It's RETV Party Time!

The big RETV launch party is happening on Thursday from 6-11pm, and it should be a blast! So get yourselves to The Invisible Dog Art Center at 51 Bergen St in Brooklyn and join the celebration.

Billing itself as "The Greatest Party in The World: RETV Launch Party!" I'm expecting an exciting time. RETV is calling itself, "the new standard in photo industry news, RETV features content from every major photography market around the world to bring an international industry to a single place of exchange for photographers, videographers, suppliers and manufacturers."

You need to RSVP, and there's only a day to do that, so go here

And if you haven't yet checked them out, make sure you listen to the interview with the late great LIFE photographer Philippe Halsman's daughter and grandson. Halsman was responsible for 101 LIFE Magazine covers and shared one of the most unique creative partnerships with Salvador Dali that anyone has ever seen. Perhaps best known for his "jump" photos, Halsman was a master photographer, and I bet there are images you know that you didn't realize were his.

RETV wants to be a one-stop destination for photography information and education, so this is a great opportunity to get a close-up look at just what RETV is all about. The party if being sponsored by SONY, ARC and Resource Magazine. I hope you'll join me there.

Tonight in New York--Care of Ward 81

Tonight is Bill Diodato's book release/show of "Care of Ward 81," the first of two books on the subject. Located at the Oregon State Mental Hospital (the hospital where One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was filmed in 1976), Ward 81 was set up as a psychiatric ward to help women in need by providing them with medical attention and isolation. The event is being presented by Resource Magazine.

From the Introduction by Bill Diodato:_“…. Entering Ward 81, I found each room vibrated with pastel colors, some walls even adorned with curiously upbeat art from the patients. All this beauty was contrasted with a dense chalky air, earthy odor and constant crackling of debris beneath my feet….In the end, I can’t say where exactly the many sleepless nights I spent pondering what happened to the women of Ward 81 have taken me. I simply do not know. If, by chance, it helps even just one woman and her family, I rest my head with a renewed sense of hope.”

Sun West Studios
450 West 31st St, 10th Floor (between 9th and 10th Ave)
7:00pm - 10:00pm

You must RSVP in order to attend.
PLEASE RSVP via Facebook or email: WARD81@RESOURCEMAGONLINE.COM

ROAD TRIP! Hasselblad and Resource Magazine go on Tour

Hasselblad and Resource Magazine are joining forces and taking their show on the road in a series of events called "Three Stage".
Thursday, March 25 they'll be in New York and the first stop on their road trip is Milk Studios at 450 W. 15th St..

In their own words:
"The Three Stage" events will celebrate the release of Hasselblad’s new H4D line of cameras, featuring the innovative TrueFocus technology, and offer photographers a hands-on and interactive experience with this and other selected equipment, from computer to lights to photo software.

Attendees will be able to test the latest photography gear, discuss with company reps and fellow photographers, and witness and participate to live demonstrations. Each event will include “Three Stages”, 3 separate shooting spaces hosted by highly recognized photographers from each community, each representing a different field of photography (i.e. still life, fashion, portrait)."

There will also be cocktail parties in each city, and a chance to hang out and network. I'll be there as a media sponsor, so find me and say hello.

Hasselblad will also be announcing their Hassy Community winners at each event. More info here

You can also check Twitter and Facebook.

Other cities on the tour are:

Los Angeles- April 8th, 2010

Chicago- April 22nd, 2010

San Francisco- April 29th, 2010

Atlanta- June 2010

D.C.- July 2010

Toronto- September 2010

Miami- October 2010

New York City- October 2010

So sign up and join your fellow photo people for shoots, talk, cocktails and the chance to get your itchy little fingers on some very cool new equipment..

A Review of FPS Fest

If you didn't make it to FPS Fest in Williamsburg Tuesday night, you missed a great bunch of people and a terrific show of photographers' films.

The evening began with Shinichi Maruyama showing a short work reel full of dripping, dropping, and splashing liquid that was hypnotic, yet calming. It made me think about how difficult it is to shoot a perfect rush of liquid.

Alexx Henry's "Living Art," was a behind-the-scenes look at a shoot of Ironman Chris Lieto for Outside Magazine. What I liked best was the discussion of the future ways in which printed media will incorporate moving image. It was totally fascinating to me and I'm still thinking about that.

Noah Webb showed "A Thousand Bees," assembled from 4,500 still images. It was completely different from all the other work, inventive and full of vibrancy. It was like a collage come to life.

