Argentine photographer's work in Baton Rouge show June 1-2

 
Argentine photographer Maria Zorzon, a visiting artist at Louisiana State University, will be showing work in the limited-engagement exhibit "Chaos and Order" this weekend at artvark, ltd. & MJ’s Café in Baton Rouge. 

The exhibit opened the evening of Thursday, May 31, and will continue from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, June 1 and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 2.

She will give a presentation,  "A Traveler's View of Contemporary Art" at the exhibit location at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Zorzon studied art history and photography at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, as well as at The School of Photographic Studies in Prague, Czech Republic and in Buenos Aires. Her work has previously been exhibited at the LSU Museum of Art, as well as galleries and museums in Argentina, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, and Mozambique.

Image: From "Chaos and Order" exhibit of Maria Zorzon.

NOPA's Sacabo and poet Wonk collaborate on 'Nocturnes'

A new collaborative work by New Orleans photographer and NOPA member Josephine Sacabo and poet Dalt Wonk is available for pre-order through Luna Press. The book, "Nocturnes," is the first published by Luna.

The elaborately designed "Nocturnes" brings together a series of black and white photos by Sacabo with a series of poems by Wonk, her husband. Each poem is printed on a sheet of vellum, and, according to the publisher, "serves as a portal" to related photographs.

Three-hundred special edition, signed copies of the book are available, for $125 each. A preview of the book is available at the Luna Press website.

Blatty's 'Parallel' exhibit at Marie Chaisson gallery through June 30

New Orleans photographer and NOPA member J.T. Blatty recently had her first solo exhibition opening, at the Crescent City's Martine Chaisson Gallery. The show opened on Friday, May 5, and will run through Saturday, June 30.

In the exhibit, 'Parallel," Blatty shows her passion for the prehistoric, as well as the photographic, as she explores the symmetry between prehistoric fossils and the human form. In the photographs, she combines portions of the human figure, juxtaposed with fossils she has collected over time.

The exhibit will include separate display of the fossils used in the photos.

The Martine Chaisson Gallery is located at 727 Camp Street in New Orleans' Warehouse District. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

Image: "Respire, 2011 (Fossilized Eagle Ray Mouthplate, 4 to 5 million years old)

Photo consultant produces major competitions and grants guide

Alert NOPA member and blog reader Thom Bennett sent the following item, which should be of interest to other, fellow members: A major photography competitions and grants calendar, compiled by photo consultant Jasmine DeFoore of Austin, Texas.

DeFoore notes that deadlines for entry or applications can change, so it is best to check with the sponsors or organizers if you are interested in a particular grant or contest. Consequently, she provides links for each item listed.

Image: Photo consultant DeFoore.

Photo Review seeks entrants for 28th annual competition

The Photo Review, a critical journal of photography, is seeking entrants for its 2012 Photo Review Photography Competition. The deadline for entry is Friday, June 15.

Peter Barberie, Curator of Photographs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, will serve as juror for this, the journal's 28th annual competition.

The winning entries will be published in the Review, as well as shown on its website. Likewise, all prize-winning photographs will be shown in an exhibit at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Penn. Other Editor's Selections will be exhibited in the journal's website galleries.

The awards for to prize-winning entrants will include:

• An Olympus Pen E-PL3 camera
• LaserSoft Imaging scanning software including SilverFast HDR Studio software, SilverFast Ai Studio 8 and SilverFast SE Plus 8,
• A $250 gift certificate from Calumet Photographic
• A 24"x50' roll of Museo Silver Rag
• A 20"x24" silver gelatin fiber print from Digital Silver Imaging
• Three $100 gift certificates for Moab Paper
• Camera bags from Lowepro; and $250 in cash prizes

The entry fee is $35 for up to three prints or images on CD and $8 for each additional image. For a more extensive list of rules and specifications, please see the competition page at The Photo Review website.

NOPA Seeking Entrants for $5000 Clarence John Laughlin Award

The New Orleans Photo Alliance (NOPA) is pleased to announce its offering of its annual $5,000 Clarence John Laughlin Award to recognize and reward a fine art photographer who is creating or has completed a significant body of photographic work.

The application deadline is Friday, July 20.

The award grants one $5,000 prize annually to a photographer whose work exhibits sustained artistic excellence and creative vision. Deborah Klochko, Director of the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, California, will serve as this year’s juror.

The award is open to emerging and established photographers who reside in the United States.

The online application process requires a portfolio of 10-20 photographs, a written statement, a bio or CV and a $25 application fee. Only one photographer will be selected to receive the $5,000 award. Finalists will be announced on August 20 and the winner on October 1.

The Clarence John Laughlin Award was instituted by NOPA in 2010 to support the work of photographers who use the medium as a means of creative expression. It honors the life and work of Clarence John Laughlin (1905-1985), a New Orleans photographer best known for his surrealist images of the American South.

