ASMP Mentor Program

I'm about to hop on a plane to do a visiting artist stint in the grad photo program at Syracuse University, but I wanted to give a quick shout to the ASMP New York mentor program. The program connects working photographers with those just starting out. This year I'm participating as a mentor which means I'm committing at least one day a month for six months to my "mentees." If the thought of me advising you on your work and career doesn't pique your interest, check out the other top notch photographers giving their time to the program.

Get all the details here and learn how to register here. Sign-ups are happening now.

Battle Photo: Auto Graveyard!

I have led many a photographer into the visual Thunderdome that is Battle Photo, but I have never entered the squared circle myself. It only seems fair that I subject my own work to the same test. And what better way to make my debut than against the best pound-for-pound photographer ever. I am doomed!

Joe's Auto Graveyard, Pennsylvania © Walker Evans

vs.

Auto Salvage Yard, Route 90, Louisiana © Amy Stein

Chris Marker's La Jetée

I teach the Freshman Seminar course in the photography program at Parsons The New School for Design. The course serves to give incoming students both a technical and conceptual overview of all things photography and a foundation of knowledge that they can build on throughout the rest of their time in the program. Each year one of the first things I do is show the students the 1962 science fiction film La Jetée by Chris Marker.

La Jetée is set in a post-nuclear war Paris and focuses on a group of survivors living underground as they experiment with time travel. It was produced with minimal budget, has no dialogue, and was constructed almost entirely from black and white still photographs. It would seem an odd choice to introduce students to the world of photography, but it is simply one of the most stunning and important visual statements made in the last hundred years.

If you have not seen the film, you must. You can watch it below in three parts (it's only 28 minutes long).







In 1996 MIT Press produced a book of images from La Jetée. That book is now out of print, but this year Zone Books reissued La Jetée in all its glory. The book includes all of the film's original images along with the script in both English and French. You can buy a copy here.

Certificate of Awesometicity

I took my car in to get an oil change this morning and this commercial was playing in the waiting area. My two favorite parts are when the white family toasts their Obama plate in the beginning and when the man in the pink shirt stops writing, turns to gaze upon his Obama plate, and then turns back to his writing with a shit-eating grin.

Yes you can...own a piece of history.

Framing the Presidency

In an age of hyper-partisan media and made-for-TV presidential stagecraft does the photograph still play an important role in helping the electorate define a candidate? Or, has the singular photographic image morphed from moment definer to mere visual buttress to support the rhetoric of partisans?

Tonight, I am looking for answers.

“Framing the Presidency”
Wednesday, November 12, 2008, 7:00 p.m.
The New School
Tishman Auditorium, Alvin Johnson/J. M. Kaplan Hall
66 West 12th Street, New York City

The Aperture Foundation, the Photography Department of Parsons The New School for Design and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School present a new season of panel discussions focusing on photography. The second event is “Framing the Presidency,” which explores the collision of photography, mass media, and politics in the 2008 presidential campaign and beyond. Artists and media experts share their experiences and explore the power of photography in constructing our image of the presidency.

With
Tim Davis, photographer
Robert Hariman, Chair of Communication Studies at Northwestern University
Todd Heisler, Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist
David Scull, New York Times campaign picture editor photographer

Admission is free!

Brand New Funky President

"Hey, country
Didn't say what you meant
Just changed
Brand new funky President"

- James Brown

Vote! Vote! Vote!

If you are going to vote, great. I strongly suggest you vote for Barack Obama.

If you live in California, don't be a dick. Please vote against Proposition 8.

If you are not going to vote, you suck. And, I am going to kick your ass.

ARTWALK NY 2008 Tonight

Now in its 14th year, ARTWALK NY is one of the great benefit art auctions in New York City. The auction helps fund the amazing work of the Coalition For the Homeless. This is the third year in a row I have been asked to donate a piece to ARTWALK and the third year in a row I have done so without hesitation.

The economy is in the dumper right now which means that homelessness is on the rise and funds for life changing programs and emergency relief are drying up exactly when they are most needed. If you can make it to the event tonight, you will not be disappointed by the work available for bid (PDF). If you can't make it, please do something on behalf of the homeless.

This. Fucking. Election.

T.F.E.

There is No Off Switch for Jason Polan's Genius

Lionfish © Jason Polan

Sunday my good friend Jason Polan will be doing something special for the Editions/Artists' Books Fair. As usual, it's pretty much genius.

