American Photo's Top Emerging Photographers for 2008

© Eric Percher

Each year American Photo magazine publishes their list of the top emerging photographers in the world. Last year I was very honored to be named to the list. I've worn my 2007 sash proudly and now gladly pass it on to a new crop of talented photographers.

I can't begin to tell you how happy I am to see my very dear friend, Eric Percher, included. Eric and I met at a Maine Photography Workshop back in 2002 when we both were beginning to explore the idea of becoming serious photographers. I'm so thrilled his work is getting the recognition it deserves.

Also notable among the list are Alejandra Laviada, Sarah Small, Julie Blackmon and Kelli Connell.

C Photo, Where Are You?

C Photo Magazine is a beautiful hardbound publication from Ivory Press that comes out twice a year. Issue number seven is out now and features some of my work. Problem is, I can't seem to track down a copy in New York City. A couple of places I've called have the older editions, but not number seven. Does anyone know where I can find a copy in the city?

Second Issue of 1000 Words

© Anri Sala

The second issue of 1000 Words Magazine is now up. The theme is "Construct" and includes work by Thomas Demand, Anri Sala, Iosif Kiraly, Richard Learoyd, Indre Serpytyte and yours truly. It also includes some solid writing by Tim Clark, J. MacNeil Miller, Chas Bowie, Michael Grieve, Pedro J. Vicente Mullor and Jörg Colberg. Take a look.

Domesticated Show Reviewed in ARTnews

Today, on the drive home from our vacation we stopped at a Barnes & Noble in New Haven to pick up the September issue of ARTnews. The magazine features a review of my Domesticated show at the Paul Kopeikin Gallery.

I have known for almost a month the review was coming and the September issue has been out for a few days now, but I have been too apprehensive to pick it up until today. I was so nervous I had my husband read it first while I browsed the fiction aisle. When I came back he was smiling.

Here's the review by Richard Chang:

In her first solo exhibition, titled "Domesticated," Amy Stein explored the point where the civilized world and wild-animal habitats. For her compelling photographs, the artist restages real encounters between humans and animals. The scenes are united by their setting: the area in and around Matamoras, a small town in northeast Pennsylvania that borders a state forest.

Stein specializes in unexpected juxtapositions. In Nursery (2007) a spotted doe appears to have just awakened in a greenhouse among meticulously organized flowers, cacti, and hanging potted plants. Watering Hole (2005) features a young girl in a blue bathing suit standing on the edge of a diving board, staring down a large bear poised on its hind legs. Only a low chain-link fence separates them.

The narratives are enhanced by Stein's formal skill. Trasheaters (2005), showing two coyotes picking over spilled garbage outside a suburban ranch house, contrasts the animals' natural grace with hard geometry of the circular metal trash can, the triangular roofline, and three rectangular windows emitting a harsh yellow light as a sign of nearby human presence.

Backyard (2007) shows a hunter behind a chain-link fence, aiming his rifle at a turkey trotting across a snow-covered meadow. The placement of the hunter makes it look as if he's the one confined. Through such clever scene-setting, Stein reveals the contradictions inherent in mankind's twin impulses to join nature and to tame it.

Whew!

Todd Hido and Suicide Story

© Todd Hido for The New York Times

In case you missed it, great moody images from Todd Hido illustrate an article on suicide in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine.

An Opening, Two Closings and a Monkey on a Motorbike

Pieter Hugo Cover/Juxtapoz Magazine

Just a quick update from the California Zephyr as I speed across America. Tonight my first solo show in Germany opens at the Pool Gallery in Berlin. The people at Pool couldn't be nicer and Art Das Kunstmagzin has chosen the show for their Tip of the Week.

This weekend marks the closing of both my first solo show at Paul Kopeikin Gallery and the Car Culture group show at SMoCA. Very sad to these shows come down, but all things must pass.

Also, some of my work is featured in the latest issue of Juxtapoz Magazine. The issue highlights work by a number of great photographers like Pieter Hugo, Boogie and Corey Arnold. Get your copy now!

Domesticated in Latest Issue of OjodePez

OjodePez is a quarterly photography magazine published in Spain. The most recent issue is titled "Un Día Cualquiera" and was curated by Arianna Rinaldo, photo editor at D La Repubblica delle Donne. The issue features thirteen photos from my Domesticated series.

Also featured is the very talented and perennially scruffy Nathan Baker.

Hannah Whitaker: This Photo is Blowing My Mind

© Hannah Whitaker

A little over a year ago I came across this rabbit image by Hannah Whitaker and instantly fell in love. It was my desktop image for most of 2007 and now it is featured in the latest issue of Blind Spot edited by James Welling. Last year I tried to reach out to Hannah about purchasing the image, but to no avail. Hannah please, contact me!

But The Good News Is...

Yerim and Her Pink Things, 2005 © JeongMee Yoon

My dear friend JeongMee Yoon just got a lovely write-up in the New York Times. In addition to the article they also gave her work the full multimedia slide show treatment. Really impressive. You can see JeongMee's work in person beginning March 3 when her solo show opens at Jenkins Johnson Gallery in New York.

I have been thinking of JeongMee lately after I saw a recent feature in New York Magazine about five New Yorkers whose entire wardrobe consists of a single color.



One of the five people profiled is Stephin Merritt (brown). Stephin is the lead singer of one of my favorite bands, the Magnetic Fields, who I happen to be seeing live tomorrow at Town Hall.

UPDATE: JeongMee's show at Jenkins Johnson opens Saturday, March 8.

