Bottled Water by James Worrell

New images

The above were taken this weekend in Philadelphia on a visit to see my family. I've had many thoughts over the past week about posts I'd like to write, particularly in relation to the fragility of childhood. Once I have more time I'll say more.

Aline Smithson reviews reviewees

© Ferit Kuyas
© Jonathan Blaustein
© Stefanie Motta
© Amy Eckert

Aline Smithson of the excellent blog Lenscratch and Review Santa Fe participant has been doing a great series of posts on various photographers who were also in New Mexico. So far she has written about: Janet Pritchard, Lucia Ganieva, Stefanie Motta, Rebecca Martinez, Pamela Pecchio, Ferit Kuyas, Amy Eckert, Benjamin Lowy, Meggan Gould, Jonathan Blaustein, and Jennifer Ray. Take a look.

Daniel Cooney opening tonight

© Juliana Beasley
© Bradley Peters
© Rebecca Schrock
© Felix Cid

I wanted to quickly put the word out about Daniel Cooney Fine Art's opening tonight of its Summer Salon of Emerging Photographers from 6:00-8:00pm. The artists are: Bradley Peters, Felix Cid, Juliana Beasley and Rebecca Schrock. It's a very talented group of photographers, so though I can't go to the opening I'll try my best to get into the city soon to see this one. The gallery is located at 511 West 25 Street, #506 and the show will be up until July 30th.

Reworked

I reworked this image today--I think it looks much better now. Ready to submit.

And if you're also ready to submit here are some upcoming deadlines:

En Foco: People/Places/Things--early bird deadline June 24th; final deadline July 1st
A.I.R. Gallery: Mother/mother--July 1st
The Aldrich--July 9th
Blurb's Photography Book Now Competition--July 16th
The Aperture Portfolio Prize--July 16th

Adjustments

I've been feeling the difficulty of adjusting to being back more so this past week than when I first got home. For a bit I was still going off of the crazy energy I felt in Santa Fe, but after having difficulty falling asleep for days, and with my mind really still wanting to think about photography and work and being intellectual, everything caught up with me. I find myself feeling extremely distracted--I want to hunker down in front of the computer, get lost in imagery, daydream, fuel my thoughts, and the girls are demanding my time and attention, and then the guilt sets in. They're out of school and camp hasn't started, and I think this is part of my issue--we're out of our routine, they're being more needy than usual and I have very little patience left.

I always come back to that line Colin Pantall wrote a while back on his blog about the "relentless physicality of motherhood," and I've been feeling that bone-tired sense all this last week. Still, I'm hoping it's lifting a bit--all of us went into the city to the Natural History Museum for a lovely Father's Day, and I felt like I was truly enjoying them again. I remembered why I was sad to leave them when I boarded the plane for the Review, and how enjoyable motherhood can be when I let myself get lost in it. Plus, there's nothing like holding two little hands while walking down a city street. Now if I can just pull my brain out of its constant thinking, churning mode and let myself focus on the girls more, I think the balance will come back.

Shadows

Shot last weekend at our friends Nell and Ken's house. (Was that grammatically correct?)

Jesse Burke

© Jesse Burke

In the coming weeks I'm going to highlight some of my favorite work from Review Santa Fe, and I thought I'd start with Jesse Burke, who I had the pleasure of meeting and spending a good amount of time with during my stay in New Mexico (along with his lovely wife Kerry). Our paths crossed during the open portfolio night when he came by to show me a book he had put together of pictures he took of his daughter Clover--his shots really spoke to me, as they were very similar to the way I see the world through Edie and June, and yet they also had a completely "Jesse" stamp on them. Unfortunately none of this series is up on his website for your viewing pleasure (though that is a self portrait of him holding Clover above), but there's plenty of other amazing work to take a look at (go here). I was also really struck by his artist statement, which I find highly eloquent, so I wanted to share it in full:

"Jesse Burke's photographs and installations are an autobiographically driven investigation into the psychology of masculine identity. He is drawn to moments where a rupture or wound is physically, emotionally or metaphorically inflicted. There is a presence of vulnerability and sensitivity which acts as a force against the mythology of male dominance and power. He is currently working on a project about demons and misplaced persons." Great, isn't it?

Next up, Graham Miller.