For more information, and to submit an entry for the award, please visit the NOPA website's Clarence John Laughlin Award page.

Citizen support sought to restore arts funding in Louisiana

Louisiana Citizens for the Arts, formerly the Louisiana Partnership for Arts Advocacy, is urging citizens who support arts programs to contact state legislators about planned draconian cuts to the Louisiana Decentralized Arts Funding (DAF) and Statewide Arts Grant (SAG) programs.

The organization is requesting that the Legislature restore both grant programs to their 2009 funding levels by adding $1 million to each program.
 
As things stand now, the funding levels for these two programs will be reduced by 60 percent from 2009 levels, if a proposed budget passes. The proposal leaves only $1 million for the DAF and another $959,000 for the SAG program.

Consequently, the Louisiana Citizens group is asking arts program supporters to contact members of the Senate Finance Committee twice over the next couple of days. The first occasion is today (Friday, May 18), when Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne testifies before the committee. Public testimony to the committee will follow, on Saturday morning. 

To contact legislators, you may go the the Louisiana Citizens for the Arts website and take the following steps:

• Under the Take Action box,  click to write your legislators. You will then be taken to an "ALERT" page.  
• Under "Louisiana," click "Take Action." An action alert will be at the top of the page. Upon scrolling down the page, you should see "MESSAGE" to the members of the Senate Finance Committee.  
•  Scroll down to see "Sender Information," and enter information requested, if you have never sent a message through the CapWiz platform. Once this is done, all you need to do hit "send message" and your work will be done.

Image: The Louisiana State Capitol.

Deadline for Seattle center's annual competition is May 18

Seattle's Photo Center NW is seeking submissions for "Equivalents," its 17th annual photo competition and exhibit. The deadline for entry for the open-themed, juried competition is Friday, May 18.

Serving as juror for this year's exhibit is W.M. Hunt, a New York-based photography collector, curator and consultant. He is the author of “The Unseen Eye: Photographs from the Unconscious," a work published in the United States by Aperture in 2011.

Selected entries will be exhibited at the Center's gallery in Seattle beginning August 3 and running through September 18. Winners will receive cash awards of $1,000 for first prize, $500 for second and $250 for third. Each winner will also receive a $75 gift certificate for purchases from the Blurb self-publishing service.

Submission details are listed at the Photo Center NW website.

Image: "Martin Schoeller," W.M. Hunt, 2010, courtesy of the Photo Center NY.

Entry is free for Houston museum's emerging photographer contest

Houston, Texas' Museum of Fine Arts is seeking submissions for its Gift of Gift of 2012, or GoGo , competition, an annual contest aimed at getting the work of non-established, or emerging, photographers into the museum's permanent collection.

The deadline for entry is Friday, May 18.

Submission is free of charge, and open to any individuals who consider themselves to be emerging artists. At the same time, entrants may not have any works in the collection of a major art museum, nor may they be producing work priced above $300.

According to the museum, the GoGo competition was started in 2009 as a way to give young art lovers the opportunity to support emerging photographers, and have fun while doing it. To do this, GoGo hosts an annual Exhibition & Vote Party, where attendees decide what entries--among those chosen for participation by a selection committee--will be considered museum-worthy.

The museum then takes the money from Vote Party ticket sales to purchase as many of the exhibited artworks as possible. Last year, 70 percent of the works chosen as being museum-worthy made it into the Museum of Fine Arts' permanent collection.

For more information, and entry specifications as well as online entry, please the Gift of Gift of 2012 website, and the video below.

One night, 100 photographers: PhotoNOMA set for May 11

It is billed as "One Night, 100 Photographers": It's PhotoNOMA 2012, a photographers' work showcase night at The New Orleans Museum of Art, scheduled for the evening of Friday, May 11.

PhotoNOMA, presented by the museum in association with NOPA, is an event at which photographers present their work for a community walk-through. One hundred photographers are set to present work at this year's event, from beginners to established artists. The event gives photography enthusiasts and the public the rare opportunity to engage with those presenting work, and vice versa.

The event will begin at 5:30 p.m. and end (and not lingeringly end, please note) at 8:30 p.m. Admission is $10 for the general public, $5 for NOPA members, and free to individuals with museum membership.

Space available at black-and-white studio darkroom at ArtEgg

NOPA members Thom Bennett and K. Morgan Sasser are looking to fill a spot at a studio darkroom they share with a few other local photographers in Mid-City New Orleans. The facility is in the Art Egg Studios building, located at 1011 S. Broad Street, near the Times-Picayune building.

The two are seeking applicants who can stay at least one year.

The Art Egg studio darkroom is a fully-equipped, black-and-white printing and film processing facility, which can handle prints of up to 20 x 24 inches. Rent will be $60 per month. The first and last month's rent, a total of $120, will be required upon signing a lease agreement.

