Today is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day

Every last Sunday in April is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day, so build or dig out your old lens less camera, make some pictures, and share them with the world.
To submit an image to the Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day Gallery, click HERE. For information on the history of pinhole cameras or how to build a pinhole camera, click HERE.

Class Pictures: Photographs by Dawoud Bey

This Thursday, April 23, Dawoud Bey will be giving an artist talk to open his exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum. The exhibition titled "Class Pictures" runs April 16 to July 12, 2009. The talk starts at 6:15 in the Lubar Auditorium. The lecture is included with the cost of admission ($12 or $10 for students with ID).

He also keeps a wonderful blog named "Whats going on"

Last week of PhotoDimensional at the MoCP

Exhibition closes April 19, 2009

This exhibition investigates the relationship between sculpture and photography, two and three dimensions, and perceptual issues that are integral to those relationships.

Work by: John Coplans, Katalin Deér, Leslie Hewitt, Bettina Hoffmann, Pello Irazu, David Ireland, Melinda McDaniel, Heather Mekkelson, Laurent Millet, Vik Muniz, Susana Reisman, Lorna Simpson, Florian Slotowa.

Frank Gohlke

Thursday, April 16th at 6:30 PM - 618 S. Michigan Avenue, 2nd floor Lecture Hall

Frank Gohlke will be presenting the final lecture of the Spring 2009 semester's Lectures in Photographynext Thursday, April 16th at 6:30 in the second floor lecture hall at 618 S. Michigan Avenue. The lecture is FREE to Columbia College Chicago students and the general public.

Frank Gohlke is a leading figure in American landscape photography. He has been awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. Known for his large format landscape photographs, Gohlke's work has been shown at museums all over the world and included in collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, the Australian National Gallery and the National Gallery of Canada.

Some Inspiration

(if you are into architecture/Neo Topographics)

Jeff Brouws

Brad Moore

Nathan Ian Anderson

Jeff Curto

Our host tonight at the Mary Virginia Swanson Lecture at the College of Dupage was Jeff Curto the Program Coordinator of their Photography Program. They run a real fine program with a number of wonderful lectures each year. I have always been impressed with the students that transfer from that program.
Check out Jeff's architectural work of Italy HERE.

MVS blog of art deadlines

MARY VIRGINIA SWANSON keeps a great blog that lists current deadlines for calls for work and portfolio reviews. Check it out HERE

Wednesday Night: Laurel Ptak @ SAIC

Wednesday Night, April 8, Laurel Ptak (iheartphotograph) will be giving a Free Lecture at the School of the Art Institute. Lecture starts at 6pm in the Columbus Auditorium.

Laurel Ptak is an independent curator based in New York City. She has worked for numerous leading arts institutions including the Guggenheim Museum, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, and Art:21. She currently serves as Educational Programs Manager at the Aperture Foundation. Ptak is best known as founder and curator of the popular photography blog iheartphotograph.com. The website has become well known for showcasing visually and conceptually cutting-edge work by mostly young and unknown photographers hailing from all parts of the globe. Laurel Ptak's unique curatorial vision has also been applied to several "real world" projects including the exhibitions "www.iheartphotograph.com" at Higher Pictures in New York City in 2007; "Is it possible to make a photograph of New Jersey regardless of where you are in the world?" in 2008 at the Pierro Gallery (curated exclusively through digital means, featuring more than 1,000 images by 189 photographers from 18 different countries, with the ambition of "physicalizing a Google image search for the words New Jersey"); and "Young Curators, New Ideas" at the Bond Street Gallery in New York City in 2008.

Tuesday Night: Mary Virginia Swanson @ C.O.D.

Tuesday April 7, 2009 at 7:00 PM, Mary Virginia Swanson will lecture on FINDING YOUR AUDIENCE: An Introduction to Marketing Your Photographs.
College of DuPage Student Resource Center (SRC) room 2800
Free Parking: park in lot "C" or lot "D"
Cost: Free and open to the public
Fore more info visit COD's site HERE

Mary Virginia Swanson makes it her goal to help guide photographers towards the strengths in their work and to identify appreciative audiences for their prints, exhibitions, editorial and licensing placement. Swanson has a diverse professional background, having coordinated educational, publication and exhibition programs for a wide range of institutions and businesses in our field.

Swanson is considered an expert in the area of marketing and licensing fine art. It was during her tenure heading special projects at Magnum Photos, that she recognized the opportunities for artists to develop second markets for their work and in 1991 she founded SWANSTOCK, an innovative agency that managed licensing rights for fine art photographers.

Swanson currently works with photographers as a marketing consultant, and is a sought-after portfolio reviewer.

Lewis Baltz

After a discussion with my students last week I have been thinking about my influences. We discussed one in particular that most people see immediately in my work, Lewis Baltz. Take a quick look for example at the architecture in the two images below. For more images of Lewis Balts look here.