Andrew Hetherington brought a great dose of humor with his short "Meet The Hetheringtons,"a verbal/visual back-and-forth between Andrew and Tim Hetherington (no relation). It just goes to show that an idea is the most important element you can bring to a project. It's not always about crews and equipment. Kudos to him for that.

"Sleeping Soldiers," Tim Hetherington's multi-media piece followed, incorporating a triptych to juxtapose sleeping soldiers with the battlefield, in this case Afghanistan, where Tim was embedded with a U.S. platoon.
At times it was as if we could see the dreams of the soldiers, as landscape blew across their sleeping bodies, until we were shocked awake by a frantic, stunned soldiers' pain. It was beautiful, inventive and powerful.

I introduced the trailer of Louie Psihoyos' "The Cove" and will say again: See this documentary! You can read my two part interview with Louie Psihoyos here.

There was more humor from Bob Scott and his camera review. Clever, funny and a great use of short film with numerous possibilities.

It was distressing to me that two of the women presenting films, KT Auleta and Candace Meyer were the only ones who interjected sex into their work. I am disappointed that all they offered up was that Madonna-influenced "if I treat myself as a sex object then I'm the one with the power" bullshit. Where are the strong, interesting, accomplished women? Where is the content with real value, instead of portraits of girl-women in baby clothes?

All in all, congratulations to Dripbook, Resource Magazine and all the others who made this possible and presented something that speaks to the future, and more creative possibilities for photographers. Maybe it's Brooklyn, but I felt like this was the opening of a dialogue that will continue for those creative people who are moving forward with the desire to make themselves heard.

Summer Photo Contests

I want to list a couple of upcoming, very cool photo contests. There's still time to enter, and I thoroughly encourage everyone to do so.

First up is the En Foco New Works Photography Awards Fellowship JUROR: Anne Wilkes Tucker, Curator, Museum of Fine Arts / Houston

The New Works Photography Awards Fellowship, deadline July 31, 2009, is an annual program selecting three or more U.S. photographers of Latino, African or Asian heritage and Native peoples of the Americas and the Pacific.

New Works helps artists to create or complete an in-depth photographic series exploring themes of their choice, and provides the infrastructure needed for national visibility and a professional exhibition of their new work in the New York area.

Submissions can be in any photo-based style or genre (documentary, autobiographical, landscape, abstract, digital, pinhole, alternative processes, etc).
Three photographers will be selected from an open and national call for entries to receive a $1,000 honorarium, photo-related supplies, technical assistance, a photographer's page on enfoco.org, an article in Nueva Luz, an En Foco membership, and a culminating group exhibit in New York.

Next up is the 10 Best 10

WIN-Initiative is calling for entries for their open international contest, 10 BEST 10, deadline August 5, 2009. It’s free to enter, and they’re calling for up to 10 images of any kind, any genre. It is a juried competition that is looking for the very best contemporary photography. And in the interest of full disclosure, I want to mention that I am one of the five judges. I’m excited to see what photography the world has to offer.

According to the site,
“The winners of 10 BEST 10 will have their work appear in a Gala Event and Exhibition that will kick off this year's Photo Expo Week in the fall. Additionally, interviews and spreads in Resource magazine and WINk magazine (WIN's online photography magazine) will give further exposure and press attention to the winning team of photographers.”

You can check it out here . Keep watching the site as more prizes are being announced all the time, and you can look at the most recent submissions. I encourage everyone to enter, and submit his or her most interesting and unique work.

And from the great folks of the New Orleans Photo Alliance

C a l l F o r E n t r i e s : T h e S p i r i t W o r l d
Juried by Russell Joslin the sole Owner, Editor and Publisher of SHOTS Magazine
Entries must be submitted by 8.24.2009

"Where is the spirit world? It is right here. Do the good and evil spirits go together? Yes they do..." - Brigham Young


The New Orleans Photo Alliance is seeking photography-based works that explore the theme of spirits and the spiritual world during the season of Halloween and All Saints Day. Submissions may include but are not limited to: documentary, fine art, and conceptual images that depict or evoke the spiritual, supernatural and unearthly; including places, people and rituals here on earth which relate to the topic.

Selected entries will be exhibited in the New Orleans Photo Alliance Gallery during the months of October and November 2009. They will also be featured and archived in the Alliance’s online gallery and considered for publication in the New Orleans Photo Alliance Best of 2009 Photo Annual. In addition, the juror will award cash prizes.

Timeline:
Deadline for submissions: Monday, August 24, 2009, 12:00 midnight
Notification of acceptance: Monday, August 31, 2009
Deadline for receiving accepted works: Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 1, 2009, 6-9pm
Exhibition dates: October 1, 2009 - November 22, 2009.