More Updates, Sites To Visit, Slide Shows and Self-Portraits

Just another short update this evening...the night before class is always a bit crazy...

Farrolas' fine art blog, flux plus mutability, has moved to Typepad, which I've credited myself for making blogging almost ridiculously easy. He has several new entries on his relocated site, and in two languages! Always worth a visit.

Ray Esposito, whose blog launched recently with a plug from me, has renamed his blog the Southwestern Art Gazette, and has started posting some thoughtful and meaty entries, along with some photos of his colleagues' work. I enjoyed his recent posts on art collecting and photo magazines (a subject always dear to my blog).

I know some people are wondering whether my large format camera is actually getting some use, or serving as a backup coffee table, and in truth, I'm still moving slowly with putting it together...I just picked up a used lens on eBay, and next week I'll probably pick up film holders and film, and work with a prof to put the whole thing together and make sure it all functions, learn how to use the large format area of the darkroom, etc. My sense of urgency is greater now, with the arrival of warmer weather, and my recent enrollment in an alternative process class for the spring term at NESOP. Now I just have to hope enough people actually sign up for the course, because the teacher is excellent (I've had him before for an alternative portraiture class).

Along the way, I expect to come into contact with many large format and alternative processes folks of various stripes, and the little wandering around the Web I've done in regard to these topics has produced some pleasant findings. One site I've admired for a while is John Bolgiano's Cold Marble Musings. Many interesting images and series on his site, and I'm struck by his current work with IR light painting. (Thanks John, for the encouragement on the large format journey as well)

Andrew has referred me to a fine flash-based presentation of Joyce Tenneson's work, complete with narration from Tenneson herself, made in conjunction with a new exhibition of Tenneson's work at the Whistler Museum of Art in Lowell, Massachusetts. Very well put-together...I've always loved Tenneson's "Light Warriors" series. What I liked about the slide show, apart from its excellent presentation, was the allusion to her early self-portraits, which I still find compelling today. At the used bookstore a few months ago, I picked up her first compilation of self-portraits of women (from 25 years ago) for 4 bucks, and it was a great buy.

Given that Tenneson has become quite the celebrity, it was interesting to see the range of women photographers represented in this book besides her...60 in total...exploring a wide range of self-portraiture in a pre-Cindy Sherman era. In 2004, a Google search on most of these women turns up virtually nothing. I wonder how these women view their work now.

Joyce Tenneson Self-Portait, 1978