Ghetto Funk Power Hour | Programs | Heritage Radio Network

Ghetto Funk Power Hour | Programs | Heritage Radio Network

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Art is the message on these billboards - latimes.com

Art is the message on these billboards - latimes.com

A grid of blue diagonals, the profiles of two men confronting each other, a series of colorful vertical stripes with an embedded phrase -- these will be some of the enigmatic images flashing through our peripheral vision while driving in L.A. over the next six weeks.

They are three of the 21 visual artists' billboards that have been going up in some of the most trafficked corridors of Los Angeles, part of a long percolating idea of Kimberli Meyer, director of the MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House.

For more on the show, go to How Many Billboards.org.

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SPE Faces Focus

SPE 47 - Philadelphia, March 4-7, 2010. Keynote speaker: Kip Fulbreck

This is a tremendous time for diversity. The United States has seen her first president of color sworn into office, and Iceland has just elected the world’s first openly gay prime minister. Yet ask a photography student for the names of five photographers of diverse backgrounds and they will probably fumble. Just as in political life, the demographics of diversity are also shifting in the photographic arts, but this diversity is slow to make its way into galleries, textbooks, and the awareness of those in the industry.

SPE’s 47th National Conference in Philadelphia, “Facing Diversity: Leveling the Playing Field in the Photographic Arts,” will examine how photographers of diverse backgrounds participate in the art world today and how these artists are being received. The conference will look at inclusivity, diversity within diversity, and the various perspectives on the changing cultural dynamics of this country. It strives to bring together curious minds in celebration of the achievements by artists of all backgrounds.

The Philadelphia conference marks a unique partnership between SPE and EnFoco to better address issues of diversity within the field of photography. En Foco is a non-profit photography organization dedicated to nurturing and supporting photographers of diverse cultures, primarily those of Latino, African and Asian heritage, and Native Peoples of the Americas and Pacific. www.enfoco.org 2010 Conference Co-Chairs: Hannah Frieser Miriam Romais

Get more info about Philadelphia at www.gophila.com and www.philadelphiausa.travel

Neshat's Shot

"I do believe that cinema is a more democratic form," says New York-based Iranian filmmaker Shirin Neshat, comparing feature films with video art. Neshat, whose first feature,Women Without Men (Zanan-e bedun-e mardan), has its final screening today as part of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, is best known for her exquisite video installations that poetically examine gender, culture and politics with the artist's distinct photographic eye. To see a preview, click the link above. For more on this film in the LA area, see www.kcet.org

Photo Types

Exhibit at museum shows Riverside residents in antique-style photos

10:00 PM PST on Tuesday, February 2, 2010

By DAVID OLSON
The Press-Enterprise

The photographs in the "Riverside-Americans" exhibition now at the UC Riverside/California Museum of Photography look like they were taken 150 years ago.

They were created with 19th century techniques, using metal plates and a time-consuming development process that sometimes leaves peeled-up film at the edges.

But the subjects are modern-day Riverside residents. And a comparison with actual 19th century photos reveals differences that go beyond changing fashions and hairstyles.

The subjects are a cross-section of Riverside: Black, Latino, white and Asian. They all volunteered to be photographed. They were allowed to wear whatever clothing they wished.

In the 19th century, many subjects of photos were forced to pose by colonial rulers, their bosses or slave masters, said photographer Keliy Anderson-Staley. They were often told how to look. Some American Indians were photographed with clothing and headdresses that belonged to other tribes.

Some 19th century photographers and scientists used the then-new technology to document physical differences that they believed proved white racial superiority. At the time, it was believed that a photograph, unlike a painting, was totally objective.

"It took awhile for people to realize that photos have been staged since the 1850s," said Anderson-Staley, who lives in New York City. "The story being told in the image is not always the true image at all."

Relatively few people of color in the 1800s probably had the money to pay for a formal portrait in elegant clothing, so the photos of whites are more likely to be stately photos with expressions that convey self-confidence, while the photos of people of color are more likely to show the discomfort of reluctantly posing in settings not of their choosing, often as part of anthropological studies, said Reggie Cortez Woolery, director of digital-studio and education outreach at the museum.

As in 19th century photos, the models in "Riverside-Americans" have a serious look. That's because the exposure took as many as 45 seconds and any movement -- such as a waning smile -- could cause a blurry photo.

The exhibit uses a 19th century photographic tintype technique in which blackened metal is dipped into a solution and exposed in the camera while still wet. Anderson-Staley developed the images in a makeshift cardboard darkroom. Nineteenth century photographers also used mobile darkrooms because the photos had to be developed before the solution dried.

The museum invited Anderson-Staley to Riverside in October to demonstrate the tintype technique. Cortez Woolery liked the results so much that he asked her if the museum could put the photos on display. The Riverside images are displayed on three 42-inch plasma televisions and on the museum Web site. Twenty-seven other Anderson-Staley tintype photos are exhibited nearby. Cortez Woolery sees the tintype images as a more honest representation of modern subjects than digital photography. "I think you see more in these pictures," Cortez Woolery said. "They (the subjects) had to slow down. They couldn't project a mask."

Reach David Olson at 951-368-9462 or dolson@PE.com