Haven’t you heard? jen bekman is at the SCOPE Hamptons art fair.

We’ll be featuring quite a few paintings by the lovely Amy Ross and plenty of excellent photography from the gallery’s artists: Christine Collins, Christine Callahan, Ben Donaldson, Holly Lynton, Brad Moore, Karolina Karlic, Joeseph Holmes, Dana Miller, Ian Baguskas, Mara Bodis-Wollner.

Stop by our booth (59A) and say hi!

SCOPE Hamptons: July 26-29, 2007
FirstView & Opening Night Benefit: Thursday, July 26, 2007 @ 5pm

East Hampton Studios
77 Industrial Road
Wainscott, NY 11937

Pfc. Randall Clunen, 19, wounded in Tal Afar by a suicide car bomber
© Nina Berman

You may recall her award-winning portrait of disfigured Iraq vet Ty Ziegel and his fiancée, Renee, on their wedding day in the Spring Edition of Hey, Hot Shot!. On view from August 8 – 30, 2007, Nina Berman will be showing more from her body of work entitled Purple Hearts—portraits taken in soldiers’ homes, in military hospitals, and on Army bases across the U.S.—at jen bekman.

Jen was very excited to show her photograph in HHS! but felt the work deserved more—that an audience would benefit from looking at additional stories from Purple Hearts. “This is an important project, and I’m thrilled to be able to offer a venue for it to be seen in,” she said, “It tackles what I consider to be one of the most disturbing, and over-looked, aspects of this war: the stories of those soldiers who have been maimed and the lives they continue to lead once they’ve come back home.”

To coincide with the exhibition, there will be a signing held at the gallery for Purple Hearts, the book (dates for this signing TBA —check back here or on the gallery site for updates). The book, along with the photographs, features interviews with the American soldiers who were wounded in Iraq.

Luke Strosnider, writer for Afterimage, wrote on his blog about his initial reaction to seeing Nina’s image at the gallery in the Spring: “At first I felt the inclusion of this image in the popular quarterly contest seemed totally wrong,” he writes, but “after some sustained thought and attempts to untangle all the threads, I’ve arrived at the conclusion that the walls of jen bekman – or any art gallery – are an ideal place for this image.”

Nina says in an interview with Salon that what makes the photographs compelling is that “they provide the space for the viewers to contemplate.”

More about the Purple Hearts project can be found here.

Nina Berman
Purple Hearts
jen bekman
August 8 – 30, 2007

Kate Bingaman-Burt Featured in Print Magazine

In the July/August issue of Print Magazine there is a feature called The Obsessives which highlights the work of four artists dealing with the topic of consumption.

A week’s worth of time, money, and resources—gone in a flash! Or is it? We asked four artists known for their clever online record-keeping to show us exactly how they spent those precious 604,800 seconds.

John Freyer, Nick Feltron, Ellie Harrison and our very own Kate Bingaman-Burt documented a weeks work of consumption in their own artistic styles.

View Kate’s week of drawings up close here (PDF).

And if you’re interested, Print has posted Q&As with each of the The Obsessives online.

I might also mention that Kate’s Obsessive Consumption got a write-up in today’s Yahoo! Picks.

Congrats X2, Kate!

photo by Alison Grippo

On July 24th Alison Grippo (jb photographer often known for her Friday Night Fights series) is participating in a rather interesting event:

PHTHRD: Master-Disaster Photography Duel is a timed photography competition between teams of photographers, stylists, make-up artists, and assistants. Through a series of rounds, each photo team will have to create an image that best responds to a given theme. After each round, images will be voted upon by the audience and the winners will progress.

5 teams of 1 photographer, 1 stylist, 1 make-up artist, and 1 assistant will have 2 hours to produce 3 images that address creative briefs assigned to them at the event. For their tools, they will have access to their own photo equipment, a designated area, a female model, male model, select props and members from the LVHRD audience.

As photographers and their teams create each image, attendees will walk through the space observing the creative process at work. At the conclusion of the evening, photographers will have 1 day to edit their images before online voting begins.

All photos from the evening will be displayed on the LVHRD or event partner sites. Event attendees and an online audience will then vote on their favorite images.

Buy your tickets ASAP if you want a spot to see this. I should mention the event will have good eats, Dewar’s whisky, and, according to the website, it’s also being held in “an amazingly secret venue.”

We’re rooting for you, Alison!

Just as many of the artists in the A New American Portrait exhibition write blogs of their own, quite a few of them also have excellent photography books worth adding to your collection.

Alec Soth

Alec has a fine selection of books, the chronology below:

Sleeping by the Mississippi (Steidl, 2004)

Niagara (Steidl, 2006)

Fashion Magazine: Paris Minnesota (Magnum Photos, 2007)

Dog Days Bogotá (Steidl, 2007) COMING SOON!

Brian Ulrich

Brian has been included in a box set that was published by Aperture in collaboration with the MoCP, Chicago called MP3: Midwest Photographers Publication Project. The book presents the work of three new emerging talents: Kelli Connell, Justin Newhall and, of course, Brian Ulrich.

MP3: Midwest Photographers Publication Project (Aperture, 2006)

I’ve also heard word that Brian is in the midst of putting together work from his Thrift series. Look out for that one.

Todd Hido

Mr. Hido’s books sell like hot cakes:

House Hunting (Nazraeli Press, 2001)

Outskirts (Nazraeli Press, 2002)

Roaming (Nazraeli Press, 2004)

Between the Two (Nazraeli Press, 2006)

Due to popular demand for the book when the first edition came out, the second printing of House Hunting will be available very soon.

All these great books… It seems like everyone else in the show should be hard at work on book dummies themselves, don’t you think?

And wouldn’t A New American Portrait be a great title for a book that Jörg and Jen co-edit?

Genius.

painting by Amy Ross (detail)

The press for Boston-based painter Amy Ross just keeps rolling in. Small Magazine, a new mag out to support independent “creators, designers, photographers, and illustrators” just featured a few of Amy’s paintings in their Summer ‘07 issue.

Amy’s solo show anima mundi was shown April 27 – June 7 at jen bekman, her first solo show in New York City. Amy has since recieved quite a bit of attention for her paintings, very well deserved I might add. Many of her pieces have sold after the opening—people are really taking a liking to these images of “genetic engineering and mutation gone awry.” That said, if you’re interested in purchasing what’s left, there are still pieces worth inquiring about: info @ jenbekman.com.

Big congrats to Amy!

Image currently on view at jen bekman thru August 3
© Todd Hido

Jörg Colberg, co-curator of the A New American Portrait exhibition, writes one of the internet’s most widely read blogs on photography. Jörg’s blog, Conscientious, considers the scope of contemporary photography, some current photo-related news, and acts as a hub for many of the other photography blogs online. Somehow, Jörg also manages to find the time to interview interesting photographers, one of my favorite parts of his blog. He then shares these interviews in a category he’s labeled “Conversations.”

Over the course of time that he has been conducting these interviews, Jörg has actually spoken with many of the ANAP artists: Amy Elkins, Todd Hido, Alec Soth, Alec Soth (again), Brian Ulrich, and Shen Wei.

Take some time to read through all the conversations, learn more about the photographers and see what each of them have to say about their own work.