TOSHIYA MURAKOSHI

Posted on 2013-05-06

The current exhibition is comprised of 15 works that Murakoshi shot in his hometown, Sukagawa city in Fukushima prefecture between spring and early summer 2009.

In January 2009, My Grandmother was Admitted to the Hospital.
The Doctor told U.S. She had three months to Live.
I went back to my parents’ house as many times as I Could, thinking about capturing her image as Frequently as I Could.
But I Could Hardly do this Because She was more Emaciated Each time I saw her.　
I walked around my house and Took Photographs of it as if I Sought for the shadow of my Grandmother.
She passed away in April as the Doctor had predicted.
The funeral , the 49th day after death, the Bon Festival, all HAS passed so Quickly.
Continued I to go back to my parents’ house to Take Photographs Afterwards.
The year 2009 Came to an End in That way.
I noticed That I Could feel her presence more strongly from the photographs taken around my house than those taken of her, herself and of which I had only a few shots. Memories will fade out little by little from one’s mind, but I realized that the fragments of memory that were etched into Little a landscape where I Spent with her ​​Will REMAIN from Now on.
The landscape Which Seemed Nothing much to me Before, HAS Become a beautiful memory Now.

Toshiya Murakoshi

Exhibition runs through till May 11th, 2013

Taka Ishii Gallery Photography / Film
2F 6-6-9 Roppongi Minato-ku
Tokyo
106-0032 #
Japan

www.takaishiigallery.com

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BRYAN GRAF – BROKEN LATTICE

Posted on 2013-05-06

By using found objects, low-fi processes, and an experimental approach to materials, Grafʼs photographs and assemblages explore the opposing forces of control and chance through methods of repetition, inversion and accumulation. Most of the works in the exhibition were produced as unique, camera-less photograms, a process by which Graf can exert certain constraints while leaving other elements beyond his control.

The artist explains his way of seeing thusly:
“As I write this correspondence, the blind is down, covering the window to the right of my desk. The window is open and the screen projects a moiré-patterned shadow onto the fabric of the blind. This image fluctuates in and out of focus as it breathes with the wind. The lattice outside the opposite window is bending, warping under the weight of nature. And at this late, subterranean time of day the distinction between the orderly framework of the lattice and the entangled labyrinth of Wisteria vines is unclear. The two structures are blending into one another, forming a solid inky mass outside the bay window of my studio. This impression lasts for a few moments before sinking into the night. Focus. The screen is a filter – a grid maintaining repetition, order and control. Folded, warped and tangled, it creates visual noise, disturbances and interference. It becomes a dragnet, a visualization of chance-based actions within a repetitious structure. The grid is a lattice, a support system for nature; being constantly broken and sculpted by the persistent and omnipresent activity of the natural order.”

Exhibition runs through till May 18th, 2013

Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street 3rd floor
New York
NY
10011

www.yanceyrichardson.com

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TYLER SHIELDS – SUSPENSE

Posted on 2013-04-29

Tyler Shields’ “Suspense,” an exhilarating array of images that began with a shot the photographer took of himself backflipping across train tracks in the middle of the desert, was originally planned as a series of self-portraits. But then Shields’ previous muse Emma Roberts and girlfriend Francesca Eastwood learned of the project and immediately wanted to get in on the action.

“When people look at these images, you see a moment when sometimes somebody looks like they’re about to die, and sometimes somebody looks like they’re about to live. And that was one of the most exciting things to me: How can you create an image that really makes somebody feel something?” – Tyler Shields

Exhibition runs through till May 19th, 2013

Guy Hepner
300 N Robertson Blvd
West Hollywood
CA
90048

www.guyhepner.com

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MARTIN PARR & TOM WOOD

Posted on 2013-04-29

Parr and Wood embarked on their careers at a time when the perception of photography was shifting. At the start of the 1960s it had been the eccentric face of the London fashion world; the visual language of advertising, and a middle-class hobby. Parr and Wood were amongst the first photographers to turn their cameras on modern Britain, elevating everyday life into fine art.
Charlotte Keenan, Tomlinson Curator of works on paper said: “Taken between 1976 and 1987 the emotive photographs in Every Man and Woman is a Star convey the similarities in the work of Tom Wood and Martin Parr, who are old friends, as well as their differences.

“The photographs are an important part of the Walker’s works on paper collection. They represent a significant period for photography, which was finally establishing itself as a fine art, as well as the changes in society for both the local area and on a wider scale.”
Parr’s images span the period 1976 to 1983 and predate his change to colour film. They respond to his desire to document the world around him before it disappeared, illustrating many of his enduring interests including leisure, consumerism and community. These continue to influence his work, which he describes as ‘subjective documentary.’

Included in the exhibition are a selection of Parr’s images of the west ofIreland, which reveal the modern face of American investment, as well as the unusual customs and traditions of a vanishing community. There are also several images of the patrons of Yates’s Wine Lodge,Liverpool, some of his last work in black and white.
Wood photographed the area and people of Merseyside for more than 20 years, earning himself the nickname ‘photie man’. The photographs on display were taken between 1980 and 1986.
Wood’s photographs are the result of chance encounters. From fellow passengers on a bus, claustrophobic scenes in a nightclub, and well-kept suburban gardens, there is a voyeuristic quality about the work.

Exhibition runs through till May 19th, 2013

Walker Art Gallery
William Brown Street
Liverpool
L3 8EL
England

www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk

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BERT HARDY – CENTENARY EXHIBITION

Posted on 2013-04-29

Bert Hardy, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday this year, is rightly regarded now as one of the country’s foremost photojournalists. Though he was a gifted war photographer, Hardy’s sharp, spontaneous images of people in everyday situations were more characteristic of his work. His work stands out because he himself had come from a very poor background but his photographs never strayed in to sentimentality and he was able to achieve captured moments that resonate to this day.

Most of the exhibited photographs were shot shot using Hardy’s second hand Leica camera which he personally adapted to enable him to shoot in poor lighting conditions. Some of the editions were printed from the original negatives at the time, but there is also more recent signed work, affording a rare buying opportunity for limited edition photography print collectors.

Exhibition runs through till May 26th, 2013

The Photographers’ Gallery
16 – 18 Ramillies Street
London
W1F 7LW

thephotographersgallery.org.uk

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MEGAN CUMP – BLACK MOON

Posted on 2013-04-22

For Cump, the dark is itself a wilderness of sorts, full of the promise of the unknown. It is fitting that the locations she has photographed: underground caves, deep woods, night skies and oceans, conjure up mythic tales of transformation and the underworld. Some of these landscapes are inhabited by wild creatures, including a fox, ghostly white deer, and a shadowy woman who, in one photograph, floats in water black as the night, bringing to mind the ancient Hermetic axiom “as above, so below.” This woman is, in fact, the artist, but one could argue that all of Cump’s figures, even the animals, are enigmatic self-portraits.

Replete with auspicious meteor showers and subterranean passages, these photographs transport us, suggesting the other side of things. Stars appear to burn through the atmosphere and the evening sky fills with otherworldly light and color. The vivid flames are produced by deliberately introducing light leaks that simultaneously destroy and create anew the imagery on the negatives. In the past, Cump notes, the night imparted fundamental knowledge, serving as navigational field, timekeeper, and source of cosmologies. Distinctions were not drawn between scientific observation, spirituality, and art. Recent research suggests that some Paleolithic cave paintings are also prehistoric star maps–the stray dots and dashes overlaid on depictions of animals mark the earliest constellations.

Exhibition runs through till May 12th, 2013

Station Independent Projects
164 Suffolk Street
New York
NY
10002

www.stationindependent.com

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