Ensoleille

SPE Northeast Conference November 3rd - 5th, 2011
Hosted by Light Work Community Darkroom in Syracuse, NY

Portfolio Reviews! I had 2, with Bruce Myren and Ariel Shamberg from The Center of Photography at Woodstock. Bruce had a couple suggestions for me, one being to focus on my thread, something to bring the pictures together within my Detachment Series. He saw similarities from this Walker Evans image to one of my own.

He also suggested reading Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard and bringing more meditation into my practice. He said my statement was better articulated than my words. opps.

Ariel Shanberg had offered constructive advice while offering a curator's perspective. He suggested more interior moments, with the figure obstructed (of course). He also mentioned Akemi Hiatt's roadtrip project called A Westerly Direction. He mentioned a couple of shots in particular he'd like to see in this group with the bicycle more involved.

Anne Whiston Spirn had a lecture that I attended on The Power of a Book to Change its Author: Dorothea Lange and An American Exodus and she mentioned that she had received a grant to experience the same landscape as Dorothea Lange did in 1938 and 1939. Lange's book The American Exodus was mentioned a few times in the conference.

Mary Virginia Swanson was a whirlwind of information in her lecture entitled To Be Published or Self-Publish? An Overview of Option for Artists. "Swany" shamelessly plugged her own book called Publish Your Photography Book in her lecture at the conference. Books that she suggested are: The Photo Book A History Vol 1. and 2, The Americans by Robert Frank, There Was A Forest by Loli Kantor, and Hackney Witt by Stephen Gill.

She also mentioned different publishers: Trolley(dark), J&L Books(fun), Princeton Arch Press, Lumiere Press, Nazraeli Press, Tin Roof Press, Ram,, DAP(young), University of Texas Press, and University of New Mexico Press. Publishers showcase in photoeye.com. She mentioned that Gerhard Steidl accepted no unsolicated titles for publication last year in reference to this article: Bound for Glory. David Taylor's Working the Line is packaged with a 44-page accordion-fold booklet deal that is relatively inexpensive on Amazon. There is Nothing Beautiful Around Here by Paccarik Orue was also mentioned. Philip Zimmerman's book Sanctus Sonorensis because he's distributing his own book. Jason Eskenazi had a couple mentions with his books Wonderland and The Black Garden (available through his website!). Kickstarter.com was mentioned with this Bloomberg article. Allison Smith has a mighty fine website, but her zines were mentioned in Swany's presentation. Dan Milnor uses blurb. Magcloud.com is another place where you can make your own books and it's "so easy". Laura Noel's Free Fall. Elijah Gowin has a 3 books. Lee Friedlander has a youtube video of the book America By Car. Lisa M. Robinson's book, Snowbound used the publisher, Kehrer Verlag. The NYC Book Fair is the place to be if you're in art publishing. Paula McCartney's Field Guide to Snow and Ice and William Eggleston's The Democratic Forest was mentioned.
Random info: Securing an exhibition tour will help you package your book to publishers. Packagers stay on board for the life of a title.

Alec Soth - Keynote Speaker
Masahisa Fukase's Solitude of Ravens and Peter Galassi's Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort were mentioned.

more to come...