DANIEL O'GORMAN Represents (Sam Falls group show at The Center for Photography...)

Sam Falls group show at The Center for Photography at Woodstock

The Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) is pleased to announce Photography Now: Either/And, curated by Lesley A. Martin, Director of Content at Aperture and Executive Editor of its Book Program. Presented in two installments, The New Skew (June 12 – July 18) and The New Docugraphics (July 26 – August 29), this year’s annual exhibition goes beyond the typical survey of contemporary photography and departs from its traditional format in the sprit of giving full credence to the medium’s pluralities.

Ms. Martin invites us to consider, “What defines contemporary practice? What is it and what do we value in it? On one hand, we encounter a staunch defense of “reality-based” photography via traditional film and camera optics; on the other, an increase in the use of photographs – staged, found, and digitally remixed – both strategies drawn from among many out of the quiver of contemporary art.”

In organizing this years Photography Now installment, she proposes that we are no longer served by a zero-sum approach of “either/or” to the medium, but rather, “either/and”.

Part one, entitled The New Skew, presents the refreshingly subversive, deeply self-reflexive and conceptual work of 10 photographers. Opening June 12, this exhibition highlights artists who are invested in an idiosyncratic, or skewed, take on image-making. They engage critically with the conventions of photographic genres, series, and ways of seeing, and create work that exists on the peripheries of traditional photographic practice.

Erica Allen (Brooklyn, NY) and Gabriel Garcia Roman (New York, NY) juxtapose found and handy-worked images, respectively, that intervene with the expectations of the traditional studio portrait and counteract the “objective” machinations of the camera. Matthew Gamber (Boston, MA), Sarah Palmer (Brooklyn, NY), and Jordan Tate (Calgary, Canada) each examine the possible and the impossible within photography by studying how we see, what we see, and how images function in the discrepancy between representation and reality. Rachel Bee Porter (Queens, NY), Charles Shotwell, (Chicago, IL) and Amy Stevens (Philadelphia, PA) respond to the portrayal of the feminine in society by photographing symbols of domesticity such as cakes and fashion magazines in order to objectify the objectified. The work of Sam Falls (Brooklyn, NY) and Laura Wulf (Jamaica Plain, MA) looks towards the ontology of photography – in Fall’s case, by enlivening and engaging art historical subject matter while still attending to the medium’s capacity to assess the everyday and the autobiographical, and, with Wulf, by etching upon exposed photograms to meld the primitive act of mark-making with the modern technology of color photography.

Part two, opening July 26, is The New Docugraphics, which presents 10 artists chosen by Ms. Martin who are working within a photographic practice that has become increasingly the norm – the application of an ostensibly objective, New Topographical style as applied to documentary topics and personal experience. They work within a documentary framework to explore timely issues and events which enact themselves across the largely North American landscape and the consciousness of a globalized community.

Cynthia Bittenfield (New York, NY) and Jennifer Wilkey (Syracuse, NY) combine “straight” photographs with staged and/or found media to intimately describe the ways we deal with illness and trauma. Brook Reynolds (Charlotte, NC) and Christina Seely (San Francisco, CA) grapple with issues surrounding man’s sway over nature and expose the ways in which our seemingly benign habits obscure a darker, more complicated truth about energy consumption. Natan Dvir (New York, NY) and Eric White (New York, NY) photograph culturally and politically divided peoples as a way to direct awareness towards the ineffectual nature of borders (both physical and immaterial) and the presumptions they enforce. The work of Heather O’Brien (Brooklyn, NY) and Thomas Gardiner (Regina, Canada) express a fascination with the small town landscape and idea of home as place of transitions, where the meaning of nature and culture, as well as the real and the unreal, fluctuate. Tony Chirinos (Miami, FL) and Mike Mergen (Providence, RI) subversively probe the confluence of the sterile and organized processes behind health care and democracy, respectively, with the unexpected and odd theatricality they present for the lens.

On view during both shows will be a digital slideshow of images from their counterparts. Ms. Martin will be attending at both openings.

This exhibition was made possible in part with funds from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

The opening reception for The New Skew will be held on Saturday, June 12th from 5-7pm. The opening reception for The New Docugraphics will be held on Saturday, July 24th from 5-7pm.

Sam Falls group show at The Center for Photography at Woodstock

On view during both shows will be a digital slideshow of images from their counterparts. Ms. Martin will be attending at both openings.

This exhibition was made possible in part with funds from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

1 year ago