For more information, or inquiries, you may write Sasser at her NOPA address.

Multi-media group exhibit opens at HomeSpace on Saturday

A multi-media group exhibit, "Structure for Landscape: Exploring the Built Environment," will open at the HomeSpace Gallery of New Orleans on Saturday, May 12. It will feature the work of seven visual artists, including two photographers, as well as two architects and a sound artist.

An opening reception will begin at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

Among the photographers with work in the exhibit are NOPA member Richard McCabe, curator of photography at the Crescent City's Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and Jill Stoll. NOPA member Maria Levitsky is the exhibit curator.

The exhibit will run through Sunday. June 3. A performance by Philippe Landry will be held in connection with the exhibit on Saturday, May 19.

Others with work in the exhibit include Landry, Alyssa Dennis, Anne Nelson, Daniel Kelly, David Jason Pressgrove, Hannah Chalew, Jeff Rinehart and Kentarto Tsubaki.

The HomeSpace gallery is located at 1128 St. Roch Ave. in New Orleans, at the intersection with Marais Street. The gallery is open on Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m., Sundays from noon until 3 p.m., and by appointment.

Image: "Motel, NC, 2011," by Richard McCabe.

NOPA member Levitsky's MFA thesis exhibit opens May 12

The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) thesis exhibition of NOPA member Maria Levitsky, 'Uncanny Mirror of Available Darkness," will open this weekend at the UNO St. Claude Gallery, located in the Crescent City's Bywater area. An opening reception will be held at the gallery on Saturday, May 12, from 6 to 9 p.m.

Levitsky noted that the exhibited work is mostly black and white, with "some other visual structures in the mix." The thesis work was created toward the recent completion of her MFA studies at the University of New Orleans.

The UNO St. Claude Gallery is located at 2429 St. Claude Avenue.


Image: "Collusion of Redundant Obstacles, 2012," by Maria Levitsky.

MPS Grant Finalists Announced

Congratulations to the eleven finalists of NOPA's Michael P. Smith Fund for Documentary Photography 2012 Grant. A big thanks to our prestigious jurors: Ellen Fleurov, Paul Moakley and Glenn Ruga for their hard work on making this selection.

Brett Abbott, the Curator of Photography at the High Museum in Atlanta, GA, will select this year's recipient. We will be announcing the winner in early June.

Kael Alford
“Bottom of da Boot: Losing the Coast of Louisiana”
Dallas, TX
www.kaelalford.com

Jeremiah Ariaz
“Tucumari, New Mexico”
Baton Rouge, LA
www.JeremiahAriaz.com

David Armentor
“The Sugar Mill Sessions”
New Orleans, LA
www.thesugarmillsessions.com/splash

Lizzie Chen
“Serving God and Country”
Austin, TX
www.lizziechen.com

Dennis Church
“Public Attire”
Bonita Springs, FL
www.dennischurch.com

Jennifer Kaczmarek
“Love for Alyssa”
Palm Coast, FL
jenniferkaczmarek.com

Tomas Montoya
“Uprising: Drums and Voices of Resistance”
New Orleans, LA

Raymond Thompson
“Justice Undone”
Austin, TX
www.raymondthompsonjr.com

MaryLou Uttermohlen
“Structure Out of Chaos”
New Orleans, LA
www.marylou.us/chaos

Michel Varisco
“Shifting”
New Orleans, LA
michelvarisco.dphoto.com

Monique Verdin
“For the Record: LA Identite”
New Orleans, LA

Entry deadline for NOPA's free 'Members Only Exhibit' is May 14

NOPA is seeking entrants for its first annual Members Only Exhibit, an open-themed competition for all dues-paying members, with no restrictions or guidelines on subject matter, genre or style. Thirty-five photographs will be selected for the June 2012 show by a committee of Alliance board members and one general member.

The deadline for entry--which, in this case, is free of charge--is Monday, May 14.

The exhibit will open on Saturday, June 9 at the NOPA Gallery, located at 1111 St. Mary St. in the Crescent City's Lower Garden District.

Current members may submit up to five photos for consideration. Submitted work should be sized at approximately ten inches on the long side, and at 72 pixels-per-inch resolution. All works should be named as follows: Last name, first name, title, size, sequence number (example: Doe_John_Title_16x20_#1).

Photographers with work selected for the exhibit will be notified on Friday, May 18. Delivery of selected work will be required by Tuesday, June 5.

All selected work must be submitted in ready-to-hang, professional fashion. Work that is shoddily framed, or arrives with no way to hang it, will ultimately not be exhibited. The same will go for work that does not substantially match what is submitted.

Entries should be sent to programming@neworleansphotoalliance.org, with "MEMBERS EXHIBIT" in the subject line. You may send images via separate e-mails, if necessary, by listing the entries in "x/x," fashion--as in 1/3, 2/3, 3/3, etc., after the subject heading.