On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I will be making drawings for a book called 100 People I Saw At The Editions/Artists’ Books Fair. The book will contain 99 people I saw during these three days. Once the drawings are completed I will print the book, in an edition of 100 to be available on Sunday at noon. The book will be available for purchase at the Esopus table (#59) at the fair. The book will cost $20. If you choose to purchase a book, you will be drawn in your copy, completing the project and becoming the 100th person in the book.

I will be there to pick up the book and have Jason drawn my picture. You should too.

Run Amy Run

Yesterday was a whirlwind of activity that took me to every corner and three boroughs of the city. It really wasn't much different than most days--my life pretty much follows the plot of Run Lola Run--but yesterday all the bit players and extras were dressed like the Joker and slutty nurses.

I started off in Brooklyn with my assistant Geoff prepping images for my upcoming show at the Print Center in Philly. After about four hours of staring at the computer screen, I drove home to Queens and picked up my husband and my cameras and headed over the Triborough Bridge to East Harlem.

This was my fifth year working on the Halloween in Harlem project. Every year I troll the crowded streets between Lexington and 3rd Avenue above 110th Street and fight the falling sun to document a unique New York take on an American holiday ritual. The kids in the neighborhood do not go from home to home for candy, they go from liquor store to bodega to check cashing store for candy. The streets are packed with families and stopping the flow to take photos proves half the challenge. Every year I build up to the day and then never have more than two hours to shoot before it gets too dark.

After shooting in East Harlem we drove back home to Queens, put on our lame costumes, and then jumped on the F train to the epicenter of Halloween madness to got to Matthew and Nate's party. If you have never been to the West Village on Halloween night, here's a helpful tip.

Don't go!

Streets blocked, throngs of drunken idiots in Scream masks, shoving and pushing from all angles, and New York's bagel-fed finest just standing idly by looking completely content to do nothing and collect overtime pay. Not fun. After forty minutes swimming through humanity we finally made it to the party.

Matthew and Nate throw the best parties and this year was no exception. Nate is the detail guy and no ghoulish detail was left to chance. Cupcakes with eyeballs, spiders crawling across the wall and spelling "Obama", and a giant centipede in the bathtub were just some of the touches that made this a great evening. The highlight was Matthew's Indian food throwdown challenge. He is a big fan of the Jackson Diner and my recent declaration that Delhi Palace was better raised his ire and piqued his interest. Look forward to a new Lunch With Amy post coming soon with guest diner, Matthew Pillsbury.

It always seems like a long subway ride home to Queens after a night out, but last night it took longer than usual. After a full day all I could do was collapse in my comfy chair while watching The Soup and then drag myself to bed a short time later.

This Saturday I am going to force myself to relax.

Happy Halloween!

Untitled (Witches) © Amy Stein

Skin Trade Opens Thursday

Skin Trade opens this Thursday at the Chashama ABC space on the Lower East Side. The show was curated by my dear friend by Dan Halm and features work by Elaine Bradford, Simen Johan, Eric Lendl, Christian Siekmeier, Amy Stein, and Kimberly Witham. All of the work centers on animals as decorative trophies.

I am excited for the exhibition because I will be showing two pieces that have never before seen the light of day. These are sort of photographic sketches I made before I started my Domesticated series. When I shot these I had a good idea of what I wanted to say about man's relationship to nature, but I had yet to figure out the visual narrative that would eventually define the series. I love these images because they provide an early window into the evolution of the series I have worked on for the last two years.

Deer © Amy Stein

Boar © Amy Stein

Here are the details:

Skin Trade
Chashama ABC
October 30 - November 22
169 Avenue C (between 10th and 11th Streets)
New York, NY
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 30, 6-9pm

Yesterday, I dropped off my prints at the gallery space and was amazed by the diversity and quality of the work in the show. Dan has really done a great job putting this together.

Mus Mus on Election Day

I have been recruited by Mus Mus to take a photo on November 4. I'm still not sure who they are or what this all about, but apparently a bunch of photographers will be taking a picture at exactly the same time on Election Day. Maybe this is like Hands Across America, but without the touching.

In addition to the invited photographers they are also issuing an "open call" to select 25 additional photographers to include in the project. If you are interested, you can submit work here.

Inaugural MPS Digital Photography Thesis Show

Tonight is the opening reception of Seamless, the inaugural thesis show of the MPS Digital Photography program at the School of Visual Arts.