Alejandra Laviada In New York Times Magazine

© Alejandra Laviada for The New York Times

The photographs of Alejandra Laviada are featured prominently in the latest issue of the New York Times Magazine. Alejandra is recent grad of the SVA MFA photo program and a friend. She has an amazing ability to consign personality and soul to inanimate and mundane objects like voting machines and the furniture and debris in her wonderful Juarez #56 series.

Gangbangers With Pit Bulls?

I just returned home from a very lovely and positive celebration with family and friends and then made the mistake of reading the New Yorker's review of Pieter Hugo's show at Yossi Milo. I quickly soured on humanity and the young year's promise of a more perfect world. The magazine that is typically a bastion of progressive values referred to Pieter's subjects as "merely exotic versions of U.S. gangbangers with pit bulls." Seriously? If that isn't straight up racism it's as close as you can get this side of a locker room at the Augusta Country Club.

American Photo's Top Emerging Photograpahers

The current issue of American Photo features their selection of the top fifteen emerging photographers and I made the list. Needless to say, I am very humbled by my inclusion with such a fabulous group of talented photographers. Also making American Photo's list of the "new generation of photo pioneers": Shen Wei, Donald Weber, Mikhael Subotsky, Jason and Carlos Sanchez, Steven Laxton, Alexandra Catiere, Matt Eich, Camille Seaman, Lyric Cabral, Jehad Nga, Michael Christopher Brown, and Nicolai Howalt and Trine Søndergaard. Be sure sure to pick up a copy of the November/December issue on newsstands now. Or you can ask me for a copy. I believe I've cleaned out most of the inventory below 23rd Street.

November/December issue of American Photo

I'm also featured in an Apple Aperture advertorial in the same issue of American Photo.

Aperture advertorial in American Photo

This has been a good month for me and magazines. I was included in an October photography edition of Zeit magazin Leben. Zeit magazin Leben is the weekend magazine of Germany's largest weekly newspaper, Die Zeit. Watering Hole, an image from my Domesticated series, was featured in their "Around the World in 80 Photographs" edition that included works by twenty-five other photographers including Pieter Hugo, Hiroshi Watanabe, and Alec Soth. Good company indeed.

October issue of Zeit magazine Leben

Covers of American Photo and Zeit magazine Leben

On Newsstands Now

© Amy Stein

The October issue of Money Magazine features a story by the fabulous Lisa Hunter about using the Internets to buy art. The story, The Art of the Internet, is a great survey of art online for the beginning collector. Money ran one of my Stranded photos with the article along with pricing info for the series and a shout out to my Los Angeles rep, Paul Kopeikin Galley.

In other glossy news, Dina Kantor has been named to Heeb Magazines' Heeb 100 list. The Heeb 100 is the magazine's annual roundup of the one hundred young cultural tastemakers you need to know...who also happen to be Jewish. Other chosen people chosen for the list include comedian Judah Friedlander and porn star Michael Lucas. Dina was recognized for her amazing Finnish & Jewish series.

Party Like a Rockstar

© Melissa Auf Der Maur

If there is one thing I don't do, it's party like a rockstar. On certain nights I let go and may approach something akin to the party habits of a folkstar or a polkastar, but usually my only incursion into rock bacchanalia involves sitting on my couch watching Rock of Love on VH1.

This weekend, however, is all about the rock and or roll music.

Tonight I am going to see one of my favorites, Bill Callahan (former Smog), perform at the Highline Ballroom and I couldn't be more excited. So brooding and that voice! He also scores points for having perhaps the single greatest album cover in the history of rock music.

Saturday I have been invited to American Photo Magazine's Visions of Rock party at 401 Projects. The exhibit compliments a recent issue of the magazine that features the photography of rock musicians. Normally, photography by people who are famous for something other than photography would make me groan, but some of this work is actually pretty good. My biggest fear is going to this event and being exposed as someone who clearly does not have the cool credentials to be in the same room with Lou Reed and Michael Stipe.

One final rock note. If you are in or near Louisville, Kentucky, this Saturday I strongly suggest you make it over to the Rudyard Kipling to listen to Andy Guthrie throw down his sultry and seductive musical stylings. Andy is my cousin and an absolutely amazing talent. His live shows are the stuff of legend and not to be missed.

School of Visual Arts MFA Football Rules!

Photo illustration by Suellen Parker for The New York Times

10 a.m. on a Saturday morning usually finds me stumbling to the front door with coffee in hand to pick up the Saturday edition of the New York Times. The ritual is that by now I have already read the headlines online, so the actual paper is more about looking at the photos in the New York Times Magazine.

This morning I was pleased to see Suellen Parker's work on the cover and a photo by Matthew Pillsbury displayed on the inside. Now, I'm not a big school spirit person—I never went to any of the SVA's football games or pep rallies—but I immediately welled up with something approximating pride. I thought to myself, Suellen and Matthew are from the same MFA year. At the SVA. How perfectly awesome is that? Our little school tucked away in the tiny hamlet of New Amsterdam continues to turn out the big time talent.

Hey Yalies! Where ya at?

© Robbie Cooper

Also in this week's NYT Magazine is a great portraiture series, Alter Ego, by Robbie Cooper that juxtaposes photos of gamers with their avatars. Robbie's take on the subject of online/offline duality reminded me a little of Stephen Miller's Internet & Identity series, only taken to the next level.

UPDATE: Interesting video piece of Suellen Parker discussing her process.