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The title of our current exhibition at the Digital Silver Imaging Gallery says it all. This exhibition covers more than 50 years of Rock and Roll photography from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones first US tours to Lady Gaga and Phish.

Given the confines of our gallery it was difficult not to have floor to ceiling images but gallery director and curator J. Sybylla Smith has produced a stunning show. Just a few of the highlights of the exhibition include:

• Early Beatles photographs from Astrid Kirchherr, including John, Paul, George, Pete and Stuart!

• Mike Mitchell’s recently discovered images of the Beatles first US tour.

• Intimate Rolling Stone images by the late Bob Bonis

• Never before shown studio portrait of Led Zeppelin by Herb Greene

• Ron Pownall’s sensual onstage portrait of Blondie’s Debbie Harry

• BC Kagan’s photos of vintage Cars and a boyish Billy Idol

* Pearl Jam’s sound check at the Boston Garden made iconic by Brian Babineau

• Steven Tyler of Aerosmith being Steven Tyler in beautiful B&W as captured by Melissa Mahoney

• Ethereal play of concert lights at Phish and Radiohead and My Morning Jacket concerts by Ryan Mastro

• Kerry Brett’s elegant panoramic studio image of the Dropkick Murphys

• Face-to-face portrait of Lady Gaga by Mitch Weiss 

This exhibition opens Thursday December 8, 2011 and runs through January 28, 2012. A gallery talk will be held on January 26 at 7:00 pm. Speaker(s) TBA (we are working on something really cool so keep an eye out for this event).

Griffin Museum of Photography by Digital Silver Imaging Gallery, 4 Clarendon Street, Boston MA

Torrential rains did little to dampen the energy or crowd gathered to celebrate our new South End location and Boston Fashion Week. Over two hundred visitors made Splashion their destination.

The crowd spilled into our courtyard out back and the front side walk. A Street Frames loaned space for a portrait gallery where Nathan Fried Lipski playfully captured guests sporting neon green pool tubes or their own array of umbrellas. Check our website for a gallery of opening shots.

This effervescent group show spans 70 years of editorials featuring water and fashion by 8 international artists. The first nude to be published in Harper’s Bazaar in 1935 was shot by

Hungarian photographer Martin Mankasci. Known for taking women out of the studio he heralded modernism and the notion of beauty in motion.

“Today the world of what is called fashion is peopled with Mankacsi’s babies, his heirs.” according to Richard Avedon.

German post-war photographer F.C. Gunlach and Martine Franck, one of the first women to join Magnum, are included with vintage silver gelatin prints on loan from the Howard Greenberg Gallery.

New York-based, Jodi Jones, fresh from shooting a backstage story on NY Fashion Week shoots

designer ad campaigns including a NYTimes billboard. Boston photographers Sadie Dayton, Bob Packert and Conor Doherty shared bold, new work. Find them in publications including Vanity Fair, W, Time, The New York Times, Boston Magazine, Boston Common and online in international webzines including Spirited/US, Complexed/China and Labb/UK.

 

Vanity Fair contributing photographer, Howard Schatz, built an underwater studio and published his underwater study series in three books: Water Dance, Pool Light and H2O. Exhibited are five images that exemplify his range of capturing the mystical to expressing wit and power. His work is featured in Vogue, Vogue Italia and GQ Italia.

October 13th  Howard Schatz conducts our gallery talk from 7 – 8:30 PM at 4 Clarendon Street Boston. He will sign copies of, H2O and his latest book, With Child. Join us!

The Beatles Illuminated: The Discovered Works of Mike Mitchell Photographer Mike Mitchell is getting well deserved rest and deep satisfaction after last night’s auction of his work at Christie’s in New York.  His iconic collection of 46 silver gelatin prints sold for over $350,000, well above the estimated value of $100,000.  Mike was one of a few photographers who captured The Beatles on their first US concert, just 2 days after their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.  The hero image, shot from behind with stunning light and radiating an intimate happiness of the Fab Four, sold for $55,000. The SRO crowd maintained a party atmosphere with a tangible sense of excitement and joy at seeing this iconic collection come to life after being dormant for almost 50 years. Rapid fire bidding ensued over several desirable images with a global reach being managed by phone and on line. Auctioneer Cathy Elkies carried encouraging men to not consult with their wives and deadpanned “I smell a divorce coming on” as bidding broke 10K, then 20K. DSI was thrilled Mitchell chose us to print these silver gelatin prints. Our production staff worked diligently to bring every digital tool to bare to create rock star results. Mitchell decided to limit production to one print and devised a moniker, or stamp, which he embedded in each image. We were excited to be the first to see these prints and we take this privilege very seriously. We state up front our ethic which is to uphold and protect the creative rights of all our clients. We were so pleased to be in the audience and cheer with the crowd as each image found its new and rightful owner.   Congratulation Mike! The Associated Press broke a story about the auction shortly after the auction closed. You can also view Mike’s interview in London at the Grovenor House Hotel at the preview exhibition last June.

 

 

Jason Landry’s salons at Panoptican Gallery introduce new artists to the photographic community in an intimate setting. Those fortunate to attend  were given a host of conceptual treats by a talented group of fine artists.