In one year, department chair Katrin Eismann has made this program one of the best digital photography programs in the country. For evidence of Katrin's wisdom, you need look no further than her sage decisions to hire me as a teacher in the program and let the fabulously talented Dan Halm curate the thesis show.

Here are the details:

Seamless
Visual Arts Gallery
October 23 - November 15, 2008
601 West 26 Street, 15th floor
New York, NY
Opening Reception: Tuesday, October 28, 6-8pm

Stop by and check out the thesis work of these very talented grads. You can also buy an exhibition catalogue for the show at Blurb.

Jackson Heights is the Center of the Photographic Universe

Kabab King, Jackson Heights © Jeff Liao

The other day I was walking to the farmers market down the street and I suddenly I saw Jeff Liao sitting on a couch next to an apartment building. Jeff and I have been good friends for a while, but I was shocked to see him just sitting there. On a couch. On the street. In Jackson Heights.

We talked for a few minutes and caught up on our latest shows. Finally, I asked what he was doing and he said he was moving in to the neighborhood. At that moment it became official. Jackson Heights is now the center of the photographic universe. In addition to Jeff and I, Lisa Robinson, Accra Shepp, Justine Reyes, Richard Rothman, and Jessica Ingram all live within a couple of blocks of each other in Queens' finest neighborhood. Crazy.

Domesticated Book Landing Soon

The cover of Domesticated

My first book, Domesticated, will finally be arriving in a couple of weeks. I've lived with this sucker for a long time now, sequencing and resequencing, editing and reediting, designing and redesigning, and then waiting and waiting while it was being printed in China. During the wait, the book managed to win the Photography Book Award at the New York Photo Festival. And now, it's only a matter of days. Yah!

The book features twenty-six images from my Domesticated series as well an essay by the great Alison Nordström of George Eastman House. You will be able to purchase the book through Amazon, photo-eye, and everywhere fine photography books are sold.

I will also be giving away some signed copies on my blog, so stay tuned!

Lunch with Amy

Each week I get a ton of emails from photographers searching for advice, looking to connect with a contemporary, or just wanting to shoot the proverbial shit. Sometimes I will meet them for lunch or coffee. So, I'm starting a new feature on the blog called Lunch with Amy wherein I highlight the work of the photographer I've met and give a brief review of the lunch.

Photographer: Adam Golfer
Restaurant: Delhi Palace

Delhi Palace is just around the block from me and also happens to be the best Indian restaurant in Jackson Heights. Forget what you've heard about Jackson Diner, the Delhi Palace is a few door down and worlds better. The lunch buffet is only $8 and features most of the highlights from their regular menu. The Saag Paneer and Chicken Tikka are my favorites.

Here are some standouts from Adam's series Kin:

© Adam Golfer

© Adam Golfer

© Adam Golfer

Black and White TV Generation Have Monochrome Dreams

TV in Hotel Room - Galax, Virginia © Lee Friedlander

A new study concludes the color of the media you consume between the ages of three and ten plays a crucial role in determining the visual perceptual properties of your dreams.

Only 4.4 per cent of the under-25s' dreams were black and white. The over-55s who had had access to colour TV and film during their childhood also reported a very low proportion of just 7.3 per cent.

But the over-55s who had only had access to black-and-white media reported dreaming in black and white roughly a quarter of the time.

Even though they would have spent only a few hours a day watching TV or films, their attention and emotional engagement would have been heightened during this time, leaving a deeper imprint on their mind.

I wonder if a new generation will be streaming dreams in pop-ups, interstitials, and embeds. Via.

Doug Aitken's "Migration" at 303 Gallery

Scene from Doug Aitken's Migration

For his new installation piece, Migration, at 303 Gallery Doug Aitken projects video onto three massive billboard-like screens. The video features a series of anonymous roadside motel rooms inhabited by North American migratory animals. With this piece Aitken does a wonderful job of drawing the comparison between our own travels and the migration of these animals.

Motel rooms are the cold and functional way stations of our journeys. They are stocked with the bare essentials necessary for us to rest and push forward on our journey. We are lonely and restless in these spaces just like the animals he uses as stand-ins for our experience. The individual scenes play out with a Jarmusch-like stillness as each animal interacts with specific mundane objects in the motel room. The results are a hypnotic and often moving comment about uncertainty and isolation. Aitken's statement and execution are flawless.