 High & Dry solo show.
LAAA's Annual Benefit Auction serves as an important survey exhibition and auction opportunity, featuring one of the most compelling pools of emerging talent and established artists like Ann Hamilton, Shepard Fairey, Lita Albuquerque, and Brad Howe.
2014 Benefit Co-chairs: Blake Byrne, Shula Nazarian, and Bruce Adlhoch
Benefit Committee: Steven Adams, Heather Axe, Renee Becnel, Jan Cobert, J. Dallas Dishman, Oliver Furth, Adam Gross, Elaina Leibee, Tim Lloyd, Lauren Maley, Klaus Moeller, Mills Moran, Martha Otero, Cheryl Perkey, Marlene Picard, Bennett Roberts, Cathy Seward, Susan Steinhauser, Claudia Teran, and Laura Watts.
July 26, 2014
VIP Preview: 6 to 7p, $100 ($120 at the door)
Food by NOBU, open bar, desserts and original signed print by Osceola Refetoff
General Admission: 7 to 9p, $25
Open bar and desserts.
RSVP: Reserve your spot 310.652.8272, online purchase, [email protected]
825 N. La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90069
Phone: 310. 652.8272
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]]>7th Annual 'Out There: I Do' exhibit at Gallery 825
Friday June 6th, 6-9pm.
Exhibition runs through June 13th.
This is the 2nd year in a row that my work was selected for 'Out There'
with the infrared image above appearing in 2013.
The new piece Sign of Our Time was captured in Trona, CA as part High & Dry, an ongoing collaboration between writer/historian Christopher Langley to survey the legacy of human activity in the deserts of the American West. Trona, a mining town south of Death Valley, will be a focus of our attention in the coming months. Our project can be explored at www.DesertDispatches.com.
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High & Dry, my long-term collaboration with writer/historian Chrisopher Langley, has been picked up by KCET's award-winning, cross-platform, arts journalism program Artbound. Our first feature, describes the nature and goals of our ongoing collaboration, which will be a regular feature on Artbound:
High & Dry: dispatches from the land of little rain explores the deserts of the American West and the people who live there. The West is part of America’s cultural DNA: an icon of hope and ambition. Against these grand ideas exists a patchwork of struggling communities, dreamers, dropouts, and compounds scattered across vast open spaces. Balancing images, words, the personal, and the historic, High & Dry focuses on the remnants and the future of human activity across these lands, cognizant that they will become increasingly dominated my immense wind and solar arrays.
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I'm pleased to announce a photography exhibit at Chungking Studio Saturday, April 26th 7-10pm featuring new work by Mark Indig, Clay Lipsky, Aline Smithson, and Osceola Refetoff.
It will be a Big Night on Chung King Road with openings at Red Pipe, Coagula Curatorial, Charlie James, and Good Luck Galleries.
Come down and check out Chinatown's Hot Art Scene!
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]]>Please join me for a Conversation with the Artists at the Los Angeles Art Association
Wednesday, April 16th at 7pm.
Artists in attendance are Keiko Inoh, Robert Nelson and Osceola Refetoff.
High & Dry: dispatches from the land of little rain is currently on exhibition at LAAA
Tuesday - Saturday, 12-5pm
Exhibition closes Friday, April 18th
High & Dry is an ongoing collaboration between writer/historian Christopher Langley and photographer Osceola Refetoff to survey the legacy of human activity in the California desert. The project can be explored at www.DesertDispatches.com.
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]]>My photographs chronicling Metabolic Studio's One Hundred Mules Walking the Los Angeles Aqueduct were awarded OWAC's 2014 1st Place Award for Best Outdoor Photographic Series. The images were featured in three KCET Artbound pieces authored by High & Dry collaborator Christopher Langley as well as several articles in The Inyo Register.
The award-winning series included the images below, both shot from mule back.
Mule Train Winds through the Alabama Hills outside Lone Pine, CA - 2013
Mule Train rides along Movie Ranch Road - Alabama Hills, CA - 2013
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]]>High & Dry is long-term collaboration with writer/historian Christopher Langley exploring the deserts of the American West and the people who live there. The solo photography exhibition examines how the window functions as not only a literal/architectural but also as an optical/aesthetic and narrative/symbolic structure in desert landscape photography.
March 22 - April 18, 2014.
Opening: Saturday, March 22th 6-9pm.
LAAA/Gallery 825
825 N. La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90069
Phone: 310. 652.8272
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]]>Delighted to have a photograph included in the GALLERY 825 exhibition POP ÜBER ALLES, an all-media exploration of Pop Art tropes in contemporary art practice juried by Australian art historian and archaeologist Dr. Timothy Potts, Director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
September 6 - October 4, 2013.
Opening: Friday, September 6th 6-9pm.
LAAA/Gallery 825
825 N. La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90069
Phone: 310. 652.8272
Osceola Refetoff - "Love, Faith, Hope - Cinco, CA" 2010
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]]>