Holding an original image or object while exploring with the the artist their creative process is a rare joy and can stir the soul. If a tree falls in a vacant forest does it make a noise? Does art need the eyes of a viewer to complete it’s tale? What defines a photograph?

Charred candy boxes become beautiful treasures by Oregon-based artist Heidi Kirkpatrick. A playful alchemist, she melds her elegant photographs with found objects to create inviting sensual trinkets meant to be fondled. Mahjong chips, toy blocks and ash trays become incarnate.

Evocative “photo objects” by local artist, Jesseca Ferguson, are images of thoughtfully detailed and assembled collages taken with a pin-hole camera then contact printed by hand onto artist paper by a 19th century process. Ferguson’s muse is our collective and personal “private interior library” – memory.

Jennifer Hudson creates elaborate installations from detailed drawings that come alive in beautifully staged portraits on location and in the studio. Minimally enhanced in post production her haunting series reflect complex concepts deeply mined and stunningly executed.

Alexander Harding is captivated by water and has caught it in multiple guises in detailed glossy color images calling us to be co-detectives uncovering their source. Harding’s Visible Light series studies light with the same curious and respectful eye, challenging us to really see what is before our eyes with newness, clarity and reverence.

Rome is home and subject for photographer Diane Epstein. Her large format “fresco” style images blend multiple strata’s of Italian architecture, panoramic vistas and design details into painterly celebrations of time and place. Epstein recreates the mood of historic narrative paintings in her contemporary form of fine art.

 

The lens on Keith Johnson’s camera has got to be square. He sees and presents what catches his fancy in razor sharp grid formation. Like an eagle scanning for prey he teases out incessant patterns that surround us but elude the less observant.

The AIPAD show was like a walk through Dylan’s Candy Shop, filled to the brim with fantastical, historical, sometimes absurd and mostly wonderful treats. Picture strolling through Beaumont Newhall’s History of Photography. Galleries and collectors exhibited vintage gems from Margaret Cameron, Bernice Abbott and Man Ray, next to electrifying examples of contemporary work by Pierre Cordier, Jim Campbell and Julie Blackmon.

© Julie Blackmon

© Pierre Cordier

Look beyond some repetition, occasional mediocrity and feast your eyes on sweet treasures. We were pleased to be introduced to artists new to us and here we share our favorites:
Verve Gallery of Santa Fe represents veteran lensman Misha Gordon. His stunning dramatic work of staged series uses pattern and light to reflect a moving serenity and intelligent wit. The filmmaking duo, Charbonneau/French, create elaborate and fantastical sets that utilize daylight and shadow, props and people in real time.
L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, located a block away from the Armory, showcased Raphael Dallaporta’s huge color images detailing the grand church organs of Paris. Also available were his beautifully printed and haunting series of life-sized land mines, now a book, Antipersonnel.

© Raphael Dellaporta

The NYT article reviewing the show highlighted several Asian artists and we noted one donating proceeds to victims in Japan.
Hyperion Press Limited introduced us to the elegant and painterly images of Qin Wen. His subdued use of color illustrates allegory in layers using traditional ritual and current culture.

© Qin Wen

Gallery 339 of Philadephia showed work from Ephemeral Existence by Tetsugo Hyakutake, featuring his ephemeral large scale industrial landscapes of Japan.
The Peter Fetterman Gallery in Santa Monica CA carries noted social documentary photographer Sebastiao Salgado. His exquisite images offer rarely seen remote areas of undeveloped countries.

© Sebastiao Salgado

Lastly, more than one dealer featured the work of Beth Moon. Using traditional film and a medium format camera she shoots moody portraits in lush natural settings. Her images are hand coated in platinum and palladium metals on heavy French watercolor paper.

© Beth Moon

Imagine someone who is highly educated, passionate about their art, dedicated to teaching and happy to share their ideas with others. This last week Eric and I not only found one of these rare individuals but an entire conference full. This amazing reunion was the 2011 national conference of The Society of Photographic Education, SPE.

This amazing conference started for us with keynote lecture by old friend and legendary photographer and educator Abe Morell. Always understated, funny, and thought provoking, Abe’s talk inspired and amazed everyone. He shared many stories about his camera obscura work; we especially enjoyed his new body of work. We also got a great insight into Abe as a teacher from his former student and fellow Guggenheim recipient and SPE Board Member Joann Brennan  who gave a wonderful introduction, but I have a bias.

We would have liked to attend many of  the others lectures but we had work to do. On the exhibition floor we had a great time making new friends such as: Ann Simmons-Myers,  Angela Kelly,  Vesna Pavlovic the Crew at Bostick & Sullivan  and many more who we hope to see at SPE 2012 in San Francisco!

We also saw many old friends: Justin Kimball,  John Willis,  William DuBois.  This is a very incomplete short list and if you didn’t make it that means you didn’t buy us a drink!

We left the 2011 SPE Conference, Science, Poetry and the Photographic Image, enlightened, feeling good, and secure in the belief that the future of photography is in great hands. If you are a photography or film educator you need to be part of this amazing community, they throw one heck of a party.