JORDAN SULLIVAN

Posted on 2014-11-17

The Young Earth follows two Americans in their twenties, one of them terminally ill, as they explore idyllic and remote corners of Iceland. Immersing themselves into foreign and wild landscapes, they are forced to confront their own mortality and a past love triangle that briefly disrupted their friendship. One man, leaving behind the ones he loves, faces his impending death and questions about an afterlife, while the other contemplates an uncertain future and loneliness without his best friend. The Young Earth explores how two men attempt to find courage and serenity in the face of oncoming tragedy.

An Island in the Moon presents a new range of imagery for Sullivan. While continuing experimentation with staged photography, these portraits and landscapes are viewed through the eyes of a storyteller rather than those of a documentarian. In The Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen wrote: “Form is emptiness and emptiness is form.” Inspired by this concept Sullivan has tired to create quiet images that find expression within a void. The photographs, printed in muted tones, evoke emotional stages of longing and wonder, moments of calm in an increasingly chaotic world.

Opposite – Erika and Mari

Exhibition runs through to December 20th, 2014

Peter Hay Halpert Fine Art
Site 109
109 Norfolk Street
New York
NY 10002

www.phhfineart.com

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SASCHA WEIDNER – THE PRESENCE OF ABSENCE

Posted on 2014-11-17

The exhibition title “the presence of absence” formulates related to photography a contradiction in terms, which will be resolved in the exhibition with the means of photography.

Among other works 20 photographs of the series “Aokigahara” are part of Sascha Weidner’s solo show.

About “Aokigahara”: High up, above the peaks of the holiest mountain sits enthroned the goddess of light, watching over Mount Fuji and all volcanoes.But where the good spirits rule, the demons of the underworld are never far away. At the foot of Mount Fuji, the holiest mountain for the Japanese lays the forest Aokigahara. The forest is so dense and obscure that one can easily get lost in it and it is said that the subsoil has a specific consistency, which makes even compasses fail. Since the 1960s, people who want to commit suicide come to the forest to end their lives. In case they change their minds, and the desire to live wins over their death wish, they trail Ariadne’s threads behind them, so that they can find their way out again. Sascha Weidner has followed these threads that permeate the whole forest, with his camera. He was warned not to enter the haunted forest where ghosts strike terror in people’s hearts. But the dark fascination of the forest was stronger than any cautionary tale. In a very subtle way, Weidner’s photographs are able to give us an insight into this place where real human suffering and motifs from the world of myths are entangled in one another.

Exhibition runs through to December 20th, 2014

Conrads
Lindenstr. 167
40233 Düsseldorf
Germany

www.galerieconrads.de

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THOMAZ FARKAS: MEMORIES AND DISCOVERIES

Posted on 2014-11-17

Thomaz Farkas’s career has been focused by several solo and anthological group shows through varied biases since the 40’s, besides a major work on research and preservation held by Instituto Moreira Salles since 2007. However, this selection curated by Sergio Burgi and João Farkas, have densified an unprecedentedly wide panorama of the artist’s oeuvre. Its segments – dedicated to his production as a photographer, filmmaker, and cultural entrepreneur – puts together early works (featuring an unpublished series, from his famous essays with dancers shot in 1946), films (his later interest in documentary cinema drove him to start the Caravana Farkas, an iconic series depicting Brazilian culture), documents. A rare color series will also be exhibited.

Thomaz Farkas is one of the leading names in modern Brazilian photography, alongside artists such as Gaspar Gasparian and Geraldo de Barros. He created his first authorial series in 1942, upon joining Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante, of which Farkas would become one of the foremost members. The group created works relating to the advances in the then-modern art of photography, and is considered a pioneer of the language in Brazil. Departing from pictorialism and from photography based on traditional painting genres (portrait, landscape etc.), the artists focused on aspects of the photographic medium itself, distancing themselves from the treatment of photographs as mere reproductions.

Exhibition runs through to January 10th, 2015

Luciana Brito Galeria
Rua Gomes de Carvalho, 842
04547 003 São Paulo
Brasil

www.lucianabritogaleria.com.br

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MACALLAN MASTERS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MARIO TESTINO

Posted on 2014-11-15

The Macallan brings to life its foundation stones, The Six Pillars, through the eyes of the world’s most prolific portrait and fashion photographer. The Masters of Photography: Mario Testino Edition sees him interpret The Six Pillars through the characterisation of six individual personalities in his distinct, inimitable and luxurious style.
Renowned for his mastery of composition – the artistic arrangement and placement of visual elements within the picture – and for creating a reflective and intense connection with his sitters, be it celebrities or royalty, Mario Testino has now turned his lens to The Macallan. By bringing together a group of distinct characters, Mario captured the spirit of the ultimate party. Each character was cast on the basis of their visual qualities, each echoing one of The Macallan’s Six Pillars. Shot in Beijing, in a former palace near the Forbidden City and Tian’anmen Square, the photographs showcase the vibrancy and luxury of The Macallan world, infused with subtle eclecticism and cultural allusions.

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